by Robert Boren
“I’ll go see if another set of eyes will help,” he replied, and got up. He walked over to the cab of the truck.
“Need a hand?” Frank asked, smiling.
“That would be great,” said the man behind the wheel. “My girlfriend isn’t used to this. I can get into the space alright, but I’m worried about those tree branches back there, and I can’t see them at all.”
“Alright, I’ll keep an eye out. Looks like your rear air conditioner housing is going to be a little close. Bring her back slowly.”
The man inched backward, while Frank watched up above. When the branch was just about to touch the air conditioner, he put up his hand. The man stopped. He got out of the truck and came around, looking at how close the trailer was going to be to the access road.
“Hmmmmm,” the man said. “I like to be a little further back, but this will work. Thanks for the help! I’m Sean.” He extended his hand. Frank shook it.
“I’m Frank, and the little lady sitting under the awning over there is my wife, Jane. Good to meet you.”
“Sarah, honey, come meet Frank,” Sean said, as his girlfriend was walking over. She smiled.
“Good to meet you, Frank,” she said, extending her hand. She was an attractive woman in her early thirties, with light brown hair, cut short. Sean walked over beside her. He was about the same age, with very short brown hair, almost in a buzz cut. He looked like military to Frank.
“When you two get situated, come on over and have a beer,” said Frank.
“That sounds great, thanks,” Sean said. Then he and Sarah got to work getting their trailer set up. Frank walked back over to his chair and sat down.
“Nice couple,” Frank said. “Young. Wonder what direction they're coming from?”
“The truck has Arizona plates,” Jane said.
“Ahhh, I didn’t even notice that. I told them to come over for beer after they were done.”
“Good, I’d like to pump them for information.”
“Me too.”
They watched as Sean jacked up the front of the trailer and then pulled the truck away. He parked it next to the trailer. Then he worked on the leveling jacks, and got his hookups done. After that he extended the four slides.
“Looks like more work than a motor home,” Jane said.
“It’s a routine…..I’ve heard some people say that the actual time difference with the setup is small. Damn, this beer tastes good.”
The young couple walked over after about ten minutes. Frank got out of his chair and fetched two more chairs from the big rear storage compartment. He set them up facing the chairs that Frank and Jane were using.
“Ready for some beer?” asked Frank as they got under the awning.
“That sounds great,” Sean said.
“We have some IPA, also some Coors Banquet, and some other odds and ends.”
“Coors would be good,” Sean said. “Do you want one, honey?” He looked down at Sarah.
“Better not,” she said. Then she looked over at Jane. “I’m Sarah. Nice to meet you.”
“I’m Jane. Good to meet you too.” She got up and went into the coach to get the beers. She brought out two, knowing that Frank would be ready for another one. Everybody sat.
“So, Frank, where are you guys coming from?” asked Sean.
“Southern California, by the coast. An area called South Bay.”
“I know where that is. I spent a summer in Hermosa when I was a kid. Nice beaches.”
“It’s a nice place to live. A little expensive, though,” Frank said.
“Where are you guys from?” asked Jane.
“Yuma,” Sean said. Sarah looked like she was going to cry, and Sean put his hand on her arm.
“You guys are running away too, I suspect,” Jane said.
“Yeah,” Sean said.
“It’s scary there now,” Sarah said.
“Is it as bad in California as they are saying?” asked Sean.
“I think we got out just in time,” Frank said.
“Hopefully this will work itself out quickly,” Jane said. “The governor called out the National Guard earlier today.”
Sean looked over at Frank. He had a grim look on his face.
“Frank, could you give me a hand with something on my trailer?”
“Sure,” he replied, getting out of his chair. The two walked over to the 5th wheel.
“You don’t really need help with anything, do you?”
“No, I wanted to talk about the situation, but I didn’t want to do that in front of Sarah. How’s Jane taking all of this?”
“Remarkably well, but she thinks the National Guard is going to get a handle on things in a couple of months.”
“What do you think, Frank?”
“I think M-1 battle tanks are overkill for going after looters.”
“Saw them on the road, did you?”
“Yes. Along with a lot of transport trucks, and a bunch of smaller armored vehicles.”
“Those would be Bradley Fighting Vehicles.”
Frank looked Sean in the eyes. There was a lot of concern there.
“You obviously know more about this than I do. You military?”
“Not exactly. I was, but now I’m a civilian employee at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, so I hear a lot of stuff. I guess I should say I was an employee. They weren’t happy about me taking off.”
“So what’s happening?” Frank asked.
“It’s bad. And you’re right. You don’t need M-1 battle tanks to take out looters.”
Chapter 4 - Run from the Border
Sarah looked over at their 5th Wheel, as Frank and Sean went around the front to the other side. She sighed.
“What?” asked Jane.
“Sean doesn’t need help. He wants to talk to your hubby, where us women folk won’t hear. He thinks I’m stupid.”
“I hate when they do that.”
“Me too, but I know Sean is just trying to keep me from getting too upset.”
Jane looked Sarah in the eye like she wanted to say something, but she kept quiet.
“You want to ask me something, don’t you? Don’t be afraid, Jane.”
“You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”
Sarah gave her a startled look.
“How did you know that? Am I showing already?”
“No, but I can tell. I’ve always been able to tell that about a woman. I don’t know why. Turning down the beer the way you did helped.”
“What way?”
Jane smirked. “Well, ’I’d better not’ sounded a little suspicious.”
“Oh,” Sarah said. She smiled.
“Does Sean know?”
“Of course. I think that’s why he wanted to leave right away.”
“He probably heard things at his job,” Jane said, taking a sip of her beer. “That’s what they're talking about.”
Sarah nodded.
“Don’t worry,” said Jane. “I’ll get them to tell us when they get done with their little conference. I don’t take that coddling crap from my hubby. And he knows it.”
Sarah looked down. She didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Then she looked up.
“I understand what you’re saying, Jane, but I don’t want to make a fuss.”
“Why? Are you afraid of Sean?”
“No, not at all. He’s worried about giving me too much stress this early in the pregnancy. I’m concerned about that too.”
“Alright, then I won’t ask questions. I’m sure Frank will fill me in. He’s good about that.”
“Thank you, Jane.”
“Here they come,” Jane said. She got up. “You two ready for more beer?”
“That would be great, honey,” Frank said as he walked up. “Maybe an IPA this time.”
“Coming up. How about you, Sean, want to try one of those IPAs?”
“Another Coors would be fine with me. I’m not a big hops fan.”
Jane went into the coach to fetch the be
ers. She came back to silence. She handed out the beers and sat down.
“Lively group,” she said with a smirk.
“It’s been a really long day for all of us,” Frank said.
“I’ll say,” Sean added. “Nice to finally get a break.”
“How long are you folks going to stay here?” asked Jane. She took a sip of her beer.
Sean looked over at Sarah.
“Don’t know,” he said. He watched Sarah for a reaction.
“I’ll go along with whatever you think is safest, Sean. You know that.”
“OK…..I just don’t…”
“Sean, Jane knows. She figured it out on her own, so no need to tiptoe around.”
Sean got an embarrassed look on his face.
“OK, what did I miss?” asked Frank.
“Sarah is pregnant, dummy,” Jane said. She enjoyed Frank’s shocked look.
“Ohhhhhh,” he said. “That puts a new spin on things.”
“Sorry, Frank,” Sean said. “I didn’t want to tell you that until I asked Sarah first.”
“Hey, no problem at all, Sean. We’ve only just met, you know.”
“I know.”
“It’s getting a little noisy all of a sudden,” Jane said. She stood up to try to find out what the commotion was about. “Oh, shit, look at that.”
Frank stood up and looked in the direction that Jane was looking. There was a big lineup of RVs parked at the gate.
“Wow. I guess we’ll have to get out of here tomorrow, or we’ll pay a lot more than $35 bucks.”
Sean looked up at Frank and shook his head, smiling.
“$35 bucks? They charged us $45 bucks. I think you guys were here about half an hour before we showed up. Highway robbery.”
Frank and Sean looked at each other and started cracking up.
“Well, if that officer at the checkpoint was right, they have to make it while they can,” Jane said.
Sarah looked over at Jane, her brow furrowed. “What checkpoint?”
“There was a checkpoint in California that we had to go through. The officer that talked to us there said not to stay in Quartzsite too long, and not to go near the border. He said to go north east.”
Sarah shot a worried glance over at Sean.
“Maybe we should change the subject,” Jane said, looking over at Frank.
“Or maybe we should hit the sack and try to get up early tomorrow,” Frank said. “We’re all tired, and tomorrow's going to be another long day, I suspect.”
“That suits me,” Sean said. He looked relieved.
“Me too,” Sarah said. “Thanks so much for helping us today.”
“And thanks for the beers, too,” Sean said. “The next rounds are on us.” The young couple got up.
Frank stood up and shook hands with Sean.
“OK, you two, have a nice night,” Jane said, getting up. The young couple walked back to their trailer, hand in hand.
“I’m going to lock this stuff up before it gets dark,” Frank said, folding up his chair. Jane nodded and folded her chair up. Frank took those two back to the storage compartment and put them in. When he got back under the awning, Jane had already folded up the other two chairs. Frank took those to the storage compartment, and Jane picked up the table and brought it over too. Frank locked it up, and turned to Jane. He put his arm around her lower waist and pulled her close. She started a soft sobbing. He patted her back.
“C’mon, honey, let’s go inside. It’s getting dark.”
Jane nodded, and they got into the coach. Frank pushed the button to pull in the awning.
“Another beer, honey?” Jane asked.
“No, I want to have a clear head. He sat down at the dinette. She joined him.
“Alright, let’s have it. What was your little pow-wow about?” asked Jane.
“Rumors, mostly. Not sure how much of it I believe.”
“Go on.”
“You know that terror group that just took over a big part of Iraq?”
“Yes, of course.”
“According to the rumors, they have been sending soldiers into Mexico via Venezuela to organize border incursions into the southwestern United States.”
“Why would they do that? They can’t win.”
“Well, here’s where I take this with a grain of salt. Sean thinks our government is in on this deal, and they are going to use it to declare martial law and suspend our rights.”
“Oh, brother. Another one of those,” Jane said, “and they are going to do this because?”
“He says it’s because of the global warming thing. He says it’s the only way the Feds have to ‘force’ people to make the lifestyle changes required to combat climate change.”
“He probably brought up Agenda 21 too, huh? Nutcase.”
Frank just shook his head.
“Well, not exactly. You and I don’t agree about Global Warming, but let’s not dive down into that rabbit hole for now. Let’s just focus on what we do know and what we can see. People tend to draw a lot of far out conclusions to fit their narrative. That isn’t helpful.”
“Agreed,” Jane said. She had a sly smile on her face.
“Here’s what I believe is possible, maybe even probable. I know that the terrorists are getting ready to start pushing on us again. I believe that they very well may be out to cause some problems along the border, and I could see Venezuela lending a hand.”
“You think this is plausible because?”
“Remember those battle tanks we saw earlier?”
“Yeah,” she said. “OK, you have my attention.”
“It’s also obvious to me that California has been targeted. I don’t believe that all of the problems going on there are due to a bunch of kids looting after a financial crisis. Hell, all of our money is still in our accounts…same with most people, I suspect. Somebody is whipping this up. Maybe we have an alliance going on between some bad folks south of the border and those cretins in the Middle East.”
“Ok, I’ll grant you that what’s going on in California is more complex than we are being told. So what are we going to do with this information?”
“I think we ought to do exactly what we were planning to do before we met these kids. I think we ought to leave tomorrow and drive north. And we should keep going until we are in the upper plains states, or the upper Midwest.”
“Well, that should make for an interesting winter, but I’m with you.”
“One other thing,” Frank said. He was silent for a moment, and looked down at the table. “Sean asked if they could tag along with us.”
“I’m not sure I’m OK with that,” Jane said. “He sounds a little on the nutty side to me, and I don’t want to get all tied up with their pregnancy.”
“I know, me neither. But I don’t want to confront them right off the bat. We are both going in the same direction anyway. Why don’t we just let them follow us for now, and play it by ear?”
“Alright, but let’s keep our distance.”
“Agreed.”
Frank got up and went over to the couch. He picked up the TV remote and turned the TV on. The reception was poor.
“Shoot, nothing on the antenna. This place doesn’t have cable, does it?”
“Sorry, Frank, I forgot to check before we picked this place.”
Frank went to the local channel that came in the best. It was showing the network affiliate’s sitcoms.
“How about WiFi?” asked Frank.
“I’ve been trying to get on for the last couple of hours…..pretty much every time I came into the coach since we’ve been here. No dice. I have bars, but I can’t connect to the internet.”
“Shit,” Frank said. “I wanted to be able to check out the condo.”
“I know, me too.”
“Radio?”
“I don’t know, let’s see.” Jane went up to the front of the coach and turned the ignition switch on. Then she switched on the radio and hit the seek button. It took a few tries, bu
t she found a news station.
“I-10, I-40, and I-15 have all been shut down, both east and west bound, in order to better lock down the area during this crisis,” the announcer said. “Some alternate routes are still open between California and the Arizona and Nevada borders, but they will likely be shut down in the coming hours.”
Jane looked over at Frank, who was staring up towards the front of the coach.
“What crisis are they talking about?” asked Frank.
Jane just looked over at him and shook her head.
“Now here’s the latest on the border crisis,” the announcer said. “Border skirmishes have been increasing between Chula Vista and El Centro, with the US Army now getting directly involved. This after the airliner was shot down while taking off from San Diego’s Lindbergh Field several hours ago, killing all aboard.”
“Oh, my God,” Jane said.
“Fighter jets and helicopter gunships from nearby bases have been dispatched to the area, and are engaging the insurgents. The Mexican government has had no comments so far, and in fact it is likely that the Mexican government is no longer in place. The Administration is currently trying to ascertain who is leading the border incursions, and have scheduled a press conference for early tomorrow morning. At this time there has been no action against Mexico other than attacks on the forces coming over the border.”
“Well, at least part of what Sean was saying appears to be true,” Frank said. He pulled out the AAA Road Atlas and opened it up to the big map of the US.
“How far are we from the border right now?”
“According to the map, we are about as far as Temecula is from the border in California. A ways, but not far enough to stay here, that’s for sure.”
“Should we leave tonight?”
“No, we’re too tired, but let’s hit the sack and be up before 6:00 tomorrow morning.”
“Alright, honey, let’s go to bed,” she said, switching off the radio.
They turned out the lights in the coach, and went into the bedroom. They got their PJs on and were just laying down when they heard Lucy run in.
“Mind if she comes up?” asked Jane.
“No, it’s fine.”
“C’mon, girl, jump up,” said Jane. Lucy bounded up onto the bed. She sniffed and nuzzled both Jane and Frank, and then laid down between them with a sigh. They all drifted off to sleep.