Monte Vista Village, Toxic Soup (The Survivor Diaries) (7 page)

So I won in Monopoly, sort of. We all just gave up. At least some things never change.              

But it’s almost time to have our group meeting. It’s weird but I am nervous. I have always been shy in group situations but I would really like to put out my ideas. I’ll see how I feel and if there is an opening.

I will take the minutes of the meeting again. The short hand my grandmother taught me has been coming in handy. I have been taking notes in another notebook and translating it here in my diary.

July 20
                                                                                                                             

Malcom: “I hope everyone is here. Let’s go through the role call that we practiced this morning.
Number One: “The Grahams.”

Number
Two: “Sheraton”

Number
Three: “Burgess”

Number
Four: “Estrada”

Number
Five: “Santos”

Number
Six: “O’Malley”

Number
Seven: “Raja”

Number
Eight: “Gianluca”

Malcom: “Mark, Laura and Annie, you are number
nine. Jill and Joseph, you are number ten. Just this morning we came up with this way of quickly identifying that we are all here. Great job, everyone!”

Mark: “Ah, Number
nine, Balous”

Jill: “Number
ten, Richardson”

Malcom: “Great! So, everyone, we have two more families and
five more people to add to our group. First, Sarah Burgess, will you give a little background as to how we came about and what we have discussed in our brief time together?”

Sarah: “Um, okay, sure. Well, we only started talking as a group yesterday. Before that we would talk to whoever answered, and usually it was to just talk about our injuries and if it was okay to go out now.
Which it isn’t, as the Doc has told us in no uncertain terms. We decided to meet at seven-thirty in the evening. That’s all I can think of now.

Malcom: “Great
. Laura, can you introduce you family?”

Me: “Sure
. Well my name is Laura, my husband is Mark, and my mother’s name is Annie. We live on Ocean View Drive. I am a filmmaker. My husband has done many things, including construction. He was a soldier in Operation Enduring Freedom and he’s also a translator in Japanese and Arabic. My mother, Annie, is a retired preschool teacher. I guess that’s our introduction. I am so happy to hear you all out there. You don’t know how good it is to hear you all.

Katie: “Thanks, Laura.
We actually do know the feeling. That’s why we need to keep this going. As you all know, Laura started going house to house getting information about the neighbors before the bombs. A lot of you have said that the information she spread actually saved their lives. And I agree. We owe her quite a debt.”

Me
, red faced: “No, all of you who I spoke to helped. I know that you were a little suspicious, which is totally understandable, but so many of the ideas came from all those who would speak to us. So, thank you all.”

Katie: “Laura, I suspect that you have more to share with us. From our brief encounter when you came to the door, it seems like you are very full of ideas.”

Me: “Well, I do have some things I would like to put out there; things we can do before we can leave our homes and some more things we can do once we are free to leave. The latter are things I need to formulate a little better, but may I bring up one idea I have about what we can do right now?”

Male unknown person: “You sure can. We don’t have any formal rules.
At least not yet. So the floor is all yours.”

Me: “Thank you. First, I want you all to know that I am taking notes on all that we are saying. When I am talking my mother is taking the notes. I hope that’s okay. I just thought that we might want to refer to them later.”

Pause

Me: “Okay, I got this idea from Katie, actually. She said that we have to try to occupy our time, so I thought that, for those of us who have enough batteries for their walkies, we could start a few clubs. For instance, maybe we could have a book club for readers. We would all have to have the same book, but I think we could figure it out. After we read the book, we could get together at a certain time and discuss it for a half hour.”

Female unknown person: “Oh my gosh, I love that idea. We have kids here, maybe we could do something like that for them. They are getting very antsy.”

Different female unknown person: “Me, too. What
about a book like
Pride and Prejudice
? Everyone has that one.”

About three people said yes they do.

Me: “Great, I love that one. How about a three o’clock meeting of the book club in four days, which is July twenty-fourth? Before we agree, can you say your name before you speak? That is a good practice until we get used to each other’s voices.”

Katie: “This is Katie, and
, yes, we should say our names every time we speak. And I would love to be in the book club! That’s a great idea, Laura.”

Me: “Laura speaking. I had a few other ideas. How about we have a few clubs having to do with how we are making do with the basic day
-to-day living like we are. What ideas you have for, let’s say, cooking. We don’t have a camp stove, so I have a great tip for making one with a can of beer and rubbing alcohol. Also, we found ourselves really lacking on our knowledge of HAM radios, so if there are any people who know about how to use them, we need your expertise.”

Shelby: “Hi, I’m She
lby, and I really could use some help and ideas. We aren’t doing too well.”

Me: “Laura again, and that leads me to my final idea. I think that a support group would be helpful. Katie, if you could lead it…”

Katie: “Katie here. Laura, when I meet you, I am going to give you a big, fat kiss. YES, I will absolutely lead a support group. Several if we need to break up different problems. I will get started figuring out exactly how it can work and will give you the information at tomorrow night’s meeting. I am going to change the topic now. Laura, would you be able to lead the nightly meetings.”

Me: “Laura, ah me?
Yeah I can do that.”

The rest of the meeting was setting up the sub-groups and meeting times. Mom stopped taking notes because it was getting confusing, but I will work to make sure the next meetings go smoother.

I am not exactly sure
how this came about, but I am actually looking forward to leading the meetings. Go figure.

I am excited to re-read
Pride and Prejudice
. It will keep me from thinking about what is going on. Yes, I want to figure out ways to make our lives now, and after we get out, somehow work, but I know that I need to think of other things, too. Katie was right, and I know it’s something I have to work on about myself.

So, good night, dear diary.
I am about to enter the world of
Ms. Bennet
and Mr. Darcy.

After our morning coffee, hot this time thanks to the internet, we decided to clean up the mess in our house that was left in the wake of the attack. It has been so dirty and dusty that I think it is adding to our listless moods and bouts of coughing fits. Even Hershey is coughing and sneezing.

Thank
goodness for the fake grass patch we found at the pet store for Hershey. He is so confused why he is going “potty” in the house now but it is doing the trick. Mark said that it is starting to smell some but he is able to clean it when he cleans our buckets.

I took a deep breath and opened the doors that lead to the stairs. I needed to know the severity of how badly we were hit in other parts of the house. In the downstairs level, I have spent all of my time in the living room and bathroom. On the second day, I peeked into one of the bedrooms but it really was too dark to tell and I thought better of grabbing a flashlight and taking a good look at the time.

I am fully mobile again. My rib area still hurts but it is not as debilitating as it was at first. I am getting better every day, but I fear that my poor Annie’s wrist is getting worse. I wish we could at least ice it. For the first few days Mark had her putting the ice packs from the first aid kits on it, but those are only one-time-use items. She did try to keep them on, even after they were no longer cold, but she finally saw the futility in it and just left the wrist wrapped.

But it’s not just Mom’s wrist that is worrying me. She looks so exhausted and she is having trouble catching her breath. She didn’t mention
this to Malcom when he asked and I didn’t think it was a good idea to say anything at the time. I have decided that I will talk to the Doc about it privately, when I can.

So, I braced myself to inspect the house. First, I would check the three downstairs bedrooms, and then on to the upstairs.

“I need you to stay claim when you do this, Laura,” he said in typical Mark fashion. “I know how you get.”

I felt like blasting out a reply but we have actually been getting along well since that day. Maybe this is a silver lining in this horrific catastrophe. We can start again fresh now. We don’t need to make the same mistakes as we have before.

“I’ll keep it together,” I replied with an honest smile.

He brought over my tennis shoes. “Here, put these on.”

I picked up the lantern and turned it up to its brightest.

“When I opened the door, the first thin
g I noticed was how hard it was to open. The debris that had settled in the carpeting was fairly thick. I pushed the door completely open. I heard a gasp coming from my mother who was standing behind me.

One of our family jokes has always been about my mother, the neat freak. The girls and I would laugh at her obsessive cleaning of the kitchen counters and sweeping of the floors. We poked fun at the way she would re-sweep the entire floor if she found even a small spe
ck. She always said that she enjoyed cleaning. I sure hope she wasn’t kidding.

Our room looked like a hurricane hit it. Ha, ha. I guess that expression will now be passé. So I will correct myself for this new world we live in. It looked like a bomb exploded.

The bed was turned over and there was glass on the floor from the television and the full sized mirror we once admired ourselves in. Maybe it was good that it was gone because I know I am a disheveled, dirty mess now.

I shut the door and moved on to inspect the other two bedrooms. It was more of the same.

I took a deep breath and opened the doors that led to the stairs. I was surprised to see that some of the wooden stairs were split and others were just gone. I made my way up carefully, skipping those that I could tell, even in the lantern light, would not be able to hold my weight. I stopped mid-way through. “Mom, you can’t attempt this. It’s too dangerous. Please just stay down there,” I implored.

“This is my house. I need to see the damage,” she argued.

“No,” I yelled. “You really don’t. At least, not now.”

I guess that she is not used to her mild
-mannered daughter using this tone with her. I heard a “humph” and saw her go back behind the doors.

Mark
came from out of nowhere and grabbed me by my arm to support me and a look passed between us. We both knew the severity of the damage and in that instance I think we both knew that we were in this thing together for the long haul.

At the top of the stairs I hel
d up my lantern. Our house looked like a warehouse with rows of the plastic tub that contained our food and water. We had moved most of the furniture out of the kitchen, the formal dining room and the living room when we started to stock up. The containers of water were so heavy that they looked like they had stayed put pretty well.

“I got the food and other items back into place,” he said. “Right there
are the potty patches for Hershey. I used the baggies to clean his poop but there isn’t much we can do about his pee. I was going to use a cleanser on it, but I realized I can’t, because the smell would throw him off.”

“
It’s okay, Honey.” I wrapped my arms around his big chest and held on for a long time while I took in the scene. “You have done an amazing job here. I am sorry if I haven’t seemed grateful enough. Thank you! And from now on we will do it together.”

“You have been too hurt, Laur
a. I need to tell you how thankful I am that you are alright. When the rumbling stopped, I went over to you and it was really bad. Sit down, Laura,” he pointed to one of the chairs that had weathered the storm.

“I didn’t tell you this because I didn’t want to completely freak you and Annie out, but when I lifted the table from you, you were lifeless. Your mother was unconscious, but breathing.” He kneeled on the ground next to me. “Laur
a, you weren’t. I started CPR but I wasn’t getting a pulse. I just kept going, I don’t know how long for. It was like I was floating above us, looking down at myself, pumping your chest and breathing into your mouth. All of a sudden, you took a deep breath on your own. I checked and found your pulse. Then, I sat back and just crumpled into a ball next to you and cried. I cried like a baby, Laura.”

I knelt down
with him, and we held each other, silently rocking, while the tears rolled down both of our faces.

“Laur
a, I am sorry for everything from before…”

“
Shhhh,” I interrupted. He didn’t have to say another word.

Has the blast really wiped clean o
ur past sins?