porch entrance. As she caught up to us, her passing glance was so cold it burned my face.
“Mike?” Carol asked.
“Hey mom.” I said as I jumped down off the bed of the truck.
Tracy had rushed full tilt into her mother’s arms, there was some crying and sobbing and some general tear jerking and I think that Carol and Tracy might have also blubbered, wasn’t sure, couldn’t see through the haze of salty water. Must have sat on my keys again.
I joined in the small huddle, God she smelled like chocolate chip cookies, how do Grandmother’s do that? “We brought you something.” I told her. “It’s Jeff Daniels.” I said needlessly, the shape of the paper bag gave away the contents. Kind of like trying to gift wrap a bike, why bother.
“Jack Daniels?” Carol asked.
Tommy had come down off the truck and was watching the reunion. “That’s what he said.” With a tone that implied we all must have gone over the edge.
Carol gasped as she looked at Tommy. “You’re the one from my dreams.”
Tommy looked perplexed. “I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about Gran Y.” He said.
“Sure you do. You’re the one that likes those little flavored shingles in the foil packs.”
Tommy looked aghast. “Pop-tarts aren’t shingles Gran Y.”
I thought I was going to have to catch Carol from falling when she saw all three kids.
“Oh my God! I prayed for this day! I never thought that you would all make it.” She was openly crying. Yeah I was too, so sue me. “Come here! Come here!” she motioned to them all. Our group huddle was ungainly, but it felt so right.
“Oh my God, mom, we never thought...” Tracy hitched.
“Me?” Carol laughed. I’m too tough an old bird for them. Not sure if they even got by Big Bertha here.” She said shaking her shotgun. “That they’d even want me.” She laughed again. “I’ve spent damn near my entire life on this farm. I’m as tough as the soil daddy used to try and cull crops from.” She laughed again.
I couldn’t help myself. I hugged her again. I was having a heavy estrogen flow day.
“You smell just like cookies.” I told her out loud.
“That’s because I’m making some. Don’t look so surprised, Tommy told me you were coming. Of course, I didn’t believe him at first. I thought it might be the onset of advanced Alzheimer’s or maybe schizophrenia or maybe even just plain old loneliness but I figured what the hell, might as well be ready. Oh and by the way Tommy.” She said stopping to look at him.
Had we told her his name? I didn’t think so.
Carol continued. “I didn’t have any gummy bears to put in with the chocolate chips.”
Tommy handed her a bag of gummy bears from his pocket. Was it coincidence? Now Tommy is usually a walking pantry to begin with but he didn’t even hesitate when he reached into one of his many hidden storage compartments.
Carol took the bag as if she had been expecting this. “Great I’ll put them in with the next batch.”
“You have power Carol?” I asked her.
“Gotta be pretty self sufficient when you live this far in the outskirts. See any power lines, city boy. The generator is in the barn.”
I waited until she went back into the house before I did a complete 360 scan of the area. No poles. I did a little happy dance as I realized I was going to take a hot shower tonight.
“What’s the matter Talbot?” BT asked as Jen and Travis helped him up the steps. “Gotta pee.”
Except for being a few shades paler than he oughta be. The big man looked pretty good. This was turning out to be a pretty good fucking day and I was about to eat some chocolate chip cookies!
Tommy was already through the door. I could hear mock slapping as Carol was trying to shoo him away from her cookie sheet.
“Wait until I at least get them off the tray, you’ll burn yourself.” Carol shouted at him. Tommy hovered over her like a News helicopter at a crash scene.
Seeing her grandmother had reignited a spark within Nicole’s eyes. The sadness was still there but it had been layered over a little, with love. And that was how people survived. They moved on. The bleeding, gaping wound, slowly became infused with coagulants and then the bleeding would trickle to a stop. The flesh would scab over and slowly begin to knot itself together and eventually the scab would fall off leaving fresh shiny puckered skin. That would in time eventually fade to a scar. It would be something you would be able to remember the pain of your entire life and you would always have the reminder. But it no longer consumed the resources of the body anymore to heal it.
The smiles around the kitchen table, as we devoured first that sheet and then another sheet of cookies with the surprisingly good taste of gummy bears mixed in, renewed my faith. My faith in what? God, humanity, survival, just plain old cookies, I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t going to question it. If I didn’t have another ultimate destination in mind I could have seen myself spending the rest of my days in this loving household. And then it struck me, why should I drag my family still another 1500 hundred miles across the country. And for what? There was no guarantee that any of my family survived. Carol survived though and if she could do it, then so could they. But she’s in rural North Dakota, not much happened here when everybody was alive. Yeah and my family is in rural Maine. If I could Google it, I’d bet the populations were similar.
Not knowing what had happened to my family weighed heavily but the thought of exposing my immediate family into even more danger to satisfy my curiosity was not an option.
I grabbed Tracy’s hand and took her in to the living room.
“I think we should just stay here Trace.”
Her look questioned me, but I could see the excitement beyond “Are you sure Mike. I know how much you want to get back home.”
“I think maybe we are home.”
She hugged me fiercely, her leg crushing into my pilfered bottle of Viagra stashed in my pants pocket.
“You happy to see me Mike?” She asked with a smile.
“I sure as hell could be.” I answered her. She smacked me. We headed back into the kitchen. Her first and then me after some slight man parts adjusting. At least the momentary estrogen flood hadn’t completely emasculated me.
After a bunch more laughing and eating I went out to the porch. I would like to say that I had to loosen my belt because of the meal. These last few weeks stripped any fat reserves I had stored. I looked down the yard at the minivan wondering how many trips was it going to take to get everything up here. I also wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of leaving it down there either. It looked too much like an invitation.
I heard a burst of merriment as Carol opened up the door to join me on the porch.
“I can’t tell you what a wonderful thing you’ve done here Mike.” She said.
“We had to come and see if you were alright mom.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about, and I think you know it.” I wanted to protest, it might have rang hollow though. “I mean bringing my daughter and my grandkids to me, alive and safe.” I started to speak. “Hush, I know what you’re going to say. But most people didn’t feel like it was what they had to do Mike. A good number of folks turned their guns on their kin rather than stand and fight.” I looked at her in bewilderment. “No Mike you didn’t HAVE to do anything but you did. You know when Tracy first married you, I wondered what the hell she saw in you.”
“Don’t hold back on my account.”
“Oh I won’t. To be fair, you’re a looker but I wasn’t sure of your character.”
“Holy shit Carol is this a pep talk?”
“Hush I’m not done talking yet.”
“Can you at least bust open that bottle of Jeff?” I asked her
From somewhere deep inside the house I heard Tommy yell ‘Jack’.
“You always seemed nuttier than a pecan pie to me.”
“Oh this is just getting better and better.” I took a long pull from the Daniels that she handed me.
“But when Nicole was born and I saw how you were with her. I thought I might have made a mistake about you.”
“Great.” I took another swig.