A houseboat. Finegan Fine

______________________________

Finegan is sitting on what used to be a dining room chair along a piece

of plywood being used as a tabletop. Several men and women are seated

around this table too, all in various kinds of chairs – folding chairs,

living room easy chairs, stools, and stepladders. The table is stained

in many places, having been used for many conferences. A large map of

the US is laid out on it, taped in places to hold it together and

frayed at the corners. Finegan is leaning on his left elbow, holding a

mug of coffee in his left hand, and pointing with his right hand. Joey

is standing just behind his left shoulder, standing on his toes,

peering at the map intently.

I started out upriver from Savannah. The river

was rising something fierce. By the time I

built my boat, I was going overland on the

water. That bad.

The group nods in unison. Finegan sits up straight and looks over his

left shoulder at Joey.

Joey here got separated from his parents. Ain’t

found ‘em since.

Finegan goes back to leaning on his left elbow and pointing at the map.

We worked our way around what’s now the new

coastline of Georgia. No maps for any of that.

I gather that Florida is gone.

Finegan sits straight again, taking a sip of his coffee.

I’m guessing you all have a better idea of the

rate of rise, but seems to me it just keeps

rising. . .

The group nods in unison.

Memphis Mama is a wrinkled, pale woman slouched at one end of the

table. She wears a flowered dress and has some kind of plastic flower

covered hair net holding her gray, greasy hair in place. A strand or

two of her gray hair escapes, hanging down on her neck or over her

face.

And the sun rises in the south and sets in the

north.

78

Everyone just sits, stone silent except for the occasional slurp on a

cup of coffee. Joey is craning his neck to see every face up and down

the table, as he is intensely curious. It’s clear no one is going to

speak.

How come?

Memphis Papa is a grizzled man at the end of the table, sitting in an

easy chair that is collapsing at one arm and with upholstery that is

very stained. He has a beard, tousled hair, and wears a tattered shirt

with dirty cuffs. Like Memphis Mama, his posture also shows the effects

of too many conferences and not enough exercise, as he appears

collapsed into his chair.

We figure that the Earth shifted in space, son.

That’s how come everything got shook up, and

somehow that’s how come the water keeps rising.

. . Best we can figure.

Joey has dug the photo of his parents out of his pocket and flaps it in

the air.

Did my parents come by?

______________________________

Finegan and Joey are standing in front of a wall covered with pinned

notes. The note paper is of every kind - scraps of paper torn out of

phone books, lined notebook paper, pages torn from day-timers, notes

written on the edges of coupons, notes written on the carbon copy from

checkbooks, pages from children’s coloring books, etc. The wall is

covered floor to ceiling with some notes starting to cover other notes,

layering.

Martha, Ed Grover and I are to Cincinnati.

MacMahons are heading to Uncle John’s farm.

God help us! Little Bob drown and Big Bob died from the grief.

We made it! See you at the Hemp’s. Mitzy

Joey walks up to the wall and starts to read, when Memphis Papa

interrupts him.

This here’s for Arkansas, across the river from

us. They came up here like drowning rats on

anything that would float. We got a separate

room by state, so’s to reduce the confusion.

What state were your parent’s from?

Joey spins around on his feet, facing Memphis Papa, with a hopefully,

eager look on this face.

Georgia!

Memphis Papa says,

79

This way.

They all walk down a corridor of an old office building that remained

upright during the quakes. Some of the rooms along the exterior wall

are cluttered with broken furniture and boxes of refuse cleared out

from the interior rooms. The exterior rooms have broken windows, so the

cardboard is weathered near the windows. The interior rooms are being

used for lost and found boards. There are labels on the door jams of

the interior rooms, arranged alphabetically - Alabama, Arkansas,

Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, N

Carolina, Ohio, S Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, W Virgina.