77 Days in September

by Ray Gorham

  Finished with her makeup, Jennifer stood up and looked at her reflection in the mirror again. She liked how the cut of the lingerie complemented her figure, with the neckline dipping temptingly in front and the sides cut high enough to reveal the full length of her legs, making her feel enticing, but not cheap. She rested her foot on the edge of the tub and rubbed lotion on one leg and then the other. As she stroked her legs she noticed, with satisfaction, the firmness of her muscles and the pleasant shape of her thighs, both the result of walking fifteen miles a week since they’d moved into their new community.

  Removing the elastic band from her ponytail, Jennifer let her dark brown hair cascade over her shoulders and began to brush it, slowly drawing her hair down in front of her with each stroke. Her hair was getting longer, reaching almost to the middle of her back, the natural wave giving it just the right amount of body.

  By fifteen minutes after ten, Jennifer had finished getting ready for Kyle’s homecoming, retrieved her robe from the closet, and was sitting on the couch in the family room waiting for him to arrive. While she waited, she read the newspaper in the dim candlelight, then moved on to the newest Readers Digest. When she finished that and Kyle still wasn’t home, she started on a novel borrowed from a friend at work. A little before midnight, with her eyes hurting and the room too dark to see well, Jennifer found a blanket and pillow and lay down on the couch. Around two in the morning and too uncomfortable to sleep, Jennifer scooped up the blanket and staggered down the hall to her room where she tossed and turned for an hour more before drifting off to sleep for the night.

  Houston, Texas 23:45 EST

  “What do you think I should do, Kyle?” Ed asked as the four figures waved their arms frantically at them. When they’d had to force their way through the exit barrier at the airport parking lot both men knew the drive home was going to be much more difficult than they wanted. The foot traffic of airport workers and escaping passengers walking into town dotted the road along with a snarl of abandoned vehicles. Most of the people moved out of the way and let them pass as the jeep approached, their faces filled with expressions of confusion, fear and exhaustion. Every so often a person would block the road in an attempt to catch a ride.

  Ed had picked up a couple of older ladies and dropped them off near their homes, but the reputation of the surrounding neighborhoods and the worsening conditions had kept them from straying too far from their route home. Gunshots rang out just as the second of the two women was getting out of the jeep, and Ed sped off with a squeal of his tires, not sure whether the shots had been intended for him, but unwilling to find out for sure. Since that encounter, Ed had done everything in his power to avoid people and take a direct path home. These efforts had required driving down medians, hopping curbs, weaving through stalled traffic and violating most of the rules of the road.

  They were on the freeway and making as good of time as could be expected when four individuals appeared in front of them. It was a young mother with three young children, the oldest no more than seven, huddled beside a car that was pulled over into the median. There was plenty of room for Ed to avoid them without slowing down, but his foot instinctively went to the brake.

  “It’s your call,” Kyle replied, “but if you’re going to stop for them, let’s get them loaded quick. It’s not like they’re the only people around that’d like a lift.”

  Ed grunted and Kyle felt the jeep slow. They rolled up to where the family was standing, and Ed rolled down his window. The mother wiped her eyes and cheeks with her free arm. The other hand clung tightly to the wrist of the youngest child. “Get in quickly,” Ed said in as kind of a voice as he could muster under the circumstances.

  The woman mumbled a “thank you” and pushed her children into the back seat.

  Kyle looked at her in the darkness and his thoughts immediately went to his wife, which sent a chill down his back.

  “Where are you going?” Ed asked, twisting around to look at his passengers.

  The woman sniffed and tried to regain her composure. “Thank you again. We’ve been waiting for hours for someone…” The youngest child, who appeared exhausted to the point of passing out, began to cry and the woman leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. “It’s alright, Courtney,” she whispered, “we’re on our way.”

  Ed put the jeep in gear and accelerated away from her vehicle, too afraid to stay stopped any longer than he needed to. “Where’s somewhere safe I can take you, miss?” he asked again.

  “My ex lives in League City. That’s where we were headed when everything went bad. That’s the closest place I’ve got.” She paused, and her eyes glassed over as she tenderly rubbed her youngest child’s head “ We left Huntsville as soon as Jonathan got out of school…their father is supposed to have them for the weekend.” Her voice was faint and she seemed to be in another place. “I’ve never had car problems before; do you know what’s going on?”

  Kyle shook his head, “We don’t know anything for sure, and there’s nothing on the radio but static.”

  “Someone said there was a war going on, that we’ve been attacked.” The woman was fighting to control her emotions as she spoke, but tears rolled down her cheeks and her voice halted every couple of words.

  “Who said we were attacked?” Ed asked, looking in the rear view mirror, even though it was too dark for him to see into the back seat, with the only light coming from the glow of his headlights.

  “I don’t know,” she answered. “Just some guy who walked by us a couple of hours ago. It scared Jonathan, and I guess me too. What are you going to do with us?”

  “I guess we’re going to League City,” Ed said. “I can’t very well throw you out on the side of the road.”

  The woman in the backseat let out a deep sigh, and Kyle could hear her crying. After a short silence she spoke up again. “Thank you so much. I didn’t know what we were going to do. Everyone just kept walking past us. Things are just so crazy. I suppose we could have walked somewhere, but I don’t know this part of town.”

  “Just relax, Miss,” Ed said, sounding tired. “No one knows what to do right now, and I imagine being stranded with three kids doesn’t make it any easier.”

  “No. It doesn’t. My name’s Stephanie, my friends call me Steph.”

  “Okay Steph. I hope you can get us to your ex’s in the dark. Keep your arm around your kids. I’ll probably be doing some off-roading, and I’m going to keep my speed up.

  ****

  It was four hours later when Ed finally swung the jeep into his own driveway. The jeep’s headlights, the only light in the eerily dark neighborhood, splashed across the front of his house, lighting up a brick bungalow with an attached, oversized garage. He engaged the emergency brake, shut off the ignition, and killed the headlights, immediately plunging them into a thick, all-enveloping darkness.

  “I think you might want to leave the lights on, Ed,” Kyle suggested. “I’m guessing your security light isn’t going to kick on, and there’s not much for moonlight.”

  Ed flipped the headlights back on. “Let me go find a flashlight. I’ll just be a couple of minutes.” Ed jumped down from the jeep and hobbled off towards the garage on tender feet, spot-lighted like a performer on a stage by the piercing beams of the headlights.

  After a short wait, Kyle saw a small light coming from around the side of the garage. He leaned over, found the knob for the headlights, and pushed it in, the darkness swallowing them again except for the thin beam of Ed’s flashlight.

  “A penlight?” Kyle asked.

  “It’s all I could find. Did you want to wait out here longer?”

  “No, I guess not.”

  “Then quit complaining and follow me,” Ed instructed in a tired, but good-natured voice. “I’ll let us in, but you wait by the door. My wife is going to be scared to death. I’m not supposed to be back until next Friday, and she’s all alone without any power. I just hope she doesn’t get another ulcer with everything that’s going on.”<
br />
  Ed let them in the front door then called out to his wife in a soft shout. “Virgie? Virgie?” Receiving no response, he continued to call her name as he walked down the hall.

  Kyle stood in total darkness by the front door and listened. He heard a door open and then the muffled sound of a woman’s voice. After a short exchange, he saw the glow from Ed’s flashlight coming back down the hallway.

  “I’m going to put you in the guestroom,” Ed said as he returned. “Virgie wasn’t exactly expecting company, but the room’s not in bad shape. Can I get you something to drink before you go to bed?”

  Kyle nodded and followed Ed to the kitchen, where they sat at the table eating slices of Wonder bread and sharing a six-pack of Budweiser in the dimming glow of the flashlight, neither having much to say. As Kyle finished off his second beer, he heard a door open and footsteps slowly approach from down the hallway. Kyle turned and, in the dim light, saw Ed’s wife approach, rubbing her eyes.

  “I didn’t understand what you said in the bedroom, Ed. I was too tired,” she said, forming her words carefully. “Why are you home? You’re supposed to be gone for a week.”

  Ed looked at Kyle and appeared embarrassed by his wife’s presence.

  “Virgie, I told you I’d explain it all in the morning. Why don’t you go back to bed? I still don’t understand everything myself, and I’m tired.”

  “But I’m awake now,” she said, trying to stifle a yawn, “and I wanted to meet your friend. What did you say his name was?”

  “His name’s Kyle, dear. I met him on the airplane.” Ed stood and reached for his wife. “Let me help you back to the room.”

  Virgie turned away from Ed and leaned towards Kyle. “Hi, I’m Virgie,” she said, extending a chubby hand and leaning down close.

  Kyle took her hand and introduced himself, trying not to recoil from the powerful smell of liquor on her breath. She looked like someone’s doting grandmother, pleasant and plump with curly, gray hair, but the bloodshot eyes and alcohol-induced redness in her cheeks ruined the grandmotherly effect. Kyle wished Virgie a goodnight and thanked her for allowing him to stay, then Ed escorted his wife back down the hallway to their bedroom assuring her that everything would be all right.

  Kyle swallowed the rest of his drink and set the can on the edge of the table.

  Ed returned minutes later, using a damp washcloth to wipe at the patches of blood on the side of his face. “I’m tired,” Ed said. “I’d offer you another beer, but I think I’d fall asleep at the table.”

  “That’s fine. I’m struggling to keep my eyes open myself,” replied Kyle. Ed motioned for Kyle to follow, so Kyle trailed him down the hall to a small room with a computer and a fax machine on a desk against one wall, and a single twin bed pushed up against the opposite one.

  “It’s not much,” said Ed. “We don’t usually have company, and I’m redoing the bedroom in the basement.”

  “This is more than good. At this point I think I could sleep on the garage floor.”

  Ed smiled weakly as he gathered a couple of folders from the bed and piled them onto the desk. “The bathroom’s next door. I’ll try to find you a flashlight.”

  CHAPTER 7

  Saturday, September 3rd

  Katy, Texas

  Kyle awoke in a small bed in an unfamiliar bedroom, the bright sunlight shining on him through the window of the bedroom. Outside the sounds of a typical Saturday morning could be heard--birds singing, dogs barking, and a lawn mower in a neighbor’s yard. From the kitchen he could hear the clinking of dishes and the occasional sound of a chair scraping on the floor. He lay in bed for half an hour, trying futilely to go back to sleep, but kept awake by the outside noises, the temperature in the bedroom, and a deep, nagging worry about his family as the nightmare that was yesterday played over and over in his mind.

  Finally he got up, put on yesterday’s clothes, and headed to the kitchen. Virgie sat at the table drinking a glass of milk and eating a slice of bread covered with a thick layer of butter and jam. She looked startled to see Kyle coming down the hallway.

  “Good morning,” Kyle said, sounding more cheerful than he felt. “I’m Kyle. We met last night, or technically this morning I guess; but either way, it was late.”

  Virgie looked confused and covered her mouth as she swallowed. “I’m Virgie,” she said, pausing to think. “It’s starting to come back. Yesterday was a weird day, and then Ed came home in the middle of the night. I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on. Did Ed say something about airplane problems?”

  “Yeah, you could say that,” Kyle replied. “There are a lot of things going on right now.”

  Virgie’s look changed to one of concern. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “Please have a seat. Can I get you something to eat? I’m sure you must be hungry.”

  “That would be nice, but don’t go to a lot of trouble.”

  “Well, we usually just have coffee and toast in the morning, but nothing is working, so I can’t get you either of those.” She got up from the table and opened the fridge. “Let’s see,” she said as she scanned the contents. “We’ve got some apples, orange juice, milk. Most of it’s not very cold anymore.” She closed the fridge and looked in the small pantry. “There’s some cereal, bread, peanut butter, …”

  “Just a sandwich would be fine,” said Kyle. “Peanut butter and jam sounds good, maybe with some milk?”

  “The milk’s warm,” she reminded him. “But I can get it for you if you’d like. It still tastes good.”

  “Warm milk is fine,” Kyle answered. “I take it the power is still out.”

  Virgie nodded. “It went out yesterday afternoon. I was at a friend’s house. Couldn’t even get my car started to come home. Strangest thing. I ended up having to walk over two miles.”

  “It was like that at the airport, too.”

  Kyle watched Virgie prepare his sandwich. She was dressed in a pair of sweatpants and an old t-shirt and she hummed to herself while she worked. The small kitchen, devoid of any furniture other than the little table and its two chairs, reminded him of his grandmother’s kitchen from when he was young, minus the pictures and wall hangings that his grandmother had lovingly covered her walls with.

  “So where is it that I am?” Kyle asked, attempting small talk as he waited for his food. “Ed told me, but I don’t remember.”

  “This is Katy,” Virgie said as she poured milk in his cup. “We’re not too far from Houston, just a few miles west. With Houston growing so much, it’s more like a suburb.” She set the sandwich down in front of Kyle. “Now tell me what’s going on. What happened with your airplane? I’m still trying to figure out why Ed’s here and not in Denver.”

  Kyle related most of what had happened. He described the failed takeoff and their escape from the airplane, how there had been no emergency response, and that other airplanes had also crashed at the same time. He told her about the chaos at the airport and why he and Ed had decided to come to the house. He described the drive from the airport, and how there were cars stalled all over the city blocking the roads, and that they had seen only a few other operating vehicles. He described the accidents, the people walking home, the lack of a police presence, and how overwhelmingly dark the city had become once the sun went down.

  Virgie sat across the table, shaking her head as she listened to Kyle, her bloodshot eyes open wide. By the time he was done talking, Kyle had finished two sandwiches and three glasses of milk, and Virgie was nearly in a state of panic.

  “So why did it take you so long to get back here?” she asked. “It should just be an hour’s drive, and that’s if traffic’s bad.”

  “Ed,” Kyle answered. “There was a lady with three little kids on the side of the highway. Ed couldn’t drive by. She was headed somewhere on the far side of the city, and it was a lot slower going because cars were stalled everywhere. We could easily have been much later because there were a lot of people who needed help, but the Jeep was getting low on
gas.”

  “Sounds like Ed,” Virgie said. “He’s got a big heart, too big sometimes. So what do you think is causing all of this?”

  Kyle hesitated before he spoke. “I was telling Ed, the only thing I can think of that could have done this is something called an EMP, a nuclear bomb detonated in space. It doesn’t blow things up, but basically cooks everything that uses electricity.

  “I’m not an expert,” Kyle added. “It could very well be something else, maybe a huge solar pulse or something, but even then, depending on how intense it is, the effects are pretty similar.”

  “If it is that EMT thing you described, how long until we get our power back?”

  “Well, if it was an EMP,” said Kyle, annunciating clearly, “we’re probably looking at six months or more. More likely a year or two.”

  Virgie’s eyes bulged. “Six months until everything’s back to normal? We’ll never survive for that long!”

  Kyle shook his head. “No, you don’t understand. If it really was an EMP, normal is years away, maybe a decade. Six months is how long it will be until we might get some power plants operating, and that’s if things go well.”

  Deer Creek, Montana

  Jennifer was busily working around the house, the silent television and telephone making for a productive Saturday morning. The kids had cleaned their rooms. Emma had swept the kitchen and helped pick up toys in the basement with Spencer, and David had mowed the yard and swept the garage. When his chores were done David left for his friend’s house, and the two younger ones were now playing in the backyard.

  By all outward signs, it was a perfect, late summer Saturday morning. The sun was shining in a brilliant, cloud-free sky, birds were singing, the kids were getting along, and the house was clean. Even the neighborhood, with its homes spread out on multi-acre lots, and which was usually peaceful anyway, was unusually quiet. Jennifer knew she should relax and enjoy the day, but something gnawed at her instead. She had experienced power outages before, and Kyle had been held over at work more times than she could remember, but this was different. She tried to convince herself that the power, the phones, and Kyle being late were all a coincidence, that Kyle was probably trying to reach her to let her know he would be delayed by a day or two. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d been held over out of town.