Flowers in a Dumpster (2 page)

Leaving Zeke to watch over Edwin, Miguel followed after his wife. She leaned against the counter with her arms folded across her chest. He recognized the look on her face. “No, Sadie. Don’t even think about it.”

“You don’t know what I’m going to say.”

“I most certainly do, and we’re not keeping him. He’s not a stray cat.”

“I think we should at least let him stay the night.”

“I already said no.”

“The man can barely stand. He couldn’t even feed himself.”

“That could just be an act to get us to let our guard down.”

Now Sadie put her hands on her hips and tilted her head. “You can see the man as well as I can, and I know you don’t believe that.”

She knew him better than anyone ever had. There was little he could hide from her. “Be that as it may, he’s not staying here.”

“Just one night, Miguel. That’s all. Let him have dinner with us, sleep in an actual bed, get rested up before he continues on. One night.”

Miguel chewed this over for a couple of minutes, his eyes darting between his wife and the archway, through which he could see the frail man in the living room. Finally he said, “Okay, but only one night. And I mean that. Not one night that turns into two that turns into a week that turns into a month. He’s out the door bright and early tomorrow morning.”

Sadie smiled and reached up on tiptoes to deliver a kiss to Miguel’s cheek. “Thank you. It’s nice to know the compassionate man I fell in love with all those years ago is still in there.”

“You keep him alive,” Miguel said then gave her a real kiss.

***

As the sun slipped below the horizon, Miguel lit the torch lamps in the backyard and started to cook dinner on the grill. He had no charcoal, but his crude fire, made from twigs and paper scraps, got the job done. The sizzling meat caused Miguel’s mouth to water and his stomach to growl.

Behind him, the family sat at the wooden picnic table, Zeke on one side, Sadie and Edwin on the other. The stranger seemed to be regaining some of his strength. He was still weak and shaky, but he’d managed to walk out to the picnic table by himself and stumbled only once.

“So this is possum meat, you said?” Edwin asked.

Miguel nodded, flipping over a hunk of meat with a bent barbeque fork. “I set up a few traps down by the lake. I catch a few from time to time.”

Sadie laughed, and even without looking over his shoulder, he could tell from the sound that she was embarrassed. “I know it might seem a little gross, eating possum . . . ”

“Oh, not at all,” Edwin assured with a flip of his hand. “When I was in New York, I practically survived on rat. And it has been so long since I’ve had meat of any kind, I’m grateful that you are willing to share.”

“Think nothing of it. You know, it tastes pretty good. I even dry some of the meat and make it into a jerky.”

“Really? Possum jerky?”

“Yeah,” Miguel affirmed. “We’ll give you some for the road when you leave tomorrow.”

“Don’t be rude,” Sadie said.

Edwin laughed. “It’s okay. I promise I won’t overstay my welcome. I hope to make it to Florida by winter. I’m thankful for the hospitality you have shown me, but I’ll be moving on tomorrow.”

Miguel said, “Good,” and started transferring the meat to a chipped plate. On the grill, he tossed some large hunks of potato and carrot to roast. That didn’t take long. He brought everything to the table, dividing up the food equally among the four of them, and took a seat next to Zeke.

Before anyone started eating, Sadie insisted everyone hold hands, bow their heads and say grace. She offered up the prayer, as usual: “Dear Lord, I just want to thank you for protecting this family and keeping us safe even in these crazy times. Thank you for providing this food we are about to consume, and use it to nourish our bodies and keep us healthy and strong. And Lord, I also want to thank you for guiding Edwin to our door. We will treat him with the kindness and generosity with which you treat us. Amen.”

Everyone muttered an “Amen” in response then dug in.

At first they ate in silence, but then Edwin moaned low and said, “This is absolutely delicious. Miguel, were you a cook in your former life?”

Miguel snorted a laugh but didn’t answer.

“Actually, Miguel was a kindergarten teacher,” Sadie answered for him.

Edwin chortled. “Really?”

“That surprise you?” Miguel asked, chewing on a rather tough piece of possum.

“Honestly . . . yeah. A little.”

Miguel shrugged. “Well, I was different back then. The world was different back then.”

“No argument there.”

Sadie said, “What about you, Edwin?”

“What about me?”

“What did you do back when the world was different?”

“Oh, I was a lawyer, um, once upon a time. Not much use for those now.”

“Wasn’t much use for them then, either,” Miguel muttered.

“Again, no argument there.”

“I was a nurse,” Sadie said.

Edwin smiled at her. “Now that I have no trouble seeing.” Then he looked across the table at Zeke. “And what about you, young man? What were you before the world went and fell apart on us? A doctor? An astronaut?”

Zeke stuffed a hunk of potato in his mouth and shrugged.

“Zeke was only seven when the sickness started,” Sadie whispered, picking up a piece of carrot then putting it back down, as if this topic had robbed her of her appetite. “Which means it has only been five years. Feels like a hundred. Sometimes I think I can barely remember what life was like . . .
before
.”

Edwin nodded. “When the sickness hit, it swept through the world pretty fast. Who would have thought that life as we knew it could collapse so completely, so quickly?”

“I’ll tell you what I do remember,” Sadie said. “The news reports. We’d gather around as a family and watch. I mean, we were scared enough just seeing what was happening in our own city. At first it seemed like a simple case of the flu, but the sick people didn’t get better, and many were dead within a week of contracting the illness. The news gave us conflicting reports about the cause, how to treat it, how to prevent it, but one thing was clear—it was happening
everywhere
.”

“And the damn President on the airwaves almost every night telling us everything was A-Okay,” Miguel grumbled, bitterness dripping from his words like acid. “I mean, people were dropping like flies, the hospitals were overrun, similar reports were coming in from across the globe, but still that pompous prick with his fat face and jet-black hair just smiled and said there was nothing to worry about.”

Sadie smiled apologetically at Edwin. “You’ll have to excuse my husband. He gets a little, shall we say, passionate on the subject of President Kane.”

Edwin chewed on a piece of meat, swallowed, and then asked Miguel, “You don’t think the government had something to do with the disease, do you?”

“Would you put it past them? It could have been some kind of biological warfare project gone horribly awry. Regardless of how the sickness started, though, there’s no way the President didn’t know how serious it was.”

“Maybe he just didn’t want to create a nationwide panic,” Edwin said.

Miguel pushed his almost empty plate aside. “Panic? Maybe people could have protected themselves better if they were a little more panicked? By lying to the public about the seriousness of the outbreak, it made people complacent. Even when they saw the evidence with their own eyes, they believed the President because surely he wouldn’t lie to his citizens, right? It doesn’t matter if he had a hand in creating the virus or not, his actions doomed this country. I consider the man a murderer. He should be put to death.”

“He’s probably dead already,” Sadie said quietly, but her words were corrosive, too. “Or at least, he is if there’s any divine justice left in the world.”

Miguel shook his head. “If that man turned out to be one of the two percent with a natural immunity . . . Well, that would be enough to make me question my faith.”

“Don’t blaspheme,” Sadie said, but she wore a faint smile. Edwin now pushed his own plate away. He looked uncomfortable, his face twisted in a grimace. “Please forgive us. This is terrible dinner conversation. It’s been so long since we’ve had a guest, we’ve forgotten our manners.”

“No, it’s not the conversation. I think my exhaustion is finally catching up to me. Would you mind terribly if I retired for the night?”

“Of course not. I’ll warn you, the pull-out sofa bed isn’t the most comfortable thing in the world.”

“The last few nights I’ve slept on the ground, so it’ll be like sleeping on a cloud, I’m sure.”

Edwin rose from the bench when Miguel said, “Stick around and have breakfast with us in the morning. If you’re going to be setting off, might as well do it on a full stomach.”

Sadie graced her husband with such a brilliant smile he suspected he would get a little something extra in the bedroom. Edwin smiled at him, too. “That’s very kind of you. I’ll see you good folks in the morning.”

“Do you need any help?” Sadie asked.

“I think I can manage. Good night and bless you all.” With that, Edwin hobbled back to the mobile home and disappeared inside.

Miguel and Sadie exchanged smiles over the table. Miguel turned to his son . . .

. . . and gasped. Zeke had gone pale.

***

Edwin expected he would have no trouble falling asleep, but sleep eluded him like a slippery eel. He tossed and turned on the mattress, which was in fact less comfortable than the hard ground, but his troubled mind was what kept him awake. He could hear the family talking quietly outside, though he couldn’t make out their words.

They were such a lovely family, and one of the few fully intact families he’d run across in the last few years. What were the chances all three would be immune to the virus? Of course, if both parents had a natural immunity, it would definitely increase the chances of their offspring being immune as well.

He would never be able to fully express his appreciation at the generosity they had extended to him. Miguel’s initial hostility and mistrust were understandable, but it was obvious these were good people.

This was why he thought it might be best to sneak out early in the morning before they awoke. They had a nice setup here and he wouldn’t mind staying for a while, but he couldn’t risk them finding out the truth.

Still listening to the family’s murmured conversation out back, Edwin finally fell asleep.

***

He awoke sometime in the night to the sound of creaking floorboards and heavy breathing. Edwin cracked open his right eye and scanned the room, but the overwhelming darkness kept him from seeing enough. As his vision adjusted, he thought he detected a hulking figure standing right next to the bed.

“Miguel?”

There was no answer, but then the figure raised something into the air. Edwin tried to move, but he wasn’t fast enough. Pain exploded along the right side of his head and he plunged back into even deeper darkness.

***

When Edwin came to the next time, he found it much easier to see his surroundings, thanks to the torch lamps’ flickering flames. He lay outside on the surface of the hard, splintering picnic table. Edwin tried to rise, despite the intense pounding in his head, but found himself strapped to the table with sturdy ropes. He craned his neck to look back toward the mobile home and saw Miguel standing there. “Hello, Mr. President.”

Edwin could only make a hoarse croak when he tried to speak. He licked his lips and tried again. “What are you talking about?”

“I’ll admit, you’re pretty unrecognizable,” Miguel said, raising a baseball bat and propping it casually over his shoulder. Edwin saw the blood on the end of it. “You’ve all but wasted away, your hair has gone silver, and what with half your face looking like Freddy Krueger there is a good chance that we would never have realized who you really are. Believe it or not, Zeke was the one that put it together.”

“Miguel, I don’t know what Zeke thinks—”

“He was only a boy when the sickness hit, so I doubt he even remembers what President Kane looked like, but it was something you said that struck a nerve with him. After spewing lies and misinformation at the public in your press conferences, you’d always conclude with, ‘Good night and bless you all.’ Funny, Sadie and I had forgotten that, but Zeke remembered. And once he said something to us, it all fell into place. President Stephen E. Kane. Let me guess . . . the ‘E’ stands for Edwin, right?”

Edwin thought about denying it, but he didn’t have the strength. “What happened was not my fault. I didn’t do anything.”

“Except deceive the entire nation.”

“At first I honestly didn’t know the severity of the situation.”

“And after you did?”

“Well, my advisors kept telling me it was best not to come clean with all the frightening details, that it was better to keep the public calm.”

Miguel snorted a laugh. “So the Leader of the Free World was just following orders, just like the Gestapo.”

“Please, you don’t understand. I was just trying to—”