by M. D. Massey
We watch as the new cousins race to see who will be the driver.
“At least they’re getting along with each other.” Jessica smiles as we pull away toward the house, going the long way so that I can see a few more things from the comfort of my seat.
With lunch over, I go to wake Cooper up so that he’ll have a few minutes to get ready before the meeting.
He’s lying on his stomach and lets out a loud snore as the door closes to keep the kids’ noise down.
The white of his skin is almost too much. He needs to get a little more sun and less desk time, but with four children it’s a hard task to stay in great shape or spend time outdoors. I can’t lay any blame on him because my body’s certainly not in shape any more either.
“Are you going to stand there and stare at me all day?” Cooper’s brown eyes sparkle with mischief. “I don’t see any children. Does that mean we can have some alone time?”
“Afraid not. We have a town meeting to go to in a few minutes.” I sigh in regret as I walk over to the edge of the bed. I’m not surprised when he moves over enough for me to lay down and snuggle up. Kid free moments are rare in our home.
“So Jessica explained to enough people that they’re ready to prepare?” Cooper asks as he props his head on his arm.
“They’re convinced enough to come. You get to do the rest, but they’re worried and hoping that you can explain what’s going out there.” I lean over to place a kiss on his lips, savoring the sensation.
The door bursts open and four little people are standing in the doorway.
“Yuck, they’re kissing again,” Joy groans and turns to leave, but with the two cousins right behind them, she can’t get away like she’d wanted to.
“It’s safe, kids. No more kissing,” Cooper says with a wink in my direction.
“Uh, is it okay with Jessica if I wear these clothes?” he asks, pulling on the white muscle shirt, unsure of the modesty level needed in front of his new niece and nephew.
“You can wear anything from this box. It’s the last of his stuff that he never came back for so feel free to rip it, or burn it. Just help yourself,” Jessica announces as she pushes through the crowd at the doorway and drops a box on the floor at Cooper’s feet.
“Won’t it make you feel uncomfortable?” Cooper obviously doesn’t want to be the cause of bad memories.
“Nope. Clothes should be worn and besides, they look so much better on you.” Jessica scans his slightly overweight frame.
“Thank you.” Cooper says gratefully. “I didn’t really have anything for farm living packed in my stuff.”
“Oh, that reminds me, babe. All the packed goods are out in the barn. We just left them there, except for our suitcases.” I haven’t moved from the bed yet because it’s so nice to just take a second to relax in the midst of our world’s potential collapse.
Jessica does a great job of removing the children out of the room as Cooper gets dressed in a checkered shirt. He continues to dig and finds a pair of boots at the bottom of the box.
“Will those fit?” I ask curiously.
“Only one way to find out.” He sits down to pull the boot on and wiggles his foot around.
“Hmm…it might be my style. Should I model it for you?” he asks cheekily.
“No, I’m good.” I laugh at the image he brings to mind.
“Good, because they’re a little big, but they’ll work until I can get mine out of the truck.” Cooper holds out a hand to lift me up from my very comfy position.
“I guess rest time is over. Darn it.” I sigh as I sit next to him on the edge of the bed.
“We can sneak out tonight and do it under the stars.” He tries to move his eyebrows in a seductive manner.
I just shake my head. “We don’t want to take advantage of Jessica, or make her feel uncomfortable.”
“Oh, she’ll never know we’re gone,” Cooper replies triumphantly.
“If you don’t hurry up, we’ll be late for this meeting and then she really will be pissed at us.” I walk to the door and know he’s following as I round the children up.
The meeting didn’t start off well because they didn’t trust anything that Cooper had to say.
“How do we know that you’re not just part of the conspiracy?” an older farmer accuses.
“They say they’ve got the military containing the problem and no one needs to be worried,” a younger man advises.
I stand off to the side with Jessica, not planning to speak up, but as the questions continue without really being answered, I can’t keep quiet any longer.
“Most of you know my sister, Jessica. I only found her a few months ago and our kids met for the first time yesterday. I know that they’re saying this isn’t a big deal, and this is the only city where this infectious disease has started spreading. I don’t know if it’s a conspiracy, but what I do know is that a normal woman turned dead came up to my van with my children in it and clawed at the windows.”
I sense I have their attention, so I continue. “My twelve-year-old son had to wash her blood off the side of my van. I don’t know why it’s not all over the countryside yet, but I do know that when the folks in the cities realize what is happening, they’ll try to make it to the rural areas just like when a hurricane is about to land on the coast.
“Would you rather sit here and do nothing if there really is an epidemic? Or do you want to be prepared and keep your families safe?”
Many heads nod in agreement, when Jessica steps up to emphasize the urgency.
“I wanted you to hear it from two people who escaped the city. We need to take precautions and make sure that we have everything we need to survive this. My family and their farm have been here since before the Civil War. That might be why my house needed so much remodeling.” This earns her a few smiles and acknowledgements of her right to be speaking.
“If we gather extra supplies and things we normally have to drive over an hour for, then if something happens we won’t be out of things like bandages and clean drinking water. Can we at least appoint a group of people to use the emergency action plan for the town?” Jessica implores the group seated in front of her.
“Well, it might be all right if we started a committee to look into the emergency plan and see if everything is in working order,” the Mayor suggests.
“Can’t hurt. Even if this isn’t the real thing, at least we’ll know the plan works,” a grandmother in the crowd acknowledges.
“All in favor of checking our town’s readiness for an emergency?” The Mayor asks as a motion for approval.
Many heads nod and call out in approval.
“Nays?” he asks, scanning the room.
A few look as if they might say something, but remain silent.
“Motion passed. We’ll meet in two days after church lets out to see where we stand on the action plan. Dismissed.”
Most of the people file out without stopping to talk to either one of us.
“Don’t worry, it’s normal for them to be suspicious of you. They have no history with you to know if you’re lying to them or not.” Jessica whispers to me.
“Nothing we can do now but get the farm ready and wait for them to figure it out.” Cooper hasn’t taken the distrust personally like I have.
The next two days are going to be torture as we wait for a phone call from Martin and the community.
Why do I have to have patience if the world is going to end?
Chapter 7
Emma
I didn’t want to leave baby Pierce, but things would go so much faster if I go with the family to gather my parents and bring them to Jackson Mountain.
My parents live on the outskirts of Memphis, and since Nana and Pop want all of our family on the mountain, we’re going to get them before things get worse.
Normally, I’d just call them, but cell service isn’t working for some reason, and while they’d met some of Brad’s family at the wedding, they don’t really know them well enough
to just leave everything because his family says the sky is falling.
The plan was to leave early in the morning and start along the main interstate to Memphis. Dawson, Haley, and Cole would be driving with me. I wasn’t sure where Cole fit into the family tree, but I wasn’t going to complain if they wanted to keep me company on the long eight plus hour drive.
We decided to take three trucks, and I’m going to ride with Haley. I don’t really know her very well, but Andi seems to have a real distaste for her.
“Hey, Emma, are you ready?” Haley yells from where she stands next to the big red double cab truck, dressed in booty shorts and a classic flannel shirt tied at her waist.
“Sure, just a sec,” I yell back. I need one last kiss from my baby.
“I’ll be back as quick as I can, baby. Don’t grow or do anything special while I’m gone.” I kiss his little head before handing him to Nana.
“Now, you run along. He’ll be fine. We protect our own on Jackson Mountain. You’ve got a long drive ahead of you and we don’t want you out on the road after dark, considering everything.” Nana rocks the bundle in her arms as she tries to console me. “It’ll only be two days and he won’t even have time to miss you, we’ll keep him so busy.”
With a sigh, I turn and head to the truck. I have to grab hold of the handles on the side to jump up into the seat.
Haley starts the truck with a loud bang as she shifts into gear, following the trucks in front of her.
My eyes don’t leave the bundle in Nana’s arms until the trees obstruct my view. I quickly wipe the tears away from my cheeks, glad that so far Haley is ignoring me to concentrate on keeping the tires in the ruts on the dirt road.
“I’ve never had a baby, but I imagine the first time you leave ’em, it’s the most difficult,” Haley says while keeping her eyes on the road.
“You’re right. If the world wasn’t falling apart, then I would have left him with Nana and only called a time or two.” I grin sheepishly. “Several times I’m sure, until Nana told me to stop, but this just feels more final.”
“If there’s anything I’ve learned trying to make my way into the Jackson clan is that they take care of their own.” Haley pulls out onto the main road, relaxing now that her tires are on the pavement.
“So, I’m curious. Your truck has lots of mud on it and I know that you and Dawson go mudding, so why are you driving so carefully?” I glance at Haley as she frowns.
“Nana doesn’t want my truck messing up the driveway. It was an issue for a while and I try to make sure that I don’t do anything to cause them to ban me.” Haley shrugs her thin shoulders.
I give her an appraising look. “So they don’t welcome everyone into their home?”
“Hell, no. Dawson and I have been together for almost ten years, and I still have to watch my Ps and Qs around the family homestead.”
“You don’t look old enough to have been with him for ten years. Were you, like, five?” I ask without thinking. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude.”
“Oh, honey.” Haley laughs. “If that’s the only rude thing I’d had said about me while in this family, I wouldn’t be watching how I was driving. They must not have told you about me. I normally come with a warning label.”
“Nope, nothing. I don’t know anything except that you’re married to Dawson and that Andi is your stepdaughter.” I leave any of the insinuations that have been whispered about off my list.
“Well, the condensed version is that Andi’s mom, Carole, was an angel. When she left in the middle of the night, the family assumed that Dawson had something to do with it.” Haley waits to see if I’m going to interject anything before continuing.
“Dawson’s a guy, so I’m sure there was something, but nothing like his family blamed him for at least. Anyway, I was the babysitter down the street. It was my senior year and I had watched Andi since she was little. So, when Carole disappeared on him, they were devastated. Dawson had a job that sometimes required him to stay gone overnight and I would come over to watch Andi.
“It had been about six months of this arrangement, when I forgot my English paper on the printer at their house. I ran back over to get it and would have been gone, except I heard a noise and went to check things out. He was sitting there crying over her goodbye letter.
“When he saw me standing in the doorway, he tried to be all macho, wiping his eyes, but in the process, he dropped the letter. I bent down to hand it to him and our hands touched.” Haley’s face brightens at the memory.
“It didn’t take much before I was on the floor next to him and we were kissing. I missed class that day, but my paper got an A so there’s that. I was eighteen, by the way. I’d always looked up to Dawson, but he’d been married so I thought it was just a school girl crush until that first kiss morphed into something more.
“Nobody’s told you any of this? Not even what a “ho” I am, that I stole him away from such a devoted wife?” Haley can’t contain her disbelief.
“I just knew that you were quite a bit younger, but that happens in relationships sometimes.” I’m hoping to stay in neutral territory with my answer.
“We’re just your classic story of how the babysitter stole the husband and made the ‘perfect’ wife run away.” She lets out a snort to downplay the hurt still hiding inside.
“What did the letter say?” I question, wanting to hear the rest of the story.
“You know what? You’re the first person to ask me that. It said, ‘I can’t do this anymore. I won’t pretend that I love you or men anymore. I’m leaving with my girlfriend and we’re going to California where we can be together and people won’t look at us funny. Take care of my little Andi, she’s going to be amazing.’”
“Wow! So Carole was gay? It doesn’t sound like it was your fault at all. I’m going to be really nosy here, but why would the Jackson’s think her leaving was because of you?” It doesn’t make sense to me. She didn’t love Dawson any more. I can see why the family might point fingers at them, but really, it was their decision.
“Dawson didn’t want to tell them because a lot of people in the mountains aren’t very tolerant of a gay lifestyle. He took all the blame, even though he defended me the whole time. Andi didn’t know until I finished college. He still needed someone to stay with her while he was gone, but Andi and I started to butt heads the older she got and realized that my relationship with her dad was more than just being the babysitter.
“I moved in after college because it was too weird to live at home still, but Andi started to resent me more the older she got. I never tried to take the place of her mom, but I guess because I’d always been around it was easier to make the accusations than deal with the truth.”
“Does Andi know why her mom left?” I look out the window at the passing hills, processing all that I’ve been told.
“Yeah, she found out when her mom called five years later on her fourteenth birthday. Her mom didn’t apologize or invite her to visit them, but from then on, it was a constant fight.”
“I’m so sorry. I had no idea that this is why Andi is so upset. When did she move out?”
“When she was a high school junior. It’s not like we were really strict parents, because Dawson was still gone several nights a week and I understood because I hadn’t been out of school that long. I miss her, but it’s been nice to not have the fighting all of the time over the smallest things.” Haley doesn’t try to gain my sympathy or vote with her story, but I can’t understand why the family still has it out for her after all these years.
“Did you ever want kids of your own?” My mouth is going to get me in a lot of trouble if I don’t stop asking prying questions.
“We didn’t really feel the need for them. I mean, I’d been around Andi since she was a baby, and my mom let me babysit her at our house so that she could make sure the baby was really safe. When she graduated and went to college, I was just as proud of her as if I’d given birth to her. Dawson already had one
kid, and with his schedule, it just didn’t seem fair to have another baby when he wouldn’t be around to raise it. So I get to travel with him now when I’m not working, and we make trips up to see Andi when we can or she’s talking to us that day.”
“I’m sorry. I truly didn’t know the situation. Once she gets a little older and falls in love herself, she may have a little more compassion toward you and her dad.” I shake my head at how dumb teenagers can be.
“It still hurts, but I’m used to it now and try not to take it personally. There’s not much point in trying to do anything because the family blames me. We just do holidays, but Jackson Mountain isn’t really a place either one of us feel comfortable most of the time.” Haley finishes her story and grows quiet for a few minutes.
Finally, I can’t take the silence any longer. “You should tell Kathryn. It’s not right to let the world end with this kind of secret between you and the family that could be welcoming you in with open arms.”
“What about your parents? What do they think of all this? If I’m prying, then just tell me to shut up.” I grin because my nosey ways have always gotten me into trouble many times before.
“Ha, that’s a laugh. Kathryn wouldn’t listen to anything I had to say, or Nana either. Andi is the child prodigy so they’ll protect her no matter what.” Haley slows as the outskirts of Nashville fill with commuter traffic.
“My parents live down the street from us and had already considered Andi an adopted daughter. Plus, they know the truth about why Andi’s mom left.” She concentrates on weaving the truck and trailer as things become congested as the freeways intersect.
“I hate driving in traffic. I love living in the city, but I try to avoid rush hour.”
“Another question. Why are we getting my parents and not yours?” I watch as we begin to go over the interchange and the freeway begins to thin back out again as we head away from the city.
“You know, the people who never leave when there’s a hurricane because they can just outlast it? Well, those are my parents. They would rather die than leave the home that they’ve lived in and worked to pay for. Ironically, they just made the last payment in January.”