“Tell that to your insurance agent,” said Doc.
“Enough,” said Julie. “Burt’s right, we have to let it go. We’re here now, that’s all that matters.”
“That’s what I’m talkin’ about,” said Burt. He then slung the rifle over his shoulder and started walking. Jimmy thought it was because he wanted to get away from the scene of the crime.
There was a pause, and then everyone joined him. Burt allowed them to catch up and then began talking about the soldiers that had gotten the drop on them. He then followed it up with their subsequent rescue by a pack of wolves. Julie and Doc began to talk about how things were at Bailey’s and how they had renamed it Utopia.
Ken shut them down. “I don’t care what they do over there,” he said, flatly. “That has nothing to do with me, and I’m not going to give my thoughts to anyone on how they conduct their business. Do you understand that? I don’t want to hear about those people.”
The only sounds for a long while were made by the songbirds, the squirrels, and the sound of their own feet on the gravel. With the morning sun over their shoulders, they walked into their mimicking shadows. Jimmy thought about Ken’s strange request. He wondered why Ken wasn’t curious about the people at Bailey’s. Jimmy knew that he would have a thousand questions if he were Ken. Still, he thought that it said something about the man’s character. He had already made up his mind that he didn’t like the place, and that was enough for him.
“So,” asked Julie, “how is Rita?”
“Well, I suppose she’s just fine,” said Ken. “You’ve only been gone for two days.”
“A lot can happen in two days,” Julie replied, a hint of challenge in her voice.
There was another moment of silence before Ken replied. “Sorry,” he said. “You got me there.”
Ken had left the gate unlocked, and they entered the sleepy compound. Jimmy had so many memories of this place, but very few of them were as quiet as it was right now. He looked up at the house and waited for Patty to come bursting out the front door, across the porch, and down the stone steps to greet them. That was her trademark. Jimmy caught Ken’s eye; he shook his head, barely a fraction of an inch, but it was enough to let Jimmy know that Ken missed it, too.
Ken and Doc walked up the stairs, and when Jimmy went to follow, Julie grabbed his arm. “Let’s give them a few minutes alone, okay?” she whispered. “This is awkward.”
Burt had already taken a seat on the stone steps and cupped his chin in both hands with his elbows resting on his knees. “Forty years of driving,” he mumbled to himself.
Ken and Doc disappeared inside the house, and a short time later Rita walked down to join them. She was wearing pajama bottoms and one of Patty’s old bathrobes. Her thick hair seemed to be growing grayer by the hour, and Jimmy could see the circles under her eyes. Rita and Patty had been like sisters since arriving here, and Rita wore her worry like a mask.
“Hi Rita,” said Julie. “How is she?”
Rita shook her head and quickly looked up to the sky. “I don’t know. According to Ken there’s nothing wrong with her.” A tear rolled down her cheek, and she swiped it angrily away with her hand. “I know better. She’s losing her mind.”
Jimmy grimaced and Burt sighed.
“Tell me what she’s been doing,” whispered Julie, looking up at the house.
Rita gave her head a little shake and held her trembling hands over her face. “She forgot who I was,” she said, and then she started to weep softly.
Julie took Rita into her arms. “Doc is here now,” she said. “He’ll get it figured out, and Patty will be better in no time. You’ll see.”
“I don’t know, Julie,” Rita sobbed. “You haven’t seen her. I don’t know what anyone can do for her. She needs a real hospital and a lot of doctors. I just feel so bad.”
Julie held her tight for a long moment, and Jimmy could see that she was fighting to stay strong. “Have you put on any coffee yet?” she asked.
Rita shook her head and forced a smile on her face. “I’m sorry,” she said. “You three must be starved. Let’s us girls go up and get something cooking.”
“We’ll stay out here,” said Burt. “Just give us a call when you’re ready.”
Julie looked to Jimmy for approval, and he nodded his head. He could eat, and he had heard enough of Rita. Doc could help her; Jimmy was sure of it. For some reason Rita’s grim diagnosis had seemed like an insult directed at both Doc and Patty. She needed some faith, thought Jimmy, and to keep her opinions to herself. He watched them as they walked up the winding concrete steps to the three wooden steps that led to the bright red porch. Julie opened the door, and they disappeared inside.
“Got a smoke?” asked Burt.
“Yeah,” Jimmy said, digging out his crumpled pack. “Two left. You’re in luck.”
“Well then,” said Burt. “I must be on a roll. This has been a really shitty day.”
“And we haven’t even had breakfast,” Jimmy said, lighting his Camel and passing the pack and lighter down to Burt.
Burt lit his cigarette and handed Jimmy back the lighter. The empty pack he crushed with frustration as he smoked. “I think we should talk about what happens if something happened to Ken and Patty,” he said, turning his head to face Jimmy.
Jimmy sat on the step above Burt and took a deep draw on his cigarette and exhaled slowly. “There’s nothing wrong with Ken,” he said. “And Patty is going to be fine.”
Burt gave Jimmy a knowing nod and turned away. “Right,” he said. “And this is all going to be over tomorrow, and we can all go home as if it never happened.”
“That’s not fair.”
“I’m not going to let you bury your head up your ass. There damn well is something wrong with Ken and you know it. If we lose Patty, we’ll lose him. Those two are a matched set. Don’t you see that?”
Tears streamed down Jimmy’s cheeks as he realized that Burt was right. Jimmy let them fall, and he smoked like a condemned man. “What are we going to do?” Jimmy finally managed to ask.
“We’re going to have to get out of here. I suppose we’ll have to go live with the hippies. We won’t be safe here, not without Ken. I don’t think either of us has what it takes to step in and fill those shoes. Bill certainly doesn’t. No, we’ll have to hit the road and hope that they’ll take us all in.”
“You don’t think Patty is going to die, do you?”
Burt shrugged his beefy shoulders. “I hate to say this, but if she gets worse it would be a blessing if she did.”
“You ever say that again and I’ll break your nose,” spat Jimmy. “Do you understand me? Never talk like that again.”
Burt smiled sadly and continued. “Have you ever known someone with Alzheimer’s?”
Jimmy shook his head. He didn’t want to hear this, but he felt powerless to stop it.
“My mom had it. They called it ‘sudden onset.’ It didn’t come on this quickly, but it came on pretty damn fast. Seemed like one week she knew me. and the next week I was a complete stranger. Rita is right. Patty needs a team of doctors.”
“But Patty doesn’t have Alzheimer’s,” Jimmy said, trying to fight his emotions.
“Doesn’t she?”
Jimmy shook his head, as if that would change things.
“Things got really bad before she passed on. My old man—you would have loved him—he stayed by her side right up until the end. He died in his sleep a month later. Doctors told me what I already knew. He died of a broken heart.”
Jimmy saw the big man’s shoulders heave with half-buried emotions. Burt flipped his cigarette onto the green lawn and buried his face in his hands. He sat there like a lost child, sobbing quietly. Jimmy forced himself to think about what Burt had said. Deep down, he knew that Burt was right. Ken couldn’t survive the day without Patty. There was no denying it; they would have to leave here if anything happened to her. This place would hold too many memories.
A loon called from across t
he lake, and the lonely sound it made went unanswered by nature. The loon’s call was like a knife to Jimmy’s heart.
Chapter 10
Julie eventually called them to the kitchen. They ate their breakfast of canned meat and powdered eggs at the kitchen table. Sunbeams reflected brilliantly off the lake and shimmered on the kitchen walls. Hot coffee was sipped, and the conversation once again turned to the weather. Ken and Doc were still with Patty in the master bedroom. Jimmy could hear bits and pieces of their conversation but nothing he cared to listen to.
After breakfast the men were politely ushered outside. Jimmy could see that Rita was still having a lot of trouble keeping it together, and he had no desire to sit and listen to Julie tell her how everything was going to be fine. Jimmy crept down into the basement and fetched a fresh pack of cigarettes. He joined Burt in the backyard at the picnic table. He offered Burt a cigarette, and they smoked silently, each lost in their own thoughts.
“Winter’s coming,” Burt finally said. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to cut and split some wood.”
Jimmy nodded. Winter would be there before they knew it, and he was secretly dreading it. Winters were bad enough in Crown two hundred miles to the south. Up here winters were long brutal seasons where temperatures regularly flirted with forty below zero. Surviving the winter wasn’t going to be easy. Ken had a decent supply of wood, but Jimmy doubted if it was enough to last until spring. He followed Burt down into the basement and into the garage. The saws were there and so was the gas can; they sat bundled together under a thin veil of cobwebs.
“He’s probably not going to like us firing these things up,” Burt said, hefting one of the chainsaws. “We’re going to have to risk it sooner or later.”
Jimmy nodded. “I just need to do something. What could be taking Doc so long?”
“I’ve got no idea, but I’m not a doctor.”
Jimmy told Burt of a fallen elm tree over at the abandoned lodge. The two men were soon attacking it, shirtless, in the bright morning sunshine. Jimmy didn’t know when Ken had shown up, but Ken seemed to be there right away with a full plastic jug of water he wordlessly helped haul the brush into a pile. They worked that way for over an hour.
Doc arrived and he sat down on a fat chunk of elm. The saws were silenced, and the men gathered around him. Jimmy was sweating. and his mouth felt dry. He lit up a cigarette and found himself handing out three more.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with her,” Doc said, scratching his Paul Bunyan beard with long fingers. “I can’t be sure, but it doesn’t seem like Alzheimer’s. I think it might be some type of post-traumatic stress disorder.”
“Well,” said Ken. “That’s good news, isn’t it?”
“Sure,” said Doc, not sounding so sure himself. “These things come and go, and no one is really quite sure why. I haven’t seen much of it up here, but I have done some reading on the subject. Again, I could be wrong. Without my books or the internet, I’m pretty much flying by the seat of my pants. All we can do is keep an eye on her and pray for her to recover.”
“Can’t you give her something?” asked Burt.
“No way,” said Ken.
“I wouldn’t know what to prescribe her,” said Doc apologetically, still scratching his salt and pepper beard. “What she needs is rest, and she absolutely refuses to take anything.”
They talked some more, and soon the four men were working furiously on the huge old elm. The chainsaws screamed under the hot sun and seemed to be speaking for all of them. Jimmy couldn’t remember feeling so helpless. Julie joined them, dressed in blue jeans and one of Ken’s flannel shirts, and she hauled brush and held limbs to be cut. Jimmy was glad to see her and at one point he kissed her. “I love you,” he said, holding her chin in his hand.
“I love you, too,” she said, smiling sadly.
The splitting was difficult as the stubborn elm fought against the sharp bit of Ken’s splitting maul. The sun continued to rise in the sky, and the bottle of water slowly drained with each parched sip. Julie and Doc found a pair of rakes, and they cleaned up the broken branches from the sun burnt grass.
How long Rita stood there screaming at them was uncertain. Jimmy killed his saw just in time to hear her say that Patty had disappeared. “I was so tired, and it seemed like I was only sleeping for a few minutes,” moaned Rita. “She’s not in the house!”
“Okay,” Julie said. “She couldn’t have gotten too far. Let’s split up and find her.”
Jimmy waited for Ken to scream at Rita, but he simply set down the maul and gave her a hug. “Julie’s right,” he said. “We’ll find her.”
“I think I already have,” said Doc, holding one hand up above his eyes like a visor and pointing out onto the lake with the other. “Look, out there on the lake. I think that’s her.”
There was a moment of silence as everyone concentrated on the area that Doc was referring to. Between the pines on the far side of the wide bay was obviously a canoe paddled by a single person. Jimmy strained his eyes, but the paddler was much too far away to distinguish.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” grunted Ken.
“Oh my God,” exclaimed Rita. “What is she doing out there, and where the hell is she going?”
“Rita,” Doc said calmly. “You’re acting hysterical, and that isn’t helping matters. Pull yourself together, woman.” He then turned to Ken. “Take me with you. It’s going to take the both of us to haul her into your boat.”
“Sounds good,” said Ken. “Let’s go.”
“I’m sorry,” whispered Rita.
The two men began to jog in the direction of Ken’s dock and hadn’t covered twenty feet when Julie shouted a question at Ken. “What about the key to your boat?”
Ken, who had been leading, held his arms out like wings and stopped dead. He then turned to face Julie. “They’re hanging on the board in the kitchen.”
Julie turned to face Jimmy and he smiled at her. “Good thinking,” he said. “They wouldn’t have gotten too far without the keys.”
Julie gave him a confused look.
Burt finally intervened. “I think she’d like you to run up to the house and get the keys.”
Jimmy nodded. “Oh yeah,” he said. “I’m on it.”
“Run!” shrieked Rita.
“Rita,” warned Doc.
Jimmy set off at top speed and covered the quarter mile as fast as he could. He liked being the fastest guy in camp. There was a transferrable skill, he thought. He then wondered if working in the kitchen hadn’t damaged his ego. He ran through the open mouth of the gate and up the hill to the backyard. He threw open the screen-door and charged up the three wooden steps into the kitchen.
And there stood Patty Dahlgren. She was dressed in a fuzzy white robe and matching slippers.
“Patty,” exclaimed Jimmy. “We thought you were out on the lake.”
Patty smiled and sipped from a bottle of water. “My,” she said. “Look what the cat drug in.”
“How do you feel, Patty?” Jimmy asked, feeling relief rush through his body.
Patty gave him an odd, almost sly look that confused him. “I feel great now that you’re here,” she said. “I’ve missed you.”
Jimmy backed away as Patty removed her glasses and shook out her hair. “I’m really happy to hear that,” he stammered. “I have to tell the others that you’re here.”
“Oh, Ken,” Patty whispered. “You don’t have to tell anyone right away, do you?”
Jimmy could only nod as his feet propelled him out of the kitchen and down the steps in a single bound. He was around the corner of the house before the spring slapped the door closed. Holy crap, thought Jimmy. He nearly tripped going downhill and pinwheeled his arms to keep from tumbling forward. He knew that he was trying to outrun a memory that would probably haunt him for the rest of his days. He wondered to himself, who was that out on the lake? Old cigarette smoke began to stir in his lungs before he was halfway back to Ken. Jimmy began to wheez
e and cough as he fought for air. Still, he pushed himself. He was the fastest man in camp, and he was determined to prove it.
Everyone was standing down at the lake when he arrived, huffing and wheezing. “That’s not… Patty,” he said, between two breaths. “She’s up in the kitchen!”
Ken twisted and gave him a look as if he had lost his mind. “Are you sure?
Jimmy bent down and put his hands on his knees. He nodded his head. “I just talked to her. She thought I was you.”
Desperate Times 2 Gun Control Page 8