“Hands up if you are opposed to organizing a rescue mission.” Nearly a dozen hands were raised. It was interesting to note that Patrick was opposed to the mission, while his wife was in favor of it. They looked at each other intently without a word being spoken. Nobody really noticed just how ashen faced the rich man was this morning. Patrick closed his eyes and squeezed the skin above his nose, apparently suffering from a headache.
After tallying the numbers, Craig scratched his head. Looking slightly confused, he addressed the group. “It looks like we’re missing a few votes?”
“Yeah, I abstained from voting.” Nat stated, intently staring at Craig. Craig raised his eyebrows, inviting the young woman to make her point.
“I think that we have bigger issues. We’ve got people at each other’s throats, as you just said yourself. And we’ve got people trying to control the group.” As she said this, she waved her hand like conducting an orchestra. But discerning people could see that she was pointing at Joe and Craig. Joe and Craig sure noticed.
Joe bristled, which in turn was noticed by Nat. She looked right at him, not intimidated.
“That’s right, Joe. You’re acting like you should be in charge. Well, I don’t recognize your authority. Just because you’re the loudest guy in the room, doesn’t qualify you to be the boss of me or any of these people!” Joe bristled even more at that.
“WHY YOU SNOT-NOSED PUNK!” He yelled, and stood up, nearly upending his wife.
“I’m not done.” Nat said, her voice surprisingly calm.
Rachel and Christine pulled Joe back down to the bench, shushing the big man. “Let her speak, dad.” Christine said softly to Joe. Surprisingly, Joe got a hold of himself. With a couple of sharp breaths, he relaxed his pose somewhat. His eyes continued to stare daggers at Nat though.
“Same goes for you, Craig. You just go about it in a sneaky way instead of being loud. Putting up your task lists... I don’t like it.” Craig’s face turned a shade of red. Deep down he could not argue the point though. He had used all the tools in his kit in order to manipulate the group, albeit not for any personal gain.
“I’m just doing my best to keep these folks organized and cohesive, Nat.” He said indignantly.
Nat was ready for that. “And how is that going? We’ve been here three days and we got fights breaking out!” She took a deep breath. “Look, I know we’re trying to keep our shit together. But don’t you all think that we should figure this” –she indicated the entire group– “out first, before we even consider anything else?”
“She’s right, dad.” Jack said. Several others also nodded in agreement.
Craig brought his hand to his forehead and closed his eyes for a second. “Ok.” He lowered his hand and stared at the group. “Let’s start over. What do we do?”
Surprisingly, it was Mel who spoke up. “I think I have an idea.” When all eyes were turned to her, she continued.
“Ok. First of all, I don’t think we should throw away these lists. Put them up. Some people are ready to commit their names to them.” She looked over at Nat as she said this.
Then she continued. “I used to work for Army intelligence. One of the most important things I learned, was how to be an empath.”
She stood up. “There is a science to it. I’m not going to bore you with the details of reading micro expressions, but I want you to know is that I’ve been paying attention. I can tell you that the overwhelming emotions that I read here are fear and grief.” She let that sink in for a moment.
“Now, the fear part we can deal with by making sure we have a solid, secure place. We also need an organized way of responding to emergencies, so that everybody knows their job if something happens. We also need to invest ourselves into tasks, as these take our minds off our fear.” Mel had walked to the front of the stage. Craig surrendered his spot willingly and took a seat beside his wife.
“There are a couple more. Easy ones, that we can figure out quickly. And they are having leadership that we trust, and self-improvement – like the weapons and martial arts classes.”
People mulled it over. Mel took the initiative to drive her first point home.
“The second part is already happening. That’s great. But guys, we need a leader. Here’s what I propose we do. First you think about if you want to be that leader. Tomorrow, at breakfast, you come forward and tell the group why you think you should be the leader. Tomorrow evening we vote.” She waited for a moment for that to sink in. “No beating around the bush. By tomorrow evening, we have a leader. And we push back the fear.”
Mel took a deep breath. The hard part was coming.
“Grief.” She said, letting the word hang in the air for a few moments.
“Just about every one of us has gone through some ... pretty traumatic things. So how do we heal, emotionally?” Mel was going to answer the question, but somebody beat her to it.
“Talk about it.” Maria answered. The youngest member of the group continued. “I know that it is tough, but once you get it out ... you feel better.” She said with a sidelong glance at Christine. Christine nodded back at Maria with a smile.
“Good.” Mel said with an appreciative smile. “It is up to you to help yourself. Find one or two people that you can confide in. Share your experiences. Grieve, by all means! Let it out! ... I imagine that most of you
