Chapter 4: Siobhan

Their worldview changed again in Athens, home to the University of Georgia.

During the slow drive, they saw no living people and fewer than expected bodies. The road was blocked a few times by cars that had stalled or crashed when their drivers died at the wheel, but there were no major pileups like might be expected in a city.

As they entered Athens, they saw more bodies and encountered two blocked streets that required detours. They were on Broad Street, heading for the North Campus and the Main Library, when Matilda reached over and clutched Mishka’s hand as she whispered, “The Chapel Bell! I hear the Chapel Bell! Turn right at the next street!”

Mishka silently alerted Josella, and turned right onto Herty Drive. Following Matilda’s instructions, he passed behind Demosthenian Hall and pulled up behind the Chapel next to the bell tower. Matilda’s door was open and she was out and running as soon as the pickup stopped.

Mishka and the occupants of the following vehicle piled out and gathered around Matilda who was kneeling and hugging a small red headed girl in a blue dress. “I knew you were coming!” the girl was telling Matilda. “I knew it! I’ve been waiting for you a long time.” She pointed to a blanket, a child-sized folding chair, and a cooler. An iPad and a pile of books lay beside the chair.

Matilda moved into a sitting position without releasing the youngster and cuddled her close, tears leaking down her cheeks. “What’s your name, Honey?” she asked. “Mine’s Matilda.”

“Like in my book?” the girl asked.

“Yes, like in the book,” replied Matilda. “My mother liked it a lot, so she named me after the book.”

“Cool,” responded her new fan. “I’m Siobhan.” She spelled it out, then said, “But it’s pronounced ‘shiv awn’ - it’s Irish.” Then she added brightly, “I’m precocious.”

“You certainly are, and precious, too,” responded Matilda. “You said that you knew I was coming. Or did you mean ‘we’ were coming? How did you know?” asked the puzzled Matilda.

“Well, Momma told me to come here and ring the bell if anything happened to her. She was really afraid when lots of people started dying.” Siobhan sniffled, “Then, she went next door and didn’t come back. There was no one around, so I came here every day and rang the bell, like she said.”

The group waited, and she continued, “But a few days ago, I could feel you. Today, I could feel you getting near. I rang the bell really hard, and you came.” Her last reserves exhausted, she clung desperately to Matilda; the dam broke; and she sobbed. Exploring her assertion would need to wait.

When the tears stopped, Siobhan looked at Matilda and declared, “You were in the hospital when I was born - I could feel you.” She looked over to Mikey, slipped into little girl mode, and told him, “You were, too. I was born one hour and eleven minutes before you. That means I’m the big sister. I’m the boss of you!”

When the startled Mikey began to tear up, Siobhan freed herself from Matilda and walked over to the boy. Placing her arms around him, she said, “It’s gonna be okay. I’ll be a good big sister. I promise.”

She crossed to Susan, hugged her and asked, “What’s your name? I can’t feel you yet, but you smell nice.”

After Susan hugged her back and introduced herself, the red headed wonder repeated the hug, this time with Josella, and told her, “I feel a tingle from you.”

Then she approached Mishka, turned on a megawatt smile, and fixed her cornflower-blue eyes. “Sit!” she demanded, and when he sat, she crawled into his lap and snuggled. “You’re gonna be my daddy. Then you’re gonna marry me. Until then, I’m sleeping with Mikey, unless I need snuggled, then I’m sleeping with you and Josella and Susan and Matilda. Mikey can come, too.” She ran down.

As they sat, quietly gathering their thoughts, two cats cautiously approached. “There you are!” Siobhan greeted them. She stretched out her arms, and the smaller approached while the larger watched. “This is Delilah and that’s Sampson,” she introduced. “My kitties keep me company, except when I ring the bell. They really don’t like the bell.”

Then she almost whined, “I’m hungry. Can we have Mac and Cheese and soup for lunch?”

Receiving a nod, she enlisted the others in gathering her belongings while Mishka attached a previously prepared note, sealed in a pair of freezer bags, to the frame of the bell tower. The note was similar to those left at the crossroads, but contained the GPS coordinates for Matilda’s house. He had prepared enough notes to leave at any likely place a survivor might visit.

With one hand occupied, Siobhan took Mishka’s index finger in the other, and with the cats winding in and out, she led a parade up Herty and across Broad Street to the Georgia Heights Apartments. Miraculously, power was still on, but Siobhan cautioned, “Momma said not to use the elevators, so I don’t.” They climbed stairs to the fourth floor, and she used a keycard to enter a well-appointed apartment. “Like I told you before, Momma went next door to visit Miss Cynthia and never came back,” Siobhan explained again. “No one answered when I knocked. Can we eat now? I’m really hungry.”

Looking in the cabinets and the refrigerator, Siobhan’s plight was instantly clear. There was plenty of food, but her hands were too small and her strength insufficient to open cans, bottles, and jars. The refrigerator was empty of everything open - cheese, vegetables - everything was gone. Food and beverages in jars and bottles remained, but in the cupboards, all crackers, cookies, cereals and the like were gone.

Siobhan had been able to feed her furred companions from the now almost depleted bag of cat chow, and she had figured how to use a spoon to pop the top on soft drink cans, but bottles of water and pop were beyond her grip. She used money from her mother’s purse to buy snacks from the building’s vending machine and had visited local food providers like the Lay-Z-Shopper and Jittery Joe’s Coffee Shoppe, but her height, strength, and knowledge limited her ability to provide for herself. She was tired of candy, cookies, and chips. Now she needed comfort food.

The cats ran to their empty dishes and - for cats - politely waited for Siobhan to carefully measure out the amounts her mother had taught her. While they began to eat, the beautiful red head filled their water bowls. Then she went to the bathroom, scooped two clumps from the litter pan and into the toilet, and flushed. She added about an inch of clean, flushable, litter. Clearly, the cats were a priority in her young life.

“Momma told me that if I was goin’ to have kitties, I had to take care of them,” she explained. “She wanted me to learn ‘responsibility.’”

While these procedures were on going, Susan put water on to boil for the Kraft Mac and Cheese Deluxe dinner, and opened a can of chicken noodle soup. She nuked the soup in the microwave so that she could get the youngster started. Mikey sat beside Siobhan, fascinated with the young girl, and ate by rote while she ate with gusto. Her bowl of soup gone, she left the table, placed the empty bowl in the dishwasher, and returned to wait expectantly for her mac-and-cheese.

When they had all eaten, they split to search their assigned areas, agreeing to return to Siobhan’s apartment by five o’clock. Susan and Matilda were to visit the pharmaceutical and agricultural libraries to gather reference materials on those subjects. Josella and Mishka took the two youngsters with them to the main campus bookstore where they assembled a variety of textbooks on subjects they might need. Of particular interest were electronic versions of texts on teaching children.

They searched for and found several new-in-the-box laptops and multi-terabyte external hard drives. The two children were tasked with gathering two copies of every movie DVD and music CD they could find. Mishka was delighted to find an extensive library of audio books and epubs. He boxed them all.

During this time together, Mishka and Josella practiced their silent communications. <This is cool, > Josella told him, <I’m loving you more all the time, and this makes it even better. I hope my sisters can do this someday.>

<They will, > sounded into their awareness. <Matilda is almost there, and Susan will be sometime soon. Mikey might take a little longer.> There came a silent giggle. <You guys are goin’ to havta watch the mushy stuff, or I’m really gonna be precocious.> another silent giggle. <Actually, I think it’s too late.>

As the appointed time approached, it was clear that at least another full day was needed to search other areas for items of interest. They loaded their efforts into the pickup, and returned to the apartment. There they found Susan and Matilda cooking a huge batch of spaghetti accompanied by garlic bread. For desert, two frozen pies were baking in the oven.

The two excitedly explained that they had driven up Baxter Street to the Kroger grocery store and found that with power still on, the coolers and freezers were working. They suggested that a larger truck be found so that frozen meats and vegetables could be transported back to the cabin. A refrigerator truck would be perfect, but a box truck with coolers and dry ice would suffice.

After cleaning up from the delicious meal, they decided a walk was a good idea. There was plenty of time and light, and Matilda told them she wanted to show them something that was important to her and her mother. The group strolled back to North Campus and Matilda pointed out the storied arch and explained its traditions. Walking south, they now saw the front of the old buildings and admired the architecture.

Passing the main library, they could see the central campus and a yellowish building that Mishka and Josella had ignored while at the nearby bookstore. Matilda continued the tour, “That’s Memorial Hall. It was the student center before Tate Hall was built. Mom said that it was the original center of Black life when Georgia was first integrated. We spent a lot of time there, because Mom volunteered in the Student Affairs office.” She giggled and added, “Not -that kind of affairs!”

As they neared the building, they approached a bronze bulldog. Matilda ran up and rubbed its butt, and told it, “Damn Good Dawg.” Then she held up Siobhan so she could do the same, explaining, “This is Mike. He was the last Bulldog mascot before Uga. Mom told me that students and alumnae think rubbing Mike’s butt brings good luck. We could certainly use the luck, now.” She added, “Sometimes, before a big game, rivals would sneak on campus and paint Mike in their school colors.”

Following Matilda’s example, the group rubbed Mike and saluted him with the ritual, heartfelt phrase. Then they continued south and across the bridge in front of Sanford Stadium onto the South Campus where Matilda and Susan had spent their afternoon. Twilight was settling in, so they turned and started back to Siobhan’s apartment. The town still had power, so street and walkway lights began to glow. Except for the lack of students and the silence, the campus appeared almost normal for an early evening.

Back in the apartment, the newly augmented family gathered in the living area to plan the next day. Mishka decided that a trip out to the Home Depot on Old Epps Bridge would be a good investment of time. He proposed that Susan and Josella poke around and see if they could find some fruit trees, berry vines, and other useful perennials like asparagus and rhubarb that could be planted at the cabin. He and Matilda would take Siobhan and Mikey to explore the Home Depot.

The planning complete, Mishka sat with his new daughter cuddled sleepily on his lap while Mikey was snuggled with his head butted under Matilda’s chin. Susan sat between the two pairs softly stroking Delilah while Josella sat at a desk, going through papers in a lockbox she found. She looked up and asked, “Matilda, remember that Siobhan said that she was one hour and eleven minutes older than Mikey?”

“Sure, I remember,” came the answer, “why?”

“What day is Mikey’s Birthday? I want to check something,” Josella responded.

“He was born on November eleventh, Veteran’s Day, just like me,” Matilda replied.

Josella was quiet for a moment, then she said in a voice, just a little above a whisper, “That’s my Birthday, too.”

“And mine!” from both Mishka and Susan.

“And, according to this birth certificate, it’s Siobhan’s too,” said Josella in shock. “And she is six. However did she know? I’m sure Mikey will say the odds are impossible.”

“Yeah, and I was there - in the delivery waiting room,” added Matilda. “Remember, Mom was Mikey’s mom’s Lamaze coach. How did she know that?”

They all sat in unbelieving silence. At that point, there was nothing to discuss.

Shortly, Matilda bathed the two youngsters together, while the others dragged two mattresses into the living area. No one wanted to sleep apart. The ‘adults’ paired up and showered - mostly for comfort and companionship - hanky-panky was deferred for the duration. Dried and lightly clad, they piled onto the mattresses and slept, with the youngsters in the middle.

At some point both cats joined them, Delilah slept curled around Susan’s head and Sampson nestled between Mishka’s feet. Having grown up with cats, Mishka knew better than to move his feet.

In the morning, while breakfast was a-making, Matilda and Mikey helped Siobhan pack her clothes and choose the toys and books she wanted to take with her. As with Mikey, documents, photos, and mementos were placed into a box for Siobhan’s future remembrances.

Using refrigerated items from the grocery, breakfast was a feast. When the later arrivals came to the kitchen, juice, milk, and coffee, were on the table. A large bowl of scrambled eggs, rashers of bacon, and a huge stack of pancakes soon followed. With butter and warmed maple syrup, toast, and several jellies - no one found anything missing. Well, maybe grits...

While they ate, the discussion turned to the strange and supposed coincidence of birthdays. “Who knew?” asked Susan, “We played with hair color and eye color and here we are with the oddest.” She continued, “We never considered it important, but now I wonder about ages. We know the kids are six and Mishka is twenty-three. I’m fifteen.”

She looked expectantly at Josella who said, “Nineteen.” Followed by Matilda’s “Fourteen. Does that mean I havta wait, even if I’m ready to give Mishka my cherry?”

Josella answered, “The old rules are dead. When you are physically and emotionally ready, no one here is going to deny you.”

With that answer, Matilda’s face lit with her brightest smile since they’d known her.