Eventually, Gary managed to crawl over to an area shaded by bushes. He was cold, hungry and thirsty. But he was so immobile he knew there wasn’t much he could do about it.
What happened? He wondered before drifting off. Whether it was sleep or just unconsciousness, Gary didn’t care. All he knew was, he was delivered from the hell that had suddenly become his life.
A big man with red hair and simple clothes to match his simple life spotted him. He was on his way back home when he saw an arm, palm side up, sticking out of the brush in the dunes.
“Hey!” He shouted. “Hey! You OK?”
The lifeless form didn’t respond. Judd rushed over and half crashed into him and half knelt down beside him, trying to shake some life into him. “Hey, come on now, you answer me.”
By the look of him, he’d been roughed up pretty good. Angry purple bruises spotted his chest, sides and face. Looked to Judd like at least one of the poor man’s arms was broken.
He leaned down and put his ear next to Gary’s nose and discovered he was still breathing.
Resolved, he slung Gary over his shoulder and carried him home.
Judd lived with his mother and father on a large farm. He burst through the back door with Gary over his shoulder.
His mom, Julia, was working in the kitchen. “My goodness, Judd. Is that racket really necessary.” She wiped her hands on her apron as she turned around. “What’s happened?”
“Not sure. He needs some help.”
“Well don’t just stand there with the poor boy slung over yo shoulder like a sack o’ potatoes. Take him upstairs! I’ll be there with some water and rags shortly.”
“Henry! We got some trouble in here!” She hollered out the back window, hoping her husband was close enough to hear her.
She rushed upstairs, not spilling a single drop of hot water along the way. She set the pot of water on the nightstand next to the bed and soaked the first rag. As she rung it out, she looked Gary over while Judd stood on the other side of the bed.
“My my. Someone really worked him over.”
“What’s happened?” Henry asked.
“Oh, I didn’t see you come in, Henry. Judd’s brought us a boy that’s been beaten pretty badly.”
“Whaddya think?”
“I think we best help him any way we can.”
He nodded. “Anything I can do?”
“Just stay outta my way for now.”
He grunted and turned to leave. He clapped Judd on the shoulder on the way out. “Ya done the right thing, bringin’ him here.”
Judd nodded and watched his father go back to work.
Gary woke up forty-eight hours after arriving on Judd’s farm. Julia was sitting in the chair next to his bed mending a shirt that belonged to one of the boys.
He groaned. Everything hurt.
“Well now, good morning to you.” Julia said. She set her sewing down on the nightstand and leaned closer. She smelled like cinnamon. It was very soothing to him.
“What’s your name, child?”
“Ga…” he croaked. His voice was raw from lack of use, or trauma, he wasn’t sure which. He cleared his throat. “Gary.”
Julia handed him a cup of water. “Nice to meetcha Gary. I’m Julia. My son Judd found ya two days ago over by the river. What were ya doin’ out there in nothing but your skivvies?”
His mind was foggy. He remembered being cold, and hurt. He remembered thinking he was going to die. But he couldn’t put his finger on why he’d been there in the first place.
“I…I’m not sure.”
“Can ya tell me where you’re from? Where do ya live, honey? You got family worrin’ about ya?”
Gary’s eyebrows came together. He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Well, don’t you worry. I’m sure it’ll all come back to ya. In the meantime, you just rest. When you’re feelin’ better, you can help Judd out on the farm.”
He nodded. She stood to leave and put her hand on his forehead. “Don’t trouble yourself. It’ll all work out in its own time.”
Gary found little comfort in her words as he lay in a strange bed, in a strange place, full of strangers; including him.
Instead of pressuring Gary, they allowed him to rest, heal and eventually settle into a routine. He was hurt pretty bad, but without the aid of X-rays and other modern technologies, it was difficult to tell how extensive the damage was.
In the beginning, small things had been milestones, like getting out of bed or getting dressed. It took over a week for him to come downstairs and eat with them. After that, he spent as much time as he could outside exploring the land, and every day he got a little further. Their land was huge. Acres and acres of fields with all types of crops, that kept them fed. Despite the fact that winter was closing in fast, Judd explained they’d always had something to eat, and something to take care of. They even shared with the neighbors who were willing to come get it.
Henry was a down-to-earth man in his mid-sixties. He was thin as a rail with a white curly beard. He always wore overalls and a baseball cap to keep the sun out of his face. One day, Gary asked him about the food sharing, and he said, “Well, I’ve got enough to go round here, but I can’t be going all over creation takin’ food. But if they’re willin’ to come get it, they can have what they can carry.”
In fact, they had so much to go around, Judd’s father said they hadn’t had trouble with the type folks were calling “Wanderers.” Apparently they were thieves with no home to call their own. They just roamed around, violently taking from those who worked for what they had. But Judd’s family always had enough, and gave willingly, so they hadn’t seen much hostility from Wanderers. And if the Wanderers started feeling a sense of entitlement, Judd and his dad had no trouble “straightening them out,” whatever that meant.
The home they shared was huge, and Gary wondered how Julia kept it up. She was a small woman, also in her mid-sixties, built from a life of working with her hands. She didn’t take ‘nothin’ from nobody’, but she was sweet as the pies she made. She often told stories about her life growing up in Virginia, about Judd when he was a kid, and how she met his father. By the time Gary was ready to start helping out, he felt like he knew her whole life history.
Eventually they gave Gary chores to do around the farm, and he liked it. It was quiet. No sense of urgency, except for this tiny part of him that tugged at the back of his mind. Like he was supposed to be somewhere, with someone. Usually he just ignored it.
One day, about a month after Gary arrived at their farm, he was bringing in an armload of chopped wood. Despite the chill in the air, he was sweating from swinging the ax. He piled the wood next to the stove and stood to wipe his forehead with his sleeve. He smiled down at the pile, pleased. He was achingly sore, but a few weeks ago, it would’ve been too much to manage, so he considered the pain a good thing.
Julia smiled at him. “That’s mighty fine.” She looked at Gary, and he could tell she had more coming. So he waited for her to get there. “Honey, we love havin’ you here. You been a big help round here. But don’t you wanna know who you are? What if your family is worrin’ ‘bout you?”
Gary sat down heavily at the kitchen table. “Yes, of course I want to know who I am. But how am I supposed to find out?”
She plopped a loaf of bread and a jar of homemade strawberry jam in front of him. “I don’t know, but you best think on it. You could stay here forever, but do you really want to?”
24.
Things were different after the executions. It was quieter. Movements were more stilted, people were more leery. Molly wasn’t sure it was a change for the better. Jimmy hadn’t said much to her about it, and she hadn’t asked. She wasn’t sure she even wanted to know anything more. She simply tried to do her best to live her life the best way she knew how. But she found even that was difficult anymore.
It had been ninety days since the Blackout. Ninety. Three months without contact from Gary. Molly was feeling the l
oss especially heavily that day, for some reason. She was grouchy and depressed all day. When she was alone, she found herself tearing up, and when she was with poor Beth, she snapped rudely at her. Molly didn’t host a lively literature discussion that day. Instead she had them quietly writing their thoughts so she could dwell on her depression.
She was sitting at the kitchen table when Beth found her at the end of the day. She sat down across from Molly.
“What is wrong?” she asked, exasperated.
“Nothing,” Molly said, not taking her eyes off her paperwork.
“You’re acting like a total bitch. I can tell something is wrong.”
Molly finally looked up to find her staring intently, more concern than irritation on her face.
Molly sighed. “I don’t know what’s wrong, Beth. I’m just upset today. It’s been ninety days since I’ve heard from Gary, and I’m just sick of being lonely and worried and just…not knowing!”
The words ‘not knowing’ echoed around the kitchen. She hadn’t even realized she’d raised her voice. Beth sat back in the chair and folded her arms over her chest.
“Sorry,” Molly said.
“Why? Sorry for what? For having emotions? For feeling cheated in all of this? For wanting this to be over? What?”
“No, I guess I’m not sorry for any of those things.”
Beth smiled with one side of her mouth. “Listen, why don’t you come over tonight and have dinner with us? It’ll be fun!”
“I’m not sure you want my grey cloud of depression hanging over your dinner table.”
“Sure we do!” she said enthusiastically, and Molly chuckled a little. “Come on! Now we’ll have a fourth to play Cranium! I’ll let you be on Seth’s team.”
Molly panicked internally. “What makes you think I would want to be on his team?”
“He’s only the best Cranium player ever. He’s unbeatable! If you’re with him, you’re guaranteed to win.”
Whew. “Well, I guess it could be fun.”
Beth got up and pushed her chair under the table. “Darn right. We eat at six. See you then!”
“Wait! What can I bring?” Molly didn’t want to be a burden on their food supply. She had her own rations she could provide.
“Nothing but your smiling face.” Beth called as she walked out.
“See ya,” Molly quietly called after her. She sat back in her chair, replaying the events in her head. She supposed it might be time to make friends with people her own age. Jimmy was great, but she viewed him as more of a father figure than a friend. It was past time to do something halfway normal – go have dinner with friends! Seeing Seth there was a bit of a bonus.
I mean, what could it hurt just to look at him? Guilt washed over her. How would I feel if Gary was ogling another woman, thinking ‘what could it hurt just to look’? Molly considered cancelling, but that would require walking over there to tell them she wasn’t coming. She steeled herself against Beth’s handsome brother and tried to mentally prepare herself for a long night.
That night, Molly took a deep breath and knocked on the door to the McMiller residence. She’d dressed in a pink button-down blouse and jeans. No need to look like she was trying too hard.
Beth’s mom answered the door. “Hello dear! How are you?” Before Molly could answer, she said, “Come in, come in! I’ve got a few things simmering on the stove, and the kids are in the living room.” Mrs. McMiller was one of the few people in town who had a gas stove, and because of the way she’d rationed, she was the only one in town with gas left, except of course for Jimmy.
“Thank you, Mrs. McMiller. Can I help you with anything?”
“Oh no! Go on and visit with the kids. Dinner’ll be along shortly. We’re having our pork rations tonight!”
The town’s farm had become fairly sustainable, but only because of the rationing efforts of Burt and the others in charge. Hoarding and gorging were strictly prohibited, so everyone had just enough to stay fed and healthy. But they only got to have some kind of meat about once a week, unless they went and caught fish themselves, so Molly knew the pork was special.
“Well thank you for including me! I can’t wait to taste it!”
Mrs. McMiller waved a hand over her shoulder as she walked toward the kitchen, and Molly headed for the living room.
The room was typically decorated for the area: a floral pattern covered the walls to the chair rail, then changed to a light grey color down to the floors. Antique-style furniture in coordinating colors was scattered throughout. There was a fireplace in the corner, and a dusty, useless TV hung above it. Beth and Seth were playing cards when Molly walked in.
Seth had his back to her, so Beth saw her first. “Oh, hey Molly! I’m glad you decided to come!” She put her cards down and stood to greet Molly. Seth followed suit.
“Good to see you again,” he said as he looked straight into Molly’s eyes. She felt like he could read her betraying thoughts, so she tried to hide her blush by turning to Beth.
“So, whatcha playin?”
“Nerds. Wanna join? We can start over.”
“Of course, when I was beating you for once!” Beth complained.
“No, that’s fine. Finish up. I’ll learn your strategies so I can cream you both after dinner.”
They laughed and quickly finished their game, which left Seth victorious after quite a remarkable comeback, much to Beth’s disappointment. It was good timing, because just as they were separating the cards, Mrs. McMiller called for dinner.
Seth was the perfect gentleman, helping his mother carry food to the table while Beth got drinks for everyone. For Molly, it was like being part of a family again. She sat in her chair watching everyone bustle around with their assigned tasks and relished that, even if only for a moment, she could be a part of this.
Conversation flowed easily between the four of them during dinner. Molly learned that Seth was a laborer for the town, maintaining the wall and helping folks fix things in their homes – basically a handyman for the eighteenth century. He had been a mechanic prior to the Blackout, so he had some trouble transitioning to general fix-it work, but he said he’d learned a lot in the last three months, and continued to learn how to use the tools available for tasks they weren’t built for. Molly thought that was something they all had learned to do in the last three months.
Lord knows I’m not built to be teaching anyone younger than eighteen! Molly thought.
Beth had been working on her PhD in Mathematics when the Blackout happened. She’d wanted to be a mathematician. Although she was putting her knowledge to good use, it wasn’t anywhere near what she’d intended to do. She’d dreamed of having her own office with white boards and numbers everywhere, solving the world’s problems and discovering new numbers. She never thought teaching fractions to small children was in her future.
“Once the power comes back on, I want to move to New York and study with Derek Houser. He’s really up and coming in the field.” She paused. “At least he was before the Blackout.” It was the first they’d talked about something like this out loud since the first week.
“What will you do, Molly?” Seth asked.
She thought for a moment. My life is so different now. What will I do when the power comes back on?
“Once the power comes back, the first thing I plan to do is get a hold of Gary. Find out where he is and what happened, and figure out how to get him home.”
Mrs. McMiller looked sympathetically at her. “I can’t imagine worrying about my husband like that for all this time. It’s almost like you can’t live your life. I mean, if you knew he was alive and just fine, you could move forward knowing you’d be reunited soon. If he wasn’t, well you could move on, as difficult as that might be.”
“Soon is sort of a nasty word anymore, isn’t it?” Molly asked her plate while she pushed her green beans away from the mashed potatoes. She looked up at the happy family seated at the table with her. “He’ll be home ‘soon.’ The power will be
back ‘soon.’ You’ll be safe ‘soon.’ What does that even mean? It’s become an empty promise.” Suddenly she wasn’t very hungry, and she set her fork down.
Mrs. McMillan smiled. “My my, that’s rather dark, isn’t it, dear? I think ‘soon’ is a sign of hope. The promise that before long, you’ll get what you need. And if you don’t, you didn’t need it as much as you thought you did. Never forget dear, you won’t be left wanting if you know where to keep your faith.”
“Huh,” she said. It was all she could muster. Her eyes shimmered with all the broken promises that had been laid at her feet in the last ninety days.
Seth cleared his throat. “Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m looking forward to that dessert, Mom.”
“Yes, well, you’ll have to wait until the dishes have been cleared! If you’re so excited about it, why don’t you get started?”
Molly gave Seth a grateful glance, thanking him for changing the subject. He smiled in return.
The pie was fantastic, complete with some decadent whipped cream. Milk was so scarce and spoiled so quickly without proper refrigeration, it was seldom used for anything but drinking and mixing into foods. It was never used for treats anymore. But Molly was so glad Mrs. McMiller had chosen to splurge. The cream was heaven in her mouth. It was light and sweet and everything she had taken for granted ninety-one days ago.
They finished the evening with a game of Cranium by candlelight. As Beth promised, Molly got to be on Seth’s team, and they won by a landslide. Beth proposed a second game and a partner change-up, but Mrs. McMiller said she was tired and wanted to go to bed. So Molly thanked her for a lovely meal and evening and off she went, but not before doling out orders.
From the top of the stairs she hollered down. “Seth, don’t you make Molly walk home alone in the dark. You be a gentleman and make sure she gets home safe, you hear me?”
“Yes, Mom.” Then he turned to Molly and gave her that look - the one that made her feel like he was looking at her soul- before shouting back up the stairs. “Don’t worry. I’d never let anything happen to her.”
The Blackout Page 12
