Beneath the Ashen Veil of Darkness

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Beneath the Ashen Veil of Darkness Page 13

by Robert Bartlett


  ”If you love someone, put their name in a circle; because hearts can be broken, but circles never end.”

  – Jackie Taylor-Thomas

  Chapter Thirty One

  “Ally! Thank god you’re ok! You had us worried sick girl!” Broderick exclaims as he opens the door to allow Ally inside the fortified old farm house they called home. Using his long arms which are still muscular despite the overall lack of food, he gently sweeps Ally behind him into the doorway while his eyes never leave the masked and armed band of strangers that stand behind her.

  “It’s ok Brick, everyone just stay calm” Ally says. “The only reason I am here and safe is because of them. They gave me a safe place to hide and protection while the gashers were out roaming last night.” Xander hobbles up behind Broderick who is still blocking the door “Stand aside Brick, if that’s true I owe this group of strangers a showing of sincere gratitude. Thank you all for helping my Ally” Xander says as he is finally able to struggle through the door. “Dad!” Ally exclaims throwing her arms around Xanders’ neck almost taking them both to the ground as she does. “Ok, if Ally girl here says you guys helped her and you’re ok, then I guess you’re ok” Broderick finally says seeming to relax just a little. “Yes, please everyone let’s go inside and get out of this ash and cold” Xander offers as Broderick slowly turns and walks back inside the house leaving his housemates to temporarily deal with the newcomers on their own while he goes to get his sons from where they were still waiting for him by their mother’s side. Xander steps to the side half leaning on the door for stability and half holding it open motioning with his other arm for the strangers to come inside. “Dad your leg seems to be worse, have you been keeping it clean?” Ally asks her father inspecting his leg as she does. The story Ray and Jim had told about Clay’s wound becoming toxic weighing heavy on her mind as she thinks about the compound fracture that had caused the bone in her dads’ leg to puncture the skin and the possibility of it becoming infected as she asks him the question. “My leg is fine Ally girl” Xander answers finally looking down into his daughters face for the first time since her arrival. Ally instantly recognizes the pain her father held their and the redness of his eyes, “Dad why have you been crying?” Ally asks him as she scans the room. “Dad, where is Mrs. Jackie?” Ally whispers as her eyes begin to fill with tears. Xander says nothing as he looks at her and softly shakes his head from side to side. Knowing his daughter would be almost as devastated as Broderick at the loss of Jackie he wraps Ally in the loving embrace of sympathy that he has for his daughter who had now had to endure the loss of two mothers in her lifetime. As the group cautiously begins to climb the steps leading to the front door of the house Grant turns to Ray and whispers “Well now we know why they call him Brick” and gives a short nervous laugh. “Be quiet Grant” Laura whispers through clenched teeth directly behind Grant’s ear, “something’s happened here. They’re all upset about something.” “Or someone” Levi adds his voice heavy with gloominess over his worry for his father. The final steps are taken in respectful silence at whatever this little band of survivors has just had to endure. As they reach the summit of the steps Ray turns to Levi and Paige as Jim and the others enter the doorway of the house, “You two stay out here on the porch, keep an eye on the vehicles and Clay until we can figure out exactly what’s going on here and if we can trust these people.” “Yes sir” Paige and Levi answer in unison sharing sideways glances at each other. Ray knows that under their masks they are smiling at spending some peaceful time together, their blossoming romance becoming obvious to everyone around them. As Ray enters the house and shakes the offered extended hand of Xander, under his mask he too is smiling. Even if only slightly in spite of his apprehension over of their current situation.

  “We are very sorry for your loss Mr. Thomas” Laura says to Broderick and his sons as they come into the sitting area just off to the left of the doorway, “Mr. Richland just filled us in on your wife’s battle with pneumonia.” Ally walks into the room somberly behind Broderick and the boys from paying her last respects to the woman she had come to respect and love most in all of the world. “Don’t call her that please. She didn’t like being called Mrs. Thomas. She thought that it sounded to formal and that it made her sound old” Ally says to the room addressing no one in particular, never picking her head up as she does. Xander can’t help but smile at the reflection of how Jackie hadn’t liked formalities. She used to say it caused people to be withdrawn and not to be who they really were. “And while we’re on the subject” Broderick interjects,”Please everybody just call me Brick, not Mr. Thomas. Everyone always has.” Brick walks over to where Ray has seated himself in the chair closest to the door and extends his hand out in his direction as Ray stands up to meet him more formally. “I’m sorry about the episode on the porch. One can’t be to careful in these dark days” Brick says as he and Ray shake hands. “No apology necessary. I would have reacted the same way if a bunch of armed strangers showed up on the doorstep of the compound with one of our own” Ray says to Brick who is still visibly shaken from the loss of his wife. The men nod appreciatively at one another both thankful at the fact that whatever possibility there had been for there to be a hatchet, it had just been buried deep in the Arkansas mud and fallen ashes. As formalities commence and conclude inside the house Ray and Brick walk outside onto the porch for the introduction of Levi and Paige, then they all walk down to the vehicles together to check on the condition of Clay.

  Brick whistles as he places his enormous hand across Clay’s forehead and cheeks. “Boy you weren’t kidding. He feels like he is on fire. Let’s get him up to the house and in a bed. If leaning against the door of this car all hunched over like that is as uncomfortable as it looks he’ll appreciate it even if he doesn’t know it” Brick says as begins to walk around to the other side of the vehicle to extract Clay from the truck. Levi grabs him by the arm as he walks by “My dad might not know it, but I do and I appreciate it sir. Thank you for allowing us to give my dad a nice place to rest before we get started back to the compound.” As Levi finishes he extends his hand out to Brick who accepts it heartedly. “You’re very welcome son. I’d hope someone would do the same for me if I were in the same situation. Plus we’ve got some aspirin up in the medicine cabinet. If we can get some in him it might take that fever down a touch” Brick answers. He pats Levi on the shoulder as he turns back toward the direction of the truck Clay was seated in to continue the job at hand. “At the compound every one of us would do all we could for you and yours any time you needed us too. All you’d have to do is ask” Paige says to Brick as he gets his huge arms under Clay’s upper body so that they could begin to carry him inside the house and out of the cold. “Thank you” is all Brick says in response as he pulls Clay from the backseat of the Toyota Tacoma. As Broderick and Levi carry Clay inside to lay him on the bed in one of the spare rooms of the house, everyone else gathers in the den to sit in front of the fire.

  “My dad asked me to give these to you” Larry says to Paige as he holds out a bottle of aspirin in her direction, never crossing into the room as he does. “He did? Thank you” Paige says walking over to him and taking the offered bottle Larry held out to her she asks him “How are your dad and Benny doing? Do they need any help?” “No ma’am” Larry answers, “Ally is there. She knows what mom liked to wear the best. Dad said you should give Mr. Clay two of those every four hours to try to get his fever down.” Paige watches with growing sympathy as she watches the distraught little boy walking back down the hallway towards his parents’ room, doing everything he could to try to hold himself together. “Ok I will. I’ll be right here if you guys need anything, alright?” Paige calls out to the young boys back. A short pause with a slight turning of his head back in her direction and a raise of his hand in a silent wave is all he could manage as a response.

  Chapter Thirty Two

  Year One, Day Three Hundred and Twenty Seven

  The group stands in a circl
e, hand in hand around the freshly covered gravesite of the recently departed Mrs. Jackie Taylor-Thomas. Their heads are bowed in the universal symbol of respect for a woman that some of them never even knew. The stories last night had been evidence enough of the type of woman she had been and the way she had inspired others during her life. It was all that was needed for them all too simultaneously feel both a connection to Jackie and to suffer the pain of her loss. Lightening dances through the clouds above their heads covering the hillside in brief moments of the light as Broderick finally is able to gather the strength to begin his eulogy. “Today we not only bury my wife, but we also bury a mother, a teacher, a mentor, and I bury the piece of me that I promised her on our wedding day that only she would ever have. The world lost someone very special yesterday. The lives of those who knew her will forever be missing a bright light that stood out in stark contrast to the darkness of the world that surrounds us.” The lightening flashing behind Broderick adds a fitting theatrical feel to his words as he finishes. It was as if God himself was watching and bestowing some type of hope and light down onto the circle.

  “We can’t thank you enough for the hospitality Brick. Especially at such a difficult time” Ray says as the group begins to descend down from the hilltop. “It was our pleasure. Thank you for sharing some of your supplies with us. We were starting to get dangerously low” Brick answers offering his own gratitude to Ray and at the rest of the groups’ willingness to help him and his family. “It’s the least we can do.” Ray reaches out and clasps the big hand being offered to him from an even bigger man. A man that has shown them that he is as big in heart and spirit as he is in stature. “Are you sure you won’t come with us back to the compound?” Ray suddenly asks Broderick, “We could really use you and your family there. And we have the room to accommodate what would be a tremendous addition to our community.” “We appreciate that Ray, we really do. But the way I see it we already are an addition to each others’ community. In my opinion us being here and you guys being there makes us a better community. Little pieces of heaven stuck in the middle of hell.” Broderick stops and look back up the hill towards the far corner of the designated family graveyard causing Ray to do the same. “Do you see that grave marker over there underneath that old willow tree?” Ray could just make out the stone Brick was pointing out to him in the flashes of lightening that still streaked overhead. “Yes, I see it” Ray says noticing that even from a distance you could tell that it was old and faded from both time and weather. “That is the resting place of my grandfathers’ grandfather. He was a slave, sold to Spanish traders by his own people for tobacco and whiskey.” Broderick slowly begins to walk over to the gravesite of his great, great grandfather. “They brought him into the new world and sold him to white European settlers in the port of Norfolk, Virginia in 1773. But aside from being a slave of course, he was actually treated rather well. So when the war for American Independence broke out in 1776 he fought alongside his plantation owner and won his freedom, literally by the blood on his hands. The westward expansion was taking place at the time so that’s what he did, he packed up his family and headed west. He knew it would be a lot more difficult for a freed black man to make an honest living if he stayed on the already white established east coast.” “It sounds like he was a tough, smart, man with the gift of foresight” Ray offers as Brick pauses to take a breath. Brick nods in response to Ray’s comment as he continues the story of his family. “Anyway he settled here with his wife that had been freed as well after the war for his extraordinary contributions to the war effort. Through the westward expansion and through all the Indian skirmishes throughout the 1800’s. Through the War Between the States, through the civil rights marches of the 1960’s and through segregation my family has never left this land.” Broderick turns to look at his new friend, “The point I’m trying to make with all of this is that my family fought for this land, worked this land, lived and died on this land. My family and I won’t be the ones to leave it now. My grandfather’s nickname was ‘firefly’. That’s how the farm came to be called ‘Firefly Hills’. The townspeople back then always said that no matter what was going on in the world my grandfather was always smiling and happy. Shining his light on everyone around him from the inside like a firefly despite whatever darkness was going on in the world on the outside.” “Sounds like we could use a place like that in the darkness of this world” Ray says. “I agree. So my new friend, my family and I will stay here to be the light in the darkness as we all fight to survive. We’ll serve as an outpost and safe haven of sorts for whenever anyone from the compound needs to come into the city to search for supplies.” Broderick finishes his statement looking at Ray and as he places his hand on his shoulder and adds, “We will be a place of security and stability as we all search the city for what we need to survive, together working as a team so that what happened to Clay and Colt will never happen to anyone else in OUR group ever again.” Ray recognizes the emphasis on the word ‘our’ that Brick used and instantly appreciates the words of the groups new found allies as well as recognizing the good fortune bestowed down on them when Ally meet up with the search party in town and brought the two groups together. “Our beacon of light in a dark cruel world” Ray says. Then Ray adds, “Well as much as I’d like to keep trying to talk you into it, I can’t argue with the logic and sentiment behind your decision. And I have to admit, it will bring me a huge sigh of relief knowing we always have a safe place to go to whenever we need to come into the city” Ray says, knowing that Broderick was right. He and his family did serve a much greater purpose staying out here in this Ashland border town than they would if they came back to live with everyone at the compound.

  “Clay is resting as comfortable as possible in the truck and the supplies that we needed to leave here have been unloaded” Jim says as he walks up to the duo. Speaking more to Ray he states, “There should be enough food and water to last a good while as long as it’s rationed properly,” before turning to Brick and adding, “I really appreciate the soft bed and a safe room so I could in get a good night’s sleep before we head back to the compound.” “It was our pleasure we want you guys to know that you are welcome here at any time” Brick answers. “I think this is a partnership that is going to benefit everyone and we are all blessed that it has been formed” Ray adds. “Mr. Brick, we put enough gas in your truck to get you at least to safety and maybe even as far as half way to the compound if you should ever run into trouble and need to get away in a hurry” Levi says walking up the hill to the group from the driveway. “Also I’d like to give you this for a little more protection and well, you know, for trying to help my dad and everything. I think if he were able to he’d give it to you himself.” Levi holds out the Ruger .357 his dad had found in the chiropractor’s office the day that the team had first arrived in town along with the half full box of bullets that went with it. “Thank you son, having a little more firepower lying around never hurt anyone” Brick says as he takes the offered sign of gratitude from Levi. Levi quickly turns his attention to Ray and Jim in an unsuccessful effort of hiding his emotions from the trio of gathered and respected men. “The trucks are fueled, loaded, and we’re ready to get going as soon as you guys are finished here” Levi says as he turns around and quickly begins to make his way back down the hill to where the rest of the group waited by the vehicles. Leaving Brick, Ray, and Jim to finish their conversation, all three men sharing an extraordinary amount empathy and pride for the young man that has had to grow up all too quickly in an unforgiving cruel world that seemingly always took but never gave. “Take care of yourself friend. We’ll be back out this way in about three months to check in on you and for another excursion” Ray says to Brick as he and Jim finish gearing up and walking to the vehicles. “We’ll be lookin’ forward to it. Now you drive slow and safe so you make it back to your families in one piece Ray and we’ll all see each other again soon” Brick responds. Ray turns the Tacoma around in the yard with Laura following clos
e behind in the Cherokee and waves as they make their way down the driveway. At the main road they turn right as they begin to head back towards the highway and home.

 

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