The Trip to Raptor Bluff (14 page)

Reba chuckled.  “You are acting more like yourself today.”

“Yeah, the worst is over but I still feel horrible.  Hey, I smell fire.  The matches must have dried out.”

“Let’s go help your mom build a fire ring.  The forest is probably too damp to burn but I would still feel better knowing that her fire is contained.”

Andrea stood by a large pile of burning wood, flapping the tarp in the direction of the ocean and trying to scream for help with a voice long gone.  The noise from the two visible helicopters, mere dots in the distance, was barely audible. She looked over her shoulder and croaked, “Someone will have to monitor the fire twenty-four hours a day to keep it burning.  The pilots will see it at night, even if they miss it during the day.  The three of us can take turns.  I will take tonight; Reba can take tomorrow night; Tara can take the next night.”

“You are going to stand out here in this wind and stoke the fire all night?” asked Tara.  “Really?”

“This is my first and last trip to your fire, Andrea,” Reba said as she looked up from the pile of stones she was arranging.  “If an aftershock hits, I am not going down with the cliff.”  When Andrea began to argue, Reba shook her head and wondered just what it was about Tara that had attracted her in the first place.  Whatever it was, it was long gone.  Once they made it off this mountain, Reba swore to herself that she would avoid Tara and her lunatic mother for the rest of her life.

Brenda awoke to the sounds of Libby’s soothing voice whispering words of comfort.  She rose on an elbow to see her squatting by the mattress on which Diana lay, wiping her tears and patting her arm.

“I will get you another pain pill, Diana,” Brenda said as she rose quickly from her own mattress.  Dawn was breaking and Shelly and Pepper were still asleep on their shared double mattress.  Brenda threw some split wood on the smoldering embers in the fireplace before moving to the kitchen for a bottle of water.  When she turned back towards the family room, Libby was standing in the doorway.

“Diana wants to be taken off the mattress and put in a chair.  She doesn’t want to wear a diaper anymore, either.  She said she would rather use a pot as a bedpan but she hates that idea, too.”

Brenda sighed.  “She is finally starting to feel like herself again.  I was expecting this and I don’t know what to do about it.  She can’t get around on her own, so going to the woods to relieve herself isn’t an option.  It is too far for her to hop on one foot, even if two of us are bracing her.  Let me think about it.  We will come up with something.”

Diana’s puffy eyes began to tear again when Brenda sat down beside her.  “I don’t want to be an invalid,” she said.  “I am forty-nine, not eighty-nine.”

“Understood,” said Brenda, patting her shoulder.  “Let’s raise you a little so you can swallow some water with this pain pill.  Then we can talk about making life more bearable for you.”

Diana nodded weakly and lifted herself onto her elbows.  “I don’t know how to thank you for saving me,” she said after she swallowed the pill and drank some more water.

“I was just about to thank you.  We crashed into your house uninvited, made ourselves at home on your family room floor, and we are eating your food.”

“So we saved each other,” said Diana, carefully lowering herself back to a prone position.  “Brenda, I have an idea that might make this easier for everyone.”

Diana’s neighbor’s teenaged son had broken his ankle several years earlier and had had the cast removed in the middle of summer.  Diana believed that his crutches and orthopedic boot might still be in the house two doors down.  Pepper and Shelly were quickly dispatched to search the house, and to collect any first aid supplies, bottled water, and food they could find.  After they set off with two pillow cases to hold their loot, Brenda and Diana discussed the bathroom problem.

“We were going to have to dig a latrine today, anyway.  We don’t know how long it will be before help arrives and we can’t turn your woods in to an open sewer,” said Brenda.  “That still won’t work for you, though.  Even if the girls find the crutches, you won’t be able to get your clothes off and squat once you get to the latrine.”  She thought for a moment and said, “Tell you what.  My girls have been amazingly creative so far.  You try to go back to sleep.  When you wake up, hopefully we can present you with a pair of crutches and an idea for a latrine that you can use.”

“Just how bad is my ankle?”

“It is really bad, Diana.  The broken bones in your foot and ankle are visible to the naked eye.  And that’s another thing.  We need to wrap it with a lot of padding and then just leave it alone.  Between the pills and the padding, we should be able to make you a little more comfortable.”

“I know we have some rolls of elastic bandages and some butterfly pins in my first aid kit.  It should be in the closet in the master bath.”  Diana’s eyes were beginning to droop and Brenda waited until she was snoring gently before she changed the towel they used for a diaper.  She also wrapped Dianna’s foot in three folded hand towels that she kept in place with rolls of elastic bandages and some butterfly pins.  Diana slept through it all.

Pepper and Shelly returned with a pair of adjustable crutches but could not find the orthopedic boot.  They had also taken several cans of food from the kitchen cabinets and some warm clothes from a young man’s room.  “We left lots of stuff there, Mom.  We can always go back.  And we also want to check out the house right next door.  The last house is too dangerous; it is mostly buried by a landslide.”

“Look what else,” said Pepper proudly as she held up a manual can opener.  “Diana’s is electric and we can’t use it.”

“My brilliant girls,” grinned Brenda.  “Why don’t we have peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast while we plan our day? First thing, we need to see what is in the fridge and freezer and bury anything that is spoiled.  While we are doing that, you can help me think of creative ways to build a latrine.”

**********

“I don’t think I have been prouder of myself, ever,” laughed Pepper as she stood back to get a better view of the latrine.

“I’m willing to drain a little of my cell phone battery to take a picture,” snorted Shelly.

Brenda, Pepper, Libby, and Shelly had spent all morning designing and then building the latrine.  They found a spot in the back of the property that was partially hidden by trees, and hauled in armloads of rubble from the destroyed garage.  After digging a row of deep holes, side-by-side and about two feet apart, they built stone hills at each end.  They braced two sturdy wooden desk chairs taken from a neighbor’s house against the hills, and then made the chairs more secure with large rocks placed around the legs.  When they were happy that the chairs were stable, they laid a long wooden ladder across the seats and nailed it securely into place. 

“So you position your butt in between two ladder rungs, do your business in the hole, and then use the shovel to throw dirt on top of your mess,” said Libby.

“Better pull your pants down, first,” deadpanned Pepper.

When the others stopped laughing, Brenda said, “Let’s keep this simple.  We will use the hole on the left until it is full, and then we move on to the next hole.  Be very generous with the dirt you throw on top so we don’t smell the latrine from the back yard.  Oh!  And let’s not forget about toilet paper.  We will leave a roll on the kitchen counter closest to the back door.  If the roll is missing, it means someone is using the latrine.  That way we won’t embarrass each other with surprise visits.”  She stepped back to admire their handiwork and said, “Two of us will have to accompany Diana until she is comfortable on her own, but I know she will be delighted with this.”

Diana was awake when they trooped into the house for lunch.  “Please tell me the latrine is finished,” she said groggily when Brenda checked on her.  “These drugs make me woozy but my screaming bladder woke me up.  I must be getting stronger.”  She lifted the clean towel with its garbage bag cover from the floor beside her.  “Diaper, be gone!  I refuse to wear it for another second.”

“Good news,” beamed Brenda.  “We have crutches and a latrine ready for you.  Here, let’s get you into something decent but easy to get around in.  I took a big pajama shirt from your guest room that will cover you for your trip to the latrine.  You can tell me what clothes you want to wear when we come back.  I also put your big leather chair by the window.  You can prop your foot on the ottoman if it isn’t too painful.”

Diana was surprisingly agile on the crutches considering her weakness and the opiate in her system.  She allowed Pepper and Libby to accompany her to the latrine but made them leave before she would sit on the ladder.  When she was finished, Pepper threw a shovel full of dirt in the hole and began walking back to the house.  Libby was waiting for her beside a large tree.

“Shhh,” she said, nodding towards the raised garden.  Diana was leaning on her crutches and gazing at the cairn that marked Edward’s grave.  “Let’s leave her alone for a while.”  She squeezed Pepper’s hand.  “I’m so glad you and Shelly thought to pick those flowers from the neighbor’s yard and put them on the grave.  That was really sweet of you.”

Diana stayed outside for two hours, first leaning on her crutches, and then sitting on the railroad ties supporting the garden.  Brenda checked on her through the kitchen window and helped her through the back door when she was ready to come inside again.  “Have some tea and something to eat, Diana.  We found cheese in your refrigerator and we need to finish it before it goes bad.  Come on, your chair is waiting for you in the living room.”  She noted Diana’s pale and tear stained face but said nothing.

“Where are the girls?” asked Diana when she was settled in her chair.

“They are checking out the neighbors’ houses for flashlights, batteries, and any other useful things they can find.  We will have to leave a list of what we pillaged so we can make good on those items when this is over.  All of the tools we used to build the latrine came from your neighbor next door.  We took clothes, crutches, and food from the house next to theirs.”

Diana was staring out the window and didn’t respond, so Brenda went to the kitchen for a cup of cool tea and a plate of cheese and crackers.  She was placing them on the end table beside Diana’s chair when Diana said, “Edward would get the biggest kick out of his grave.  He had such huge plans for that new raised garden.  It was his idea and he couldn’t wait to start planting.  He would especially love those flowers you placed on his cairn.  I recognize them from my neighbor’s walkway.  He and our neighbor’s wife did not get along, and he would be so delighted that you raided her prized flowers to adorn his grave…”  Diana dropped her face into her hands and cried quietly.  When Brenda handed her a paper napkin, she accepted it gratefully and said, “Edward and I met in high school and never looked back.  We were together for thirty-three years and married for thirty.  We went through college and law school together…”  Her voice trailed off again.

“Do you have children?”

“No.  By the time we figured out that our careers weren’t the Alpha and the Omega, it was too late.”  She stared out the window for a long time before she turned to Brenda.  “Have you ever lost a loved one, Brenda?”

“My father died a few years ago but we were not close.  He was a brutal man to my mother, and to my brother and me.  He never laid a hand on us, but he could shred us with a look.  I think his main pleasure in life was berating and humiliating us.  I didn’t shed a tear when he died.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be.  I guess I’m lucky in a way.  I have never lost anyone who was important to me.”

“Edward and I had our own little universe that included just the two of us.  We had family and friends of course, but really, it was just Edward and me.  There are no words to describe how it feels, now that I’ve lost him.  I look into my future where I used to see a full life, and now it is half-empty.  The place where Edward stood has changed into a gaping black abyss.  I can’t even imagine trying to fill it.  I can’t begin to imagine how I am supposed to continue this life without him.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of voices in the back yard.  “I don’t want to upset the girls,” Diana said, wiping her eyes. 

“Do you want me to help you move to someplace more private?”

“No.  I want to be with you all.  I am not ready to look into that abyss again.”

Later in the afternoon, when Brenda saw Shelly walk to the latrine, she went outside and waited for her to return.  “Shelly, do you know how lucky we are to be alive, and to know that your dad and brother were most likely out of the tsunami’s path?”

“I think about it a thousand times a day, Mom.”  Shelly accepted the hug Brenda offered and squeezed hard.

“How are Pepper and Libby?  Have they mentioned any worries about their own families?  They seem fine to me but I wasn’t sure if I should ask.”

“Of course we talked about it.  All of our families back in Cleardon City live out of the tsunami zone.  Pepper’s bakery is in the tsunami zone but her parents have evacuation drills every three months so she is sure her family is fine.”

“Even with all the uncertainty facing us right now, I feel like the luckiest person in the world,” sighed Brenda.  “Come inside with me, Sweetie.  It’s time to scrounge up another meal.”

The girls had found an unopened, picnic sized jar of mayonnaise in a neighbor’s pantry, along with several cans of tuna.  Using the last of the bread that Dianna had bought in Port Fortand, Brenda made a pile of tuna sandwiches for dinner.

“I’ve never eaten anything so delicious in my entire life,” said Libby, “and I couldn’t
stand
the sight of tuna a week ago.”

“I have the feeling that we will change our minds about a lot of things after living through this,” said Diana quietly. 

**********

Diana had one flashlight but no extra batteries, and the girls were only able to locate two flashlights and six batteries in the neighbors’ houses.  Brenda sent everyone outside to use the latrine at dusk so they wouldn’t have to waste batteries using the flashlights during the night.  Without electricity to provide light or power electronic devices, there was nothing to do after dark but end their day and go to bed.  It was still deep in the night when Diana’s soft crying roused Brenda from her sleep.  She debated whether or not to offer comfort and decided against it.  Still, she could not fall back to sleep and she listened as Diana cried until the sky began to gray.

Diana was ready for her pain pill at dawn, and appeared more shaky and fragile than she had upon waking the day before.  Brenda helped pull her to a standing position and offered to escort her to the latrine.  Diana refused with a sweet smile, and went by herself into the misty morning.  When she returned, she settled in her leather chair and gratefully accepted the tea Brenda offered her.  “That old teapot works as well in the fireplace as it did on the stovetop.  How many tea bags are left?”