“David Hartsman. You graduated when I was a freshman.”
I could see he still had no idea who I was.
“It’s alright, Kenny. You were older and I was just a freshman when you left.”
“Sorry, man,” he said. “I just… there’s a lot I don’t like to remember from back then, you know?”
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
When he said that, I remembered his family’s house burned down one Christmas day. The fire inspector said it was arson, but no one was ever charged. I also remembered he and his sister had to deal with the racist attitudes of many in school.
“We have more than enough, it seems,” the mayor said as he walked over to the volunteers. “Let’s go into the meeting room and sort this out.”
A pudgy man with a shock of white hair nodded and unlocked the front doors to the library.
“If you are a volunteer, follow us in. If not, please go home and wait for further information,” the mayor said to the crowd gathered in the square. Except for the volunteers who filed into the library, no one else moved from where they were.
The meeting room in the library was just as I remembered it. The town council met there and the committee for the Thanksgiving parade used it as a planning room. My mother had been part of that committee for as long as I could remember. As a kid, I would grab a Hardy Boys book and read it while they had their meetings.
I took a seat near the window and Kenny sat next to me. Ted walked over to Kenny and said something. It was too low for me to hear, but Kenny smiled at Ted and motioned toward me.
“What was that?” I asked.
“He just wanted to know if I knew anyone here. I told him we went to high school together.”
I smiled at Kenny and nodded. A gavel struck the podium and the few people who had not sat down found seats.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the mayor began. “I don’t recognize several of you, so let me begin by introducing myself. I am Carl Mueller and I am the mayor here in Kenton. I want to introduce you to—“
“Hold it,” Ted said suddenly. “I mean no offense, Mayor. But, we need to get moving.”
Carl nodded and sat down in a chair behind the podium. Ted walked to the front and pointed out the windows.
“As of now, we are living in a different world. In a few days, maybe we will be back to our old world, but the decisions we make in the next few hours will set our course if this problem lasts for weeks, months, or years.”
Murmurs picked up and Ted had to pause for a few seconds. The mayor stood up and pounded the podium with his gavel and then handed it to Ted when the room quieted again.
“How many here rode bikes into town?” Ted asked.
About six hands went up.
“Good, you will be our messengers for today,” the bristly man continued. “We will need to go into every garage and shed and look for bicycles tomorrow. We need to be able to stay mobile and spread out a bit. If we all gather into town, we will run into problems.”
“What kinds of problems?” a man in a John Deere cap asked.
“Health issues if this goes on too long. So we need bikes, skateboards, inline skates, and anything else that will work as well.”
“Horses?” Kenny asked.
He was looking out the window. A woman was riding up to the town square on the back of a horse. My breath caught in my throat as I recognized her. Anne Franklin had just ridden back into my life.
Chapter 4
I stood up and hurried out the front of the library. Anne was dismounting when I stopped at the top of the steps and just stared at her. I didn’t know what to say or if she would even recognize me. It had been nineteen years since we had last spoken face to face and I was as nervous as I was the first time I had spoken to her six years before that.
She finished hitching her horse’s reins to a park bench and started up the stairs. She stopped as her eyes slipped across my face and recognition flared up.
“David, how good to see you,” she said with a bright smile. “In Kenton for a quick visit?”
I stammered for a second as I tried to get my bearings. We hadn’t parted on good terms, and yet she spoke like it had been just months or even days since we last spoke. The oddest part was it felt normal and natural.
“Yes,” I said. “Got here last night. Just in town to check up on Mom and Dad.”
“And how are they?” Anne asked as she looked around the town square.
“They’re good. Mom is… doing okay I guess, and Dad is still kicking along.”
“What’s going on in there?” she asked as she looked at the library doors.
“The mayor called for volunteers to help spread information on what we need to do.”
“Mueller knows what’s going on?”
“No. A guy named Ted something or other.”
“Ted Riggins?”
“Yeah, that sounds right.”
“Huh,” she said with a surprised inflection.
“You know him?”
“A bit. He buys supplies from me occasionally. Not a great rider, but he takes care of his horses pretty well.”
“He seems to think it was an EMP from the solar flare last night.”
“A what?”
“An electro-magnetic pulse. Dad thought the same.”
“Let’s get in there and see what he has to say,” she said.
I followed her into the meeting room where we slipped in to stand in the back. Ted had a list of items written on a movable whiteboard behind him. I pulled out the small notebook and pen Mom had pushed on me before leaving the house and jotted down the items: water, medicine, food, contact.
“The pharmacy will be locked down when we leave this meeting,” Ted was saying. “We will attempt to make sure everyone gets the medicine they need, but after two weeks we will likely start seeing shortages. When you contact the houses in your area, check to see if there are any doctors, nurses or anyone with E.M.T. training. We will also need any medical books we can acquire.”
People were jotting notes on whatever paper they seemed to have scrounged up. I leaned against the wall and listened as I wrote what I needed to remember.
“We will need to meet here again tomorrow to send more information out,” Ted said. “If you cannot make it back, we need to know now. I would like to have at least six runners who can get information quickly to the different volunteers. If possible, we will set up an alarm system.”
Several people shifted and muttered as he talked.
“Shouldn’t we bring everyone into town?” one man asked.
“No,” Ted answered. “If we are only going to be out of power for a few days, there is no need. If we are going to be out of power for more than a couple of weeks, we will want people as spread out as possible to prevent any spread of disease.”
“What kind of disease are we talking about?” Mayor Mueller asked.
“Mostly waterborne. Cholera, for example. That’s why we need to make sure we have fresh water to drink. Any water anyone may get from their pipes should be boiled. If we can reopen a few of the wells around the area, that would be great. I have a couple of hand pumps at my house and if we check the area, we might find some hidden away in old garages.”
I raised my hand. “My father has one and was looking for the Anderson’s old pump location when I left the house this morning.”
“Good,” Ted said. “Who are you and where is the well located?”
“I’m David Hartsman and my folks live at the south edge of town on Granger.”
“Good. Looks like you know Anne, and she has a horse today. I’m going to let you and Anne contact everyone south of Miller and west of Granger with the information we need to get out. Anne, you can let everyone know along Balsam Road when you head back home.”
Ted explained what the priorities were, to keep everyone safe and calm. The pharmacy would be secured and all the other stores shut for a few days. The volunteers were to take notes on each house and get names and ages of everyone who lived in each residence. He said it was important to have an accurate census since there might be people in the area who didn’t normally live there, and some who lived in the area might be away.