“I’ve got no idea, but I’m not a doctor.”

 

 

Jimmy told Burt of a fallen elm tree over at the abandoned lodge. The two men were soon attacking it, shirtless, in the bright morning sunshine. Jimmy didn’t know when Ken had shown up, but Ken seemed to be there right away with a full plastic jug of water he wordlessly helped haul the brush into a pile. They worked that way for over an hour.

 

 

Doc arrived and he sat down on a fat chunk of elm. The saws were silenced, and the men gathered around him. Jimmy was sweating. and his mouth felt dry. He lit up a cigarette and found himself handing out three more.

 

 

“I don’t know what’s wrong with her,” Doc said, scratching his Paul Bunyan beard with long fingers. “I can’t be sure, but it doesn’t seem like Alzheimer’s. I think it might be some type of post-traumatic stress disorder.”

 

 

“Well,” said Ken. “That’s good news, isn’t it?”

 

 

“Sure,” said Doc, not sounding so sure himself. “These things come and go, and no one is really quite sure why. I haven’t seen much of it up here, but I have done some reading on the subject. Again, I could be wrong. Without my books or the internet, I’m pretty much flying by the seat of my pants. All we can do is keep an eye on her and pray for her to recover.”

 

 

“Can’t you give her something?” asked Burt.

 

 

“No way,” said Ken.

 

 

“I wouldn’t know what to prescribe her,” said Doc apologetically, still scratching his salt and pepper beard. “What she needs is rest, and she absolutely refuses to take anything.”

 

 

They talked some more, and soon the four men were working furiously on the huge old elm. The chainsaws screamed under the hot sun and seemed to be speaking for all of them. Jimmy couldn’t remember feeling so helpless. Julie joined them, dressed in blue jeans and one of Ken’s flannel shirts, and she hauled brush and held limbs to be cut. Jimmy was glad to see her and at one point he kissed her. “I love you,” he said, holding her chin in his hand.

 

 

“I love you, too,” she said, smiling sadly.

 

 

The splitting was difficult as the stubborn elm fought against the sharp bit of Ken’s splitting maul. The sun continued to rise in the sky, and the bottle of water slowly drained with each parched sip. Julie and Doc found a pair of rakes, and they cleaned up the broken branches from the sun burnt grass.

 

 

How long Rita stood there screaming at them was uncertain. Jimmy killed his saw just in time to hear her say that Patty had disappeared. “I was so tired, and it seemed like I was only sleeping for a few minutes,” moaned Rita. “She’s not in the house!”

 

 

“Okay,” Julie said. “She couldn’t have gotten too far. Let’s split up and find her.”

 

 

Jimmy waited for Ken to scream at Rita, but he simply set down the maul and gave her a hug. “Julie’s right,” he said. “We’ll find her.”

 

 

“I think I already have,” said Doc, holding one hand up above his eyes like a visor and pointing out onto the lake with the other. “Look, out there on the lake. I think that’s her.”

 

 

There was a moment of silence as everyone concentrated on the area that Doc was referring to. Between the pines on the far side of the wide bay was obviously a canoe paddled by a single person. Jimmy strained his eyes, but the paddler was much too far away to distinguish.

 

 

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” grunted Ken.

 

 

“Oh my God,” exclaimed Rita. “What is she doing out there, and where the hell is she going?”

 

 

“Rita,” Doc said calmly. “You’re acting hysterical, and that isn’t helping matters. Pull yourself together, woman.” He then turned to Ken. “Take me with you. It’s going to take the both of us to haul her into your boat.”

 

 

“Sounds good,” said Ken. “Let’s go.”

 

 

“I’m sorry,” whispered Rita.

 

 

The two men began to jog in the direction of Ken’s dock and hadn’t covered twenty feet when Julie shouted a question at Ken. “What about the key to your boat?”

 

 

Ken, who had been leading, held his arms out like wings and stopped dead. He then turned to face Julie. “They’re hanging on the board in the kitchen.”

 

 

Julie turned to face Jimmy and he smiled at her. “Good thinking,” he said. “They wouldn’t have gotten too far without the keys.”

 

 

Julie gave him a confused look.

 

 

Burt finally intervened. “I think she’d like you to run up to the house and get the keys.”

 

 

Jimmy nodded. “Oh yeah,” he said. “I’m on it.”

 

 

“Run!” shrieked Rita.

 

 

“Rita,” warned Doc.

 

 

Jimmy set off at top speed and covered the quarter mile as fast as he could. He liked being the fastest guy in camp. There was a transferrable skill, he thought. He then wondered if working in the kitchen hadn’t damaged his ego. He ran through the open mouth of the gate and up the hill to the backyard. He threw open the screen-door and charged up the three wooden steps into the kitchen.

 

 

And there stood Patty Dahlgren. She was dressed in a fuzzy white robe and matching slippers.

 

 

“Patty,” exclaimed Jimmy. “We thought you were out on the lake.”

 

 

Patty smiled and sipped from a bottle of water. “My,” she said. “Look what the cat drug in.”

 

 

“How do you feel, Patty?” Jimmy asked, feeling relief rush through his body.

 

 

Patty gave him an odd, almost sly look that confused him. “I feel great now that you’re here,” she said. “I’ve missed you.”

 

 

Jimmy backed away as Patty removed her glasses and shook out her hair. “I’m really happy to hear that,” he stammered. “I have to tell the others that you’re here.”

 

 

“Oh, Ken,” Patty whispered. “You don’t have to tell anyone right away, do you?”

 

 

Jimmy could only nod as his feet propelled him out of the kitchen and down the steps in a single bound. He was around the corner of the house before the spring slapped the door closed. Holy crap, thought Jimmy. He nearly tripped going downhill and pinwheeled his arms to keep from tumbling forward. He knew that he was trying to outrun a memory that would probably haunt him for the rest of his days. He wondered to himself, who was that out on the lake? Old cigarette smoke began to stir in his lungs before he was halfway back to Ken. Jimmy began to wheeze and cough as he fought for air. Still, he pushed himself. He was the fastest man in camp, and he was determined to prove it.

 

 

Everyone was standing down at the lake when he arrived, huffing and wheezing. “That’s not… Patty,” he said, between two breaths. “She’s up in the kitchen!”

 

 

Ken twisted and gave him a look as if he had lost his mind. “Are you sure?

 

 

Jimmy bent down and put his hands on his knees. He nodded his head. “I just talked to her. She thought I was you.”

 

 

“The hell you say,” growled Ken, and without another word began to run to the house.

 

 

“If that isn’t Patty, who the heck is it?” Burt asked.

 

 

“Whoever it is,” Julie said. “They’re getting closer.”

 

 

“I’m going with Ken,” announced Doc. “Be careful; we don’t know who that is.”

 

 

“I think we can handle one person in a canoe,” Burt said. “Go help Ken.”

 

 

“I’ll go with you,” said Rita.

 

 

“No,” said Doc. “You should stay here. Ken and I will take care of this.”

 

 

There was an uncomfortable silence as Doc jogged away, and soon Rita was sobbing. “I’m not hysterical,” she moaned. “I’m really not.”

 

 

They stood there for nearly five minutes, hands cupped over their eyes, before Julie finally recognized the paddler. “Oh my God,” she said. “That’s Bill.”

 

 

“You’ve got to be shittin’ me,” exclaimed Burt. He stuck his hands on his wide hips and curled his lips back in an angry snarl.

 

 

“Calm down,” said Julie. “You’re getting hysterical.”

 

 

“Oh, that’s so funny,” Rita said, sarcastically.

 

 

Burt began to laugh, and soon they were all laughing, even Rita. Jimmy laughed until his eyes watered and his stomach hurt. Of course he knew that Bill was going to be furious with both him and Julie. Still, he thought that would be small potatoes compared to how angry he was going to be with Burt. Bill didn’t have much in this world and had loved his Honda. Each time he was reminded of that, Jimmy was caught in another fit of laughter. Bill deserved it, he thought, especially after what he had done to both him and Julie. Bill had every right to be angry with them, but Jimmy wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily, not because of what boiled down to a simple car accident.

 

 

“He’s going to kill me,” mumbled Burt.

 

 

“Not if I kill him first,” said Julie.

 

 

“Don’t let me stop you,” Burt replied, backing away from the lake.

 

 

Jimmy could now plainly see that it was Bill. He would stroke the paddle half a dozen strokes and glide to a stop. Thn he would repeat the process. Jimmy shook his head in embarrassment.

 

 

“He doesn’t look happy,” said Rita.

 

 

Julie stepped towards the water, balled her hands into fists, and struck a Dempsey-era boxer’s pose. “His day is about to get worse,” she hissed.

 

 

Bill had obviously seen them, and his meandering canoe was pointed, more or less, in their direction. “You stole my car!” Bill bellowed across the water.

 

 

“This is going to be ugly,” muttered Burt. “You know, technically, it wasn’t me who stole the car. You guys did that.”

 

 

“Don’t worry, Burt,” Jimmy said. “Let Julie handle this.”

 

 

“You stole my car!”

 

 

“I hate confrontation,” said Rita. “I don’t care what Doc says, I’m going up to the house.”

 

 

They all ignored Rita, and she slipped away, unnoticed. Bill was less than two hundred feet from shore and picking up speed. Julie marched down to the water’s edge and planted her fists on her hips superhero style. Bill’s tongue hung from the side of his mouth, clenched between his teeth. His eyes were wild with anger, and his red face was coated with sweat. He dug deep with his paddle and pushed with all his strength. The canoe hit the sand beach with a sharp, ripping sound. Bill used the paddle for support and practically leapt from the canoe. Jimmy had never seen Bill like this, and he’d known him for a long time.

 

 

He came straight for Jimmy. “You left me out there, man!” he shouted in a froth of spit. “And then you stole my car!”

 

 

Julie stepped in front of Bill. “And what about you?” she asked, furiously pointing at Bill with both hands. “You’re a goddamn liar!”

 

 

Bill’s head looked as if a pinball was rattling around inside his brain. He pointed both of his fingers at Julie, mimicking her perfectly. “You’re a goddamn liar!”

 

 

“Oh, shit,” grumbled Burt.

 

 

“Let her handle it,” Jimmy repeated.

 

 

“Why did you tell Jimmy that we had all decided to stay at Bailey’s?” Julie barked. “And why didn’t you tell me that Jimmy had come back here? I was worried sick about him, and you knew it!”

 

 

“Me and Jimmy was just fine until you came along,” Bill spat, his face bright red with anger.

 

 

Julie’s eyes blazed with unbridled fury. “You’re a sick man, Bill Huggins,” she growled. “I feel sorry for you.”

 

 

“Where’s my goddamn car?”

 

 

“You want your car? Follow me,” Julie replied, waving her arm at Bill.

 

 

“Yeah, I want my damn car. I am so out of here, man.”

 

 

Jimmy and Burt stood, shell-shocked, and watched the two of them stomp away with Bill staying a safe ten steps behind Julie. Jimmy scratched his head. “This isn’t good,” he said. “Do you think we should follow them?”

 

 

“Hell, no,” replied Burt. “I think I’m going up to the house.”

 

 

“You will stay right here. We’re both going to take our lumps.”

 

 

Burt grunted and slowly nodded his head. “I wasn’t kidding, that was my first accident. That never would’ve happened if Ken hadn’t been standing in the road. You know that, right?”

 

 

“I know,” Jimmy said, watching Julie and Bill as they stalked off down the gravel road. Julie’s hands were in the air as she screamed something at Bill. “Oh, crap,” he said. “This is so bad.”

 

 

“Like I don’t know that? Give me a smoke.”

 

 

They stood there and smoked. From their vantage point they could see a distant Bill as he stood at the corner. There was no mistaking his reaction as he put both of his hands on top of his head.

 

 

“Son of a bitch,” muttered Burt. “I’m so sorry.”

 

 

Jimmy watched Bill as he sprinted around the corner of the road, behind the woods, and out of sight. “It could have been any of us driving,” he said.

 

 

“But I was showing off. That should have never happened.”

 

 

Jimmy knew he should feel some pity for Burt, but he didn’t. Burt had been driving like a maniac and had put all of their lives in jeopardy. They stood there quietly for what seemed like a short eternity. Julie finally emerged with Bill two steps behind her.

 

 

“Here it comes,” said Burt.

 

 

“Yep.”

 

 

They marched back, and their voices became clearer with every step. Bill was screaming about his wrecked car while Julie roared with indignation. Jimmy thought that he’d rather be anywhere on the planet right now, even locked inside a relocation camp. This was a volatile situation, and he’d seen enough of those recently—enough to last a lifetime. He and Burt exchanged a worried look and returned their attention to the road.

 

 

“I don’t give two shits about that piece of crap!” shrieked Julie. “You’re a meddler, Bill Huggins, like some kind of comic book character. I can’t believe a word that comes out of your mouth!”

 

 

“You smashed up my car!”

 

 

“I wasn’t driving!”

 

 

“Who was driving?”

 

 

“Burt was!”

 

 

“Oh, shit,” whispered Burt. “That’s right! I was driving your car, man. I’m so sorry, it was an accident.”

 

 

Bill’s eyes grew huge, and he screamed something unintelligible. He suddenly began to jog towards them. At fifty feet away he began to scream again. He suddenly stopped and picked up a rock, and then to Jimmy’s astonishment hurled it at the men. The rock sailed harmlessly above their heads. Bill dug down and picked up another stone. That rock skipped two feet to Burt’s side and caused him to jump.

 

 

“Knock it off!” Jimmy screamed. “Bill, grow up, will ya?”

 

 

The words seemed to hit Bill like a freight train. His face seemed to crumple, and his hands began to tremble. To Jimmy, he looked like a young teen caught shoplifting. Bill let out a short wail and suddenly began to run back to the safety of his canoe.

 

 

“That’s right, you asshole, get the hell out of here! Go back and crawl under your rock!”

 

 

“Julie!” shouted Burt. “Enough of that shit!”

 

 

But Jimmy knew Julie, and it was going to take a lot more than that to stop her once she had a full head of steam. “I hate you, Bill Huggins! Do you hear me? I hate your guts, and I never want to see you again!”

 

 

Bill held his hands over his ears as he ran. Jimmy couldn’t remember ever seeing anything so pitiful. “That’s enough,” he said to Julie, taking her firmly by the arm. “Mission accomplished!”

 

 

Julie turned in his grip, and he could see the anger drain from her face. Bill was now at the water, pushing the canoe out into the lake. He was bawling like a baby as he did so, and it caused his timing to be off as he tried to hop into the canoe. He was up to his knees when he tried heaving himself inside, but he slipped off in a great splash of water. The canoe continued out to sea, and Bill, soaking wet, charged after it in a mad, soggy scramble.

 

 

“Will you help him, Jimmy?” pleaded Burt.

 

 

Jimmy moved in that direction, but Bill had somehow managed to claw his way into the old aluminum canoe. “You can go to hell!” Bill bellowed at them as he began to stroke the paddle into the water. “I hate you, too!”

 

 

They watched him paddle away in silence. Somehow Bill seemed to have found another gear. The canoe was a distant memory in only a couple of short minutes. Jimmy closed his eyes and said a prayer.

 

 

“I shouldn’t have been so hard on him,” Julie said. “I’m sorry about that. He just makes me so mad. I really don’t hate him. I just don’t understand him.”

 

 

Jimmy shook his head. He was angry with Julie. Bill may have fit every name she had called him, but he was still Jimmy’s friend. For all intents and purposes, she just shattered his fragile ego and had drawn a definite line in the sand, claiming him for herself. Jimmy didn’t think she had any right to do that or to tell him he wasn’t welcome back at Ken’s. That wasn’t her decision to make. Bill had accompanied Jimmy back to Bailey’s not knowing what they were up against. He had also saved all of their lives from the radical Christian Fundamentalists. He deserved better, despite all of his faults.

 

 

Julie seemed to be reading his mind. “Oh, shit,” she said. “What did I just do?”

 

 

“I think you made an enemy,” said Burt. He then turned and slowly walked back towards the house.

 

 

“Oh, Jimmy,” Julie said, a tear falling down her cheek. “I was out of control. I should have never said those things to him. Oh, dear. You should have seen his face when he saw his car. He screamed like a little girl.”

 

 

Jimmy shook his head and took her by the hand, happy that she could at least see the error of her ways. “Come on,” he said. “There’s nothing we can do about Bill right now. He’s just going to have to get over it.”

 

 

Julie stood planted where she was, watching the canoe as it grew smaller. “Why does it seem like everyone is going crazy?”

 

 

“I don’t know; maybe because we are going crazy.”

 

 

They slowly walked back to the compound. Jimmy, eager to change the subject, tried to explain what had transpired in the kitchen. Patty had indeed thought he was Ken. Jimmy, embarrassed, had left out the part that she had made a confused pass at him.

 

 

“That’s insane,” said Julie, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I was insane. That wasn’t me back there. You know me, Jimmy. I’m not like that.”

 

 

Jimmy, suddenly struck by how bizarre the entire day had been, asked something he immediately regretted. “What if we all have Mad Cow Disease?”

 

 

Julie seized onto that with both hands. “That would explain everything!” she cried out. “How long does it last?”

 

 

Jimmy stared at his shuffling feet and flatly lied. “I don’t know,” he said.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 11

 

 

 

 

They walked through the gate, and Julie shoved it closed. Jimmy slid the lock into place. They had done it so many times that it had become routine. Jimmy wanted to tell Julie that his theory was just that—only a theory. She was adding up things out loud, narrowing it down to the canned meat in the cupboard. “We’re going to have to toss it all out,” she said, “or we’re never going to get better.”

 

 

They walked up the hill and found Doc and Rita sitting in the sunlight at the picnic table. They were talking in hushed tones and stopped the moment they noticed the two of them. Jimmy and Julie exchanged a puzzled look.

 

 

“Where’s Burt?” Jimmy asked.

 

 

“Haven’t seen him,” Doc said, dismissively.

 

 

Rita suddenly turned on Julie. “How could you have said those things to him? What if he forgot to tell you that Jimmy came back here? Have you ever thought about that?”

 

 

Jimmy knew then that Rita had heard it all.

 

 

“Jimmy thinks we all have Mad Cow Disease,” Julie said, ignoring Rita. “And I think he’s right.”

 

 

Doc held his hands up and shook his head. “That’s not possible,” he said.

 

 

“Oh, isn’t it?” asked Julie. “What the heck do you know? We sure as hell could have it, and it would certainly explain things around here.”

 

 

“Listen to me, Julie. We don’t have Mad Cow Disease. That is inconceivable.”

 

 

“And why is that?”

 

 

“Because it would kill us all!”

 

 

Julie hadn’t been expecting that. Jimmy could see it in her face; he grimaced. “I didn’t say that we had it,” he said. “All I did was ask, ‘What if we did?’”

 

 

“I told you, and we’d all die in the throes of lunacy. Do you want to believe that’s going to happen?”

 

 

Both Jimmy and Julie shook their heads. “But you can’t be sure that we don’t have the disease, can you, Doc?” Julie asked.

 

 

“I certainly cannot.”

 

 

“I’m not crazy,” said Jimmy. “I think Doc’s right.”

 

 

“I’m not crazy, either,” said Rita.

 

 

They all turned to stare at Rita for a second before Doc broke the silence. “I think Patty had a small stroke. That’s my personal opinion. Julie, you and Rita have been under a lot of pressure, and it’s only natural for that to throw you off center. I don’t think any of us are crazy. I do believe that some of us need to check their tempers, while others should keep their fears to themselves.”

 

 

Jimmy agreed with Doc and nodded his head. Julie sighed and joined him. Rita studied a bug that was crawling across the table but never nodded or said anything.

 

 

The following week was cooler as fall began to creep up on summer. Jimmy and Julie put aside their differences and were nearly inseparable. They shared themselves as if for the first time, and their love grew in leaps and bounds. Jimmy could feel it, and he felt somehow ashamed of himself for feeling so good. Patty showed little, if any, progress. Ken stood by her side and said precious little to anyone else. When he did talk, it was to relay some huge accomplishment of Patty’s. There were times when Jimmy wondered if he could hear himself; the miracles that he spoke of were so minuscule, it sounded like it would take her twenty years to make a complete recovery.

 

 

Burt and Doc spent their days playing cards and doubling up on odd jobs. Rita took over in the kitchen, which nobody seemed to mind. She didn’t say much anymore, and Jimmy thought she looked like she’d aged a decade in a week’s time.

 

 

One afternoon, ten days after the incident at the lake, Julie turned to Jimmy in his bed and she tenderly cupped his face in her hands. “Jimmy,” she whispered, “I want to get out of here. I can’t take it, anymore.”

 

 

Jimmy groaned, and the moment was spoiled. Two days would pass before Julie brought it up again. They were down on the dock, fishing for crappies in the cool of a drizzling morning rain. “I want you to come along with me,” she said. “I want all of us to go, and I don’t want to come back. This isn’t my home.”

 

 

“I can’t leave Ken and Patty,” Jimmy said, quietly. “You know that.”

 

 

“What about me? I love you, Jimmy. I want to marry you.”

 

 

“I want to marry you, too.”

 

 

“So, what are we waiting for? They have a judge over there, and he can get us hitched. I want to spend the rest of my life with you—can’t you see that? I just can’t stay here. This place is just too depressing. I feel like I’m suffocating.”

 

 

Jimmy had known this was coming. He had known it from the minute she had agreed to accompany him back here. He had no idea what to say to her. He could no sooner lop off his own hands than he could leave Ken and Patty in their hour of need. He could see the boredom in Julie’s eyes, and it had been there from the second things returned to normal. “I can’t go with you, not right now,” he said. “If you really want to go, I’m not going to stop you.”

 

 

Julie nodded, bravely. “I thought you would say that,” she said. “I’m sorry, Jimmy. I just can’t take it, anymore.”

 

 

“I’ll be there as soon as I can. Maybe I can even talk the rest of them into joining me. I just can’t leave here with Patty being like she is. You understand that, right?”

 

 

Julie nodded her head. The next morning she loaded up her things into a Chevy pickup whose owners were either long dead or captured. After a passionate kiss, Julie shifted the truck into drive, and she never looked back.

 

 

The following days matched Jimmy’s emotions, endlessly gray and unseasonably cool. Wherever he turned, there was something or someone that reminded him of Julie. He purposely stayed out of the porch where she had slept on one of the single beds. He found himself avoiding Rita, simply because she would ask him how he was. Board games had become out of bounds as each one held another memory of Julie. Jimmy would spend his days hiding from Julie’s ghost, and he was rarely successful for more than a few minutes at a time.

 

 

Jimmy’s depression deepened with each passing day. He began sleeping in his clothes, and he gave up shaving. He avoided looking at himself in the mirror. The stranger who stared back at him with dark circles under red-rimmed eyes also reminded him of Julie. There were times when he thought he was on the verge of losing his mind, but he found that oddly comforting. A big part of him envied Patty. She seemed to start a new life every morning.

 

 

There were jobs to do, and he forced himself to rise to the tasks at hand. There was still trash to take care of and wood to chop. Storm windows needed to be exchanged for the screens, but they needed to be cleaned first. The boats were landed, scrubbed, covered, and parked under the pines. The men hauled in the dock, one heavy section at a time. They stacked it neatly, and Ken secured a large blue tarp over it. Red appeared in the trees and brown in the grass. Winter was coming.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 12

 

 

 

 

Horror found them when they least expected it. The experience would slap the depression from Jimmy and force him to make decisions. Just before lunch as Jimmy sat on his bed and watched September rain smear against the storm window, he heard the sound of running feet. His door was thrown open, and Rita stood there with eyes wild with fear. “Have you seen Patty?” she nearly shrieked at him.

 

 

Jimmy shook his head and he sprang from the bed. A full-scale search of the house was on. and everyone seemed to be shouting Patty’s name at the same time. A minute later, as Jimmy was coming out of the tuck-under garage, Ken tossed Jimmy one of the musty hooded raincoats that had hung on the basement wall. “She’s not in here,” was all Ken had needed to say. They each buckled into one of the rubber raincoats, and he and Jimmy charged up the stairs and out of the house.

 

 

The cold wind and driving rain worked together to strip the leaves from the trees. They split up, and Jimmy searched the back of the property, starting with the shed. “Patty!” he called every fifteen seconds or so. “Where are you?”

 

 

Ken was suddenly behind him and spun Jimmy around like a rag doll. “The gate is open!” he screamed. “The damn gate is wide open!”

 

 

“Shit!” cried Jimmy. “When was the last time anyone saw her?”

 

 

Ken’s rain-spattered face said it all. He shook his head and shrugged. “Let’s go!” he cried. “I’ll take the road and you search the cabins. She couldn’t have gone far!” They ran to the gate and wordlessly split up.

 

 

Jimmy searched the deserted lodge first. “Patty?” he called. The smell of decaying garbage assaulted his senses, and squirrels and chipmunks seemed to be crawling everywhere. “Patty?” The front door hung open, and pooled water shimmered in the breeze. The old place was going to hell in a handbag, and Jimmy found that he could care less.

 

 

He may have been searching for an hour without any sign of her before Jimmy stopped in one of the cabins and lit up a cigarette. The raincoat may have been old, but he was as dry as a bone. He tried to think where Patty would have gone. His fingers shook with cold and fading adrenaline. He cursed Julie for not being there to help them. Another pair of eyes might mean the difference between life and death. There were four more cabins to search on this side of the lake. They were strung along the water on a narrow peninsula of land that was known as The Point. The last cabin was nearly a mile from Ken’s, and Jimmy couldn’t imagine that she’d have ventured out that far.

 

 

He left the cabin, tossed his cigarette, and marched directly into the wind. Fat raindrops slapped against his clenched face as his raincoat flapped like a wet flag behind him. He bypassed the next set of dark cabins. Ken’s lake boiled like an angry sea while crows desperately clung to the pine branches above him. Jimmy passed another cabin, but he set his sights on the last one. The old log cabin had been painted dark brown for as long as Jimmy could remember, and it stood like a sentinel at the edge of the water. The cabin now looked dark and forbidding. Suddenly a terrible thought crept into his brain: Suicide. Jimmy tried to push it away, but like the crows, it clung to the limbs of his mind with sharp talons and refused to move.

 

 

At the end of the peninsula the shaggy grass had been sunburned to a crispy brown. There was something about it that reminded Jimmy of death. The thought ran back to suicide, and Jimmy violently shook his head. “Patty!”

 

 

The old door was still in perfect working condition and Jimmy opened it, slowly. “Patty?” he called, quietly. “Are you in here?”

 

 

The small living area was covered in dust and cobwebs, and once he closed the cabin door, all sound ceased to exist. The poor light offered by the rain-covered windows caused all the colors inside the cabin to turn to a shade of gray. “Patty?” Jimmy asked in his normal voice. There were two interior doors inside the cabin; the first led into the small bathroom. Jimmy quickly closed the door and moved to the other one. Jimmy could suddenly smell Patty’s lilac perfume. He steeled himself for what was on the other side of the door. He knocked. “Patty? It’s Jimmy.”

 

 

He then waited for a full ten count.

 

 

He opened the door and found Patty lying flat on her back with her arms spread wide. Her eyes were closed, and Jimmy gasped at the sight. Tears shot down his cheeks like spit seeds of melon. “Oh, my God,” he cried. “Patty!” He quickly unbuckled his raincoat and rubbed his wet hands on his dry shirt. “Patty?”

 

 

One arm suddenly flopped to her bosom, and Patty seemed to rise from the dead. Jimmy choked on his tears and the snot that hung from his nose. “Whiskers?” Patty called out, looking as confused as ever.

 

 

A shape crawled out from under the bed and suddenly leapt next to Patty. Jimmy groaned as he recognized the animal. He rushed to the side of the bed, wiping the tears from his eyes. “That can’t be,” he said. “That can’t be Whiskers.”

 

 

Patty sat up and pulled the affectionate feline close. “Well, Jimmy,” she said, the sleep still thick in her voice. “It most certainly is.”

 

 

“Do you remember me?” Jimmy asked, sitting down and giving Patty a quick hug. “Oh, God, we’ve been so worried about you. How do you feel? How did you find Whiskers? Why are you out here?”

 

 

Patty reached over to the bedside table and picked up her thick glasses. She calmly put them on and smiled. “I didn’t find Whiskers; she came to find me.”

 

 

“But,” Jimmy gasped. “That’s impossible.”

 

 

“Nothing is impossible if you have faith,” Patty said. “I prayed for her to find me.”

 

 

“Patty!” cried Ken, from over Jimmy’s shoulder.

 

 

“Hi, honey,” Patty said with such peace in her voice that Jimmy got up and backed away.

 

 

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Ken stammered, moving past Jimmy and onto the bed. He reached out and took the metal tag from the mystery cat’s collar. “Oh, my,” he gasped. “Sweet Mother of Jesus!”

 

 

Jimmy tossed his raincoat onto the corner of the bed and bolted from the room, out the open door and into the rain. He then ran as fast as his legs would carry him.

 

 

Doc spent nearly an hour with Patty and much longer than that digesting his own diagnosis. He confessed this to Jimmy and Burt on the following afternoon as they sat at the picnic table eating their lunch under what had become a blue sky. Patty Dahlgren was not only out of the woods, she seemed to have somehow increased her mental capacities since Jimmy had discovered her sleeping in the cabin at the end of The Point. “She now has what’s called a photographic memory,” Doc had said, seemingly flabbergasted. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

 

 

“That’s some crazy shit,” said Burt. “Last week she didn’t even know her own name.”

 

 

“Whiskers did it to her,” Jimmy said. “How else can you explain it?”

 

 

Both Doc and Burt gave him looks that made Jimmy stare down into his plate of beef stew. He knew it sounded crazy, but there was no denying the fact that she had recovered the minute she was reunited with her beloved pet. “I’m glad you brought that up,” said Doc, standing his spoon up in his stew. “I want to address that issue. Some animals possess an incredible instinct for being able to find their way home. Obviously Whiskers has that gift. I believe that Patty’s shock at seeing her long-lost friend was enough to jump-start her sputtering brain. I’m fairly certain now that she was suffering from post-traumatic shock syndrome. I also believe that her shock was so great that it opened up hidden chambers in Patty’s own mind.”

 

 

“What are you saying?” Burt asked, pushing his half-eaten stew to the middle of the table.

 

 

“Patty Dahlgren now has total recall.”

 

 

“Poor Ken,” said Burt, rubbing his chin.

 

“So,” Jimmy said, “what you’re telling us is that Whiskers had nothing to do with this?”

 

 

“Whiskers was simply the catalyst that sparked this phenomenon. There has been no miracle here. You men have to know that there is no such thing as a miracle. There is no Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, or Easter Bunny, either. Miracles are how simpletons describe complex situations. That’s the lazy man’s blanket explanation. That’s a miracle! Hogwash. Everything can be explained once you eliminate the impossibilities.”

 

 

“Miracles are God’s work,” Jimmy corrected. “Everyone knows that.”

 

 

“Damn straight,” agreed Burt. “I’ve seen miracles before, and this was definitely one of them. Quit trying to explain everything. You’re cheapening what really happened here. Don’t you believe in God?”

 

 

Doc suddenly stood and took the defensive. “What if I don’t? I don’t think either of you can fathom what I’ve been through. Do you think I’ve never prayed? I’ve prayed hundreds of times. I’ve prayed over that many dead bodies and a hundred more! I prayed for God to give them another chance. Do you think I enjoy informing families that they’ve lost a loved one? I prayed, and it never brought a single one of them back to life. There is no God, only science.”

 

 

“I feel sorry for you,” said Jimmy.

 

 

“Me too,” agreed Burt. “I’m going to pray for you.”

 

 

“Don’t patronize me,” spat Doc. “I knew you wouldn’t understand.”

 

 

Now it was Burt’s turn to stand. Jimmy was amazed at how much weight the big cop had lost. He thought it was at least fifty pounds. Burt was no longer the three-hundred-pound heart attack in waiting. He was now a two-hundred-fifty pound baldheaded wedge.

 

 

“Are you going to hit me, Burt?” Doc asked.

 

 

“No, I’m going to ask you to stop,” Burt said in what Jimmy imagined to be his cop voice. “You have every right to your opinion, but you can keep it to yourself.”

 

 

“This is still the United States of America, and I can say whatever the hell I please.”

 

 

“You can say anything you like to me or Jimmy. You’re just not going to say it to the both of us together.”

 

 

Jimmy leaned forward and dropped his spoon.

 

 

“What type of rubbish is that?” asked Doc, who now stood toe to toe with Burt.

 

 

Burt set his jaw as he stared up at the doctor. “This isn’t rubbish to me. The way I see it is that you’re talking about our Father. I’m not going to let you do that in front of my little brother.”

 

 

“Oh, please,” muttered Doc, but he turned away, and it seemed as if Burt had won the round.

 

 

Jimmy would replay that conversation over and over in his brain while he lay in his bed that night. He wondered how a doctor, of all people, could not see that they were all walking miracles. He really did feel sorry for Doc, and he prayed that he would find some faith before it was too late. He also wondered about Burt and about what his actions said about his faith. Jimmy had heard many theological arguments over the years, but none that ended with the threat of bodily harm. He found that he greatly admired Burt for making his stand. The next day he would retell the story to Ken. There was a moment of stunned silence before Ken nodded his head and smiled. “I didn’t think he had it in him,” he said of Burt.

 

 

The four men spent most of the good-weather days out cutting and splitting firewood. The air was crisp, and flocks of ducks and geese flew overhead. In Jimmy’s opinion, that proved they were much smarter than humans. Jimmy was secretly dreading winter. There was a sense of urgency to their work as September faded into mid-October. Their woodpile had mushroomed until it was nearly the size of a two-car garage. The hard work had paid off in other ways as well, Jimmy noticed. The exercise had been good for all of them, and it brought them closer together.

 

 

Patty had completely recovered. She would sometimes sit with Jimmy in the kitchen and talk in great detail about his parents. There he sat and sipped his coffee while Patty spun her stories with Whiskers turning circles around her ankles. He knew Patty enjoyed telling the stories as much as he enjoyed hearing them. He still missed his parents, and he looked forward to their talks.

 

 

One night as he and Burt sat out in the cool night air smoking their cigarettes, they heard the wolf pack hunting just outside the gate.

 

 

“Those damn things give me the creeps,” said Burt.

 

 

Jimmy listened. The howling voices seemed to be singing to each other, not a hundred yards from where they sat. The howling suddenly stopped, and there was a terrified bleating sound followed by ferocious snarls and a scream that nearly sounded human. Burt crossed himself and continued to smoke. That screaming sound would haunt Jimmy for a long time.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 13

 

 

 

 

The next morning Jimmy woke up to bright sunshine streaming through the upstairs windows. He sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He could smell strong coffee calling him from downstairs, and he quickly dressed. The other beds were empty, and the air upstairs in the big bedroom felt warmer than it had in weeks. Jimmy couldn’t remember the last time he had slept this late and felt a little bit guilty for doing so. Sleeping in had been Bill’s thing, and Jimmy had no desire to earn that type of reputation. He walked down the creaky stairs and opened the door into the kitchen.

 

 

“Good morning, sunshine,” Patty said. She had already poured Jimmy a cup of coffee and handed it to him with a warm smile. “Just the way you like it.”

 

 

Jimmy took the cup gratefully and sipped. “Thank you,” he said, clearing the sleep out of his voice. “Where is everyone?”

 

 

“Sit down and I’ll tell you.”

 

 

Jimmy sat down while Patty bustled around the counter. Whiskers was at her feet, affectionately turning circles around her ankles. Jimmy watched the gray cat for a moment and was amazed at how much fur had collected on Patty’s blue jeans. He then looked at the floor and saw small clumps of it.

 

 

“Ken and Burt are out foraging. I’ve had second thoughts about what’s right and wrong these days. I think the good Lord will forgive us for borrowing a few things that we really need. Ken promised to leave a note if he so much as takes a stick of wood. That’s the Christian thing to do.”

 

 

“Right,” said Jimmy, only half paying attention to her. He had picked up his coffee cup and was dabbing out a short strand of gray hair. Cat hair lay sprinkled on the table, and he subconsciously rubbed the sleeves of his shirt.

 

 

“Ken wants another generator. And do you know what, Jimmy? I don’t feel guilty about sending him out to go get one. I just feel so liberated. Do you want to know something else? I put together a shopping list. I told him to look for one of those boom boxes and some more candles. Do you know how many candles we’ve used since we lost the generator?”

 

 

“Uh-huh,” Jimmy muttered, watching Whiskers stop spinning for a second. Jimmy gasped when the cat suddenly tipped over on its side.

 

 

Patty looked down and brushed the back of her hand across her forehead. “Oh, my tired baby,” she said, scooping Whiskers into her arms and scratching behind her ears without concern. “This is my little miracle cat. God sent her to me.”

 

 

Jimmy took another look at Whiskers, and he could see a small bit of the cat’s tongue hanging out of its mouth. He didn’t like the looks of that. “What about Doc?” Jimmy asked. “Did he go with them?”

 

 

“No, Doc is down in the workshop. Here, eat a sandwich. We’ll be eating lunch in an hour. I’m making stew.”

 

 

Jimmy stood from the table and accepted the peanut butter sandwich. Stew again, Jimmy thought, remembering the good food at Bailey’s. Jimmy hugged Patty warmly and then picked up his cup. “That’s great news, Patty,” he said. “I’m going down to see Doc. I need to talk to him about something.”

 

 

Patty continued to pet Whiskers, and the fur continued to fall out in clumps. She seemed oblivious to it. “Okay,” she said with a bright-eyed smile.

 

 

Jimmy stuck the sandwich into his mouth and opened the door to the basement with his free hand. “See you at lunch,” he said, taking the first stair and closing the wooden door behind him. He pulled the sandwich from his mouth and took the three steps down to the outside door. Jimmy could see Doc out there twenty yards from the house, seated on top of the picnic table and facing out into the woods. Once again, Jimmy stuck the sandwich in his mouth as he pulled opened the outside door.

 

 

Doc turned at the sound of the screen door slapping back into place. He waved at Jimmy and smiled. Jimmy then chomped down on the sandwich and pulled it away with his free hand. He walked slowly, careful not to spill the still steaming cup of coffee. He sat down next to Doc. “How’s it going?” Jimmy asked. “Have you seen Patty’s cat? I think you need to take a look at her.”

 

 

“I already did,” Doc said, with just a touch of resignation in his voice. “I think its dying.”

 

 

“Oh, shit.”

 

 

“You can say that again.”

 

 

Jimmy went to take another bite of his sandwich and froze with it just two inches from his open mouth. The sandwich was coated with cat hair. Jimmy’s stomach lurched, and he flung the remainder of the sandwich out into the woods. He then turned and looked over his shoulder up to the house. The sun felt warm on his skin, and he guessed it to be in the mid-sixties, which was rare these days. A woodpecker hammered against a nearby tree as a bumblebee floated lazily in front of them. Jimmy wiped at the corners of his mouth and tried to forget about the sandwich.

 

 

“You know we have to get back there, don’t you?” Doc asked. “We can’t stay here.”

 

 

Jimmy did know that. He had been fighting the urge to leave for weeks. Life without Julie had been hard, and he missed her more with each passing day. Still, he knew that he owed a great debt to the Dahlgrens, and it would be very difficult to leave them behind. “What about the others?” Jimmy asked. “How are we going to talk them into leaving here?”

 

 

Doc paused and looked up to the sky. “I don’t think wild horses could pull Ken and Patty away from this place. This is their home.”

 

 

“I can’t imagine Ken lasting two hours over there. That’s not his scene, man.”

 

 

Doc chuckled at that. “No,” he said, “I highly doubt Ken would groove on life in a commune. I think it would blow his mind.”

 

 

Now it was Jimmy’s turn to laugh. He tried to imagine Ken growing out his hair and trying to fit in with the hippies. Jimmy found that he couldn’t do it. Ken was too set in his ways, and he wouldn’t understand what was going on over there—not in a million years. Jimmy even had a hard time grasping it and he considered himself very open-minded. “We wouldn’t be that far away. We could come back and check on them whenever we wanted to.”

 

 

“That’s what I was thinking. We could visit every week or so. I do think they’ll be fine out here alone during the winter months. The snow will be here soon, and the roads will be impassable until at least April. That will keep the riffraff out, and God knows they have plenty of beef stew to last another decade.”

 

 

“What about Burt and Rita?” Jimmy asked.

 

 

“I’m not sure. Burt is a lot like Ken. I’m not all that certain that he’d like it over there. What do you think?”

 

 

Jimmy thought about it and he shook his head. “You’re right. I can’t see him digging that lifestyle.”

 

 

“We can ask him, but we’ll have to be upfront with him on what he can expect. I’ll mention it to Rita, but I highly doubt she’d ever leave Patty.”

 

 

“How do you think Patty will handle us leaving? She seems pretty strong now that Whiskers is here. Almost like her old self.”

 

“That stupid cat is what has me worried.”

 

 

Jimmy stared over at Doc, but the bearded man would not return his gaze. Jimmy didn’t know what to say. “What about Whiskers?” He asked, immediately wishing he hadn’t.

 

 

Doc turned to Jimmy with fire in his eyes. “That damn cat traveled over two hundred miles just to come up here and die? My head hurts just thinking about it. Our dear Patty is in denial, and she’s going to be crushed. Ken won’t talk about it. He is just so happy to have his wife back. Can you blame him? We have to leave here. I can feel it in my bones. We’re going to be snowed in soon, and I don’t want to be stranded here.”

 

 

Doc had never spoken so sharply to Jimmy, and he reeled back from where he sat on the picnic table. “Oh,” he said.

 

 

“I’m sorry,” said Doc. “I just have a bad feeling about all of this. I didn’t mean to dump all of it on you.”

 

 

Ken and Burt showed up at just before noon. They had taken the Mack, and Jimmy heard the diesel long before the truck rolled up in the driveway. Jimmy and Doc pulled back the lock and swung open the heavy gate, allowing Ken to drive inside. The day was warm, and the sun shone above them in a vivid blue sky.

 

 

Ken was the first to step out of the truck. He carried a silver boom-box in one hand and a brown shopping bag in the other. “Take these,” he said to Jimmy, “and come around to the back. I want to show you what we picked up.”

 

 

Jimmy hoisted the boom box onto his shoulder. He heard the front screen door slap shut and turned to see Patty heading down the stairs. Jimmy smiled and pointed to the boom box. Patty nodded and returned the smile.

 

 

Ken flipped the latch and tugged up on the roll-up door. The cargo area was stacked waist high with supplies. A bright red generator sat at the back end. Burt and Doc joined them at the back, and Doc whistled at the sight of their big haul.

 

 

Ken nudged Jimmy’s arm. “Look up toward the front. Do you see those green crates? We came across those in the basement of a farm house. The guy had a fake wall. Burt found them.”

 

 

“What the hell are they?”

 

 

“Two .50 caliber automatic weapons and a ton of ammunition. There’s also a crate of grenades, and I’ll be damned if they don’t look live.”

 

 

“You found a generator,” exclaimed Patty, “and a boom box? You did leave a note with our address, didn’t you? We agreed on that, remember?”

 

 

“Of course I did,” said Ken without an ounce of conviction.

 

 

“Let me take those from you,” Patty said to Jimmy, peering inside the shopping bag that was full of compact discs. “Carly Simon, Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand... Thank you so much! Does this thing have batteries?”

 

 

“Yes, and we have a hundred more to fit it,” said Ken with a smile. “We didn’t miss lunch, did we?”

 

 

“Don’t worry. I held it for you. Give me about ten minutes.” Patty then gave them all a wide smile, kissed Ken on the cheek and walked away with her gifts.

 

 

“Holy crap!” said Jimmy. “Hand grenades?”

 

 

“I don’t like it,” said Doc. “What do any of you know about these weapons? Burt, have you ever thrown a hand grenade or fired a gun that size?”

 

 

“Hell, no,” answered Burt. “But I sure as hell can learn.”

 

 

“I wonder what happened to the guy who owned those.” Jimmy said. “Did you find him?”

 

 

“The place was clear, and it didn’t look like anyone had been there,” said Burt, climbing up into the back of the van. “We were looking for winter gear. Can you believe this shit? Come on, let’s get this unloaded.”

 

 

Jimmy and Doc exchanged knowing glances as they carried the treasure in through the garage door and into the basement. Finding all of this wasn’t going to make it any easier for them to convince the Dahlgrens to leave. There were stacks of cases of beer and soda, boxes of canned foods and candies, a fifty-five gallon drum of gasoline and enough top-notch winter gear for a small army. Jimmy’s heart sank a little more with each trip out to the van.

 

 

The workshop was lit by two lanterns that provided a yellowish light. The men gathered around the new weapons. Jimmy watched as Ken and Burt unpacked the massive .50 caliber rifles. The guns looked sinister to him, almost as if could kill on their own. They smelled of oil and looked nearly new.

 

 

“This one is mine,” said Burt with something very close to pride in his voice.

 

 

Doc must have picked up on it. “Do you have any idea what one of those can do to a human body?” he asked, with his long arms crossed at his chest. “I don’t even want to discuss the hand grenades.”

 

 

Ken set the butt of his rifle on the floor, and the tip of the barrel nearly touched the dusty rafters above his head. “Sorry, but if you’re trying to make me feel guilty about having the firepower to protect us from God knows what, it’s not going to happen. Look Doc, I understand how you feel. I really do. These are different times.”

 

 

Doc took a step back and looked up into the rafters. “Don’t you ever feel like we’re crossing a line and losing ourselves in the process? Think about it. What’s next, a Sherman tank? Maybe you’d like to run out and pick up a good flamethrower or some landmines. Or how about a bazooka?”

 

 

“Talk to me when people begin to respect our right to exist,” growled Ken, admiring the sleek lines of the rifle. You can think what you want, Doc. We open up with these, and I think people will think twice about messing with us.”

 

 

Jimmy backed up next to Burt, and they exchanged a look. Both men carried a good argument, and neither was backing down.

 

 

Doc’s hands fell to his hips, and he turned on Ken. “Maybe those guns are going to have the opposite effect. People are going to want them.”

 

 

“They’ll have to pry them…” Ken began, before Doc cut him off in a booming voice.

 

 

“I know, out of your cold dead hands! And who is going to look after your wife? Have you thought about that? Look what we’ve become! You’re not protecting us from an approaching army. We’re killing our neighbors. My God, man, it’s time to come up with a new plan.”

 

 

“Oh,” Burt said, jumping into the fray. “And what would that be? Should we open the gate and tie a white sheet on the flagpole? You can kiss my ass.”

 

 

“There’s no need for that,” Jimmy said, trying to put an end to this argument. “Let’s all calm down. Patty is probably looking for us.”

 

 

Ken returned his rifle to the open crate and stood up. “We go back a long ways, Doc. And I respect your opinion. I think it’s time that we both agreed to disagree. There aren’t many of us left and we need to be strong.”

 

 

Doc was still staring at Burt. “How old are you, Burt?” he asked. “I’m sixty, and if you want to rumble, just say the word. Don’t you ever speak to me like that again, do you understand me?”

 

 

Jimmy felt helpless as he watched the situation spiral out of control. Burt pushed past him and walked to within a foot of the taller man. “I’ll speak however the hell I choose,” Burt growled. “You want to rumble? Let’s go.”

 

 

“This is crazy,” Ken said, holding his arms up. “Knock it off!”

 

 

Doc stared at Burt for a moment and then turned and headed for the door. Burt followed, hot on his heels. The screen door to the garage slapped twice, and Jimmy stared at Ken, open-mouthed. “This is bad,” he said as he followed Ken into the garage and out into the bright sunlight.

 

 

Doc led Burt to the middle of the frost-flattened lawn. He turned and settled into some type of karate fighting pose. He suddenly looked to Jimmy like Paul Bunyan in a Jackie Chan movie. He crouched low and held one of his large hands up by his ear while holding the other out in front of him in an angry claw. His face was red, and his nostrils were flared. Jimmy had never seen the man like this.

 

 

“I forbid this!” Ken screamed.

 

 

Burt stood with his back to Jimmy and Ken. The dark-skinned man was rolling his head like a boxer before the bell. He raised his fists and moved in like a freight train.

 

 

“Stop this!” shrieked Patty from the deck above them. “Ken, get out there and make them stop!”

 

 

“I’m trying!” Ken shouted back at her.

 

 

Jimmy couldn’t take his eyes off of the fight. At first he had been worried that Burt would tear Doc apart. Burt wasn’t as tall as Doc, but he was thick and wide in the shoulders. He was also a cop, retired or not. Jimmy soon gained a new respect for Doc, watching as he deftly avoided Burt’s punches.

 

 

“I’m warning you,” Doc hissed to Burt. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

 

 

“Show me what you got,” beckoned Burt.

 

 

“Kenneth!” screamed Patty.

 

 

That got Ken moving, but by then it was too late. Burt had ducked his head and charged Doc with his arms opened wide. Jimmy thought he looked pretty spry for a man of his years. Doc twisted, and with a speed and agility that astonished everyone, he kicked Burt in the upper arm with the toe of a giant hiking boot. There was a snapping sound, and Burt howled in pain.

 

 

“You son of a bitch, you broke my arm!”

 

 

“I warned you,” Doc shouted back, holding his large hands in the air. “You all heard me!”

 

 

“What did you do that for?” Burt continued on, holding his arm painfully. “You didn’t need to do that, you bastard.”

 

 

“Oh my God!” exclaimed Patty.

 

 

“You all heard me!” Doc repeated. “I warned him!”

 

 

“We heard you. Now you’re going to have to fix it!” Ken snapped back. “You both get in the house, and I want that arm in a cast.”

 

 

Jimmy stood back and watched the comedy of errors play out. He felt terrible for both men. Ken continued to berate both of them as Patty rushed to Burt’s side. Doc held his hands over his face and looked as if he were about to cry. Rita charged out of the house and took the steps two at a time. Jimmy shook his head and returned to the basement. He tore open the cardboard on one of the cases of beer and removed one of the warm cans. He then popped the top and he drank.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 14

 

 

 

 

The next few weeks were windy and gray; drizzle fell from the sky, and what little foliage had been left on the trees was now gone. Jimmy spent many hours standing in the porch window. He would stare off at the lake, but he was there to keep an eye on the gate. Some part of him expected to see Julie standing out there, while more parts of him thought this to be an outlandish idea. Jimmy felt a knot growing in his stomach as he thought about what Doc had said. They were going to be snowed in soon.

 

 

Burt and Doc had made their peace, but Jimmy noticed that the good friends no longer had deep conversations. Long before they fought, they had argued good-naturedly about how the country had come to this point and about what needed to be done to fix it. Jimmy hadn’t known much about politics before arriving up at the lake, but he could now tell the difference between a liberal and a conservative. Jimmy was worried about the loss of their banter. Had politics suddenly become off limits? Both men had made great arguments, and Jimmy had listened to many. He would watch as Doc’s face got red and his bushy eyebrows twitched; then he would turn to Burt and see fire in his brown eyes and deep creases in his forehead.

 

 

Burt had grown quiet, and Jimmy wondered if Doc didn’t have him on something for the pain. Jimmy thought this might be the case—at least he hoped it was. The white plaster cast contrasted sharply with Burt’s ebony skin. Doc’s words and conversations had grown increasingly shallow over recent days. He shied away from giving his opinion, and he spent a lot more time reading than he had in the past.

 

 

Whiskers had grown bald in spots and moved lethargically when she moved at all. Jimmy rarely saw her eat. No one would speak about Whiskers, and the skinny cat slowly became the elephant in the room. Ken and Patty were spending a lot of time in their bedroom at the back of the house with the door open while Patty knitted and Ken strummed the strings of his twelve-string guitar. Ken was a fair guitar player in Jimmy’s mind, which was something he’d tried to pick up a few times in the past. The music would echo inside the quiet house, and Jimmy found it soothing. Rita had also drawn into herself. She would join Jimmy at the front window, and the two of them would exchange knowing smiles. Those smiles were growing sadder. There was no mistaking that.

 

 

Jimmy could feel the house closing in on them.

 

 

He wondered about how the others were doing—Julie mostly—but he also wondered how Cindy was faring in school and how Bill was doing at his job. Had Julie and Bill settled their differences? Jimmy hoped so. He thought about how things were at Bailey’s. Jimmy also thought about his own limited transferable skills. What did he really have to offer a group in such a society? These were humbling thoughts, and they shook him to his very core. Jimmy had hated working in the kitchen. Working there had seemed a challenge to his manhood. This, too, stuck to the back of his head like a magnet on steel. He wouldn’t go back there to work in the kitchen, and this thought made Julie seem farther away.

 

 

The skies finally cleared, and the air became crisp. A skim of ice formed on the lake, and Jimmy found himself suddenly dreading winter. He began to hike in the mornings, and he foraged inside the empty cabins and houses along the way. This was how he discovered the snowmobiles. Jimmy had come across a comfortable log home that looked as if someone had used it for target practice. There were bones in the yard, stripped clean by the wolves, and Jimmy avoided looking at them. He went inside and found that the house had been ransacked, perhaps many times. Yet Jimmy had found enough small treasures to nearly fill his backpack. The undisturbed pole shed sat way in the back of the heavily wooded property. Jimmy thought that it had likely been hidden out there by the leaves.

 

 

He tried the doors and windows and found them to be locked. This had become increasingly rare. Jimmy’s heart nearly skipped a beat after he kicked the door open and entered the dark, stale pole shed. Jimmy saw them sitting there and counted twice. There were six of them—six snowmobiles sitting under canvas covers, looking to him like wrapped Christmas presents under the tree. Jimmy pulled open both of the overhead doors, and morning daylight streamed inside.

 

 

The building was roughly forty by sixty feet long, and the owner had obviously spent a lot of time out there. Jimmy had heard of such places, but he had never seen one for himself. He found himself standing inside a man cave, complete with a bar, pool table, kitchenette, bathroom, and a workshop to die for. Jimmy smiled and shook his head sadly. All of this was such a waste. He walked over to the snowmobiles and began to remove the covers. Each of the machines seemed to be newer and in better condition than the one before it. The next to the last snowmobile had thirty miles on it and looked like something from another planet. Jimmy admired it for a long moment, claiming it as his own before walking to the back of the shop and lifting the last cover.

 

 

The machine was bright yellow, and the handles were chrome. The seat was long, and the track was supported by groups of little wheels. Jimmy thought the snowmobile had to be older than he was—much, much older than he was. The old machine was in excellent condition, and Jimmy lifted the hood. The one-cylinder engine looked as clean as it probably had on the day it rolled off the assembly line. Jimmy chuckled as he examined the heavy monster. There was no suspension, and to Jimmy, the snowmobile looked like a Model-T Ford. He then went to the bar and lit up a cigarette. He was happy for the first time in many days. He had found enough snowmobiles for all of them, and it seemed like a miracle.

 

 

 

 

The first real snow of the season fell during the second week of November. The snow began to fall in the afternoon and didn’t stop until the next morning. Jimmy and Doc were sitting on the porch as the sun began to break through the clouds.

 

 

“That’s it then,” whispered Doc, looking over his shoulder. “I’m getting out of here while I still can. I’m going to borrow one of your snowmobiles and head over to Bailey’s. I think you ought to follow me there.”

 

 

Jimmy held his hands to his lips and walked over to the open French doors. He then peered inside the living room. Orange flames leapt inside the fireplace, and Jimmy could feel the heat. Burt was lying on his side on the sofa, his casted arm resting on his hip. Burt’s eyes were closed, and no one else was in the room. Jimmy returned to Doc.

 

 

“I’ve given it a lot of thought. I can’t stay here, not for the winter,” continued Doc. “I should be where I’m needed. So should you.”

 

 

Jimmy still hadn’t said a word, and Doc stared at him without expression. “They don’t need me over there,” Jimmy said. “I think I’m gonna pass.”

 

 

Doc’s face tightened, and he narrowed his eyes. “Julie needs you. Cindy needs you. And like it or not, Bill needs you. These people here, they don’t need us. There will be no more attacks, no more visits by the National Guard. Winter is here, and all anyone can do now is hunker down and wait it out.”

 

 

“I’m not going back there to peel potatoes for eight hours a day. That’s bullshit.”

 

 

“Look, I’m a doctor and they need me. I’ve thought about this. I’m going to tell them that you and I will stay for as long as we’re happy there. I highly doubt they’ll put you back on a potato peeler.”

 

 

Jimmy’s head snapped back, and he stared at Doc in amazement. This was the answer to his prayers. He missed Julie terribly, but he couldn’t leave the Dahlgrens. Now if Doc was right, the danger had passed with the arrival of the new-fallen snow. Jimmy knew that there were no guarantees there, but he felt that Doc was most likely correct in his summation. People do hunker down for the winter, especially in northern Minnesota. What really stuck inside Jimmy’s head was how Doc planned to keep him out of the kitchen. There was no way they’d stick him back in the kitchen, Jimmy was sure of it. Doc had giftwrapped the plan and now was handing it to Jimmy.

 

 

“Well?” asked Doc. “What do you think?”

 

 

“What time do we leave?”

 

 

“Excellent. I’m going to go tell Ken and Patty. Don’t worry about them; they know all about this. They think you should go patch things up with Julie.”

 

 

“You guys have been talking about me?”

 

 

Doc gave Jimmy an odd look. “Yeah,” he said, walking towards the open doors. “What else are we supposed to do up here?”

 

 

Jimmy wanted to respond to that, but Doc’s long legs carried him quickly into the next room. Jimmy stood in the window and stared out at the snow-covered lake. Just like that, everything had changed, and he suddenly had something to look forward to. He rubbed his hand across his jaw and quickly sniffed at his armpits. He was going to have to get himself cleaned up.

 

 

Jimmy drew water from the tap into Patty’s big iron kettle. He then set it on the gas stove, set the burner to high, and went upstairs in search of something to wear. The air was much cooler up here, and Jimmy shivered as he picked through his rumpled clothes. Jimmy hadn’t thought about his wardrobe much since they’d arrived at Ken’s. He owned exactly three pair of jeans, six shirts, and half a dozen changes of socks and underwear. Thankfully, Ken had outfitted him with winter gear.

 

 

Jimmy felt funny as he stood in front of the mirror after his sponge-bath. He couldn’t help feeling as if he and Doc were betraying the others. He also badly needed a haircut, and one of his back teeth had begun to ache. He stuck his finger in his mouth and probed the tooth. The ache quickly became a pain, and he pulled his hand away. He was going to have to ask Doc to do something about that.

 

 

When Jimmy emerged from the bathroom, he was surprised to find Doc standing out on the porch. Two black duffel bags which looked ready to split at the seams sat next to the door. Doc stood at the window in his ill-fitting winter jacket. The sleeves ended midway down his forearms, and Jimmy thought he looked like a big kid in a poor family.

 

 

“Are you packed?” Doc asked. “I’m ready to go.”

 

 

“Not yet, but that’ll just take a few minutes.”

 

 

“I’ll wait here.”

 

 

“Where is everyone? Don’t they even want to say goodbye?”

 

 

“No, they don’t. I’m sorry, go now and get packed.”

 

 

Jimmy stood in stunned silence for a moment. He then turned on his heels and quickly walked back into the kitchen, around the table and to the stairs. He paused at the window. Ken was splitting wood with an axe while one-armed Burt, Patty, and Rita, helped him with the heavy logs. Patty caught his eye in the window, and she quickly looked away. None of them were smiling. Jimmy sprinted up the stairs as his eyes began to mist over. He jammed his stuff into his bag and ran back down the stairs to pack his shaving kit. A few minutes later they stood at the wall. Jimmy pulled back on the snow-covered log that served as a lock, and Doc shoved on the heavy gate. The gate groaned in the cold air.

 

 

“Should we tell them we’re leaving so Ken can lock up?” Jimmy asked, feeling rotten about how they were leaving.

 

 

“They know we’re leaving. Ken will be down soon.”

 

 

“What the hell happened back there? I thought you said that they would be okay with us leaving.”

 

 

Doc pushed the gate back to the closed position and he shouldered his bags. His face was pale, and he looked as if he were in pain. “Let’s not talk about that now. Let’s get moving.”

 

 

The snow rose to the top of their boots as they walked down the white ribbon of gravel road. Jimmy led the way, and Doc followed; neither man said a word. The snow seemed to absorb the sound, and Jimmy could hear nothing except the sound of his own feet crunching through the snow as he plodded ahead. Again he wished for a pair of sunglasses. The sun was high in a blue sky, and the rays reflected off of the clean powder. Jimmy shook his head as his mind kept returning to how they had left. They walked for nearly fifteen minutes before they reached the long driveway into the woods. Jimmy led them past the house and to the back of the property. He opened the big garage door and was relieved to find that everything was as he’d left it.

 

 

The walk hadn’t been that long, but the snow had made it difficult. Both Jimmy and Doc set down their bags and sat themselves down in a pair of leather recliners for a quick rest.

 

 

“This is nice,” Doc said, looking around, appreciatively. “I wonder who owned this place? There was a time when I knew everyone up here.”

 

 

“Tell me what happened back there.”

 

 

Doc stiffened and scratched at his salty beard. “I suppose I need to tell you the truth. Just promise me that you’ll hear me out. No interruptions, all right?”

 

 

Jimmy stood, narrowed his eyes and nodded his head.

 

 

“I lied about how Ken and Patty felt. I needed to get you away from there.”

 

 

“No!”

 

 

“Jimmy, you promised,” Doc said, shaking a long finger in his direction. “You don’t owe your life to Ken and Patty Dahlgren. There is a woman who loves you not ten miles from here. That should be your focus. Do you have any idea how lucky you are? I’m trying to help you. You need to understand that. No, Ken said a mouthful, and I’m glad you didn’t have to hear it.”

 

 

“I can’t believe you lied to me,” Jimmy said, collapsing back into the chair. “Why didn’t you just tell me the truth? Sure, I miss Julie. That doesn’t mean that I was ready to abandon the others. What if something happens to them?”

 

 

“Like what? They have hand grenades and .50 caliber automatic weapons, remember?”

 

 

Jimmy didn’t like the sarcasm in Doc’s voice. “To protect themselves,” he added. “What do you have against that? They have every right to do that.”

 

 

Now it was Doc’s turn to stand. He got up and walked behind the little bar. “I’m sick and tired of that whole frame of mind. We have to change that or we’re all doomed. You, me, Ken, everybody—we’re all in this together. We are not the enemy. The government and the military are who we should be fighting. This is all about divide and conquer, Jimmy. Divide and conquer!”

 

 

Jimmy watched Doc as he twisted the cap open on a bottle of whiskey. He held the bottle to his lips and took a swallow. He grimaced and offered the bottle to Jimmy.

 

 

Jimmy held out his arm and nodded. “So, what is Ken supposed to do if he gets attacked again?”

 

 

Doc handed Jimmy the bottle and sat back down in his chair. “You don’t understand what I’m saying. Look, Ken needs to wake up and smell the coffee. He needs to form some alliances, and if he had a lick of sense, he would pack up everyone and head to Bailey’s with us. He’s putting all of their lives in jeopardy. Can’t you see that?”

 

 

“Why should he have to give up what he has?” Jimmy asked, taking a swig from the bottle. The cold liquor burned in his throat and warmed his insides. “Ken has every right to stay there and protect his home.”

 

 

“You are one hundred percent correct. I’m not arguing that. All I am saying here is that we are all in this together. We need to get our act together before it’s too late!”

 

 

Jimmy stood up and handed Doc the bottle. Doc twisted the cap back into place and slid it into the side pocket of his nylon jacket. Jimmy walked over to the uncovered snowmobiles and sat down on the one that he wanted to ride. “I still can’t believe you lied to me,” he said, shaking his head. “That was wrong and you know it.”

 

 

“Go back, if that’s what you wish to do. Ken will understand.”

 

 

Jimmy gave half a laugh and shook his head. “Maybe in a few days, I’m going to let him cool off for a while. I do want to see Julie.”

 

 

“I know you do, so let’s get this show on the road. How do I drive one of these things?”

 

 

Jimmy looked at Doc and began to laugh. He waved Doc over to where he was and quickly explained the basics of operating a snowmobile.

 

 

“That’s all there is?” Doc asked. “Where are the pedals?”

 

 

“There aren’t any,” Jimmy groaned. “Look, the throttle is here, and the brake is over there. This switch kills the engine. Just twist the key to start it.”

 

 

Doc smiled and nodded, and again Jimmy saw the big kid in the large man. Doc walked back to retrieve his bags. “Will these fit in the trunk?” he asked. “I’ve got medical supplies in this one, so we have to be careful with it.”

 

 

“There aren’t any trunks. We’re going to have to figure out something. I was hoping the guy would have a toboggan or something else we could tow our gear in. Do you need both bags? Maybe we could come back for one of them.”

 

 

Doc grimaced and shook his head. “I can walk,” he said.

 

 

“We’re not walking,” Jimmy said as he walked around each of the machines. All of them had single seats, and they all looked built for speed. Jimmy’s eyes fell on the bright yellow antique. The old snowmobile had a seat long enough to fit two full-grown men. Jimmy looked at their bags and back to the old machine. “Fine,” he said, gesturing to the yellow Skidoo. “I can fit everything on that one. Let me make sure it still runs.”

 

 

The machine coughed, caught, and belched blue smoke on the third pull. Doc smiled, a bit guiltily. “Think of it as riding a piece of history,” he shouted over the loping, one-cylinder engine.

 

 

Jimmy toyed with the choke and pointed to the overhead door. “Open it up!” he commanded. “And grab me that rope over there. We may need it. I don’t like the sound of this thing. He was serious—it didn’t sound like anything he had ever heard. The machine was older than he was. He spun the cap on the fuel tank and saw that it had been topped off. Doc opened the door, and Jimmy rode the old sled out of the garage on one knee. Smoke rolled out of the pole shed and out into the blue sky. Doc jogged over to his snowmobile and hesitated. Jimmy rode the Skidoo around the yard and watched Doc as he tentatively sat down on the seat.

 

 

Jimmy’s Skidoo suddenly bucked violently, nearly throwing him over the handlebars. He jerked his head back to see what he’d hit. The split log looked like a speed-bump in the white snow. Jimmy slammed on the handbrake, stopping the lumbering machine. Doc suddenly shot out of the pole barn on the Polaris and was now heading towards Jimmy at a very high rate of speed.

 

 

“Oh shit,” Jimmy mumbled to himself.

 

 

Doc’s Polaris screamed by at break-neck speed and missed Jimmy by no more than three feet. Jimmy gasped as he saw the big man suddenly leap from the seat and begin to barrel-roll toward the woods. Jimmy squeezed the throttle, watching as the Polaris exploded into pieces against the trunk of a fat birch. The Skidoo responded like a drunken mule, and he cursed his luck. Jimmy lost sight of Doc as the giant rolled into the woods behind his machine. The Skidoo found more buried treasure, and Jimmy mowed it over without looking back.

 

 

Jimmy was sure he’d ridden faster lawnmowers as he raced to the woods. There was no speedometer on this model, and Jimmy’s ears rang from the blaring engine of the Skidoo. It suddenly hit him that Doc could be dead. The guilt hammered at him as he wondered what the others would think when he told them that Doc had never ridden a snowmobile. They would blame him for Doc’s death. Jimmy thought again and opted not to share that bit of information with the others. The Skidoo backfired, but it picked up speed as the old engine began to buzz. Jimmy stood on the floorboards and hunched over the controls. He quickly found where Doc had hit the ground. Jimmy could not believe how far the big man had rolled before he suddenly found him, lying face-down in the powder. Jimmy was sure he was dead.

 

 

Jimmy jumped from the Skidoo as it stopped and raced to Doc’s side. “Doc!” he shouted. “Doc, are you all right? Can you hear me?”

 

 

Doc’s massive hand shot out and took Jimmy firmly by the ankle. “Why didn’t you tell me they were so damn fast?” croaked Doc. “Oh, shit.”

 

 

Jimmy caught his breath as relief flooded his system. “Did you break anything?” he asked. “Come on, let me help you up.”

 

 

Jimmy’s leg was suddenly pulled out from under him so violently that Jimmy thought it would snap like a twig. “Ouch!” he shouted as he fell to the ground.

 

 

“I asked you a question!” bellowed Doc.

 

 

“I thought you knew.”

 

 

“Don’t ever assume such a thing,” Doc grunted, releasing his grip on Jimmy. “Your shoddy instructions nearly cost me my life.”

 

 

Jimmy sat up and kept his mouth closed. Doc was right, and he felt terrible about that. Doc sat up next to him and got to his feet. He stood towering over Jimmy, swaying like a battered boxer. He brushed himself off and groaned. “I’m sorry,” Jimmy said, sitting up in the snow. “That won’t happen again.”

 

 

“I’ll ride the yellow one,” Doc said. “It’s old like me.”

 

 

Jimmy nodded, and after Doc checked himself over, they were ready to leave. Doc was covered in bumps and bruises, but thankfully nothing seemed to be broken. Jimmy carefully explained how to run the stubbornly slow yellow machine. Jimmy chose the snowmobile he had wanted from the start, and soon he was breaking a trail for Doc who followed along on the Skidoo.

 

 

The ride would take them almost forty minutes as Doc managed to get stuck no fewer than four times. They were stopped half a mile from Bailey’s by two men who stood by a makeshift gate across the snow-covered road. Jimmy shut off the engine and took off his helmet. The men were dressed in blaze orange hunting gear which Jimmy thought was odd. The taller man wore a purple stocking hat and walked with his hands in his pockets.

 

 

The men, both strangers to Jimmy, approached him cautiously. They looked past Jimmy to the Skidoo as it approached. Doc was waving and now rode the snowmobile like a seasoned pro. He killed the engine, and peace once again returned to the world. Doc took off his helmet and smiled. “I can’t believe what a fool I’ve been. These things are great!”

 

 

Jimmy looked again at the men and was surprised to see that neither one carried a gun. “Where’s your rifles?” he asked. “You didn’t know who we were. We could have been anyone.”

 

 

“Exactly,” said a tall, elderly man. “All are welcome here. We’re done fighting each other, and no one carries a gun here. That’s the new rule.”

 

 

Jimmy laughed. “Yeah, right,” he said. “No guns; that’s funny.”

 

 

“No guns,” growled the younger man, without any humor in his voice. He stood with his arms folded across his chest.

 

 

Jimmy thought these men had lost their minds. “You can’t be serious. How do you expect to defend yourselves?”

 

 

“I told you, no guns!” shouted the other man, and Jimmy quickly turned to face him. He was short and thick and built like a feed bag. He looked to be in his forties; his clean-shaven face was cold and impassive, but his simple statement hung in the air as a challenge.

 

 

“You guys are nuts,” said Jimmy, saying it directly to the short man. “When did things change?”

 

 

“Two months ago,” spat back the stumpy man in a crushed-gravel voice. “You have to leave your guns with us. Do it, or you have to turn around. So get up and spread ‘em or get the hell out of here.”

 

 

“I have no problem with that,” said Doc, politely. “I’m a doctor, and I don’t believe in bloodshed.”

 

 

Doc stood and hunched over the hood of the Skidoo. The old man quickly patted him down. “He’s clean,” he said after a brief search. “You,” he said, motioning to Jimmy. “Set your weapons on the seat of your snowmobile. We don’t want any trouble.”

 

 

Jimmy looked at all three men, groaned, and slowly began to disarm. He was carrying three loaded handguns, and he felt suddenly naked as he set the last one of Jon’s prize Colts on the shiny seat of the new Polaris. “I’m going to want these back. Are you going to give me a receipt or something?”

 

 

“You can have them back when you leave,” the old man said, assuredly.

 

 

Doc and Jimmy split up once they were inside the compound. Doc was anxious to get back to the medical facilities, while Jimmy wanted to clear the air with Julie. He was surprised to find her alone inside the cabin she shared with Cindy. Julie was wearing her dark hair braided, and Jimmy tried to remember if he had ever seen it that way. He found that he liked it. A fire blazed in the stove, and the heat felt good on his skin. He shed his winter gear and seated himself on the sofa. The first minutes were awkward, but Julie seemed happy to see him and offered him a can of soda. Jimmy took that as a good sign. He had been worried that she wouldn’t see him at all.

 

 

“So,” Jimmy said, snapping the ring of the aluminum can. “How have you been? I’ve been worried about you.”

 

 

Julie looked at him for a long moment. “I didn’t think it would take you this long to come back. How are the others?”

 

 

“Pretty good,” said Jimmy. “Doc rode out here with me. I think he’s going to stay this time.”

 

 

“What happened?”

 

 

Jimmy thought about that and shrugged his shoulders. “I think Doc caught a bad case of cabin fever. You know what I mean, just like you did.”

 

 

“That’s not fair, Jimmy. I just wanted to be around other people. I wanted a chance to survive all of this. I wanted my freedom back. Doc probably feels the same way. That wall we built back at Ken’s works both ways. Can’t you see that?”

 

 

The revelation hit Jimmy hard, and he stared down at the floor, unable to meet Julie’s gaze. He had no doubt that Ken had them construct the wall with the best of intentions, and it had served them well when they had come under attack, but there was a bitter truth to what Julie was saying. The wall now served to imprison those who lived there. “I know Ken wasn’t thinking that way when we built the wall.”

 

 

“Of course he wasn’t,” Julie said, opening up the belly of her little woodstove. She took the poker from against the wall and stuck it inside the flaming stove, her face glowing in the firelight. “But you can’t deny what has happened.”

 

 

Jimmy shook his head, eager to change the subject. “Tell me about your new job,” he said. “What are you doing now that the swimming season is over?”

 

 

Julie wrestled a chunk of wood into the stove and quickly shut the door. A haze of wood smoke hung in the lamplight. Julie brushed her hands against her hips and smiled. “I am now working in human resources, thank you very much.”

 

 

“I suppose that means you work next to Mars, doesn’t it?” Jimmy said, and he immediately wished he could take back the question. It had just slipped out, and he miserably fumbled the recovery. “I know you like him, Julie. You don’t have to hide it.”

 

 

Julie’s smile disappeared, and she crossed her arms. “No,” she said. “I am not working next to or underneath Mars, if that’s what you’re trying to say.”

 

 

“I didn’t mean that.”

 

 

“Like hell you didn’t! I know you, Jimmy Logan. You can be a jealous bastard, and I hate that about you. You know what? I do like Mars. He’s a good man. Look at everything he’s trying to do here. Why can’t you see that? I’ll tell you why—it’s because your damn jealousy gets in the way. You’ve got to let it go. Besides, I’m not his type. He has his choice of any of the college girls. He also knows that I’m in love with you, and believe it or not, he respects that.”

 

 

“I like your hair that way.”

 

 

“Don’t change the subject!”

 

 

“I’m sorry. That guy just got under my skin. I didn’t mean to accuse you of anything. I love you, too. Things are just so crazy, and with you being out here alone for so long, what was I supposed to think? I saw the way he was looking at you, Julie. Fine, you want me to give him another chance, I promise that I will. Maybe we just got started out on the wrong foot.”

 

 

Julie’s face softened, and she let her arms fall to her sides. She walked over to Jimmy and cupped his face in her hands. “Thank you,” she whispered, kissing him softly on the mouth. “I’ve missed you so much.”

 

 

“I’ve missed you, too,” Jimmy said, taking Julie by the hips and pulling her close. He fell flat to his back on the sofa, and Julie moved with him, their mouths never losing contact with each other. Jimmy could feel his heart pounding against Julie’s chest as she passionately pressed against him.

 

 

The door behind them suddenly opened and quickly slammed shut. Julie leapt to her feet, tossing her long hair back over her shoulder.

 

 

“I heard Jimmy was back,” Bill said, standing on the rug by the door in snow-covered boots. He had grown a pair of fat sideburns which made him look like a poor Elvis impersonator.

 

 

“Have you ever heard of knocking?” Julie asked, angrily. “You have no right to just walk in my home!”

 

 

“My daughter lives here. I don’t have to knock.”

 

 

Jimmy groaned. They were picking up right where they had left off. He sat up and gave Bill a half-hearted wave.

 

 

“There you are, man,” Bill said, his face lighting up like a hundred watt bulb. “Hey, I want you to know that I don’t blame you for what happened to my car. That’s all water under the river, okay?”

 

 

Jimmy had wondered about how Bill would accept his return. The last time he had seen Bill, he had been furious with him, and as much as he hated to admit it, he had felt terrible about what had happened. He smiled and nodded his head.

 

 

“That’s water under the bridge, you idiot,” Julie grumbled.

 

 

“Why don’t you go jump off a bridge,” Bill shot back. “Why do you always have to be so mean?”

 

 

“Maybe if you had knocked, I wouldn’t be so mean. What do you want? Don’t you have something to fix?”

 

 

“I do have something to fix; that’s why I’m here.”

 

 

“There’s nothing wrong here,” snapped Julie. “Can Jimmy and I have some time alone? That doesn’t seem like too much to ask.”

 

 

“Jimmy needs a job, and unless he wants to go back to the kitchen. I came to tell him that I got him a gig in the shop,” Bill said, turning to Jimmy. “Big Al is excited to meet you, man.”

 

 

“That’s great,” Jimmy said, honestly. The thought of going back to the kitchen was eating at him. “Thanks a lot, Bill.”

 

 

“Don’t mention it, brother. I’m just so glad to have you back. You’re going to like it in the shop. This is going to be just like old times, man.”

 

 

“This is just like old times, and you picked up right where you left off,” Julie said, scornfully. “Is that all, Bill? Jimmy and I have a lot to talk about.”

 

 

Bill frowned and gave Julie a cold stare. “Why do you hate me so much?” he asked. “What did I ever do to you?”

 

 

“I don’t hate you, Bill,” Julie said. She softened her tone and held her hands out in exasperation. “I haven’t seen Jimmy in a long time and I’ve missed him. I’m a woman and he’s a man. Get the picture?”

 

 

A smile slowly crept across Bill’s face, and he nodded his head. “Were you guys getting ready to do something?”

 

 

“No,” Julie said, shaking her head. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Bill. I said that I wanted to spend some time alone with him. That’s it. A lot has changed around here, and I wanted Jimmy to hear it from me, first.”

 

 

“She’s right, man,” Bill said, turning to face Jimmy. “We’ve got our own Council called the Equals. We’re ruled by the planets, brother.”

 

 

“Ruled by the planets?” Jimmy asked. “What the hell is going on around here?”

 

 

“Don’t look at me,” spat Julie. “He knows everything; go ahead and ask him.”

 

 

Jimmy was disappointed by Julie’s open hostility towards Bill. While Jimmy knew that she had never cared for the man, she’d always treated him with courtesy. “Who are the Equals?”

 

 

“We’re all Equals, man,” Bill said. “That’s the first thing you’ve got to know, man. Isn’t that right, Julie?”

 

 

“Yes,” hissed Julie. “That’s how it’s supposed to work around here.”

 

 

“Whatever,” replied Bill. “So there is a group of these cats who makes sure everyone is treated as an equal. It’s pretty cool, man.”

 

 

Julie took three steps and stood toe to toe with Bill. “Will you stop it? They aren’t cats, they’re people,” she said, hooking a thumb back towards Jimmy. “And his name is Jimmy Logan, not dude or man. And another thing, those sideburns make you look like a mangy lion. Now, will you leave us alone?”

 

 

Bill’s jaw dropped open, but just for a second. “Rrrr!” he growled, clawing at the air with both hands.

 

 

“That’s enough, Bill,” Jimmy said.

 

 

“I can take a hint,” Bill said. “I’m out of here, man. I’ll catch you later.”

 

 

Jimmy watched as Bill turned on his heels and swaggered to the door. He looked back at Jimmy, held both hands to his cheeks, pointed to his mutton-chops and back to Julie. “Oh yeah, I’m a lion,” Bill said, drawing the words out with satisfaction. He smiled and walked out into the afternoon sunshine, closing the door behind him.

 

 

“I can’t even look at him,” said Julie. “Please tell me that he’s not peeking in the windows.”

 

 

“He’s gone,” answered Jimmy, more confused than ever. “What the hell has gotten into him?”

 

 

Julie walked to the door and twisted the lock, shaking her head. “Big Al has gotten into him. Please tell me that you aren’t going to work for that Neanderthal. He’s gross, Jimmy. Look what he’s done to Bill. Do you want to look like him?”

 

 

Now it was Jimmy’s turn to shake his head. “Look,” he said, grabbing Julie by the shoulders and directing her to the sofa. “Sit down with me and explain what the hell is going on around here.”

 

 

Julie took a deep breath and nodded. “A lot has changed here. Most of it is for the good. Don’t get me wrong. I love it here. I want you to love it, too. I just get so angry with people like Bill and Big Al. They’re going to ruin it for everyone.”

 

 

“Going to ruin what?”

 

 

“They’re going to ruin Utopia.”

 

 

The urge to laugh was almost too great, but Jimmy managed to contain it. The serious tone in Julie’s voice warned him that laughing would be a bad idea. They sat down, and he took her by the hands. “Start from the beginning,” he said. “I want to know everything.”

 

 

The conversation lasted nearly an hour, with Julie spelling out the rules of communal living inside the compound. The Equals, as Jimmy understood them, were like the town council back home in Crown. There were three council members, or Equals, as they preferred to be called here. Julie explained how they were selected and what each of the three brought to the group. She also went on to tell Jimmy why they had chosen to adopt new names for themselves.

 

 

“Pluto is the unofficial leader, but you’d never hear him say that. He wrote our charter and is pretty much responsible for everything here. You’ll really like him; everyone does. I can’t wait for you to meet him.”

 

 

“You have to be kidding me,” Jimmy said. “Another planet? That’s just crazy. I suppose Mars is one of these Equals, isn’t he?”

 

 

“Of course he is. He’s not the man you think he is. I want you to forget about everything that has happened and get a fresh start. Can you do that for me?”

 

Jimmy groaned, but he nodded his head. He would try to forget; he just doubted if he could forget the way that Mars had been looking at Julie in the mess hall.

 

 

“Good, thank you for that. Pluto is pretty old. I think he’s got to be close to seventy. I guess he was some kind of political activist during the Viet Nam War. He’s behind all of the slang, and he encourages us to use it. I don’t, but a lot of the others do. Anyhow, he made a lot of money writing books on the environment. He made enough to buy this place and outfit it to support us for years if necessary. He’s pretty damn smart.”

 

 

“Ken did the same thing,” Jimmy said, defensively. “He’s pretty damn smart, too.”

 

 

“Did I say he wasn’t?”

 

 

Jimmy shook his head.

 

 

“Pluto hired Mars to set everything up. He was in the Army or something. Mars spent two years getting things ready up here in case the economy crashed. They both knew the crash was coming and that it was just a matter of time. They operated the resort right up until the end.”

 

 

Jimmy nodded, thinking how strange it was that an old war protester and an ex-soldier would be working side by side. “You said there were three of them,” he said. “Don’t tell me—is his name is Uranus?”

 

 

“That’s not funny.”

 

 

“Trust me, I’m not laughing,” Jimmy said, wondering how Julie couldn’t find humor in his little joke.

 

 

“She goes by Venus, Jimmy. She’s a little on the tough side, so be careful what you say when you’re around her. She’s got a lot on her mind. I work for her, so please don’t embarrass me. She enforces the codes, and it’s her way or the highway, trust me.”

 

 

Jimmy took a deep breath. He’d heard enough. “Let me get this straight,” he said, letting go of Julie’s hand. He stood up and walked to the stove. “The three Equals are in charge and they changed their names to planets. I’m supposed to take these people seriously?”

 

 

“Okay, I understand that this all must sound strange. You’ve just got to trust me. Give it a few days. You’re going to love it here. I love it here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

 

 

“What happens when the National Guard changes their mind about this place? Have you thought of that? You saw what happened in Ely. I’ve got to tell you, I’d feel a whole lot better about this if we were armed. I don’t know Pluto, and I sure as hell don’t trust the Guard. Does your council have public meetings?”

 

 

“Equals, Jimmy. We have Equals here. Yes, they get together once a week. They meet tomorrow after dinner.”

 

 

“Good. I want to be an Equal; that’s the point, isn’t it? We’re all equal here, am I right? I just don’t think we should be here with our pants hanging down to our ankles. I know you all have the best of intentions, but we need armed guards. We have to be able to protect ourselves.”

 

 

Julie shook her head. “Protect ourselves from what? You don’t get it. Our protection is getting our hands on as many guns as we can and melting them down into scrap. We’re done killing, Jimmy. There’s been too much of it.”

 

 

Jimmy’s head snapped back when Julie said scrap. “What the hell do you mean, it was melted? I was told that I’d get my guns back. I had Jon’s Colt!”

 

 

“Keep your voice down,” hissed Julie. “We tell everyone that, and they have all grown to accept it as they see how things work around here. I’m sorry about Jon’s gun. I know it meant a lot to you. You’ve got to look at the bigger picture here. Let me tell you something—I would rather die than to have to kill again. We all feel that way. If you feel differently after tomorrow night’s meeting, I want you to go back to Ken’s. I have given up violence, and I refuse to be a part of it.”

 

 

Jimmy returned to the sofa as he turned Julie’s words over inside his spinning head. He loved Julie, maybe now more than ever. If he wanted to stay here with her, he had to give up his weapons. He looked at Julie, and she nodded her head, just an inch, but it was if she could read his mind. Jimmy knew in his heart that he couldn’t give up on Julie. He was going to have to find a compromise. He was going to have to find a handgun. He was going to have to lie. “Fair enough,” he said, nodding his head. “I’m going to be the most open-minded dude you ever met. I love you, Julie. I’ve missed you.”

 

 

Julie nodded and smiled but said nothing.

 

 

Jimmy would think of little else that day. He had told he loved her twice, and both times Julie had left his words at the curb.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 15

 

 

 

 

Jimmy ate his dinner with Julie in the back of the crowded mess hall. There was no sign of anyone he knew, and he was happy for that. Julie continued to fill in the missing pieces of the past few months. They returned to Julie’s cabin after dinner, and on their walk there, Julie pointed out Bill’s cabin. “That’s where you’ll be living,” she had said. “Sorry, but Cindy and I are already sharing a room.”

 

 

Jimmy nodded. Bill’s cabin was dark, and only a faint trickle of wood smoke could be seen coming from the chimney. One of the front windows was broken, and it looked as if Bill had stuffed the star-shaped hole with dirty laundry.

 

 

They visited for another hour after dinner until Julie complained of a headache. Jimmy gave her a hug and a quick kiss. “I’ll head over to Bill’s,” he said. “Get some rest, sweetheart. I’ll see you in the morning.”

 

 

Julie smiled. “I’m so glad you’re here,” she whispered. “Good night.”

 

 

Jimmy found Bill inside his cabin, squatting at the cold wood stove. “Hey, man,” he said. “I hate these damn things. The wood always burns up.”

 

 

Jimmy kicked the snow from his boots and he joined Bill at the stove. “Let me get a fire going,” he said. “This place is freezing.”

 

 

“I’m so glad to see you, man,” Bill said, moving around the small cabin and lighting candles. “You’re going to love it here. This place is just crawling with babes.”

 

 

Jimmy barely heard Bill as he rambled on about all of the young women in camp. He could see his own breath as he carefully fed small pieces of birch-bark into the stove. He blew softly into the embers and was rewarded with a small orange flame.

 

“And there is no competition, brother. This must be what heaven is like. All I have to do is smile at these girls, and I can see it in their eyes, man. They want me. I’m not kidding. There are hardly any guys here.”

 

 

The birch-bark began to crackle as hot flames licked up around the fat logs that Bill had foolishly loaded into the dormant stove. Jimmy began to feed the flames with more strips of the white bark.

 

 

“You know, the chicks thought I was pretty hot back in high school,” Bill said in his most serious voice. “Oh yeah, I had this Dodge Dart, and that car was always full of girls. So I know when girls are interested in me, man. I can tell.”

 

 

The bark burned hot, and the logs began to snap and crackle as they slowly caught fire. Jimmy could feel the stove begin to do its job. Satisfied, he left the door to the stove cracked open and stood to his feet. Bill was still talking.

 

 

“She’s a single mom with five kids, but what do I care? She’s barely thirty. You’re going to like her. Still, I have to make sure she knows that I’m not looking for a girlfriend. I don’t want her to get the wrong idea. This place is a goldmine, and I’m gonna do me some prospecting. Oh, yeah.”

 

 

Jimmy smiled and nodded his head. He hadn’t really heard a word of what Bill had said. He was already beginning to feel trapped. He sized up the cabin and found himself staring at the faded towels that were stuffed into the broken window. The temporary repair looked as if it had been done by a drunk. Jimmy spied a wide roll of gray tape on the counter. “A man’s best friend,” he whispered to himself.

 

 

Bill hadn’t missed a beat and was still talking.

 

 

Jimmy shook his head. He walked into the little kitchen area as Bill rambled on. There was still plenty of tape left on the roll. He began to open cabinets as he looked for something to tape over the hole in the window. The kitchen was filthy and smelled of old food and dirty socks. Jimmy continued looking. He picked up one of the flaming candles and walked into the bedroom.

 

 

“You can take your pick,” Bill said. “I’ve slept in both of them, and they’re both too soft for my back. I sleep out here on the couch.”

 

 

Jimmy grimaced. The bedroom was a total disaster. There was a single bed against one wall and a queen sized against the other. The sheets were tangled and hanging off the mattresses. There was no sign of pillows or blankets. Bill had tied a rope from one end of the room to the other, and his laundry hung from it. Jimmy found what he was looking for in the closet. It was a stout cardboard box that had been broken down and stored in the back.

 

 

“We were just walking by, being cool,” Bill said, lost in his own story. “They didn’t have the blinds closed or nothing. There was like ten of them, man. They knew we were out there, they had to know.”

 

 

Jimmy shook his head and held up his hands. He didn’t want to hear it, and he told Bill so. “I need a knife. Will you go find me one?”

 

 

“I was going to do that,” Bill said. “I just haven’t got around to it. Good. That was the piece I was going to use,” he said, pointing to the flat piece of cardboard. “Maybe you should let me do that.”

 

 

Jimmy shook his head. “Knife?” he asked again.

 

 

“So you should really hear this from me,” Bill said, opening and closing the little drawers in the kitchen. “Mars is after Julie.”

 

 

The statement struck Jimmy like a freight train.

 

 

“And she likes it—I can tell. That’s why I think you should dump her, man. There are so many chicks to choose from. A dude shouldn’t be tied down.”

 

 

“What do you mean?” Jimmy asked, trying to keep his voice level. “And you’d better not be lying to me.”

 

Bill found a crusty butcher knife in the sink and approached Jimmy with apprehension in his eyes. “I didn’t mean nothin’ by it, honest. I can just tell these things, you know?”

 

 

Jimmy didn’t know, and he snatched the knife away from Bill and turned his back on him as he sized up the hole. “Keep going, Bill. You said she likes it.”

 

 

“I can see it in her eyes. Mars is a handsome guy. I think so. I mean, I’m not gay or nothin’. You know what I mean, not that I’ve got anything against it. I thought Jon was really a cool guy. I miss him.”

 

 

“Tell me about Julie!” Jimmy snapped, turning on Bill with the butcher knife clenched in his right hand.

 

 

“That’s all there is. I could see it in her eyes. That Mars is handsome, and if I was Julie, I’d be interested in him. The chicks here really dig him.”

 

 

Jimmy stared at Bill for a long moment, shook his head and resumed cutting his cardboard. “You don’t want me to be with Julie, do you?”

 

 

“I just don’t like the way she controls you,” Bill said, backing away. “You know how she is. And you can see that she doesn’t like me. I saved her life. That ought to count for something.”

 

 

Jimmy hated to admit it, but Bill was right. Julie didn’t like him, and he had saved her life. Didn’t he deserve to be treated better? Jimmy thought so. There weren’t many of them left, and despite Bill’s many faults, you didn’t turn your back on your own people. Jimmy decided to forget about what Bill had said about Julie and Mars. Obviously, Bill had personal reasons for wanting to hurt Julie.

 

 

Bill took advantage of the silence to continue raving about all of the beautiful women in their camp. “Twenty to one,” he said, rubbing his hands together as he paced in front of the wood stove. “Mars was definitely right about one thing,” he said.

 

 

“Yeah, what’s that?”

 

 

“The name of this place: Utopia. This is just how I imagined it should be, just without the pizza.”

 

 

Just before turning in that night, Jimmy began to carefully probe Bill for information. The small cabin was cozy warm, and Jimmy had taken down Bill’s clothesline. He continued to ask questions as he made up his bed. Something told Jimmy that Big Al had his own agenda. He and his men seemed to be the village rebels. If there were weapons to be found, Big Al would know where they were. He walked out and stood with Bill in the dirty little kitchen.

 

 

“Do you want a sandwich, man?” Bill asked, scratching his hairy belly with both hands. He walked over to the counter and began to hack away at a loaf of freshly baked bread.

 

 

“No, thanks,” said Jimmy. “How do you feel about the no-gun policy? I’m really having trouble with that. What do the others think?”

 

 

Bill cut the loaf into quarters and spread nearly half an inch of peanut-butter on one of the slices. “You sure you don’t want one?” Bill asked again. “This bread is pretty tasty, dude.”

 

 

Jimmy gritted his teeth. He didn’t like being called dude or man. Still, he knew that he would have to pick and choose his fights. He watched Bill reach his hand up under his t-shirt to his opposite armpit, and, much like a dog, he groaned with pleasure as he scratched himself. He then used both hands to smash his sandwich down on the counter. Peanut butter oozed out from the sides, and Bill dabbed at it with his fingers, sticking them into his mouth. He tore the flattened sandwich in half and made a gesture, offering half to Jimmy.

 

 

Jimmy shook his head. “How does everyone feel about the policy? I just can’t see everyone buying into it.”

 

 

Bill took a huge bite of sandwich and began to chew, open-mouthed, as he returned to the sofa. “I don’t buy into it,” Bill said, pausing swallow. “But we got no choice. Can you dig it?”

 

 

Jimmy turned his head away, but the sound of Bill’s chewing was making him sick to his stomach. Worse than that was Bill’s sudden fondness for slang. Jimmy had known him for a long time, and he’d never heard him speak this way. “I don’t understand how everyone could just give up their weapons. That doesn’t make sense. You guys have to have some stashed somewhere, right?”

 

 

Bill swallowed and wiped the excess peanut-butter from the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand. “Not as far as I know, man. It don’t matter; nobody is going to bother us. We’re connected.”

 

 

Jimmy shook his head, undressed, and crawled into bed. He felt vulnerable, and he couldn’t shake that feeling. This was the first night since he’d left home that he hadn’t slept with a gun. He found that he didn’t like it.

 

 

 

 

The following morning was windy and gray. After what seemed like an eternity, Jimmy was able to rouse Bill and get him out of bed. Bill put on yesterday’s clothes and yawned. “Big Al wants to meet this morning,” Bill said, stretching his arms. “We should head over to the shop and get some coffee.”

 

 

The shop smelled of cutting oil and burnt steel, two smells that made Jimmy homesick for his former life. Jimmy wanted to laugh as he looked around. The dirty shop looked as if it belonged to a group of teenagers. There was a ping pong table in the middle of the room where greasy wrenches, beer cans, and what looked like a pile of men’s white underwear sat next to red and blue paddles. A pinball machine with its lights on stood against the wall, walls that were covered in pilfered street signs and wrinkled Walmart posters. A unicycle lay at Jimmy’s feet. Big Al lumbered across the shop to greet them. He was dressed in a mottled blue bathrobe, and he wore black slippers to protect his feet from the filthy cement. He looked tired, and his muttonchops looked they were spiked from sleep. “Dude, what the hell are you guys doing here?” he growled. “Is it after ten?”

 

 

“Chill out, homey,” Bill shouted across the shop. “This is my main man, Jimmy.”

 

 

Bill introduced Jimmy to Big Al, and Jimmy could feel himself being sized up. Big Al stuck his hand out, and Jimmy shook it. Big Al had a firm gripm and Jimmy’s hand came away feeling sticky.

 

 

“Nice to meet ya,” Big Al said in a gravely pirate’s voice. “Billy-Boy has been talkin’ ‘bout you since the day he showed up. Ain’t that right, Wart?”

 

 

Jimmy gave Bill a hard look and Bill visibly wilted.

 

 

“He sure has,” screeched a strange, whistling voice from behind an open door. Jimmy had never seen Wart, and the voice conjured up images of gargoyles and garden gnomes. A toilet flushed, and a skinny man suddenly rushed out from the door, pulling his robe closed and cinching the tie. He was short and wiry and olive skinned. Jimmy guessed him to be somewhere between thirty and forty. The man named Wart had babyish skin covering a hard face. Wispy brown hair covered his head, and he wore the poorest excuse for muttonchops that Jimmy could imagine. He never took his eyes from Jimmy as he slunk their way. Jimmy decided that he either looked very good for his age or he didn’t.

 

 

Jimmy looked from Wart to Bill and then back to Wart.

 

“Jimmy, this is Wart,” said Big Al. “Wart, this guy has had more tail than a toilet seat.”

 

 

Wart, who couldn’t have been more than five feet tall with his boots on, stuck out his right hand and smiled. “Hello, Jimmy, pleased to meet you,” he whistled.

 

 

Jimmy looked at the hand and back to Wart’s comic book face. Wart smiled a smile that was missing two front teeth.

 

 

“Poor bastard,” growled Big Al. “Lost his teeth, just yesterday.”

 

 

Wart’s eyes never left Jimmy’s face, and his hand seemed planted in front of him. Jimmy wasn’t about to shake that unwashed hand. He desperately looked for a way out of the awkward situation. Then he remembered Howie Mandel. Jimmy struck a boxer’s pose and moved to fist bump the little man.

 

 

Wart’s hand stayed open, and he now looked hurt.

 

 

“Wart’s a good dude,” said Big Al, tilting his head back and jutting out his chin. “You got a problem with him? Go on, shake the man’s hand.”

 

 

“Hi,” Jimmy said, and he stiffly offered his hand to Wart. “Pleased to meet you.”

 

 

Wart took Jimmy’s limp hand and pumped it for all it was worth. He started to chuckle. Big Al suddenly slapped Jimmy on the back and began to laugh. Jimmy turned to Bill and saw that he had been in on the joke. All three men were now roaring with laughter, and Jimmy smiled nervously.

 

 

“He’s a keeper,” rumbled Big Al. “Don’t worry. Wart wasn’t doing his business in there.”

 

 

“Or was I?” Wart whistled cryptically. He then bent over and picked up the unicycle. Still laughing, he hiked up his bathrobe and sat down on the one-wheeler. “I can’t remember what I did in there.” He then began to ride the unicycle around the shop with all the skill of a Ringling Brother’s clown. Jimmy watched him with amazement and quickly excused himself and moved toward the bathroom. Wart pedaled towards him, and he reached out as he glided past, stroking Jimmy’s cheek with his right hand.

 

 

“Knock it off!” shouted Jimmy.

 

 

Like three drunken hyenas, the other men laughed at Jimmy. Wart spun around the ping pong table and was headed for another run. He smiled crazily, bobbing his head back and forth to the pumping of his scrawny legs. Jimmy hurried to the bathroom and slammed the door behind him.

 

 

The bathroom looked like something out of a bad movie. The sink looked as if it belonged inside a condemned building. Hair covered toothbrushes lay scattered on the crusty vanity top. The sink was heaping with fresh ashes. Jimmy found the soap and washed his hands under the hottest water the tap would offer. He scrubbed until they had been scalded to a hot-pink color. He scrubbed his face in the same manner.

 

 

He opened the door and returned to where Big Al and Bill still stood. Big Al had one arm propped on Bill’s shoulder and pointed a meaty finger in Bill’s face.

 

 

“He works for you, man,” Big Al grunted, completely ignoring Jimmy. “If you have any problems with him, he goes straight to the kitchen. Make sure your homeboy knows that they start work at four in the damn morning.”

 

 

“Homey spent his first day in the kitchen,” Bill said, smiling at Jimmy. “The dude is cool, bro.”

 

 

Jimmy wanted to scream. This was not Bill, not the Bill that he had known for so many years. He bit his tongue and returned the smile. “That’s me,” he said, “one cool dude.”

 

 

“Right on,” Bill said, giving Jimmy the double thumbs-up.

 

 

“He’d better be,” Big Al said. “We got a good gig here, and I don’t want anyone screwing it up for us. Billy-Boy here says you don’t like our policy against guns. Tough shit; that’s the way it is, and if you don’t like it, lump it. Right, boys?”

 

 

Wart wheeled past them. “Lump it, lump it,” he whistled. He then dropped lightly to his feet and artfully scooped up the unicycle. “No guns, Mr. Bond. But we got plenty of hot chicks to choose from.”

 

 

Jimmy turned on Bill, and Bill withered again. He suddenly understood that whatever he told Bill would be shared with anyone who chose to listen.

 

 

“That’s right,” Big Al said. “There’s twenty to one out there. Can you dig it?”

 

 

“Not many ugly ones,” said Wart, who was still smiling. He set down the unicycle, walked over to the workbench and picked up a pack of cigarettes. “Care for a smoke, man?” he said, offering the pack to Jimmy.

 

 

Again, Jimmy stared at Bill. The Camel cigarettes looked all too familiar, and it only took a second for Jimmy to make the connection. He took the pack and shook himself out one. Wart stuck the lighter into Jimmy’s face, and Jimmy lit up. “Thanks,” he said. “So what else has Bill said about me?”

 

 

“Says you’re a chick magnet,” Wart said, slyly. “Says you have to beat them off with a stick, daddy-o. I’ll bet you do.”

 

 

“Yeah?” asked Jimmy. “Well, Bill says a lot of things.”

 

 

“Let’s get some chow,” said Big Al, waving at Jimmy to follow him. “You want some toaster waffles? We were just eating. I’ve got the best maple syrup you’ve ever tasted.”

 

 

“Righteous,” said Bill.

 

 

They sat together drinking hot coffee and eating four boxes of syrup-drenched waffles. Jimmy found that Wart did most of the talking. The little man explained how things worked down at the shop. They worked at their own pace; no one understood what they were doing, and sometimes they just wanted to drink beer and play games. The shop was off limits to everyone except the mechanics and the Equals. The Equals avoided the place like the plague. They were well rewarded for performing their mechanical miracles and near the top of the food chain. The dingy shop had its own kitchen, complete with a stocked freezer and loads of canned foods. The shop also had its own sleeping quarters, laundry room, and one of the largest flat-screen televisions that Jimmy had ever seen. Jimmy couldn’t help wonder how much better the shop would look if it were cleaned. He then wondered how many days it would take to accomplish that.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 16

 

 

 

 

Wart gradually grew on Jimmy, as did Big Al. They were very odd, but they seemed to accept him into their fold, and that meant something to him. They had a live and let live philosophy; both men had lost everything they had ever had, and they were only trying to make the best of the world they now lived in. Jimmy understood that, and it gave them all a common ground. He caught himself using the words “man” and “dude,” which was a little disturbing. By the time they finished breakfast, Jimmy had pretty much forgiven them all, even Bill.

 

 

“I’m going to lay down,” yawned Big Al, stretching his arms wide. “Wake me up for lunch, dude.”

 

 

“Me too,” said Bill, perfectly imitating Big Al’s motions.

 

 

Wart stood from the table. “I’m going to go work on the drains in the women’s shower. You want to tag along?” he asked Jimmy.

 

 

“No,” he said. “I’m going to pass this time. Go ahead. I think I’m going to clean this place up a little bit. You dudes don’t mind, do you?”

 

 

Big Al studied Jimmy for a moment. “Hell, no,” he said. “I’ve been after these two slobs to pick up after themselves like forever. Thanks, man.”

 

 

Wart shrugged his shoulders. “Whatever,” he said. “You’re going to miss the show.”

 

 

Jimmy didn’t think Julie would approve of him inside the women’s shower, no matter what the reason. He eyeballed the mess around him and wondered if he hadn’t spoken too soon. He didn’t have long to think about it. Wart dressed, slung a tool belt around his narrow hips and headed out the door without another word. Bill and Big Al retired a moment later, and Jimmy found himself alone.

 

 

What Jimmy couldn’t understand was how three grown men could live in such a pigsty. He found an unopened box of lawn and leaf trash bags, and within an hour he had filled close to a dozen bags. He stacked them by the overhead door, wondering where they needed to be taken. He swept the floor and wiped down benches, tables, and countertops. He attacked the bathroom like a man on fire, wearing rubber gloves and using pure bleach. He tried to organize things the best he could, but with so many unfinished projects laying around in various states of disrepair, it wasn’t easy.

 

 

Still, Jimmy found that he was quietly enjoying himself. He was in a shop again, and he was making a difference. He thought about taking a break, but he wanted to get as much done as he could before Wart returned. He thought about Wart and chuckled. He had never met anyone as outlandish as the little man. He wondered what Jon would have made of him. He could hear both Bill and Big Al snoring from behind the closed doors of the two small bedrooms. They seemed like twins separated at birth. Jimmy found a scrub mop, and he mopped both the kitchen and bathroom floors. He was sweating, picking up speed as the minutes slipped away.

 

 

The bleach began to irritate his eyes and his lungs, and Jimmy decided to step outside to catch some air. He nearly collided with a group of young women who were standing outside the door. Three of the girls were blonde, and two of them were probably sisters, thought Jimmy. He guessed them to be in their mid-twenties and perhaps members of the same track team. They were all tall and lean, and their smiles were infectious. Jimmy found that he couldn’t wipe the smile from his own face.

 

 

“We’ve been talking about you,” the tallest of the three blondes said as she stopped jogging just a few feet from where he stood. “Heather thinks you’re cute.”

 

 

“He is cute,” giggled one of the other girls.

 

 

They suddenly circled him and began to pepper him with questions. Where did he come from? Did he think the soldiers would come back and visit them? Did he have a girlfriend? Jimmy fought to keep their names straight. Heather was the brunette; that was easy. The blondes were Marie, Ashley, and Samantha. Marie had been the first to speak, and Ashley and Samantha were indeed sisters. They spun him around, firing questions at him and laughing at his answers. All four of the girls seemed to be staring straight into his eyes, and Jimmy found himself blushing.

 

 

“Doesn’t he have the cutest dimples?”

 

 

“Sorry, my sister doesn’t get out much,” Ashley said. “Besides, there aren’t any good-looking boys here.”

 

 

“You mean there weren’t any good-looking boys here,” said Marie, slyly.

 

 

“I’m a boy,” Bill nearly shouted from behind Jimmy.

 

 

Eww,” groaned one of the girls.

 

 

Jimmy turned to see Bill, Big Al, and Wart, all wearing their matching overalls and smiling dreamily at Jimmy’s new friends.

 

 

“We’ll see you around, Jimmy,” Marie said, with a flash of smile and a wink. “Come on, girls. I think it’s safe to shower now.”

 

 

“Bye, Jimmy,” cooed another of the girls.

 

 

Jimmy was smiling and turned to say good-bye. That was when he saw Julie standing with her arms crossed, not ten feet away, halfway behind a towering white pine. Her face was red, and her eyes were blazing.

 

 

“Yes, sir,” said Big Al, slapping Jimmy on the back. “You can stay, Jimmy. You’re a regular chick magnet!”

 

 

“You’re my hero,” whistled Wart.

 

 

Umph!” whooshed Julie as she turned on her heels.

 

 

“Oh-oh,” said Bill. “This isn’t good.”

 

 

Jimmy was already chasing after Julie, trying to remember if he had said anything really bad to any of the girls. He knew that he hadn’t. The problem was what he hadn’t said to them. He hadn’t told them about Julie.

 

 

She was sprinting now, running away from him with reckless abandon across the new-fallen snow and into the woods. She was wearing a red ski jacket over a pair of blue jeans. Jimmy could hear her up ahead of him, and she was crying. She suddenly cried out in pain and fell face first into the snow. There was the sound of crunching glass, and the snow around Julie’s face began to turn red. She didn’t move.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 17

 

 

 

 

“Worst fractures I’ve ever treated on a woman,” Doc told Jimmy. “I’m afraid there isn’t much I could do to set them. She’s going to take it hard. You damn well better be there for her. If you so much as look at another woman, I’ll have you bounced out of here so fast, it’ll make your head spin. Do you understand me?”

 

 

Jimmy nodded. They had just left Julie’s cabin, and he had seen Julie’s ruined face. Broken nose, broken cheekbone, and perhaps a cracked orbital socket; Doc wasn’t quite sure. She had tripped face first into a small pile of discarded engine parts that had been buried under the snow. Jimmy saw her as having just gone twelve rounds against the champ. Doc had completely sedated her once they reached Julie’s cabin. She was holding her face, moaning, and sobbing into her cupped hands. When Doc finally got her to pull them away, both he and Jimmy gasped. Julie began to wail, and Doc jammed her with something that put her down in under two minutes.

 

 

“Boil me a pot of water, now!” Doc had shouted.

 

 

Jimmy didn’t hesitate. He ran to the kitchen and found a saucepan, set it on the stove and dumped bottled water into the pan. When he returned, Jimmy saw that Doc had his tools sitting on the nightstand next to Julie’s bed. They were stainless steel, and to Jimmy they looked ancient and painful.

 

 

Doc rummaged in his bag and pulled out a pair of scissors. “Come on,” he said to Jimmy. “I’ll hold her up while you cut. Her hair has got to go.”

 

 

“I can’t do it.”

 

 

“You damn well can and you will!”

 

 

“She’s going to hate me.”

 

 

“Just do it,” growled Doc.

 

 

Jimmy took the scissors and moved next to Julie. He didn’t know where to start, and he couldn’t stand to stare into her ruined face. Her cheeks were black, and her nose looked like a smashed plum.

 

 

“Just start chopping. We don’t have all day!”

 

 

And Jimmy chopped. Tears ran down his cheeks as he began to lop off her beautiful thick, black hair, in great hunks and clumps. “I’m sorry, baby,” he whispered as he cut. “I’m so damn sorry.”

 

 

After what seemed like an eternity, Jimmy had Julie looking like a new Marine. Doc gestured for Jimmy to get up, and he gently laid Julie back down on her bed. He then walked past Jimmy out into the kitchen.

 

 

Doc came back into the room holding the saucepan with a pair of mismatched oven mitts. He set the pan next to the bed and asked Jimmy to close the door and wait in the other room. He whispered that he was going to have to set the bones without the help of an x-ray and that she may cry out in pain. He told Jimmy not to worry about that.

 

 

The next two hours were the longest of Jimmy’s life.

 

 

A half hour into his wait, a solid-looking woman came to the outside door and knocked. Jimmy wiped his eyes and slowly went to the door. He took a deep breath and opened it.

 

 

“How is she?” asked the dark-skinned woman with a slight Jamaican accent as she pushed past him.

 

 

“Doc is with her now. You can’t go in there.”

 

 

“Do you know me?”

 

 

Jimmy gave her a puzzled look. She wore a colorful dress that she filled out with a big-boned frame. Her black hair hung in dreadlocks, and she wore a pair of John Lennon sunglasses that she didn’t bother to remove once she was inside. She was a formidable woman, and Jimmy knew without asking that this was Venus.

 

 

“That’s right,” she said, removing her large boots. “Now tell me something. Who is in there with the doctor?”

 

 

“Julie is in there.”

 

 

“Idiot! Who is in there assisting the doctor?”

 

 

Jimmy quickly turned away from her intense glare. “No one,” he hissed.

 

 

“Men!” she cried, disgustedly. She quickly spun on her heels and charged into Julie’s bedroom. She closed the door firmly behind her, and Jimmy could hear a hushed argument ensue from behind that door. The argument lasted only seconds, and soon all Jimmy heard were Julie’s painful groans and whimpers.

 

 

Julie’s beautiful face was set in a thick, white plaster cast. Two impossibly small holes allowed her to see, while two others allowed access to her nose and mouth. The cast went all the way to her shoulders. She was out cold, and Venus had covered her up to her neck with a quilt.

 

 

Jimmy looked down and stared into the face of a mummy. Somehow, he knew he was to blame.

 

 

Venus made him go back to the shop, promising that she would send for him when it came time for him to watch over her. “This is a terrible thing,” she said. “And I feel sorry for you, Jimmy. Now it is time to act like a real man. Do you know how to do that, young Jimmy? She is gonna need a real man.”

 

 

Jimmy nodded.

 

 

“You stay away from all of those little tarts, you hear me, boy? You don’t want to mess with me and my friends. Don’t you dare stray on that poor girl. I would have to hurt you.” Jimmy looked into Venus’ face, and he never doubted her for a second. She then broke into a warm smile. “I was kidding. I just want you to know that I’m going to be watching you. Your friend Bill Huggins told me all about you. I know your kind. Oh, yes, I surely do. You best steer clear of temptation. This place has too many young women, and they’re all lonely. You stay away from them.”

 

 

Jimmy nodded again, but this time he was starting to get angry. He had heard enough, and he set his chin and began to reply to her blunt accusations.

 

 

She shut him down with a bellowing laugh. “That’s being a man,” she said. “That’s what Julie needs. Go now. I will call for you.”

 

 

Jimmy turned up his collar and walked back to the shop with his head down. A stiff breeze had kicked up, and he was peppered with sleet as he walked. The tears had begun again after he had walked out of the cabin. This was certainly all his fault. He should have walked away from those girls, right away, and if he had done so, none of this would have happened. Jimmy was sure of it. He couldn’t get the picture of bald-headed Julie and her Halloween face out of his mind. He knew he was going to have to try. The shop loomed ahead, and he didn’t want the guys to see him crying.

 

 

He walked in the same door he had come out of when they heard the choppers. The garbage bags still sat where he had left them which immediately stuck in his craw. There was life on the other end of the shop, and smoke hung in the air. Jimmy could see three forms huddled around something—a blue flame sizzled, and hot red sparks sprayed to his freshly swept floor. He was done cleaning, and they obviously didn’t appreciate it. Jimmy made his way around the ping pong table and saw that it was once again littered with nuts and bolts and a new-looking snowmobile ski. Jimmy stopped and stared at the object of the mechanic’s attention. He saw them hacking away at what he was sure to be the skeleton of his beloved Polaris. Anger turned to rage.

 

 

Wart saw him first and stood defiantly between Jimmy and his counterparts. “What the hell are you guys doing?” screamed Jimmy. “You have no right to do that!”

 

 

Big Al and Bill stopped what they were doing and turned to face him. And that was when Jimmy noticed the fourth man standing in the shadows. “That’s where you’re wrong, man,” the man said. “I ordered them to do it. Have you ever heard of global warming?”

 

 

“What?” Jimmy shrieked. “Who the hell are you?”

 

 

“I am called Pluto,” he said. “And you’re about two seconds away from walking out of here—forever. Can you dig it?”

 

 

Jimmy quickly reassessed the situation and decided that it was time to try another tactic. “I’m sorry,” he said, scratching his chin. “I’ve had a bad day.”

 

 

The man studied him for a long moment. He was tall and thin with long gray hair and a beard to match. He made Jimmy think of what George Harrison would have looked like at seventy. Pluto wore strings of love beads over a faded flannel shirt. His blue jeans were ripped in the knees and tucked into a pair of moon boots. He stood at an angle with his hands on his hips. He dropped his arm and waved Jimmy to follow him over to the kitchen. “Come on, I’m going to brew us a pot of tea. We need to rap.”

 

 

Jimmy’s new coworkers went back to savaging his Polaris, and he followed Pluto into the semi-clean kitchen. The old hippie seemed to know his way around the kitchen, and he quickly filled a tea kettle and set it on the stove. “Bummer about your old lady,” Pluto said.

 

 

Jimmy nodded his head in agreement, even if he didn’t like Pluto’s slang.

 

 

“Okeedokie,” said Pluto, motioning for Jimmy to take a seat at the table. “Let me shed some light on that brain of yours. We are pacifists here. Bill says you might try to lay your hands on some guns. That would be a bad plan.”

 

 

Jimmy gritted his teeth and vowed to never speak to Bill again.

 

 

Pluto stroked his beard as he spoke. He had yellowish teeth and fingernails, and Jimmy guessed him to be somewhere closer to seventy five. His piercing blue eyes never seemed to leave Jimmy’s own. “I own all of this. I call the shots. I make the rules.”

 

 

Jimmy couldn’t let that pass. “I thought you called the shots as a team, the same way you made up the rules.”

 

 

Pluto smiled. “Good point,” he said, lacing his long fingers together in front of him. “I should have said that differently. Think of our little community as a big ball of clay. I had to form it into that ball, and I had to do it alone, you dig? I decided that guns were out. Guns kill people. Don’t you believe any of that bullshit anyone tells you. Guns kill people, and I don’t like guns. Men may trade punches, but take the firearms out of the equation and both fighters will likely walk away. I’ve seen enough death, man.”

 

 

“We all have,” said Jimmy. “I just think that you’re taking a huge risk.”

 

 

“Oh, really?” Pluto asked, looking amused. He sat back in his chair and spread his hands before him. “Even if, and I’m saying this just for argument’s sake, even if everyone here carried a gun, how long do you suppose we could hold out against a group of determined men? You’ve seen the people here. Which one of them would you want to have your back in a foxhole? We’re not fighters, and we’ll never be fighters. Not that any of it matters because this is about so much more than that.”

 

 

Jimmy thought about that as he glanced over at the three vultures picking apart his Polaris. Pluto was right; he certainly wouldn’t trust any of them with his back, especially Bill.

 

 

Pluto continued. “This is still the United States, and we have to remember who we are. We’re not blood-thirsty killers. We’re trying to make a stand here by doing what’s right. We’re trying to set an example up here for the whole world to see. That’s why the National Guard doesn’t bother us. We have nothing to hide, and we pose no threats. Everyone is welcome here, providing they check their weapons at the gate.”

 

 

“What if they refuse to check their weapons and come in, anyhow?”

 

 

“There is always that unfortunate risk, for that is the nature of man. We have to assume that risk and deal with it when the time comes.”

 

 

“What happened to your voice?” Jimmy asked with a smile. “Don’t you mean, when the time comes, man?”

 

 

Pluto smiled and nodded his head in defeat. “You saw through my little act. Please keep it to yourself, if you don’t mind. Let me explain. You didn’t experience the sixties or even the seventies. Those were beautiful times. We had a revolution that swept the country, and we became a force. Those first flower children started a wave that washed the blood from the eyes of an entire country. You should have seen it. We were making love, not war. We began to demand changes in how things were done. We demanded that people begin to see that we were all in this together. We demanded civil rights!”

 

 

Jimmy listened as Pluto built up steam. He was standing now, pacing behind the table, and he suddenly pointed at Jimmy.

 

 

“You should have seen us. We organized marches and rallies. We quit tolerating racism and sexism. We stood against the war. We were punched and kicked and called names, but we stood our ground. You won’t find this in any history books, but the hippies of the sixties changed everything. I should know. I was one of them. Things didn’t change overnight, but our belief system gradually took root, and it continues to grow. Our first liberty is the pursuit of peace and tranquility, young man. Don’t you ever forget that. We stood for peace, and we will continue to do so. I’m trying to get people to identify with that era. I’m doing it with language. You’ll see; it’ll grow on you, man.

 

 

An air compressor suddenly sprang to life, and the shop vibrated with sound. Pluto got up from the table and checked his kettle. Jimmy thought about what he’d just been told. He then began to wonder what would have happened if Ken’s group had simply joined up with the group at the Birkland Lodge. How many people had died? What had they died for? Then he thought about Sister Margaret and her followers. Jimmy shook his head. What would have happened if they had also joined them? He knew one thing for sure: his friend Jon would still be alive.

 

 

Pluto set a cup in front of Jimmy. He had never tried tea in his life, but he sipped at it, and he found that it wasn’t half bad. “Thank you,” he said.

 

 

“And who says that real men don’t drink tea?” Pluto asked, sipping from his own cup. He then sat down and smiled, but the smile was tired, and his eyes were weary. “Look, I know what you’re thinking. We are taking a huge risk up here. We understand that. Life is full of risks, young man. You have to stand up for what you believe in or nobody is going to listen to your message. No matter what we do, there is always going to be someone out there with the means to take this from us. They could very well kill us all. Our defense is that they can have it and that there is no need for bloodshed. Even if we had a hundred guns, someone would show up with a thousand. That’s the insanity of war. We won’t have it here.”

 

 

Jimmy nodded. “Fair enough,” he said. “I’m not sure that I’m one hundred percent behind all of this, but you make a good point.”

 

 

“Fair enough,” said Pluto. He then took a sip of his tea and sighed. “The truth is that we’re all flying by the seat of our pants these days. Nobody has any idea of what to do next or when things will return to normal, if they ever do. We just don’t want to lose sight of who we are. I don’t want to kill anyone. Look at me. I’m an old man. I just want us to make our stand, right here. We’re the last of the hippies, and we have to survive all of this to ensure that people hear our message. Love is all you need, man.”