An Unkind Winter (Alone Book 2) (29 page)

     “I just need to figure out a way to do it.”

-55-

Hi Sugar.

     I almost didn’t pick up my pen tonight. I was having what you used to call a pity party, and I was the only one invited.

     I was feeling sorry for myself. I was disgusted because I’m so lonely and miserable and sometimes I really struggle with all that has to be done. And because the Woodards gave me heartbreaking news a couple of days ago that FEMA and the Army are stopping people from leaving San Antonio.

     Don’t worry. They won’t stop me. I’ll find a way to get to you. If I can’t get past their damn roadblocks, I’ll go off road if I have to. If I get stuck I’ll go ahead on foot. They don’t have enough people to scour the woods to keep one man from escaping.

     Frank asked me if I was willing to go to prison for trying to escape if it came to that.

     I told him it didn’t matter, because I’m already in prison.

     The only thing I have left to do is bury Mikey. I’m going to get some sleep, because it’s a project I’m probably better doing in the daytime. And it’s gonna be a chore.

     Once Mikey is buried, my plan is to just watch the calendar and the thermometer. Once I’m confident that winter is over, I’m out of here.

     Frank also shared some good news with me. His radio friend that lives up there near you guys told him the snow pack has melted away. In fact, from the way it sounded, you guys might be closer to spring than we are down here.

     And that’s good, because that’ll mean by the time we’re headed back this way the wild berries will be in bloom. I don’t anticipate having to eat off the land on my way up there, and hopefully Tommy and Susan can spare some provisions for the trip back. But if we need to we’ll fish and hunt and gather berries to eat. We’ll do whatever we need to do to get you guys back home.

     I can’t wait to see you again.

-56-

     Dave was puzzled when he walked into the Castros’ house and saw blood all over the place. It literally looked like someone got murdered there, and he actually did a room by room search looking for a body.

     It was the first time he’d been in the house in the daytime since before he shot Mikey, and it took him a few minutes to put two and two together.

     In fact, he didn’t figure it out until he searched the upstairs bathroom and found the gauze pads and adhesive tape that Mikey had left on the bloody vanity.

     And he remembered that Mikey had crude bandages on both of his hands.

     He muttered to himself, “Well, Mikey, my dead friend, that’s what you get for trying to climb over my fence uninvited.”

     He went into the garage and removed the baby stroller and ax, and took them into the back yard. Then he looked around for the best place to dig a grave, and thought the center of the yard would be the best spot.

     He took a hard swing with the ax and the head sunk a good six inches into the hard ground. The moderate days were winning the battle over the frigid nights, and the ground was indeed starting to thaw.

     Forty more whacks with the ax, and the first few inches were broken up and loose enough to scoop out with the shovel.

     It was slow going.

     Dave was still out of shape. He’d been trying to use his legs more lately, walking up and down the stairs carrying a backpack filled with forty pounds of weights. His intent was to strengthen his legs and his stamina in the event his vehicle broke down or he had to abandon it and he had to walk to Kansas City.

     The problem was, the workouts did nothing to strengthen his arms, and after forty swings of the heavy ax, they were on fire and getting weak.

     After scooping out the loose dirt, they were even worse.

     He sat down to rest beside a grave that was about six inches deep.

     This was going to be a very long day.

     By nightfall, he was down to about four feet or so. After the first few inches, the ground softened up and he was able to toss the ax aside and just use the shovel.

     That shifted much of the workload from his arms to his back. Now both were aching.

     He stumbled back into his own yard and sat on his deck with Lindsey and Beth.

     “I know, you guys are wondering what’s going to happen to you after I leave. But don’t worry. I’ll leave you plenty of food and water, and no one will bother you because no one will know you’re back here. All you have to do is hop around all day and eat and poop and whatever else little bunnies do all day.

     “And one day I’ll be back and I’ll introduce you to the other three special ladies in my life.

     “I hope you won’t be jealous. Actually, you’ll love them. At least the girls. They’ll carry you everywhere and spoil you rotten and they’ll treat you better than they treat me.”

     He looked at them and wondered aloud, “I wonder if you guys will have anything to do with me after I come back after being gone for four or five months. Will you still love me?”

     He held Beth up to his face and she sniffed his lower lip.

     “Well, I guess that’s the closest I’ll ever get to a bunny kiss, and I’ll take that as a yes.”

     He reached into his pocket for the two pieces of sun dried tomato he’d been saving for them. Both held the treats in their front paws and happily munched away on them.

     “Yeah, yeah, I see how you are. You really only love me for my tomatoes, don’t you?”

     He chuckled and got up to leave.

     “You guys say your goodbyes to our old friend Mikey. Tomorrow we’re going to send him home to Jesus. After tomorrow it will be just you and me, little furballs.”

     Just after sundown he stumbled into the house and into his safe room and collapsed on his bed. He could have built a fire to warm him, and let it burn itself out after a few hours, when he was sound asleep. But he didn’t really need to. The sleeping bags would keep him plenty warm until daybreak.

     He was exhausted, sleepy and sore. He knew he’d sleep like a rock.

     And he did.

     The following morning he was up before the dawn. He was refreshed and instilled with a spirit that would carry him through his last few days before he set out on his quest to find his family.

     By noon he was ready to put Mikey in the ground.

     A lesser man might have dragged the body to the edge of the grave and shoved it in. But Dave was a better man than that, and still felt bad about shooting an unarmed man. Even if a jury would never convict him. So he had to devise a gentler way to lower the body into the grave.

     A section of rope did the trick. Mikey was still frozen in a seated position and would be buried sitting up. If a team of architects unearthed him someday they’d probably scratch their heads and wonder why. And how.

     Dave chuckled at the thought.

     He wrapped the rope around the body, tucked under Mikey’s arms, and slowly lowered him into the grave.

     Then, so that he wouldn’t throw dirt directly into the young man’s face, he covered the body with an old blanket and tossed the rope into the grave as well.

     By mid afternoon the grave was filled and marked with a crude marker. It read:

Here lies Miguel Martinez. His friends called him Mikey. I considered Mikey my friend too. May he rest in peace in a far better place than this one.

     He said a brief prayer at the gravesite and said aloud, “Mikey, I’ll forgive you for stealing our stuff if you’ll forgive me for shooting you. I truly thought you were going to kill me first. Pleasant journey to you, buddy.”

     Then he returned to his own yard to complete his next to last project, providing a watering system for Lindsey and Beth and their bunny boyfriends.

-57-

     As Dave crawled through the makeshift gate in the fence, he saw Lindsey and one of the males humping in the corner of the yard.

     “Man, you guys don’t waste any time, do you?”

     He suspected that by the time he got back, his rabbit population would number a couple of dozen.

     It was imperative that he provide adequate food and water for them while he was away.

    The food wasn’t a problem. They’d soon have a yard full of green grass to munch on, and with the spring rain season coming up, it would likely grow faster than they could eat it.

     But just for added measure, he still had a hundred dead corn stalks lying in the Hansen yard behind his house that he’d throw over the fence and put in a big pile.

     The food source, then, wasn’t a problem.

     He focused on the water situation.

     Most of his rain barrels were partially full from the previous year. A couple of the full ones had split when the water within them froze and were now worthless, but there wasn’t much Dave could do about that now. He took a box cutter to them and cut off the bases, making what looked like two huge blue dog dishes about two feet across and six inches deep.

     He put one of them against the house underneath one of the notches he’d cut into the rain gutter.

     Hopefully passing spring showers would keep it full most of the time.

     He put the other one in a shady spot underneath his pecan tree.

     He took two rain barrels that were almost empty and drained them into other barrels. Then he cut a hole eight inches from the bottom of each barrel, inserted a piece of half inch PVC pipe through the hole, and caulked each side of the pipe.

     Then he placed a piece of a thick wool sock over each end of the pipe, held into place with a small clamp.

     He turned around to find Lindsey and Beth watching him curiously.

     He looked at Lindsey first.

     “I hope you told that boy he’d better put a ring on your finger, or he’s gonna have to deal with me.”

     He looked around for the boy in question and saw him sitting next to the corn pile, munching on a long leaf. The rabbit looked up and saw Dave watching him and then scampered behind a bush.

     “Ha! I knew you guys understood English.”

     Beth and Lindsey hadn’t budged.

     “You’re probably wondering what I’m doing. This is your water supply. After the caulking dries, I’m going to put one of these on each side of the water pan. The plan is to restrict the water flow so that instead of flowing through the pipe, it just drips at a very steady pace. Just a drip, drip, drip, to give you guys enough to drink. But not so much that it will drip too much and overflow the pan or evaporate.”

     He turned around and they were gone, playing on the other side of the yard.

     “Just like my other girls. As soon as things start getting technical, they’re outa there…”

     He turned the barrels upright and left them to dry, while he went to pack the Explorer. It was the final project before his departure, and the one he’d most been looking forward to.

-58-

Hi, honey.

     This will be my last entry before my departure. If things go bad for me, these might be my final words to you.

     If you find this journal on your own, and I never arrived in Kansas City to find you, then know this… I tried, and something happened to me along the way. Know also that I will love you and the girls for all eternity. You were my life, my love, my everything.

     I toyed with the idea of taking this journal with me, to record my thoughts and experiences along the way. But if I didn’t make it, you’d have spent the rest of your life wondering what became of me. That’s why I’m leaving it behind.