I could be all wrong about this, the BBC reporter did say his information had not yet been verified, and the U.S. networks had a habit of blowing everything out of proportion in order to get better ratings. Maybe this all could be nothing more than the flu bug, but my gut was telling me different.
When the government is involved, the problem is that we are never given enough information and many of the facts are kept secret, not the other way around.
I imagine the next few days will tell if I am just being paranoid or it’s just more of the same old story.
I turned off the TV to give my mind a break and to try to do something constructive. Until I knew more, worrying about it served no purpose, besides I already had an idea how this whole mess would play out.
The government screws up, everyone gets the flu, the government blames the screw up on some private medical corporation, then the government takes credit for everyone recovering from the flu. Liberals then demand the rich pay more in taxes so the government can afford to protect us all from the evil corporation that caused this.
The government creates an epidemic but comes out smelling like a rose.
I tried to rein in my thoughts, this kind of thing is enough to drive me crazy, besides I had more immediate problems to worry about.
Katie and Logan were starting to get on each other’s nerves and it had only been a few hours.
Emma made everyone some hot chocolate then curled up on the couch with a new book she wanted to read after seeing the author being interviewed on Doctor Phil.
I just sat and enjoyed my family while I reviewed some reports that I had brought home from work. I kept my eye on the kids and hoped that my skills as a referee wouldn’t be needed for at least a day or two. However, as I observed Logan and Katie, I knew that is was always better to try to steer them clear of a conflict than try to play peace maker afterwards.
The evening passed by quickly without any problems at home or on the TV. But before we turned in for the night, the first ominous sign of things to come was reported.
Nothing had been reported all day on this subject and it seemed like the reporters had even tried to avoid the subject, but the subject couldn’t be avoided any longer.
Across the screen scrolled out the words apparently no one wanted to say out loud.
California death toll rises to one hundred seventy-five.
It had started, but at the time even my most dire assumptions about what was happening would never come close to what was to come.
We all tuned in to get some sleep, my biggest concern had been that one of us would wake up in the morning showing signs of the flu.
The question that briefly flashed through my mind now was, would all of us wake up tomorrow morning?
I fell asleep quickly, I guess that deep down I couldn’t believe everything I had seen and heard today. Or could it have been that my mind just wasn’t ready to accept what it all could mean.
It was about three o’clock in the morning when I felt my shoulder being shaken.
“Dad, wake up,” a voice said as someone continued to shake my shoulder.
It took me a few seconds to regain my senses, but I soon recognized the voice, it was Logan.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as I rolled over to face Logan.
“There is something going on outside,” Logan replied.
“What going on outside?” I asked, still trying to wake up and understand what Logan was talking about.
“Come out and take a look,” Logan replied.
“What’s wrong,” Emma asked as I felt her stirring beside me on the bed.
“Logan wants me to go look at something,” I replied.
“What does he want you to look at in the middle of the night?” Emma asked.
“Go back to sleep,” I said, “I’m sure it’s nothing, I’ll tell you when I come back.”
“OK,” she replied and pulled the covers up over her chin and squirmed around to make herself comfortable.
I slid out from under the covers, shivered when my warm bare feet touched the cold wooden floor, and said, “Lead the way.”
It was pitch black in the bedroom except for the light given off by the clock on my nightstand, but as I left the room I was able to follow the dark outline of Logan’s body through the house due to the yellow glow coming in around the curtains from the street light out on the corner in front of the house.
The soft light filtering in from around the curtains helped, but it was still too difficult to see where I was going.
“Can we turn on a light?” I asked when I stubbed my toe on the corner of the sofa.
“Not yet Dad,” Logan replied. “I don’t want them to see us.”
“You don’t want who to see us?” I asked as my leg bumped into another piece of furniture. “They may not be able to see us, but if they have ears, they are going to hear me coming from a mile away.”
It became a little easier to see when Logan reached the large living room window and pulled the curtain to one side allowing more light from the street light to enter the room.
“Over here, Dad,” Logan said. “They’re out in the driveway now.”
I walked over and stood next to Logan, then I looked out the window.
In the corner of the front yard were four figures staggering slowly from the yard into the driveway and then out onto the street in front of the house.
“How did you know they were out in the yard?” I asked. “Did you look out the window on your way to the bathroom or something?”
“No, they woke me up,” Logan replied. “They were out back ten minutes ago banging against the house outside my window. At first I thought it was Jim and the guys horsing around, but when I got to the window they were going around the back of the house. They all had long hair, I think they were girls.”
“I can see where that could be disturbing, to be awakened in the middle of the night by four girls outside your window,” I chuckled quietly to myself.
“I think they were all drunk,” Logan continued, “I don’t think any of them could walk a straight line if they had to, they kept bumping into each other and into the house. I didn’t recognize any of them, but I was afraid they were going to wake you and mom up. Having four girls outside my bedroom window in the middle of the night would be hard enough to explain, but I knew there would be no way I could explain having four drunk underage girls at my window in the middle of the night, so I thought I had better wake you up before they got me in trouble.”
“Underage girls?” I asked.
“OK, I think I recognized one of them, Becky Jensen from down the street, she is only thirteen,” Logan replied. “The others were probably her friends. If Katie found out Becky Jensen was outside my bedroom window in the middle of the night, I’d never live it down. She would tell everyone I had invited Becky to my room in the middle of the night to make out or something, do you know what that would do to my reputation, a Junior making out with an eighth grader. None of the girls in my class would ever talk to me again. Can we call the police and report them, that way everyone would know it wasn’t my idea?”
I looked out the window and watched as the four figures staggered under the street light.
I had to agree with Logan, from their hair and the fact it looked like they were all in nighties or swimsuits or something, they were all girls.
I assumed that they must have been having a sleepover down the street and as usually happens, one of the girls trying to show off brought some alcohol.
Now the four girls were high and out looking for kicks.
They of course were harmless, but I was afraid they were going to get themselves hurt.
As the father of a teenage girl I would certainly want to know if Katie was drunk and running through people’s yards in the middle of the night. I guarantee that would be the last time something like that would happen, but with Katie I knew I didn’t have to worry about her doing something like that. If Katie ever even thought about doing somet
hing like that, I would be the first person to know.
“Do you know the Jensen’s phone number?” I asked Logan.
“Why would I know their phone number?” Logan asked.
“If I were Mr. Jensen, I would want to know about this,” I replied. “I want to call him and tell him where his daughter is.”
“No, I don’t know their number,” Logan replied. “I don’t even know how you could find it.”
“I wonder if Katie knows their number?” I thought out loud.
“Oh God, Dad, do you have to ask Katie?” Logan sighed.
“This is important,” I replied. “Close the curtain and turn on the light so I can see. You can go back to bed, I’ll keep you out of it.”
“OK,” Logan sighed.
A minute later I was blinded as bright light filled the room.
When my eyes finally adjusted, I started walking to Katie’s room.
When I entered the room, I was greeted by the blue glow of her Smurf nightlight and could see that she was sound asleep.
“Katie,” I called out from the doorway.
After calling out two more times she finally replied.
“What?” she asked weakly.
“Do you have the Jensen’s phone number?” I asked.
“Why do you want the Jensen’s phone number?” she asked.
“Do you have it?” I asked again.
“Yeah, it’s on my phone,” she finally replied.
“Can I use your phone for a few minutes?” I asked.
“It’s on the night stand,” she replied. “Do you want me to pull it up for you?”
“That would be nice,” I replied, “Thanks.”
Katie reached out and grabbed her phone and started tapping on the screen, a second later she held the phone up to me.
“Just put it back on my stand when you’re done,” Katie said and disappeared under her blanket after I took the phone.
I walked back into the living room listening to the phone ringing in my ear as I waited for the Jensen’s to answer.
It dawned on me that I would be embarrassed if after calling the Jensen’s at three thirty in the morning, I was told that their daughter was sound asleep in her bed.
I began to wonder if I should just hang up before I embarrassed myself, but after twenty rings the phone just went dead.
In a way I felt relieved that no one answered, I did feel uncomfortable calling someone I didn’t even know in the middle of the night.
But I didn’t feel it would be right to just go to bed as if nothing had happened, if those girls knocked on the wrong window, they could end up having their pictures plastered across the front page of the morning paper tomorrow after being strangled.
There were a lot of strange depraved people out there that would be excited to see four drunk girls outside their window in the middle of the night.
I was tempted to go out and find them, put them in my car and take them home to their parents, but as I looked out the window, I wasn’t sure where they had gone.
The girls had looked so drunk that they probably couldn’t have told me their names or where they lived, then what would I do with them.
Instead I dialed 911.
The phone answered on the fifth ring.
“911, what is your emergency?” a woman’s voice answered.
“I’m not sure if I would call it an emergency, but four intoxicated young girls just went through my yard,” I replied. “I don’t think they are dangerous but I’m afraid something might happen to them.”
“How many times are you going to call me tonight?” the woman growled.
“Just once,” I replied. “Why?”
“I’m sorry,” the woman laughed, “I just saw your name, at first I just looked at the address that came up. I’ve had six other callers from Rogers Street call me in the last hour making the same report. Is someone having a party over there tonight?”
“No that I know of,” I chuckled. “But if it will help, my son identified one of the girls as Becky Jensen. I tried calling the Jensen residence, but I didn’t get an answer, so I thought I had better call you.”
“There is a patrol car in your area now, I will relay the information, thanks for being a concerned citizen,” the woman replied, said goodnight and hung up the phone.
Having done my good deed for the night, I put Katie’s phone back on her nightstand and went back to bed.
“What was so important that Logan had to wake you up in the middle of the night?” Emma asked as I crawled back into bed.
“He had four drunk teenage girls over at his room and wanted to know what he should do?” I replied.
“What?” Emma asked as she set up in bed.
“Well, they weren’t in his room, they were outside banging on his window,” I added. “He wanted me to call the police.”
“Are you telling me my son had four drunk girls at his bedroom window and all he could think about doing was to call the police,” Emma sighed. “Tomorrow I want you to have a talk with that boy.”
“What do you want me to say?” I asked.
“Teenage boys don’t call the police on girls that are trying to get into their bedroom,” Emma replied. “That is every teenage boy’s fantasy.”
“He said they were underage,” I replied.
“So what?” Emma scoffed. “So is he.”
“Would you be this disappointed if I told you that Katie had four drunk guys over in her room?” I asked.
“I’d ground her for life,” Emma laughed. “Besides, that would never happen. The word is out that any boys that get within three blocks of Katie will die a slow horrible death at the hands of her father.”
“And people say that men have double standards,” I laughed. “Go to sleep Emma. It’s a long story, I’ll explain it all in the morning.”
“He could have at least asked you if it was OK for him to invite them in,” Emma said.
“Go to sleep Emma,” I laughed. “I’ve had a tough day and I would like to go to sleep.”
“If that would have been you when you were a teenage boy, I know what you would have done,” Emma added.
There was no way I was going to comment on that statement, I let out a fake snore and pretended that I was asleep.
Chapter 9
I was awakened early the next morning when the phone rang.
Emma answered the phone, told the caller to hold on, then she shook my arm and pushed the phone my way.
I glanced at the clock on my night stand and saw that there was still another half hour before the alarm would go off.
I looked at Emma as if to ask who was calling this early in the morning.
She just shrugged her shoulders and pushed the phone at me again.
I took the phone and held it to my ear.
“Hello,” I said.
“Good morning Brian, I hope I didn’t wake you,” Tom, the general manager at the main office said.
“No, I was just getting up,” I lied to put Tom at ease. “What’s up Tom?”
“I was calling to ask you if you would mind working from home again today?” he asked. “You still have the office calls transferred to your home, right?”
“I do and of course I don’t mind, but why are you asking?” I asked.
“It appears we are in the middle of a damn flu epidemic, I’ve been informed that later this morning the governor will be declaring a state of emergency and will order everyone to stay in their homes for a few days until they can get things under control,” Tom replied. “Besides, it didn’t look like we were going to have any employees today anyhow.”
“Can the company operate without employees?” I asked.
“The company should be OK for a few days, our generation facilities are basically automated,” Tom replied. “As long as nothing happens to cause the generators to go off line our customers won’t know any difference. I can monitor the system from my location. I’m trying to put together an emergency crew to handle any major problem
s that might come up, but I don’t mind telling you I’ve never experienced anything like this. It’s almost as if all our people have disappeared off the face of the earth.”
“What can I do?” I asked.
“I know this isn’t your normal area of responsibility, but right now I just don’t have any one else,” Tom replied. “I’ll have all our customer service numbers transferred to your office, which means they will all come to your home. I have a recording in place telling anyone who calls that our customer service department is unavailable until next Monday and to call us back at that time. If there is an emergency, they are to press seven and those calls will come to you. If you get any calls that you feel need handled immediately, call me, hopefully I will have found enough people to handle the problem. I apologize for putting you in this position, but I didn’t know what else to do.”
“I’ll do my best.” I replied.
“I know you will and your efforts will be generously rewarded come bonus time,” Tom added. “I’ll get back with you later today to update you on our situation, hopefully by tomorrow we’ll be back to business as usual. If I understand the flu, it usually only lasts for twenty-four hours. I don’t like being on auto pilot for very long, but we should be able to get through it.”
“Hopefully I won’t get very many calls,” I said.
“That’s the attitude,” Tom laughed. “Have a good day and I’ll talk to you later.”
When I heard Tom hang up, I turned and handed the phone back to Emma.
“What was that all about?” Emma asked.
“I was just demoted to customer service representative, but the good news is I think I got a raise,” I replied as I sat up on the edge of the bed.
“Tell me that again,” Emma asked looking puzzled.
“It seems that the flu bug has hit all the company’s employees, so Tom asked me if I would handle all the customer service calls from home today,” I replied. “He said he thinks the governor is going to declare a state of emergency for a few days until this all passes. He also hinted at a big bonus at the end of the year.”
Just Trying To Stay Alive: A Prepper's Tale Page 7
