Resurrecting Home

by A. American

  “Well?” Mel asked.

  “I have an idea. Let me run back to the house real quick.” I hopped in the truck and went back to our house and dragged my pack out. Digging around in it, I found what I was looking for and headed back.

  Mel looked at me as I got out of the truck, her eyes scanning my person. “Thought you were going to get something?”

  I held up a small black case. “I did.”

  “What’s that?” Aric asked.

  With a smile I said, “Lock picks.”

  Aric smiled. “Ah, that’s so cool! You think you can pick it?”

  Mel rolled her eyes, smiling. “Men and their toys.”

  I started around the corner of the house to the garage, everyone following me curiously.

  “I gotta see this,” Jess said.

  I selected a tension wrench and rake from the kit and inserted the wrench in the lock, then went to work with the rake. After a few minutes with the rake it was obvious it wasn’t going to be that easy, so I pulled a single pick out.

  “What’s wrong? You can’t get it?” Jess asked.

  Without looking back, I answered, “Some locks are harder to pick than others. Some you can get by raking, what I was just doing, and some you have to pick individually.”

  “What do you mean individually?” Aric asked.

  “Inside the lock are pins,” I said. “This one has five. You’ve got to pick them one at a time till the lock opens.”

  Everyone watched in silence as I worked on the lock. After another couple minutes, I felt the tension on the wrench give. Looking over my shoulder, I smiled and rotated the lock open.

  “You got it!” Mel shouted, clapping her hands.

  “That’s so cool!” Jess said.

  “Dad, that is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” Taylor said. Lee Ann was grinning from ear to ear and nodding in agreement.

  “Man I would never have thought of that, to have lock picks,” Aric said.

  “Yeah, me neither,” Tyler added.

  “Let’s go see what’s inside,” Bobbie said excitedly.

  “Yeah, that’s what I want to know too,” Fred said.

  Only a wedge of light shone through the open door, casting strange shadows around the cavernous room. I flipped on my flashlight, the bright white LED lighting up the room.

  “Looks like someone left in a hurry,” I said.

  The floor of the garage was covered in stuff, save for a rectangle of barren concrete on the far side. I stepped in, followed immediately by Tyler, then Aric. Mel and Bobbie stood at the door looking in, but Fred brushed past them, saying, “Finders, keepers.” They quickly followed her, with Jess bringing up the rear.

  “Shine the light over here,” Aric said.

  I aimed it to where he was trying to release the garage door. Tyler helped him raise the door, filling the room in the bright light of day.

  “Hey, this door’s open,” Mel said, standing at the door to the house.

  “Hang on, don’t go in just yet. Let’s make sure this place is actually empty,” I said moving for the door. I looked back over my shoulder. “Who’s got a gun?”

  There were shared looks around the garage, then one by one their eyes returned to me. “You mean none of you have a gun?” I asked, shaking my head.

  “Oops,” Bobbie said.

  I looked at Fred, and she and Jess simply shrugged. Aric glanced at his sling-supported arm, as if to say I couldn’t shoot if I tried. Tyler looked at me sheepishly and said, “I have no excuse, none at all.” I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Seriously, though, in the future, everyone should be armed when you leave your house.” I drew my pistol and nodded over to Tyler. “Come back me up anyway.”

  Tyler took a flashlight from Bobbie and came up behind me as I stepped through the door. Passing through a laundry room into the kitchen, I scanned the area, which was clear. We moved into the dining room and through the rest of the house and found it to be disheveled but unoccupied. The last room we searched was the master bedroom. When I shone my light into the closet, a massive safe appeared.

  “Holy shit, look at the size of that thing,” Tyler blurted out.

  “Yeah, it’s a big ’un,” I replied, looking it over.

  Tyler stepped up to it and tried the handle. “Damn, it’s locked.”

  “Wouldn’t be much good if it wasn’t,” I replied with a laugh.

  Running a hand over it, he said, “I know, just really makes me wonder what’s in here.”

  “Might be silver and gold, but we can’t eat that.”

  “Yeah, guess you’re right,” he said, stepping back.

  “You guys all right?” Bobbie shouted.

  “Yeah, it’s clear, come on in,” I called back as I headed down the hall toward the kitchen. The cabinets were already being flung open and searched by the time I got there.

  “No, no, no, don’t do that!” Mel shouted as I walked into the doorway.

  Everyone in the kitchen turned to whom she was yelling at. Aric stood frozen in front of the fridge, his fingers wrapped around the handle.

  “We don’t want to know what’s in there,” Bobbie said.

  Aric quickly released it. “Oh yeah, guess not. Habit—or used to be a habit, I guess.”

  “That could’ve been a disaster. But, hey, look at what we’ve found, Morg,” Mel said.

  I went to the counter where all the loot was being piled. Picking up a can of corn, I said, “Not bad, crew. This will last us a couple of days, maybe three.”

  “What do you mean, two or three days?” Jess asked, crouched from the floor. She triumphantly held up two cans of soup. “Look at all this stuff! I mean, there’s got to be fifteen cans of soup here, and that’s just the soup.”

  “How many people are here now?” I asked.

  I could see her trying to count everyone in her head. To save her the trouble I answered my own question. “Seventeen. There’s seventeen people in our little community now.”

  Jess set the can back down, glancing at the pile of cans and other foodstuffs with a defeated look in her eyes.

  “I can go back to the camp. I don’t need to stay here,” Aric said, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

  I looked at him. “Dude, it’s not that, we’re happy to have you.” Looking back at everyone, I said, “Don’t get me wrong, this will help, but we should probably keep these as our emergency stock.”

  “If this isn’t an emergency to you, I’d hate to see what is,” Fred said.

  Laughing, I replied, “Fred, this is just the new normal.”

  She shrugged. “Guess you got me there.”

  Tyler came into the kitchen holding an armload of stuff, dumping it on the opposite counter. “Look at all this stuff!” He looked like a kid in a candy shop as he laid out an assortment of guns, knives, flashlights, and other pieces of gear. Picking up a Ruger 10/22, he murmured to himself, “This one is really nice.”

  Bobbie rolled her eyes. “What did you say before, Mel? Men and their toys.”

  The food was loaded into plastic grocery bags that Lee Ann had pulled out from under the sink. Grabbing a few, I carried them out to the truck. As I entered the garage, I took a minute to look around. Whoever lived here was very organized. The wall over a store-bought workbench was covered in pegboard, each tool neatly outlined in black. Boxes of empty beer bottles were stacked neatly in one corner next to a large keg. I made a mental note about these items, in case we needed them in the future. Despite how organized everything was, it was clear that whoever was here had left in a hurry. There was an open suitcase lying on the floor, some clothes hanging out of it. There probably wasn’t enough room in the car for it and so it was ditched at the last minute, but they dug something out before leaving. I could almost picture the chaos of the scene. I wondered—did they flee because of a threat of physical harm? Was someone sick? Did they have kids? For the first time in a while, I was reminded of how inhumane our situation was. Just because we had b
een able to get by didn’t mean that we were safe by any means. I shuddered at the thought but was quickly snapped back to reality by everyone coming out to fill the truck with bags of supplies.

  I drove back the short ride to Danny’s house in silence. Even though everyone was chatting excitedly about their haul, I had a pit in my stomach the whole time. The scene had spooked me out and reminded me that even though we had been dealing with some troubles, we had barely seen the worst of it. What we’d found was helpful, but it really wouldn’t make that big a difference in the end. We were going to have to come up with a real plan, and real damn soon.

  When we pulled up, the guys were sitting on the porch, the new communal gathering place. I could see the garden spot all tilled, dark coffee-colored loam in a perfect rectangle. The color of the earth was striking, as most of the ground in this area is sand, granules of whitish-gray lifelessness. But there, just behind the chicken coop, was this beautiful patch of dark brown earth. It looked like it would grow golf balls.

  “Man, that plot looks awesome,” I said.

  “It’ll be even better when we’re done with it,” Thad replied, grinning.

  “It better, it was a lot of work,” Jeff added.

  I looked over at him with eyebrows raised. “I wondered where the hell you were.”

  “I stayed behind. There were more than enough of you guys and getting that damn garden turned was a hell of a job.”

  “Look at all the stuff we found!” Jess sang out, coming through the screen door. Everyone filed in and dropped their bags on the floor.

  Thad was sitting on the edge of the big chase, knees akimbo, when a bag landed between his feet.

  “Damn!” he said, then looked up and smiled.

  “Wow, all this has been out there in these houses all this time?” Jeff asked.

  “This is all from one house, actually,” Mel said.

  Thad and Danny looked at her and in unison asked, “What?”

  “Dad had to pick the lock to get in,” Taylor said.

  “Yeah, it was pretty damn secure. Got some serious doors on it and I think the windows have security film on them. It looked like a lot of people had tried to break in, but no one had the tools. We hit the other houses, but most of those had already been searched. That one was a nice surprise,” I said.

  Jeff reached out and looked in Tyler’s bag. “Hey, this is some nice shit!” he exclaimed, then quickly looked up at Mel. “Sorry, I mean stuff. But look at this flashlight.” He pulled a Streamlight out of the bag and clicked the switch. It didn’t seem to work, and he pointed it toward his face and switched it on again. “Damn, that’s bright!” he shouted.

  “I hope you don’t test guns like that,” I said, getting a belly laugh out of Thad.

  Jeff returned a goofy grin. We went about inventorying the booty from our search. Since Mel and Bobbie did all of the cooking, with the other gals pitching in, they decided to take charge and sort the bags, discussing what they could do with the various cans and cartons. Aric sat in a rocking chair, looking a little green around the gills.

  “What’s up, dude?” I asked him. “Looks like you’re gonna puke any second now.”

  “I’m in a lot of pain right now.” He grimaced.

  “You don’t have any painkillers?” Fred asked.

  “From the camp? No, nothing strong.”

  Fred looked worried. “Is there anything we can do for him?”

  For some reason everyone looked at me. Surprised, I said, “What?”

  “You’re the one around here who knows about plants and stuff,” Danny said.

  “I don’t know of anything around here right now that would make much difference to him.”

  Immediately after saying that I remembered something. “Well . . . hang on, I’ll be right back,” I jumped up and headed back to my place. I was getting in shape from all this running back and forth these days, I had to admit. I jogged into the house and found my pack in the bedroom. Digging through it, I found what I was looking for, muttering, “Aha!”

  Coming through the screen door, I tossed the small package to Aric. Picking it up, he looked at it. “What’s this?”

  Sitting on a stool, I smiled and said, “Weed.”

  Everyone on the porch looked at it, then at me, with wide eyes. Taylor was the first to ask, “Dad? Where’d you get that?”

  “I took it off . . .” Realizing what I was about to say I thought for a moment. “I found it in a stash on my way home. Had more but used it to distract a bunch of hippies in the woods on my way in.”

  Jeff took it from Aric. “Dude, you been holding out on us?”

  “It’s not for you or anyone else as a hobby,” I said flatly.

  “I don’t smoke weed, Morgan,” Aric said.

  “It’ll help with the pain. It’s not like you’re going to sit around all day sucking on a hookah. We’ll still be putting you to work,” I said with a chuckle.

  Aric took the bag back from Jeff and eyed it suspiciously. “Will it really help?”

  Jeff smiled broadly. “Oh yeah, it’ll help. You’ll still hurt but it will change your perspective on it.”

  “Aric, just try it. If it doesn’t help or you don’t like it then don’t do more, but you won’t know unless you try,” Fred said.

  “Dad, isn’t that illegal?” Lee Ann asked.

  “Sweetie, it used to be, but right now . . . rules don’t really apply,” Mel answered. Lee Ann frowned, and Taylor shrugged, both clearly shocked that their dad even knew what it was.

  “How am I going to smoke it? Not like I could roll it, even if I had papers . . .” Aric said, trailing off.

  Jeff jumped up. “Hang on!” He took off at a run and disappeared. In a couple of minutes he was on his way back, a big dumb grin on his face. Coming back up on the porch he opened his clenched fist to reveal a small brass pipe.

  “Why am I not surprised,” I said, shaking my head.

  Putting on his best attempt at looking innocent, he said, “Whatever do you mean?”

  “All right girls, let’s go,” Mel said as she stood up.

  “Yeah, let’s figure out something for dinner,” Bobbie said.

  “We’ll help too,” Jess said as she and Fred both picked up bags and followed them inside.

  “I’ll go get Brandy and the kids,” Tyler said.

  In a matter of moments it was just Aric, Danny, Thad, Jeff, and me on the porch. Jeff whistled and looked around. “So you gonna smoke this or what?”

  Aric looked uneasy. “I guess so.”

  “Let me load this thing. You only got one arm right now,” Jeff said.

  “Let me guess—you’re going to light it for him too,” Thad said.

  Jeff looked up with a smile. “What are friends for?”

  “I’ll leave you two to it. I wanna go see the garden,” I said.

  Thad and Danny followed me out. It was looking good, but I wanted to make sure we were doing everything to maximize its potential. “What else can we do to get it ready?”

  “We need manure. We have a pile of it from the pigs over at our place, plus I’m going to look around. Looks like a lot of folks had horses and other livestock. I’m going to collect any I can find and turn it in as well,” Thad said.

  “I know where most of the large animals were around here. I’ll help you,” Danny said.

  We milled around talking about our plans for the garden. It was going to be hard to keep it going, especially without insecticide or fertilizer. While Danny and Thad were talking seed saving, I went into the chicken coop and found four eggs. Not much in the grand scheme of things, but in our current situation, every little bit counted.

  “We need to have a serious discussion about food with everyone,” I said as we looked over the plot.

  “We probably should, but what is there to talk about? There isn’t much we can do about it,” Danny replied.

  “Gonna be some hungry days ahead,” Thad added.

  Scratching my head I replied, �
��All very true, but I think we need to have a serious discussion about it, not to mention we need to get more organized. We need a work schedule of sorts, who’s doing what when.”

  “Seems to me everything is getting done,” Thad said.

  “Yeah, but there’s always a discussion about it, and with how many people we have now, I think we need to have an established schedule for things like guard duty, cooking, hunting, that sort of thing.”

  “You’ve got a point. It would make things a little easier if everyone knew when they were supposed to be doing something,” Danny said.

  “That’s what I was thinking. If we do it right, then everyone will know when they are supposed to be working on something and when they have time to themselves.”

  “That makes sense. Just be sure and keep the couples together—you know, off at the same time and all,” Thad said.

  “Good idea. Danny, you’re way more organized than I am, can you make it up?” I asked.

  “Sure, let’s go over this with everyone after dinner and make a list of what all needs done and I’ll set it up. I’ve got a wipe board, I’ll write it out on that and hang it on the front porch.”

  We talked for a little while longer. Already I was feeling more at ease, knowing we’d be getting organized in this way. As the sun touched the horizon, the sound of laughter drifted on the cool breeze. Looking over toward the house I saw Little Bit, Edie, and Jace running toward us, laughing and screaming.

  “Ain’t that a sight,” Thad said.

  As they ran by, Danny grabbed Little Bit and swung her up over his back. She squealed with delight. In a matter of moments we each had one of the little ones by their hands, swinging them in circles. Soon the yard was filled with the raucous sounds of youthful excitement. Letting the kids glide in for a slow landing, the three of us staggered around like winos with bad feet, to a chorus of “Do it again, do it again!”