| Chapter 7 - Looting The Store |
| We all heard it: a deep thwack thwack thwack. We looked at each other. Was this another quake? No. It was a helicopter. As it landed on the outfield by the baseball diamond, everybody cheered. We�d been discovered! The pilot stayed in the helicopter while a man jumped out. Mr. Perkins walked toward him. I tagged along behind. �We haven�t heard from you all,� the man said. �Of course you haven�t,� Mr. Perkins said. �How could you?� �I�m just here to see if you need anything.� Diane said, �We have twenty-two people here who need to get to a hospital. If there are any hospitals left.� �We�ve got hospitals up and running,� the man said. �I can�t take anybody in this little bucket, but we�ll send some bigger helicopters to evacuate the injured.� �We need some medical supplies,� Diane said. �I haven�t even got a stethoscope.� �I�ll send it,� the man said. �We need a generator,� Mr. Perkins said. �And a ham radio so people can get out messages.� �I�ll try to get one,� the man said. �We need a Porta Potti,� I said, and everyone laughed. The man said, �You�ll have to wait until a truck can get through with that.� Soon they took off. About an hour later, another helicopter arrived, bringing supplies and taking away the first of the injured people. Diane and Josh helped load people while Mr. Perkins and I helped carry supplies. When parents were injured and had to be evacuated, the kids flew out with them. They were terrified. After the third helicopter, Mr. Perkins grabbed my sleeve and motioned me to come with him. �We�re going on a raid,� he said. �What do you mean?� �We need food. Did you have dinner?� �No.� �Neither did anybody else. You know what time it is?� �No.� �Midnight.� Suddenly my stomach growled. All it needed was reminding. I went with Mr. Perkins and three pickup trucks a couple miles down the road to the grocery store. The plate glass windows were broken. A sheriff�s deputy was parked in front. �Stay away from that store,� he said. �We were hoping to get some food,� Mr. Perkins said. �I�ll pay for it.� �I can�t let you in there,� the deputy said. �I�ve already arrested three looters.� So, I thought, some people are crazy. �There are three hundred people at the school and none of them have had dinner. Isn�t there some way you could --?� �I can�t give you permission,� the deputy said. �But �� �But I won�t stop you either. Keep a list of what you take. And don�t touch any alcohol.� By flashlight, we looted the store. Everything had shaken off the shelves and onto the floor. With the power off, the mild and meat were going to spoil, anyway. The deputy beamed his car lights through the broken window. We filled one entire pickup with loaves of bread. We gathered every unbroken jar of peanut butter and jelly we could find. We packed eggs � the ones that weren�t smashed � pancake mix, bacon, Danish, donuts, and orange juice, thinking ahead to breakfast. I found a box of Hershey�s bar, thought of Josh, but didn�t take it. It didn�t seem right to take something that wasn�t necessary for nutrition or survival � although I bet Josh would say chocolate is necessary. At least, necessary to people. Back at the school we made hundreds of sandwiches. A couple of people had built campfires on the playground. We were still dressed for the hot day, and now the night was cool. Around one A.M. all the firefighters gathered at the school for a council. I saw the bald man with the mustache and beard whom I�d met at the fire station. By now my brain was spinning. I was exhausted. I need sleep, but I was too wound up. The firefighters said sixteen houses had burned. Two helicopters had been fighting fires. With broken pipes and ruptured reservoirs, there seemed to be water everywhere except where you needed it. Most of the firefighters had been pulled off from fires to help people. They�d gone house to house for search and rescue. No one had died. We couldn�t believe it. Everyone looked around at everyone else. All this destruction, and nobody on the mountain had been killed. After the meeting, Mr. Perkins shook my hand. �Thanks for the help, Justin,� he said. �Now I�m going home. If I still have one.� �You don�t even know!� He�d made the same decision as the firefighters. Helping people first. Homes were less important. Even his own. The badly injured people had all been evacuated. I found Jon sitting on a mat with Mrs. LaFeau and two other children. They were wrapped in a blanket. Josh was beside them. He had a fresh, clean bandage around his neck. Nobody seemed able to sleep. I asked Mrs. LaFeau if she knew anything about her apartment. She said no. She said it didn�t matter right now. I took a blanket and lay on my back, staring up at a few hazy stars. For a long time, I couldn�t sleep. Jon snuggled right up against my side. In a few minutes, he was asleep. There was a smoky smell in the air. A half-moon, moody and red, hung in the sky. I could see Josh�s profile in the moonlight. He hadn�t met my eyes since Chris� house. I wanted to talk to him, to find out what was wrong now between him and I, but my brain felt too scrambled to tackle it head on. A shudder ran through Josh�s body. He was silently crying. His tears caught the moonlight as they coursed down his face. �Josh?� I asked. �Josh? Can you hear me?� �I can hear you,� he choked. �My batteries are like totally dead.� �You seem to know a lot about first aid.� �I�m certified. CPR, too.� �You�ve always liked that stuff. You used to wrap me in bandages. Remember?� �I like health. I don�t like accidents.� Unlike me, Josh had always known what he wanted to be � though his goals kept changing. I could remember when he wanted to be a glass blower. And then a U.S. senator. A chef in a chocolate restaurant. And then an animal trainer in a circus. So I asked: �You want to be a doctor or something?� He wiped his face with the back of his hand. �I�m going to be an obstetrician,� he said. �And marry a rock musician.� �You�ll have rock-and-roll babies.� �Not exactly.� He seemed to have stopped crying. �You know what I think, though? I think every baby should come into the world feeling welcome. Feeling loved. When I�m an obstetrician, I want to greet each newborn baby with a Hershey�s Kiss. Wouldn�t that be cool? And maybe give them to the mother while she�s in labor � while she�s working hard. I might invent a whole new kind of medicines: chocolate therapy.� �I�m glad you�re here,� I said, and I meant it. �Just?� �What?� �Maybe it�s bad for people, too. Not just dogs. They say it gives you zits. Do you think chocolate is an addiction, like cocaine or something?� �No, Josh.� �Maybe I should be a scientist. Like you want to be. I could study chocolate. How it works. What it does to your body. Maybe I could find a way to make it safe for dogs. Justin � do you remember when we had mice and I would stuff them with chocolate cupcakes so they wouldn�t be hungry? Do you think I was poisoning them? �No, Josh. They kept coming back. The same mice. We�d catch them again and again.� �Maybe it killed them slowly. Maybe it � like � accumulated in their bodies until they died in agony.� �Josh, cut it out.� �I�m sorry.� �It�s okay, Josh.� �I didn�t want to be here, you know. I didn�t want to see you again.� �Josh, don�t �-� �I�m not saying that to hurt you. I�m just trying to be honest. Trying to sort things out. Trying to figure out what I know. I mean. I didn�t even know that chocolate hurt dogs. Do I know anything?� �You didn�t do any harm to Greta, Josh. The dog is fine. Don�t be so hard on yourself.� �I�m not worried about hurting the dog. I�m worried about myselff. When we moved � and you were gone � and everything was like totally wrecked � I mean, I just didn�t want to be hurt anymore.� He was silent for a while. I was puzzling over the connection between moving and chocolate and dogs. After a while Josh said, �I wanted to stay in Pomona. I didn�t want to � like � reconnect. And I was awful.� �You weren�t awful. Just�� �Weird?� �Yes. Weird.� �I�m sorry, Justin, but I was afraid of what would happen. And then it happened. I knew it right away. I tried to shut it down, but I could feel it anyway.� �Feel what?� �We were friends again.� �That was bad?� �No. It was good. Which was bad. Because then I saw how you were with that guy, and I knew I was losing you to something I couldn�t stop, and �� �Josh, it isn�t like that.� �It is. It is.� He was crying again. I didn�t know what to say. Friendship had been so much easier when we all had to deal with mice and puppies. I did like Chris, but if anything was going to develop, it had a long way to go. Can�t I stay friends with Chris and still be able to stay friends with Josh? Nothing is simple, Josh had written. And nothing lasts forever. Until today, I�d thought some things last forever: the laws of science. Earth is earth. Rock is rock. Now the earth and rocks had shifted beneath our feet. I�ll never be able to sleep, I thought to myself. Not after everything that�s happened. But I did. For a while. In my sleep I heard my father�s voice: �Yep. That�s them. Thank you very much.� I opened my eyes. It was still night. The moon had moved high in the sky. And there stood my father. He kneeled down and gave me a hug. Jon and Josh slept on. Josh�s mother � Karen � was kneeling over Josh, stoking his hair. My head was groggy. I was sleepy and happy and so very delighted to see them alive � and at the same time, disappointed. Surprised at the feeling. But definitely a little but disappointed. Now I was just a kid again. �How�d you get here?� �Back roads,� my father said. �We had to move a tree,� he said. �It had fallen across a road.� �How could you move a tree?� My father shrugged. �You never know what you can do until you have to do it.� �I know. We lifted a Volkswagen!� They asked if we were all right. I said we were just dirty. �What about his neck?� Karen asked. �Just a cut,� I said. �They asked what had happened, and I tried to tell them briefly, but there was so much to tell that I felt like I was just babbling. �Never mind,� my father said. �You can tell us later. Oh, Justin, I�m so glad to see you. You won�t understand this, but when you�re a parent, if you can�t find your children, if you don�t know what�s happened to them, you just know that they�re dead. You know it for a certainty. And at the same time you�re frantic. You�ll do anything. You can move trees. You have to find them.� I did understand. As a matter of fact, I knew exactly how he felt. Then I asked, �Have you see the house?� �No,� my father said. �That�s where I�m going next.� �Let�s wait until morning,� Karen said. �I can�t wait,� my father replied. �I�m going with you,� I said. Karen stayed with Jon and Josh. We drove the dark road. I warned my father to watch for cracks. �I know,� he said. �We drove over them.� �There�s one we can�t drive over.� The big gap in the road had gotten even wider since I�d last seen it. We parked, took a flashlight from the glove box, and walked. Around out house, tiny shards of glass glittered in the beam of the flashlight as if the stars had settled to rest on the earth. The night was silent except for a slight stirring in the trees. My father walked all around the outside of the house. Below and across the road in the old, abandoned, waiting-to-fall-down shed. I saw the flicker of one candle flame. Sometimes homeless people slept in there. I wondered who it was. Tonight, many new people were homeless. Maybe, it occurred to me, maybe even I was homeless. �Okay, that�s it,� my father said. �How�s the house?� �We�ve got some problems.� �Will it fall down?� �I don�t think so, but I need a professional opinion.� �Don�t you want to look inside?� �Not tonight. Let�s get some sleep.� As we drove back to the school, I asked what it was like at the baseball game. Did they feel it? �Feel it? The whole stadium shook. At first I thought it was people stomping there feet. Then a chunk of concrete fell out of the upper deck and landed in the aisle right beside me. The lights went out. The scoreboard went blank. The public address system didn�t work. Nobody knew what was happening. Finally a police car with a loudspeaker drove on to the field and told everybody to go home.� �Will there be school tomorrow?� �No.� �Greta ran away.� My father squeezed my shoulder. �We�ll find her.� Back in my blanket under the moon and the stars. I heard my father whispering. My father was saying something about the foundation. Jon rolled up close against me with his hair against my face. It smelled that an old sock. I turned my head away. I heard the drone of a generator and, far away, the thumping of a helicopter. |