by Connor Mccoy
Jacob strained to listen some more. Something bad was going down in the kitchen. Arnie was the cause. Why he would go berserk over coffee, Jacob couldn’t say.
“Terri!” Guy Wickers’ voice vibrated through the door. “I’m coming!” His rapid footsteps could be heard racing down the hall.
“Jay, what do you think?” Domino asked.
“Better to wait a little longer.” Jacob’s hand reached down to the gun on his belt. He wouldn’t wait too long, though. There was a teenager among them, and if he had to, he would hurry to secure her safety if things got out of hand.
“Terri!” Wickers yelled, his hand on his gun, as he charged through the hall and into the dining room. “Terri, what’s happening?”
He looked around, trying to digest the scene as quickly as possible. Boss had been driven up against the wall. Courtney was close to the hall door, so close that Wickers almost hit her as he dashed into the room.
The source of Boss’s fear was Arnie Lerner. The man just had kicked over the wooden table. He seemed trapped in a frenzy.
For a moment, Wickers was ready to pull his gun and end the man right there. But Arnie wasn’t pursuing either of the two females in the room. He was moving toward them, but not directly. He seemed more occupied with whatever demons he saw in his head.
“Dad!” he screamed, “You…you…there?”
Dad? What’s going on? Is he talking to me? Wickers couldn’t figure out what Arnie was talking about.
“Guy, do something!” Boss screamed.
Wickers tried to keep calm. He couldn’t outright kill this man. Maybe he could talk him down. “Arnold! Arnie!” Wickers even reached out and grabbed Arnie by the arm. “Stop it! Stop it now!”
Arnie responded with a new roar and a violent thrust of his arm that flung Wickers onto the floor.
“Guy!” Boss cried out.
“Holy shit!” Courtney by now had reached the hall door and was ducking into the hall.
Wickers stumbled up while also retreating, fearing that Arnie would attack him. But the man just was standing in place, screaming and flailing his arms.
“His dad,” Courtney said softly. “His dad would throw coffee on him whenever he got mad at Arnie. Sykes and his men were talking about it. Arnie and his dad didn’t get along.”
“That must have been one hell of a bad relationship.” But it helped Wickers to understand what Arnie was feeling. Maybe now Wickers could talk Arnie out of his rage.
He approached Arnie again, but tried keeping out of the man’s immediate range. “Arnie, Arnie relax! Your dad’s not here!”
Arnie shouted again.
“We’re here!” Wickers emphasized the “we.” “This is your new home and you are safe and no one is going to hurt you. We’re friends.” Wickers repeated “we’re friends” several times. It seemed to help quiet Arnie. “There.” Wickers froze a smile on his face. “You see?”
Arnie, trembling, looked at Wickers as if he didn’t fully trust what the man just had said, but it was enough to finally stop his rampage.
Wickers kept smiling. He had to make Arnie feel as safe as possible. “You see? It’s just us. This is your new home, and we’re about to go outside and begin a busy day in the fields. Does that sound good?” Wickers widened his smile to show off his teeth.
Arnie relaxed even more. Now he seemed genuinely calm and responsive. “Yes,” he said, “sounds good.”
“Great.” Wickers looked over Arnie’s shoulder at the turned-over table. “Say, how’s about you do us a favor and pick that table back up?”
Arnie turned around. “Oh. Sure.” He shuffled toward the table, looking at it as if he had no idea how that piece of furniture had become overturned.
Suddenly, Wickers felt a woman’s hand grab his arm. “Terri?” he asked as he turned around, coming face to face with one angry woman.
“Guy!” Boss whispered harshly, “What in God’s name just happened? Did Courtney just say that cof—” She cast a glance at Arnie, who was occupied with pulling up the table, before continuing in a lower voice. “—that drink makes him fly off the handle?”
Wickers, backing up, nodded once. “Yeah.”
Boss next turned to Courtney, while maintaining her fury. “You think you could have said this earlier?”
“Should have listened to Sykes,” Courtney said, a little sing-songy. “He did mention there would be trouble.”
“Enough.” Wickers pointed to the hall. “Courtney, go to your room. Terri will be there in a few minutes and take you to start learning canning.”
“Fine by me.” Courtney rushed off.
With the teen gone, Boss took Wickers by the arm. “We have got to talk about this. Now!” She started pulling him toward the hallway.
Footsteps approached the den. Jacob and Domino kept silent as they increased in intensity. Jacob feared that whoever was coming would walk up to the closet and try opening it, but the footfalls stopped before they reached the door. The good news was the two pairs of feet halted so close that Jacob and Domino could hear the voices of Wickers and Boss very clearly now.
“Good God!” Boss said with almost a screech. She spat out a string of expletives before she continued with more cogent thoughts.
“I cannot believe the hell we’re in! Guy, this is too much! That…that nutcase is going to fly off the handle over a stupid cup of coffee! What else is wrong with him? Is he going to kill us in our sleep?”
“I don’t know,” Wickers said, but he barely had finished before Boss continued.
“Well, I’m sorry, but I’m not putting up with this. I am not sharing this house with him or that girl for one more night! We’re getting the hell out of here today! There’s enough supplies for us if we grab them. I know it.”
“I hear you. Just try lowering your voice,” Wickers said.
Boss did as she was asked, though her tone remained audible through the door. “Guy, we can’t stay here. You know it.”
“I do. I just don’t want us to be caught out there without enough supplies. We don’t know when we’re going to find a new haven. We might be walking in the woods for days or maybe a week or two. Sykes did clean out a lot of canned food.”
“Well, it’s not like we can take a hundred jars of food with us. There’s enough for the two of us to last a long time,” Boss said. “We don’t need to make Courtney can food for us for a few days.”
“But maybe one day would be enough,” Wickers said.
“Then we’ll have to spend one more night here. She can’t wrap it up in a day! Guy, what are we doing to do about Arnie?”
“We’ll lock him up for the night,” Wickers said. “He can stay in here.”
“Guy, I don’t like the idea of sharing the same roof with him. Maybe it’s time to, you know, put him down.”
“Kill him?”
“Guy, you think we have a choice? Look around us! The world’s gone to hell. You never know what’s going to happen, who will pop out from the shadows…” Boss sighed.
“And it’s not like he’s, you know, going to make it very long. He’s messed up in the head. He doesn’t know how to fend for himself. It’d be better if he went quickly and without pain, don’t you think?”
Wickers exhaled slowly. “How about we worry about what to do today first? You get Courtney started on the canning. I’ll have Arnie get to work outside. Maybe if he works up a sweat, he’ll get tired and won’t feel like going postal for a while.”
“Just think about it. If you feel like he should take his final journey in life out there…”
“Like I said, let’s just worry about getting started with the chores,” Wickers said quickly. “We’ll be gone soon enough. I promise.”
The conversation ceased. Boss and Wickers stepped away from the door and soon became inaudible. They must have left the den.
Domino let out a sigh as she propped her head against the door, then spoke in a harsh whisper. “Jay, you heard those two, right? I don’t like this. I d
on’t know what happened in the kitchen, but they’re talking about killing that man and leaving that girl all alone here.”
“I know.” Jacob ran a hand through his sweaty hair. “I don’t know exactly what’s going on with that Arnie Lerner man, but from what Sykes said, he’s like a child mentally. He probably doesn’t understand what he’s doing or what’s going on.”
“But you can’t just let him be killed for that!” Domino’s jaw tightened. “Jay, these people are horrible! They’re going to leave that girl all alone here once they’ve used her to can food for them. We have to move.”
“We will. But let’s wait a little longer. Guy is taking Arnie outside to the crops. If that woman is having Courtney can food, they’ll do it on the cast iron stove on the outside porch to vent the smoke. At least I hope that’s where they’re going. That puts them all outside. So, then we get out of here, go through the house and lock the doors. That’ll box them out.” He rubbed the side of his head, the skin warm from being pressed against the door for a while. “Then we try to deal with them one by one.”
“Courtney should want to join with us. They’re going to leave her behind. We have to tell her that,” Domino said.
“I’m sure she doesn’t want to be around those two, but that doesn’t mean she’ll join up with us. We’ll need time to talk to her. Can you do that?” Jacob looked down at his dirty clothes. He also ran a hand down the side of his unshaven face. “I don’t think I’m going to make the best impression.”
Domino laughed tiredly. “You poor thing. You haven’t had a bath in ages.”
“Neither have you,” Jacob added. “I think it’s an improvement, actually.”
With a laugh, Domino lightly punched Jacob in the arm.
Jacob turned his gaze to the door. He was eager to open it up and step into the den, to finally access his house for the first time in more than a week. “This is going to be over soon, Doms. I know it. We’re going to have our house back.”
I just hope no one has to die today to get it back, he thought.
Chapter Twelve
Courtney, still fuming over her ill-fitting overalls, stood on the porch before the wooden table in the shadow of the home’s awning near the kitchen door as Terri Boss explained the canning process to her. The woman still was rattled from Arnie’s freak-out and thus sounded more irritated and impatient than usual. It was a shame, because canning did not sound as complicated as Boss explained it. It even sounded, to Courtney’s surprise, easy.
Still, Courtney had to stop Boss and ask her to repeat certain steps. Boss would scowl and restate whatever Courtney had missed.
So, I just leave the jar on the stove for about ten minutes until the air inside is evacuated and the inside of the jar becomes a vacuum. That’s how the food is preserved. That’s pretty cool, she thought.
The stove before her was easy to light. Thankfully, it was not electric, or they would be screwed. It worked by the simple use of coals or wood underneath the metal grill that could be lit by a match or a lighter. Courtney just would have to be careful not to touch the grill while the stove was in use or immediately after the fire was lit.
Boss braced her knuckles against the end of the table, close to the stove. “You understand all of this now?”
Courtney glanced at the two small rows of jars on the other side of the stove near the right edge of the table. The food already was packed and sealed in the jars. Courtney would have to can more vegetables and meat herself once this first batch was completed. “Sure,” Courtney replied.
Boss let out a sigh as if she had been holding it in for a long time. “Good, good.” She straightened up. “Please tell me you can take care of this. I don’t want to come by every five minutes to babysit you.”
“Relax,” Courtney said, “I can do this.”
Boss stepped back, nearly bumping into the side of the house. “Okay.” She actually sounded a little pleased. She’s probably forcing it, Courtney thought.
“Well, if you can hold down the fort here for a while, I’m going to look in on Guy. If he managed to get Arnold started on some decent work in the fields, I’ll be shocked.” She chuckled.
Courtney might have chuckled along with her, but at the moment she found the sentiment a little too mean. She wasn’t exactly buddy buddy with Arnie Lerner, but she knew the man couldn’t help himself and was trying his best.
Boss walked off the porch, leaving Courtney to her work.
Jacob waited as long as he dared. There was no further noise from the den or the hallway, nor did Jacob detect any voices through the door. The day’s activities must have begun in earnest. The house likely would be silent until one of them had to come back inside for a rest or something to eat or drink.
“Okay.” Jacob sucked in a deep breath. “It’s time for action.”
Domino grasped the back of his shoulder. “I’m ready.”
Jacob smiled. “You’re always ready. Just watch yourself.”
“You too.” Domino quickly reached in and kissed Jacob’s cheek.
Jacob moved the obstructions from behind the door. He fastened his hand around the knob. His heart rate accelerated. He was about to commit himself. He either would die or be able to sleep in his own bed once again.
He slowly opened the door, unveiling the den. The den looked normal, so normal that Jacob was shocked. Rays of sunlight poured through nearby windows, shining across the walls, the bookshelves and the round of old chairs and their dingy green cushions.
The only thing out of sorts was the lack of illumination from the ceiling lights, plus the stagnant air that hung around the room. The loss of air conditioning had cut off the regular air flow, which meant they would have to keep windows open to circulate air throughout the house.
Jacob turned toward the open door leading to the hall. The house was eerily quiet. Of course, the air is off, Jacob thought. The hum of the house’s HVAC was no more.
Jacob slowed his pace. He worried about his footsteps squeaking too loudly. The den’s floor was solid concrete underneath the tiling, so Jacob’s feet made no noise. However, the hall floor was composed of wooden panels that produced a squeak or two. Jacob vowed to be careful.
Once at the door frame, Jacob stuck his head out, checking left and right. The left side went to his and Domino’s bedroom, the “junk room” where he and Domino stored a lot of things, and the laundry room where the back door to the house lay. Going right would take the Averys toward the bedrooms of Brandon and Jubilee, the kitchen, and the dining room on the far end, with the living room accessible by an adjoining hall on the right.
First thing’s first. Jacob would lock the back door. It was the most direct route to his crops, and he didn’t want Arnie or Guy Wickers taking them by surprise. Domino waited by the door, her hand on her gun.
As Jacob approached his laundry room, he marveled at how weird this was. He was back home and yet he was stealing through it like a spy or a secret agent. To his amusement, he figured Brandon would get a kick out of that thought. The seriousness of the situation, however, kept Jacob from feeling too merry about this.
He stopped at the threshold to the laundry room. The washer and dryer were still, as expected. They likely never would operate again. Jacob silently thanked himself and Domino for learning how to hand wash laundry and hang it out to dry, and that they had taught their kids how to do the same.
It’s my house, but everywhere I look, I find things that aren’t going to be the same, Jacob thought.
Jacob waited until he got a good look out of the back door. The door had a window frame that took up much of its top half. Jacob did not want to be visible to Wickers or Arnie if they were close by. But all Jacob could spot was the shadow of his house and a row of his crops beyond. No human beings were in the vicinity.
Satisfied, Jacob crept along the wall, still trying to keep his body out of view of the window as much as possible until he reached the door. Once there, it was simple to turn the deadbolt and secure the
chain latch above the knob.
His next destination would be the living room. Upon returning to the hall doorway, he pointed down the hallway. Domino nodded and rushed off. He would give her a head start to the porch leading off the kitchen, before he hurried to the living room. If Courtney spotted movement for any reason, Jacob wanted her to see Domino first.
Courtney almost smiled. Heating the jar lids was simple. In all, this was an easier task than whatever Arnie Lerner was stuck with. However, Guy Wickers had made it clear that some field work would be in her future sooner or later. No kidding. At least I got a brain, she thought. She would be amazed at what Arnie would produce from today’s labors.
She looked down at her ill-fitting clothes. She couldn’t believe she ended up on a farm. Of all the fates she had dreamed for herself, toiling on a homestead wasn’t even in her universe.
A soft breeze caressed her cheek. It is kind of nice, she thought. The quiet was also peaceful. She hadn’t realized how much noise had been present in her everyday world. Once the plug was pulled on everything, it took a lot of the noise with it.
Returning her attention to the heating jars, she asked, “Okay, how long do I wait again?”
“About ten minutes,” spoke a strange female voice.
Courtney spun around toward the doorway into the kitchen. That wasn’t Terri Boss at all. Instead, it was a thin woman dressed in sweaty brown clothing with what looked like a gun holster around her waist. Although the lady was covering her right side with her hand, blocking what might be the holster from view with the help of the shadow cast from the house.
“It doesn’t take long,” the woman said. “You’re doing pretty good for your first try. This is your first try, right?”
Courtney swallowed. “Who the hell are you? Where did you come from?”
“Easy. I’m a friend. Actually, you’ve been living in my house.” The woman smiled. “The bear said to Goldilocks. And you’ve been sleeping in my daughter’s bed.”
