“We are the only law here, people, and I mean to keep the peace. This panel of four, plus Father Constantine, will be your council of peers, your jury, and your judges if need be. Any questions?” There were none. Jim sat down.
This was news to me. I had lots of questions for Jim though I would ask them later. I stood next.
“Hi. I’m going to bring you up to date on some of the projects that are going on in town. At some point, most everyone has met Marsha, the new cook at the Inn. Marsha Maki and her husband Arnie are running the kitchen, along with help from Rick and Lisa Riley. These two couples have rooms right at the Inn to better serve you, literally.
“There is no way this town could have fed all of you without that semi-truck full of food, and with,” I glanced down at my notes, “four hundred and fifty-seven of you, even all that food won’t last long. Until we can plant gardens next spring, there must be deep rationing. The Inn will provide only one meal per day per person. With over four hundred, that will be split into two shifts, either an eleven o’clock lunch or a four o’clock dinner. Rick and Lisa are printing up meal cards which will be punched each time you come in to eat. Sounds harsh, but it’s necessary to make the food last through winter.
“They will also oversee the limited pantry items. If you want to fix meals at home, talk to them. They are here to work with you.
“The nuns that arrived with the last busload have organized both the school and the supply shop. They are gracious and I’m sure will help however they can.
“Father Constantine will be conducting non-denominational services at the Methodist Church on Sundays at ten o’clock. He will also be making all announcements we feel the need to get out to you, so going to church will be a good source of news for you. Any questions?”
One woman raised her hand. “The house I’m in doesn’t have a washer or dryer. Is there any way to use that laundromat?”
I jotted that down on my notepad. “I’m glad you brought that up. I’ve already been looking into it. Although the details haven’t been completed yet, so far what I can tell you is that within the next few days the laundromat will be open. My daughter-in-law, Amanda, will be running the facilities during school hours, although it’s still undecided which days it will be open. Once that is confirmed, it will be posted at the Inn.” I sat down.
Tom stood once again. “The weather has been unseasonably mild, and I’ve lived here for over twenty years and I know it won’t last. All of you know how brutal our winter weather can be. We don’t know how long the electricity will stay on. It could last until next June or next week, which could mean a heating problem. If there are any engineers with us, I ask that you put on your thinking caps and come up with some kind of simple stove you can manufacture here, with what we have, that will keep the houses without wood stoves warm for the winter. And I suggest that everyone start collecting firewood.”
Keith Kay stood up near the back. “I can help with that. I just need gas for the splitter and the truck to deliver the wood, plus a spot to pile it.”
“Thank you, Keith, that would solve a huge problem,” I said from my seat, aware that Tom didn’t know who this was. “We’ll get back to you on a central location.” I made more notes on my pad.
“Are there any other questions?” Tom asked.
“I don’t have a question,” a small but confident voice came from the back of the room, “but I do have a suggestion.”
“Anna?!” I stood, smiling in disbelief. “Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce Anna Meyers, the elected supervisor of Moose Creek. Anna, would you like to join us up here?”
“No, Allexa, I wouldn’t. None of these people elected me, so I no longer consider myself the supervisor,” she said, stepping into the aisle. “However, I’ve been quietly watching the transition and rebuilding of this town and I’m more than impressed by what has been accomplished in such a short time. So I’m going to make a motion to these new residents that they elect Tom White as Mayor of Moose Creek for a term of one year. At the end of that one year, hold elections based on what has transpired during that time.” Anna sat down, coughing. She sipped on a bottle of water, and coughed again.
“I second that,” Keith Kay called out.
“All in favor?” I asked, smiling at a bewildered Tom. The vote was unanimous. We have a Mayor.
~~~
As everyone filed out, I caught up to Anna.
“Why didn’t you let me know you were back in town, Anna? It’s really good to see you,” I said, giving her a brief hug.
“I wanted to watch for a while. I didn’t need housing, I just moved back into my own place. You and Tom have done good work, Allexa. I see he finally got you to be his assistant,” she laughed.
“It was a really good idea to elect Tom as the mayor, Anna.”
“I was going to nominate you, but I knew you would refuse,” she admitted. She hadn’t forgotten my dislike for attention.
“Is George here too?” I asked, looking around.
“No. George, my sister, and her husband all died during the last outbreak of flu a few weeks ago, before the storms,” she said, her voice laced with sadness. “I got sick too, but recovered. I guess that bout last winter gave me some antibodies to fight it with.” She coughed again.
“Are you okay?”
“Sure. I’m not used to talking so much and it’s made my throat dry,” Anna said.
“Stop by the clinic and Mark can give you something for that cough,” I suggested.
“I might do that, first I want to tell you about Marquette. It was bad, Allexa, really bad. Now of course it’s moot, but in the last two or three weeks before the evacuation it was deplorable. Everyone was afraid to go out, even during the day. Gangs would roam the streets all the time, day or night, and were good at hiding from the military. Then the flu hit again. It hit pockets, neighborhoods, anywhere there was a cluster of people. The best way to stay healthy was to isolate, but no one could do that, we needed to group for protection. I know the colonel’s people were doing their best, though they couldn’t be everywhere and they were getting sick too.
“Then the storms hit. I’ve never seen such lightning in my entire life! Once the fires got going, it was hard to breathe. The air was always thick with smoke. Sometimes the smoke was oily and we knew it was a gas station on fire nearby. Sometimes it was wood smoke from a house burning. And as much as I like the scent of wood burning, it was too thick and would be mixed with other smells like burning plastic from the house siding… and worse. It was that ‘worse’ that made me finally decide to leave. I would smell the burning ‘meat’ and my stomach actually rumbled from hunger. I had to get out.
“Once I was strong enough from my last go around with the virus, and everyone else in the house was gone, I gathered everything I could and filled the car. I went through the houses on either side of me and managed to get a few more cans of food. It took me three days, going out only a few minutes at a time, and I was finally ready. And I came home.” Anna wiped the tears from her pale cheeks with the back of her hand, coughed, and took a sip of her water bottle. “I think the cough is from all the smoke I breathed.”
“How long have you been here, Anna?”
“I left a few days before everyone else. I wanted to be alone for a while, Allexa, please understand. I needed to breathe some clean air and sleep in my own bed,” she looked past me, haunted by something. Then she smiled. “You can’t imagine how delighted I was to have electricity, a hot shower, and clean clothes!”
~~~
“It was good to see Anna again,” I said to Mark after I cleared away our dinner dishes.
“Yes, it was.”
“What’s the matter, Mark? You sound distracted.”
“I am. I’ve been neglecting you,” he said softly.
“You’ve been busy.”
“I’ve been neglecting you,” he repeated, stepping closer, his voice husky with desire.
“I’ve been busy.”
“I’ve been neglecting you,” he repeated once more, brushing his lips across my temple and trailing his kisses across the thin scar on my chin.
“What are we going to do about that?” I asked, but it was getting hard to breathe.
He took my hand. We spent the rest of the evening in bed making up for hours lost.
CHAPTER 35
November 12
“Mom, I’ve having a problem with one of the women at the laundromat,” Amanda confided to me as we shared a cup of coffee.
“What kind of a problem?” I asked.
“She won’t give back the quarters and I’m starting to run low.”
“Who is it?” This was something I hadn’t expected.
“Do you remember that girl with the funny red hair, the one with the son that was bullying the other kids that first day?”
“Oh, definitely. Tell me what happened.”
“Her name is Tonya Germaine. She came in with a load of laundry and asked for her four quarters to run the machine. Then, like she’s supposed to do, she used them for the dryer. When she was done, I asked for the quarters back, and she said she’s coming back tomorrow so she’ll use them tomorrow too, and she just pushed past me and out the door. When she came back, she said she forgot them and asked for more quarters.” Amanda was clearly frustrated.
“How many times has this happened?”
“Six times now, almost every day. I know it’s not a lot of money, and like I said, I’m running low. I don’t have enough if all the machines are in use.”
“Is she the only one doing this?”
“Yes. What can I do?”
“I’ll take care of it,” I answered. This young woman may need to be made an example of. It’s time to talk to the colonel.
~~~
“I know it’s a minor problem, Jim, but if we let her get away with breaking the rules, others will think they can get away with things too, and then we will have a real mess on our hands,” I explained to the colonel when I tracked him down in Tom’s office at the township.
“I completely agree,” Jim said.
“What are you planning on doing, Jim?” Tom asked.
“Oh, I think a little humiliation will work wonders in this case,” he snickered. “Let’s find a couple of my boys and pay Ms. Germaine a visit.”
~~~
I knocked on the door of the house we had assigned to her.
“Ms. Germaine, we need to have a talk,” I said when she answered the door.
“Yeah? About what?” she replied, eying the colonel and his two men.
“About your behavior at the laundromat and the theft of township property.”
“Theft? I didn’t steal anything!” Tonya protested in alarm.
“We have it on good authority you have in your possession twenty-four silver tokens that do not belong to you,” Jim said, forcing his way in.
“Hey, you can’t barge in here like that, I have my rights!”
“Oh, but I can and I did,” Jim said. He leaned in close to her, forcing her to back up. “And that’s because you don’t have any rights, Ms. Germaine. You are here on the grace of the Moose Creek authorities, and you stole from them. You’re under arrest.”
I swear she was going to cry!
“Arrest?” she said, bewildered, as Sgt. Sanders and Cpl. Perkins moved to either side of her.
“You are banished from the laundromat for a period of no less that one month and your punishment is two weeks in jail,” Jim said reading from a blank sheet of paper, “which will be reduced to one week when you return the tokens.” She hurried from the room and came back with a bowl of quarters, handing them to me with shaking hands.
“I can’t spend a week in jail… what about my son?” she asked, her voice cracking.
“When he’s not in school, he will stay in the jail cell with you.”
She looked aghast. “But he didn’t do anything wrong,” she protested.
“The sins of the father,” Jim stated simply. “Or in this case, the mother, and you were told when you first arrived here, no one is your babysitter. Sargent, take Ms. Germaine to the jail.” He turned back to her. “You will be escorted to the school before it lets out, and both of you will be taken back to the jail to serve your time.”
Tonya Germaine walked out the door weeping.
“Wow, Jim, don’t you think that was excessive?” I asked when we were walking back to the offices alone.
“Yes,” he chuckled, “and that’s the point. Those here have to know we’re serious. And before you ask the wisdom of including the boy, he’s a bully, I’ve had reports that haven’t changed. A bit of humiliation should turn him around too.”
“A week though?”
“Oh, I think we’ll be able to reduce her sentence to three days for good behavior,” Jim laughed.
~~~
Before going home, I stopped at the Inn to see Marsha, wondering how things were going.
“I’m glad you came by, Allexa, I wanted to tell you what showed up this morning,” Marsha said, all flushed with excitement.
“Something good I hope. I can use some good news.”
“Oh, yes! Two nice young men came by and brought us three whole deer! I didn’t recognize them, but there are so many here that I don’t know.”
“That is great news, Marsha. I’m sure the fresh meat will be well received.,” I smiled. Art Collins had paid his debt, in spades.
CHAPTER 36
JOURNAL ENTRY: November 14
The weather has taken a definite turn for the worse. I think our mild days are gone now, although it sure was nice while it lasted. The digital outdoor thermometer read only thirty-four degrees when I checked it this morning. I sipped a cup of tea while I started a fire in the wood stove that hopefully will take the chill out of the air.
*
I heard a vehicle pull in the driveway and saw a pickup truck I didn’t recognize, then Lenny started pounding on the glass door.
“Is Dr. Mark here, Allexa? Chloe has gone into labor,” Lenny reported. “She’s waiting at the hospital.”
Mark and I quickly got dressed. I poured the coffee I brewed for Mark into a thermos, and took what remained of the loaf of bread, setting it into a tote box. While Mark selected what drugs he thought might be needed, I grabbed a couple of jars of soup from the pantry.
We were ready to leave in five minutes.
~~~
Nathan jumped out of his SUV as soon as we pulled into the parking lot.
“Oh, thank God you’re here,” he said anxiously. “Chloe started having contractions during the night, and said they weren’t bad. Her water broke about an hour ago so I got her ready to come here. She’s in a lot of pain, Doc!”
“Calm down Nathan, she’s going to be fine,” Mark said. “This is your first baby isn’t it?”
“Yeah, does it show?” Nathan let loose a nervous laugh, wringing his hands.
“Let’s get her inside.”
Mark and Nathan helped Chloe out of the Explorer and into the wheelchair I had brought out from the lobby. We got Chloe settled into one of the beds so Mark could examine her. I was surprised to see Dr. James coming down the stairs from our loft apartment.
“Just in time, James, you get to assist with our first delivery,” Mark beamed. Just then a contraction hit, and Chloe screamed.
“Take a deep breath, Chloe, and blow it out through your mouth,” I said gently. She laid back and breathed a few times.
“Thanks, Allexa, that helps.” She closed her eyes to rest.
“She’s almost fully dilated. Allex, can you prep the other bed for delivery?” Mark said to me, and I got to work.
We had discussed earlier what would be best to do for sanitation. Blankets and sheets could be washed, not so the mattresses. I stripped down the bed next to the one Chloe was in, one that Jason had fitted with rolling casters, and covered the bedding with a sheet of plastic, tucking it in. Next went an old blanket, folded so it became a pad, foll
owed by a fitted sheet, topped with a flat sheet that would be used for modesty.
“Nathan, would you help me put Chloe into a delivery gown?” I asked the nervous new father. I pulled the shower curtain closed around us. Once we had removed her bulky clothes, I slipped a pink flowered cotton gown over her arms and used the Velcro to close it at the neck. I pushed the curtains back and let the three men move her while I held the bed steady.
I had put a blanket in the dryer before I started and it was now soothingly warm Chloe sighed in contentment when I tucked it around her shoulders. I went back to the kitchen and put another blanket and a towel in the dryer.
The next contraction hit, and she let out muffled moan. I wiped her forehead with a cool washcloth and Nathan held her hand. The two doctors were in quiet discussion. Contractions were now coming seconds apart.
“You’re doing great, Chloe, the baby’s head is crowning,” Mark said with controlled glee. “Next contraction, push!” She did. Mark’s head snapped up. “The umbilical cord is around the neck, do not push until I say, no matter how strong the urge is.”
“Chloe, look at me,” I said, moving into her view. “I need to you to control your breathing, can you do that?” She nodded, the sweat dampening her brown curls. “Good, now, take a deep breath, and let it out slow, now short breaths, like a dog panting. Great, keep it up.” I looked down at Mark, but he was deep in concentration. Chloe groaned when another contraction hit. “Breathe, Chloe, do not push, breathe! Now pant again, in and out in short breaths. Again! Pant, don’t push!”
The Journal: Crimson Skies: (The Journal Book 3) Page 22
