Rock Fall
Copyright© 2015 by Gina Marie Wylie
Chapter 10: Widowmaker Canyon
Chris had the wood parties alerted, but it started to rain much harder, and it got too dangerous to work. They left a couple of men to observe, and then the others went to dry off.
About three in the afternoon Mike called again. “A half hour ago about six feet of water flooded into the wash. A few moments later we fished a body out of the downstream water. It wasn’t recognizable and there was no ID on the body.
“Some hotheads are blaming the death on you folks. Long-time residents laughed at them. We’ll have proper wood parties out tomorrow; we have a lot of work to do. The mayor has offered the school as a shelter. We’ll have to do some work on wood and pellet stoves and flues but the school will house a couple of hundred people who don’t have wood stoves.”
Chris stopped to think. “I’ll talk to everyone up here with a pellet stove, Mike — but do we have a local source for pellets?”
Bishop Flake said that there was. “Brother Carlos Estrada had a pellet operation a mile outside of Pine Valley. He left it in the charge of a brother-in-law, Miguel Romero. Miguel isn’t a member of the stake, but he’s a reliable young man.” Bishop Flake signaled for someone to fetch Carlos.
Carlos Estrada looked more like a Native American than a Hispanic. His face had been badly scarred by acne, but he was lean and well groomed. He nodded at the bishop. “Bishop Flake warned me to prepare well and that I should buy as much feedstock as I could get. There wasn’t much of a market for it in advance of Rock Fall.
“I bought two years worth, I invested as much money as I had and the bishop got others in the stake to invest. We worked night and day for the last three weeks. We have fifty-seven hundred tons of raw material we can press, plus nine hundred tons of finished product. My brother-in-law is a good man. We split the finished material half for us, half for Pine Valley. We will continue to get a third of the production.”
He grinned. “It is a simple process, and runs off diesel, and it doesn’t take much fuel. It is a little smelly, which is why we are so far from town, and not close to the road.” Carlos looked at Chris, meeting his eyes. “I could have brought the machine up here — it fits nicely on a stake bed truck. I couldn’t leave the town without fuel.”
“Carlos, there is not a person on the mountain who doesn’t have family or friends back in Pine Valley. Yes, we’ve moved apart from them, but we don’t hate them or want to screw them. You did fine,” Chris said.
Much later Sydney and Amy came up to Chris as he stood watching the lights of the town.
Amy said, “I hear the governor of Arizona embargoed the power from the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant and is going to keep the entire production in Arizona. The Four Corners plant on Black Mesa is going to reopen. It’s coal-fired.”
Chris nodded. “I wish we could just go ahead and get married,” he said forlornly. “It’s falling apart much faster than I figured.”
Sydney shook her head. “What’s the value of someone saying words that we don’t really accept? As far as I’m concerned, as far as Brenda and Lisa...”
“Don’t forget me!” Amy interjected.
“As far as all of us are concerned, we took our vows before Rock Fall. We’re married! Maybe not as legally as the statists require, but we have stricter rules! You have to love your spouses with all of your heart and for all time!
“That’s not too much to ask, is it?” she asked.
“No, Amy. But the mundanes of the world set the bar entirely too low. You have to love your one wife today, tomorrow is optional,” Chris responded.
They slept together again, no matter what Bishop Flake’s advice was they were too emotionally drained to do more than cuddle.
There were the usual morning routines. Chris had awoken earlier than the others. The rattle of the downspout from one corner of the gutters was louder than he could ever remember. He climbed carefully over Amy and went to the window.
In the grey light of dawn, the rain was very, very heavy. There was an acacia tree not far from the window and the leaves of the tree were churning a frantic dance. A moment after he looked out, Amy stood next to him.
“It sure is raining hard,” she observed.
Chris looked out and felt despair. “We should have people out there, checking to see if everyone is all right. If the wind is blowing hard, perhaps someone is in trouble.”
“Chris, we need to check to be sure. But something like one person in seven has died, and you’ve lost not a one. For those people still alive there is no such thing as a victory too small. Go! Get the checks on our neighbors in progress! Decide how we want to spend a rain day. Decide what we need to do if it rains like this for a week!”
Chris dressed and went downstairs, to be greeted by Donovan Flake. “I have brothers and sisters, Brother Chris. I’ve sent them to make reports.”
“In this?” Chris asked, aghast.
“Brother Chris, they would be offended if you doubted their commitment.”
Chris turned away, tears in his eyes.
Donovan chuckled. “Brother Chris, we teach responsibility. We do not teach slavish obedience to orders. They will return if it is too dangerous.”
“Donovan, if it was me, I’d die before I came back before I was done.”
Donovan lifted his chin. “I can direct them, but they are their own actors.”
“You tell them, if they go and get themselves killed, not only you and I never talk to them again, but the bishop as well.”
“That might get them to obey the warnings, Brother Chris!”
No one got killed, no one was hurting. Later Keith also ordered a survey of all of the residents on the mountain and got it.
Chris was sitting in the office, totting up the supplies that had come when Amy and Sydney came for him.
“So far, so good,” Amy reported.
Chris nodded. “The statists might have their heads where the sun doesn’t shine, and we may screw up as well. It is up to you all and me that we don’t. Failure here is on our heads! I saw babies among those up here! We owe those children our very best effort! We owe it to those children that they grow up with mothers and fathers! Those people are all in our care! I’m not going to shirk and I would be terribly disappointed if any of you would!”
Amy stared at him for a moment, then she draped an arm around Sydney’s shoulder. “Once upon a time I looked upon my civic duty as to facilitate how fast we could leave Pine Valley. I honestly had my doubts; practically no one gets out of here. Or at least, it wasn’t so in the past. Now? I’d wager it’s not possible.
“We talked among ourselves often. Our hopes and dreams, and our nightmares. Then came the news of Rock Fall. You, Chris, offered us a refuge. You offered us our heart’s desire. You gave us the best advice we have ever gotten from anyone.
“We have all come to rely on that advice. Now, others have come to rely on it as well. You know the reasons why we feared this town. You never made light of them. In fact, you did something we thought was impossible: faced the demon and sent him scurrying in fear.” Amy looked around and addressed Bishop Flake.
“Bishop, the four of us are getting married to Chris tomorrow. If you don’t want to officiate, Dr. DeWitt has said he’d speak the words.”
Bishop Flake stood. “I do not marry people who aren’t members of the stake. But, I will do what you wish for the price of one promise. That all of you open your hearts and accept the members of the stake as your brothers and sisters. I do not ask you to believe as we do. I don’t even ask that you accept God or Jesus Christ.”
Chris laughed lightly. “I went to Sunday school. I know the story of Moses and the long — and bumpy — relationship God had with the Children of Israel. Offer me brothers and sisters and not children — I’m your man!”
At first, only Sydney laughed, then Bishop Flake followed by everyone else present.
“I have a request for the stake,” Chris said to those assembled.
“Anything, Brother Chris!”
“We get to work on the roof for the community center, so it won’t rain on us when all come together as a community.”
There was more laughter and people started to stream out of the TV room.
Chris’s cell phone rang, and he turned it on to the speaker.
“Chris, did you hear the news about the power?” Mike Vanna asked.
“Yes, we saw it.”
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