Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie (22 page)

They had funny looks on their faces, but I kept letting them have it. "This is in
no way
my fault. I did what she
asked
me to do. I didn't drive her down that driveway and outa here. It was
her
choice, and it was
her
decision to keep you two in the dark, and you need to stop being
selfish
about it and keep
prayin'
that she comes
back
here safe with
both her boys
and her husband in tow! Ya'll should be
proud
you raised her to
love her kids
so much she'd go to
hell, and, back
to save them!"

Okay, Pop
had enough of me. He got up and went back to the motorhome. This time he walked slower and closed the door when he got inside. Nana let out a giant sob, laid her head on the table, and cried. With her whole body, she cried.

I felt like crap. I got up and
patted her on the back. I told her I loved her and went back to making biscuits. After a few minutes, she sat up and wiped her face. Then, she just sat there, folding her Kleenex and not saying a word.

Mick came out to the table and sat down beside her. She took both his hands and patted them before she put her own back on the table in front of her. She kept sighing, and folding that tissue.

I wondered if that "hand pat" was her way of telling Mick she was sorry he had to put up with me. Grrr!

Everyone
shuffled in for breakfast. The kids tried to ask Nana what was wrong and she just waved them away. They looked up at me and I put my finger to my lips to shush them. They got the message and went to sit by the fire while they ate their biscuits.

I'm still a little nervous about what Pop might say if he ever decides to speak to me again.

3:30 PM...

I haven't seen Pop or Nana since early this morning.

I made
rice and baked beans for lunch and gave the kids a plastic baggie full of sweet apples slices I dehydrated last fall for dessert. They're staying inside by the fire 'cause it's drizzling rain outside.

After cleaning the kitchen, I came in here to lie down and try to sleep 'cause I've been up since yesterday morning. I slept about two hours before I heard the family moving around in the house.

I don't know what got accomplished on the fence or the water situation today, but I'm sure everyone will fill me in.

I need to get up, go out there, and figure out what we're having for supper. My eyes feel like I glued them shut with gorilla glue before I closed them.

10:00 PM...

It's better now. I've been forgiven.

Pop and Nana were both in the house when I left the bedroom. Pop motioned for me to come out on the back porch. I headed out there and Nana followed me.

"You got anything else you need to say?" Pop asked. I looked at him and burst into tears. I laid my head on his chest and just cried. He put his arm around me and said "Now, now. It's all right there, sister. We know why you didn't wake us when Rona left, and we're tryin' to understand, but you gotta realize, ya'll are
our
babies and we'll be looking' out for you all 'til the day we die and afterward, if we're able."

He's right and I know it, but I'd do it the same way all over again because I gave
Rona my word.

We went back in the house and I felt okay again. Man, here I am 50 years old and still cryin' on daddy's shoulder. I'm such a wuss.

Supper was dee-licious. Hisa opened several jars of canned chicken breasts and stuffed them with a mixture of cream cheese, pesto, and sun dried tomatoes. She wrapped each one in a slice of bacon and put them in the cook stove oven. That took the last of our cream cheese, but it was worth it. That chicken dish melted in my mouth.

Nana warmed up some of the asparag
us I got on my crazy Super Walmart run. She mixed up a packet of hollandaise sauce to go over it. She also warmed a #10 can of whole kernel corn and we had the last apple pie from the freezer for dessert.

I dipped my chicken in the hollandaise sauce that had run down beside my asparagus and I felt like I was eating a gourmet meal. It was divine. The kids gobbled theirs down, and I was surprised. Sometimes, it's hard to get those stinkers to eat any vegetable or food they aren't familiar with.

Nana told us to "enjoy it 'cause tomorrow we're having beans and rice for lunch and supper." She wants to get the motorhome cleaned out so she and Pop will have more room, and she "won't have time to be in the kitchen all day." She's put the beans out to soak overnight.

Mick said the pool is almost halfway full. Yay! He said everything's working like he thought it would and we'll start filtering water into our empty barrels day after tomorrow.

Mick called me out to the back porch after supper. He led me towards the laundry area, and I saw that the coals underneath the trough were hot. He pointed to the second trough and told me to stick my hand in the water. It was warm. It was very warm. It was almost hot!

H
e hung a sheet on tree branches to block the view from the house and told me to get in. I was out of those clothes so fast you wouldn't believe it.

When I slid down in the trough, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. "You know it's about to get bad" Mick said, as he massaged shampoo into my scalp. "I know, but can we not think about it right now?" I asked. He nodded and said "We'll think about it tomorrow then" and he continued washing me clean. We didn't get out 'til the water was cold. It was heaven. I smell good again.

There is nothing like a hot bath, in a horse trough, with your honey.

Bye for now.

Friday, January 24

It's 3:18 AM and I'm in the closet with this computer.

I can't go outside because we're under attack.

The gunshots have stopped. I still hear voices out there.

I sent Carisa and Merry to Caleb's house. They had to run through the woods in the dark. I told them to get in the tornado shelter. I was out there, shooting, with everyone but the kids.

The trucks on the road drove away fast and I heard a motorcycle go with them.

When they left, Mick told me to get in the basement 'cause he can't worry about me and the kids while he's looking for the rest of 'em. I told him I was coming in here, instead.

He sent Marisa and Hisa to Caleb's house. Pop and Nana are in the basement.

Oh God, please let my babies be alright. Please let them be safe. If I don't get to them soon, I'm going to lose my mi…

We have injuries on this hillside, and we've lost one as well.

There was nine of us shooting. The kids were hiding in the tornado shelter.

The bad guys had sixteen in their little "gang." We killed two of them, and a third one died this morning. We know there were sixteen in their group because the man who died this morning told us.

Diane is dead. She was shot in the leg and I think she bled out. Oh my God,
how my heart aches from writing those words
!

We were sound asleep, and were startled awake by the sound of gun
fire coming from somewhere near the road. Mick jumped out of bed, pulled on his pants, and stuck his feet in his boots.

He grabbed a couple different
weapons, including the AR-15, and ran out of the bedroom. He went out the kitchen door so he could sneak around to the front. He didn't even wear a shirt.

There were gunshots coming from the road and Mick started shooting back. I woke Merry and Carisa and told them to run to Caleb's house, send all the adults back, and tell them to bring guns. I told
them to take the little kids and hide in the tornado shelter.

They
headed towards the path and suddenly stopped in their tracks. They heard noises coming from the woods. Carisa turned to look back at me and find out if I heard the noises. I nodded my head and motioned for them to hide behind one of the laundry troughs. I saw Jason and Jeremy coming down the path, so I sent Carisa and Merry on their way.

Jason and Jeremy were loaded for bear with every
weapon they had. They were both wearing long johns and flannel shirts. Their boots were untied and made strange noises as they walked.

They told me that Marisa and Diane would head this way as soon as the girls got there to take care of the kids. I told them to sneak around to the front of the house and find Mick.

I headed to the motorhome to see about Pop and Nana, and I almost jumped outa my skin when I heard someone ask "What's going on?" Pop was already outside and crouching behind a huge tree stump.

I told him to get Nana, take her to the basement, and stay there. He said he was "absolutely
not
going to hide when people were shootin' at his family." I said "Fine, meet me in the living room after you get Nana in the basement, and make sure the basement door is locked." There was no time to argue because my husband was being shot at and I wanted it stopped. I ran back in the house and grabbed Marley and my Glock.

Pop came up the basement stairs as Marisa and Diane were coming in the kitchen door. We decided to sneak around to the front and find the others. The frequency of
gunshots increased in volume and number, and I knew that Jeremy and Jason were shooting as well.

We crept along the side of the house and past the bay window. We
made it to the front left corner of the house and found Soo shooting toward three trucks on the road below. I could barely make out silhouettes of people running around the trucks, but I could see the flashes from their guns as they tried to kill us. The trucks looked like military vehicles.

Soo
told us that Hisa was beside the front porch, Mick was behind Soo and Hisa's motorhome, and Jason was in the woods half-way down on the left. He didn't know where Jeremy was, but thought he was on the right, somewhere near the pool.

I turned and looked at Pop. I had no clue where the four of us should go. He said he was going to try and get down the hill behind Soo's motorhome with Mick.

He practically screamed at all of us "don't shoot someone you ought not to be shootin'!"

He sent Marisa to the right side of the porch, and told her to lie down and steady her pistol using both hands before firing.

He told me to go to the right front corner of the house and use it for cover.

Diane was told to keep movin' and shoot from inside the tree-line on the right while she tried to get to Jeremy.

Soo, Hisa, and Jason already had the left side of the property covered.

We squatted, crawled, and duck-walked to our positions.

I could still see flashes on the road, and could still make out a few silhouettes. It sounded like bullets were coming and going from every direction.

I made it to my position and aimed
Marley at the flashes on the road. I could hear bullets hitting the trucks, Marisa's trailer, and Soo's motorhome. I could also hear them hitting the house. One of our windows shattered into pieces.

Our vehicles were behind the house, and I sent a 'thank you" up to Jesus.
Then, I had a gut-wrenching thought. What if a bullet hits the tanker of gasoline? Chills ran down my spine, and my knees felt weak. I didn't know if a bullet would cause it to blow up, but I'd seen it happen on fictional TV shows. I prayed it wasn't possible.

I heard a loud crack and
something hit me on my right cheek. I felt blood running down my face but I didn't care, it wasn't even hurting, and I kept shooting.

A man scream
ed somewhere near the pool area and I knew that scream. It woke me once before. It was Jeremy.

I tried to squint my eyes and look in the direction it had come from. I saw a dark figure but I didn't know if
it was Jeremy or one of the bad guys, so I didn't shoot, but someone did.

There was a tall shadowy figure that came from the trees on the right. It shot the other figure, and I saw the first figure fall. The figure that was still standing
began walking up the hill and I saw it bend over, stand back up, and suddenly fall right back down. I believed it was either Jeremy or Diane.

I realized I could no longer see Mick's shadow up against the back of Soo's trailer. My heart almost jumped out of my chest to run and find him. I started getting dizzy and took a couple of deep breaths. I was afraid to continue shooting at the shadowy figures, so I chose to shoot at the flashes because I knew those were the bad guys.

Bullets were still flying all over the place.

Finally, the flashes fro
m the road stopped and I saw dark figure's jumping into the trucks. They flipped on the headlights and put the pedal to the metal trying to get outa there. I heard a motorcycle as well, but I didn't see it.

We shot several more times toward the fleeing trucks. I saw someone running up the hill toward the house, so I aimed
Marley until I could see who it was.