Premonitions (Book 1): The Farm

by Anderson, Diana E.

  “I also have a couple of canners and a lot of jars” Maria said. “I’ll get Jose to go empty our storage shed and get them tonight.”

  “I do, too,” Marcie added. “Frank is bringing the RV over tonight after he gets off work. I’ll call him and ask him to make sure he brings all the canning stuff – I have pressure and water bath canners, too.”

  It was close to dinnertime, so we headed into the kitchen to get dinner started. I pulled out several quart jars of home-canned soup, tossed in a couple of jars of veggies from the garden, and put the big pot of soup on to cook. Maria made a big tray of biscuits, and soon the kitchen was smelling pretty good. I had no idea who would be here for dinner, but at least soup was a safe bet and there would be plenty, no matter who showed up. I put a stack of bowls and spoons on the counter. My plan was that people could come and go and help themselves.

  The first to arrive were Janet and her boys, Sam and Mike. After giving me a hug, she whispered that we needed to talk later. A few minutes later, Lisa and Chuck arrived. Lisa was driving her car and had Nate and Jer with her. Chuck was driving Tom’s box truck, which he pulled out back to the armory. While the four boys ran over to the armory to help Chuck, Lisa and Janet sat down at the kitchen table with Marcie, Maria, and me.

  “We need to tell you about work today,” Janet said in her soft and timid way.

  “Yeah, it was a total mess! You would not believe it!” Lisa continued. “They passed out pink slips again – this time, they let almost all of the respiratory therapists go except the two that work in the ICU and Laurie that works in the emergency department. The excuse was, the nurses could do the breathing treatments and the respiratory therapists wasted too much time. That is so untrue! Of course we can do the treatments, but that’s not the point! They do a lot of other things that are important to patient care, too. We had a big nursing meeting today for them to tell us about all of this. Samantha stood up and had a royal hissy fit when she was told she was going to have to add those things onto her already busy case load. It was already crazy because of letting the nurses’ aides go this past week, and now they had to pick up respiratory tasks, too? She actually yelled at the Director of Nurses, told the Director she ought to be ashamed of herself. The Director made some snarky comment about nurses have been providing those kinds of services to patients for years, and Samantha told her, yeah, but those patients were not nearly as sick as our patients are, and you are taking away all of the people who help us provide great patient care. Samantha also reminded the Director that it has been a long time since the Director did any real nursing work, and she had no idea of what was needed to take good care of the patients. The Director tried to ignore Samantha, who was seething by now, and mentioned that the transporters from radiology were also being laid off. Now, nurses would have to bring patients to radiology for their studies. At that point, Samantha stood up, picked up her purse and told the Director of Nurses she could perform an anatomically impossible task, that she was not going to stand around and watch nursing being abused over the almighty dollar, that her patients deserved better care, and she quit! Can you believe it? She stormed out of there and a couple of other nurses, including me, followed her. Oh, and they are closing the cafeteria, too. They said we can bring our lunches from home or use the vending machines. I asked if we were still feeding the patients, and the Director gave me a really dirty look and snapped at me. I expect Samantha will be here as soon as she gets done in Human Resources and clears out her locker. Boy, she became a nursing idol today! People talked about it all afternoon!” Lisa sat back, winded from her tale of the day’s excitement. Then Janet leaned forward.

  “I have to tell you both something. I quit today, too! Marty says he would feel a lot better if I was here during the day rather than at work or in town. Apparently when he went into town for more supplies this afternoon, he came close to being in the middle of a riot at the grocery store. There was some kind of issue with some credit cards being rejected, and people were getting pretty ugly. We’re ready to come here and stay. We’re pulling the boys out of school, too, until things settle down. At the boys’ school, they laid off all of the teaching assistants, coaches, and everyone who was not a certified teacher. The teachers were about as angry as Samantha and the nurses were. My Sammy said that the kids were really restless and a lot of fights broke out today.”

  Lisa piped in, “Yes, Nate was telling me the same thing. I need to talk to Chuck, but I think we’re ready to be staying here, too. On a different note, Tom loaned Chuck his big box truck so Chuck could pack up our basement gun room. He’s got all of his reloading equipment, all of the gun safes except the little one in our bedroom, and all of his firearms supplies. He even brought the cabinets and workbenches so there would be that much less for the guys to build. When he gets that stuff secured in the armory, the plan was to take the truck back to the house to load up everything we want to store in a conex, plus the things we absolutely need to have if we have to beat feet here in a hurry. I think we will change the plan and just get all of our stuff so we can just stay here. Chuck is off tomorrow, and he and the boys will be working on the armory.”

  Suddenly, we heard a horn honking. I looked out the window and saw Samantha driving James’ pick up and towing a trailer. Samantha’s face was beet red, and she looked really angry. Behind Samantha was a very large, new-looking RV towing Samantha’s SUV. I was not at all surprised to see James driving the RV. Samantha pulled off the side of the driveway, while James kept driving the RV around behind the barn to the area Tom had fixed up for the RVs. It was starting to look like a small village here! Clark brought his RV over early this morning, and the RVs were starting to line up in a neat row. It’s a good thing we got all that gravel – we were going to need it to create paths to and from all the RVs! We were also going to need a place to park all of the cars and trucks. I jotted a quick note in my little notebook.

  I knew Samantha wanted to talk to me, and I waved the girls all into the living room. Samantha retold her story and added how she lost all of her saved vacation time when she quit. She said she was so angry at how the administration was decimating the patient care staff, yet they had not even cut hours on the administration secretarial pool or the HR clerks. I asked Samantha about James. She told us that since James was not a hospital employee, he was not directly affected. James is an independent surgeon who just has privileges at the hospital. Just then, James joined us. James jumped right in.

  “Denise, from now on, I think we are going to stay here. I don’t have any more surgeries scheduled for this week, and I am just canceling whatever I have scheduled after this week. I brought the RV so we could take some of the burden off of the housing situation. The trailer behind is everything I could take from my office. I’ll have to go back for the rest of it, but not without a few of the guys and some fire power.”

  I looked at James and asked, “Fire power? Just to get your office supplies? Is there something you haven’t shared with us?”

  James swallowed and looked around. “I don’t want to upset anyone, but there have been a few things I’ve seen and heard today that are making me pretty nervous. First, there have been a few break-ins in the medical office building where I have my practice over the last couple of days. The cops seem to think they were after drugs, but it seems that more than drugs were taken. Then, did you hear Dr. Nolan was beaten up pretty bad and his wife was killed?” We were all terribly shocked. Dr. Nolan might be old and cantankerous at times, but he did not deserve to be beaten, and his wife Margie was a sweet lady, and she was dead? What in the world?

  James continued. “Dr. Nolan and Margie went to Charlotte to do some shopping. Unfortunately, some lowlifes saw them leaving the drug store carrying some pretty large bags and a cooler and assumed they had drugs. They attacked Dr. Nolan, and somehow Margie got hit in the head and was killed. Dr. Nolan is now in the ICU at the hospital in Charlotte, but they are not sure he is going to make it. A friend of mine who is an ER ph
ysician called me because he knew I am affiliated with Riverdale General. If he makes it, do you think we could maybe bring him here? I know he won’t be able to stay at his condo alone without Margie there, and another doctor, even an old and feisty one, can’t hurt.”

  “I don’t see why not,” I answered. “Let’s see if he makes it, first, before we start to worry and make plans for him.”

  James then asked, “Has anyone been listening to the news today?”

  I answered that we had not because we were so busy, and asked what happened. He answered, “The stock market tanked. By lunch time they had the circuit breakers trip twice. By three o’clock the market had dropped 21%, and they stopped trading for the day. I suspect a lot of people lost a lot of money today.” I was shocked. I knew that between bank restrictions, problems with credit cards, and the overall poor health of the economy, people were going to be very restless, and the town would become even more dangerous. I looked around as if to make a head count. Lisa, Marcie, Janet, Samantha – where is Maureen, and where is Pat? “Have any of you seen Maureen and Pat? Are they okay?”

  Janet reached out her hand and patted my arm to calm me down. “I saw Maureen this afternoon. She will be here as soon as she gets off work. She was planning to stop by her house and get some clothes and stuff, and then she’ll be here. Clark and the girls are here – they’ve been here all afternoon setting up the animal hospital. Patty was flexed off work early today because of low census. She said she was going to her house and start packing the things they wanted to bring here. She was waiting for Bill to get home with a trailer he was borrowing, as they were planning to start bringing stuff over later this evening.”

  I took a deep breath, and tried to calm down. I was upset about my friends and work, shocked about the stock market, and I was really sad about Dr. Nolan and Margie. What is wrong with people? I’m glad we went to Asheville to shop instead of Charlotte. I never liked Charlotte, as it is too much a big city. Asheville is large, but not crazy large like Charlotte. What is driving all of this recent violence? Is it just problems with the economy, or is there something else going on? I say this many times every day, but today I especially mean it: I am so blessed to have this farm and my friends and family to help me weather whatever it is that is happening.

  Chapter 8

  We sat up late Wednesday night going over plans. Frank brought the RV over and he and Marcie decided they would stay in the RV and let Grace and Mandy stay in the house. Bill and Pat came in late last night with a trailer full of belongings. I did not know they recently sold their RV, so they took one of the bedrooms upstairs. Janet and Marty also decided to stay here last night. We finally talked Tom into staying here, as he was really too tired to drive by the time he finished doing everything. Lisa, Chuck, their boys, and Chris worked in the armory until close to midnight. Lisa and Chuck took the last bedroom here, and the boys went with Chris to his wing. We put the Livingstone boys in the basement with a tent and sleeping bags, and they played camp-out down there until they finally fell asleep.

  Thursday morning, people were slow to get going. My darn rooster woke me up again at 5:30, but I was starting to enjoy the quiet time in the mornings before my house came alive. We decided today we would have the four boys use the cans of spray paint and camouflage the outside of the armory. Hopefully, Jeremiah, the oldest boy, would keep the others under control and the paint would actually wind up on the armory and not on them. Just to be safe, though, we gave the boys paper bunny suits with hoods to protect themselves and their clothes as much as possible.

  I spent the rest of the afternoon helping Clark and the girls get settled into the new animal hospital and helping set up the infirmary. I got to chat with James as we worked, and it turns out he is quite an interesting person. After he finished his surgery residency, he went on a number of volunteer missionary trips to third-world countries to help perform surgery on people who were desperate for health assistance. He also spent two weeks near the beach close to Biloxi, Mississippi, after Hurricane Katrina, setting up a medical service tent and providing health care to both residents and rescuers. Unlike most of our doctor friends, James was refreshingly conservative. And yes, he did admit to being a prepper. He said it all started for him when a friend made him read William Forstchen’s One Second After. That started him reading every apocalyptic novel he could get his hands on. The more he read, the more he realized how fragile our society, and especially our grid, was and made him adopt a prepper lifestyle. He warned me that the back of his pick-up was loaded with about a year’s worth of food storage that he would bring down to Judy to add to the supplies in the basement.

  I was surprised to find out he and Samantha had known each other for over a year. They met at a conference both attended in Dallas, and had maintained a long distance friendship until James moved to Riverdale. James chose Riverdale to start a new practice primarily because it would bring him closer to Samantha. I was impressed with how discreet they were, that none of us ever suspected a relationship – but then I was mad that Samantha had not told us about him!

  While I was doing that, Tom was headed over to his place with Chris, Bill, and Frank to get his stuff and his animals. They figured it would take a couple of trips to get everything, and the last thing they would bring back would be the two water tanks. Most everyone else would be putting up personal belongings in the storage conexes. Father Dan decided that the best place for his ham antenna was on the rise behind the house. He, Marty, and Jon were going to set up the antenna this morning, and Father Dan would stay at Jon’s. For now, he set up a radio room in Jon’s basement.

  Tim and Judy borrowed one of the trailers and headed off to Judy’s house to get her stuff. She and Tim were both going to stay at Jon’s for now, but they hoped to be able to find an RV later for them to share. After they got Judy moved over, they were going to Tim’s apartment to get his things as well.

  I decided that today I would go over to the hospital and see if I could arrange for some additional time off. I also wanted to find out if anyone at the hospital knew anything more about Dr. Nolan and make sure that they knew he could come stay with us if necessary. I wanted to go to the bank and take out another $300 if I could, and then after a quick trip to the feed store to see about another feed order, I would head home. I did not see the need to have anyone come with me, since I wasn’t planning on shopping and I wouldn’t have the trailer. I did decide, though, that I would wear my M&P Shield just in case. I know that I’m not allowed to carry a handgun in the hospital, but I decided I would assess that when I got there. If there were a lot of loiterers there, I wasn’t going to take any chances.

  I got to the hospital around 9:00, and went straight to the Director’s office. I hardly recognized her because she looked so bad. She must have been working night shift, because she was dressed in rumpled scrubs with her hair in a pony tail. She greeted me cordially enough, but before I could say anything, she told me that if I was there for anything other than to volunteer to pick up some of the shifts that were deserted by my friends, the answer was no. I told her I was there for two reasons. The first was that I heard about Dr. Nolan and wanted to be sure the powers that be at the hospital knew I was willing to take him in if he survived. I knew he had no family to speak of, and figured the doctors in Charlotte would rely on hospital administration to be involved in his discharge. Her face fell, and a tear slipped down her cheek. “Dr. Nolan died early this morning. His injuries were just too severe for him to recover.” She said that the Charlotte hospital’s director of nursing called her early this morning to let her know.

  I was upset, but not entirely surprised based on what James told us yesterday. I then told her my second reason for coming in was that I had four more weeks of vacation time due to me, and I wanted to extend my time off by at least two more weeks. Her reply was a resounding “Absolutely not. As a matter of fact, I am canceling your remaining vacation time, and you need to be here to work on the med surg unit tonight at
6 p.m.” I started laughing, which probably was not at all therapeutic and definitely not the response she was looking for.

  “Why are you laughing? I don’t think there was anything funny with what I said, and I certainly was not joking!”

  I just shook my head. “My vacation may be canceled, but it is not because I am going to come work the floor, it is because I am resigning effective immediately. I’ll go clear my office and I’ll stop at HR with a letter of resignation before I leave.”

  I did not wait for her to answer, but just turned around and headed to the elevators. I could hear the director yelling and throwing things in her office. I guess she was not having such a good day. I had a tiny office on the second floor. I didn’t have a lot of personal things there, but I had a lab coat and a couple of books and pictures I didn’t want to leave behind. It took me all of ten minutes to gather the things that I wanted to keep. I opened my computer and typed up a brief resignation letter, printed it, and put it in an envelope addressed to HR. I then headed back down to the HR office on the main floor. I was really surprised at how quiet the hospital seemed. There were not a lot of people – staff, visitors, or patients – walking in the hallways, and many of the offices were shut and dark. There was only a receptionist in HR. I gave her the key to my office and the letter and told her my final paycheck could be sent to the house. Of course, I did not have high hopes of ever receiving that check.

  As I was leaving, I did notice a few people hanging around outside the hospital pharmacy. They did not look like they belonged there, and they looked like they were asking for trouble. I was glad I decided to wear my Shield, even in the hospital. I did not want to be around if they found trouble, and I hurried out to my car. The parking lot was not as empty as I expected – there was a crowd of people off to the side with signs. It looked as though there was some sort of protest going on. I didn’t want to be around that at all. I quickly drove off in the opposite direction. I next drove to the bank, only to find a sign out front saying it was closed for repairs and would reopen next Monday. What kind of repairs did a bank need that it had to close for a few days? Maybe they had a flood or something, or maybe the bank president was having his office remodeled. Who knows. I tried to use the ATM, but I guess a lot of people tried that ahead of me, because the screen said it was out of funds. Very odd! I continued on to the feed store, and noticed more small shops were shuttered. When I got to the feed store, the girl behind the counter seemed to be glad to see me.