by Pete Thorsen
Beth was on her knees and holding her mom who was lying on the ground covered in blood. I checked her mom for a pulse but never expected to find one. There was just so much blood. Beth was softly sobbing. I ran back into the house and pulled the big afghan off the back of the couch and went back out.
Gently I got Beth to stand up and holding her with one arm I covered her mom with the afghan. I led Beth to the bench on the back porch and I sat down with her. She just buried her face in my shoulder and started crying harder again. I just held her.
After a few minutes she quieted down and I asked if she had called the police. She said she had called them just before she had called me. It had been some time by then and they still had not yet shown up.
I held Beth for a very long time and when the police still had not shown up I called them just in case they had not gotten the address correctly. I was informed when I finally got through that yes officers were on their way but it still might be some time yet before they arrived. I asked if they had been informed that there had been a violent death here and they answered yes they had that information.
I could hardly believe that it must have been at the very least an hour and a half and more likely two or more hours since Beth had called them and they still were not here.
It was maybe another forty five minutes or so when I heard someone announce their presence at the front door. It was one police officer. He had not used the siren on his car or I would have certainly heard it. I took him out the back door and pointed at the covered body on the ground.
“What happened here?”
“I don’t know. The young lady called me just after she called the police about three hours ago. The woman on the ground is her mother. That is all I know other than the young woman seems to be unhurt.”
He walked over and lifted the afghan to look at the body. Then he walked over and started to question Beth. First he got full names for both her and her mom and verified that indeed the woman was her natural mother and that they lived at this address together. When asked what exactly happened Beth said she had left to walk up to the grocery store to pick up a few things and when she got back she found her mom where she was now. No one else lived here and Beth said she saw no one when she got back.
The policemen looked again at the back yard and seemed to notice that it was all garden. Then he walked all around the low fence that enclosed the back yard before coming back.
“Likely someone came over the fence to steal some of your garden produce. That is happening daily here in the city. Your mom must have surprised them or maybe tried to stop them and was struck at that point. I’ll put that in my report. Do you have a funeral home picked out? If so I will call the one of your choice for the pick up. If not I will call the closest one.”
I could hardly believe what I was hearing.
“Won’t the coroner come for the body? What about an investigation? Will a forensic crew come and look for evidence? Will there be an autopsy?”
“Things are handled differently now. There have been some cut backs. I will file a report when I get back to the station. I will have the coroner write up the death certificate and a certified copy of that can be picked up at the station for a small fee. The funeral home will pick up the body as soon as possible. You will have to make the normal arrangements with them for burial.”
“What about an investigation?”
“I have several more stops to make before I even make it back to the station today. I will just write up the report there.”
“That’s it? Someone has been violently killed in broad daylight and you will not even ask the neighbors if they saw anything?”
“I just do not have time and the department no longer has the manpower. Now back to the matter at hand. Do you have a funeral home picked out?”
This last question was spoken louder and directed at Beth. She quietly said the name of one of the nearby funeral homes and the officer wrote it down in the small notebook he had been using this whole time. Then he just left and I heard him drive away. The whole episode was unbelievable. I was right here for it all and I still did not believe it.
Two or three hours for the police to get here where a deadly violent crime had taken place then just one young police officer shows up. No investigation of any kind. No coroner. No looking for or gathering of any evidence. No questioning of anyone. And this was how the city handled murders? Did the police even show up for any lesser crimes at all I wondered? I doubted they would even come at all if it was just a robbery.
I was fuming but I calmed myself and sat down again next to Beth. She was no longer crying but just sitting there with a blank look on her face. I gently helped her stand up and led her to the living room and sat next to her on the couch. I thought it best if she was where she could not see her mom’s covered body.
About an hour or so later the hearse showed up and took Betty away. Beth still seemed to be out of it. I cleaned things up around the house some and then asked Beth to pack an over night bag and she could stay at my house in the spare bedroom for a day or two.
She did not really say anything but got up and went to her room and awhile later came back carrying a bag. While she was doing that I made sure all the windows were locked and I locked the back door and also wedged a chair under that door knob. I asked Beth if she had her keys and she pulled them from her pocket to show me then out the front door we went and I made sure both the two locks on the front door were locked before we left for my house.
When we got to my house I got Beth into the spare bedroom and had her lie down for awhile. I peaked in a half hour later and it looked like she was asleep. I worked out in the garden and near supper time I went back in and cleaned up. Then I made a simple supper for the both of us and went into her room and gently woke her up.
She did not seem to know where she was at first and then it all must have come back to her and she leaned into me and started crying again. This time the crying did not last too long and when done she excused herself and went into the bathroom to freshen up.
I went into the kitchen and that is where she found me several minutes later. She had washed up and looked better now. I talked her into eating something and I gave her a small portion that she picked at and did finally eat most of. I think she only ate the food because she knew just how scarce and valuable food had become. After we were done with the simple supper I had made I cleaned up the kitchen and we went into my living room and sat together on the couch for long time.
Some of the time we just sat there silently and occasionally Beth would start crying again. Some of the time we talked about the future. Mostly I wanted her to know she could count on me to help her anyway I could. I was really the only person she had left and she was the only person I had.
Chapter 5
Beth’s mom had paid up front for her own funeral a few years ago. She had told Beth that she would not burden Beth with that expense. Everything was all set up and paid for. I drove Beth into town the next day and we went to the funeral home and made sure everything was being done. Beth decided on no real funeral and Betty had wanted to be cremated so it was set up to be done soon.
From there we went back to her house and I helped Beth pack everything of hers and all other useful or valuable items that were in the house up to be brought out to my house. We were sure that if no one was living there that the house would be broken into in just the next few days and ransacked.
It was a shame that we would lose what garden produce that was still growing but not ready to harvest yet but it was what it was. The garden produce would not go to waste. Beth went next door and told her neighbors that they could have whatever was in the garden as she would not be here to take care of it or to harvest any of it.
We called to have the power turned off and the water turned off. It took two trips to move everything that Beth wanted to save. On the last trip I did my best to drain out all the water lines and the water heater. I poured some regular antifreeze into all the dr
ains and toilets. The house was as ready as I could reasonably make it for an unheated winter which was several months away yet. Beth would have put the house up for sale but that would be pointless in this market.
Beth also closed the joint checking and savings accounts that her and her mom shared. She called the Social Security office to report her mom’s death and they said they needed a certified copy of the death certificate sent to them. With the closing of the bank accounts the direct deposit social security checks would not be possible anyway so Beth decided for now to do nothing else about it.
We also stopped at the post office and filed a change of address for mail delivery so it would all come out to my address. Her mom no longer had a car and Beth drove her car out to my house. We had done all we could. With the way the economy was many things no longer mattered anymore. The house insurance was paid up for another eight months but both of us wondered if the insurance companies were even still in business anymore.
Now we lived together. It just made sense. And it would be much safer for Beth. It was a separate bedroom situation though as it should be. Beth knew she could trust me. We both had feelings for the other but now was not the time to carry that any farther.
There was plenty to do at my rural place to keep both of us busy. The big garden was producing and there was harvesting and canning to be done. Beth and I went foraging a few times a week and she was learning fast what could be eaten and what not and where to look for certain plants. I also taught her to never harvest all of a patch of any wild plant but always some behind to go to seed for next year.
Beth also spent time rearranging and redecorating my bachelor’s house. I thought I kept a pretty clean house but Beth was much more thorough at cleaning than I had ever been. We got along well and she was able to keep very busy which was likely big help during the healing process from losing her mom.
I had bought a bike very cheap awhile back for myself and Beth had brought hers with her of course. I had never even ridden the one I had bought used but now Beth talked me into riding bike with her.
After some practice runs we sometimes rode the bikes into town to pick up small things at the grocery or other stores. Other times we drove her car which was way easier on gas than my old truck. When I saw the value in the bikes I did buy extra tires and tubes for them to have on hand.
I did drive my truck on the days that I had to work. I wanted the truck because I always salvaged anything worthwhile at every job site. Even smaller wood scraps I brought home to burn in my wood heater in the winter months. Nothing ever went to waste if I could think of a use for it.
Because the garden was so big we canned a very respectable amount vegetables out of it. Plenty to carry both of us over winter. Beth discovered all the food that I had stored at the house after she moved in. I had bought and stored and also canned way more food than I used and had quite a supply stored at home. When she asked why I had so much I just said that I really liked to eat and had always put some away for lean times. Like now.
I also said that though I and my family had always had a big garden we always knew that you could not depend on a garden crop every year. Things could happen to your garden that was totally out of your control, no matter how good or experienced a gardener you were.
Grocery prices were still going up even though most people had very little money anymore. Those on food stamps were having a very tough time of it. The monthly amount that each food stamp recipient received had been reduced at the same time all the prices had been going up. Even careful food stamp shoppers were now on very lean diets and most were on near starvation diets.
Grocery stores also had very limited supplies of food and other items on the shelves now. There were often shortages. On the rare times that we went in shopping at my urging we bought a lot extra of the things we needed if it was available. If it was not available we checked every time we were in town until we were stocked up to my satisfaction.
When it was time to pay the electric bill and the phone bill I paid what was due and added enough to pay for an additional three months. The clerks were surprised but when I asked they said it was fine to do it that way if I wished to do so. Many, many stores had closed their doors and went out of business.
During the hot days of the summer Beth and I enjoyed using my twelve foot deep swimming pool fed by the windmill. Beth enjoyed it because I had no air conditioning at the farm house and I enjoyed seeing Beth in her bikini.
As summer was coming to an end we used the bikes to visit several vacant places I knew about that were not too far away. A couple had no buildings on site anymore but still had apple trees growing there. We picked the apples, as many as we could on each of these trips.
Beth thought we would can all the apples and we did can some, and made apple butter from some, and froze some to use later in pies and cobbler but many we dried. My folks had dried apples and other things and built their own drier or what most now called a dehydrator. Beth was very impressed with just how well they worked and just how simple the design was.
It was a slanted low rectangular glass covered box that had a large square box mounted on top. The slanted box was all black inside and had several black pipes spaced inside. A screened air entry was on the very bottom and a screened air exit was at the very top of the big square box.
Fresh air entered at the bottom and was heated by the sun on the black window area making the air naturally rise up and pass through the big square box where screened trays were located to hold the items to be dried before the heated air then escaped through the top screened vent. All you needed was to place the thing facing the sun and it required no electricity to operate.
I had made it so I could regulate how much air was allowed to pass through the drier in case I wanted the air to be warmer or not so warm. For maximum effect the dryer had to be moved a few times per day to follow the sun but would still work to some extent even if it was just sitting and the sun could then hit it at any angle.
We used this drier for the apples but also for many other things from the wild. I used it to dry many herbs that I both grew and that I foraged to find. Beth constantly asked questions about everything and I was happy to answer every one of her questions that I could.
Much of my knowledge had been passed down from generation to generation. Some of my knowledge was newer that I picked up from books I had found used at yard sales and thrift stores and from some research on the internet when I was at the library. In the evening Beth often read and looked through the books I had in the big book case. There were no fiction books at all, only books where you could learn something. Some of the books were quite old having been passed down in my family through the years.
My family had always been poor and had used natural remedies from native plants whenever possible to save money. They had also grown many different herbs to use for medicinal purposes besides just in cooking. Everything was done to save money and not depend on store bought items.
Now with the way the economy was Beth was quick to grasp the importance of all of this natural wisdom and using natural products rather than store bought foods and medicines. She said and I agreed that the natural things were very likely much better for you than the manufactured stuff from town and I fully agreed with her.
There was so much information in that one big book case. Whether new books or old books the information they contained never was outdated or unusable.
Beth was constantly amazed at how much food was available through foraging in the nearby areas. She even talked to me about the possibility of getting some chickens after she saw that there was a chicken coop already here on the place. I told her she was becoming quite the little homesteader.
Chapter 6
We commonly watched the news on TV most nights (free broadcast TV because I would never pay for satellite TV). This was news but we both wanted a more in-depth and more accurate news report. We could not go to the library any more because it had been closed for months to help cut the c
ity’s costs. Beth had a laptop and she suggested that we ride bike to town and find a free wi-fi hot spot to access the internet. I was all for it and we left one morning and rode into the city.
It had been two or three weeks since either of us had been in town. That’s how long it was since I had a job or we had needed to shop. Riding into town we noticed many more of the businesses had now closed down and had boarded up their windows and doors. She tried two restaurants that we finally found that were open but neither had wi-fi. As we got further into the city more and more businesses were closed. Some were boarded up and some were wide open with smashed out doors and windows. In some areas it looked like a war zone rather than a mid sized mid western city.
We mostly gave up and had turned around but we were taking different streets on the way back toward home in the hopes of yet finding a free hot spot. There seemed like very little traffic on the streets and we had only seen just a very few pedestrians walking here and there. We had seen several others that were on bikes like we were. We had never come very close to any of the people we saw. It almost looked like they had gone out of their way to avoid us. But overall the city seemed to be mostly empty of shoppers.
When three men stepped out in the street ahead of us neither Beth nor I thought much about it. When we got closer one of them pulled a gun and ordered us to stop.
“Get off your bikes. Both of you. Mister, I’m gonna let you just walk away but the girl and the bikes stay here. Make trouble and you will be dead. And believe me you sure wouldn’t be the first.”
I was at a complete loss as to what to do. I had no weapon other than my small jack knife in my pocket and my multi tool in the scabbard on my belt. Neither was much of a weapon and the man could easily shoot me long before I had either out and opened up.