Every Last Mother's Child

by William J. Carty, Jr

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  Jill was getting ready for school earlier in the day when the holo set came to life. She had programmed its expert system to come to life if there was any breaking news. She had just come from the shower and was brushing her hair when it came on. She watched in horror as she saw the damage the dam break had caused.

  “Oh my,” Jill said. The town of Galloway was destroyed. It looked like someone had dropped a big bundle of tooth picks in the bend of the river. But what really got her attention was when she saw the barge being moved across the city of Trenaport. It was an immense barge with several cranes on it. They had tied it to a couple of landing craft. The elsies moved the barge over the city of Trenaport lying the barge gently down in the river by the remains of Galloway. She watched as the holo showed the arrival of the Red Cross to the scene of the disaster. She watched as a young boy was rescued. It was heart wrenching as the boy didn’t want to let go of his dead mother. It was terrible. She wondered if there was anything she could do. She put her robe on and went to find her mother.

  “I see it Mylea,” Jill heard her mother talking to her aunt on the phone, “Is there anything we can do.”

  “No Lisa,” she heard her adopted aunt say, “The Red Cross has everything well in hand. They have shelters up and running or will have soon.”

  “We’ll be under foot.” Her step mother replied. She desperately wanted to help. She didn’t want to stay locked up behind the palace walls when there were people hurting. “My security detail won’t let us me do what I want to do.”

  “Lisa there isn’t anything you can do at the site.” Mylea was saying, “And your detail and you will be in the way at the evacuation hospital or shelters. They don’t need a VIP visit. But maybe you and Lady Hawthorne can come up with the things those people will need. The TRC will provide food clothing and medical needs. But these people lost everything. We will need to make sure they have what they need to start life over on Home, or anyplace they are going to end up.”

  “I think we can make that happen,” Lisa said. Her friend knew how she felt and had just the right solution.

  “Is it alright if Lamile goes to Lady Hawthorne’s with you?” Mylea said.

  “I don’t see why not.” Lisa replied. Her step mother looked directly at Jill then needling her a bit “She can help keep Jill out of trouble.”

  “And Jill can keep Lam out of trouble too!” Mylea said looking at her own daughter who stuck her tongue out at her. “She’ll be over in a bit.”

  After Lamile arrived they piled in the car and went to East Wind, the estate of Lady Hawthorne. Stretched out on both sides of the drive were containers, and portable offices. Jill who had been there a few days before had noticed that many of containers were new. She didn’t know how Lady Hawthorne did it; but she seemed to be able to reach out and touch someone to get what she wanted. As they approached the manner house Lady Hawthorne flagged them down.

  “Hi Lisa,” the noble woman dressed in casual clothes greeted them, “Ready to go to work?”

  “I guess so,” Lisa answered, “What are we doing?”

  “We have these lists of things,” Delores said, “that the crown and others say that the people in Galloway will need since their town was destroyed. The crown list isn’t too bad. But you can see that a couple of lobbyists are dumping stuff on us. We need to sort it out. Also I need to get a relief supply center set up so we can distribute the stuff to them. So there’s plenty of work to keep you busy.”

  “That’s what I want to do.” Lisa sounded desperate, “I want to be useful. Not just stuck in palace and watching things.”

  “I know Lisa,” Lady Hawthorne replied. She and Chief Atomi had discussed how Lisa was getting cabin fever. Lisa had been active in her neighborhood before being moved to the palace. She wasn’t the neighborhood busy body, but several of the stay at home parents would bring their kids over to her place so they could play with Abby while they shot the breeze with Lisa. Also Lisa would sometimes at the request of various doctors go to people’s homes or hospital rooms to assist in their physical therapy. Since going to the palace in an effort to keep her safe she had become isolated, especially after the incident at the space port. When she did get out it was with a full protective detail. Mylea had seen it immediately and Delores had seen it a bit later. “Come this way.”

  The rest of the day was a blur for Jill. After her step mother went with Lady Hawthorne, one of the older woman came up to her and Lamile, and asked, “You two doing anything?”

  “No why?” Jill asked.

  “Come this way,” the older woman said leading them to one of the immense barns on the estate. It had at one time been an indoor horse paddock. It wasn’t being used now as a collection center as Lady Hawthorne had gotten rid of her missing husband’s horses when he had abandoned the family the day after the evacuation notice.

  “In a little while,” the woman said, “we are going to open the south gates. We’re going to let people bring stuff in for the people of Galloway. When they come in we need to unload their stuff as fast as possible. We’ll pull them in park them and try to get their vehicle unloaded and out of here.”

  “So what do you want us to do?” Lamile asked.

  “Just help where you are needed. We have a lot of people and we may get in each other’s way. So try to stay out of people’s way; but don’t be shy about getting in and helping.” The woman directed them.

  “Your Grace,” Someone called, and Lamile realized it was the duchess of Central Highlands who was telling them what she needed done. The noble woman turned to see an older man who was standing by the main doors of the barn. “Here they come!”

  From that point on the two girls were busy. The long lines of cars started coming in. The people brought all manner of things. From baby cribs, to clothing, even toys. Some were in truck loads. Jill couldn’t believe it. In some of the worse junkiest looking cars the people handed her large denomination crowns, but in some of the swankiest looking cars the people gave her the worse junk, or some of the smallest donations she got of the day. One car that looked to be on its last legs and had stalled in the barn and had to have a couple of the men to push it out of the way while they worked on it, each of the ten kids who piled out of it gave her a ten crown note, and the father who was in faded dungarees had to have help pulling a jar that stood waist high out of the back. The jar was loaded with coins of all denominations. When Jill tried to refuse thinking that his family needed it more than they did, the man in his late thirties simply said, “Those people need it more than we do. We’ll get by.”

  The next car was that of a well-dressed woman with rings on every finger gave her a ten crown note, and the clothing that was taken out of the back was going to have to go into the rag bin. That wasn’t the only one that Jill remembered. They looked up and saw a freight hauler come in to the barn. It was from a local furniture dealer. He was on one of the next lifts to Home, and the crown was severely restricting how much of his inventory he could take. He said that it made more sense to let the people of Galloway have it instead of looters.

  It went like that most of the day. Lisa joined them after a while and worked with them taking the donations of the people of Trenaport for the victims of the disaster. Lisa her camera never far from hand took several photos. They heard more than once, that they hoped they got the men who did this horrible thing. Towards evening, a car came for Lisa. Jill learned that her step mother was to be part of a ceremony at the palace that the Queen holding to inform the Bishop of Trenaport, the ambassador from the Theocracy, that he was no longer desired on Trena.