Just like the previous two groups, our caravan arrived without any problems at SLO. We were met just outside the city by the local guide car, and we followed it through SLO to the fairgrounds. SLO is not large by California standards, but by almost any other measure, it was a good-sized city. The streets leading to our new homes had been cleared pretty well and there were no traffic jams to contend with. It was just after 2 PM when we pulled into our designated parking spot. Kevin was directed to the spot right next to mine, and on either side of us there were a few empty spots reserved for people from other groups. I was relieved to get out from behind the wheel again. Enrique sat beside me the entire drive up and must have been just as relieved to get up and out as I was. The boys were sitting in the very back. I suppose there are rules for passengers in motor homes, but whatever they are, we probably didn’t follow them. I cautioned them to limit their movement while we were driving, and they complied, at least for the most part. This was just another reminder that there was no one out there to check up on us. We are on our own.
As soon as we got out of the motor home, the boys and I started to set everything up. We were just getting going when Marco came over to take me to the designated meeting room. He was with a couple of guards who took over the set up process, and Kevin said he’d take care of Jerry and Charlie. I knew that Ms. M was setting up a children’s center in one of the halls just to the right of the meeting hall, so I said my good byes and took off with Marco.
Since our parking spot was as close to the hall as possible it was only a couple of minutes before we were there. Just outside the building housing the meeting hall, I saw two large motor homes had been set up. This was where the main guard station was located. There were two other guard stations as well, one at the entrance to the motor home parking area where our motor home was parked and the other was across the street at what had been a private motor home park.
I thought Marco had done a pretty good job of getting us organized, but he corrected me when I told him so. The local survivors were responsible for everything, even clearing the streets of cars. Very quickly our brief walk brought us to the fairgrounds business center, which was attached to the large meeting hall. As we walked into the building, there was an ample lobby area with display cabinets full of memorabilia from past county fairs. The flow of the lobby led directly to the meeting hall and I thought that was where we were going, but he turned to the left and gestured to a hallway behind a pair of open double doors. Off the hallway on the left were three modest offices and a good-sized workroom complete with copiers, PCs, and worktables with chairs. To the right was a conference room with a table large enough for about twenty people at a time.
Waiting in the conference room was a woman with short hair dressed in blue jeans, a pink sweatshirt, sneakers, and a warm smile. There were several other unfamiliar faces in the room, as well. Lydia, Anna, Todd, and Jane were there already and had already met everyone. Marco took care of the introductions.
“Sir, this is Irma Stein, the representative from San Luis Obispo.” Motioning to Irma’s left, Marco continued, “Tomás Martinez is one of the representatives from the LA area. LaWanda Sharp is also from Los Angeles, and George Francis is from Santa Barbara. I’d like all of you to meet Robert Caldwell, the designated leader from Orange County.” They all just sort of looked at me with bewildered smiles on their faces. I don’t suppose they were expecting to come face to face with a tall, skinny, kid, who was still susceptible to the on again, off again pimple outbreak.
“Irma is responsible for getting everything in SLO ready for our arrival.” Marco would have continued, but Irma interrupted him.
“Oh no, it took all of us here in San Luis Obispo to get things ready, and we are very happy to see you. Thank you for accepting our invitation.” Irma’s voice was a warm contralto that was made for reading bedtime stories to children.
“Regardless, thank you, and please, everyone sit down.” One of my two favorite words is ‘regardless. The other is ‘nevertheless’. They seem to magically slice through the personal red tape enabling something to get done. And they don’t seem to hurt anyone’s feelings.
Marco pulled out a seat for me in the middle of the table and everyone sat down and looked at me. They still had the same bewildered expressions on their faces so I supposed I had to say something. Since joking probably wasn’t a good option, I decided to cut right to the chase.
“It’s a pleasure to meet all of you. Is everyone familiar with the plan for moving our people here?” They were.
“Is there an announcement we need to hear before we get started?” No one suggested anything. I think they were still a little stunned by my lack of charisma and experience.
“Please forgive me for being so blunt, but we have over a hundred anxious people arriving every hour today and tomorrow and one of the worst things that can happen to them when they arrive at a strange place in the midst of this catastrophe is nothing happens. I’d like to make sure that we have work groups ready to welcome their new members.
And in case you’re wondering ‘why him?’, well, so am I. I’ don’t know much about anything except teaching, and I’m still learning how to do that. However, as a beginning teacher I got good at asking questions. I’ve gotten even better at asking questions over the last week, so that’s what we’re going to do for the next few minutes. I hope I don’t annoy you, but there we are.
Jane, do you have lists of who is doing what from all the groups joining us here?”
“Yes. Everyone joining us has pretty much the same set up, organizationally, as we did in Orange County.”
“Okay then. I need to ask all of you if you are okay with blending the different working groups so they can start taking care of their areas of need?” Nods all around.
“What about leadership? All the work groups have a different leader. How do we decide who’s going to be the leader for each work group?” That was George. He struck me as a kind of a take charge kind of guy.
“What would you suggest?” Did I mention I’m good at asking questions?
“Well, I think it would be best if they had a leader. We can save time by just naming a leader for them so they can get started. We have the lists, don’t we?” He looked at Jane who nodded, but then he looked at me, expectantly.”
“ I’d like to suggest that we let them select their own leader. I’m guessing that they know better what they can contribute than we do. I’d like to suggest that we get the medical people together, the electricity people together, and so on and ask them to come up with a list of problems they think they can start handling right now.”
I could see from his look that he was less happy with me than he had been. I also saw that Irma, Tomás, and LaWanda were silently pleased with my response. I began to understand that these people already had a history with each other.
“You sound like a communist. That isn’t going to sit well with my people.” George was more than a little less unhappy with me evidently.
“I’m sorry I’m giving you that impression. I just don’t think that a dozen well meaning leaders like us know more about electricity than a dozen trained electricians. We don’t even know the extent of our problems right now, and we certainly don’t know what to do about them. They’ll know better than anyone. If we put them together and ask them to become a proactive think tank, they will be our best bet for getting things fixed. Communism, by the way, has nothing to do with our situation right now. I’m guessing that nothing from our past lives has anything to do with this situation. We’re all here because we want to be. Anyone who wants to leave or do nothing at all can do what they like. We don’t have the time or the people power to do anything about. I’m sorry if I offend any of you.” I get on a roll now and then and George was already annoying. I did notice that Anna and Todd were smiling as they looked at each. I hoped that meant what I thought it did.
“Well, you don’t offend me. I think that’s a good idea.” LaWanda gave me a clearly approvin
g look as she spoke.
“Me too.” Tomás was a man of few words, and he had just used two of them to vote for me.
“I agree with Robert, George. We have way too much on our hands right now to be deciding who will be the leader of a group of electricians or any other work group for that matter. Let’s leave it up to them to pick their own leaders.” Irma was on my side too. When did I starting thinking I had a side?
“Ok, but someone has to be in command or we’re going to fall on our asses!” George was one of those ‘giveth and taketh away’ types.
“I disagree. We don’t need a commander. We need a consensus builder and I think Robert is on the right track. What else do you think we should be doing right now, Robert?” LaWanda was practically reading my mind.
“I suggest we put out the word for people on the medical teams to assemble together, for the electricity people to assemble, the sanitation people, and so on. They should make up signs and pick a place to meet. In the beginning, they can just meet at any place visible, and then find a room that will hold all of them and get started getting to know each other. We don’t need answers today, but we need for everyone to start feeling and being part of a proactive work group, something dedicated to making things better. Once they have had a chance to talk we can find out who are the representatives and spokespersons. If they don’t do it on their own, we can ask them to do it. If that doesn’t work, then we can appoint a leader if we have to. It’ll be chaotic for a while, but the sooner we get things going the better.” I could see nods around the room as I said this. I doubt George heard a thing I said, though.
“Jane, do you have Kyle and Julie handy? How about we send them to the two parking areas with a note telling the guards what we are going to do so we can get the signs up and on display?” It was a start. Jane spoke quietly to Todd who got up and left the room returning a moment later with the two runners. We were still talking, but Jane was starting to write notes for them. Todd was already opening his PC and starting to type. Anna left the room.
“I’d like to say something. We chose Bobby, uh, Robert to be our leader in Orange County because he isn’t bossy and because he asks questions and he listens. Somehow he forces us to make decisions, and he doesn’t interfere with all the work groups. He’s not a communist. He’s a pragmatist, and he’s a realist. He’s also the only person who is recognized all across the country as a leader. We might all have gotten our act together eventually, but Bobby got us started the day after everyone died. Because of Bobby there are people, including most of the children, who are alive.” Lydia had been at the table all along but hadn’t said anything.
“That may be true, but I have a problem with some self-appointed kid telling us what to do!” George again.
“He’s not a kid for one thing, and he’s not self appointed. We voted for him. I was there. Hello, I’m Carl Markowitz, one of the representatives from Los Angeles County. My group just got in, and I came right over. Nice to see you LaWanda, Tomas.”
I recognized him immediately, but since my back was to the door, I missed his entrance.
Before I could say anything, Irma had already extended her hand and introduced herself. She also introduced George, who looked a little displeased to be meeting another civilian alpha male.
A tall, athletic woman spoke just then. She was right behind Carl. “Hello everybody, Elaine Hansen. Sorry I missed the meeting but I did catch this last bit. I’m here from Ventura-Oxnard. I caught the introductions so don’t repeat them for me. I’m guessing George has managed to enliven the meeting already.”
Then looking at me she smiled and said “You must be ‘The Closer’, Mr. Bobby
Caldwell. You’ve already been involved with George and me even though you may not know it. Ask Todd about it. By the way, thank you.”
And then, as if it couldn’t get any more interesting, another woman walked in, looked around, and announced her presence. “Good afternoon, y’all! I’m April Watanabe, also from Santa Barbara.” There was a pronounced emphasis on the ‘also’. “ I’m the smart representative.”
“Oh give it a rest. Did you know Caldwell was a kid?” George was certainly persistent.
“I knew he was smart, and right now that’s what counts.” This time, April really emphasized the word ‘smart’. “Don’t bother with introductions. I’m guessing I already missed some fun stuff.”
Obviously there was a history here as well, at least between these three.
“So far, we are getting the different interest/professional groups together to get to know each other and to sort out a leader for each group. We also will be asking every group to tell us what they think they need to do for the community. Is that okay with everyone here?” Even George didn’t argue with me, but I could tell he would like to.
“Before we get around to telling each other about ourselves, I’d like to ask if there is anything we need to address for the good of our own group?” I didn’t get the sense that anyone was going to say anything, but I could tell some of them wanted to. So I called on someone I could count on to have something valuable to say.
“Marco, would you fill us in on what is going on with the move so far?”
“Yes, Sir. We have completed four caravans so far and we expect the fifth one any minute now. We have intake centers on the 101 at the north and the south ends of town. The south has been busy with the caravans, but the north center also has had some traffic coming from both the 1 and the 101. We have guard centers here within the fairground and at each of the habitation parks. In addition, we have three gas station guard posts located along the route from Orange County, one each in LA, Ventura, and Santa Barbara Counties. After the last caravan passes through tomorrow, each of them will close up shop, for now, and join us here. Our command post is next to this office complex and also the children’s center. So far, everything is moving according to plan.” He paused and looked at me so I knew he was finished. I swear his eyebrows popped up.
“Jane, anything to report?”
“Yes. According to my head count, at this moment, we now have 643 survivors here in San Luis Obispo. That includes the 22 who were already here from the city, colleges, and outlying areas as well as the 54 others who arrived early to help with the set up. We are expecting another three more groups today. In the last thirty minutes, we have working group meetings setting up here in this building and in four other buildings in the fairgrounds. We’ve set up our computers and research base in the work area just outside this conference room. The children are next door and our teachers have already begun discussions on how to start a comprehensive nursery and pre-k through 12 school ASAP. And…we’ve also set up refreshments in the lobby. There’s fresh coffee there as well.”
“May I suggest that we take a 10 minute break. I’d love a cup of coffee.” I came directly from my long drive in a motor home to a meeting with at least one hostile. I was ready to eat the coffee beans.
Not being the most socially adept adult in the room, I was out the door heading to the coffee as soon as I could get up and moving. Being the closest one to the door gave me an advantage in my sprint to caffeine nirvana. I didn’t drink coffee until I started teaching. A year and a half of fifth graders was all it took, that and a bunch of coffee drinking elementary teachers. I really did like my fellow teachers. They’d been coughed on daily for years, had their feet stepped on, been cried on, been tattled to, accused of all manner of things by parents, mistaken for tall children, patronized by people who knew nothing about them or their jobs, and they still offered support and companionship to each other and all the newbies. I missed my old friends from the teachers’ lounge. But now wasn’t the time to go soft.
As soon as I turned around from the coffee urn, LaWanda and Tomas were there to offer their support.
“I don’t know what that was about with George, but I want you to know you have my support. You say things I agree with even before I had time to think about them.” LaWanda took my hand in hers and s
miled. She was a genuine relief right then. I really hadn’t expected to be attacked so quickly.
Tomás just held out his hand. As we shook hands he quietly said “Good job in there. He’s a bully, but we’ve got your back, Buddy.”
Carl had come up just then and shook my hand as well. He’d heard Tomás’ comment and offered his own support. “You were too busy to get on the phone with us, but most of us know each other. No one was surprised by George but you. Sorry about that, but we’ll take care of him for you. I’d hoped he was just jerk when he was on the phone, but evidently he’s fulltime. You’re doing a good job….keep it up.”
Pandemic Reboot: Survivors Page 13