Chapter 9

Monday, February 29, 2016

As usual I awoke the next morning with the sunrise. Kathy was buried under the covers still deep asleep. I was tempted to stay in bed and snuggle until she woke up - wake up sex is great - but the livestock would not wait.

Today and everyday would be filled with things that must be done. The winter corn was almost ready for harvest. Planting season was only a few weeks away, if the weather cooperated. Between now and then we had to get everything ready, supplies stowed away, equipment checked, the land patrolled and a myriad of other tasks.

I eased out of bed and took a quick shower. While I was shaving, I wondered how much longer this particular habit could last. A can of shaving cream and a safety razor were not things that could be replaced. Present supplies at the farm would last maybe a month. We could salvage cans of shaving cream and razors blades from local stores. Sooner or later blades would grow dull and could not be sharpened. We could fall back to homemade soap to lather the beard. That still left the problem of a shaving blade. Maybe beards could come back in style. Where did one look for an old fashioned open-blade razor and a leather strop?

I got dressed and Kathy was still sleeping.

I walked down the stairs and I could smell fresh coffee and hear someone moving about in the kitchen.

Sarah was at the counter kneading biscuit dough. A pot of coffee was on the stove. Doc had already gotten himself a cup and was sitting at one of the smaller tables.

"Good morning," I said and poured my own cup, "biscuits for breakfast this morning?"

Sarah started to pat the individual biscuits and lay them on a greased pan. "We've got the instant mix, so I figured why not? Oatmeal, biscuits with jelly, coffee, and there is still plenty of the powdered milk Kathy mixed yesterday. If the cow Tim told me about would hurry and have her calf, we will have fresh milk. When do you think she's due?"

"I have no idea, Sarah. We will just have to keep a close eye on her and wait."

I joined Doc at the table.

"Is breakfast going to be your job from now on, Sarah?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I just woke up early this morning. Sam should be down in a bit."

"James," Doc said, "I hope you don't mind me bringing the others. They had been staying at Mary's place and were having a hard time getting out for food and keeping unwanted men out of the place. I'm ashamed to see how some of our so called friends have behaved. Those women have had a very hard time."

Sarah turned from putting the biscuits in the oven and said, "They're not the only women to have problems. They were living separately for a while and decided to move into one house, hoping there would be safety in numbers. That's one reason Sam, Kathy, Jennifer and the rest of us decided to stay at the hospital. As long as Doc was there, no one was willing to risk making him mad and getting cut off from whatever medical care Doc could offer."

"I saw some of that in Tupelo," I said. "Rapes, shootings, you name it. As if the Flu wasn't bad enough. At the end we were all staying inside the hospital. When the last died, I had to get out of there."

Doc said, "Same here, on a smaller scale perhaps. I would guess it was the same everywhere."

I nodded. "Probably."

"Do you know how many survived in Tupelo?" Doc asked.

I shook my head. "No. There was one that I know for sure. He took a shot at me the day I left. I didn't really want to hang around. Assuming survival percentages from what Captain Hill told us about Florence and Huntsville and what we know happened here, I would guess somewhere between a dozen and a hundred survivors at Tupelo. I think the high numbers are not very likely. Nation-wide less that a quarter million. That's my wild-assed guess, anyway."

Sarah had by now sat the table with her own cup. "Do you ever wonder, Why?"

There was a certain desperate emptiness to the tone of her voice when she asked that question. I had heard the same question thousands of times over the last year or so and asked it myself many more times.

I fought to keep myself from stepping into that black hole which had consumed so many. While everyone around me sickened and died, I never got even the slightest sniffle. All of my knowledge and skill had been useless. The same treatment that saw one patient improve would have no effect on another patient. It seemed so random.

I had even tried infusing patients with my own sera. That did not work. Still they died.

"I quit asking that question months ago," I said. "There is no answer."

"I know," Sarah said. "It's just... still I ask. Maybe one day I won't."

Sam walked into the kitchen then and Sarah ran to him. She buried her head in his shoulder and quietly cried. Sam led her down the hall into one of the front rooms.

"It hits us all at the oddest times," Doc Caldwell said with a sigh. "Even me. In the middle of the night I'll awake and for just a second I'll think it is before. Then I'll remember and sleep is gone for the rest of the night."

"She'll be alright," I said unconvinced. Would any of us be alright ever again? "She has Sam to lean on."

I had never been one to lean on others much. Even when I was with Jules I kept a certain distance. My family life did not exactly teach me to be open with my emotions. Granddad was probably the only one who knew my secrets and fears. It turned out that I knew none of his secrets.

Wanting to change the subject, I said, "I'm off to the barn. Morning chores."

Doc lifted his bulk from the chair. "Wait a minute. I'll walk with you."

It was a clear, cloudless morning that greeted us. Already the temperature was warm and would probably reach the upper 70's by noon. Doc and I slowly walked to the barn. He did appear to be moving pretty spry [moving pretty spryly or appear to be pretty spry] for a fat man in his eighties.

He pulled a folded envelope from a pocket. "I found this last night under the pillow. It was unsealed, so I took a look. I figured it was probably meant for you."

I opened the envelope and found a small key. I took a close look at the key and saw that it was for a padlock.

"Yeah, I think I know what it is for," I said slipping the key in my pocket. "The basement door."

I wondered why Granddad had locked the door leading down to the basement. There wasn't much there the last time I took a look about a year ago. It was used mostly as a place to put stuff he did not want to throw out. At any rate, I decided to wait until I could look without a lot of folks around. Just in case.

"Under his pillow seems a strange place to hide it."

"Granddad probably expected me to be sleeping there."

"I'll change bedrooms if you want, James. I don't really mind climbing the stairs."

"No. Stay where you are. The image of you hauling your fat ass up those stairs three or four times a day is downright depressing," I said with a smile.

"You're just jealous because all the women love this big, black Santa," Doc returned the grin, "and you don't want me upstairs where they sleep."

"It is nice to see that you are getting back your dirty-old-man persona. No, seriously, stay in Granddad's bedroom. It is much more convenient for you."

Doc nodded. "O.K. We need to get everyone immunized today."

"Huh?"

"I emptied the hospital's med locker. Everyone needs new immunizations. Just to be on the safe side," Doc said. "Tetanus, diphtheria, hepatitis, smallpox, polio, anthrax, HPV, AIDS, everything. Working around a farm with manure, Tetanus is a real danger.

"If we can keep the vials cool, they may still be good in three or four years. That will give the next generation a leg up. You are too young to know just what a toll childhood infections can take. I know that infectious disease is your specialty, but I've lived long enough to remember children dying of diphtheria and measles."

"Children? I have not even thought that far. I'm just worrying about this year, not the next decade."

"There will be children, James. Whenever the women decide the time is right, you can rest assured there will be children."

"God. Bring up kids in this!"

Doc grabbed my arm and pulled me to face him. "Why else are we doing all of this? Why struggle to make it through this year or the next? Why not just put a gun to our heads and get it over with? I've thought about doing just that, damn it! But not now!" He jabbed his finger into my chest for emphasis. "No more! We are alive and we're going to stay that way. That means Kids! So you had better get you mind wrapped around the idea! Got it?"

I rubbed the spot on my chest that Doc had been pounding. "O.K., I've got it. Damn, Doc, that hurt. What brought that on?"

Doc grinned sheepishly. I... well..." He looked around a bit embarrassed. "I had a wet dream last night."

"Huh?"

"A wet dream," he whispered. "Don't give me that dumb look. You know what I'm talking about and if you tell anyone else that you will regret it."

"A wet dream? You mean like..."

"Yes, damn it, and not so loud. Sticky underwear and dried semen. My cock hard as iron."

"Well. Well. I don't know what to say."

"I felt like a damn teenager." Now Doc looked like the happy black-skinned Santa Claus that he was. "You know the last time my cock was That hard?"

"No, Doc, I don't. Don't really want to know. I've got this image of a naked, horny Santa waking up the little girl for a special present."

Doc laughed. "Frightening? Ain't it?"

"That's one way to describe it." I joined in the humor. "It's a good thing you are sleeping downstairs away from the women."

"Distance is no barrier to True Love or Lust, my boy. Obstacles are there be overcome."

I slapped Doc on the shoulder. "Pace yourself, old man. You're not a teenager, by a long shot."

"This is just between you and me. Keep your mouth shut about it."

I nodded. "No problem, Doc."

We started walking again.

"Another thing, you know I'm a diabetic?" I nodded and Doc continued to say, "Well, since I had my little bout with the Flu, my insulin requirements have been decreasing. For the last four days, I have not needed any insulin. This morning I woke up, not only with a wet dream, but with my arthritis not bothering me for the first time in decades. Explain that."

"Just how sick were you?"

"With the Flu? A couple of days of sniffles and coughing. My appetite has been terrible until here lately. I didn't get very sick at all. People dying around me left and right and I just got a touch of it. I thanked my lucky stars at the time and kept on working."

"I did not get sick at all and physically I don't feel any different now from the way I felt before this whole thing started. I don't have an explanation for you, Doc."

"Well, I'm not going to look a gift-horse in the mouth. Just thought you should know and that we should bring up the topic with the others."

I nodded. "Might be a good idea to ask each when we can get them alone." By then we had reached the barn and I opened the door. "You want to shovel manure, Doc?"

"I shoveled shit until I went to college and it became manure. In one form or another, I've been moving shit from one pile to another all my life."

With a short laugh I said, "Well, you take this bucket and dump a load of feed for the horses. The feed bin is over there. I'm going to let the cattle out of the corral into the pasture. After the horses have eaten we'll do the same for them."