Going Home (51 page)

While he was getting the last of his stuff out of the truck, Anita came outside. She came up to the truck and looked at the guns. She stood there for a minute and looked the truck over—the smashed windshield and the bullet holes. Thad saw her looking at where the block had hit. She looked up at him. “Was it that bad?”

“Yes, it was. I hope to never have to do anything like that again,” he said flatly.

She was quiet for a minute. “Thad, did you have to kill anyone?”

She was looking up at him, her arms wrapped around her waist, holding the sweater closed. He looked into her eyes. “Yeah, baby, I did. I did what I had to to get home to you and Tony. Nothing was going to keep me away. And I’m sorry, but I’m not going to talk about it again.”

She wrapped her arms around him, laying her face on his chest. “I’m just so glad you’re home.”

“Me too, baby, me too.”

12

Robert was the other guy at the barricade. He stuck out his hand, and I shook it. He was one of those neighbors that lived in the area. We would wave to each other on the road but didn’t really know each other. I hadn’t ever spoken to him until the Fourth of July. I had to go out looking for the dogs after they ran off when the fireworks scared them. He told me to take his four-wheeler and go to the house with it. I thanked him for that; it was a weird thought to be riding on something instead of walking. I walked over to the ATV and took off the pack and set it on the rear rack. They followed me over as I was taking off the rest of the gear.

“How was it out there, man?” Lance asked.

“It’s bad in places. There were a few places that weren’t too bad. But there are some crazy-ass people out there. I saw some truly horrible shit,” I answered as I stepped up onto the ATV.

“Well, what you did was crazy. I couldn’t imagine doing it. Were you alone the whole time?” Robert asked.

“No, I traveled with a couple of people—a girl at first, then a big dude named Thad. He was great. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.” I took off my hat and turned my head so they could see the scar.

“Holy shit, what the hell happened?” Lance asked.

“The girl we had with us shot me in the head on accident. We were being hunted by a group of people and were hiding in the bush. Last I remember was one of them seeing a footprint on the ground and turning toward us. Thad opened up on them, and it scared her. Thad told me she went to cover her head, and the pistol she had went off and hit me. He got me out.”

They both stood there just looking at me in silence. They looked at one another and then back at me. Lance started to slowly shake his head. “Damn, man. You are one lucky SOB.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t easy. I’ll tell everyone about it later. I want to go home right now,” I said.

“Yeah, man, go. There’s some girls that are going to be very happy to see you,” Robert said.

I turned the key on and hit the starter on the ATV. It immediately purred to life. I sat there for a minute; a little grin came across my face, and I shook my head a little. It was a strange sensation. I looked at them one last time and put it in gear and headed down the road. I didn’t go fast; I was actually enjoying the ride, kind of taking my time. As I approached my driveway, I stopped for a minute to hop off and open the gate. The dogs started to bark and ran toward me from the house. They stopped short, still accustomed to the in-ground fence that no longer worked.

I got back on the ATV and started up the driveway; the dogs were still going nuts. Meathead’s hackles were up, and he looked fierce. As I got close to him, I called out his name. He paused for a minute and looked at me. Then little Sounder ran up and jumped onto my leg, licking my hands. The big idiot came running up, and I climbed off. I knelt down and hugged the dogs, Sounder licking my face and Meathead chewing on my hand. That was his thing; he wouldn’t bite hard, but he liked to have my hand in his mouth. I sat there for a minute, petting them, hugging them, and then I heard the front door open.

My drive was circular, so you couldn’t see the house from the road or even the front of the driveway. There was a thick screen of oak trees, and in front of the house were some enormous old azaleas. They were probably ten feet tall, and in the spring are just full of blooms. I loved them when they were flowering. Climbing back on the ATV, I started toward the house. As I came around the center island of trees, I saw the front of the house through the azaleas, but it was still obscured.

Pulling up in front of them, I stepped off. There, standing on the front porch, was Mel. She had my AR in her hands. She was looking at me, but she either didn’t recognize me or it wasn’t sinking in yet. I looked at her for a minute. “Well, you gonna shoot me or not?”

Her face changed; she set the rifle on the top of the rail and ran down the steps. I headed for her, and she threw her arms around my neck and tried to squeeze my head off my shoulders. I wrapped my arms around her and picked her up in a big hug. She was crying, and, honestly, I had tears in my eyes too. We stood there in the embrace for a while; I heard her sobbing. She let go enough that I could look at her. Her eyes were red and puffy; then I gave her a long kiss.

During all this, of course, the dogs were still all over us, jumping up, tails wagging. Mel pulled my hat off my head and ran her hand through my hair. She immediately felt the wound on my head. “What happened?”

“It’s a long story. We’ll get to it in time. How are the girls? How have you been?”

“They’re good, still asleep. We’ve been okay. Things are getting harder lately, though,” she said.

I took her hand and walked up onto the porch. We sat down on the bench. I gave her another hug and another kiss. I was so worried about you guys. All I wanted to do was get home.”

She started to tear up again. “We were worried too, especially Taylor; you know how she is. But I knew you’d make it back. When you called on the radio, it really helped just to know you were okay. Why didn’t you ever call back?”

“It seems there may be part of the government that doesn’t want people to use radios. They would come on the radio every time we used it. Helicopters would show up,” I said.

“We who?” she asked. I looked at her with a quizzical look. “You said we would use the radios, who was
we
?”

“I met up with some people that helped me a lot. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here. Getting here was harder than you can imagine,” I said.

She reached out and rubbed the scar on my head again. “This?”

“Among other things, I walked with this girl and another guy for a while. We tried to help some people one night, and things got ugly. The girl accidentally shot me when it hit the fan. If it wasn’t for Thad, the guy, I wouldn’t be here. He got me out and took me to the house of a friend of his. They patched me up. That’s where I got the radio,” I told her.

She leaned over and hugged me again. We sat there for a long while, on my porch, my house. She finally leaned back and asked if I wanted to go wake up the girls. I said, of course, but I wanted to do it a particular way.

“Is there any of that pancake mix left?”

“Yeah, we have tried to conserve. At first, I didn’t do so good, but we changed that,” she answered.

“Are you using the kerosene stove?”

“You remember how I said I hated that thing?” I nodded. “Well, I still hate that thing! I just can’t get the hang of it,” she said as she put her face in her hands.

“That’s okay. You know I like it, and I’ll do the cooking. How about that?”

“Fine by me!” she said as she stood up. Taking my hand, we walked in the house together. I paused at the door for a minute. She looked at me.

“I just want to savor this,” I told her. I reached out and turned the knob and opened the door. It looked just like I remembered.

We went into the house; it felt surreal. I thought I might never see it again. In the kitchen, there was a light on, an electric light. I looked at it and back to her. “Is the solar still working?”

“Yeah, it’s been on the whole time. You just don’t know what a difference it’s made. It’s caused some trouble too, though,” she said.

“Trouble how?”

“There are a couple of people around here that think this should be a community resource. Danny had to come down one day and make some of them leave. They wanted to take it,” she said.

“Over my dead fucking body,” I said.

“Well, now that you’re here, you can deal with them,” she said.

“Who was it?”

“Guess,” she said.

I knew who it was. I guess every neighborhood has a person like that, the busybody that gets in everyone’s business, the town gossip. Our particular version was a woman in her late fifties; her name was Pat, and she and I hated one another. I had not thought of her while I was gone. I actually never thought she would be like this. I sort of figured she would be the one that would stand up against this sort of thing.

“Food is the other issue. People are starting to run out. We had to move the chickens to the back porch. Someone was trying to get in the coop one night, and Meathead started barking. They ran off when I came outside. So Danny came down, and we moved them to the porch,” she said.

“Yeah, it always amazes me how quickly people turn into good little socialists when they run out of their stuff. As long as they have something, it’s theirs. Let them run out, and you need to share. Don’t worry, no one is taking anything from us,” I said.

I went into the kitchen and opened the fridge. The light came on, and it was cold inside. I stood there shaking my head. It actually worked. I didn’t have a big system, but it was more than enough for our little house. There was a bowl of eggs on the shelf. I took one out and, to my surprise, a jug of milk. “What’s this?” I asked Mel.

“Powdered milk—the kids hate it, but they are getting used to it,” she said.

In no time, I had the batter ready for the cakes. Taking a box of matches from above the stove, I lit the Butterfly. It was set up on the center island. I was already thinking about taking out the old electric stove and building a shelf in its place for the Butterfly. In the cabinet, I found one of my cast iron skillets and set it on the stove. After pouring in some oil, I let it heat for a minute and then poured in the batter for the first cake. The smell started to fill the kitchen; it wouldn’t be long before it would bring ’em out.

I didn’t really think this out completely. Lee Ann was the first one to come out. When she did and saw a man standing in the kitchen, she screamed. “Mom!”

I turned around; she scared the shit out of me. “Hey, kiddo. Want some pancakes?”

She stood there for a minute, and then it finally sank in. “Daddy!” She ran over to me and hugged me. Her scream woke up the other two, who came out. Little Ash was rubbing her eyes. I looked over at her. “Hey, Little Bit.”

She looked up at me and blinked and then rushed over, wrapping her arms around my waist. By the time Taylor came out of her room, she came straight over and gave me a hug. They were all talking and crying at the same time. Little Ash was jumping up and down, and I thought she would vibrate through the floor. It was hard cooking the rest of their breakfast with all of them attached to me, but I didn’t complain. They all took turns flipping the cakes or pouring the batter.

When things got close to being done, Taylor went and set the table. I had lit another burner and had a pot of water from the Berkey boiling. Lee Ann got out the French press and put some coffee in it. I poured in the water when it was ready, and she took it to the table. With everything ready, we went and sat down at the table. Mel got up and came back with a glass of V8 for me—oh, man, I love this stuff. I had forgotten all about it. I bought a bunch of six-packs once when they were on sale. There was quite the argument over who got to sit beside me, but it was sorted out pretty quickly. We sat together and ate breakfast. They were all full of questions, but I avoided anything unpleasant. They told me about the adventures of the dogs and the chickens.

With breakfast out of the way, the girls started to clear the table. I went around and gave them all another hug and kissed each of them on the forehead. I suddenly felt tired—not like “I’ve had a long day and I’m sleepy” tired but like “I could sleep for eternity” tired, just exhausted, completely spent. I told Mel I was going to go lie down. I needed to rest. I went into our bedroom and lay down on the bed in my clothes. It felt so good, that Tempur-Pedic mattress. Mel came in with me and lay down beside me. She laid her head on my chest and each of the girls came in to give me another hug. I assured them I would be here later and just needed to get a little sleep. Little Bit climbed up in the bed between us and snuggled up beside me.