No Normal Day (11 page)

Beth
says, “What do you think, Lee? That would free up the garage
for Dianne and Jason. And when Trish and her family arrive...”

Jack
stops her, “IF, they arrive. Look, you know this all went down
on Saturday. They would have been at the lake house that morning.
That's a pretty good place, Beth. They can make it there for a
while”.

Beth
had that stubborn set to her mouth...”WHEN they arrive, we will
find a space.”

Jack
shook his head,
nothing meaner than a mother and her cubs.

Lee
said that arrangement sounded good to him.

“
So,
now for the security around this place. I want to board up all of the
front windows, the ones that are outside of those big wooden gates
and the back privacy fence. I don't know how much lumber we have,
there is some out in the storage building and maybe behind it. Once
we see what we need, we might have to add lumber to our
“acquisitions” list.”

Beth
said, “There is a roll of barb wire that might help secure the
top of the fence.”

“
There's
no barb wire, honey. I never bought that, didn't seem important.”
tactfully said
Jack.

“
Actually,
there is a roll behind the shed. I bought it when you were gone
hunting last Fall.”

Jack
narrowed his eyes at her and talked some more about making a night
watch schedule. “Right now, we have Jason, Tate, Lee and myself
that are familiar with firearms. We can manage to cover the
perimeter, once we get it as secure as we can make it, in shifts”.

Dianne
said, “Daddy, Jason has been giving me some lessons on using
the guns. I can help.”

“
That
is a good idea. Probably a second person needs to be on a shift. I
want to start being sure that every one of us knows how to safely use
a gun. We will be working on that. Your mother is not the only one
with secrets. I have probably a dozen or more weapons and ammo. Lee
and Jason brought some. Some time today, the guys and I will make a
schedule and we will see just what weapons we have.”

“
Anything
to add, anybody?” No body spoke, they were trying to take it
all in. “Well, we are burning daylight and that has become a
real issue, so let's get busy. Beth, I imagine you and the girls will
need to get together some lunch and then you know a lot better than
me, what's got to be done. Boys, I want you to got out to the storage
building, get all the roll away beds, blow-up air beds and I think
there are even some old lounge cushions out there. You can put it all
in my big garage
for
now. First, I want you to help your dad unload the station wagon.”

He
spoke to the twins, “Mindy, Michelle, you go out to the storage
shed and get two of those big plastic pails. Stay in the back yard
but fill the pails with twigs and small limbs. There are plenty that
blew down in the rain yesterday. Put them by that stove on the corner
of the patio.” Jack had built a “rocket stove” last
Fall, mainly just out of curiosity about the way it functions. He
took the bottom barrel half of an old smoker, placed an “L”
shaped piece of stove pipe in it and surrounded the pipe with lava
rock. The top of the pipe was level with the top of barrel and the
“L” piece sticks out a hole cut near the bottom. He found
a rusty heavy grill, cleaned it up and secured it on top. The theory
is that you could start your fire in the bend of the “L”
and it will burn very hot. By just feeding twigs, small limbs or
leaves, etc. into the bottom, you can have a hot fire and even boil
things on the grill. They cooked a pot of chili on it and it worked
pretty darn good.

The
next two days were full of work. Beth and Jack constantly added to a
list of needs. The trailer got moved and hooked into the septic. They
boarded up, all but two of the windows. Where they were able, they
opened the window up, placed a 2x4 across the outside with a long
bolt through it, that traveled through plywood cut for the inside and
a 2x4 cross piece on the inside of that. There were two small windows
that didn't open, it was necessary to screw pieces of odd lumber
across them. Beth cringed at the scarring, but felt better when the
windows were secure. The materials to secure two more windows go on
the list. The barb wire was nailed up in coils, near the top of the
fence, they would need some more of it. The big wooden gates opened
out into the small courtyard between the big garage and the house. In
order to make them harder to open, they bolted pieces of lumber that
could drop across the crack between the two doors and still be opened
from the inside. Being short on barb wire, they take some 2x1 strips
of wood, it was trim that Jack had and pounded nails all the way
through. They screwed those strips right below the top of each gate,
with the nails facing up. A climber might get a surprise. The men and
boys looked at the gun and ammo cache and plans were made to start
getting everyone some training.

Beth
had the guys disconnect and move the washer and dryer out of the
small pantry/laundry room. They took the doors off of the cabinets
that were built above, she managed to pull some shelves in,
underneath, where the appliances had been. She gets rid of just
clutter in the pantry on the other side. With help from all of the
kids, she moved all of the food stores from the closet by the office
to the pantry and the shelves. They added the food that Dianne
brought to the stores. It looked like a lot, but there were a lot of
mouths to feed.

She
gathers all the first aid supplies and medicines that she had and
made a place for them, clearing out one of the upper kitchen
cabinets. She even had a few bottles of antibiotics that she ordered
online. They are “fish” medicines, doing her research and
reading information from both doctors and vets, she believed they are
equal to and as safe as human meds. It reminded her though, that Lynn
takes prescription meds for chronic problems. They won't last forever
and that is a real worry.. She asked Lynn for her scrip bottles and
wrote down the medicines on her list.

They
were two mattresses on the antique bed in the front bedroom, where
the girls and Lynn were sleeping. The twins on the full bed, Lynn on
a roll away. They take one mattress off and move it to the office for
Kathryn and Tate. They scoot the big desk against the wall and put
down a lounge cushion for BJ. The closet is now empty and it opens to
the office and front bedroom, the shelves and racks can be used by
the sleepers from both rooms. Dianne moved her and Jason into the
garage space that Lee and Cody had vacated. She pushed the two roll
away beds together and stowed their stuff away on the shelves.

Later
that day, the boys set up their beds in Jack's big garage/shop. Beth
had cleared them some shelves and took some sheets, blankets and
pillows out. They would get the air twin mattresses, they were all
young and fit and could sleep on just about anything. David, the
youngest said, “Gram, I think that Cody should bunk with us.”
The boys had been working together all day and got along fine.

“Of course
boys,
that is totally up to you.” All of Dianne and Jason's
“integrated” children were close. From the beginning they
seemed to feel like true brothers and
sister.
Dane,
the first born and beloved grandson of Jack and Beth, was gay. The
others didn't give that a thought, he was just their brother or
whatever.
The
world had
been
changing and in some areas, tolerance had been
greater
than ever, in others, not so much.
Who
knows what this new world would bring.
Cody
came
to
the door of the garage, pushed his hair behind his ear. Matt said,
“Hey man, want to bunk in here, with us? Go get your gear and
start pumping up a bed.”

“
Sure,
that would be cool,” answered
Cody.

After
working all day the second day, Jack was thinking,
we are just
about squared away.
They pulled up lawn chairs and sat on the
back porch, a huge pot of chicken stew with macaroni and vegetables,
simmered on the rocket stove. Everybody had some kind of beverage,
for now they managed to keep a few ice cubes frozen and those were
rationed out. Jack sipped his drink and said, “I am real proud
of the way everybody dug in and the work we have done. I am feeling
better about our security, although it will not make us perfectly
safe. I do think, it is time to get Trish and her family here.”
Beth was instantly paying attention. “It's been five days now
since the event. Even at the lake house, they will not be able to
make it indefinitely. It is only going to get more dangerous
out
there.
When we pulled the trailer around we checked out the
highway, even more cars looked broken into and we could see a fire
down the road a ways. I need to make a trip. I am thinking I will
take the wagon, and Lee will go with me. We will go tomorrow. With no
bad trouble, we can get there and back easy in a day.

“
Jason
and Tate will be here.” Jack spoke to Jason. “All of you
will need to stay alert. That house next door was in foreclosure.
When we were moving the trailer, I saw the back door standing open.
Someone could even be staying there or maybe they just broke in”
The girls looked nervously at the back fence. “I don't think
the single lady next door has ever come home and Mike, two doors
down, must be still at the school with his family. Just stay on your
toes.”.

Beth
said, “I didn't think I would ever
be
saying something like
this
and in front of my children, I am giving you my list of needs. If you
can get in a pharmacy, maybe even a hardware store, get what you can.
And don't pass up any food or water that you might find. Lynn will
soon be in need of those meds. We will be fine here, Jack. Go and get
the rest of our family.”

The
sun came sparkling across the calm blue lake. They loved being at the
lake house, it was closer to Trish's work than the house in town,
about thirty minutes away. It had become their true haven. When she
got off work on Friday evening, she went straight to the lake house.
Eric, had usually already made it out, after he picked up their two
girls at school. Nicky, age 6, and Brook, age 4 couldn't wait to get
to the lake. Brook came out of their small bedroom and rubbed the
sleep from her eyes, “Mommy, the tv is broke, I want my
cartoons”. Trish looked over at the clock, it was black. “Oh
honey, the power is off I guess. Just go color in your new book, it
will be on soon. Anyway, Daddy went to get us some doughnuts, we will
have breakfast when he gets here.” Trish, got up, slid into her
house shoes and went to the kitchen.
It's so quiet, beautiful on
the water this morning.

The
girls kept asking about the tv and where are the doughnuts. Trish
thought,
seems like Eric has been gone a long time, he should be
back.
She pulled out the cell phone, nothing would come up on the
screen. Out the side window, she saw no sign of him. Things were
really still. Often though, folks were not there for the weekend or
they would come later in the afternoon. A small boat was putting
along the shoreline. Worry was nagging at her a bit now. She gathered
the girls, put them in her car and got behind the wheel, “Damn-it,
what's wrong with the car?” They all exited the car and she
said, “Look, let's just take a little walk, maybe we will see
Daddy coming.” She started the slow steps with the girls beside
her. They had moved about a quarter of a mile and way up ahead
through the thick trees, she spied Eric. “Look, it's Daddy,
let's wait here for him.” They sat on the damp grass on the
side of the road. Eric had a white bag in his hand, shortly he
reached them. “Hi girls, what's up?”

Brook
said, “Daddy, my cartoons are broke.”

He
gave Trish a kiss, “I don't know why, the blasted truck just
stopped dead and my cell phone is dead.”

“
Me,
too,” said
Trish.

“
What
do you
mean?”