Under the Dome

The girl ran up the aisle to stand beside Carolyn Sturges. The longhair followed more slowly. He looked tired and shaken. “I’m Alice Rachel Appleton,” she said. “Aidan’s big sister. Take your thumb out of your mouth, Aide.”

Aide didn’t.

“Well, it’s nice to meet all of you,” Barbie said. He didn’t tell them his own name. In fact, he sort of wished he were wearing a fake mustache. But this still might be all right. He was almost positive these people were out- of-towners.

“Are you a town official?” Thurston Marshall asked. “If you’re a town official, I wish to lodge a complaint.”

“I’m just the janitor,” Barbie said, then remembered they had almost certainly seen Al Timmons leave. Hell, probably had a conversation with him. “The other janitor. You must have met Al.”

“I want my mother,” Aidan Appleton said. “I miss her bad. ”

“We met him,” Carolyn Sturges said. “He claims the government shot some missiles at whatever is holding us in, and all they did was bounce off and start a fire.”

“That’s true,” Barbie said, and before he could say more, Marshall weighed in again.

“I want to lodge a complaint. In fact, I want to lay a charge. I was assaulted by a so-called police officer. He punched me in the stomach. I had my gall bladder out a few years ago, and I’m afraid I may have internal injuries. Also, Carolyn was verbally abused. She was called a name that degraded her sexually.”

Carolyn laid a hand on his arm. “Before we go making any charges, Thurse, you want to remember that we had D-O-P-E.”

“Dope!” Alice said at once. “Our mom smokes marijuana sometimes, because it helps when she’s having her P-E-R-I-O-D.”

“Oh,” Carolyn said. “Right.” Her smile was wan.

Marshall drew himself up to his full height. “Possession of marijuana is a misdemeanor,” he said. “What they did to me was felony assault! And it hurts terribly!”

Carolyn gave him a look in which affection was mingled with exasperation. Barbie suddenly understood how it was between them. Sexy May had met Erudite November, and now they were stuck with each other, refugees in the New England version of No Exit. “Thurse… I’m not sure that misdemeanor idea would fly in court.” She smiled apologetically at Barbie. “We had quite a lot. They took it.”

“Maybe they’ll smoke up the evidence,” Barbie said.

She laughed at this. Her graying boyfriend did not. His bushy brows had drawn together. “All the same, I plan to lodge a complaint.”

“I’d wait,” Barbie said. “The situation here… well, let’s just say that a punch in the gut isn’t going to be considered that big a deal as long as we’re still under the Dome.”

“I consider it a big deal, my young janitor friend.”

The young woman now looked more exasperated than affectionate. “Thurse—”

“The good side of that is nobody is going to make a big deal out of some pot, either,” Barbie said. “Maybe it’s a push, as the gamblers say. How’d you come by the kiddos?”

“The cops we ran into at Thurston’s cabin saw us at the restaurant,” Carolyn said. “The woman who runs it said they were closed until supper, but she took pity on us when we said we were from Massachusetts. She gave us sandwiches and coffee.”

“She gave us peanut butter and jelly and coffee,” Thurston corrected. “There was no choice, not even tuna fish. I told her peanut butter sticks to my upper plate, but she said they were on rationing. Isn’t that about the craziest thing you’ve ever heard?”

Barbie did think it was crazy, but since it had also been his idea, he said nothing.

“When I saw the cops come in, I was ready for more trouble,” Carolyn said, “but Aide and Alice seemed to have mellowed them out.”

Thurston snorted. “Not so mellow they apologized. Or did I miss that part?”

Carolyn sighed, then turned back to Barbie. “They said maybe the pastor at the Congregational church could find the four of us an empty house to live in until this is over. I guess we’re going to be foster parents, at least for awhile.”

She stroked the boy’s hair. Thurston Marshall looked less than pleased at the prospect of becoming a foster parent, but he put an arm around the girl’s shoulders, and Barbie liked him for that.

“One cop was Joooo-nyer, ” Alice said. “He’s nice. Also a fox. Frankie isn’t as good looking, but he was nice, too. He gave us a Milky Way bar. Mom says we’re not supposed to take candy from strangers, but—” She shrugged to indicate things had changed, a fact she and Carolyn seemed to understand much more clearly than Thurston.

“They weren’t nice before,” Thurston said. “They weren’t nice when they were punching me in the stomach, Caro.”

“You have to take the bitter with the sweet,” Alice said philosophically. “That’s what my mother says.”

Carolyn laughed. Barbie joined in, and after a moment so did Marshall, although he held his stomach while he did it and looked at his young girlfriend with a certain reproach.

“I went up the street and knocked on the church door,” Carolyn said. “There was no answer, so I went in— the door was unlocked, but there was nobody there. Do you have any idea when the pastor will be back?”

Barbie shook his head. “I’d take your checkerboard and go on up to the parsonage, if I were you. It’s around back. You’re looking for a woman named Piper Libby.”

“Cherchez la femme,” Thurston said.

Barbie shrugged, then nodded. “She’s good people, and God knows there are empty houses in The Mill. You could almost have your pick. And you’ll probably find supplies in the pantry wherever you go.”

This made him think of the fallout shelter again.

Alice, meanwhile, had grabbed the checkers, which she stuffed in her pockets, and the board, which she carried. “Mr. Marshall’s beat me every game so far,” she told Barbie. “He says it’s pay - tronizing to let kids win just because they’re kids. But I’m getting better, aren’t I, Mr. Marshall?”

She smiled up at him. Thurston Marshall smiled back. Barbie thought this unlikely quartet might be okay.

“Youth must be served, Alice my dear,” he said. “But not immediately.”

“I want Mommy,” Aidan said morosely. “If there was only a way to get in touch with her,” Carolyn said. “Alice, you’re sure you don’t remember her e-mail address?” And to Barbie she said, “Mom left her cell phone at the cabin, so that’s no good.”

“She’s a hotmail,” Alice said. “That’s all I know. Sometimes she says she used to be a hot female, but Daddy took care of that.”

Carolyn was looking at her elderly boyfriend. “Blow this pop-shop?”

“Yes. We may as well repair to the parsonage, and hope the lady comes back soon from whatever errand of mercy she happens to be on.”

“Parsonage might be unlocked, too,” Barbie said. “If it isn’t, try under the doormat.”

“I wouldn’t presume,” he said.

“I would,” Carolyn said, and giggled. The sound made the little boy smile.

“Pre-zoom!” Alice Appleton cried, and went flying up the center aisle with her arms outstretched and the checkerboard flapping from one hand. “Pre-zoom, pre- zoom, come on, you guys, let’s pre- zoom!”

Thurston sighed and started after her. “If you break the checkerboard, Alice, you’ll never beat me.”

“Yes I will, ’cos youth must be served!” she called back over her shoulder. “Besides, we could tape it together! Come on!”

Aidan wriggled impatiently in Carolyn’s arms. She set him down to chase after his sister. Carolyn held out her hand. “Thank you, Mr.—”

“More than welcome,” Barbie said, shaking with her. Then he turned to Thurston. The man had the fishbelly grip Barbie associated with guys whose intelligence-to-exercise ratio was out of whack.

They started out after the kids. At the double doors, Thurston Marshall looked back. A shaft of hazy sun from