Monte Vista Village, Toxic Soup (The Survivor Diaries) (8 page)

We went back downstairs and started to clean. We put piles to put into the guest room of things that were too broken to bring back to life. One pile would be for things we can burn in the fire place when we can use it again. The other is just trash.

I wonder where we are going to put the trash now. Certainly, it would be sometime before we had an official garbage collector
.

I have mixed feelings about all of the things we have lost. On one hand, we have our lives and our home. That’s really a lot if you think about what we have gone through.  But what about the things
that mean a lot to us? Most of our things that bring back treasured memories are now thrown about the house, mangled and shattered. Will we lose those memories in the future?

I found our wedding album, ripped and dirty, but I think some of it can be saved. I wrapped it in a towel, placed it in an empty box, and stowed it away on a high shelf in the closest. This
is going to be a sad process, but I wouldn’t let Mark see it on my face.

I have begun to wonder what is left of our city. I sure hope that the furniture stores we okay. We are going to need a lot of new things. Our clothing did fly out of the closets, but most of it just needs a good cleaning. On the other hand, I don’t think we have any of our china left. 

Mom has been trying to clean but we have to keep stopping her. We ask her what kind of help she will be if her wrist does not heal properly. The questioning stops her for a little while but then she is back up at it again. I wish she would just listen. I am worried about her.

Annie taking minutes

Laura: “Hi, everyone. This is Laura. Can we do a role call?”

All present

Laura: “Thanks. How is everyone this evening?”

Several replies that they are fine.

Laura: “Good. So, I hope you have all been considering what kinds of groups and clubs you are interested in joining. Liz
has a great idea. She wants to add a teens club and kids club. Neither of us was sure how many younger people we have. Elizabeth has three kids; Pete is seventeen, Kristi is seventeen, and Ronnie who is nine. Do we have any other kids in our group?”

Veda: “Hello, my name is Veda and my husband’s name is Pranav, We have three children, two girls and one boy: Chandra is
sixteen, years old, Gita fourteen years old, and Padma, who we call Paddy, is our thirteen month old baby boy.

Tiffany: “Hi, I am Tiffany and my husband’s Robert we have two kids: Jayden,
twelve and Tommy, nine.”

Shelby: “Hey, Shelby and Matt here, and we have a two year old girl, Camella.”

Laura: “Anyone else? Okay, well I think that sounds like enough kids to start off some groups. Liz and I were talking, and we see some of these clubs lasting after we get out in a couple of weeks. I feel certain there will be plenty of people out there who don’t have walkies and will be ready for some new companions. Liz has been helping me figure out schedules, so I hope you all have pens and papers, because she is going to give you the list and schedules. At the end of the meeting, stay on and you can sign up for the different groups.”

Liz: “Here it is:

Mon, Wed, Fri @ 9 AM, channel one:
Kid’s Club
to discuss video games, tv shows, movies, and books.  Those are just suggestions you guys. You can talk about whatever you want and no one will listen in unless we make our selves know.  And that’s a rule for all of the clubs.

Mon, Wed, Fri @ 8 PM, channel three:
Teen’s Club
to discuss whatever they want to talk about.

Daily @ 10:30 AM, channel four:
Survival Talk
. This is for anyone fourteen and up. This is where we will discuss survival tips, ideas and education, for now and when we get outside. We decided that this might be a little too much for the younger ones, but the teens might have some good ideas, so we hope they join too. In fact, we hope everyone fourteen and up joins. We think that this really imperative for our survival.

Mon, Wed, Fri @ 9 PM, channel five:
Group Therapy
, same age groups as the Survival Talk group. This is for all of us to get out some of our emotional hurdles we are over coming.

Wednesdays@ 3 PM, channel six:
Book Club
, fifteen and up.

Katie has also been so kind to volunteer for individual and couple’s therapy groups to be set up with her.”

Laura: “All groups will start tomorrow since it is Monday. We will probably need to keep up with these 7:30 meetings but we would like to change them to 7 o’clock to accommodate our groups and clubs. When we get out, we thought we could change the times and dates and actually meet in person! That brings us to the next order of business. Do any of you have any questions, comments or needs that need to be addressed immediately? Liz and I have realized that we haven’t opened up the floor for these topics.”

Shelby: “Hi, it’s Shelby. I am wondering what you are all doing about, umm, bathrooms?”

Laura: “Okay, that’s something we could usually talk about in Survival Group, but it is definitely an immediate concern. My handsome husband has been dealing with the toilets at our place, so I am going to let him explain what we have been doing. It has really worked for us, so maybe you could modify it to work for you all. Before I have him start, is there any other business? Okay, so thank you, everyone, for your input. I think that we are really going to be able to help each other with these groups. And for everyone in the book club, I’m on page 270. So keep reading! So, here is Mark.”

I already talked about the toilets in this journal, so I don’t think I need to record it again. I am concerned that people haven’t worked this out yet. It has been six days since we had plumbing. I know I should be listening, but I am just too grossed out. I don’t want to hear their details. I just hope that they can make themselves some saw dust. Saw dust is the trick to keeping the smell under control.

It went well tonight. I am hoping more people will have a chance to talk with our new group set ups. As one big group of twenty eight people (if I have counted correctly) it is just too hard to have everyone talk. Not only would the meetings become just too long, the walkie talkie set up is not meant for meetings like this. We are making do, though, and everyone has been very polite.

Tomorrow is the one week anniversary of “it”.  It seems like we have been living like this forever, but I am not going to complain. I know that our situation is better than some in our group.

And what about all of the neighbors who have survived but don’t have walkie talkies? I blame myself that they don’t have what the
y need to communicate and maybe even survive. I have been selfish from the minute I saw the live video streams of D.C. and New York burning. That’s the truth. I scooped up my mother and her credit card and went out and bought tons of everything. What if others couldn’t find what they needed when they realized what was happening? Why didn’t I go to the neighbors’ houses sooner? Our neighborhood is a fairly good size and I barely hit a small percentage of it.

I remember the first time my mother took me, my brother, and my grandmother to see our new house. The first thing I saw was a hanging sign announcing that this is Monte Vista Village. There is a small strip mall that runs less than two city blocks in length. It consisted of a market, liquor store, a movie theatre and a few random businesses. The market and liquor store survived all this time, but they changed the movie theatre into a ballroom dance studio. It has actually built itself up pretty well over the past three decades. Now we also have a bakery, insurance office, dentist, hair salon, Automobile Club, and the Elks Lodge, along with a couple hundred homes. What will it look like when we reemerge?

What if they are dead because I didn’t help them when I could? Am I supposed to break into their homes and just take
what I want? Or what if they left their houses because they didn’t know not to? Their deaths will be in my head. I know if I mention this to Katie she is going to tell me that my feelings are natural and that I have survivor’s guilt. Lots of people shell out lots of money to shrinks for them to tell them that whatever they are feeling guilty about is not their fault. But what about when it is their fault, how do they live with themselves?

Between getting started on fixing up the mess in our house and getting ready for the meeting I’m pretty tired. Perhaps I’m not as healed as I thought I was. Our maybe it’s my guilt that has worn me down. I guess it doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, I’m beat!

Survivors Club Meeting Minutes

Members in attendance:

Number One Malcom, Katie Graham

Number
Two Shelby, Matt, Jessica Sheraton

Number
Three Liz, Pete, Burgess

Number
Four Carrie, Samantha Santos

Number
Five Carlito Mendoza

Number
Six Tiffany, Robert O’Malley

Number
Seven Veda, Pranav, Chandra Raja

Number
Eight Tony, Angie Gianluca

Number
Nine Laura, Mark Balous and Annie Patton

Number
Ten Jill, Joseph Richardson

Laura: “Wow, this is a great turn out. I count twenty one of us. So, because this was my big idea, I guess I should start off with what my goal for the group is. We all know that, with the best case scenario, we are not getting out of our houses for seven days.  The good news is that we are half way there. The bad news is we still have half way to go. If you are like us, your houses are probably getting stuffy, smell and are still a mess from the strikes. We have nick-named our house the “tomb”. Don’t get me wrong, we love our place, it’s just hard to be stuck here under the circumstances. So, let’s come together three times a week and discuss ideas we have for making life more livable, now and later.

So today, let’s just come up with topics. Who has one to get us started?”

Carrie Santos: “I think one of the hardest things for my wife, Samantha, and me is living without electricity and plumbing.”

Laura: “Great, Liz is keeping the topic list, so did
you get that, Liz?

Liz: “Sure did.”

Laura: “Next?”

Jessica Sheraton: “Hi, I’m Jessica.
Food and water. I know that we had time to get ready for this but we just didn’t believe it was going to come to this. Where are the government and army?”
Laura: “I think I hear two topics there. Food and Water is one and what do we think happened to the government and military. Those are really good. Okay, more topics.”

Carlito
Mendoza: “I would like to talk about what we are going to do when we get out. Are we going to vote for people to be in charge?”

Laura: “So, you would like to talk about building a government
, ah, okay. Then we will add that to the topics.”

Chandra Raja: “Um, hi, I’m Chandra. Do you think we will be able to go back to school? I know
it’s summer, but what about in August? We are supposed to go back in less than a month.”

Laura: “So, what should we expect about getting our lives back on track in the near future. Will we be able to get back to our schools and jobs? These are all really good topics. I think we need to prioritize these. And the one that strikes me as something we need to address immediately is Jessica’s food and water problem. Could you please expand on that, Jessica? What’s going on?”

Jessica: “We just don’t have enough. I live here with my daughter, her boyfriend, and their daughter. The baby’s only two. We make sure that she is getting enough water and food, but she is crying though. It’s just not enough (crying).

Shelby: “It’s not your fault, Mom. You see, we were going to go to a Red Cross Station so we didn’t thin
k we needed to have enough for weeks. But when you came, Laura, you made us decide to get a few more things. It was just too late. When the bombs were all dropping, we quickly put up some of the plastic from Matt’s construction stuff. You know the stuff they hang and stuff. But it is working, I think. We just kept layering it. We can’t see out the window, there is so much of it. But, yeah, we are hungry. I don’t think we can make it a week more.”

Malcom: “Let’s keep problem solving this as a group, but
, when we are done here, stay on and we will go over everything you have and I will help you to measure out rations. The baby has different needs, and we will go over all of that. If it gets too desperate, we might have to consider you or Matt going out to get some more food from one of our houses. Is there anyone else who is nearing the end of their food and/or water supplies?”

Angie
Gianluca: “Hi, this is Angie Gianluca. We are getting close, but we might be alright. Just no longer than a week.”

Laura: “I have read that you can drink the water from the water heater. They can have between
thirty and sixty gallons in them.”

Shelby: “OH MY GOD! We have a giant water heater.”

Malcom: “Yes you can. But you have to be very careful.”

Mark: “I just grabbed Laura’s survival guide. It says to turn off the circuit breaker first, ha, ha, ha. Matt, since you do construction this should be easy. You have to close the supply value to keep the water clean…”

Matt Harris: “I know how to get the water out but there is usually sediment on the bottom. How do you make the water clean enough to drink?”

Malcom: “The water should be okay to drink. Let the sediment settle to the bottom, or strain the water through a strainer.  If you can boil the water for at least
twenty minutes it should be okay to drink.”

Laura: “You can also drink the water from your toilet tank. I would boil it if I had to use it, though.”
Shelby:  “Mom’s crying, but I know that she would want to thank you all so much. So do I.”

Malcom:  “Also, a human can live for
three days or maybe more depending on your activity levels. I do recommend that you don’t exert yourselves too much. That will help with the food, too. Angie, will this information help you and Tony?

Angie: “We can do that. We’re okay.”

Malcom: “Is there anyone else who is concerned about their food and water supplies for the next week or so?”

Pause

Laura: “We will continue with this topic and start on some of the others at tomorrow’s meeting. Thank you all for joining this meeting. I hope the next time even more of you will participate in the discussions. Please don’t be shy. This information can literally save you lives. We will make it a goal to cover all of those topics brought up today during our next meetings.”
Katie: “Laura, can we talk when Malcom is done with the Sheratons?”

Laura: “Absolutely, just ring me up ma’
friend”

Tears filled my eyes at the word “friend”. I am not sure if these friendships are just happening because we are afraid, and I don’t care. I need friends now more than any time in my life.