Chapter 4

Two weeks after her journey through time, Abby’s life was starting to settle into some semblance of a routine. She was spending the better part of her days learning some of the basic functions of Essence’s research group. She’d volunteered to take on a short-term project, one which required little or no technical knowledge, but one which would be a great help to the group as a whole. It would also aid the community at large.

The Fraggers were in possession of a fairly good-sized tanker truck. They’d come across it during one of their scavenging expeditions; it had apparently been sitting idle since way back before the Second Incident. Like almost all vehicles in the pre-Second Incident years, it was powered by electricity. The scavenging team had somehow managed to get enough charge into the battery to drive it back to Dover and store it onsite. That was the battery’s last gasp, however; multiple attempts to restart it had proven unsuccessful. That was of no concern, however. The main value derived from the truck was the substance inside the storage tank: hundreds of gallons of gasoline.

By the 2050’s, gasoline was no longer widely used. In and of itself, this tank full of gasoline held no real benefit. The contents were full of rust and impurities and had long since spoiled. However, Essence and her group had a small distillation apparatus at their disposal. They’d taken to distilling the spoiled gasoline to produce a valuable non-polar solvent for lab applications. It also had other uses around the community.

Essence had trained Abby in the use of the distillation apparatus. When it was deemed necessary, workers would drain a small amount of the gasoline from the tank and bring it to Abby, who would then distill it and store it. Abby, a quick learner, caught on to this very quickly. The truth was, it was not very exciting or challenging work, but Abby was thrilled to help out in any way she could. It was a start. During down time – and there was a lot of it – Abby would hang out with Essence and try to learn as much as she could. Essence, already keenly aware of Abby’s natural intelligence, became equally impressed with her curiosity and drive to learn. When Essence was exceptionally busy or needed to attend a meeting, Abby would associate with other members of the group. One of those members was Laird Edmunds, who had graced Abby with a lame pickup line shortly after her arrival in this time.

Abby found Laird to be a man of contradictions. His interest in her was obvious. Ever since Abby had started with this assignment, Laird had been asking her to accompany him to the community lunch in the cafeteria.

She had discussed Laird at length with Essence. “I said before that I don’t like him that much,” Essence had reiterated. “He has this macho, I’m-always-right attitude about him that just rubs me the wrong way. He doesn’t seem to approve of the way we do things here at Delmarva. But I’ll give him credit for being a valuable member of our work group. I’m not sure how trustworthy he is. Just be careful.” Essence secretly hoped that Abby would tire of his attention, but she knew that Abby was an independent woman and would do her own thing. She’d gotten to know her pretty well.

Nonetheless, Essence’s advice had temporarily convinced Abby to turn down Laird’s lunch invitations. Up till now, she’d been putting forth the excuse that she always had something else to do. Today, however, that changed. Essence was busy with other matters. For reasons that Abby couldn’t quite discern, she agreed to have lunch with Laird.

They elected to make the three-quarter-mile trip over to the cafeteria on foot. It was a warm and breezy day, and somewhat overcast. No sooner had they set foot outside when Laird began to expound on a favorite theme of his.

“What a bunch of unprofessional hacks,” he groused. “Everything they do here is disorganized. Everything this whole damn community does is disorganized. They need to do things the way they do in Philadelphia.”

Abby looked at him with a raised eyebrow; this wasn’t the first recent conversation they’d had which ventured down this particular road. “Disorganized hacks? The way they do things in Philadelphia? No offense, Laird, but if you don’t like it here, why do you stay?”

“Because of Jimmy,” he answered right away. “Jimmy likes it here, and his needs come first. Otherwise, I’d be headed up to Philadelphia before you could snap your fingers.”

Jimmy was Laird’s ten-year-old son. Laird made it a point to tell everyone that his name was not James, but Jimmy. Jimmy had been born a mere two months before the Third Incident. Sadly, Laird’s wife had perished during the Third Incident, while Laird and Jimmy had survived. Laird often spoke of the irony – in his family, the males had proven to be more resistant to the allergen; the opposite of the rest of humanity.

On occasion, Jimmy would come to visit his father while he was working. Abby had met him a couple of times already and had been impressed with the young man. She was also impressed with Laird’s devotion to his son. What a good father he is, she thought. Then she reflected a bit more on the situation. She’d gone from resenting him for his disdain for the community they were both a part of, to lionizing him for his parenting priorities. This was quite typical in her interactions with Laird. He was truly a man of extremes.

“So, tell me how you would do things differently around here,” said Abby, picking up the conversation, challenging Laird to back up his position. “Tell me what you would do if you were in charge.”

“The first change I’d make is to eliminate this problem we have of people working outside of their areas of expertise. Our cafeteria is being run by an anesthesiologist. My supervisor, an experienced scientific researcher, is teaching a gun class, and takes days off every so often to go out on fishing trips. Then we have some crude, unrefined guy – who I’ll admit is pretty good at fixing things – also teaching a shooting class and making like he’s some communications guru.”

Abby, offended at the criticism of Essence, wasn’t backing down. “What’s wrong with people learning to branch out into other areas?” she said testily. “To me, that’s a good thing. Tell me why it isn’t.”

“Specialization is the key. Everyone should be focused on what they are best at. Everything will run more efficiently that way.”

“Maybe that would be somewhat true back in my day. But with the world population thinned out as it is, wouldn’t it be better for everyone to be able to handle a variety of responsibilities?”

The bull-headed Laird wouldn’t budge from his position. “No. Not at all. Inefficiency and non-productivity sets in. And if you want evidence of that, just look around you.”

“I’ve only been here a couple of weeks, Laird,” said Abby, fighting to remain composed. “and I have to say that I’ve been thoroughly impressed with the way things function around here. I’ve told myself – several times already – that the politicians of my day could learn something from this group.”

Before she’d even finished getting those words out, Laird was shaking his head. “Once again, Abby, you are quite mistaken. You are focusing on things that simply don’t matter. The leadership in this place is misguided and incompetent. And it starts right at the top.”

“You mean Kara?” Abby uttered in astonishment. Since arriving here from the past, those were the first negative words she’d heard directed at Kara.

“Yes,” asserted Laird. “Kara Eldridge, to put it succinctly, is a weak and ineffectual leader, and should not be heading up this community. Do you know what she was before she came here? A second-grade teacher!”

“What’s wrong with that?” Abby replied, her voice now raised somewhat. “Don’t knock teaching. It’s an honorable profession that prepares you for a lot in life. And in this world – which requires organization skills along with a touch of humility – it might have provided her with the perfect background for the job. Not everyone has what it takes to be a teacher – I love kids, but I don’t think I could handle it myself.”

“Okay then, let me give you an example,” Laird said. “How about that failed project that brought you here? That supports my case better than anything I can think of.”

“You think that was Kara’s fault?”

“One hundred percent. If she had been a strong and effective leader, she would have killed that idea right away. Instead, she delegated the responsibility to a committee. Why? Because she had doubts about her ability to make the decision on her own, which says a lot about her leadership skills. I will give credit where credit is due – Essence was right to oppose that project. But they voted for it, and Kara had a second chance to kill it. But rather than showing some backbone and standing up for what was right, she meekly approved it.”

“Wow, Laird,” Abby said, shaking her head bemusedly. “Where do you come up with that shit?”

The debate ended at that point, for they were approaching the cafeteria. They could see Noah entering the place, up ahead of them, laughing and joking with a couple of other people.

“That guy is an arrogant asshole,” commented Laird.

Here, Abby felt as though they were closer to being on common ground, although she still wasn’t sure of what she thought of Noah. She related to Laird what Noah had said to her at the meeting.

“Typical,” grunted Laird, his dislike for Noah apparent. “Like I said, he’s an asshole. And ... you know he’s married to a man, don’t you?”

“Laird, I’m still forming my own opinion of Noah. You know what? I wasn’t aware of that, but it isn’t going to affect my opinion of him one way or the other.” At that point, Abby had just about had enough. She was on the verge of heading back to the lab and telling Laird to go and have lunch by himself. But after they collected their food and sat down at the table, everything seemed to change.

They got to talking about life in Abby’s time period. Abby was astonished to discover that Laird held a great fascination with how things were back in the 2020’s. He wasn’t just focused on the highlights – he wanted to know the minute details, openly displaying great interest in everything she told him. He wanted to know what the traffic was like on her commute from work. He wanted a full description of the headphones she wore on the job. He wanted to know exactly what businesses operated on the Ocean City boardwalk during the summer months. He listened intently as she briefly went into the ins and outs of the political issues at the time. With the exception of Jason, no one Abby had encountered had displayed anything close to this level of interest in Abby’s background. And Jason’s interest originated from having lived through that time himself. As they finished up their food, Abby realized that despite its rocky beginning, she’d actually enjoyed this little lunch date. She was beginning to view Laird as less of an opinionated asshole and more of a tortured soul.

Still, she couldn’t resist sending another gentle barb his way. “These crab cakes are worthy of being compared to the best of my time. And they were prepared by a group led by an anesthesiologist, and came to us through a group of crabbers which may well have contained a scientist.”

“Okay, you got me,” was Laird’s simple reply, accented by a smirk.

“What’s this,” Abby laughed, “you’re actually conceding a point for a change?”

“It’s out of character, I’ll admit. But those beautiful blue eyes of yours – and that gorgeous red hair – have convinced me to make an exception.”

This out-of-nowhere flattery caught Abby off guard. She broke out into a smile, but couldn’t find a verbal response as she felt her cheeks begin to redden.

“Oh, and you’re really cute when you’re blushing,” Laird said with a grin, pressing his advantage.

Abby silently chided herself for losing her composure and made a quick recovery. “I really don’t know what I’m gonna do with you,” she said with a half-smile. “I feel like wringing your neck sometimes, and then you go and say things like that.”

“Let me prove to you that I’m not such a bad guy after all,” he said. “Are you free on Friday night? Would you like a sample of what passes for night life around here?”

Abby couldn’t hide her curiosity. “There’s night life here?” That was something she hadn’t even considered.

“Strange, but true. There’s a small building over by the control tower. On Friday and Saturday nights, it turns into the closest thing you’ll find to a bar in these parts. They even brew their own beer. Only thing is, closing time is 12:45 sharp because of the damn curfew.”

“It sounds interesting. But I’m not saying yes right now. Let me think about it, okay?”

“So, according to Laird,” Abby said to Hannah later that afternoon, “your being both a tram driver and an airplane pilot is inefficient and will be the ruination of the community.” The two of them had themselves a good laugh.

“And then,” she went on, “he’ll turn into one of the nicest, most understanding men I’ve ever met. I really don’t know what to make of him. I really don’t.”

“Hmm,” Hannah giggled. “I get the feeling you’re at least a little bit intrigued.”

It turned out that Hannah lived two houses away from Essence and Abby, and she and Abby were quickly becoming fast friends. Abby enjoyed chatting with the young pilot, who was close to her own age, at least when ignoring the time-travel factor. When not in the cockpit of an airplane, Hannah’s regular line of work was that of a tram driver, providing daily transportation to the community. Abby had taken to using Hannah’s tram to travel back and forth to work. There were several stops along the way, and the ride took from twenty to thirty minutes. Abby would typically sit up front with Hannah.

The community trams – three of them, each having two cars, each car having a capacity of about twenty to thirty people – made regular runs around the enclave, serving as public transportation. They had been scavenged eight years ago from a former amusement park in southern Virginia. The Fraggers had made a deal with the Saviors to divide up the trams between them. Getting them to Dover had been a major undertaking; they had to make three trips in an old eighteen-wheeler that had since fallen into disuse. The effort had been well worth it, however. They had brought along three extra cars to serve as backups, along with a good supply of parts. These trams, although they did not travel very fast, were efficient, durable, and easy to maintain.

Abby’s conversation with Hannah continued as the tram made its way over roads that hadn’t been serviced in many years, occasionally hitting bumpy patches, but all things considered, handling them quite well. “Laird was saying that there is a sort of bar in the community where they serve homemade beer,” Abby put forth. “Do you know anything about that? Is it even true?”

“It’s true,” Hannah confirmed. “I’ve never gone there though. It really isn’t my kind of scene.”

Abby decided to spill the beans and seek Hannah’s feedback. “Laird asked me to go there with him sometime. I’m not sure if I want to. What would you do?” she said with a grin.

“Wellll...” Hannah replied, sounding vaguely uncomfortable with the question. She appeared to think it over briefly, before coming to a decision. “There’s something I want to tell you about myself, but first of all, I’ll answer your question. Trust your own judgement. If it seems like the right thing to do, go with him. If it doesn’t, then don’t.”

Abby laughed. “If only it were that simple. I’ve been accused of over-analyzing situations before, so maybe I’ll just see which way the wind is blowing next time he brings it up.”

“Good idea. Anyway, you and I are becoming friends, and there’s something about me that you should know. I’m attracted enough to men to know that Laird is extremely good-looking. The truth is ... I guess you could say that I am bisexual, but I’m actually more attracted to women than men.” Hannah paused for a second before adding, “I hope that doesn’t matter to you.”

Abby could tell right away that Hannah was not dropping a broad hint – she was merely relating an important part of herself. “It doesn’t matter to me at all,” Abby told her. “I guess I should tell you something you don’t know about me.”

“What would that be?” wondered Hannah, her mind clearly in a tizzy.

“I’m heterosexual,” laughed Abby, “but that’s not what I’m getting at here. Ever since we took that plane trip on my first day here, I’ve secretly wondered what it would be like to fly an airplane. I’d really like to learn how. Do you think it could be arranged?”

“Maybe,” said a smiling Hannah. “But I’m not the authority on that. You’ll have to talk to Noah.”

“Oh no, not Noah,” Abby said with an exaggerated eye roll. Both young women started giggling uncontrollably.

“I have some good news for you,” Essence said to Abby over their evening coffee. “I ran that test on your latest blood sample.” Essence had drawn some more blood from Abby the previous day.

“Negative?” Abby said, smiling.

“Negative,” Essence confirmed. “You are still showing no signs of being exposed to the allergen.” Essence had wondered if something remaining in the environment might have sensitized Abby, and this test verified that nothing of that nature had occurred.

“Great news. So, what does this mean going forward?”

“Well, I think we should still test you every so often, just to make sure. Most importantly, what this means is that if a Fourth Incident is to occur while you are here, you’ll survive it with no visible effects. It will, however, sensitize you in the same way that the First Incident did to the rest of us.”

Abby took a moment to process this information, and a brief silence ensued. When Abby finally spoke, she briefly filled in Essence about her earlier interaction with Laird, up to and including the fact that he had asked her out on what passed for a date in the year 2081.

Essence responded to this revelation with a vague tight-lipped smile. “Are you going to go with him?”

“Most likely.”

Essence’s faint smile morphed into a thoughtful and inscrutable expression. Another pause of several seconds transpired. “Just remember what I said earlier,” she finally put forth. “Keep your guard up.”

“I will,” declared Abby. “And I definitely plan to go easy on that homemade beer.”

With that out of the way, the conversation turned to other matters. “You know, it’s obvious that Laird does not like Kara, and has little respect for her,” Abby said.