Black Box 86ed (18 page)

“Ya two blocks wide in the open without any cover and plus we don’t even know if they have any oxygen. For all we know they could have taken them with em.”

“I’ll do it,
” Grace interjects.

“What?” Roger and O
ver look to her obviously surprised.

“I’ll do it. You see that guy? He loves her. We could help keep the love of his life alive for at least a few more days.
”

“No,” I reply.

“You don’t have a say in this Will.
”

“I know but you aren’t going if anyone goes it’s gona be me, Roger or Over ok? I’m not trying to sound mean or chauvinist but you probably couldn’t even carry it.
”

“Then why don’t I just come with you?
”

I struggle with trying to come up with a good enough excuse.

“Listen” Roger says, “I’ll go with ok?
You two stay here and we will be back in just a little bit the
n we need to keep moving north.”

Over obviously mad at being out voted, “this is stupid we are going to all get killed trying to add maybe two days to an already dying woman’s life.”
      

“We aren’t doing it for her!”
Grace yells. “We are doing for her husband. If this was happening to your wife what would you do?
Huh
?” She growls.

“Hey, hey it’s ok, we have this settled.” I try and comfort her p
ulling my arm around her trying to calm her down.

“Roger, you ready?”
I ask.

“Ya let’s just get this over with.
”

“Jesus I’ll go,” Over sighs. “I’m not gona make a teenager risk his life while I’m sitting pretty in the Amityville horror house.”

“Jesus Christ lets move some ass then!” Roger barks obviously tire of wasting time.

We walk back to the living room. “Show us where the ambulance is,
” Roger says to the old man.

“O God really, you’ll really do it?” The man’s voice showing life. “Here it’s right here,”
grabbing a pair of binoculars he looks out the back porch.
“It’s a straight shot, you see it’s right between the Blue and yellow houses about a block and a half away.”

Roger double checks through the binoculars nodding as he looks to the ambulance
.
He turns to us, “if we aren’t back in thirty minutes just keep heading north. Don’t come looking for us, understand?”

“O I was already planning on it,” I smile to him.

He smirks as they head towards
the door.

“I can’t believe the shit I let you get us in,” Over complains a
s the leave the front porch.

“How about that tea then?” The man asks.

“O yes please.
” Grace smiles to him. We follow the man back into the kitchen as he plays with a gas stove.

“I was beginning to worry. Didn’t think I would ever see anyone without a military uniform around here.”

“Do you know what happened? You know just what happened in Chicago?” Grace asks.

“Well before the cable went out they were talking about how people needed one of those freedom stars
. Everyone had to go to Union Station and get
one and then they were gona offer em free ticket outta Chicago or something like that I guess.”

“Why didn’t you go?”

He sighs, “I tried, had her mostly packed up, but then
my leg started actin up. When it gets humid the way it’s been I’m not much use at all, thought we could wait a day or two.
Just get em a little later ya know. Next thing I know we have helicopters flying every which way sirens going 24/7. I was gona flag one of the cop cars down yesterday. See if they would help get us to a hospital for that oxygen and finally get a star.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Well I was on the porch
just about to flag one down. I looked down the block for one and I saw… It was a three houses down, the Millers had the same idea we did I guess
. But thing is,
when they waved them down. The police tried taking the kids first ya see and Mr. Miller understandably didn’t want to let his kid go. Things escalated and Miller got a gun butt to the forehead.”

“Jesus, they were doing that at Union Station.”

“Last thing I saw on the news was that they were
taking people was some place safe. Said national security would be jeopardized if they told where they were taking people. An they took bout all of them”

“What do you mean?”

“The whole neighborhood is gone. Never seen anything like it in the fifty years I’ve been living here. People either went to one of those stars places and never came back, or they just took off outta the city. I know more than a few of my neighbors here are stayin with family out in the country somewhere. That car bomb really ruffled a lot of folks feathers.” A mucus filled fit of coughs echoes down the hallway from the living room.

“Don’t worry that’s normal.”
He sighs. “I don’t know, how long we’ll make it
even if they get that oxygen.”

“What’s wrong
, does she need a doctor?”

“She needs a time machine, go back thirty years and quit smoking.”

“Why do you let her keep doing it
?”

“Like it’s gona do much more to her ya know. She’s already… fucked,” he sighs heavily.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I sympathize.

“Nothing to do about now anyways just have to make do I guess.
Oh I almost forgot the tea
.
” He gets up rummaging through the cupboard.

“Hey, would it be possible to get a cigarette from her”?
I ask.

“Will!”
Grace scolds.

“No, no it’s fine,” he replies pulling a teapot down from the cupboard. Turning to the fridge, opening the freezer he pulls out a pack. “Always buy em in bulk whenever I’m in Wisconsin. Saves us dam near a fortune.”
He tosses it to me, “It’s the least I could do.”

The cold pack in my hands I observe the long skinny package, “thank god menthols,” I exhale. “Do you mind?” I ask.

He laughs in response as
he turns back to the kettle.
“Now, you kids want earl grey or Lipton?”

“Ooooo,
Earl Grey!” Grace says with a smile.

He turns to the faucet. “You kiddos are lucky, this is probably one of the last few days we can trust the water being clean.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well I doubt the water cleaning plant is even running right now.”

“Are you going to leave then?”

“No, no just have to boil it.
Thank God I got the propane just a we
ek ago, we could make it a good two months if we conserve it.”
Another mucus filled cough comes from the living room.

“You sure there isn’t anything a doctor could do?” Grace asks.

“T
hey’ve done everything already.
Believe me if I could I’d pop out one of my
own lungs an give it to her.
I’ve taken her to every doctor under our HMO and nota one has anything new to say.”

“How long have you guys been married?” I ask getting tired of talking about what my future may look like in fifty years.

“Well let’s see.
Met her in the hospital after Korea. She was a hot young nurse who I tried talking into giving me a sponge bath.
She told me no after reading my chart to see I just had a broken arm.
That musta been about forty five
years ago. We got married a yea
r later so I guess forty four years.”

“That’s amazing” G
race gasps.

“Yep been a long time, feels like I haven’t gona a day in my life without her.”

“Aww,” Grace swoons. “Do
you have any children?”

“No, no kids. She wasn’t able to, we tried for years but nothing happened
.

“O I’m sorry to hear that.”

He shrugs “God just had a different path for us.”
The kettle start
s to whistle at us. “Alright,
any sugar or milk”?

“No I think we’re fine.
” I reply.

“Alright then,” he turns back to us two cups filled to the brim.

“Ooooo, my Gawd I haven’t had earl grey in so long
. I love tea.
Grace grins at me from across the table. I smile back as I turn to the window. The sunlight bursting in and out of clouds.

“Checked the weather yes
terday before the TV went down.
Suppose to be quite a big storm heading through.”

“When did they say it would hit?”
I ask.

“Oh, now they said it was supposed to start sprinkling and get real bad round six
. I’d make sure you guys have a good place to hunker down.”

“Well we’ll probably have to drive through it,”
I tell him.

“Where you kids going to anyways?” I look to Grace for final confirmation, “Florida,” I stutter out.

“Got family down there?”
He asks.

“Yep Grace here does.”

“Well I hope you make it through the storm alright, needless to say you could stay here for the night and let it pass over.”

“Maybe,” I reply.

We hear the
front door tear open. “Hey,
come help us with these, they’re heavy as shit!” Over yells. The man’s eyes beam with light and tears at the sound of the metal canisters clunking through the doorway. He stands immediately running to the front door, in an old man run sort of way. Using his arm way too excessively,
cocked at ninety degree angles,
swinging them back and forth.

“O thank the lord G
od almighty you did it you really did it!”

“Yep it wasn’t easy, Over thinks he pulled his back.”

Grace and I turn the corner to see Over hunched on the arm the couch. “You ok?”
I ask.

“Nope, really tweaked it this time.”

“Where they just too heavy?”

“Well they’re heavy as shit, but it wasn’t just that. That God dam crazy son of a bitch from
the super market jumped out at me while we were walking back.
He was hiding in some bushes.”

“What happened?”

“I back handed him across the face is what happened. He ran off screaming, calling us sinners again.”

“Jesus,” I exhale.

“I hit him pretty hard, so I doubt he’s gona be following us around anymore.”

I look to Roger, “should we get going?”

He nods back to us, looking to the old man. “If there isn’t anything else you need I believe we shou
ld take our leave sir.”

He nods back, “I can’t thank you enough.”

“Now hold on a minute can’t we sit a second and let my back straighten out?”
Over asks.

“Take as much time as you guys need ok?
You’ve done more than enough for me yo
u can stay as long as you like.”

Taking Over’s hand Roger leads him to the kitchen. “Thank you sir,
” Roger replies.

“I’ll be right back to get some more tea brewed I’m just going to hook up the Mrs.” He heads to the living room with a noticeable skip in his old man step as Grace and I take a seat at the kitchen
table.

“It’s supposed to storm pretty badly,
” I tell them.

“Ya we saw that on the news a few days ago. It don’t matter, Over an I where talking and we think we’re far enough out of the city to finally take a car.”

“You think
?”

“Sure why not, it’ll be getting dark here pretty soon. Plus the cloud coverage might help out.”

“Ok, how you feeling Over?”
I ask.

“Still hurts but I think I’m good to go now, just needed to straighten it out.”

“Dam… Sonofa…. Mother fuuu…” We hear the old ma
n huffing from the living room.
Long looks exchange around the table as if everyone is expecting someone else to get up to help

“I’ll go see what the problem is,” I volunteer. Grace stands with me. Walking into the living room we see the man fiddling with the nut on the oxygen tank. H
is face flush and breathing heavily.

“Need some help?” Grace asks.

“Uuhhh ya sure. I tightened the darn thing as tight as I could incase every breath counted and now I can’t get the dam thing off.”

“Here,
” I offer reaching for the wrench.

“Be careful now not to strip it. That nut’s older than mine,” he laughs
. I crack a smile at him.

“So you’ve lived her for almost fifty years?”
Grace prods.

“Yep since the first night I slept here k
new it was the place for me. Was supposed to just be a place I could fix up while going to college.
Thought I’d
sell it when I graduated and move on down south.”

“What happened?
”

He
smiles looking to the woman.
“She happened,” he laughs grabbing for her hand. A soft coughing laugh coming from her. “Her parent’s lived a few miles away and I just couldn’t bear to make her leave them. Different times back then ya know. Family was more important than it is now.”

“That’s so sweet.”

I turn back to the and
tank quickly pop the nut off.

“Dam go and make me look like a candy ass.”
He laughs.

“Ha, you defiantly loosened it for me.”

He s
miles taking the wrench back.
“I think I got it from here, thank you again. Why don’t you help yourself to a few more packs of smokes. We should be fine with just a couple.”

“I’ll have to take you up on that,” I reply.

“You kids can go head back into the kitchen. I’ll finish hooking her up and see what I can find to repay you.
”

“O that’s not necessary,” Grace tells him.