Desperate Times (31 page)

“Just go with it,” snipped Jimmy.

Jimmy held up his hands and once again, the
crowd went silent. “The National Guard will be here soon, maybe in
a day or two or even a week. They’re going to want to relocate us
to one of their refugee camps. How many of you would like to go
with them?”

The crowd went wild. “
No!”
they cried
at the top of their lungs, which was followed by a long period of
booing and hissing. It was obvious to Jimmy that he’d struck a
chord.

He held his hands up again. “I’m glad you
feel that way! Because we’re not going with them! Who wants to help
us stop them?”

The crowd’s cheering was ear splitting. Jon
looked at Jimmy with wide eyes.

Jimmy was suddenly aware that he knew exactly
what to say and that they’d eat up every word of it. “We’re at war,
people. I hate to say that, but that’s the way it is! We have every
right to be here and no one has the right to take that away. We’re
not criminals!”

The cheering lasted a full minute before
Jimmy could speak again. Jon looked utterly flabbergasted.

“United we stand! And we need to unite right
now! I can’t stress this enough. We’re going to need to work
together and we don’t have much time. I need you all to split into
groups now. I don’t care how you do it, but I want you in groups of
ten or so. Please, spread out and do it now!”

The crowd began to churn. Those on the
outside moved further away from the others. Soon, they were clumped
together in five groups of eight to ten people.
Close
enough,
thought Jimmy. “Good job!” he shouted. “Now, I want
every group to choose a leader. That person will be responsible for
your group. I’ll give you three minutes!”

The air was suddenly buzzing with
conversation. A few leaders were chosen in a matter of seconds;
other groups needed time to vote.

“I can’t do this?” asked Jon, sarcastically.
“Well, you sure fooled me!”

Jimmy smiled. He hadn’t known that he had
this in him. Something Dr. Benson said had stuck with him.
Why
not us?
Doc had asked. Jimmy now knew that he’d been right on
the money. Win, lose, or draw, they had little choice in what to
do. They had to fight.

“Everyone can sit down, except for the group
leaders,” Jimmy shouted. When the last leader stood, he pointed to
the farthest group and said: “Number off. You’re team one!”

The leaders numbered off. They counted to
five. Jimmy smiled. “Remember those numbers, people. Okay, now we
need the group leaders to step up front. The rest of you, get to
know each other. You’ll be spending a lot of time together!”

“You’re so full of shit,” whispered Jon. “You
pulled that off like a pro.”

“Thanks, now it’s your turn.”

“Like hell it is,” said Jon.

“Just think of yourself as a general. These
are your captains. You need to take charge. You’ve got to get them
organized. You can do it… here they come. Go to it.”

Jon nodded. He pointed over to a long bench
behind the rusted steel mesh backstop. “Why don’t you sit down over
there?” he asked. Line up, left to right, one through five.”

They watched as the group leaders milled
around, finding their places on the wooden bench. Jimmy and Jon
followed, standing on the other side of the backstop. They were all
men and they carried themselves with pride. Jimmy liked what he saw
in those faces. The groups had chosen their leaders well.

Jon began to speak. “This is Jimmy Logan. I’m
Jon Lent. We’re in charge here; does anyone have a problem with
that?”

Nobody said a word.

“Good,” continued Jon. “Jimmy and I answer to
Ken and Dr. Benson. That’s our chain of command. If you have a
problem with anything we ask of you, by all means feel free to
speak to them. If you still have a problem, you’ll be asked to
leave and won’t be welcome back.” Jon paused, letting that soak
in.

“We need to get started on another wall.
Believe it or not, we built the one next door in less than a week’s
time. We did that with less than thirty people, many of them were
women and young people. If we all work on it together, we can get
it done in two or three days. We need to get you connected to the
one next door. Does everyone follow me on this? Good. The next
order of business is going to be guard duty. We need to be ready
for trouble. In case any of you don’t know what happened in Ely,
I’ll tell you. The National Guard came to town in trucks and went
house to house rounding everyone up. When the trucks were full,
they hauled them away. Those who resisted were shot. We can’t let
them get close with those trucks. We’ve got to block the road. Does
anyone disagree with that? Good.”

Jimmy stepped in. “We’re going to have to
take our truck to Ely. I’m going to need volunteers to accompany
me. We’ve got to load up on some supplies. Whatever we can get our
hands on. I want at least one good man from each of your groups.
We’re probably going to run into trouble, maybe even the Guard.
This is going to be dangerous. Make sure your people understand
that. We’ll go this afternoon, with any luck we’ll be back before
sundown.”

“Right,” said Jon. “Now, go back to your
teams and ask for some volunteers. Team One has got the first shift
out on the road. Take your people down to the corner and spread
them out in the woods. If you see any sign of trouble, fire three
quick shots. That’ll be our signal. Team Two will relieve you in
two hours. We’ll continue to rotate that way for now. The rest of
you can set up camp over here. The lodge is empty and the owner
isn’t coming back. Feel free to use whatever is here. That’s it.
Any questions?”

Heads turned, but no one spoke up.

“Okay,” said Jimmy. “That’s the plan for now.
Jon and I are going to catch some sleep. We’ll be back later and
get the truck rolling into to Ely. Thank you.”

They watched them return to their groups. “My
hats off to you,” said Jon. “That was one helluva speech. You’ve
got quite a talent there.”

“Do you really think so?” asked Jimmy as they
began to walk back toward the gate.

“I do,” replied Jon. “You had them eating out
of the palm of your hand.”

“Thanks.”

“You’d better come up with another one and
quick,” said Jon.

“How’s that?”

“Because Paula is going to be waiting on the
other side of the gate, you’d better know what you’re going to say
to her. I’m sure she’s going to want to hear something. Do you want
some advice?”

“No.”

“Good,” said Jon, with a sly smile. “I’ll
give it to you anyhow. Break it off with her. Do it right away. You
and Julie were made for each other. It’s as plain as that big
pimple on your nose.”

“What?” asked Jimmy, he ran his hand over his
nose, finding nothing that felt out of place.

Jon laughed. “Just kidding, man; will you
lighten up?”

“You son of a bitch,” chuckled Jimmy.

Jon yawned and stretched. “I’m going to catch
some sleep. Good luck with everything; you’re going to need
it.”

Jimmy waved him away and was now trying to
think of what to say to Paula. He was also wondering what Dr.
Benson had been able to do for Julie. Was she going to be okay?
Jimmy hoped so. Was Paula going to give him a piece of her mind?
Jimmy was sure of that. Tired as he was, he was already looking
forward to the diversion of their trip back into Ely. He wasn’t
going to break up with Paula. Not yet, anyhow. He needed some time
to think. He didn’t care what Jon or Ken thought. He didn’t care
what anyone thought. This was his life, and he just wished everyone
would stop making it their business. He didn’t tell anyone else how
to live their life. Why did they feel free to do that to him? He
rubbed at his tired eyes and began to walk back to the gate

Twenty
-
Three

Ohio was especially hard-hit during the Great
Depression. Fully half of Cleveland’s workforce was unemployed
during 1932, while unemployment in Toledo approached 80%.

He caught up to Jon as they walked down the
hill and around the wall heading toward the gate. He was
desperately trying to find a way to explain everything to Paula.
He’d felt the same way about explaining things to Ken not all that
long ago, and look how that had turned out. Maybe it’d be the same
with Paula? He’d just have to be honest with her. Sure, Julie was
here. Yes, long ago they’d been very close and had become that way
once again. Should he have to apologize for that? Paula should
understand,
right?

Jon hailed the gate and from inside he could
hear men grunting, struggling with the timber.
There’s got to be
a better way,
thought Jimmy. Somebody was going to get hurt
lifting that.

“You know what you have to say, right?” asked
Jon, as the gate began to slowly open.

“Right,” said Jimmy, who had absolutely no
idea of what he was going to say.

“Good,” said Jon. “The sooner you get it over
with the better.”

Jimmy frowned. Why couldn’t everyone just
leave him alone? He followed Jon inside the gate and looked around.
There was no one waiting there. He had expected to see Paula
standing there, or Ken; at the very least he was certain that Bill
would be there to meet them. The front yard and patio were totally
deserted except for the men behind him struggling to replace the
timber. Jimmy began to run. He had a bad feeling about this and he
raced up the driveway to the stairs. He took those two at a time,
bounding up onto the deck where he flung open the screen door and
burst inside.

There was Dr. Benson sitting on a chair next
to Julie, who was still lying on the couch. Jimmy felt his heart
leap. Her eyes were open and she was looking right at him. They
were alone in the porch; the French doors were tightly closed.

“Come in, Jimmy,” said Dr. Benson. “I think
someone would like to say hello to you.”

Dr. Benson bent over and picked up his two
medical bags. He then stroked his beard and studied Julie. He had
put a fresh bandage on her head and her face seemed to have
regained some color. Jimmy rushed over and sat in the chair.

“She’s going to be all right,” said Dr.
Benson. “The bullet just grazed her skull. She’s going to have a
scar, but her hair will cover that soon enough. You’re one very
lucky young lady. I’ll leave the two of you alone now; I’m going to
have a busy morning.”

“Thanks Doc,” said Jimmy.

“Thank you,” whispered Julie.

Jimmy took Julie’s hand and held it tightly.
She smiled. “How do you feel?” he asked.

“I’m okay,” Julie said, softly. “My head
hurts. Dr. Benson gave me some pills. He said they’ll help me
sleep. I don’t want to sleep. I feel like I’ve been sleeping for a
week. What day is it?”

Jimmy didn’t know. He had lost all track of
time and the days all seemed to be jumbled together. “Sunday,” he
lied, “a day of rest. You need to stay still and heal up. Can you
do that for me?”

Julie nodded. “I missed you, Jimmy. Thank you
for bringing back the doctor. That was very brave of you and
Jon.”

Jimmy felt his face begin to blush. “Ah, it
was no big deal. Bill could’ve done it.””

Julie laughed at that and Jimmy joined in
with her. She held his hand tightly and their eyes locked together.
“She’s here, isn’t she?”

Jimmy nodded, sadly.

“I love you, Jimmy. I just want you to know
that. I understand things are different now. Don’t worry, I’ll be
okay.” Julie squeezed his hand again, her face set in a sad smile.
“Those pills must be starting to work. I’m tired, Jimmy. You must
be, too. Get some sleep. Come see me when you wake up, okay?”

“I promise,” he said, he then leaned over and
kissed her the tip of her nose and stood up. “I’ll see you in a
little while,” he barely managed to say.

“I look forward to it,” said Julie,
softly.

He turned and walked out the front door. He
sat down on a patio chair and lit up a cigarette, smoking it as he
looked out over the calm water of the lake. He was now more
confused than ever. Sitting there made him realize just how tired
he really was. He finished his cigarette, regained his composure
and began to walk around the side of the house toward his tent in
the back yard. He could talk to Paula after he’d gotten some sleep.
Jimmy could hear voices from inside the house and he could smell
pancakes cooking on Patty’s griddle. He hoped that he could slip
into his tent without being seen. He just wanted to crawl onto his
air mattress and collapse. He thought he deserved that.

He stopped at the corner of the house and
peered around it. The back yard was as empty as the front had been.
His tent still stood on the far side of the lawn, away from the
others. He walked quickly in that direction, hoping not to be seen.
He half expected to hear Bill’s voice behind him. He always seemed
to suddenly pop up in moments such as these.

Jimmy pulled up on the zipper and crawled
inside his tent. He stood and stretched, thankful that he hadn’t
been spotted. He then noticed that the tent wasn’t how he’d left
it. Everything seemed to be clean. His clothes had been washed and
were neatly folded in the corner of the tent. The floor had been
swept and everything looked tidy and organized. He looked down at
his bed and it seemed to be piled high with something.