by Boyd Craven
“Angela,” Steve screamed over his shoulder and pulled the door open.
“My mom’s hand, she slipped…” Billy said.
Three girls came running almost immediately, but Steve didn’t look. He ushered them in and put one big hand around Sarah’s wrist and held her hand up high.
“Ouch!” she shouted, tears in her eyes, but it was more in reaction to the pain than a rebuke to the treatment.
“Kitchen, get your mom her kit,” Steve barked to Amy who took off at a run. “Get me two jugs of water,” Steve barked to Amber, who took off back towards the laundry room where they stored the clean and sanitized water.
Being careful and ignoring Billy who was talking a thousand miles an hour, Steve led her to the kitchen where the stainless-steel sink was.
“What happened?” Angela said taking over and pulling the bloody hand towel back to look at it.
“I was chopping some half-frozen chicken and slipped,” she said through gritted teeth.
“She needs to go to the doctor. My dad’s at work, and we don’t have fuel for Mom’s car, and our phone is dead. Can you take us?”
“Don’t worry, my mom knows what she’s doing,” Amber told Billy, trying to be a force for calming to the panic-stricken, young man.
“I just…she was going to be making me a sandwich when she slipped—”
Angela hissed and then clucked her tongue, thinking. Amy came running out with a plastic tackle box and put it up on the counter before thumping a cardboard box down next to it. Nitrile gloves waiting. She pulled two out and then gloved up. She’d been careful to avoid any of the blood, but now with the gloves on, she peeled the towel back more, showing a slice along the outer meaty part of her left palm, near the thumb.
“This is going to need some stitches,” Angela told Sarah.
“I’m so sorry,” Sarah said between tears.
“Can you give us a ride into town? Get her to the doc to stitch her up?” Bill asked.
The irony wasn’t lost on Steve or Amber as they exchanged a glance. A while back, it was Billy who was in need of medical attention, by Steve’s own hand. Then again, Steve mused, this might be a good opportunity for the Taylor family to mend fences.
“We can,” Angela answered him without looking up. “Uncap that water and pour it over the wound,” she said towards Amber. “Little bit, get me the gauze pad, tear it open, but don’t touch it.”
“Got it,” Amy answered.
“I can take care of this for you,” Angela said. “Or I can give you a ride into town. It’s up to you,” she told the neighbor softly.
“I can’t…our insurance deductible… I don’t know what to do. Money is tight,” she managed to stutter out between tears.
“I can stitch you up,” she told her, “I just need your permission, and you can’t twitch. I don’t have anything to numb you more than, say, a shot of whiskey…and then give you some antibiotics for it when I’m done.”
“You’re a doctor?” Billy asked suddenly, some of the frantic looks had gone out of his eyes.
“No, but I’ve worked in the medical field,” she said taking the supplies her well-trained daughters started unloading.
“Go ahead,” Sarah told her.
“You allergic to anything?” Angela asked suddenly and Sarah shook her head no, tears of pain running down her cheeks.
Amy pulled on a pair of gloves and started tearing things open as soon as Sarah had said yes. It had been a while since she’d helped her mom, but she didn’t need much in the way of direction while Angela cleaned and checked the wound for anything foreign. Sarah winced but she held still, her breathing fast and heavy. She tore open a suture kit and got her hemostats ready. She met Sarah’s eyes a second and the once enemy neighbor nodded, tears and sweat rolling down her face.
She held still for the stitching, and it was over in less than two minutes from start to finish. She spent some time cleaning around the wound a little bit, then dabbed it liberally with antibiotic cream, and then put fresh gauze over it and gently wrapped her thumb and hand to hold it in place.
“I’m sorry I was such a bother,” Sarah said.
“No, not at all,” Steve told her. “I’d like to think if it was my wife who got hurt, you and your family would help her.”
Billy looked up at Steve and they locked eyes. The boy looked down at his feet and muttered, “Thanks.”
“We’re neighbors; we should look out for each other,” Steve told him.
“Yeah, just not through the windows. That’s creepy. Like a level of creep that makes my skin crawl,” Amy told him matter-of-factly as Amber made a long sighing sound.
“I uh...won’t,” he said after a pause.
Sarah, Steve, and Angela shared a look and then they busted out into quiet laughter. Angela stripped out of her gloves and walked over to the fridge and opened it up, reaching back for the Tupperware container Steve kept his antibiotics stash in and came out with a bottle of pills. She closed the door before the cool air could all rush out and went over to the counter and got a Ziploc bag out and handed Steve the bottle of pills to crack open. It was fish antibiotics, but a kind they knew to be the same as the human variety.
“You’re not allergic to anything, are you?” Angela asked as she started shaking pills into the baggie.
“No, you asked me earlier, I think,” she said.
“Yeah, I usually do it multiple times,” Angela told her.
Steve had been watching Billy with interest. When the fridge opened, the kid’s mouth had fallen open, and he’d been staring, his eyes going back and forth to his mom and the fridge.
“Hey, Billy,” Steve said quietly as Angela told his mom about how to keep things clean.
“Yeah?” he asked.
“How are you guys doing for food?” Steve asked in a low voice, almost a whisper.
“Things are tight. Dad had to get a new job and with the power issues…I can’t work right now either to help. Not full time like I was.”
“Trust me, I know how that is,” Steve admitted.
Then the idea hit, he knew he was potentially inviting trouble, but he walked over to his kitchen pantry. It was fully stocked and refilled from their stores, but the door opened away from them and he slipped inside and hit the light switch a couple times before remembering the power was out again. He grabbed several boxes, an armload of cans and with two fingers left, snagged a couple of plastic grocery sacks. He frog-walked it back to the counter and put the armload down carefully.
“What’s that?” Sarah asked, but Billy’s eyes were big in surprise.
“Billy said some things are tight. With your hand hurt, I figured something like this would be easy for you to make ahead of time, and you won’t pop stitches.”
He’d gotten several boxes of instant rice, a few pounds of pasta, and the larger plastic jars of Ragu, along with a couple of cans of tuna fish. He started putting them in the bag when the tears came back, and he looked up after hearing a sob.
“I’m sorry we’ve been miserable to you and your family,” Sarah said. “It’s just…you were new and my husband was sure you were going to try to change the area…”
“No, no, it’s not like that,” Angela said.
Both Amy and Amber looked a little uncomfortable. Amy had been throwing away the discarded stuff from her mom’s stitch job and then pulled her gloves off.
“Want to play cards again?” Amy asked. “Looks like grownups are going to talk.”
“Sure,” Amber said, wanting to get away from the fish-eyed stare of Billy whenever his gaze came her way.
They started a game of hearts and were talking quietly when Billy walked into the laundry room five minutes later.
“Listen, I’m sorry about…whoa,” he said, rooted to the spot, looking at the big cooler on the electric dryer.
“It isn’t as good as regular AC, but it works,” Amber told him.
He held his hand in front of the outflow side and then pulled his hand
back to his face, staring at it.
“Dad says it’s like a swamp cooler. Pretty easy to make,” Amy told him.
“Listen, I’m sorry about everything,” Billy said, “and…um…can I talk to you…alone?” he asked, looking down at Amber and then to Amy.
Amber looked at her sister questioningly and then shrugged. Amy got up reluctantly and stomped out.
“Listen, I’m sorry if I was creepy. You moved in next door, and I didn’t know you were that much younger than me till just now.”
“Yeah, cuz you’re like almost twenty,” she said, a hint of snark in her voice.
“No, I get it. I was probably creepy. I was trying to build up the courage to talk to you, but now I find out you’re total jailbait. I’m sorry. I’m just kind of awkward and apparently too stupid to know any better some days.”
She looked up and met his gaze and stood up, so they were closer in height. More on the level and less intimidation.
“I’ve got a boyfriend, but I’m flattered, really. I just…how about you can lean out and say hi next time instead of staring from parted curtains? That really is kind of creepy.”
“Sure. And the thing with your dad, I wish I hadn’t done that. I was…things are tight. Dad had lost his job and didn’t tell my mom for a long time. I was doing some stuff with him, getting him set up for an online business like I have, but he doesn’t have the nose for it…I was trying to sneak him a couple of gallons of gas so he’d not stress so much.”
“That doesn’t even make sense. Dwight said somebody had been stealing his gas pretty regularly.”
“Well, maybe I wasn’t the only one?” Billy said, looking a little red in the darkened laundry room.
His words calmed her again, and she bit her lower lip while she considered his words and then nodded.
“I have to go, my mom was almost ready when I came in,” Billy said and paused like he wanted to say something else, but didn’t.
“Ok, take it easy,” Amber said and followed him out of the room.
Angela was holding the bags of groceries and offered them to him. He took them and they both said their thanks and left.
“You were great,” Steve told her, giving her a quick hug.
“Thanks. It’s something you never lose. It’s harder on animals, because half the time they don’t understand you’re trying to help them.”
“Yeah. Are you worried…you know, the whole practicing medicine without a license thing? I could have easily driven them into town,” Steve told her.
“They didn’t have the money,” Angela whispered. “Didn’t you see how thin she’s gotten?”
“No, I try not to check her out,” Steve told her honestly.
“Good boy; I trained you well.”
“Hey!” he said and reached out to poke his wife in the side.
Angela side stepped but she was smiling. Doing something to help neighbors had done a lot for her. She wasn’t prideful, but she was feeling the glow of putting the animosity between them away. Neither of them heard Amy walk back into the laundry room as they talked in hushed tones.
“Did you see the scar on his hand?” Amy asked Amber.
“No?” Amber said.
“His mom is going to have a scar in the same place he did.”
“Who cares. Solitaire? Hearts? Spades?”
“Let’s get Mom and Dad and get the Euchre game going again,” Amy said, surprising her sister.
CHAPTER 18
“My fellow Americans. We have been at war off and on for fifteen years. I have long harped on the Chinese for their currency manipulation and that was one thing I vowed to fight if elected President of the United States of America. The previous administration had done much to obscure the problems of our own here at home, and under bone crushing debt, the United States needs to work on our own backyards first before we continue on.
“Negotiations for a ceasefire have been requested of us and our ambassadors are now working on a deal to end hostilities so we can focus our time, energy, and efforts here. Most citizens are aware that a good portion of the country is suffering from terrible power loss, and the heat of this past summer has taken its toll. Fuel prices are sky high and many Americans find themselves with little to no food, gas to drive to the store, and many, many businesses have been shut down.
“As a country, we’ve been through two depressions already. The Great Depression was probably the worst, with what happened in the seventies hardly counting. After the housing bubble burst and banks had started to fail, we entered another depression, though with the bailouts and federal programs things have seemed to be getting better. They haven’t. The printing presses were churning out Monopoly money and the Federal Reserve and the central banks were adding electronic zeros to their bottom lines.
“Today, that all stops. We are facing a natural disaster of our own making. To put a halt on this and reverse things, a series of executive orders are being enacted even as we speak. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 is being placed on hold and we are moving the currency to a gold standard dollar. In order to expedite things, martial law has been enacted across the nation. Already, looting, rioting, thefts, and lawlessness has overtaken many of the larger urban areas.
“This will allow us to do two things: we can focus on removing regulations that got us to where we are while we re-evaluate things on currency and give our local police and national guard more room and flexibility to operate. I understand some locales have been operating without funding for a while. Until the currency situation is fixed, I’ve released many stores of supplies to our law enforcement officers and soldiers who seem to have left their stations to take care of their families or find employment elsewhere.
“I would strongly encourage every law enforcement officer and soldier who hasn’t reported in to do so. I understand with power outages and poor communications that you may have been out of communication. Once you have checked in or returned back to the station, you’ll be given your next set of orders that are being sent out as we speak.
“One last thing. I’ve ran on the campaign of ‘America First.’ We are the best at what we do, and what we do has been being the world’s watchdog. Once we sign the cease fire and start working on our failing infrastructure that’s led to our massive power outages and loss of services, we can start rebooting the country. I know things are hard, but they are getting better. “Two things to remember: the Martial Law decree is temporary, and the state governors will be coordinating with me in Washington to make sure the needs of the people are being met.”
“Shit,” Steve muttered, his head in his hands.
The younger girls chided him for language, but Angela started rubbing the back of his neck where the muscles had been knotting up, causing a headache.
CHAPTER 19
Neighbors began knocking on the door off and on the following day. Steve answered it to be surprised to see Billy and some of the folks he’d waved to down the street but never really got to know. A couple of them had buckets, the orange home depot specials.
“Hey, Billy. What can I do for you guys?” Steve asked, standing in the doorway.
“Listen, I was wondering if I could use your hand pump, so my mom can do some wash?”
“I don’t…I mean. You guys want some water?” Steve asked.
There were smiles and nods and with a start he realized he recognized Richard Hunter, one of the HOA buddies of Jeff’s, the one who had helped pull Matthew off of him.
“Wait, you’re trying to sue me,” Steve said walking out the door and pulling it behind him.
“It wasn’t my choice,” Richard said.
“What do you mean, sue you?” Billy asked.
“These lily-livered ass-clowns had me served with papers for the hand pump! Saying it’s against the HOA conventions,” Steve said, his voice rising in volume.
Somewhere behind all of them a door opened and closed, only audible because there was little to no traffic in their area. Steve didn’t turn, but he k
new with all the windows open, that one of the girls or Angela was coming around the house, to check on things.
“Hey, that was something Jeff and that Morris character pushed through. I voted no, along with Matthew for what it’s worth.”
Steve fumed a minute and then took a breath. If Steve had a “trigger” it was both the HOA and Doug Morris, a man who had been largely absent in the latest shenanigans lately.
“I guess I don’t mind getting you folks some water. Come on,” Steve said, walking around the house to see Angela coming their direction, the .45 she claimed in an open carry holster clipped to her side.
“Hey baby,” she called softly. “Who’re your friends?”
“Billy and some of the neighborhood folks. Looking to see if we’d get them some water from the pump.”
Nobody said it, but when Steve opened the fence and closed it behind him, everybody was looking at his wife, and it wasn’t only because she was nice on the eyes. A couple of them saw the large Colt and had correctly deduced that when Steve started getting loud, that she’d headed around the back to flank them as backup. Steve dropped her a wink and put his arms over the fence.
“Hand some over, I’ll fill them up for ya,” he said reaching.
“I can give you a hand,” Billy offered.
“Naw, that’s ok. Those chickens you and your parents complained about might poop on your shoes or something. I’m already getting dragged into court. Safer for me, if you stay on that side of the fence. Just in case,” Steve said, and grinned when the teenager turned red in the face at his words.
“Oh, ok. Just trying to help,” Billy said handing over his bucket.
Steve collected buckets from everyone, and Angela took a couple so her husband didn’t have to carry so many.
“Thanks for the backup,” Steve whispered.
“It should be them that’s thanking me,” she whispered back. “I figured you were about to come unglued when the HOA rep showed up.”