Percy's Mission (34 page)

Interstate 55 had actually washed away in a few places, where the river was much larger due to the influx of the Great Lakes waters at Cairo, Illinois. The going slowed slightly more with the conditions.
The Corps of Engineers had a pontoon bridge in place across the Mississippi, just above where it emptied into the new Memphis Bay. The group was able to cross with no problems, though only a few at a time were allowed to cross. It was the largest group that had needed to cross since the bridge was installed after the others had all dropped during the first earthquake.
They met the Memphis FEMA representative and he directed them to the housing the group would use until each family group picked out the area were they would settle permanently. Percy had intended to turn around and head back immediately, but the horse trader in him wouldn’t allow it.
Percy and those going back with him spent two days in and around Memphis, with Percy making several deals. A few were immediate, but several were long term deals, having to do with sea based products now available with the changes in the Gulf of Mexico. As it was, they froze half a trailer load of seafood in the reefer trailer and took it back with them to the estate. The fish tanks at the estate in the animal barn provided fish protein, but the seafood would be a welcome addition to their diets while it lasted.
Percy was able to buy a few hundred gallons of diesel in Memphis. There was some coming by way of the Gulf from Texas. One refinery was back in operation. Most was going to the military, but coastal communities were getting some distribution. One of the things he’d hoped for, and managed to get, were significant quantities of the chemicals he needed to continue and increase his production of biodiesel.
He was also able to pick up more seed, including a quantity of hemp seed from the Ag department of Memphis State University. He’d had quite a bit from having done a pilot project for the Iowa Department of Agriculture. Percy had not been allowed to grow it on a production basis the way he wanted, but those restrictions no longer applied. At least, he didn’t intend to follow them. And from the source where he got the seed, quite a few other people weren’t either. Hemp was too important a source of too many products not to start growing it again.
They started back toward the estate the last week of August. With the work they’d already done on sections of the road, without the stock, and with everyone going back riding Percy’s vehicles, the trip went quickly, as Percy knew it would.
They said goodbye to the military in a town that looked rather different from what it had when they left. There were still plenty of buildings, but there were very few mostly wooden structures left.
Tom, and the handful of other townspeople that had gone on the trip to help, went the rest of the way out to the estate with Percy and his people. Like the town, the estate looked markedly different. The work on the new housing was well underway. The fields were showing good stands of crops. The snow and ice was all gone, except for Percy’s insulated mound.
Percy noted the fervor with which the twins were welcomed back by the Statler sisters. Amy and Sandra had decided to stay on, while the rest of the family headed for Memphis. Percy was sure it primarily due to the fact that Jim and Bob were both staying.
Andy and Susie disappeared quickly, but discretely after the welcomes were exchanged. Sara and Percy were left in the house, with Mattie and Tom and his wife Marie, whom they’d picked up in town, as everyone else went out on their own. Mattie was quickly filled in on the happenings of the journey. She began filling them in on the progress that had been made at the estate.
“Things are going well, Boss,” Mattie said. “All the hands had pretty much learned what they needed during the winter. With my talented daughter at the helm, and Jorge’s help, the care of the fields has gone just fine. The animals are doing great. You could see how far the building has gone. Everything is ready to put up the wall for the greenhouse enclosure. The clinic and hospital is almost done.
“The storms keep raging through, and there is some loss to the crops, but we all knew there would be. But we have enough people and hoes to keep the weeds down the horse drawn equipment can’t do. The hemp, especially, is doing great. The shipments to town are going fine. We had some trouble with the methane thing, but they got it figured out from your written instructions and the books in the library. Every tank we have that can be used for waste oil is full. You should be able to make several batches of biodiesel in a row, without any problems.”
“Good,” Percy replied. “I was able to get enough hemp seed to do another eighty acres next year, even if there is a problem with this year’s crop. But if it goes well, we can have at least one hundred sixty, if not two hundred forty. I take it the special seed plants in the greenhouse are going okay, too?”
“Yep,” Mattie replied. “I check those myself every few days. They’re coming along great. I’m not sure how much seed each one will produce, but every plant is doing well.”
Percy smiled. “Plenty. I probably didn’t need that other seed, but I’m glad I got it, just in case. Now, how are the Doctors doing?”

“We’re doing fine,” Melissa said, coming into the kitchen, Jock on her heels. “And the baby even better. Welcome back, by the way.”
“Thanks. Can I hold her?”
Sara looked at Percy in surprise. They couldn’t have children, of course, and Percy had never said a word about particularly liking children. He’d always done fine with the ones they came into contact with during the last few months, but he seemed truly anxious to hold the baby and see how it was doing.
As he took the baby, Percy was asking, “How have you two been? Mattie tells me the clinic and our mini-hospital are about done. How’s the health of everyone, here and in town?” Percy was looking down at the baby in his arms as he listened to their responses.
“Barbie’s little Michael is doing just fine. Barbie is doing okay. She needs to continue to take it easy. She is really struggling to keep it together. Losing Mike this winter hit her really hard. She’s still struggling with the idea of being a single mom in these times.”
Percy only nodded, and Jock took up the report from his wife. “As you can see, Melissa, Junior, is doing just fine. As is her mother, as you can also tell.” His arm was over Melissa’s shoulders and he gave her a loving squeeze.
“Mattie finally got over that cold, but only recently. She is going to have to take it easy this winter, too.”
“I’m fine, thank you very much,” protested Mattie. Rather less forcefully than her normal protestations. She was beginning to feel her age.
“Everyone else,” Melissa said, “is doing fine. Just the usual minor things. No more broken bones but a few scrapes and things from the various projects. Nothing at all related to the farming.”
Percy looked up then. “And in town?”

“Not as good there,” Jock replied. “A couple of people haven’t recovered very well from illnesses from the winter. And there are reports coming in now of outbreaks of human anthrax and really bad smallpox.
“I don’t know if you heard it from the military while you were on the road, but it was confirmed that both biological and chemical weapons were used. We haven’t heard too much about the chemicals from the weekly report from the Feds. We were informed that Wisconsin and Michigan were both hit with anthrax.
“It’s just speculation, but they think they wanted to infect the dairy herds as well as people. I don’t think they were expecting the terrible winter. They’ve lost most of the herds north of us. Quite a few survived, of course, in isolated events, but the big dairies couldn’t get most of their herds into enough protection to save them.”
Melissa spoke up again. “We’re really going to have to watch things carefully, with the additional inter community travel. If an epidemic gets started, in the close confines like we have here, and had at the school and city hall last winter, the entire population of any given group could be wiped out. Epidemics turn pandemic quickly in these types of conditions.”
Again Percy looked up and nodded. “Anyone in town need any special consideration?”
Jock answered again. “Those that are still weak will need plenty of good food, especially protein. Everyone else needs are similar, just not as critical.”
Percy stood up and handed little ‘Lissa back to Melissa. “They’ll get it.” He looked at Mattie and continued. “I want you taking it easy. Let the sisters do the work. Just supervise.” He looked at Melissa then. “Tell Barbie we’re going to need someone to help with the smaller children here at the estate when we have families here. She was planning to be a teacher. As soon as she is up to it, she’s in charge of the littlest ones. She’s now on the fulltime estate payroll. Make a note, Sara.”
He looked over at Jock. “Print up some flyers with things people need to watch for this winter, including the signs and symptoms of the pox and anthrax. Anything else you think important.
“I’ll talk to Susie about starting a real safety program. We’ve always tried to work safely, but I want people aware of dangers. What might have been a minor annoyance in the past, can be life threatening now. I’m going to go look over the construction. Anyone want to come? Sara?”

“I’ll be out in a bit,” Sara replied, smiling at Percy. “I’ve a couple of things I want to do here in the house first.”
Percy gave her a quick kiss on the lips, grabbed his hat, and headed for the door.
“Whew!” Mattie said. “He was on a roll, there.”
“It was this trip,” Sara told the others as the Bluhms took seats. Sara took the baby when Melissa offered her.
“He’s seen the effects of no organization. Many people we saw really did have it a lot worse than we did. Right, Tom?”

“Sara is right,” Tom replied. “Some had as much in the way of resources as we did in some of the cities and larger towns. But a lack of cooperation and coordination of resources, like Percy did here, caused as much damage as everything else.”
“Don’t limit your contribution,” Sara quickly said. “You were the main other half of what happened here. Without your leadership in town, much of what Percy did would have been wasted.”
“Maybe you’re right, but less than half of us would have survived, except for what Percy had been doing for years. He did it on purpose. It was like it was a mission for him. But think about that one barn we saw. It wouldn’t have taken much to have bermed it up and used it for shelter for animals and people. People died for a lack of forethought.”
“Percy has more than his share of forethought,” Sara said.
“Yeah,” Mattie replied. “I’ve been here a long time, and I’ve learned that he seldom does anything for a single reason. Most things that he buys have multiple uses, just like those ugly trucks. And those bikes of his. He uses one to cultivate the garden sometimes. Whoever heard of gardening using a motorcycle?”
The others smiled.
“He takes the responsibility he’s taken onto himself very seriously. He did before, but even more so now.”
“I know how he feels,” Tom said softly. The others looked over at him and smiled. Then they all noticed how much more gray hair he had than they could remember. The little group broke up then, Sara and Tom going out to join Percy on his inspection tour.
The work was coming along nicely. Sara could see that Percy was pleased. The structures would be completed by October first, with the rest of the estate’s equipment now back. That had been Percy’s goal. The weather would be turning bad by that time, but Percy was confident the finishing touches could be put on the structures and people moved in before the worst of the expected bad weather hit.
“Tom, are you, Marie, and the kids planning on moving? You know you have a place here anytime you want it.”
“I know,” Tom said. “But as long as we still have a town that is a town, I feel like I should be there. Some of us are going to finish fixing up the city hall and live there this winter. There and the school, with the improvements that are being done to it, should house anyone that doesn’t want to live off by themselves.
“I know quite a few people are going to take you up on the offer to stay here, at least during the winters. Now me… I was thinking… well… Never mind. It’ll be a couple of years probably before I could do anything, anyway.”
“What?” Percy asked. “You have a plan of some kind?”
“Actually, I’d like to get back to farming. It’s even more important than it used to be. I was a farmer for a long time before I went into the insurance business. You know that. I was leasing out the three hundred acres I had. I’ve been thinking about trying to farm it again. It’s just pretty difficult to get geared up again. In a couple of years, maybe.”

“You’re still concerned about the town. What about continuing to live there and start farming right there. With all the vacant lots now, you could start with them and then start working your acreage when you have things the way you want them.”
“Percy,” replied Tom, “You know I can’t afford to buy up those lots. I don’t want to trade my current land, even if someone would take it. I want my kids to have at least some legacy. And before you offer, I won’t use your property without paying for it, and I can’t.”

“We are going to need all the food and other organic products that can be produced. There are other arrangements that can be made, besides outright purchase. Such as lease purchase and farming on shares.
“If you want to use the arable land in town that I own, you can, for ten percent of what you produce. I’ll provide what you need, that you can’t acquire on your own, and you can pay it off over time with another one percent of production until everything is paid off. How about that?”
Tom looked thoughtful.
Sara urged him, “Talk it over with Marie, Tom. It’s a good deal, and the more substantive farms we have going in the area the better. Even with the weather, there’s rebuilding to be done. And it will be done. With the discussions going on in Congress, flat rate taxes payable by hard currency or goods, products, and services will provide the means for a full recovery eventually.
“Not everyone has the ability to inspire others to do their best, the way you and Percy do. If you have an ongoing estate, even if it starts small, our little area of Iowa will be a model for other communities.”
“You make it sound like a responsibility I can’t shirk,” Tom replied.
“It is, in a way. Everyone that can contribute should, each in his or her own way. You’ve already been doing it, with you duties as mayor. I’m not suggesting you haven’t been doing your share. You have. It’s just that if this is something you want to do, anyway, it’s just one more way of helping the community.”
“What? Did you two rehearse this? You aren’t really leaving me much choice, the way you’re both putting it. I mean, it’s too late to start now, except for prep work, but it does sound like a good deal.” Tom paused, looking off into the distance for long moments. “Look. Let me talk it over with Marie and the kids. See what they say. They’ll be a big part in the success or failure. If they really don’t want to do it, I’m not going to make them.”
“I’m confident,” Percy said. “Marie’s like you, and your kids are your kids. They’ve all done more than their share. I suspect they’ll want to do this, too.”
They did. During the evening radio contact with town, Tom said as much. They would work out the arrangements over the next few days.