Surviving the Fog

by Stan Morris

  One day John became so annoyed with Mike’s solemn attitude that he grabbed the smaller boy in a headlock, and then he marched Mike down to the meadow to throw a Frisbee for an hour. Soon Mike was laughing, running, and screaming, and at the end of the hour he realized that not once had he worried about food, shelter, or the dangers of winter.

  After that, Mike asked Yuie to organized archery contests, baseball games, and dodge ball challenges. He made sure that everyone had some private time to just kick back and take it easy. He asked Erin to explore developing natural substances for creating makeup, and to hold classes to teach the younger girls how to apply that makeup. All of the books in the camp were confiscated, and a library was created. Eric was the camp librarian. The kids were glad to have a more relaxed atmosphere, and they griped less about the tasks to which they were assigned.

  There were plenty of tasks. Beside the effort, led by Hector to construct the Lodge, and the effort, led by Jacob, to supplement their food supplies by hunting, there was the hated kitchen duty, dreaded clothes washing, and never ending fire wood gathering. Mike charged the Spears with patrolling the perimeter of the camp. He established guard posts on the slopes overlooking the camp. He spent a lot of time thinking of ways to improve their situation and their chances of survival.

  Sometimes, his ideas were eagerly adopted. Sometimes, they were not. One night at Meeting, he proposed a new idea.

  “I think we should strip down to our underwear for three hours a day,” he said confidently. There was a stunned silence, and then the uproar began.

  Chapter Five

  MAKING PLANS

  “Are you crazy?”

  “Did the boys tell you to say that?”

  “I’m not letting those girls see me in my underwear.”

  “I think that only the girls should strip, especially Big Tits Erin.”

  “You shut up, Pencil Dick!”

  “All right, all right!” Desi shouted. Everyone subsided into low mumbling and grumbling. Then Desi turned to Mike. She crossed her arms under her chest and in a demanding tone asked, “Why?”

  Mike looked around helplessly. “Uh… um…. well, it’s going to be cold this winter, even in the Lodge. We’ll probably be wearing our clothes most of the time. I just think it would be a good idea if we save them for when we really need them. If we wore just our underwear part of the time, our clothes will last a lot longer.” There was a low murmur from the group.

  “See,” said Desi, talking to the crowd of kids. “He always has a good reason for his ideas, even his dumb ideas.” She looked back at Mike and glared.

  Erin stood up. “Chief, even if I didn’t like the idea of taking my clothes off in front of everyone, it wouldn’t work. We can’t go without wearing our clothes because of the elevation.”

  “It’s warm enough some days,” Mike insisted.

  “It’s not that, Chief. It’s because there’s not enough atmosphere at this elevation. We would all get severe sun burn.” Mike was thunderstruck. He had not thought of that at all. He felt like an idiot for not remembering about sun burn.

  “Oh,” he said. “I guess that was a dumb idea.” His statement was followed by hoots from the audience.

  “Quiet!” yelled Desi, and when they calmed down she continued. “Look, the Chief had an idea. It won’t work. But if we give everyone a hard time who thinks up a dumb idea, everyone is going to stop telling us their ideas. They’ll be too afraid that we’ll laugh at them. And then someone is going to have a really crazy good idea that they won’t bother to tell. Maybe it will be an idea that will save someone’s life. So when someone suggests something, even if it sounds crazy, we have to listen. Okay?” There was more mumbling after that, but generally they agreed with Desi.

  “We have a related problem,” said Yuie. “Some of us are growing out of our clothes.” There was a murmur of agreement from some of the kids.

  “The bigger kids are going to have to share some of their clothes with the younger kids,” Erin stated. This brought a protest from some of the older kids.

  “What happens when we grow out of our clothes?” an older boy asked.

  “If you are a boy then you can wear some of the clothes that we took from those men, or else you can wear some of the clothes that we found in the RV,” Erin answered. “We girls might have to make some new clothes, although we have some of Jackie’s things, some of the other counselor’s things, and we found some ladies clothing in the RV.”

  “Where are we going to find more material to make dresses?” Makayla asked.

  “We could use the tablecloths,” Desi suggested. The boys began to get restless and bored, so the girls agreed to discuss this later.

  “I have a new rule,” said Mike when their attention turned to him again. The whole group groaned.

  “What now?” Kevin moaned.

  “From now on, no one can piss in the Porta Pottys.”

  There was a chorus of outrage.

  “Listen,” Mike said. “We don’t have any way to empty them. And they are almost filled up. You know they stink. You have to use the bathrooms behind the dining hall to piss, or else you have to go in the forest. And try to use the bathrooms behind the dining hall for number two, too. In other words, don’t use the Porta Pottys unless you absolutely have to. Hector said that he would use his truck to empty them in a few days. He’s got to find a place, and when he does, he’ll need help.”

  “Oh, and another thing,” he added to another chorus of groans. “The paper towels are off limits. You will have to use a real towel to dry your hands.”

  “Why is that?” a camper demanded to know.

  “We need to save the paper towels for toilet paper,” he explained. There was dead silence and not a single protest.

  One day, some of the kids approached Mike, and they asked him why they didn’t have any church services on Sunday. Mike was non-committal about the idea, but he announced that on Sunday there would be a service in the dining hall for anyone who wanted to attend. There was a lot of argument about the idea of a church service. Some argued that it was a good idea. Some argued that it was a bad idea. Some liked the idea, but they did not like how it was arranged.

  On Sunday, late in the morning, Mike waited at the podium for the kids to come to the service. John, Desi, and Yuie were in the dining hall waiting. The time for the service came and went. No one appeared.

  “Where is everyone?” Mike asked, mystified at the lack of attendance.

  “They’re probably not coming,” Yuie told him.

  “Why?”

  “Some of them didn’t want to do this anyway,” said Desi. “And most of them are holding their own service down in the meadow, across the river from where we buried Jackie and Pete. Luis is saying the words.”

  “Ahmad did a thing on Friday,” said John. “He got his blanket, and he put it on the floor of his cabin. He was trying to figure out how to point it to… um…”

  “Mecca,” Yuie finished.

  “Yeah, Mecca,” John agreed. “And Jacob did his thing yesterday.”

  “And Rasul shares my little shrine I built next to the cave,” said Yuie. “He prays to his Gods, and I pray to Buddha. I wish I had a little statue of Buddha. I take my picture of my parents and my sister there, and I lean it against a rock while I pray. And I’m trying to make prayer beads.”

  “I don’t think anyone is going to come to your service, Chief,” John said. “Remember these were American kids. Still are.”

  “What’s that got to do with it?” Mike asked.

  “They are Americans, Mike. They aren’t going to a government church.”

  “What?”

  “True. Here, you are the government, Chief,” Yuie explained.

  “Yeah, he’s the Government Chief,” joked John. The others rolled their eyes and groaned.

  “Well, what do you want to do?” Mike asked, as the strains of ‘Amazing Grace’ came wafting up from the meadow.

  “Let’s play cards,�
� Desi suggested.

  “All right,” agreed Yuie. “What about Spades?”

  “What about Hearts?” John said.

  “How about Strip Poker?” Mike joked.

  “You wish!” Yuie answered, as she shuffled a deck. “With your rules, it’ll be a long time before you get to see a girl naked.”

  Mike glanced furtively at Desi who gave him a small smile. Mike blushed, and he looked down at his cards.

  The work of building the Lodge continued. By the middle of August, the log wall was almost complete. In the last rays of the sun, many of the kids would sit on the grass below the unfinished wall and enjoy the breeze and their free time.

  Erin and three of her friends could often be found there, enjoying the late afternoon sun. They talked about many things, and one of their favorite subjects was boys. They compared this one and that one, and they discussed their few good points and their many bad points.

  “What about Hector?” one of the girls remarked.

  “He’s cute,” said another. “But he’s a little old.”

  “And Mexican,” added a third.

  “What’s that got to do with anything? Are you prejudiced?”

  “No! But what if he’s illegal?”

  The other girls laughed. “I don’t think that matters anymore,” Erin said.

  “Well, I think Hector’s really cute in a Latino sort of way. Maybe I’ll make a play for him.”

  “Oh, yeah? Maybe he would rather be my boyfriend.”

  “I think Latino’s prefer girls with bigger breasts,” Erin said with a grin.

  “Ha! Just because you are such a Moo Cow.”

  “I am not,” exclaimed Erin. “I’m just right.” The girls continued to jibe at each other, except for Kathy. She remained quiet and thoughtful.

  The next day, she found Hector working on the wall as usual. She was one of his regular crew. Their task was to carry buckets of thick mud from a low wet spot in the meadow up to the wall, and then they would pour the mud onto the highest log, so that when Hector put the next log on the wall there were no air spaces between the logs.

  Kathy approached Hector at the end of the work period. The other kids were hurrying away, glad to be free at last. She handed Hector a bottle of water and waited as he used a bandanna from his rear pocket to wipe his face.

  “Thanks,” he said, and he took a big swig from the bottle. “Ah…you wouldn’t think that you could get so hot at this altitude.” He was breathing hard. “You’re…?”

  “Kathy. I’m Kathy. I work on your crew. I’m fourteen. And a half.”

  “Kathy. Well, thanks for the water, Kathy.”

  “Um…I was wondering if I could talk to you.”

  “Sure, Sweetie. Talk.” Hector leaned back and poured part of the bottle on his face.

  “Um…I was wonder if I could work with you. Not just carrying mud I mean. I don’t mind that. But I was wondering if I could help you. I mean, I want to learn to work with the wood.”

  Hector used his bandanna to wipe his face again. He gave her a good look. She’s a pretty girl, he thought. Kathy was blond and blue eyed. Her body was just now developing, but it was clear that, one day soon, she would be a lovely young lady. She wasn’t tall so, since Hector was not a tall man himself, she stood just below his shoulder.

  “You want to work with the wood? You mean you want to learn carpentry,” Hector said.

  “Yes,” replied Kathy. “I used to help my Dad a lot. He wasn’t a regular carpenter, but he worked with wood a lot. Mostly he built bird houses and things like coat racks, but he built the fence around our house, and he built our garage. I helped him with that. Once, I helped him build a big tree house for one of our neighbors.”

  “That’s more experience than most of these kids have,” Hector agreed.

  “And I have an idea.”

  “Yeah?” he said skeptically. “What is it?”

  “I was thinking about these braces,” she said, motioning to the heavy iron straps that Hector had retrieved from the logging camp. “You’re going to make wooden pegs to hold them to the logs, right? But you can’t get the pegs perfectly round, right? So there’s bound to be gaps, right?”

  “Right so far,” Hector responded, humoring the girl.

  “I was thinking that, since we don’t have any wood glue, we might be able to use the sap from trees to fill the gaps,” she said.

  “Now that’s an idea, uh…Kathy,” Hector answered slowly. He thought about it. “That is an idea.”

  “And since the sap is sticky, it might make the braces stronger. That would make the wall stronger, right?”

  “Si,” Hector answered. “That’s not a bad idea at all, Kathy.”

  “I was thinking that if we heated up the sap and then rolled the pegs in the stuff, it might be easier to cover the whole peg.”

  “Damn, that is a good idea,” Hector exclaimed enthusiastically. “Uh, sorry.”

  Kathy gave him a sweet smile. As if I don’t hear the ‘F’ word every day, she thought.

  “So can I work with you?” she asked.

  “Uh, sure. Why not?” he answered. “Tomorrow I’ll explain what I’m planning to do here. But you might have to carry mud some times,” he cautioned.

  “I don’t mind,” she answered happily. She walked with him down to the dining hall.

  The next day, Hector sent her exploring for tree sap. Kathy spent most of the day gathering samples, but at the end of the work period, she was at the wall with a bottle of water for Hector. That evening, she and Hector whittled pegs and melted sap trying to find a combination that would be as effective as glue.

  For the next week, they worked closely together. They finished building the wall, and they discovered that the sap covered pegs worked. Now that the wall was completed, it was time to dismantle the remaining cabins on the other side of the river, and move them over to the work site where they would be reassembled on top of the wall and the rock ledge.

  But before they began to reassemble the cabins, Hector took the bus up to the logging camp, and he filled it with old branches, scrap timber, and the ends of logs. He drove the bus back to the camp, and the kids stacked this wood into the space between the wall and the ledge. They would use this lumber for firewood during the winter.

  Hector was impressed with Kathy’s intelligence and her knowledge of wood. And she was a fast learner. He could show her something once, and she would quickly understand. He showed her how to place braces under the floors of the cabins using log posts. She found some string, and she used it to measure the distances for the rest of the posts, thereby speeding up the work.

  He found himself spending a lot of time in her company discussing the construction of the Lodge. Once, when she was scrambling along some scaffolding that he had built, he told her that she looked like a cat. They laughed together, and after that he started calling her, Kat.

  He liked spending time with Kathy, he realized. He wasn’t that much older than some of the kids, but he didn’t feel that he had much in common with them. Sometimes he felt lonely. With Kathy, he had someone to talk to about something that he enjoyed.

  And she was nice. It seemed like she always had a bottle of water for him after work. And when he was exceptionally busy and was reluctant to pause for lunch, she always had a sandwich handy. It was usually peanut butter and jelly, his favorite.

  “Where are you from?” Kathy asked one afternoon, as they shared their dinner.

  “I was born in Zacatecas,” replied Hector. “In Mexico. I worked with my father who is a carpenter. But there wasn’t enough work, and my parents have five other children. So, when I was twenty one I rode the bus to Ciudad Juarez, and I snuck across the border. From there I made my way to California. I got a job on this logging crew. They work all over the west. They needed workers, and they didn’t ask questions. They usually paid us in cash. What about you, Kat? Where do you come from?”

  “I was born in Concord, California,” she replied. “I liv
ed in a small place called Clayton Valley. My Dad told me that it used to be a quiet country area, but now there are houses everywhere. There’s a mountain nearby. Mount Diablo. It’s not that high, and you can drive all the way to the top. I used to go there with my family, and we would have picnics.”

  He thought about that one evening after he had retired to his cabin. It was the last one standing on that side of the river. The others had been disassembled and reassembled on the wall. He was thinking that Kathy was unlike the other girls.

  The other girls are much sillier, he thought. She wasn’t athletic like Yuie, but she was strong. She could carry those buckets of mud tirelessly. She wasn’t bossy like Desi could be, but if he needed her to supervise other kids, she could get the job done.

  She wasn’t like Erin, of course. Erin had those magnificent breasts. Kathy was still developing. But she was perfectly formed. And she did have a really cute face. He liked her lovely blue eyes. He loved the way those beautiful blond bangs fell down sometimes and covered her face. She really needed a haircut. And once, he had seen her in a towel coming out of the showers. Her legs were exceptional. She certainly had a cute butt. He could tell from those tight designer jeans that she was always wearing. He wondered. How would it feel to caress that cute butt? He wondered. How would it feel…? He was jolted back to reality. What are you thinking? She is only fourteen. And a half. He was twenty three. He couldn’t be thinking of her that way. He sternly told his body to settle down. Way down.

  Unfortunately, in the following days, it seemed as if he was more aware of her physical presence than ever. And she was always inadvertently touching him, putting her hand on his shoulder or chest or back, or leaning back against him when he helped her lift a section of wall.

  It started to drive him crazy. Once, when her denim covered bottom backed against his groin, he had to take off his cap and hold it over himself while pretending to be deep in thought. He began to think that he would either have to grab her and hold on for dear life, or else flee back to the logging camp. At night, in the privacy of his bed, he futilely tried to think of someone else. He tried being less familiar and more formal with her. Then, for some reason, she stopped wearing those tight jeans, and she switched to her skirts; her short skirts.