Desperate Times (11 page)

Fifteen minutes later the caravan was moving
again. They didn’t stop until they reached the driveway leading
onto Ken’s property.

Jimmy continued to replay the scene over in
his head. He’d killed a man and his name had been Lonnie.

What do you actually know about the Federal
Emergency Management Agency? What you find out may shock you. The
Agency has sweeping powers, even the muscle to suspend the
Constitution of the United States.

Ken fired up the generator and the house
began to glow in the darkness. Patty ushered Jimmy into the house
and tended to his wound. Julie tried to tag along, but Brenda
intervened and they busied themselves in the kitchen. Jimmy had
been fortunate that the bullet had just grazed his left shoulder.
While Jimmy was inside, the other men set about the grim task of
burying their dead. He wasn’t sorry to have missed out on that
detail. He and Patty talked about the day’s events, side-stepping
what had happened at the rest area. She carefully disinfected the
wound and taped a bandage onto his shoulder. He felt tired and
began to have trouble keeping his eyes open. The day was catching
up to him.

“I’m wiped out,” he said to Patty. “I might
go catch a nap in the truck.”

“Nonsense,” said Patty. “Follow me.”

Jimmy followed her up the creaky stairs of
the old familiar house. They were greeted by a familiar, musty
smell that lingered even when the windows were opened. At the top
of the stairs was a hallway which led to the main room; it
contained four beds—three queens and a single. The empty beds sat
at the four corners of the room and all were covered with quilts
that Patty had stitched herself. They’d been there for as long as
he could remember. The ceiling was peaked and dropped sharply along
the roofline. Those sleeping on the inside of the beds at those
ends had to be careful getting up. Tall windows occupied the walls
at either end, their sashes painted white. A similar but smaller
room to the left held another pair of beds. This room was usually
reserved for children as the tallest point was six feet, and the
ceiling dropped considerably the farther inside it went. The wooden
floor had been covered with carpet samples stitched together to
make a colorful rug and the old floor creaked beneath their feet as
they walked to the back of the main room. At the end of the large
room was another door and on the other side was a small bedroom.
Patty flipped a switch and pointed to the bed.

“There you go,” she said, turning the bedding
and fluffing the pillow. “Get some sleep.”

“No, I’ll sleep in the other room with the
kids. I don’t need this big bed to myself,” Jimmy protested.

“You can and you will,” Patty said. “I
insist.”

Jimmy looked at the bed and decided against
arguing any further. The bed was the most comfortable guest bed
they had and besides Ken and Patty’s room downstairs, it was the
only private bedroom in the house. Jimmy turned to thank Patty, but
she had already left the room. Jimmy stretched, closed the door and
shut off the light. He quickly undressed and crawled into bed. With
the light out he could see the shadows of the tall white pines out
the window, standing sentry at the side of the house. He thought
about his day and how much things had changed. He wondered if he’d
changed and supposed that he had. They all had. He thought about
Paula and prayed that she was safe. He was soon fast asleep.

He woke just as dawn was beginning to break
with that strange sensation of waking up in a different bed in a
different house. He lay there for a minute, gathering his thoughts.
The day before had been unlike any he’d ever experienced; with it
had come new realities. His world had been turned upside
down—everyone’s had—and he fought to come to terms with it.

Paula was gone; she’d left him to stay with
her folks. He wondered about that. He really couldn’t blame her. He
also thought that if he’d had a daughter of his own, he’d want her
alongside him right now. He knew that if his own parents were still
alive, he’d be there with them. The thought made him sad because he
knew they’d likely be here. The Dahlgrens had been their best
friends; he was sure they’d have come here. Perhaps sleeping in the
very bed he occupied right now. He pushed the thought aside and
thought about Paula and her family. How were they getting through
this? Was she safe? Jimmy thought so; her father could afford to
employ a small army of his own to protect them and his property.
Still, he missed her and felt abandoned by her leaving the way she
had. He wondered if he’d ever see her again.

Then there was Bill. How long would it be
before he got under everyone’s skin? He had a knack for that and
Jimmy knew that there wasn’t much he could do to stop it. Soon Bill
would be complaining about his aches and pains, Tina, and whatever
else he happened to dwell on. That was who he was. Jimmy had known
that when he’d invited him along; yet he hadn’t been able to stop
himself. Deep down he knew that Bill was a good man and he couldn’t
leave him behind to fend for himself. Bill and Cindy would be much
better off where they were; Jimmy was sure of that. Jimmy smiled to
himself when he thought of Cindy and how protective she’d been of
him. Had Paula asked her to keep an eye on him? He knew that was
impossible, yet it was obvious that Cindy was doing just that.

Julie had made it very clear what her
intentions were, even if she hadn’t spoken them aloud. The way she
had looked at him said it in a way that needed no words. She was
very attractive. The years since high school had done nothing to
diminish her good looks. She’d grown into a beautiful woman, the
kind that most men could only dream about. Bill would give his left
arm to have Julie feel that way about him. He was obviously smitten
with her. That thought brought another smile to Jimmy’s face.

Yes, his life had changed in the blink of an
eye. Yesterday at this time he’d been getting up for work,
blissfully unaware that everything was about to drastically change.
He wondered what was going on in the outside world. How long would
it take for things to get back to normal? Would they ever? Jimmy
doubted it. Not normal, as in going back to the way they’d been
yesterday morning or the week before. No, Jimmy thought, some sort
of evolution was going to have to take place, although he didn’t
have any idea of what that might be.

He felt warm under the quilt and felt
fortunate to be where he was. The Dahlgrens were good people,
gracious hosts and obviously had prepared for this day. Still,
Jimmy knew that they weren’t on vacation, not by any stretch of the
imagination. There would be work to do. They would need leadership
and there would have to be some sort of structure to their lives.
None of them knew what was going on in the outside world, and they
might have to defend themselves against it. For every person that
had planned for this scenario, there would be ten, even twenty,
that hadn’t. They would want what the Dahlgrens had provided.
Without a police force to provide protection, they’d be vulnerable
to any group who saw a weakness in their defenses. Soon these north
woods would be teeming with people in search of food and shelter.
Jimmy knew that most would be armed and desperate. That thought
gave him a chill.

He had to talk to Ken. They had to come up
with some sort of plan. Jimmy got out of bed and stretched. Outside
green branches swayed in the early morning breeze, shrouding the
house from the approaching daylight. Jimmy quickly dressed and
opened the door. With boots in hand, he tiptoed across the main
room which was full of sleeping families. Two of the Larson kids
were awake, lying in sleeping bags on the floor next to their
slumbering parents. The boys were young, perhaps in the first and
third grades, and Jimmy smiled at them. He hooked a thumb at the
empty bedroom behind them and then held a finger to his lips. The
boys understood immediately; they rose together and quietly slipped
into the bedroom, their stealthy movements were exaggerated in a
way that only young boys are capable of. Jimmy smiled, watching as
they climbed into the warm bed.

The creaky stairs squealed in protest as he
descended. If anyone behind him woke, Jimmy didn’t hear them.
Halfway downstairs, Jimmy could smell strong coffee and made out
muffled voices. The voices belonged to Ken and Patty. Jimmy slowly
opened the door at the bottom of the stairs and emerged into the
freshly painted blue and white kitchen.

“Good morning,” said Patty, who stood at the
sink looking out the window. She quickly turned and gave Jimmy a
motherly hug. “How’d you sleep?”

“Like a rock,” admitted Jimmy. “That coffee
sure smells good.”

“Help yourself,” said Patty. “You know where
everything is.”

“Thanks,” said Jimmy. He set his boots down
by the back door and opened the old cupboard to the left of the
sink. The shelves were full of mismatched plates, bowls, cups and
saucers. He had a favorite cup and he found it behind a chipped
black mug. Jimmy removed the crystal coffee cup, gave it a quick
rinse and fixed himself a cup of steaming coffee, adding a teaspoon
of sugar. He took a seat across from Ken and smiled. This was his
favorite part of the day up here and it felt odd not to be heading
out on the lake. He and Ken rarely missed a chance to get out on
the water, it was a given. They’d fish, keeping a close eye on the
time. At just before nine they’d troll back to the dock, reel in
their lines and head inside to one of Patty’s breakfasts—another
given. Were those days over?

“Where is everyone?” Jimmy asked.

“All over the place,” said Ken. There are
tents out back and people are sacked out all over the house. Far as
I know, we’re the only ones up.”

Jimmy nodded as he watched Patty dump an
entire box of pancake mix into a huge bowl. His stomach growled. He
hadn’t realized that he was so hungry.

“I’ve seen a few cars head down toward the
Birkland place. I didn’t recognize them, but I’m sure Sally has
quite a few of her own staying there.”

Jimmy nodded. Sally Birkland lived in what
had used to be a resort which bordered Ken’s property to the east.
After her husband had died Sally ran the resort for nearly another
decade, but as she’d approached her eighties she’d closed it down.
She lived here year-round and kept the Dahlgrens informed of any
goings on while they were away. She was a wiry, snoopy old woman
and as much of a fixture up here as the lake itself.

The old resort had been mothballed and Sally
lived comfortably in the main lodge a quarter mile down the
dead-end road. She didn’t entertain as much as she used to,
thankfully, but when she did her crowd didn’t mix well with the
atmosphere. They were people of the night, armed with fireworks and
booze. They spent their weekends drinking around the fire pit until
the early hours of the morning, playing their music loud and
carrying on as drunken people tend to do. Sally would be right out
there with them. Jimmy had always found that odd, as if she were
breaking some sort of rule for a person of her advanced age. What
he’d thought was even more strange was the way Patty urged everyone
to keep quiet until Sally’s crew stumbled out of bed, which was
never before noon. Ken wasn’t too chipper on these mornings. His
usual reaction was to head down to the dock, untether the big boat
and tear across the lake. On most of these mornings he’d circle the
bay, the throaty Mercury outboard echoing across the water. He’d
tell them that the engine needed to have the carbon blown out of
it. Jimmy knew better.

“So what’s the plan?” Jimmy asked.

“I was thinking about that,” said Ken.
“There’s a lot to do. I thought we’d all have some breakfast and
when everyone’s ready we could have a meeting in the back yard.
There’s a lot to talk about. We’ve got plenty of food, at least for
the immediate future. I’ve got cases of canned stuff in the
basement and Patty has the shed stocked with all sorts of
shit.”

“Kenneth,” reprimanded Patty.

“Sorry dear, the shed is full of stuff,” Ken
said, sheepishly. “Like I said, we’ve got plenty to eat. There’s
always fish and worse comes to worse, we can always hunt. Even with
all of these people, I don’t see food as being a problem. I’ve got
two hundred and fifty gallons of gas for the generator which should
last for quite a while. We should be pretty comfortable here.”

“I was wondering about that,” said Jimmy.
“That’s good to know.”

“No, the trouble is going to come from the
outside. A lot of people are going to want what we have. You know
what I mean?”

“I do,” said Jimmy. “I was thinking the same
thing.”

“We can’t feed the world,” said Ken.

“I know.”

“I don’t think we’ll have any problems today,
maybe not even for a week or more. Most people will be able to ride
this out, at least for a while, in their own homes. With any luck
the government will step in and who knows? Maybe we won’t have
anything to worry about.”

“Maybe we’ll all be back home in a week,”
said Patty, steadily whipping her pancake batter.

“Maybe,” agreed Ken, without much optimism,
“maybe not. What I’m saying is we have to be prepared for the
worst. We have to be ready if the government doesn’t get its act
together and help out. We’ve got to be ready to defend what we have
here.”