Jolt

by Roberta M. Roy

  Dahlia’s eyes did not turn from the window until the copter was well past view. “What kind of supplies, Mums?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe medical supplies. Maybe food.”

  Dahl turned her eager blue eyes up toward her mother. “Let’s follow it, Mums!”

  May smiled to see her daughter’s enthusiasm. “I suppose it would be worth a try.”

  So the two of them took May’s car and headed off down the hill.

  May sang as she went and Dahl chimed in, sometimes with the last word, sometimes with the full song. “When Irish eyes are smiling…”

  “…smiling”

  “All the world seems bright and gay…,”

  “…and gay…”

  “And when Irish eyes are happy…,”

  “…happy…”

  “Sure they steal your heart away-y-y-y.”

  “…your heart away-y.”

  It had been about a month now since the disaster, but to May it seemed like many months since she had shared such a happy, forward-looking moment with her daughter. It had a fairy-tale quality about it and the feeling was wonderful.

  As it turned out, the drop was of medical supplies and dehydrated meals. The Citizens’ Communication Center had been alerted as to the likelihood of the drop early that morning and the spot agreed upon was to be the village park where an area had been kept open for emergency helicopter landings. But the copter did not need to put down, and by the time May and Dahlia arrived at the scene it was gone and men in red caps were already manning the area. Lines had formed. They led to the main drop area. They were composed mostly of Newcomers but with an identifiable small mix of Townspeople, most of whom were either older women with friends or young women with small children. They were all waiting for the dehydrated food to be distributed.

  Although the Newcomers had been hit hardest, food had become problematic for the whole community. Those who felt the pinch most were families with only one wage earner, or families with no wage earners and no one who could hunt or fish either. So already the line for food stretched out of the park and down the road.

  May decided not to join the line. Lem and Thaw were good providers: good fishermen and hunters. Armed with guns, they brought in deer as needed. And most recently they had brought in a number of small fawn, which were better off brought down as they had been injured by the wild dogs. They also brought May fresh green lambs’ quarters which grew wild along the edges of the fields. These May cooked and served as spinach. And sometimes they brought wild onions, carrots, and mushrooms. At the market one could still purchase limited amounts of canned goods, but the prices were high, especially given that most people’s incomes were reduced. Only those on a fixed income provided by a pension plan like the one Martha or Lem enjoyed offered any degree of financial security. At least the federal and state monetary systems were still up and running.

  It was a little early to benefit from the effort, but May had planted some potato eyes in a previously cultivated area near the house. These were already beginning to sprout and come spring, as soon as she was sure the frost was past, she planned to put in some other vegetable seeds. The plan was also for Lem to fence the area to keep away any wild grazing animals, although at the rate at which they were being brought down, the need might not continue to exist by the time the area was planted. Very soon, even the wild dogs would no longer be much of a threat, and May had begun to let the girls out to play for short periods within plain sight outside of the house.

  Whatever Lem and Thaw brought in that was in excess of their needs was taken to the distribution center for the Newcomers and more needy Townspeople. But hunger was increasingly in evidence in the camps and village, and potable water availability and distribution remained problematic. For Newcomers near the lake, some of their water needs were met by boiling the lake water, or if they had it, by adding a few drops of bleach to what would then become their drinking water. But the means to boil water depended not only on the availability of a fire, but also on having a deep enough pot in which to safely boil it. Also, bleach was in short supply. So, although two trucks of water had been brought in, there still was the challenge of carting the water in sufficiently large quantities to supply a family. And then, too, given the number of weak and ill, the mile or two or three to where the trucks were parked made the trek impossible for many.

  After passing the food line, May decided to drive up to Martha’s to see if the girls were ready to come home. It had been more than a week since she had last been to town and she was struck by the changes in the landscape.

  All along the road, every several houses, she noted there was a rock or a table with a pail or tub of water on it. Beside the container might lay a ladle or cup for dipping. And along the road came people. Some carried plastic bottles. Some came with pails. Some were empty handed. They gathered in small groups of two to five around this or that watering spot and took what they could carry, either just drinking from the vessel provided or using it to fill their container to take back to their campsite.

  Happily, among the Townees were those who were ready to do a tour or two a day to bring water to this or that part of the Newcomer camps. With them they would bring large jugs of water which they had filled from their taps at home and which they offered by the cup or full bottle to people in the campsites.

  But now the presence of food in dehydrated forms seemed to make drinkable water even more of a need. This in turn pushed many more people of all different ages out to collect water to drink with or to mix into the food packages for eating as soon as possible. So as May and Dahlia moved along the road up to Martha’s, not only were there stragglers to be found along the way, but there were also full families preparing picnic meals from some of the re-hydrated food they had received that morning.

  If one had not known better, one might have thought it was an old fashioned market day or that everyone was off to a fair in some long ago setting.

  “Oh, Mums! Could we have a picnic, too?”

  “We’ll see, Dahl. Maybe when we get to Martha’s.”

  When May and Dahl arrived at Martha’s, only Granny, Juanita, Carrie and Natalie’s niece were there. Carrie was outside with Juanita playing catch with Marlena, and Granny and Natalie’s niece were inside preparing lunch. Maria was not at home but at work at the Sickbay, cleaning. Martha had taken Rozlyn and the pregnant Elaine into town. Elaine was not feeling well and Martha was taking her to find a doctor, and if none were found, hopefully they would find a mid-wife or nurse. Lem had called about the food-drop, so Rozlyn was going to walk over while Elaine was seeing a medical person to try and pick up some of the dehydrated rations as she was also concerned about her mom and sister and Granny. Rozlyn and Granny seemed to have become quite fond of one another, frequently cooking together and exchanging personal stories.

  Martha had cautioned Granny not to wait lunch for them as they might be a while.

  For lunch Granny had prepared a fish broth with lamb’s quarters and potato pieces in it. She also had mixed some dry milk with water and made some scones with raisins in them, enough for everyone to have one large one. She invited May and Dahl to stay but May begged off staying as her quick appraisal of the situation suggested she and her daughter would have stretched Martha’s crew’s meager food supplies.

  Granny, however, was not to be easily put off. “Or, and if you like, we have some chopped venison that your brother dropped off for us. We’ll be having it for supper, but there’s more than we’ll need for tonight. Would you rather have a burger for lunch?” May was not aware that Lem had brought down any deer lately, which set her a bit to wondering.

  But May was not to be swayed. “Thank you, Granny. You’re very kind, but Lem’s supposed to come home for lunch and we wanted to be there for him.”

  Granny noticed Dahl move in a bit closer up against her mom, so she moved back to bustling around the kitchen. “Whatever suits ya’. But you’re welcome to stay.”

  “I really came,
Granny, to see if Carrie is ready to come home.”

  Granny was busy at the stove. “She’s having such a nice time with Juanita, why not let her stay? And Dahl, too?”

  Dahl said nothing. She just hung near her mother. “What do you think, Dahl? Should we take Carrie back with us or would you like to stay…you could both stay…and Lem will bring you back before supper.”

  “I’ll go with you, Mums. I want to hear what Uncle Arthur has to say about the helicopter.”

  May worked hard to encourage Dahl to be more outgoing when she was out of the house. “Shall we take Carrie with us?”

  “If she wants.” As long as Dahl was near her mother she was generally perfectly happy to go along with whatever her mother suggested.

  “But Carrie, you’d like to stay, wouldn’t you?” asked Granny.

  Carrie was getting plates from the cupboard, but stopped with a pleading look. “Oh, Mom, please can I stay?”

  So Dahl and May thanked Granny and the two of them headed out for home again.

  The activity along the road on the way home was not much different from what it had been coming, except they saw that two children between the ages of eight and ten years were fighting over a plastic bottle. When the mothers intervened to stop them, everything went awry and the two women wound up also struggling over the bottle. The struggle ended when the older of the two women slapped the younger one across the face. The shock of the slap’s impact caused the younger one to release her hold on the bottle. Then, as she reached to re-establish her hold on it, the older woman’s daughter grabbed the younger woman’s hand, quickly shoved it into her own mouth and bit into the hand’s fleshy part with such a vengeance that the young woman gave a piercing yowl. This move permitted the older woman the time to get away; she hurried up the road to the next watering spot, the prized bottle firmly in hand.

  It was a warm summer day, but May and Dahl noticed a deer being spitted on a lawn, and down among the Newcomers they spied two hanging in trees waiting to be skinned. May hoped that today Thaw might manage to bring home a pheasant or a duck. To herself she laughingly thought that a buck would be wonderful, but given that the villagers had declared open season on all deer, May had to admit she would be just as happy if he brought a doe or more fawn.

  Fawn seemed especially prevalent this year. She wondered what was the largest number of fawn a doe might give birth to at one time. She determined she would ask Lem at lunch. He’d surely know.

  Lem arrived late for lunch. He patted Dahl on the head as he passed her sitting on a rock in front of his house drawing a picture of a tree she was studying. By that time May’s question about the number of fawns born in a season to one doe had been totally forgotten.

  It seemed Lem had come across Thaw in Lochlee. Thaw had a doe on the top of his van, but rather than going home, he’d parked the van with the doe on top of it in front of the Sickbay. Lem had wandered in to see what was going on there. Maybe Natalie’s niece had become ill or was evidencing signs of radiation sickness, but such was not the case. This latter thought he did not share with his sister. Instead he told her about what he had found. It was Thaw. “He’s in pretty bad shape. Lost a lot of blood.”

  May was duly concerned. “How’d it happen, Arthur?”

  “Well, Martha told me the story or what she best seemed to understand about it. Seems she was there about the young girl she has living at her place.”

  May nodded. It occurred to her that Thaw had not been up to telling the story to Arthur himself. “Granny told me she went down there.”

  “Yeah. Well, that young woman she has living in her house now is pregnant but she seems to be more sick with nausea than is usual in pregnancy as it lasts all day. Nobody knows for sure at this point, but we’re both thinking it might be the first signs of radiation sickness.”

  “Oh, dear.” The girl was gentle and sweet and May had taken an immediate liking to her. May’s eyes welled with tears. “Do you think so, Arthur?”

  Lem continued his recounting of Martha’s story. “So Martha was down there to see if she couldn’t get her some help. And there was Thaw, just coming through the door, arm wrapped in a bloody towel and leaning on the arm of young man whom he had bumped into after he more or less fell out of his van in front of the Sickbay.”

  “Did Martha see Thaw before he came in?”

  May always seemed to want to know the details, so Arthur answered as best he could. “I don’t know, but she had left the young woman in the waiting area and was with Thaw when I came in. It turned out that Thaw had come upon a bear cub feeding on a dead dog only to have the mother show up behind him at almost the same time.”

  “Bears!” May felt her knees weaken ever so slightly, but she caught herself just in time on the kitchen table and remained standing.

  Arthur had approached the sink for some water, so he had missed catching her almost-buckle. So he went on. “Seems he was looking at the little bear when he heard a low growl behind him and he turned to more or less look the mother bear in the eye. Then he began to back off slowly but the mother bear just took a nice easy swat at him anyway and caught the muscle and punctured but did not tear the artery in his left arm.”

  “The artery?!” May sat down.

  “Then for one reason or another she let him escape backward into the woods. But he was losing blood, so he just dropped down behind a tree with his back to both her and the cub. The tree was not far from her but she took no further interest in him, turning all her attention instead to her cub.”

  May was incredulous. “Can you believe it! He just sat down not far from her?”

  Lem continued. “Once the bear turned to leave, the first thing Thaw said he did then was to raise his watch above the spot in the wrist where the artery had been punctured and tighten it as tightly as he could. Then he pulled out one of his rawhide laces and wrapped that around the arm, and using his good right arm and his teeth, tightened that and tied it as tightly as he could.”

  May was spellbound. “Arthur. Did it work?”

  “Luckily the van wasn’t far, so he made it to it and managed to get in. As it happened, there was a good-sized metal bolt on his dashboard. He grabbed it and threaded the rawhide around his arm through it, tied it on using both ends of the rawhide and then turned the bolt like a spigot, which he used to tighten or release the pressure against the artery. In this way he was able to totally stop the blood flow and somehow he was still able to drive the van down the hill to the Sickbay. He said he used his thumb and forefinger to hold the tourniquet and drove with his knees and the other three fingers on his good hand when possible.” Lem sat down, too.

  “Good Lord!” May said in a half-whisper.

  “Once at the sickbay he opened the van door and he practically fell into the arms of the young man whom Martha found helping him in through the bay’s front door.” Suddenly Lem felt tired.

  But May wanted to know how bad Thaw was, so Arthur continued. “Well he’s a bit weak but there was a doctor there who poured some peroxide into the hole, cauterized it and stopped the bleeding. Then she stitched the arm shut.”

  But May wanted to know what the woman doctor had had to say, so Lem pulled everything together that he could remember. He told May that when he left, Thaw was resting with a freezer pack on his wrist and the doctor didn’t want him moved for at least forty-eight hours and not before she was pretty sure the bleeding wouldn’t start up again.

  Then May wanted to know how Thaw looked, so he told her that he looked a little pale and was just lying there but that he could talk. Mostly he seemed to just want to sleep. He concluded with, “But the doctor is quite sure he will survive.”

  Still May had another question. “What about a transfusion?”

  “She thinks he’ll make it without one but they’ve got him on a bag of glucose, and apparently the helicopter dropped in some antibiotics this morning, so she was able to add some of them to the drip. That should help.”

  “Poor Thaw.” May
was quiet now but Arthur had something to add. “He said his tetanus shot is only a year or two old, so they figure he’ll be all right without a new one. And I did ask about how she thought he would heal.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She said the muscle and tendon were torn pretty badly and she had done the best she could but the tendon had been held only by a thread and to get it together she had to really grab into it. So there’s a good chance that arm will be a little tight and difficult to straighten out. But luckily it’s his left and he uses his right hand for painting.”

  May then turned her thoughts to Natalie. “Are you going to tell her or has someone already told her?”

  “I told them I’d tell her. I was there. Thaw’s my friend. I think I can answer her questions better. I just wanted to fill you in quickly before I go and pick her up and take her down to see him.”

  “Why don’t I fix a sandwich for her to take along?” May suggested.

  “Thaw said he’d left her in the cabin when he went to hunt, with the promise he’d be back for lunch. Fix one for Thaw, too. You never know.”

  Natalie turned ashen at the news. She permitted Lem to drive her down to the village and on the way accepted the sandwiches that May had prepared. Throughout the ride she was exceptionally quiet.

  The ride through town offered ever evolving new images. Some of the houses closest to the campsites seemed to have been barricaded, and here and there a child peeked out through the spaces between the boards that covered the windows. Further on past the camps and nearer to the sickbay, the houses took on the appearance of roadside camps, crowded with families extended by the presence of Newcomer families who had been invited to share Townees’ houses. At night the selected Newcomers used the Townees’ homes as sleeping quarters. Days, however, as long as the weather was clear, they used the lawn areas outside as living space. Tents and swings and blankets and outside cooking areas littered the green areas of these extended-family-run campsites. Water was trekked from the houses outward as needed. Inside plumbing was accessed on an as needed basis. Often times the Townees and camping Newcomers worked together to provide a place near the road which they set up with a pail and ladle to form a makeshift watering station for passersby. These were then regularly replenished by the Newcomers scattered across the lawns who alerted the homeowners as to when the pails were empty by approaching the houses to have them refilled.