“Um…” Good question. “...do you know where we’re at?” I asked her.
“Sort of, the dirt road that runs partially beside of the crater of diamonds?”
“That’s the one,” I said, “or I could stop up, I know where you live now.”
“Oh yeah! You were one of the guys buying all the rain barrels from my dad.”
“Yeah, didn’t know he was your dad until you came home that day.”
“That’s him. Listen, I have to run inside. Take care of yourself.”
“You too,” I told her and gave her a small wave.
“And so you know, you got something smeared—”
“I know,” I told her, feeling suddenly self-conscious.
14
Living far out of town, I didn’t have to get used to the quiet so much as you’d think. I missed hearing the TV or the radio from time to time, but there was nothing on. The power was still out, and every time I tried the radio in my truck, nothing would come on. The static was pretty absolute. It was like nothing was out there broadcasting. I tried to ignore it, but I had been keeping busy. I’d dismantled both stills and washed out the modified beer kegs. I’d put the columns up after cleaning them out with vinegar and broke them down as far as I could with the unions. Then I stored everything behind the loose boards three stalls down. The only thing I didn’t move was the fermenting mash in my stall with my storage food.
I still wanted to make some more rum to replace what I’d given Lance, and I kicked myself for even doing that. The phone lines had stayed down, and there hadn’t been any traffic to speak of lately. Despite that, Grandma had me busy. What little we had in the freezer in the house needed to be canned or cooked. We ate up what we could in the fridge before it went bad. I was loafing around the house when I wasn’t doing errands, something that usually drove me insane. I wanted to get up, I wanted to move. I wanted information.
The power out didn’t bug me so much, but Grandpa’s pain came and went, and it seemed worse at night and first thing in the morning. He and Grandma napped during the long stretches during the daytime. I spent time with Raider. I was worried by the static on the radio, and my burner phone only gave a fast busy sound with no service whenever I tried to use it. That’s when I started to wonder if it might not be a bad idea to head back into town.
I loaded Raider up, and Grandma pushed a big block of cash my way and told me to get staples. I almost opened my mouth to tell her about the barn, because she didn’t really go near the shine shack and my storage area, but she looked to the left at Grandpa. Staples? Then it hit me: she wanted to make sure we had some comfort food and things that we didn’t have enough to last too much longer.
“Don’t forget toilet paper,” Grandpa called as I was pulling out.
I grinned.
“What do you think, Raider?” I asked him as I cranked down my window.
He barked loudly in response.
“Me too,” I said, petting his head, “me too.”
I didn’t have anything in the truck that would get me in trouble, so I took the direct route into town. I was waiting to see people rushing the roads at the sound of a vehicle, raving mad, giving chase. I was passed by the soccer mom’s SUV going the other way as I came into town, and I saw quite a few cars on the road. The downtown area seemed half empty to me though, and I could see the lights were out all over town except the gas station. That was one thing I’d wanted to fill up on, so I headed that way, surprised to see the big sign lit up with the gas price letters backlit when everything else around was dark.
“You stay in here,” I told Raider, who made a low chuffing sound.
“You telling me yes?” I asked him.
He barked softly then chuffed again.
“I’ll be dipped in… you really understand me.”
Raider panted, his mouth opening in a happy doggy smile, his tongue lolling out the side.
“I’ll be right back, I’m going to see if I can fill it up. If the sign is lit, the pumps are probably running.”
I turned, not waiting to see if the dog was going to respond. Somebody else was filling up, a lady in a newer red sports car, a foreign job. In the background, I could hear generators running all over town. A large one probably powered the gas station. If my muffler hadn’t been so loud…
“Hi,” I said to her. She had been at the pump closest to the station, and I hadn’t wanted to startle her.
“Hi,” she said back and then looked up and gave me a smile.
“I see the pumps are working, they taking cash?” I asked her.
“Yes, but it’s like six bucks a gallon. Total rip off, but what can we do about it? They say they don’t have a way to order more, and the truck was due yesterday. Supply and demand.”
“What shysters,” I said, returning her smile.
She shrugged, and her pump clicked off. I gave her a nod and walked inside. The air inside the was noticeably cooler than the outside. Air conditioning. Something that I rarely experienced unless I went into town. I smiled and looked around. The shelves were surprisingly bare, but I could see the cooler was mostly stocked with a large dent missing in the area where beer was usually kept.
“Help you find something?” a male voice startled me.
I turned to see it was the station’s owner, not the usual clerk I’d come to get to know.
“I’d like to get some gas and just admiring your air conditioning,” I told him.
“Last tanker truck didn’t show up. Next one I got coming in will have to be a rush and not a planned shipment. Going to be six dollars a gallon, cash only.”
“I don’t know exactly how much it’s going to take,” I told him, “But I think about forty dollars. I can come back in if I go over?” I asked, pulling some money from my wallet.
“That’ll do,” he said and then smiled. “As long as I got gas to run the genny, I’ll be open here,” he said, taking my money.
“Ok, like I said…”
“No problem, recognize you from around town. You go over, just come back in and settle up. Not like I’m going anywhere. Nobody showed up today to open.”
“Ok, thanks,” I told him and headed back out.
Raider’s head was hanging out the side of the driver's window, his tongue hanging out. I started pumping gas and looked around town. Murfreesboro had a small town feel to it on a normal day, but it was just quiet now. Sure, there were cars on the streets, but not many and not a lot of people were out walking.
“This is strange,” I told him, “Do you think people are just hunkering down and waiting?”
Raider let out a low whining sound. I took that to mean he wasn’t sure. That’s when the pump clicked off. I turned and put the fill nozzle back in its holder and shook my head. Forty dollars was what it usually took to fill my truck. I sighed loudly and headed back toward the store, pulling out another three $20 bills.
“Ahhh, she must have been thirstier than you thought.”
“No,” I said, grinding my teeth a little bit. “I just forgot forty dollars is what it took to fill it before the prices went up,” I finished, putting my money on the counter.
He was already counting out my change. “Listen, I’m not gouging, I can hear in your voice you’re upset—”
“A little,” I admitted. “Why is it so high if you aren’t gouging?”
“Because as soon as the phones are fixed, I have to order a rush delivery. They charge me nearly double plus the delivery fee. That’s what it’s going to cost me.”
“That’s fine,” I told him, irritated in general.
That’s when Raider started barking and snarling. I turned and gave the man a quick wave and headed to the door at a fast walk. A truck I recognized was parked next to mine. The driver hadn’t gotten out but seemed to be waiting. I had to walk past the truck to get to mine, so I gritted my teeth once again and felt glad I’d worn my pistol under my shirt. As I got near Lance’s truck, his window rolled down.
“Lance,�
� I said, giving him a nod and not slowing.
“Hey, I saw your truck here and wanted…” I lost his words as I kept walking, not turning, pretending I didn’t hear him.
Raider quieted as I got past Lance’s truck and I opened the door. He backed up, and I got in. A warning growl had me pull the gun, and I put it on my lap, facing the door before turning. Lance was walking up slowly, looking annoyed. I knew from past experiences that he was a smooth liar, and I had no doubt the incident on Friday wasn’t the simple misunderstanding he wanted it to be. In school, he’d use the same tactic to outright humiliate me, fight me, blame me for causing the fight. Over a period of time, people realized that he wasn’t quite the innocent choirboy he claimed to be. He was a silver-tongued devil, and I had no doubt he wouldn’t have backed down if things had gone differently on Friday night.
“Hey,” he said walking up, leaning against the truck. “I uh… Oh, I’m not looking for trouble,” he said, noticing the gun. “I just wanted to ask you to reconsider. I can offer more money.”
Great, he wants a fix of shine? No.
So that’s what I told him, “Listen, I told you I’m getting out of the game,” I said, making sure my finger stayed out of the trigger guard. “For me, it was a one-time thing.”
“Listen, Wes,” he said, running one hand across his face, “my place got known for having that shine, and people started coming just for that. I can’t get what you gave me from other places.”
“Have Lester find you another source then. He knows people,” I said softly, barely audible over Raider's low rumbling growl.
“Lester won’t work with me anymore. Wouldn’t tell me why.”
“Maybe your tactics and business practices don’t fall in line with what he believes to be acceptable behavior?” I suggested.
“You talk awful fancy sometimes,” he said, changing the subject.
The tone of his voice had Raider standing up on his side of the seat, and his tone got louder.
“Don’t forget, I went to college and got my teaching credentials. I might have grown up poor, but I am, by all means, not uneducated.”
“I wonder what the school would think,” he said, rubbing his chin, “a moonshiner and a poor degenerate, teaching kids?”
“I think trying to blackmail me isn’t going to end well for you.”
He paled as he looked down and saw I had the gun pointed at his lower stomach.
“Listen, I was just messing around, man. I mean, I bought a ton of it and sold it, I can’t blackmail you any more than you can blackmail me.”
“Yes, but here’s the thing,” I told him. “You’ve already proven your character to me. I was done running shine until my grandpa got sick. We had a business arrangement, but things didn’t work out. I was polite, but I’m starting to wonder if you mistook my politeness for weakness?”
“You never could stick up for yourself, your mouth always got your ass kicked,” he said, a smug grin spreading across his face.
“I won as many of those fights as I lost,” I told him as Raider moved closer to me, his head now almost side by side with mine.
“You don’t get it…” he sounded exasperated now. “With the power out, the bar has been crazy busy. I need to—”
“You don’t get it,” I told him, matching his exasperation with my cold anger. “I’m not doing business with you. I was getting out anyway, but you keep pushing me, man. That’s not a good way to be.”
“So you’re a hardass now?” he asked, his exaspiration turning to amusement.
“No, but I’m not going to be pushed around, blackmailed, or intimidated. You saw what happened at the bar, if Raider hadn’t done something, your boy would have been in worse shape.”
Lance looked down at the gun and then off in another direction. He turned and walked away without another word. I let out a sigh and put my gun back in the holster, fumbling with it a bit as something in my peripheral vision caught my eye. Deputy Dave Rolston was walking my way, in full uniform. I hurried and pulled my shirt down and looked his way. He was smiling, having recognized me or the truck.
“Hey, hey,” I said, waving out the open window.
“Hey, where you able to talk to the pharmacist the other day?” he asked.
“Yeah, a little bit. Said the mayor had to get in touch with FEMA if something big happened. What have you heard?”
“Nothing much. Bossman put up our new schedules today. If it hadn’t been hand drawn out, you’d think everything was normal. None of the fires got out of control, but our fire department boys had a lot of work and scared people. It’s strange, we had power trucks out here after you left, but they just drove around and cleared lines. Didn’t know anything at that point.”
“They still around?” I asked him.
“I haven’t seen them. Until things start working again…”
“Do your radios work? Like, for talking car to car?” I asked him suddenly.
“Yeah, they do,” he said, his eyes turning to me.
“I wonder if you can get on the horn, get the staties on the line?” I asked him.
“That’s not a half bad idea. If they’re in the area, they should be able to hear things. You have a ham radio or shortwave?”
“Nothing that works. Grandpa thought he was going into radio broadcasting, but he said the one he had in the barn doesn’t work.”
“How old is it?” he asked, a hopeful note in his voice.
“It’s been in the barn since before I was born.”
I heard Raider’s tail start thumping as he wagged it. That was curious, he saw Lance and understood him to be a threat right off, but he seemed to like Dave.
“Insides might be rusted out then. Shoot.”
“You know about radios?” I asked him.
“Some… after Katrina… Well, it’s why I got into law enforcement and working on being…” he paused as if to let me in on a big secret, “on being prepared.”
“I hear that,” I told him, not surprised that he’d shared that.
New guy, been on the job three or four weeks. Probably hadn’t made many friends, and he was apparently a good guy because he was a dog lover if I had to guess. His admission put me at ease a little bit, and his courage to share made me feel better about what I asked him next.
“Do you think it was a solar storm?” I asked him quietly, pointing over my shoulder to the darkened shops of downtown.
“That's what I'm really worried about,” Deputy Ralston said.
“You sound like a… prepper?” I asked him quietly, looking around.
Raider's tail was thumping steadily against the seat, and he leaned forward and put his nose next to my face. Deputy Ralston reached his hand and pet Raider on the head and then withdrew his hand from my truck.
“I am a little bit,” he said. “You sound like you're pretty on the up and up too.”
“Well, I wouldn't call it on the up and up, but something like this is has been concerning to me for a long time. The power's been down for three days now, and there has been no communications from anyone; doesn't that mean we might not get any?”
“I don't know,” the deputy said. “I haven't heard anything from the sheriff. I'm not sure the mayor is even in touch with FEMA.”
“Yeah, I heard from the pharmacist that that was the next step if this was going to be something that was long-term to be dealt with,” I told him.
“I went and asked him probably right after you did. The pharmacist laughed, he said there'd been a few people in there who’d asked him, but most of them were old-timers who’d actually showed up to the community meetings.”
“Well, what we know, is that whatever caused the power outage caused some of the electrical and phone lines to fry and sag, and set fires and blew up some of the transformers. But I just got gas. The generator out back seems to be running fine. I'm sure if we started hooking everything up to generators we’d be in good shape.”
“Yeah but if no one's getting deliveries out,
how are we going to do things?” Deputy Rolston asked.
“I've got no idea,” I admitted, and Raider let out a little chuff.
“I'll to make a point to go ask the mayor today,” Deputy Ralston said.
“Okay,” I said and reached my hand out the window and shook his. “I'm gonna go check on a friend or two and see if I hear anything. If you're able to get any news…”
“I'll let you know. I know where you live, so I can drop in with the cruiser and let you know.”
As much as that scared me it was hard not to like the guy. He knew who I was, what I did, where I lived. He wasn't treating me like I was some kind of criminal. I'd spent my entire life fearful of the law. We weren't doing anything that would get anyone hurt or killed, not unless the other person had some really poor judgment. I’d learned from Grandpa a long time ago that someone's lack of intelligence or common sense is not a reason for me to feel guilty for their actions. If they went on a bender with our shine, then they were responsible if they wrapped their truck around a tree or had a school bus full of kids. It would be a tragedy, but it would be a tragedy caused by them, not me.
“I'd really appreciate it,” I told him and then reached back in and turned my truck on as he backed away slowly.
“I'll see you around.”
“Yep take it easy, Dave.”
He gave me half of a wave as I pulled out, and I decided to mosey on over toward Jessica's place. I saw a few cars between there and her dad's house where I’d got the blue water barrels from. No one seemed to be going anywhere, in particular, just driving around looking up at the power lines. Once I realized that they were doing that, I'd realized that I'd been doing it myself. I was looking to see if there was any more line sagging. I turned to the road that went up the hill and saw a burnt transformer. It didn't look like any other brush along the road had been burned.
Putting my blinker on, I turned into Jessica's driveway and started pulling up the long winding path toward her dad's house. I got to the top of the hill, and my heart fell. Lance’s truck was parked behind her car, and I could see the both of them out on the front porch. With my window down, I could hear the raised voices. I pulled in next to his truck, to make sure I wasn't gonna block a man, and then I got out, leaving my door open.
Blackout: Still Surviving Page 11