Calamity in America

by Pete Thorsen

  The next day I put in my notice at Walmart.

  Before Jack opened the shop we spent some considerable time there together with him teaching me a thousand things. While Jack was trying to teach me everything, I told him that he should just hire someone else that already knew all the stuff.

  He said there were three reasons he wanted me there working for him. He said he absolutely needed someone he could completely trust without any reservations. He said what could be better than working with your very best friend. And he said business would be booming when all the guys found out the prettiest girl in the whole city worked at his shop.

  Well, I don’t know about the last reason, but the first two were certainly valid.

  Business was slow when Jack opened the shop, even though he had advertised its re-opening. I was disappointed in the slow business. Jack was not.

  “You are used to Walmart with hundreds of people in the store all the time. This is a very small operation. Seldom do we have more than a couple people in here at once, and usually the store is empty. Business will pick up, you just have to be patient and give it a little time.”

  The second week I did see an increase in the number of people coming in. And by the time a month went past there were considerably more customers.

  Before re-opening the store Jack had installed surveillance cameras and had placed signs in the store stating the fact. The signs said, “Surveillance cameras in operation with off-site record storage.” He also splattered red paint on the floor then let it dry there. Then, using black paint, he wrote on the floor, “Blood stains from the last two robbers.” He had a grim look on his face when he did that painting just before re-opening the shop.

  Jack had also told me to always carry my pistol. He told me I could pick any of the holsters in the shop to use or he would order any special one if I desired something different. He now concealed-carried his little revolver like mine and had a big automatic on his hip besides.

  I started out just using my leather fanny pack with my revolver in it and then switched to a standard hip holster. The guys that came in seemed to like it when they noticed the gun on my hip. The customers surprised me because I expected them to always want someone knowledgeable like Jack to help them but most seemed to have no complaints when I helped them. Though I did often have to ask Jack to help answer questions.

  There were never any customers there that were ever mad or angry or anything with me. I was so surprised at just how polite everyone who came in was. Way different than working at Walmart. I asked Jack about that.

  “Everyone is so polite that comes in here. Why is that?”

  “There are a number of reasons. First is that in a place like Walmart or a grocery store people have no choice. They are in the store because they have to go there and buy needed items. People do not like being forced to do anything—even simple things like getting groceries. Everyone that comes in here comes in because they want to.

  “They do not really need our stuff, but they want it. Also, everyone who comes in shares the same interest as you and I do. They are either hunters or want guns for defense or to collect. So our customers are kinda kindred spirits. Also, we are armed and the old saying, ‘an armed society is a polite society,’ is basically accurate. Plus, half of them are trying to work up the nerve to ask you out.”

  “I can understand some of that I guess. That last one you are just teasing me though.”

  “A couple guys have asked me if we are married or if you are my girl friend.”

  With a smile on my face I asked him, “So how did you answer them?”

  “I told them you are an experienced hunter and a very well practiced shooter and that I have no intensions of tangling with you.”

  “Smart man.”

  I did notice working with Jack that he often touched me. Nothing sexual in nature, just laying his hand on my shoulder or touching my arm when talking to me or whatever. We worked very well together. There was no tension between us whatsoever. We also would still go out and have supper together or go to a movie together. Being together just felt totally natural to me and I think Jack felt the same way.

  I had never realized it, but the gun shop also had a pawn license, yet Jack would only pawn guns or related items. He told me that was all he was familiar with so that’s all he would pawn. With the economy still flat-lined, the pawn business was a good business to be in. Jack also bought many guns and related items directly from his customers. And used guns, like the revolver that I had purchased, were a big part of our sales.

  Many of our customers would often stop in just to see what new or used guns had just been added to our stocks. Many of these people seemed to know Jack fairly well and were soon friendly with me and we would banter back and forth when they would come into the shop.

  In the spring I had planted a large garden again and I had enough time (even while working full time at the gun shop) to tend to that garden. It produced better this year due mostly to me having more experience from having a garden the previous summer. I had also picked up and read a couple of books on gardening, and I always had my ears open for any tips I might get from older experienced gardeners.

  With fall approaching Jack and I re-arranged the gun shop to include many fall hunting items. The store was pretty packed with new displays and added inventory. Gun sales were fairly steady but Jack said they were way down compared to what they had been when the economy was better. Sales of ammunition and lower dollar items related to hunting were fairly brisk. I think many people were turning to hunting in the hopes of getting lower-cost meat for the table. Food had continued to go up in price even with the very sluggish economy. So, just like me, many people had turned to hunting for their meat supplies.

  Jack and I did do some hunting together on the days when the gun shop was closed. I had brought my inherited shotgun down to the shop, sold it, and bought a twenty gauge shotgun like the one that Jack had let me use the previous year. It was a discontinued model but Jack had done some searching and found one in another state which he had shipped to the store.

  Things were as pleasant as they could be until one day when two men came in to the shop just before closing time.

  Chapter 10

  There was a chime on the door that sounded every time someone entered or left the shop. I heard the chime but did not look up from what I was working on. But Jack must have. Jack was working close to me but at the sound he moved towards the front. As he passed me he unsnapped the strap on my holster that held my revolver in place. He had never done that before and I looked up and saw the expression on his face as he was staring at the two men who had just entered. He glanced at me and nodded over towards one corner of the store where we had a couple of large gun safes on display for sale.

  A glance at the two men and I instantly knew what he wanted me to do. We had talked a little about it before when he had explained the difference between cover and concealment in different shooting situations. Those gun safes would easily stop bullets and provide full protection for anyone standing behind one of them.

  I moved over toward those safes without a word spoken between us. I stepped behind them, out of sight from the newcomers, and drew my revolver. I peaked around the safe and saw that Jack had moved in front of the cash register where more of his body was out of sight from any customers. He had drawn his big automatic pistol and was holding it in his hand hanging down well out of sight at his side.

  The counter the cash register sat on looked pretty much standard, but it was not. Hidden inside that counter was a very heavy half inch steel plate almost three feet wide and close to that in height. It would provide Jack with good protection from any shots fired at him if he just ducked down behind it. He had added that steel plate before reopening the gun shop. The plate-covered front was welded into an ell shape and was what the cash register was sitting on. The steel could not be seen because it was covered with a very thin sheet of paneling, so it looked like any other wood counter.

&n
bsp; The two men moved towards Jack at the register. They stayed together and seemed unconcerned about where I had gone when I left the counter. Both had their eyes focused on Jack. Neither had a gun in their hands, though each had a jacket on that could have concealed most anything. I had never seen either of them before and they had what I would call an ominous look about them. They looked just like the picture in your mind when someone said ‘gang members’.

  I held my pistol tight, and I was scared, but I controlled my breathing. This was just like when that dog was about to attack me so long ago it seemed. I had purchased my handgun and practiced for just this kind of event. I knew that I would do anything to protect Jack from harm. If, or when, it was necessary, I would not hesitate.

  “Can I help you gents with something?”

  “Yes, you can die!” screamed the man closest to Jack.

  With that statement the man started to bring up what appeared to be a sawed off shotgun. The other man was pawing at his waistband, trying to draw a large black handgun. Things were both happening really fast and seemingly very slow at the same time.

  With the man’s statement Jack had started to raise his big pistol. When I saw the two men drawing guns I lifted my revolver up to eye level and when I saw the front sight on the chest of the man in back I pulled the trigger two times.

  The man raising the shotgun only got it partway up when Jack’s two shots struck that man in the chest. The shotgun was only partway up when the man triggered it, hitting the counter in front of Jack.

  After my first two rapid shots I swung on the man with the shotgun and again, as soon as I saw my front sight on the man, I pulled the trigger. The man was already falling at that point but I knew he could still be very dangerous.

  Jack must have thought the same thing with the other man because as that man was falling Jack put two more shots into him. Then everything was silent and still. You could smell all the burnt gunpowder in the air.

  There was a brief time span with absolutely no sound or movement. It might have been a split second or a minute, I don’t really know. But then Jack and I were rushing towards each other and into the other’s arms. Again, time just stopped as we held each other.

  Then Jack released me and, after making sure that each of us was not hurt, he checked on the two men. This only took a second and then Jack moved over to the phone and called it in to the police.

  When Jack did not hang up the phone I realized that they were expecting him to stay on the phone until the police arrived. When I realized that was the case I moved over and put my arm around Jack and that is how the police found us when they finally showed up some time later.

  I then got a hint at what Jack had gone through the time his father had been killed. The police interrogated us separately for a long time until I got really mad and demanded to either re-unite us or they had better get me a free lawyer. I guess I was screaming pretty loud.

  The whole thing was on video with sound and taken from several different angles so it would be very obvious that we were just defending ourselves as soon as anyone looked at the footage. And I was sure that was one of the very first things that they had Jack do was show them the video of the shooting.

  After my screaming fit they did bring Jack and I together. Apparently I had been patient enough that their now much, much shorter investigations (due to budget constraints) was about done anyway. The bodies were hauled away and we were eventually released, though Jack refused to leave until the police were totally done and he could lock up the gun shop.

  So again the gun shop was closed, but this time only for a few days. Jack hired professional cleaners to come in and clean up the mess. He also had someone fix the front of the counter that had been damaged by the shotgun blast. The steel plate, while not saving his life, did save him from getting hurt by the shotgun pellets that surely some of which would have struck his legs.

  During the shop closure, we were seldom apart. When any of the people Jack hired were at the shop he had to be there, and so I was there also. When the work had been completed we reopened the gun shop. We had a big influx of customers the first couple of days but I think they had just come to see where the gun fight had taken place.

  A couple of different reporters had tried to interview both of us but neither of us would talk to them. The same with the customers who came and asked us about the incident. We just said we didn’t want to talk about it and wanted to put the event in the past.

  But word apparently got around. I could see that some of our regular customers seemed to have a little more respect for me now. It was nothing blatant because they had always been nice to me, but now they seemed to be slightly different. I was maybe not just a nice girl they knew but more of an equal, or maybe more like someone who proved to be deserving of their respect. A couple of our regulars shook my hand and expressed how happy they were that neither of us was hurt.

  Things between Jack and I were both the same and different somehow. The incident did not drive a wedge between us and neither of us talked about it. But there was something that was different in our friendship.

  We were the same people and we did the same things as before. We lived our lives both separately and together just like before the incident happened. Many times I caught him just looking at me without saying anything. And I have to honestly say he found me doing the exact same thing on many occasions also. I often thought about what it would be like if the shootout had turned out differently. I tried to imagine a life without Jack a couple of times but just the thought put me into a very bad mood, and I tried never to think that way again.

  But then deer season was upon us and the shop was incredibly busy. This year I just did not have the time to go deer hunting like I had last year. I wanted to go deer hunting but the shop was open every day during the season, instead of being closed two days every week like was normally the case. I couldn’t leave Jack there to operate the shop by himself so I just did not go deer hunting. It wasn’t like it was a very big deal or anything.

  When season closed and things got back to normal I was not surprised that Jack asked me to go out to a fancy restaurant to celebrate. He came to my place and picked me up and I was rather surprised at how dressed up he was. I admit, I had on a rather fancy dress that I had bought (but had never worn because it was just out of place in the places I normally went).

  So we were a fashionably-dressed couple when we showed up at the restaurant he had picked out and made reservations at, something we never did before.

  This was certainly no café or hamburger joint and, dressed up like we were, we fit right in with the other patrons in the restaurant. When we got the menus I was shocked at the prices. When Jack saw me start to say something he stopped me.

  “The sky is the limit tonight. Order the most expensive thing if it is something you want to try.”

  I admit I did not even know what many of the items on the menu even were, but I had never eaten lobster and that is what I ordered. Jack had some kind of a steak. He also ordered wine for both of us. That was really something new.

  It was a wonderful meal in every way. I found I liked the lobster and even the wine (which was new to me) tasted good and fit in with this extravagant evening. Here I was, a poor girl with no education who lived in an ancient trailer house who was dressed to the nines for the first time in my life and at a very fancy restaurant amongst all these rich people. I had a well-dressed and handsome escort. It was like a dream come true that just about every girl dreams about.

  Then at the end of this dream something totally unexpected happened.

  Chapter 11

  The meal was long-done but we were lingering, sipping the wine. Jack got up and came around the small table and kneeled down on one knee.

  “Since that first time I saw you when you came into the shop, I have been in love with you. I have been careful not to show you how much I do love you because you made it plain that you did not want a boyfriend. But then those robbers came into the store a
nd I thought I might possibly lose you like I lost my Dad. I can not wait any longer.

  “April, will you marry me?”

  Then he opened the small box that he had concealed in one of his big hands and there was a ring with a big stone that picked up all the lights from the restaurant and sparkled like a thousand bright stars.

  He looked at me and I could now plainly see the love he had for me. Love like I had never experienced before in my life. And at the same time I realized that when the robbers had come into the shop my only concern had been to protect Jack from harm. Not myself but Jack. Now I knew that was because I loved Jack and it was something totally new to me. But I did love Jack and, looking back, I could picture all the times he had looked at me and now I knew what I had seen in his eyes each of those times that I had not recognized at the time. It was with love that he looked at me. And I think I must have loved him for quite some time but I had just never admitted it to myself.

  “You should say something, you know.”

  “Yes. Yes, I will marry you. A thousand times, yes.”

  I leapt up from my chair and almost knocked him over when I threw myself into his waiting arms.

  The room erupted in clapping and cheering. Apparently everyone must have heard or seen what was happening at our little table. And I guess I might have answered a little loudly, but I certainly do not regret it for a second. I wanted the whole world to know.

  Somehow Jack managed to get the ring on my finger and when he did I raised my hand in the air and spun completely around so everyone could catch a glimpse of the sparkle now on my finger and see the happiness I felt. Then our lips met for the first time and I knew that no matter what life might bring our way we would always have each other, and together we would face anything the world threw at us.