“So, I get the first trailer?” asked Jake, a bit sarcastically.
“Don’t worry, buddy. I’ve got the next one, and you know the second one across is always the hardest.”
“I’m going driver’s-door-wide-open on this one,” said Jake. “I don’t mind going for a swim, but I’m damn sure not going down inside a truck,” he added.
“Ha! That’s not a bad idea,” I told him. “Think I’ll do the same on my trailer run, unless you go for a swim first, of course.”
Everyone was out of the vehicles and crossed the bridge on foot.
They watched intently as Jake lined up the truck and trailer, just to the right of center so he could keep his driver’s door open.
Easing on to the bridge, it was apparent that the bridge strained under the weight.
“Real slow, Jake,” David called out, the bridge now shaking back and forth under the total weight of truck and trailer.
Everyone held their breath, as Jake hung half out of his door, barely reaching the gas pedal with his right foot and with one hand on the steering wheel.
I thought about how to get down to the river if it got bad quickly. Thankfully the guns were on the second trailer, but it would be much heavier.
“Halfway across!” called out David, as the bridge seemed to slump under the heavy weight.
I could see Jake’s face looking over his opened driver door. He looked nervous as he glanced back and forth from the end of the bridge up ahead and the rushing river below.
“Don’t jump unless you have to!” I called out, hearing the distinct sound of splitting wood.
“What do you think?” I asked David.
“We reinforced it, but it was never meant to carry this much weight.”
“Forty feet to the end of the bridge!” called out Lonnie. “Thirty-five…thirty…
While we could all see from our vantage point how close he was, it seemed comforting to hear Lonnie closing the gap with each call.
“Snap!” came the sound from Jake’s passenger side, as one of the three large cables dropped towards the river below.
The bridge was shaking and now leaning 5 degrees to that side.
“Punch it!” called David to Jake.
“Go, go, go!” we all joined in.
Jake, pressing hard on the gas pedal, propelled the truck and trailer off the far end of the bridge, scattering some members of our group in all directions.
Safely off the bridge, I ran to see how Jake was holding up.
“That was not fun,” he announced, looking a little pale.
A smile took hold as he said, “Okay. You’re up next, buddy,” jingling his keys.
“Plan B,” said David, before I could answer. “Can’t let you break our bridge, guys. There is another way around, but it will take a couple hours… Just you and me, my friend,” he said, grabbing my left shoulder.
“Not so fast,” called Joy, walking up with Tina.
“You must be the David we’ve all been hearing about,” said Tina, with a flirty smile. “You’re even more handsome than Lance described!”
“Now wait just a minute,” I interjected. “All I said was he was tall and had dark hair!”
“And you are far prettier than I’m sure Lance would have described you!” replied David. “Lance, why didn’t you tell me about Tina?”
“Are we really going to do this for the next two hours?” I blurted out, intentionally rolling my eyes.
“I just thought they should meet,” said Joy, giving me a wink. “Maybe Tina and I should go ahead and get our camp ready, while you strong boys get the trailer over,” she continued, acting out of character.
David and I crossed back over the sturdy bridge, now only carrying our weight. Jim and Steve offered to drive the third trailer around, following David and me in the lead.
“Sorry about your bridge, buddy,” I told him.
“No worries,” he replied. “It’s still good for anything not carrying a trailer, I’m sure.”
Backing the trailers 200 feet, David pointed out a side road I completely missed on the way. Overgrown trees and bushes flanked the nearly hidden fire road, plagued by deep ruts down the middle.
“Real slow,” said David, riding passenger. “If we get the trailers stuck here, they stay,” he added.
Maneuvering down the winding path, we were at the river’s edge in 40 minutes.
The conversation went quickly from catching up, to Tina…with no mention of his father so far.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Tina?” asked David.
“I don’t know… It didn’t even cross my mind.
“There are a few things about her you should know,” I added.
“Here we go,” announced David.
“No, nothing negative,” I told him. “Just reality.
“She had a boyfriend before the lights went out, and he was in Los Angeles on business, so no way to connect.
“Veronica and Suzie are two awesome little girls we found orphaned the first day the lights went out, and Tina has taken them under her wing.
“We’re also headed to Colorado, so I’m not sure how that plays out.”
“Me neither, but it was you that told me my destiny may show up on my doorstep,” David pointed out.
“That’s true,” I replied. “And if I’m being honest, she’s kind of just floating along with our group… Not in a bad way… I mean, she picked out all our clothes at an outlet mall, and she’s been awesome with Suzie and Veronica. She’s a great cook, as well.”
“I get it,” replied David. “We will see what happens…”
“Not bad on time,” I said, looking at Jake’s watch he lent me.
“This road leads to the only place to cross this river for nearly 40 miles,” pointed out David. “It’s not usually attempted at springtime, though, with the river this high.”
“I’ve got to be sure before we try it,” I told him. “All the weapons are on this trailer, with the four-wheelers and bikes on the back one.”
The crossing was easier than I expected, even with the trailers.
Slowly navigating the road to David’s, he told me what happened to his father.
“There’s no way you could have known,” I consoled.
Pulling into the newly formed camp an hour later, now early evening, I stopped the truck 30 yards out.
“Look at that, buddy,” I said, pointing to the kids all playing nerf gun wars with Jake and most of the adults cooking an outdoor dinner.
“This rarely happened in the old world. And despite the hardships, we still get to do this,” I added.
Supper was on, and Beatrice, with Joy and Tina’s help, whipped up a hodgepodge of venison, fish, and macaroni with cheese for both groups.
Suzie and Veronica were eager to learn from Beatrice, asking question after question.
“Okay, girls,” called Tina. “Let’s leave Mrs. Beatrice to her cooking.”
“Oh, nonsense,” said Beatrice, smiling. “I love teaching young girls life skills.”
“Smells good,” said David, as we walked up.
Veronica and Suzie officially met David, commenting that he had a beard like their daddy.
David asked Tina if she would like to go for a walk after dinner. “I would love that,” she replied.
Recapping the story of how they found the girls as they walked the property perimeter, Tina told David she planned to officially adopt them, once everything got back to normal.
“That’s nice,” he replied. “They seem like great kids.”
Returning Tina to her tent, she thanked him for the walk with a kiss on his cheek.
* * * *
Joining his mother for breakfast, David asked, “What do you think, Mom?”
“About Tina, I’m guessing? She’s kind and helpful, and she wanted to know everything about you.”
“What about the girls, Mom?”
“I like them, too, son. But they’re all only here for a few days.”
&
nbsp; “I know… But a few days is better than no days…
“We will all be eating here tonight,” his mother said. “Let everyone know we will eat supper early, as Mel has a surprise for you.
“And son, your father would be proud of you for how you are leading us and helping other good folks along the way.”
David and Mel gave me the grand tour after lunch. Mel proudly showed me many of his provisions, promising to send us off with a good supply of coffee beans.
“I hear you have a surprise for me tonight, Mel?” asked David.
“I guess your mom told you,” he said, smiling. “You’ll like it, I promise. Everyone will, especially the kids.”
David spent the afternoon with Tina and the girls.
Beatrice rang the dinner bell at around 4 p.m.
“That’s for us,” announced Tina. “We are helping your mom in the kitchen for tonight’s surprise dinner.”
The squealing girls ran towards the house.
This time Tina kissed David on the lips. He watched her leave, with the first smile on his face in quite some time.
Turning, she blew him a kiss.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” said Mel, walking up a couple of minutes later. “The lady-killer smiles we’ve been missing around here, and you didn’t even need a wingman!”
“Thanks, buddy, but it’s short-lived at best,” replied David.
“Who knows?” answered Mel. “I was a lonely paranoid man, alone in a big house. My house burns to the ground, and I gained a new group of friends, old and new, and a girlfriend, both of which I consider family… Just don’t overthink it,” he added.
“Okay, buddy. I’ll see you later,” said David.
“Love that smile, David. Love that frickin smile!” Mel shouted, as he walked away.
David shook his head back and forth, laughing.
He spent some time with Mark, who seemed to be getting better.
The dinner bell rang an hour later, and everyone headed to Beatrice’s house.
“We made your favorite,” said Tina, grabbing David’s hand and leading him into the kitchen.
“Linguini with clams!” he said, smiling, as he recognized the unmistakable smell. “I thought we were nearly out of clams, Mom.”
“We were,” his mother replied, “but Tina here made up the difference so we could all enjoy it.”
David raised an eyebrow at Tina.
She smiled. “It seems your old buddy Lance also loves that meal. He grabbed 16 cans of clams the very first night from the grocery store.”
The meal was paired with canned spinach, sautéed in garlic salt and dehydrated butter.
David led a prayer for both groups.
The men drank ice-cold beer, thanks to Mel, cooled in the trailer freezers. The women had wine, hand-picked by Tammie from Mel’s extensive selection.
David made a toast to friends, new and old.
“Lance and I used to frequent a little Italian place in Boulder, called The Gondolier, when we were in college. They had a dish called Linguine Alle Vingole—also known as Linguini with Clams. We both got hooked, and apparently it’s still one of our favorite meals on earth.”
“Here! Here!” I called out, holding up my glass.
Mel was grinning after dinner, having a broad audience to show one of his surprises that he had been promising David.
A sizeable green tarp covered the object Mel carried from his house and set onto the edge of the trailer.
Tammy followed, opening a large box and stacking items neatly in front but out of view from the rest of us.
Gathering everyone’s attention, Mel asked David to come forward.
“David, my friend, I give you the first of several gifts that will separate our group from the uncivilized rest of the country.
“Please do the honors…but carefully,” he added, holding out the corner of the tarp to David.
“On the count of three!” said David, standing in front of the excited children.
“One…two…and three!” he counted, carefully removing the tarp.
The children squealed, looking up at the 70-inch flat-screen television, lit up with the letters BIG across the front and an image of a young Tom Hanks.
Mel smiled as questions were fired off from the adults, wanting to know how it was possible.
“One large faraday cage and solar-powered batteries,” he responded, holding up four other titles.
“Fifty-seven classic movies in all,” he announced. Everyone clapped and hollered.
Beatrice covered her mouth, tears rolling down her cheeks, and quietly slipped away towards home.
Spreading blankets on the ground, Nancy and Lonnie’s wife made popcorn for the kids over the Coleman stove.
Tina asked David to sit with her in the back, spending the next two hours talking quietly, as the children were mesmerized by the extended edition of the timeless movie.
“The right girl may just show up on your doorstep one day. Isn’t that what you told me, Lance?” said David, helping me return the television to Mel and Tammie’s house after the movie.
“You were talking about Tina, right? We’ll see, my friend,” I responded, with a smile.
“I don’t know what will happen over the next few days, but I’m a happy man tonight, brother,” David replied.
David and Tina stayed up most of the night, deep in conversation that felt effortless for them both.
Beatrice was up early, clutching the DVD in her shaking hands.
She read the cover, as she had done a hundred times since losing her husband:
April 29, 2016
For David and Mark
Love, Dean
To be continued…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lance K. Ewing lives with his wife, three boys (Hudson, Jax and Hendrix), Ringo, Mini and Bobo (dogs and a cat) in McKinney, Texas. When he is not at work, he can always be found with his family, preferably outdoors.
Lance grew up in the foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, with the Rockies quite literally in his backyard.
Families First is his debut novel. Volume three is being written now.
Lance is a Chiropractor in Dallas, Texas. His new Chronic Pain quick-read series of books are now available for pre-sale on Amazon Kindle.
He can be contacted at [email protected].
Join our e-mail list for news about upcoming volumes and sneak peaks at [email protected].
Look for the paperback and Audible version to be available on Amazon soon.
Visit the Facebook page: Families First https://www.facebook.com/groups/447305392509202
Next World Series (Vol. 2): Families First [The Road] Page 30