Joe

by Jacqueline Druga

  “Frank has other plans for protecting that.”

  “I bet.”

  “This thing, you know, the Great War, seemed like a bad psychic prediction to me.”

  “But with the discovery of those 2400 men …”

  Callahan exhaled and took a seat. “It’s now real.”

  ****

  “I got a class starting in a half an hour,” George said. “Frank keep me posted.” He shook hands with Frank.

  Hal and Elliott both pulled their bandanas from their pockets.

  “We’ll get our men ready for the inoculation. Let me know when that’s going to be.” Hal said to Frank.

  “Got it.”

  They too, behind George exited the front portion of the office.

  Robbie waited. He wanted to wait until everyone was gone. Either walk out with Joe alone, do his new thing of holding open the door so Joe could leave. But he had no idea where Joe was. He didn’t sense him by him. With a questioning look, Robbie stared at Danny.

  Danny shrugged as if he knew what Robbie was asking.

  “I understand Frank,” Jimmy said. “I take this as an honor.”

  “I’m sorry to take you away from Beginnings when you are just starting to get your life. But Danny can learn the ALS3. We need you where you are most important.”

  “I understand.”

  “Thank you,” Frank laid his hand on his shoulder and walked Jimmy to the door. He opened it for him. “I’ll catch you later, ok?”

  “Thanks.”

  Frank stood at the door. “Robbie? Danny? You coming.”

  Robbie looked at Danny, then to Frank. “Um, sure Frank.” Robbie told him. “Are you leaving too?”

  “Yeah. I want to get to the clinic, talk to Andrea and get that done before I go to Containment. It’s Joe Day, remember?”

  “Joe Day?” Robbie asked. “Man, I’m out of the loop. What... what is that?”

  “Oh, the residents are putting on a production highlighting the best Joe moments and a tribute to Dad so …” Frank’s head quickly turned to the right to where no one, or seemingly no one was there.

  “Frank?”

  “Huh?”

  “You ok?” Robbie asked.

  “Yeah. Yeah.” Frank stared at the empty spot.

  Danny clapped his hands loudly. “Hey, let’s go, I have work to do and I want to get to Joe Day.” He rushed to the door. “Robbie?”

  Robbie walked to the door as well. He figured if they were all leaving the office then his father could too when it was all clear. “Yep. Behind you.”

  He and Danny walked out.

  Frank took a step forward and pulled closed the door. He began to walk with them but stop. “You guys go on.”

  “We can wait.” Danny said.

  “No, no, I forgot I was gonna fax something to Callahan. Go on. I’ll see you at Containment. One hour.” After a quick wave, Frank trotted back to the office.

  Danny and Robbie watched him go inside.

  “Dan?” Robbie said with worry.

  “Nah, Joe’s fine. He’ll wait then when Frank leaves, he’ll leave.” Danny put a guiding hand on Robbie’s back to keep him moving. “Joe’s fine.”

  It wouldn’t be long, Joe figured, until he could safely leave the office. He’d wait a few minutes, peek out the new window when all was safe, he’d open the door and find Danny.

  He had to admit, he was a bit jealous about the new office. It didn’t have that military installation feel, but a part of Joe thought it was just too modern.

  Well, about as modern as one could be in a post apocalypse world.

  It was far too neat. Frank hadn’t settled in yet. He was still putting things in their place to keep the office looking good.

  Except for that doll.

  Bob the dummy was perched on the chair.

  Only Frank would find solace in a dummy. A friend. Joe chuckled when he looked at Bob with his goatee drawn on its face. The dummy sported camouflage clothes, Joe was pretty certain they were once Billy or Joey’s.

  Next thing Joe figured, Frank would cut the dummy’s hair.

  It was tempting; Joe had to admit, to lift that dummy.

  No one was around, what the hell? He lifted the doll. He turned it over to find where Frank put his hand, and Joe located the opening Frank made underneath the dummy’s cover.

  Just as he did so, just as he had it and lifted it in his arms, the door opened and Frank walked in.

  Frank froze.

  Joe could only imagine what Frank saw considering Joe was wearing the invisible suit.

  “Fuck,” Frank wisped out.

  ‘Shit. Goddamn it,’ Joe thought and he shouldn’t have.

  “Uh!” Frank shut the door eyes on the dummy. He slowly neared it. A step, he stopped, turned his head, looked around, then eye that dummy.

  What to do.? Joe had to think quickly, too quickly for Frank to pick up. He had no choice, he dropped the dummy.

  Bob fell to the desk.

  Frank released another ‘Uh!’ and walked to the desk. He poked the dummy. Then poked it again.

  Ok, Joe shouldn’t have, but he did.

  “Ow.”

  “Uh!” Frank jumped back. He stared, and then lifted his hand. “Ok. Get it together. Fuck.” He took a deep breath, charged for the dummy, swiped it up and lifted it to stare eye-to-eye.

  Frank tilted his head, spun around and placed the dummy on top of the file cabinet. “I’ll deal with you later. Right now I have a fax.” Frank shook his head and went into the other room. “Fuckin spirits.”

  The second he disappeared into the meeting room and shut the door, Joe knew it was safe. He heard the shuffle of papers, and Joe took that as his chance to leave. He peeked out the window, saw an all clear and reached for the door.

  But, he paused.

  It was Frank.

  So just for shits and giggles, Joe lifted Bob, moved him back to the desk, and put him in Frank’s chair.

  The sound of the fax machine was Joe’s freedom signal, and after another peek out the window, he left Frank’s office.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Elliott figured Ellen was busy, but never did he expect to see all the hoopla happening at Containment. He toted in his wrapped gift, had to pause while two men walked by him carrying PA equipment.

  “Where do you want the mini karaoke, Ellen?” The one asked.

  “In the back room, thanks.” Ellen’s voice carried. “Chester, Chester, spread the cookies out more. Thanks. Spread the cookies out more thanks.”

  “Ellen they brought the shirts.”

  ”Excellent the cast is in the dining area, thanks.” Finally a face to the voice, she emerged from the skills room turned in the hall to walk to her office.

  The moving bodies made way and she spotted Elliott. She smiled and walked to him.

  “Elliott,” she breathed out. “This is a surprise.”

  “I was hoping so. I brought you something.” He brought the gift to eye level.

  “For me?”

  “Of course.”

  “What’s the occasion?”

  “I figured you could use a pick me up today.”

  “Oh, I can. Come in my office.” She kissed him on the cheek and holding his arm walked into her office.

  Elliott closed the door.

  “Please, sit down.” She showed him a chair, the rolled her chair to join him.

  Elliott waited for her to be seated, and then he took his seat.

  “Can I?” Ellen asked of the gift.

  “Please.”

  She unwrapped it like an impatient child on Christmas. “Oh … Oh Elliott, I have been wanting this.”

  “I know. Ben from Fabrics told me.”

  “This is awesome.” She basked over the box a few moments, thanked him with a kiss and sat back down. “I love it. I’ll treasure it forever.”

  “I know.”

  “Are you staying?”

  “Where?” Elliott asked.

  “For the pe
rformance in an hour.”

  “I’ll be back. There are some things we have to do. How are you holding up?” Elliott grabbed her hand.

  “I’m doing.”

  “Have you spoken to Frank?”

  Ellen chuckled. “I rarely speak to Frank since he became president.”

  “So this has to add to that hurt.”

  “Huh?” Ellen’s eyes widened. “Oh, are you talking about his bastard child?”

  “Yes.”

  She waved out her hand. “It’s Johnny.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Roy misunderstood him. It was Johnny he wanted to keep a secret.”

  Elliott produced a shocked look.

  “Does this mean I can’t have the box?”

  He laughed. “Of course you can Ellen. It’s my gift.”

  “And it means so much. Today is so hectic. First the Frank thing had me running about, then Danny calling every two minutes about the television to make sure it works, and all this in the middle of my Joe Day.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking, what is a Joe Day?”

  “The residents want to put on a tribute to Joe. Oh, wait until you see. They wrote it themselves, have costumes, and boy have they been rehearsing. I haven’t seen the rehearsals, they want it to impact me.”

  “The … residents of Containment are putting on a tribute to Joe.”

  “They loved him.” Ellen said.

  “This should be very interesting.”

  “Oh, I’m …” Ellen’s phone rang. “Hold on.” She reached for her phone. “Hello?” She smiled at Elliott. “Danny … Danny I’m busy right now. I have the big show happening and …fine. Hold on.” She placed the phone on her lap, then gave the shush finger to Elliott. She bobbed her head a few moments and lifted the phone. “Back. It works. I saw you. Good. Eight PM, I’ll let Jess know to turn it on for the residents. Bye.”

  “What was that all about?”

  “Oh, Danny. He wanted to know if I was picking up the signal and to turn on the TV to see if I see him.”

  “But … but you lied.”

  “I’m busy Elliott, I’m visiting you and every second is important. Besides,” She waved out her hand. “He’ll never know.”

  ******

  Danny hung up the phone and with a push of his feet rolled his chair over to be in front of the monitors. “Scott, you’re gonna have to go to Containment and make sure their television is working.”

  “Didn’t you just call Ellen?” Scott asked.

  “Yep, she said she saw me on the test signal.”

  “Ah,” Scott nodded. “She said ‘You’ not words.”

  “Exactly.”

  They sat in the director’s portion of Hoi Studios, a slight breeze whizzed through from the open door. It tended to get stuffy.

  “Check monitor one,” Danny said. “Hit that camera.” He pointed, and then turned his attention to his left. “We’re gonna make history tonight by broadcasting the community meeting without the meeting.”

  “What about question and answers?”

  “Viewer call in dude, viewer call in.” Danny clicked the computer. “Now ...” he felt a tap to his shoulder. “Yeah.” He looked at Scott. “What’s up?’

  “Not much, what’s up with you?”

  Danny snickered and returned to what he was doing. Another tap to his shoulder, he turned again to Scott.

  Scott looked at him. “Did you want something?”

  “No, you … you …” Danny paused. The tap. He got it. “No, yeah, I need you to go to Containment stat. I mean, Joe Day is about to start and it will be a mad house.”

  “Got it. I’ll go.” Scott stood up. “Need anything while I’m out.”

  “Latte.”

  “You got it.”

  Scott rolled out his chair and stood. After grabbing his smokes, he left the office.

  The door closed.

  “It gets hot in here, I have to fix the air conditioning,” Danny said. “You may want to lock it though.”

  The lock latched and Joe removed his hood.

  Danny blinked. “That is so freaky. No wonder Dan is passing out.”

  “Floating head. About as freaky as a floating dummy.”

  “Huh?”

  “I was stuck in Frank’s office, I picked up his dummy.”

  Danny laughed. “He walked in. What did he say?”

  “Said fuckin spirits and went about his business. He won’t think anything of it.”

  “Probably not. So, what’s up?”

  “Can you get a hold of Robbie for me? I need to speak to him.”

  “Sure. Wanna meet here, it’s pretty private.”

  “Yeah, after the Joe Day I don’t want to miss it.”

  “Should be entertaining,” Danny snickered. “You want to talk to Robbie about the meeting today.”

  “Yeah, actually, I do,” Joe said. “And something that wasn’t brought up, that will eventually be brought up and Robbie needs to work on a plan.”

  “What’s that?”

  “He swept it under the carpet and it will be noticeable.”

  “Your death?” Danny asked.

  Joe nodded. “Yep. My murder. He didn’t bring it up at the meeting, people are gonna want to know what’s going on.”

  “We’re having the community meeting tonight.”

  “Christ.”

  “Ah, no.” Danny held up a finger. “It’s being broadcast. To talk, they have to call in.”

  “Danny that’s a goddamn good idea.”

  “Thanks, Joe. Maybe Robbie can address the community about it, so they know he’s still working on it.”

  “Good.”

  “But to be honest Joe,” Danny said. “Everyone trusts Robbie. No one is going to question him in this at all.”

  “You don’t think?” Joe asked.

  Danny smiled. “Positive.”

  *****

  “Robbie, do you have a second?” Hal asked.

  Robbie was in the library, fixing the last drawer on the left of the Dewey decimal system. “Yeah, I just saw you.” Robbie grinned.

  “From Security to Mechanics?” Hal said. “Why is that?”

  “What do you mean?’

  “I mean you’re head of Security, why are you fixing things.”

  “Danny is working on the broadcasting thing.” Robbie opened and closed the drawer a few times. “Done. And …” He lifted his tool box. “Henry is loading the warehouse from that run so I help out.”

  “Doesn’t leave you much time.”

  “For?”

  “Security.”

  “Nah, I’m good. Let’s go outside before we get yelled at.” Robbie walked across the library to the door. He opened it. “What’s up?”

  “That’s what I wanted to ask you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, we had that meeting today and nothing was mentioned about Dad’s investigation.”

  “I hit a wall.”

  “No leads on the prints?”

  “Hal, I ran a ton of prints. No matches. I’m sticking firmly that it was someone from the future that came through and they went back.”

  “Hmm.”

  “What?”

  “Have you ran prints on all my men?”

  “Do you really think it was one of your men?”

  “No.” Hal shook his head. “Can I see what you have?”

  “Why?”

  “What do you mean why? Just curious.”

  “Well, it feels like you’re double checking me.” Robbie said.

  “Why are you getting defensive?”

  “I’m not getting defensive.”

  “You are. You were consumed and head strong about the explosion now nothing.”

  “It’s not nothing, Hal, I hit a brick wall.”

  “Then let me take a look.”

  “Fine I will.”

  “When?”

  “Hal.”

  “What?”

  “I’ll let you see i
t, but right now, I have more important things to do. Excuse me.” Robbie brushed by him and walked off.

  Hal stood alone. He spoke to himself. “More important things to do than our father’s murder.” He continued to watch Robbie. “What’s going on with you little brother?”

  ****

  Before the plague, before it all, they were the envy of every couple they knew. George and Margaret Hadley were the perfect couple. They not only did everything together, but they loved each other. No, were still in love.

  She wasn’t supposed to die in the plague that was why George used the time machine to go back, to put her in deep freeze and give her the antidote when Dean created it.

  George was positive all would be fine. What he didn’t expect was for Margaret to hate him so much.

  She put it together. Why would he freeze her if he didn’t know the world was coming to an end?

  So when she woke from a cryogenic freeze she was less than congenial and escaped … to Beginnings.

  The enemy.

  Now that wasn’t the case.

  Beginnings wasn’t the enemy anymore. But George was still target number one.

  Margaret hated him, or so she acted it. George knew better.

  He had a class to teach and a few moments to spare. Margaret was in Bowmen. How perfect. That was where George taught his class.

  He heard she was at the church cleaning the pews.

  To the mass public, Margaret Hadley cleaning pews was unheard of in the old world. But George knew Margaret. He knew the Margaret before she was first lady. The same girl that taught school, that lived in a trailer home and shopped at discount stores and thrift clothing places.

  That Margaret, the humble Margaret would see no shame in a hard day’s work.

  Seeing her carry a bucket didn’t surprise him. Seeing her with Peter did.

  No one told him.

  No one.

  He knew he had frozen his son Peter. But George was told, Peter like the field workers in Beginnings was ‘special’ that he lost comprehension and wouldn’t even be able to use the bathroom. No one told George that Peter was alive and functioning, let alone in Beginnings.

  Yet, there was Peter, George’s oldest son, wiping down pews.

  “Oh my God,” George wisped out.

  Margaret turned around. Well this is the right place to make that statement.”

  “No one told me.”

  “No one told you what? That I would be wiping down pews.”