by A. American
We all stood there for a minute thinking about the problem, trying to come up with ideas, after a minute Jeff spoke up. “I got nuthin’. I don’t know shit about ’bout pigs ’cept I like bacon.” This brought another round of chuckles.
Thad said, “Hell, you can turn ’em out to feed. They’ll keep comin’ back so long as they know you got feed for ’em. I done it myself.”
“Think they’d eat swamp cabbage?” Danny asked him.
“’Course. Damn things are like goats.”
It would take some work, but there was plenty of it around—swamp cabbage. Danny and Reggie immediately agreed to head off and see what they could do, how much work it would take to get to a whole heart of one of those palm trees. Danny grabbed an axe and a machete and headed for the gate with Reggie.
Reggie stopped and turned back to the three of us still standing in front of the shop. “How much gas did we get?”
“Filled nine cans. If you need some, it’s in here,” I replied, pointing to the shop.
Reggie nodded, gave a wave and turned to catch up to Danny. Thad and I talked for a minute about what we needed to get done. We needed to bury the old lady, but we agreed to wait for Reggie to get back and use his tractor. In the meantime we decided to go up to the barricade and see how the foot traffic on the road looked. Just as we were pulling out, Jeff showed up.
“How’d it go?” I asked him.
“Took him on the scenic tour, like I said. Eventually he gave up. He must have known I could have outrun him, and I’m guessing he put that together with the fact that you guys were gone and figured I was just screwing him around.”
Thad said, “You did good, but I’m warning you guys: don’t think this is over. That guy’s gonna have a pretty good idea of where he lost us, and people already been over those trails out back of Miss Janice’s house. I’ll tell you another thing: you remember the way that guy was looking at you at the market? The guy you said Haywood Jablowme to?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“It didn’t piss him off none, you notice that?”
“Yeah, he was a pretty cool customer.”
“What’s that tell you? It means he’s probably got bigger fish to fry. But when he gets around to it, I bet you he’s got the time and the manpower to find where we’re at. And he ain’t gonna forget you pissed on his boots.”
I hadn’t liked the look the guy gave me, but I hadn’t taken it as far as Thad had either. I knew he’d been through some bad shit, and I knew this was something I should listen to him on. “I hear you,” I said. “I don’t know what we can do about it right now, though.”
“We can get ready, that’s what. I thought I was ready, but I wasn’t. I ain’t gonna make that mistake again. I mean, shit, you thought you were takin’ care of Miss Janice, right?”
That made me kind of mad. “You saying I wasn’t?”
“Don’t get all pissed, Morg. I’m sayin’ you were doin’ what you thought you should be doin’: takin’ her food, checking up on her. But I’m also sayin’ that that ain’t gonna be enough anymore. We gotta get ready for some bad shit, because it’s out there.”
That calmed me down some, and he was right. Jeff wanted to know about Miss Janice, and we told him. That left all three of us in a down mood.
The three of us rode down to the roadblock and were pissed to find it unmanned. The gabions we had constructed were still waiting to be filled with dirt, but it wouldn’t really matter if they were filled or not if no one was around to keep an eye on the area.
We didn’t say anything. Each of us, I’m sure, were running the possibilities through our minds. There had been steady stream of people walking north on Highway 19. It wasn’t a mob, but it was growing. We had seen some of them on the way over, and a few were passing as we sat on our machines. The people walking along the road were carrying backpacks and bags of all sorts. I saw more than one grown man wearing a pack for a child, and it reminded me of the shows about the border where the immigrants would be trying to walk from Mexico to the US with a Hello Kitty backpack. A few of them were dragging rolling-style luggage, or maybe a wagon with bundles in it and a child or two.
Our presence didn’t go unnoticed. We drew a few looks from some of the passersby. The gaunt faces showed little emotion; they simply shuffled along. Despair, hopelessness and desperation, that’s what came to mind looking at them—blank windows into abandoned building. We sat for a while watching the march of the hopeless and helpless. Thad spoke up and said he would stay on the barricade tonight, and Jeff immediately agreed he would stay too.
“This is what I was talking about; we gotta be prepared, gotta get organized. We can’t leave this open, not with all these people walking right by the front door,” Thad said shaking his head.
“I’ll bring dinner up to you guys in a bit. Anything else y’all need?” I asked.
“Coffee,” Thad said flatly.
“Lots of it,” Jeff added.
“All right, guys, I’ll bring it down in a bit. You guys have a flashlight?”
“Naw, I don’t,” Thad replied, looking at Jeff, who just shook his head.
“I’ll bring one down as well. I’ll even bring the NVGs. Shit, we shoulda done that earlier. If Lance and them had had NVGs, well, you know what I mean. I don’t want to lose you guys too.”
• • •
Reggie and Danny went back to Reggie’s place. There were plenty of cabbage palms on his place and they would check on the smoker. Reggie pulled the ATV to a stop beside the old propane tank he had converted into a smoker. Lifting the top exposed the whole hog lying on the expanded metal cooking surface. Reggie had skinned the pig, cut its head off and cracked its shoulders and pelvis to lay it out flat. In the firebox on the side of the smoker, a pile of cured oak smoldered, and a pan of water sat on the grate beside the pig. Not seeing anything that needed addressed at the moment, he dropped the lid.
Together, the two of them walked out across the pasture toward the rear of Reggie’s property. Danny was carrying the axe and machete, his AR slung across his back. Reggie had his head down, looking at the ground as he walked. Without looking up, he said, “Wonder how much we’ll get out of one of these.”
“Don’t know. I’ve never cut out a whole one before. I like ’em, though,” Danny replied.
“Never had it.”
Danny looked over. “It’s good. Morgan’s little one loves the stuff. Every time we go in the woods she keeps us busy pulling up palmetto hearts.” A smile spread over his face and over Reggie’s too. Danny was one of those good-natured, perpetually upbeat people, and his attitude was infectious.
As they approached the chosen tree, Reggie asked what the plan was. Danny said they had to cut all the fronds off and start cutting the tree open. Reggie stuck his hand out and Danny handed him the machete. Hefting the big blade in his right hand, he lopped the first of the fronds, working his way toward the trunk of the tree. Danny was standing behind him holding the axe as Reggie hacked at the tree.
Reggie grabbed a particularly long frond and chopped it from the base of the tree. “Sumbitch!” he shouted as turned to run from the tree, swinging the big blade in the air around him. “Shit!” Reggie ran from a horde of mahogany wasps that were tearing his ass up. The bad part was he was still holding the frond their nest was attached to.
“Drop it, drop the palm!” Danny was backpedaling, trying to keep some distance between himself and the hoard. Reggie finally dropped the frond and ran toward the barn, where Danny caught up with him.
“Goddamn, they hurt!” Reggie bellowed, rubbing various parts of his head, neck and arms.
Danny was laughing. He was trying not to, but he couldn’t help himself. Reggie looked up at him and said, “That shit ain’t funny!”
Danny finally broke out into uncontrollable laughter. “You were running from ’em, but draggin’ ’em be
hind you the whole time.”
Reggie was pissed and rubbing a particularly painful sting on his cheek under his right eye. “Hey, how’s ’is look?”
Danny walked up and looked seriously at Reggie for a second. “Hard to tell.”
“What’da mean hard to tell?”
“Hard to tell with all the ugly around it.” Danny broke out into laughter again.
“Asshole!” Reggie shouted and reached out to grab Danny, who easily dodged.
“Come on, biggun, let’s go get some cabbage for them pigs.”
They were far more careful on the subsequent attempts and managed to get the hearts of a couple palms. Reggie wasn’t sure if the pigs would eat it. Danny cut a piece off and handed it to him. “Try it.”
Reggie sniffed the white succulent flesh, then hesitantly put it to his lips, taking a small bite. After he chewed it for a moment, his eyebrows went up, “Hell, that ain’t bad.” The pigs did indeed like it, not that they were very particular. As Thad had demonstrated, they’d eat about anything.
• • •
Back at the house, Mel packed up a nice supper for the guys. She had made a big pot of spaghetti using venison and some jarred sauce from the pantry. There wasn’t much else, but there was a big bowl for each of them. She made a fresh pot of coffee and poured it into two stainless thermoses. While she was pouring the coffee, I filled a half-gallon Igloo jug with tea to add to it. That much caffeine should keep them up all damn night. And that made me think that two guys weren’t enough for a real watch. I trusted Thad and Jeff to stay awake, but what about the others who pulled the duty? There was too much to think about, and what Thad had said started to get to me: maybe things were unraveling at the edges but I was too busy putting out fires to see it.
Their dinner was packed into a cooler that I strapped on the back of the Polaris. Little Bit came running out as I tightened the last strap and asked if she could come with me. Since all I was doing was taking them dinner, I said she could.
“I wanna drive, Daddy, I know how!” she cried.
“Okay, you sit in front and drive.”
“But you gotta get me through the gate. I can’t do that yet, but then I get to drive.”
“Go tell your momma you’re going with me.”
She turned and ran back into the house. I made sure the cooler was secure and climbed onto the ATV. Since she was coming, I slung the AR on my back so it didn’t bang against her. I hit the starter as she came back out the door. With the ease only a child possesses, she was up and on the machine in the blink of an eye. She reached out and grabbed the handlebars. “Let’s go!”
I maneuvered us through the gate and she took over, steering us down the road. I had to remind her to take it easy on the gas, but she did a good job. Thad and Jeff were leaned over one of the barricades, casually watching the slow but steady procession of people heading north into the forest. Jeff looked back over his shoulder as we approached. Little Bit let off the gas and braked us to a stop. Jeff smiled and looked at her and said, “You let him drive?”
She smiled. “He has to get me through the gate, but I can do it after that.”
Thad asked, “What’s for dinner?”
“Skapetti!” Little Bit shouted back.
“Sounds good to me,” Jeff said, rubbing his hands.
“Well, come on over and get something to eat,” I said.
I opened the cooler and handed each of them a bowl. While they ate, Little Bit and I hung out. She stepped up onto one of the logs so she could watch the people go by. Between bites of pasta and swigs of either coffee or tea, we talked about the traffic going by. They said no one had come and stopped to talk to them.
Jeff had sauce all over his face. “Where’s the napkins?”
I looked at him like he was stupid. “Use your sleeve.”
“I ain’t gonna use my sleeve,” he said. “You know how hard it is to wash clothes these days? Damn, Morgan.”
Thad smiled, his head over the bowl and noodles hanging from his mouth.
“Use his sleeve,” I said to Jeff, nodding my head at Thad.
Thad slurped the noodles up with a smack. “Ain’t using my sleeve either,” he said with a smile.
Little Bit brought our attention back to what was going on out on the road. There was a little girl approaching the barricade. The two were smiling and waving at one another. In and of itself, this wouldn’t be a concern, but it caused her mother and father to move our direction as well. The dad was pulling a wagon with a younger child sitting in it wrapped in blanket. Even though it was bundled like the kid from A Christmas Story, it was obvious the child was gaunt and malnourished.
I looked at the little girl, who was now just on the other side of the logs from Little Bit. The little girl had long blonde hair, and she too looked too thin. It was kind of hard to see it as she was wearing a coat that was too big for her, but the little leggings that hung from her shouted the fact.
“Amy, come back over here,” her mother called.
“Dad, can we give her some skapetti?” Little Bit asked.
The face of the little girl lit up. “I like sketti!”
The woman looked up at me, then back to Thad and Jeff and their dinner sitting on the cooler. She crossed her arms and looked at us, and her husband soon joined her. We should have known this would happen. They weren’t eating on the side of the road, but they were close. The man looked at his wife, then at Jeff and Thad, who by now were standing in front of the ATV. He couldn’t see the cooler with the bowls on it.
“What’s going on?” the man asked.
“They got sketti, Daddy,” the little girl replied.
I reached out and grabbed Little Bit by the shoulder and pulled her back, trying to maneuver her behind me. Being a child, she didn’t catch on to what was happening and stopped at my side.
“I’m sorry, we don’t have any extra food,” I said.
The man looked at me, then at Little Bit, then at Jeff and Thad. “Y’all don’t look like you been missin’ many meals.” He paused for a moment and looked at Little Bit, then added, “Neither does she.”
This scared her and she moved behind me, holding on to my waist. I reached back and patted her shoulder. Thad and Jeff stepped up behind me, one on either side. The man looked at us with contempt on his face.
“Look at you assholes. You don’t look too damn miserable.” He pointed at me and said, “Got all them guns, what are you doin’, goin’ ’round robbin’ yer neighbors?”
“No, actually we’ve been burying them lately,” I said. I started to add something about raiders and the need to be armed, but decided at the last moment against it. I made a decision and leaned toward the man. He stepped back in fright. I said, “Look, here’s how we’re gonna do this. I can’t have everyone walking down the road asking for food. We don’t have enough; we just don’t. You wait till there’s no one who can see and then bring your family over here. You stand on this side of the barricade while you eat so no one else comes asking. When you’re done, you go. I’m sorry, mister, but that’s the way it has to be.”
His bitter face fell and suddenly he was crying. “You serious?”
“As a heart attack. You think you can do what I said?”
“Sure, mister.”
“And when dinner’s done, you got to move on. I wish we had a place for you here, but we don’t, okay?”
The man nodded through his tears and went to tell his wife.
“Are we gonna help them, Daddy?” Little Bit asked quietly.
“Yeah, baby. But you understand we can’t help everybody, right? We want to, but we can’t.”
“I understand,” she said, but I doubted she really did.
“Take her home, Morg. They can have the rest of our dinner,” Thad said.
“No, I’ll go get some more. Just make sure no one
sees, okay? It has to look like they’re with us. I don’t want to come back here and find a fucking bread line.”
“Yeah, man, we got it,” Jeff said.
“All right, come on, baby girl.” I reached down and put a hand on her back.
I climbed up on the Polaris and pulled her up, planting her on the seat in front of me. “You gonna drive?” I asked.
She sat there with her hands in her lap and said, “No, you do it.”
“Hey, did you bring the goggles?” Thad asked.
“Oh yeah.” I took a case off the front of the ATV and handed it to Thad. “Just in case.”
Thad smiled at me, that big smile, and took them. “Just in case.”
We rode back in silence. I tried to make her laugh, goosing the throttle and rocking the ATV, swerving, just playing, but she sat stoic, not reacting. When we got to the house I set her off and she headed for the house. I followed her in and she went to my room and climbed into the bed, pulling the down comforter up over her head.
Mel asked what was wrong with her. I told her about the little girl, that she was probably sad. Another little girl, just like her, and she knew even though we gave them dinner, they probably wouldn’t have breakfast the next day, or lunch, or dinner.
Mel went into our room. I felt bad but I didn’t really know what to do. I put together some more food and ran it out to the barricade. The family was there tucking into the spaghetti. They were grateful and shook my hand, but I was glad I wasn’t going to be there when Thad and Jeff had to move them along.
I drove back home and went to the shop. The laptop that Jeff had rigged to my radio was sitting on the bench. Flipping open the screen, I hit the POWER button and watched as the Windows logo appeared. It felt kind of good to see, like it wasn’t all gone, like it wasn’t all over.
When it booted up and was ready, I opened the program and typed Where are you, old man? We could use some help. After turning on the radio and verifying the frequency, I tapped the ENTER key and watched as the little LEDs started to blink. The little box squawked like a fax machine.