by Ricky Sides
Jim walked over to the kneeling woman and said, “You need to get up.” He was about to say more, but he knew from the vacant expression on her face that she hadn’t even heard him.
He reached inside his medical kit and removed another ampule of smelling salts. Cracking the ampule, he placed his free hand behind the woman’s blond head and held the smelling salts beneath her nose. The woman tried to jerk her head away from the irritating smell, but Jim’s hand held her head in place and she had no choice but to breathe the mind clearing fumes. In seconds she said, “That’s enough already!” She pushed the smelling salts away from her face and said, “Lord, that stuff’s wicked.”
Jim saw that her eyes no longer had that vacant appearance, so he discarded the ampule and said, “Evan has invited me to stay for dinner with the two of you. I have my own food so if it’s all right with you, I’ll stay long enough to eat, and then I’ll go.”
Jim thought it possible that the man he’d just killed might have friends who would turn up and cause problems for the woman. He felt it best to stay near for at least an hour or two. However, the woman’s hesitancy made him think it might be best to just go his own way and hope for the best. He was turning to leave when the woman spoke up saying, “No, don’t go. Evan was right to offer to share a meal with you. It’s the least we can do for you, after what you’ve done for us.”
The woman stood up and dusted her hands on her jeans. She held her right hand out to Jim and said, “My name’s Lacy Carteen.”
Jim took the woman’s hand and gently shook hands with her. He said, “My name’s…”
The woman smiled as she said, “Jim Wilison.”
“Have we met before?” Jim asked in surprise.
The woman laughed at this and pointed behind Jim. Turning to follow the direction of her pointing finger, he saw the side of his trailer with the large red lettering that spelled out his name. Turning back to the woman, he grinned sheepishly and said, “I see.”
At that moment, Evan came up to them and said, “When’s dinner, Mom? I’m hungry.”
Lacey bent down and brushed some dirt off her son’s pants. She said, “As soon as you get yourself cleaned up. You’re a mess.”
Evan said, “Oh, Mom.”
The woman sternly looked at the boy and he ran off to the house to clean up for dinner. She turned to Jim and her face took on an embarrassed expression as she said, “I don’t like having to accept your food, Mr. Wilison, but food is hard to come by these days.”
Jim held the bag out to her and said, “Don’t worry about it, Mrs. Carteen. It will be a pleasure to eat food that someone else has prepared for a change.” Then he asked, “Is there a police station in town, with a working police force?”
Lacey shook her head and said, “The police department collapsed last month. Rumor had it they hadn’t been paid for a couple of months.”
“Well there is the matter of the dead man in the street,” Jim said. “Who is in charge around here?”
“Where it comes to matters such as this, there is no one in charge now. There have been a few murders and a few self-defense killings. The community buries the dead in a common grave outside town. They put the bodies in the big hole they dug and then cover them up with a thick layer of dirt.”
***
While Lacey was preparing the food, Jim took the dead man to the outskirts of town and buried him. He felt weird about this, but oddly, none of the people in the community questioned him about it, though several people did see him loading the body and later at the burial site a few men saw him throwing the body into the open pit.
The truth is bodies were being brought to that pit almost every week. Some were murder victims, some died in accidents, and some from natural causes. Jim shook his head as he realized that the unexplained death and burial of someone now seemed routine to the community. He quickly covered the body with several feet of dirt from a mound left beside the pit for that purpose. The community had even left several shovels beside the mound to expedite burials. Someone had placed a hand painted sign beside the mound that read, “Cover bodies with at least three feet of dirt.”
***
An hour later, Jim sat down to a delightful meal. He enjoyed the food and the company. He’d always liked kids and little Evan was a delight to him. He continuously shot question after question at Jim. Jim had patiently answered all of the boy’s questions until his mother had finally forbidden him to ask anymore.
After the dinner, Jim sat for a few minutes talking to the woman. By now, they were on a first name basis. He was curious about the fact that this town still had electricity, so he asked, “How is it that this is the first town I’ve been to in ages that has electricity?”
Lacey replied, “We were lucky. We had several engineers living here. They got the electricity going for us.”
“Yes I see that they did,” Jim replied, “But how did they do it?”
“I’m afraid I don’t really know much about that sort of thing,” Lacey said with a shrug. “All I can say for sure is that it had something to do with water. I’m sorry but such things never interested me very much.”
Frowning in consternation, Jim said, “Lacey, if you want to survive in the years ahead, you’d better learn to take an interest in many things that never interested you in the past.”
The woman looked at Jim uncomfortably. She started to say something but stopped. Lacey looked up at Jim and said, “My husband was killed last year in an auto accident. Since his death, I’ve had to take on many new interests. I understand what you mean and I’ll do the best I can.” She grew silent for a moment and Jim waited in silence for her to continue.
She seemed to gather up her courage and then she blurted out, “I know that I need to be learning about survival, but there isn’t anyone left here to teach me. The majority of the decent people have already left town. The few that are left don’t have the time to spare for us. Will you stay here long enough to show us what we need to know?”
Jim was so surprised that for the moment he said nothing. He just looked at the woman in silence. She looked down at her hands and said, “I’m twenty-eight years old. I know how things work. I realize that if you stay here and help us, you’ll expect certain privileges, and really that’s all that I have to offer you as payment.” She sighed and said, “That’s a price I made up my mind to pay before I asked you to stay.”
Jim had remained silent during the woman’s speech. At first, he was too shocked to say anything. Then the shock turned to anger. When Jim did reply to her proposal, his anger made his words sound harsher than he intended. He said, “Lady, if you need my help then, I’ll help you. Not for the payment, you offered. I’ve never taken an unwilling woman to bed, and I don’t intend to start with you. I’ll help you for Evan’s sake.”
Lacey’s expression was one of deep shame and hurt, causing Jim to regret that he had been so harsh with her. He leaned toward her and in softer tones he said, “I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings, Lacey. I really didn’t mean to.”
Lacey looked up at Jim. Tears streamed down her cheeks and she said, “If I offended you, I apologize. However, I won’t apologize for making the offer. I have Evan to think about you know. Every man that I asked to help us refused outright, or demanded the payment that I just offered you. I had no reason to believe that you’d be any different from them.”
“Didn’t you?” Jim asked as his anger rekindled.
Lacey paused for a moment and then she said, “I know you fought the man who was trying to take me away, but to be totally honest with you in my opinion that doesn’t prove a thing.”
Jim stared at her hard and responded, “I think it should have.”
Lacey stared right back at him defiantly. “You’re still here, aren’t you?” It was an accusation and not a question.
Jim stood up to leave, but as he did so he was asking himself if he’d really stayed because Evan had asked him to, or had he subconsciously hoped for the sexual favors of this
woman. He immediately concluded that if he’d had any ulterior motive, it had to be buried in his subconscious on a level that he couldn’t access.
He smiled at the woman stiffly and said, “I was lonely and you folks seemed nice. I’ve been alone for days and the thought of dinner with you two was appealing to me. I’m sorry you think otherwise. It was a wonderful meal, Ma’am. I enjoyed it.”
Jim stepped quickly to the door and opened it to leave. Evan came running into the kitchen at that precise moment. “Hey, Jim, wait a minute.” The boy ran up to him and handed him a picture that he’d drawn. “I drew this for you.”
Jim looked at the picture and was touched. The boy had drawn a picture of Jim standing beside his truck. He had even remembered to put Jim’s name on the side of the truck in big red letters. It wasn’t a very good picture, but Jim could tell the boy had gone to a lot of trouble.
“I think I’d like to hang this in the sleeper of my truck. That way I can see it every day.”
Evan’s eyes beamed with delight and he said, “If you like, I can draw a few more pictures for you.”
Jim ruffled the boy’s hair and said, “I think I’d like that.” Then he said, “Evan, I need to speak to your mother alone for a minute. Would you please excuse us?”
“Sure, I’ll just go ahead and start another picture for you.” The boy walked happily out of the room, leaving Jim alone with his mother.
Jim stood in the doorway and smiled at Lacey. He said, “That’s a great kid you’ve got there. I like him.”
Lacey returned Jim’s smile with one of her own and Jim noticed for the first time that she had green eyes. Her eyes reminded him of Lina and for an instant; he wondered where she was and what she was doing.
“Evan seems to have taken a liking to you too.” Then she frowned slightly and said, “I guess I owe you an apology. I’m sorry I hurt your feelings and insulted you earlier. It wasn’t till I saw the hurt look in your eyes that I understood that you really hadn’t expected anything in return.”
Jim shrugged his shoulders and said, “If you like, we can start over.” Then he frowned in puzzlement. “Why did you pick me?”
Lacey stared at him in confusion, so Jim explained, “You said earlier that several men have made that proposition to you. You turned them all down. So I want to know why you picked me.”
Lacey’s face turned red in embarrassment. Jim could see that for some reason the question embarrassed the woman. She finally looked him in the eyes and held her head up high. “Since you asked, I’ll tell you. Of all the men I’ve encountered since my husband died, you are the only man that I could picture myself with in my bed.”
As Jim’s face turned red, she laughed and said, “Well, you did ask me.”
Jim grinned sheepishly at the woman and said, “I’ll see you in the morning. We can start your lessons then. No strings attached.”
Lacey said, “At least let me cook for you. I feel like I should do something for you.”
“Your cooking beats mine any day so that will be fine. I’ll supply the food. I’ve got plenty in the truck.”
Lacey looked as if she might argue that point but then shrugged and said, “To be honest with you, I guess you’d have to. Our supplies are low. We only have enough food in the house to last a few more days.”
“I can do something about that right now. I’ll be right back,” Jim said, and he turned and walked out of the house. He returned a few minutes later carrying a box of food. Setting the box down on the floor said, “I’ll be right back with more.” He soon returned with another box of food, and sat that one on the floor as well.
“How long has it been since Evan had any candy or soft drinks?” he asked.
“A couple of months I guess,” Lacey replied as she industriously sorted the mixed canned goods and stored them in her food cabinets that had been almost bare.
Jim went out to his truck again and when he returned, he had a box of canned soft drinks and candy. He said, “If he runs out, let me know and I’ll give you some more.”
Lacey was staring at the box of cokes and candy in amazement. She asked, “Where do you get all this stuff?”
“Oh, here and there,” was Jim’s casual reply. This box came from three abandoned gas stations down in Louisiana.” He suggested that Lacey call Evan in to join them. “He might like something now,” Jim said with a grin.
“Oh I’m sure he would like some candy and coke. Evan’s just a little boy and when we couldn’t get such items anymore he really felt the loss,” his mother said, with a sad expression on her face.
Jim nodded his head soberly. “It always seems to be the little things we miss the most in times of turmoil. Me, well I miss ice.”
“Ice?” Lacey inquired.
“Yeah, ice. That’s sort of silly I guess, but when the power went out in my hometown, I couldn’t get a cold soft drink anymore.” Smiling at her, he said, “I have a confession to make. I’m rather addicted to cokes. I drink several every day. However, when the power went, they all got hot, so I needed ice, but with no power, I couldn’t make ice. Of course, if I had power to make ice, I’d just skip that step and refrigerate the darn cokes.”
Lacey laughed then, and Jim enjoyed the sound of her laughter. “I swear, Jim, you’re as bad as Evan. That sounds like something that he would complain about.”
“Maybe we’re kindred spirits then,” Jim said with a grin. “That would explain why we get along so well.”
Jim walked into the living room and yelled, “Evan, would you like some coke and candy?”
Seconds later, Evan came running into the living room. He stopped in front of Jim and frowned. “You’re not kidding me are you?” Hope filled the boy’s eyes as he waited for Jim’s reply.
Jim squatted down and looked Evan eye to eye. He said, “Now would I kid a guy about something as serious as coke and candy?”
Evan’s eyes lit up with anticipation and excitement. “Now let’s go get some of that coke and candy,” Jim said and followed Evan into the kitchen.
As Jim entered the kitchen, he could see that Lacey had already poured three large glasses of coke. Jim could see ice in the glasses. Beads of moisture were beginning to form on the outside of the glasses. Jim’s excitement at the sight of the ice pleased Lacey and she was glad she’d added the ice to the glasses.
Lacey smiled at Evan and said, “Come sit down at the table, Son.” The expression on her face mirrored the gratitude he’d seen on Evan’s face moments earlier. He understood that she was thanking him for making her son so happy and he nodded in acknowledgment.
Jim took his place at the table and sipped at his coke, grinning in sheer pleasure at the ice-cold liquid refreshment. He watched Evan trying to decide which of the candy bars he wanted to eat. Smiling at Evan’s predicament he said, “Go on, Evan. Pick one. You’ll eventually eat some of every kind anyway.”
“But you can’t eat it all in one night, Son. I don’t want you to eat so much candy that you get sick,” Lacey said.
Evan smiled and grabbed a Hershey’s bar. He tore off the wrapper and ate the candy. As he reached for another, he looked at his mother questioningly. She smiled and nodded her approval. “Just one more candy bar tonight though, Evan.” The boy quickly picked up a Snickers bar and tore open the wrapper. Jim noticed that Lacey’s eyes had misted over with tears of happiness, and why not? Every parent likes to see his or her child happy.
“Why not indeed?” Jim asked himself. Unbidden thoughts entered his mind then. Memories he thought he’d come to terms with long ago. Memories of a desperately sick wife in an emergency room. Of being told that she was pregnant by the staff, only to see her have a miscarriage on the examining room table ten minutes later. “If the child had lived, she would be about Evan’s age now,” Jim reflected. “What I wouldn’t give to feed that kid candy and watch as she enjoyed it.”
Jim sighed wistfully. The sigh was soft and neither of the other two occupants of the room was aware of it. Nor did t
hey notice his eyes take on a watery appearance as unshed tears threatened to overwhelm him, when the grief long passed assailed his emotions once more. However, the moment was fleeting. Jim reasserted control over his emotions almost immediately, and he smiled as the boy enjoyed the last of the candy bar.
Yes, Jim understood Lacey’s happiness. He knew how happy he would be if he were in her situation at this particular moment.
Chapter 31
Tim and Patricia traveled toward Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. They rode their motorcycles the first few days, until they found a pickup truck equipped with a camper shell, which suited their needs. They stowed their gear in the back of the truck and drove by day, but stopped to camp well before dark. It was simply too dangerous to attempt to travel at night. There were too many potholes, cracks, and other obstacles, which could cause a fatal accident.
One night, during their second week of traveling to Fort Leonard Wood, they stopped and camped beside a river. It was a moonless night with clear skies. They sat up late that night, just admiring the heavenly vistas. They shared their life stories with each other that night. Tim revealed that he was career military and had served thirteen years in the combat engineers, where he’d learned demolition work and a myriad of other engineering and construction skills. He was also a licensed pilot, certified in single engine propeller aircraft. He was a gifted sharpshooter and a student of historic battles. The strategies of those battles intrigued him. He’d almost been married a couple of times, but as he phrased it, “The girls wised up well before the actual weddings.” He also said that he was the only man in the army he knew of, who’d been drafted into service.
This statement caused Patricia to say, “It’s a volunteer army, Tim. They don’t draft people anymore.”
“Yeah that’s what I thought back when it happened as well,” Tim said, and then he laughed and added. “Boy was I wrong.”