Chapter 7: Aftermath and Recognition

Everyone had expected it earlier, but it happened about nine o’clock the evening of Marco’s departure. Everyone was sitting at the long makeshift tables that had been arranged in the core living room having dinner. The exclamation was hard to miss because the woman loudly blurted it out during a lull in the conversations.

“Oh, my God. I know you. You’re Scarlett Johansson!”

To make matters worse, the woman was pointing directly at Scarlett where she sat between Dave and Cricket. Scarlett’s hair was pulled back in a short ponytail, and she was wearing one of Dave’s old t-shirts, shorts, and no shoes.

Scarlett smiled and waved at the woman. “Hello. Nice to meet you, too.” She tried to sound pleasant, but her voice was strained.

The woman was sputtering. “But ... but ... but ... I ... You ... You’re...”

Cricket got up and went over to the woman to explain the etiquette of shutting up to her.

Dave stood and commanded the attention of the group, not so much the Circle but the refugees that had come to stay in safe quarters. “Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. Yes, our friend is Scarlett Johansson, and she is here on a short holiday with us that turned a little exciting over the past day. We ask that you not ‘go public’ with your discovery and that you honor the right of another to have a peaceful vacation with her friends.”

The woman who had made the discovery asked, “And you all knew?”

Dave said, “Those of us that live here know her well.”

A man at another table stated loudly, “I recognized her but kept my yap shut. I recognized Owen Bennett, too; but these people are in their homes with their invited guests and we should respect their privacy. We who came in here yesterday are the invaders. Let’s show some respect for these friends that have helped us, fed us, and protected us.”

Dave said loudly, “Thank you and thank those of you on the work teams for helping us break out of here. Ty will report on what we’ve picked off the media.”

Ty stood, “As you know our local TV channel is off the air. The Tampa channels report that the president has declared Florida, Georgia, and Alabama disaster zones. The storm has slowed to a crawl and is dumping huge volumes of water on Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, in a few places at the rate of rainfall is four inches an hour. The Florida governor has banned all but essential vehicles from the roads. 9-1-1 service is in shambles across the state. Power is out everywhere. The airports along the Gulf Coast are closed with no idea when they’ll reopen. Many remain flooded.

“In Sarasota, there was severe flooding all along the bayfront throughout the county. Parts of the downtown area were under six feet of water or more. The barrier islands took severe hits from wind and the storm surge. Parts of the islands were totally destroyed including several high-rise condominiums. If there is a death toll, no one has any idea what it is. One Tampa TV station estimated that at least twenty thousand people lost their homes and are now displaced, and that’s just for Sarasota County. They also said that ANY home that was on the waterfront suffered significant damage if not total destruction.”

Several men and women in the audience started to cry. The mood was very somber.

One man asked, “When will we be able to get home?”

Ty shrugged. “I don’t know how they’ll treat people trying to get back to their homes given the travel ban. They didn’t say on the radio.”

Just after Ty sat down, Cindy, Sharon, Jake, Phil, Murph, and Ron trekked into the room looking wet, sweaty, haggard, and exhausted.”

Dave motioned them over and they sat awkwardly between some of the others at the already crowded table. Bobbie got them food. They hadn’t eaten all day.

Ron said, “We walked here from the university. The place is destroyed – windows blown out everywhere, trees down, roofs blown off here and there. Even the bell tower blew over. I think a number of people were hurt because there are ambulances and police all over the place.”

“You walked here? That’s seven miles,” Joan said.

“It took us all afternoon. There’s debris everywhere. We couldn’t drive because of the travel ban plus both Jake and Ron’s cars were destroyed by huge tree limbs falling on them.”

Cindy said, “We were hoping to stay here. There’s nothing open and no food anyplace yet.”

Dave hugged the young woman to him, “Of course. You belong here.”

The Circle work crews started at six a.m. the next morning working on Grey Road, and a team trying to clear away the metal roof from the carport in front of Townhouse 1. The teams had accomplished their goals by noon.

Six of the visiting couples took their damaged cars and started to drive away with the intent of getting to their homes to assess the damage. None returned by four o’clock so a few more left. Two of the latter came back with ashen looks on their places; their homes had been leveled and they asked for temporary sanctuary while they made more permanent arrangements. Others also left and gradually the ranks thinned to the normal Circle members and a few ofo their regular guests.

Dave finally got a cellphone signal and called Sheri Seaton at the County Emergency Center. She answered in a voice that dragged and suggested hours without sleep. For that matter, Dave wasn’t much better.

“How bad is it?” Dave asked.

“The worst,” Sheri cried. “I never thought I preside over this level of destruction. As far as the utility is concerned, we have YEARS of work to do. The state is pretty well shut down electrically. Wires of every voltage are down EVERYWHERE. Five generators are shut because they have no place to ship what they generate. We’re deep into your triage plan, but some areas won’t see power for months. We kept the hospitals online and a few of the Class A nursing homes. Police and fire have been mostly restored; every man has been called to duty. They’re worried about looters, so they’re really enforcing the travel ban. The National Guard was called out by the governor. They’re already deployed.”

Sheri took a call and Dave could tell it was a police officer calling in with another downed wire. He could hear Sheri log the location.

When she came back on her cellphone, Dave asked, “How many of those have you gotten?”

“One or two a minute this afternoon. I’ve missed a few but I assume they’ll call back. It’s slowed down now.”

“Get some rest Sheri, and thank you for what you’re doing.” He updated her on his location and the effort to breakout to ‘civilization’. “Come here when you’re able to leave.”

Dave and Dale drove the two new mothers and their new babies to the hospital and checked them in so they could be issued birth certificates and get a once over by a doctor. Grace and Lisa went with them. Things were good, the hospital was staffed but business had slowed so the obstetrical nurses weren’t needed, and everyone drove home. The roads were open but little traffic; nobody stopped them. Everywhere they looked there was major damage of some kind.

After dropping Dale, Erin, Lisa, Grace, and Nancy and the babies off at the Circle, Dave drove to his office building. He just stared at the building as it came into view. Nearly every window was blown out. The place was a disaster all to itself. Trees were down in the parking area. He turned around and went home. No on would be working in that building for weeks.

Dave told Derek and Nancy about the shape of their office building. Given what was being shown on television it was no surprise. Those in the glass business would be working overtime as a result of the storm.

At dinner that night, Scarlett was very melancholy. She said to Dave and the others nearby. “I have to go. My colleagues in Hollywood are disintegrating because I’m not there. I chose a new movie to do, so I’ll be out of the country for a few weeks and then back in the studio.”

Dave said, “You know you can come back whenever you want.”

A tear rolled down her eye, “Thank you. I will be back. I love you and I love everybody in the Circle. This has been such a rare experience. My outlook on life, love, sex, spirituality, and many other things has changed. This is the best holiday I’ve ever taken.”

Dave hugged her and they shared a sweet kiss. “I love you,” he told her. “Do what you have to do and come ‘home’ whenever you want.”

Later that night they made love. Cricket was there, too; but then everybody had a good cry about losing Scarlett and Rose.

The travel ban was lifted. The airports opened again with limited flights. Dave and Owen drove Scarlett and Rose to SRQ, and she was gone, wearing what passed as a disguise. Fortunately, it was a flight through Phoenix and she got VIP treatment being hidden at the airport, the last on the plane, and then sitting in the first row of first class.

At dinner that night Cricket told Dave about Scarlett’s interest in her novels. “I gave Scarlett copies of my three book proposals and my first draft for Crystal Clear. She’d read through it partially and said she liked it. I think her remarks were genuine.”

“You still haven’t heard from any publishing house?”

“No. I know they’re inundated with books from new authors. I’m in the piles of manuscripts somewhere.”

Dave said, “Say, I wouldn’t mind reading your book, in fact I’m starting to feel miffed that you didn’t ask me to.”

“Paper or electronic?”

“On my iPad please.”

While they were sitting there eating, Matthew arrived with a dog following along behind him looking adoringly at the seven-year-old. The dog appeared to be a mutt, about thirty pounds, a healthy black and white coat, and had a great bushy tail and an actual smile.

Matthew announced, “This is MY new friend. I decided to call him Max. He was sitting in the middle of Circle Drive when I went out to play this morning. We had fun running around chasing each other. He likes me.”

Dave petted the dog that was exceptionally friendly and made little sounds of pleasure at having attention paid to him. “Matthew, the dog belongs to somebody. We have to find his real owners. I bet they feel bad about losing him during the storm.”

“Mom said the same thing. We knocked on lots of doors this afternoon looking for his owner but nobody had ever seen Max before.”

Dave thought about how there were probably many displaced pets due to the storm. He told Matthew, “We’ll take care of him for a while, but we will also check to see whether we can find his real owner. He may have a chip under his skin to aid in the process. In the meantime, you can keep him if he’s willing to stay with you.”

Max wagged enthusiastically and Matthew went off to ask Bobbie if she had anything Max might like to eat. It turned out she had some great meat scraps.

Everyone up north called down to Florida to see how their relatives, children, and friends had fared during Marco. The extent of the storm’s destruction was still at the top of the national news. Most of the state remained without power. Puerto Rice had been devastated again, as well.

Alice and Julie went off to talk to Karen who’d called from Ohio. They had her on speaker on one of their cellphones. Dave heard enough to know they were getting a highly detailed description of the threesome that Karen had with Daryl and Candy the night before. He felt himself getting horny so he left them to their salacious telephone call and headed back to the patio.

The text read ‘I miss you. I love you. Tell the others, too.’ The emojis were a sad face with a tear in one eye and then a bunch of hearts. The sender was an L.A. area code and then the name popped up – Scarlett. Dave saved the message to show Cricket and the others later.

A week had gone by since the hurricane. Life in the Circle slowly returned. The articles in the newspaper were talking about either how to file with your insurance company or how this or that insurance company were ripping off their good paying customers with no intention of ever paying a claim.