“From a different farmer with a big greenhouse. You see, most people call me a prepper, and yes. I am that. But mostly I’m a trader with a wide range of friends who are also traders. Together we make a fairly good living.”
“Granted. But isn’t it also a dangerous living?”
“Not as dangerous as you might think. You see, people like having me around because I can get things for them too. If something happened to me and if they needed something only I could get they’d be screwed. So most people out there actually want me to be safe. They’ll even go out of their way to protect me if they can by warning me when they hear somebody’s after me, or by shooting them themselves.”
“Sounds like a pretty sweet arrangement.”
“Yes. Before my son David got shot I thought it was paradise. Now, most of the fun has gone out of it. But I still have a much easier time than most folks out there.
“Say, speaking of David, and since Josie and Eddie are in the other room, do you mind if I talk about a personal matter?”
He dropped his voice to something barely more than a whisper. Frank followed suit.
“Sure. What is it?”
“You never met my son David, did you?”
“No. Why?”
“You’d have loved him. He was the sweetest kid on the face of the earth. Very gentle, with a kind heart. Very respectful, too. He called everybody sir or ma’am. Sometimes he called them Mister This or Miss That.”
“He sounds like a great fella, Ronnie. I’m sorry I never got a chance to meet him.”
“Well, the reason I ask is that your friend Eddie reminds me a lot of David.
“You see, David had a learning disability that prevented his mind from progressing past the age of seven. Even when he became a grown man he thought and acted like a little boy.
“He acted very much like your friend Eddie. I was wondering if Eddie was struck with the same affliction.”
“Well, I’ve only known Eddie for a few months. He was once married to Josie. The way I understand it, he did a short stint in prison and made enemies with the wrong people. They managed to slip some cleaning agents and other chemicals into him and they did permanent damage to his brain.
“But the way you describe David sounds exactly like Eddie. He’s as gentle as a kitten, but he has trouble thinking as an adult. Josie says he’s a little boy trapped in a grown man’s body. That’s why even though she’s no longer married to him she watches over him closely and takes care of him.”
“Take good care of him, Frank. People like him cannot survive on their own. If he was alone on the streets people would take advantage of his nature to steal from him. They’d let him starve to death. He wouldn’t have a chance.”
“I know, Ronnie. And we will. Take care of him, I mean.”
“Pardon me for being skeptical. But you were in a vehicle that many people would take from you in a heartbeat. I suspect the only reason they didn’t take it from you is because they didn’t know you were unarmed.
“You were going to drive over three hundred more miles in very harsh conditions, hoping your homemade plow blade did its job. Now, you can argue until the cows come home about how good a job you did. But you saw the cracks in the wood when we took the blade off.
“It would not have made it. You’d have been stranded somewhere between here and Junction, unarmed and cold and waiting for help that would probably never come.”
Frank felt a bit ashamed.
Every word Ronnie said was absolutely true.
He felt a little bit like he did when he was a young boy, being chastised by his father for acting first, then thinking later.
“Frank, listen to me. I want to make a deal with you. I’m going to give you some weapons to take with you. That way if someone tries to steal your vehicle you’ll have the means to fend them off.”
Frank sheepishly said, “Thank you, Ronnie.” He was ashamed and embarrassed and had nothing else to say.
But Ronnie did.
“Oh, don’t think you’re getting off that easy,” he said. “In exchange for the weapons, I want you to give your people in Junction my radio frequency.”
“Okay. But why?”
“Because if you and Josie don’t make it, but Eddie somehow does, I want them to call me. I want to negotiate Eddie’s future with them. I want them to know that I’m willing to come and get him myself, and bring him back up here to live.”
“Again, why?”
“Because I screwed up, Frank. I allowed my son David too much freedom. I never should have allowed him outside, beyond my sight. That’s why he got shot. Because I wasn’t there to protect him.
“I can’t bring David back. But I know my son. He’s up in heaven looking down at us. And if I could hear him I know what he’d be saying.
“He’d be saying that Eddie is my second chance. He’d be asking me to take Eddie in and watch over him, and to make sure he lives a long and healthy life.”
Frank looked at his hands, unsure what to say.
“My people in Junction are good people, Ronnie. If something were to happen to Josie and me they’d take good care of him.”
“Okay, good. That’s nice to know. But just in case they don’t feel they’re up to the task, or some of them are opposed to the idea, I want them to know they have an option.
“That’s the deal, Frank. The weapons in exchange for you giving them my radio frequency and telling them I’m willing to come and get him.
“If they opt out that’s fine. If they’re willing to take care of him, that’s fine. As long as you give them another option. That’s all I ask.”
-20-
“Okay. You got it,” Frank said as Josie walked into the room.
She was curious, but could see the angst on Frank’s face.
She assumed that whatever Frank agreed to was personal and private. Maybe unfinished business between two old friends from long ago.
She wouldn’t pry, and would assume if Frank wanted to share details with her he would at the appropriate time.
Frank, for his part, felt wounded.
Ronnie was right.
It was dangerous, taking Josie and Eddie on a long trip in dismal conditions with no weapons with which to defend themselves from attack.
He felt exposed as a fraud.
For while he certainly would have given his life to protect either Josie or Eddie, they’d be in the same dire situation after he was gone. And they’d likely follow him.
Ronnie spoke common sense to him.
It was something he needed to hear.
The four sat down to the best meal Frank had eaten since Karen cooked up a similar menu in the mine.
It made him miss his friends in Junction even more.
It was the best meal Josie and Eddie had eaten since before Saris 7 struck more than ten years before.
When the power went out in Plainview following the Saris 7 strike, the Food World Distribution Center had a drive-in freezer bigger than the average house: sixteen hundred square feet.
Inside the freezer, meats of all kinds were stored three pallets high.
There was, quite literally, enough frozen meat to feed an army.
Until the power went out it was maintained at a frosty twenty eight degrees.
When the earth’s temperature dropped to twenty six degrees two days later, the Dykes clan simply opened the freezer doors.
More than ten years later the meat was still edible after being thawed out slowly over a glowing bed of charcoals.
Josie and Eddie had eaten plenty of steak dinners in the previous ten years. Plenty of chicken and pork chops and fried fish too.
But these pork chops… these weren’t chops which had been frozen hard as a rock for more than a decade.
These chops were fresh, never frozen.
These chops were from the flank of a slaughtered hog, butchered just three days before.
And delivered to Ronnie the very next day.
Each bite Josie slice
d from the cut of meat wasn’t just a slice of pork.
It was a little piece of heaven.
“Ronnie, this is the best pork chop I’ve ever had in my life,” she said.
Ronnie, as though expecting just such a comment, pounced on it without hesitation.
“Divorce Frank and stay here with me, and you’ll eat like this all the time.”
She got silent and placed her hand beneath her chin, as though considering the offer.
Frank reached beneath the table and pinched her on the thigh and she jumped, then squealed like a school girl, and gave her answer.
“I’m deeply flattered, Ronnie. I really am. But Frank is the love of my life. I waited a long time for him to come along, and I plan to keep him.”
For a split second she seemed to realize that Eddie’s feelings might be hurt by her comment.
After all, Eddie was her first husband, and her words might be construed to imply that he somehow didn’t measure up to Frank’s standards.
She looked to Eddie, fully prepared to apologize and offer a hug to make him feel better.
But she needn’t have worried.
Eddie was so engrossed in his food he hadn’t heard a word she said.
He never even looked up.
-21-
After dinner Ronnie showed his guests to his radio room and gave them some privacy.
While Frank turned on the unit and dialed in the mine’s frequency Ronnie leaned back in his recliner, lit up a stale but still tasty cigar, and let himself fantasize about Frank’s wife.
By the time Frank tried raising the mine for the first time Ronnie was deep in his own private thoughts with a big smile upon his face.
Frank sat in the radio operator’s chair, Josie standing over him with her hand on his left shoulder.
Eddie stood silently next to her, mesmerized by the flashing lights and numbers on the unit.
He wanted to play with the controls but Josie had told him explicitly not to beforehand.
Frank keyed the microphone and said, “Hannah… Mark… Bryan… this is Frank. Frank Woodard. If you can read me please respond.”
There was absolute silence. Not totally unexpected, for Frank knew the ham radio was located in an alcove a bit of a distance from the mine’s security control center.
There was a good chance it was on, but that no one had heard him.
Actually, that wasn’t the case at all.
Markie Snyder, Hannah and Mark’s son, was monitoring the control center at that particular time while his father went to the restroom.
“Call out if something happens you can’t handle,” he was told.
There hadn’t been a hail on the ham radio in many days. It was the last thing Markie expected to happen, and he wasn’t sure whether such a thing qualified as something he couldn’t handle.
He was still wondering what to do when he heard the same words again.
“Hannah… Mark… Bryan… this is Frank. Frank Woodard. If you can read me please respond.”
This time he realized he should do something, even if it was wrong.
He sat down at the ham radio and pulled the microphone’s base toward him.
He pressed the key and said, in the most mature voice he could muster, “Um… this is Mark Snyder, Junior. Reading you loud and clear.”
Frank was, understandably, taken aback.
“Little Markie? Hey, it’s Frank. Frank Woodard. Say, is your mom or your dad around?”
Mark Junior no longer liked being called Little Markie. At eleven going on twelve he was way too mature for that.
But he realized this wasn’t a time to complain. He overlooked the slight.
“Yes, sir. My dad’s coming now. Hold on just a second, okay?”
Mark the elder took control of the microphone.
“Frank? Frank, is that really you?”
“Hello, Mark. Yes, it’s me. How are you?”
“I’m fine. Everybody’s fine. Where have you been? Where are you now? Are you doing okay? Are you coming back? Heck, should I slow down so you have time to answer?”
Frank laughed. It felt good to reconnect with an old friend.
“Well, let’s see… where I’ve been is a place called Plainview. I got carjacked and forced to drive there against my will.”
“Oh, my God! Did they hurt you?”
Frank’s first thought was the fifteen inch long scar across his midsection, where Eddie accidentally cut him with a sword.
But that wasn’t a result of his carjacking. It was just Eddie being Eddie.
“No, they just held me there for awhile. But I’m out now. And I’m heading back.”
“That’s awesome, Frank. Everybody else will be very happy to hear that. When do you expect to be here?”
“I don’t know for sure. It’ll be slow going. I would say if we’re not there in a month something’s probably happened and we probably won’t make it.”
“Stop being so darned negative, Frank. If anybody can make the trip it’s a tough guy like you.
“Wait a minute. You said ‘we.’ Who’s with you?”
“That’s why I wanted to call you, Mark. I want to bring my new wife with me. Her name is Josie and she’s the prettiest thing God ever made. She’ll even give your Hannah a run for her money.
“And there’s a someone else. Someone I know you guys will fall in love with immediately. He’ll remind you of Tommy Stone. You remember, we met Tommy Stone when we went to visit Marty at his place.”
If Frank sounded like he was being very vague or was speaking in code, he was.
Frank, being a former Marine and retired cop, set up most of the security procedures at the mine.
He was the one who pointed out that radio waves can be heard by anyone within range who has a radio, and not all such people are friendly.
It was a strict rule, implemented by Frank himself, that locations of the mine and the former prison should never be given out over the radio. Bad men and marauders listening in would know where to find them and could plan another attack.
As for his reference to Tommy Stone, Frank was a straight shooter above all else.
He wouldn’t ask his friends in the mine to take in a stranger and share their food with him unless they had a complete picture of him. Normally they’d want to make sure he was friendly and could pull his fair share of the weight when it came to pulling guard duty, defending the mine, and performing his share of other duties.
In Eddie’s case that wouldn’t be possible. Eddie could be quite competent when doing some things, but could not do other things, like carry a weapon or man the security control center.
Frank wanted that known up front, before the people in the mine made their decision.
Referring to Tommy Stone did that.
Because Tommy Stone was a differently-abled man who lived in Eden, and was now in the former prison-turned shelter where Marty lived.
Mark had met Tommy on a previous trip to the shelter and understood Frank’s reference immediately.
-22-
Of course, Frank didn’t have to be so secretive about that part of the conversation.
He’d have given away no vital information by coming out and saying, “We want to bring Eddie too. He’s a grown man, but he’s a child both mentally and emotionally. He can do a lot of things very well, but can’t do critical tasks regarding security or anything requiring use of a weapon.”
Frank could have said that, sure.
But he was mindful that Eddie was standing over his shoulder, listening to his every word.
People like Eddie are not disabled. They are differently-abled, meaning they have their own skill sets which aren’t the same as most people. They do some things exceptionally well… even better than most people.
Other things they don’t do quite as well as others.
But that doesn’t mean they don’t have value. It doesn’t mean they cannot contribute. They just contribute in different ways.
And one thi
ng many people forget about people like Eddie: they have feelings just like everybody else. They feel sadness and sorrow and shame. And they get embarrassed when people talk about them as though they’re not even there.
Frank understood this and wanted to spare Eddie the feelings of embarrassment.
By invoking the name of Tommy Stone, who shared most of the same traits as Eddie, he got his message across to Mark and Eddie was blissfully unaware.
Frank had already explained to Josie that his friends in the mine set up their society modeled after Native American tribes.
In many American Indian tribes every man, every woman, had an equal say-so before key decisions were made.
Every adult had a right to say his or her piece – to voice their opinions, before a vote was taken.
The tribes had elders who moderated discussions and broke the deadlock in case of a tie vote. Children were encouraged to witness such counsels, but could not speak or vote.
The people in the mine conducted their affairs in a similar manner when important decisions had to be made.
“In our case, allowing additional people into the mine is a very important decision,” Frank explained to Josie in a conversation days before they left Plainview.
“Additional people will mean more people to help with chores and details. That’ll be popular among people who are tired of their chores and who want to spread them around a little more.
“But additional people mean more mouths to feed, and some of the residents who are worried about the food supply lasting to the thaw might not want to stretch it even thinner.
“Then there are the personalities to consider. Some of the residents might not want to let me back in because I used to have a reputation as a grouch…”
“Oh, no… not you?” Josie had said with very obvious sarcasm, which had caused Frank to tussle her hair and tickle her.
“…or because they had past disagreements with me over something and carry a grudge,” he’d continued.
“In your case, some of the women might see another pretty woman, especially one who’s younger than they are, as an unnecessary threat. Maybe even competition.”
He’d explained to her the process… that they’d have to pass muster with the people already in the mine… just to let her know that getting in wasn’t automatic. There was a chance they’d be turned away.
A Perilous Journey Page 7