The clerk gasped, “I’m so sorry to hear that. The university secured you first-class tickets so you can eat as much as you want on the plane. Your flight leaves in twenty minutes Let me get you a ride; the flight is on the other end of the terminal. If you were here longer, I could do something to help you.” She handed them their tickets as she grabbed the phone to call for transport.
Manny smiled at the clerk, “Ma’am, we just want to get home to our families, but thank you for your concern. Your ride is much appreciated.”
“I’m sorry for your misfortune, Monsieur. I hope everything gets better for you and your friends,” the ticket clerk said with a look of concern.
The airport cart pulled up behind them, and they all got on the same seat. The driver took off down the terminal at a very brisk pace. It was hard for Manny to believe that less than thirty hours ago they were being attacked on a road in the Congo jungle. Now they were rushing down a terminal in Paris, France, after a five-hour layover in Cairo, and in twelve more hours, they would be home. He was sitting in the middle of the girls with his arm around each, with Casey’s head on his shoulder. Ellen had her arms around him. Manny could not believe that she was actually holding him. Smiling, he had his eyes closed as they rolled down the terminal to their gate.
The cart came to a stop at their gate, and they slowly got off the cart, walking up to the ticket taker. She scanned the tickets, allowing them to board. Walking down the boarding bridge, they looked out at the 747 that would take them home. A stewardess walked up to them saying, “The area manager called and told us what happened. We can’t get you food until we take off, but here are some bottles of water until then.”
Ellen looked at the stewardess, taking a bottle from her. “Thank you very much,” she told the stewardess.
The stewardess handed them three rolled-up T-shirts. “They are only company shirts but it is all we have on the plane,” she said.
“You have no idea how much I appreciate this,” replied Ellen. “I think this shirt needs to be burned. Can I trouble you for a clean bandage? When we were robbed, one of the attackers scratched my arm.”
“Yes, ma’am, after we are airborne, I will bring you some,” replied the stewardess.
The three were seated in first class, middle row, and immediately opened the bottles of water, emptying them. They made themselves comfortable while the crew prepared for takeoff. There were only four others in first class with them, and they were sitting in the back of the section. Manny sat in the middle of the girls. He turned to look at Casey on his left side; as he smiled at her, she gave his hand a squeeze. Turning to the right, Ellen was already looking at him. She was holding onto his arm, pulling him closer to her. Ellen gave him a kiss and backed away a little. The look of shock on his face was evident. As Ellen looked at him, she smiled a wicked little smile. Manny leaned closer to her, and they kissed passionately until the pilot came over the intercom starting to give flight information. They looked at each other until she kissed him on the check and, still holding onto his arm, laid her head on his arm.
Manny was in heaven. She had kissed him and was literally hanging on him right now. He hoped that this was not a fluke and she really liked him. He really doubted that she liked him as much as he liked her, but hey, you had to start somewhere. As the plane roared down the runway, he could not help but think about walking around campus holding hands with Ellen. To see the look on his friends’ faces would be worth it. One thing he knew for sure was he was never leaving the United States again. He just kept staring ahead, smiling, oblivious to anything. If he would have looked down on his left arm, he would have seen Casey looking at him, smiling a proud smile.
She had watched Manny for two years chase after Ellen and was glad to see him finally get her. Why he never asked her out and just always put himself in the background was beyond her, but he had done it. Casey knew, along with everyone at school, that the only reason he volunteered to come to Africa was Ellen. Ellen had told her more than once she thought he was cute and wondered why he never asked her out. The stewardess startled her out of her daydream, “What would you like to eat, ma’am?”
Casey replied, “Everything I can get.”
The stewardess smiled and handed her a tray, “Well, let’s start with one then move on from there, okay?” Casey was eating before the plate hit the table.
Manny told the stewardess that Ellen and he would take the same. As the stewardess passed the first plate, he gave it to Ellen and then took his own and started shoveling food into his mouth. Before his second bite, Casey called the stewardess back, “I’m finished. Can I have another, please?”
“Ma’am, if you eat another plate that fast, you could get sick,” replied the astonished stewardess.
“You are probably right. Can I get another one, please?” she begged.
“Here is steak this time, cooked medium-well, if that is okay?” the stewardess said, laying another plate in front of her.
“Oh yeah, now that’s what I’m talking about,” replied Casey.
The stewardess laughed, handing her the plate and taking the other. “Please eat this one slower. I am not in the mood to perform the Heimlich on you.” She looked over to Manny and Ellen. “Would you two like your next plate now or wait a little bit?” she asked.
They both held their hands up for the next plate. The stewardess assured them that there was more food, but asked them to please slow down so they would not get sick. Everyone nodded with full mouths, grunting the best they could. After the girls each ate two plates and Manny ate four, the stewardess came up to Ellen.
“Here are some new bandages and some stuff to clean your cuts up. I would have brought them earlier, but I was scared to stop you while you were eating,” the stewardess told her.
“I’m sorry we ate like that, but we were starving, and it was very good,” Ellen replied.
“That’s okay. I must admit I have never seen anyone eat airline food like that,” she said, handing the supplies to Ellen.
Ellen stood up, kissing Manny on the cheek and grabbed the t-shirt and walked off to the bathroom. As she closed and locked the door, she pulled off her dirty shirt, looking at herself in the mirror. Her hair was a mess, and she had bruises over her chest. She grabbed some towels, wetting them, and washed herself the best she could. As she removed the bandage on her arm, she noted yellow pus on the bandage that Prince had put on. The wound edges were slightly gray, but it did not hurt when she pushed on it. The center was scabbed over, and no pus came out when she pushed on it. If it was infected, it should hurt when she pushed on it, she concluded, or at least be warm to touch, but it was actually cooler than the rest of her arm. This made Ellen feel a lot better. She washed it off, taping the new bandage in place.
Looking in the mirror one more time, Ellen could not believe that Manny could look at her the way he did with the way she looked. Looking closer, she thought a troll would run from her. Leaning over the sink, she wet her hair drying it the best she could, and put on the free t-shirt. Well, she thought she looked a little better and with one last glance in the mirror, she opened the door, throwing her old shirt away, and walked back to her seat. As she sat down, she kissed Manny again. He looked at her with wide eyes, and she caught her breath.
“What is it? Do I look that bad?” she asked.
“No,” he replied, “You look absolutely beautiful, Ellen.”
She smiled and laughed, “I think you are lying, but thank you, Manny.”
“Ellen, you are the most beautiful person I have ever seen,” Manny told her.
She put her hand on his face and kissed him. Yes, she thought, he is a keeper. If he thinks I look good now then he could care less how she looked. He liked her for being her and not her looks. She moved the armrest between them up and put his arm over her shoulders and snuggled up to him. This trip may have been hell, but it may have been worth it. One thing she did know is that she would not leave the States again. People in the world may need he
lp, but as far as she was concerned, she had done her part. If people in those countries attacked someone trying to help them, and there were not even any police to turn to for help, well, she would just raise and donate money so someone else could go. As she closed her eyes, Manny started to stroke her damp hair until she drifted to sleep with a smile on her face. She was happy that Manny had kept after her.
Manny had tears running down his cheek; he could not have felt any better if he had won the lottery. Ellen was curled up next to him, sleeping, with a smile on her face. Yes, he thought, this trip was worth it, as he drifted to sleep. He finally got his dream girl.
Chapter 9
Bruce took another sip of coffee while he was sitting at the kitchen table with his laptop and reading the headlines––his normal morning routine. Looking up and out the back window over the pool, he saw it was not yet dawn. He hated August in Louisiana. It marked the hottest part of summer and would start next week. The liquid heat made the day terrible to be out in, but too much had to be done. It was Friday, and they had a lot to do this weekend. After the kids were off to school, the parents would all go out to the small barn they had converted to a gym for the morning workout. It may not be a large gym, but they had a lot of equipment for a real good workout. The kids were out there now, and at least two were in the pool doing laps after their workout. More than likely it was the girls in the pool. The boys did do laps, but they were more interested in pushing iron like their fathers. The boys probably swam once a week. Bruce and Mike swam about twice a week just to work the soreness out of their muscles. Getting old sucked, Bruce thought.
Debbie was cooking up breakfast for the kids before they left for school. Nancy was out collecting eggs, and Mike was probably playing Call of Duty upstairs. They had gotten their asses kicked last night until their kids logged on to help them out. Some little kid from Canada kept running up and knifing them in the back last night. Try as he might, Bruce could not kill the little bastard. So he would just drop grenades at his feet when the little turd would bounce up to him, killing them both. Then it was Jake to the rescue; he killed that kid so many times that the kid finally left the game. Bruce could remember when the kids asked him for help playing video games; now it was the other way around. Getting old sucked, Bruce thought again.
It was going to be a busy day today. Steve only had classes Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so he would be here to help. Steve was only taking basic courses now in Bossier and online. He still did not know what area he wanted to pursue yet. Bruce did not care: as long as the kids pulled their weight, were in school, and not in trouble, he told them they could live at home as long as they wanted to. It was a lot harder in the world out there now than when Debbie and he started out. He did not pamper his kids or Mike’s, but he knew they were happy. All the friends that they had over never wanted to leave, and more than one had asked if they could move in.
Bruce looked up as Mike walked into the kitchen rubbing his eyes, yawning, and walking to the coffeepot. That dirty SOB, thought Bruce, he slept in. Bruce would not say anything until Mike had his second cup of coffee, because one thing he had learned about Mike was that he was whiny in the morning until he had his second cup of coffee. He watched as Mike took his coffee cup and walked over and stood in front of the family calendar, staring at it.
They had to stock the last underground cellar they had made for the wheat that came in last week. It was not a true cellar; they had just dug a hole and placed a shipping container in it and covered it up, then bricked some stairs down to it, put a sump at the bottom, and connected a pump to it for when it rained. The container was waterproof, but a light shower in Louisiana could dump two inches of rain in an hour. So if you wanted to get into anything below ground that was not covered, you had to get rid of the water or wait until it dried up. That could take a long time here. They had learned that with the first cellar they made with a shipping container. They had to wait two weeks to get in the container. They now had four underground storage areas for food and supplies. They placed them below ground because shelf life went by rapidly in the heat of summer down here in the South. It could get over a hundred degrees here for months at a time with 70 to 100 percent humidity. This was the only place Bruce had ever seen 100 percent humidity when it was not raining. The highest temp they had recorded in the storage areas was seventy-eight degrees Fahrenheit. Debbie and Nancy made them put dehumidifiers in two of the storage areas, so at least two were cool and dry.
The last storage bunker was for the eight hundred pounds of wheat that came in last week, with five hundred pounds of flour. Moving thirty five-gallon buckets that weighed about forty pounds apiece was going to be a lot of work. Then about one hundred bags of horse feed at fifty pounds apiece and twenty bags of chicken feed and about that much rabbit feed. Bruce was starting to think about skipping the gym; they were going to get a good workout today just moving stuff. Everyone had agreed that storing all the animal food in the barn was dangerous, because if they lost the barn, that was over a year of feed in there for the animals. They had two stacks on each side of the property of square bales of hay. They grew those themselves on the fifty acres to the east.
The main 110 acres was surrounded by a ten-foot chain-link fence that Nancy had found on some government website. It had taken a whole year to put it up, and Bruce still had nightmares about it. They still had thirty rolls of it beside the main barn along with the razor wire to put on it. This is where Bruce said, hell no, he was not putting that up, using the excuse that if anyone saw that they would think something valuable was in here, but Bruce just did not want to put his hands on something that had ‘razor’ as part of its make up on top of a ten-foot fence. Explaining the fence to people that came over was easy. If your horse got out in Louisiana, you were responsible for any damages it caused, so they told everyone it was to keep the horses in. If they could get over a ten-foot fence, then they would have earned their freedom.
The fence was not visible from the road because they had moved the front fence line back about twenty yards from the road and planted cedar trees in front of it. Then they planted some along the road so it could not be seen from the side. The trees were over twelve feet now. The driveway into the property made a sharp turn to the left coming in and then went thirty yards to the gate. Then when the gate was closed, someone had to call on the call box at the gate. After they were through the gate, they then turned another sharp turn to the right and came down the driveway to the house. From the road, all a person could see was a shitload of cedar trees. This did cause some problems at first because people would try to cut some down every Christmas. Sixty yards from the gate, the family had made a large mound of dirt and built a hunter blind on fifteen-foot stilts, surrounding it with cedar trees. The fort (that’s what the kids called it) stood twenty-five feet above the driveway, and most of the front of the property could be seen from it. Unless someone knew about it, they could not see it. Every once in a while, the sun would shine off the glass but that had to be accepted because windows were mandatory or the mosquitoes would rape the people up in the fort. They had set up mosquito traps around the property that helped a little, with a lot of citronella bushes everywhere, and that helped a lot.
Mike had found a company going out of business in Ohio two years ago and bought the security system at a great deal. Now they had over thirty cameras around the property with two on the road. They led the cables to the house into the downstairs office, which the kids started to call “mission control.” Selling the tube monitors, they bought ten LED screens for the cameras. The ten LEDs drew less power than two of the old tube monitors. Also, in mission control were temperature gauges for the underground storage areas. Bruce and Mike worked for three days trying to hook up the security system into a computer. They finally threw their hands up in disgust and started looking on the computer to hire someone to come out and wire the damn thing up. While they were doing that, Jake and Matt went into mission control, putting it together i
n about an hour. Bruce and Mike did not talk to them for a few days.
Bruce smiled remembering that. It is said you should be happy when your kids outdo you, but did they have to do it so often? he thought. As it stood right now, they could stay on the farm for eighteen months and eat nothing but stockpiled food, not even having to worry about the twenty-acre garden and the orchard. With the five-acre catfish pond in the back between the two fenced-off pastures, each twenty acres for the horses and the two milk cows and one bull, they were all set. There was a gate on each side to pull the tractor through to the rest of the land. One thing Bruce could say about that fence was it kept the damn turtles out of the pond. The farm was not flat but rolling hills. What in Louisiana were considered hills to everyone else in the country was flat. There was a creek that ran along the back of the farm. It was year round, but you do not drink water from a creek in the South. Unless you filtered it, boiled it, and chemically purified it, then just throw it away and drink some bottled water, it was not worth the risk. They had a well that pumped into a water tower that they made out of telephone poles that sat thirty feet in the air and held almost one thousand gallons, giving them water pressure as well.
At first they wanted just six months’ worth of food then when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit, they moved up to eighteen months. They had done a dry run last summer for three weeks. They took time off work and closed the front gate, collected all cell phones, and turned the Internet and satellite off. The kids acted like they were going to die the first week, and the parents thought the girls were going to go into convulsions at any minute because they could not text anyone.
But after the first week, they fell into a routine, and every night a board game was broken out. They even taught the kids how to play poker. Bruce was glad they did not play for money because the parents would have to work several lifetimes to pay off their debt. After the three weeks were over, the kids admitted that they loved it and had a blast. That’s when the parents gave them their surprise. They took them to Disneyland for a week. They had to reward the discipline that the kids showed.
Blue Plague The Fall Page 5
