A Small World

by R. S. Merritt

  “Hey Kyler. Looks like our rides a bit late this trip. Everyone’s flipping out not being able to get a signal. People can’t live without these little magical boxes. Do people even use them to talk on anymore? Did you toss Seth out or did he fall on his own?”

  Kyler smiled at the man who’d been his dads’ best friend for years. Mike had served with Kyler’s dad in the military overseas. He had plenty of stories to share and was free enough with most of them. Kyler had bothered him ceaselessly for the first years after his father’s death to hear the stories. He’d wanted to learn as much as he could. He’d been amazed to hear stories that made his dad look like a regular guy instead of the hero-soldier the son had worshipped.

  “Did you even bring a phone?” Kyler asked Mike with a smile.

  “Nope. If I did my job or my sister would’ve ruined this trip for me. That woman spends more time worrying about other people than she does breathing. Mines sitting in the center console of my truck if they ever bring our cars to us.”

  “You ever worry about emergencies or anything?”

  “I brought two of my best friends along to help out with any emergencies. Smith and Wesson both wanted to come with me on this little trip. Don’t tell anybody though. It’s a kinder and gentler troop now a days. Not like when your dad ran it.”

  It was true. They used to all carry rifles and pistols when they went camping. They’d canoe through swamps shooting water moccasins out of the branches above them when the snakes got too close. They were all trained to be safe with the weapons but not to fear them. A gun was a tool. The same as an iPhone or a hammer or a truck. You could do bad things with any of them.

  Kyler nodded at Mike to acknowledge that. They’d discussed numerous times how the troop had been going downhill since the ‘civilians’ had taken over. It was still fun, it was still a great experience, but the heart seemed to have gone out of it. There’d been a pride associated with being in a troop that did things the extreme way. All good things must come to an end though. Kyler was the Senior Patrol Leader and had completed his eagle project almost a year earlier. He felt like when him and Mike left the legacy his dad had left behind with the troop would disappear pretty quickly. That was another one of the reasons he hadn’t quit yet.

  Kyler and everyone got to work on moving all the canoes and equipment up the ramp and into the field beside the access road the launch was on. Once they had everything moved up, they went ahead and pulled out a camp stove and started working on cooking everything they had left to eat.

  “Yum. Scrambled eggs and ten gallons of baked beans.” Mike commented when he walked over and saw the food Kyler was helping put together.

  Kyler smiled and kept on flipping the eggs around in the skillet to cook them. The large pot of beans sitting next to the skillet was beginning to bubble. Giving it a quick stir with his knife and scraping the bottom to keep the beans from sticking Kyler took another look down the access road. There was still no sign of the people who were supposed to come meet them. It was starting to get pretty late in the day at this point.

  “You think they’re coming?” Kyler asked the scoutmaster. The scoutmaster was a skinny man who needed a haircut. Kyler figured the guy kept it long to try and cover up the balding spot he was getting in the back. He was one of the few in the troop who’d never been in the military. Kyler felt like he’d gotten the job because none of the other guys had wanted to step into his dad’s role. There was some resentment there. Kyler knew it wasn’t fair, but he couldn’t figure out how to stop himself from feeling that way.

  “They should’ve been here by now. I’m thinking about hiking up towards the road until I get a signal, so I can make a call and try to get them here. Maybe they got confused on days or they have a flat tire or whatever, but they really should’ve been here by now. Why don’t you go ahead and get the camp set up? I’ll start walking.”

  “Sounds like a plan sir.” Kyler moved over to start telling everyone to gather the camping supplies since it looked like they may be spending the night. Looking at the sky he didn’t see any clouds so decided they’d probably be ok risking a night sleeping under the stars. Plus, that way if their ride did show up a little bit later on, they wouldn’t have to tear down a bunch of tents before they could leave.

  Everyone started getting their gear together for the night after a huge meal of beans, diced onions and scrambled eggs. Plenty of jokes flying around about why it was a good thing they weren’t sleeping in tents together after that kind of a meal. The scoutmaster left with one of the other adults to hike up to the highway. The highway was probably a good eight or nine miles from where they were at right now. Worse case, they’d have to walk all the way to the highway before getting a signal. Once they’d been able to get in touch with someone, they’d still be able to walk back and go to sleep with everyone else by midnight. That was assuming the dates had just gotten mixed up and their rides were planning on showing up tomorrow.

  As the sun went down, they all sat around the bright red coals of the fire they’d built up and talked about the things boys and men talk about on trips like this. Mike told them all old war stories and reminisced about some of the other trips the troop had been on. Kyler helped everyone come up with a song about how Seth had fallen out of the canoe. Everyone seemed to find that one particularly amusing except for Seth. Once the hilarity around each person trying to act out his wind milling arms had died down Seth brought up something that’d been on his mind.

  “Anyone else think it’s weird that no one showed up to get us and we can’t get cell phone reception? I’m almost positive last year when we did this trip, I was able to text my mom before we even got all the way here.” Seth looked around and saw that a few of the other kids were nodding. A few shrugged to indicate that technology was flaky, and they’d just have to deal with it like the inconvenience it was. “What if the two are related?”

  “What do you mean?” Kyler asked even though he had a pretty good idea where Seth was headed with all of this. He read a lot of fiction and this scenario was pretty common in the sci fi books around alien invasions. He thought this may be a good way to kill some time. More entertaining than making up more verses to the ‘Seth Falls Out of the Canoe’ song anyway. Not a ton of stuff really rhymed with the word canoe.

  “My mom, Kyler’s mom and Tim’s mom were in charge of making sure they met up with us here. I’m pretty sure we talked about them meeting us here on Sunday. Remember how they were going to pick up the trucks on Saturday and stay at the Bed and Breakfast they love so much and all that? I could maybe believe they just messed up the day and all three of them somehow think today it’s Friday instead of Saturday but then there’s the lack of a cell phone signal.” Seth let his thoughts trail off as the people around the fire considered what he’d said.

  “Obviously a Zombie apocalypse.” The kid named Tim said. His mom was one of the ones who was supposed to pick them up. Tim said it as a joke, but he absolutely knew that there was no way his mom had the days mixed up. The woman balanced a crazy work schedule with her four kids’ school and after school schedules without even breaking a sweat. She wasn’t the type to mix up something like this.

  “Nuclear war?” A different scout volunteered.

  “Maybe it’s a Red Dawn scenario out there.” Mike said with a smile. He was laid back against the side of one of the canoes taking sips out of his canteen. Most of the adults and Kyler all knew that Mike’s canteen water hovered around eighty proof. He was a highly functional alcoholic who never tried to drive after drinking so everyone left him alone about it.

  “EMP I’m thinking.” Kyler said. A couple of the older kids and Mike nodded along with him. The younger kids just looked at him blank faced. “An EMP is an electromagnetic pulse. It’s this destructive wave of energy created when a nuke explodes. It kills all the electronics in a certain radius. An enemy sets off a bunch of those and kills our electronic systems and we’d be open to invasion. They take out our computers an
d all of a sudden all of our fancy weapons don’t work and we’re going toe to toe with the soldiers who do have working advanced weaponry.”

  “It works great in Call of Duty.” Seth said to everyone’s groans and a couple of renewed choruses of the ‘Seth Falls out of the Canoe’ song.

  As time drug on with no word everyone continued to get more concerned. They’d really expected for the scoutmaster to have come back by now or the moms to have arrived to pick them up. Mike passed out against the side of the canoe with his sleeping bag wrapped around himself. Kyler called for lights out and they all settled in for the night. There was the one thing no one had brought up as a possibility. The three mothers had been driving together so the most likely reason for them not being here was they’d gotten into a wreck. A wreck that was bad enough they weren’t able to come get their kids or tell someone else to go do it for them. Kyler could barely keep himself in his sleeping bag since that was the only scenario that made any kind of sense to him.

  He forced himself to try and sleep, so he could wake up at first light and hike out to the road to see what was going on. He checked his phone for the hundredth time and then lay there staring up at the stars until he finally drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter 2: The Island

  Randy and Kelly walked out of the plane in Providence, RI. Randy was rolling a small carry-on and carrying a computer bag. Kelly had a larger carry-on and a giant blue and pink purse bag thing. Both were tired and a little grumpy after the long flight. They were both nursing minor hangovers from trying to drink early in the morning to make sure they could nap on the flight up from Florida. They continued stomping their way to the baggage claim area after a pit stop at the first Dunkin Donuts they saw for a couple of coffees.

  Randy felt that moment of relief when they spotted their final bag coming around on the turnstile. He traveled enough for work that he’d had bags get lost before. It was a bad experience when it was his bag and he had to deal with trying to find clothes to wear for meetings and that sort of thing. They’d gone on a cruise the year before and the cruise line had lost one of Kelly’s bags. It had been like the world came to an end. His sweet, beautiful wife had turned into a howling wildebeest demanding someone find her bag. After the wildebeest rant failed to cause her bag to materialize, she’d collapsed into a puddle of tears and started naming all the different items of irreplaceable clothing and makeup she’d had in the bag. It was horribly uncomfortable and possibly the worse eight hours of their marriage until a random family driving back home to Minnesota had stopped for a rest break and noticed one of their bags looked funny.

  Kelly had gotten her bag back two days later and been ecstatic. Randy had gained multiple new patches of grey hair along his temples and a deep appreciation for customizing their luggage and only booking direct flights. Once they had their luggage in their possession the hangovers and anxiety seemed to melt away. They laughed and joked about the trip and how Kelly’s mom must be doing with the kids back home. They followed the signs to the rental car counters and got the car they were going to be driving around for the next week on vacation.

  They tried to do a vacation every year with just the two of them. Between kids and work and all the other responsibilities that came along with being a productive member of society they both recognized they didn’t spend nearly enough time together. Just to pile the stress on a little bit higher Kelly had also recently started home schooling their four children. It was something she’d always wanted to do, and they’d finally gotten to a spot financially where she was able to do it. It was rewarding, and she loved it but sometimes she really did daydream about flinging her lovely children off the top of the closest cliff.

  Once in the car they used their phones to map out the route to the ferry to Block Island. They were headed out to the island for the first couple of days of their vacation. Randy had lived on the island when he was a boy and wanted to share some of those memories with Kelly. He knew she was going to love the island.

  Block Island is a small island about thirteen miles off the coast of Rhode Island. It’s the easternmost point of the United States. With a population of around a thousand permanent residents it’s got plenty of room for romantic walks and places to go where you don’t feel crowded. In the winter it can be downright desolate. In the summer there are the busy spots where the tourists flock to hit the beaches and stay in the pricey bed and breakfast style retreats that dot the roadside. One of them even has a complete petting zoo filled with exotic animals. It’s a surreal mix of New England charm and old world rich coming together to serve up a family friendly Jersey Shore style boardwalk.

  At the ferry in Point Judith they were warned that it was going to be a rough trip over to the island. A series of storms were coming in that were forecast to be bad enough to possibly shut the island down for a couple of days. Randy hadn’t planned on showing Kelly the island when you could barely leave your room, but they’d already made the flight arrangements and taken the vacation days, so they’d gone through with it despite the forecasts they’d looked at the day before. The ride over to the island was rocky. There was a heavy swell but nothing too crazy. Once they got closer to the dock they got in their rental car and waited for the ramp to be lowered so they could drive onto the island.

  They were able to drive off pretty quickly since the ferry had been almost empty. The threat of the coming storm had caused most of the tourists to change their plans. The day trippers had an easy decision and they’d heard hotels were offering people vouchers for future stays if they didn’t want to risk coming over with the storms approaching. They drove past a long line of cars and people looking to get off the island. This would probably be the last ferry for a few days so if you didn’t make this one you weren’t leaving until the weather cleared up. The only other way off the island was by air and that would be shut down by the next morning as well with the winds building up.

  They checked in at the hotel that had the exotic petting zoo associated with it. They watched while one of the employees tried to shoo an Ostrich and some sort of tiny camel looking animal into the large barn behind the hotel. The animals must’ve sensed the storm coming as they were starting to freak out.

  “What’s that camel looking thing?” Randy asked the front desk receptionist as she worked on processing his credit card.

  “You mean the one that looks like a cross between a camel and a kangaroo? It’s called a Guanaco. I have no idea why we couldn’t just get camels for the zoo and call it a day. Anyway, breakfast is in the morning and there’s a cocktail hour tonight with happy hour pricing if you’d like to join us. With the storm coming in we’re supposed to tell you to avoid driving at night and to stay away from the bluffs as long as the storm warning flags are up. People have been blown off. Otherwise, if you don’t have any questions have yourselves an excellent evening. Your luggage should already be up in your suite.”

  Randy took the key and the brochures the receptionist had placed on the counter for them and they started up the stairs towards their suite. He’d booked them the same suite that rock stars, supermodels and billionaires spent their honey moons in. He was aiming to impress on this trip and had put his credit card where his mouth was. They’d be paying this one off for a few pay day cycles, but he felt like he needed to go all out since they probably wouldn’t get another chance to spend this much time together for another year.

  When they got up to the room the bellboy who’d taken their luggage was waiting for them with the door to the room already open. Their luggage had been placed neatly on top of wooden stands designed for that purpose. The room reeked of wealth and privilege. The large king bed in the center of the room looked like you’d need a ladder to climb into it. Everywhere in the room was old school luxury from the deep rich padded carpet flooring to the crystal chandelier dangling from the ceiling. The bell boy gave them a quick tour of the room including the oversized balcony they’d be able to watch the storm roll in from. Once he’d showed them e
verything and answered their questions Randy slipped him a ten and he left.

  “He looked a little hurt at the ten.” Kelly said with a smile.

  “A ten’s pretty good money for carrying some bags up the stairs and showing me where the extra toilet paper is.”

  “If this were the Holiday Inn, I’d totally agree with you honey. You may have to beat down your cheapskate urges a little bit on this trip if you’re going to book us rooms like this one.”

  “Just trying to save money for you to spend shopping when we walk the strip here.”

  “In that case maybe a ten was a little much.” Kelly laughed, and they kissed before she broke away and started working on trying to turn on the TV. “Can you text my mom and let her know we got here ok and that we’ll call to talk to the kids after dinner?”

  She got the TV turned on and tuned into the news while Randy started texting her mom for her. Kelly took his phone from him and started holding a conversation with her mom before he’d even had the chance to send the first text. The plan had been for her to get in the shower and get ready for dinner once they got in the room. She typically took her time getting ready and Randy was worried the restaurants on the island were going to close early because of the storm. All he needed to do to get ready was throw on the sports coat he’d brought. He believed putting a sports coat on over pretty much anything qualified as dressing up.