She tried hard not to focus too much on Jillie because it was painful. Her daughter was her rock, her best friend. Not a day went by when they didn’t speak, see each other, or text. Just thinking about her last text message made Kit sad and a tear rolled down her cheek.
“You all right?” Abe asked, startling her.
Quickly Kit swiped the tear, closed the cover on the book and folded her hands. “Yes.”
“Is the book that sad?”
“No.” She partially smiled and closed her eyes for a long blink. “I was thinking about my daughter and hoping she’s fine. This book…” Kit tapped the cover. “Kind of let me know she was out of a blast zone. So that’s good.”
“That’s real good.” Abe pulled out a chair at the kitchen table. “May I join you?”
“Please.”
He sat down. “So if the book gave you hope, why are you crying?”
“Because she’s my daughter and I love her very much.”
“I’m sorry, that was a stupid question.”
Kit shook her head. “That’s fine.”
“Here’s another stupid question. You don’t talk about a husband, do you have one?”
“There is none. Not anymore,” Kit said then held up her hand when she saw him open his mouth. “Don’t apologize. My parents raised us right, but didn’t raise us to stay married. My parents divorced, we’re all divorced. Except my older sister, she never married. My brother Regis’s wife left him after their son was killed in combat. He was too deep into his grief to realize the hurt of divorce. Mark thinks marriage has an expiration. Me and my husband divorced a long time ago. We married too young and grew apart. It was amicable. He remarried eight years ago and I’m fine with that. He hated my job.”
“Which was?” Abe asked.
“I worked for the Bureau of Tourism.”
“Oh, so you’re a tour guide.”
“What? No.” Kit shook her head. “Do I strike you as the type of person that gives tours, or has the personality for it? No, I’m graphic design. What about you? Any family?”
“Just my brother. He’s the reason I piloted that flight. I found that out after I boarded. I met your father once through him. It was at a dinner party.”
“Wow, really?” Kit asked. “That’s amazing.”
“Your father was amazing.”
“Who is your brother?”
“Ryan Scott.”
“Senator Scott, yeah, I know who he is. Small world.”
“Not really,” Abe said. “Not when you’re all on an evacuation flight.”
“True,” Kit relaxed back in her chair. “So what now? Obviously, your brother is somewhere safe. My family is out there and we are not where we’re supposed to be. How do we do this? I mean, will we ever see them again?”
“Yes,” Abe answered without hesitation. “Yes, we will.”
“How? When the dust settles, things won’t be the same. We won’t have cars, we can’t hop on a plane, and no phones means no communication, so how?”
“I don’t know. We won’t find them tomorrow, or the next day. It may take months, but we’ll find them.”
“You know…” Kit’s hand smooth against the table as she looked down. “Harland said something. He said, ‘There is no happy ending to this story’. Do you think he’s right? Maybe we leave the shelter and we just all die.”
“I don’t believe that for a second. I also think what Harland meant was, there will not be a perfect ending. A happy ending is subjective.”
“So we may not find all the colors of the rainbow, but we’ll find one part of it in the end?”
Abe shrugged. “I don’t know about rainbows. I see the analogy. Make no mistake, it will never be the same. You and I in our lifetime may never see the world recover. Happiness… is what you make it. I survived. I’m happy about that. So for as far as finding that happy ending, I know for me, personally,” Abe said. “I’m off to a good start. I’m alive and healthy.”
NINETEEN – Clarity
Zeke ate a peanut butter sandwich and washed it down with what he was told was going to be the last of the fresh milk. A supply of which would be gone in a few days. After that it would be reconstituted. He enjoyed every bite and every sip.
He felt like a celebrity. No one knew how he ended up at the Air Force base bunker. Luck he supposed. When all other uninjured survivors were getting tossed in pickup trucks, or on a school bus, he was placed in the back of a military truck with several critically injured passengers. He actually went largely unnoticed until he arrived on base.
Admittedly, he was scared and confused. His mind swam in thoughts about the crash. He remembered how he assumed a brace position and closed his eyes tightly as he held on.
Zeke didn’t give any thoughts to a nuclear explosion, in fact he didn’t have a clue until someone mentioned it to him when he was examined at the base.
Then he went into full fledged panic mode. Where was his family? He knew his mother was carried out, in fact he tried to find her when they took him and tossed him in the military truck.
He knew his Uncle Regis was looking for his other uncle.
Then someone told him, “Don’t worry, everyone is being moved. They’re fine. They may not be here, but they’re fine.”
That didn’t sit well with Zeke because he knew his uncle was staying behind.
They were placating him, probably because he was young. They gave him some pants and tee shirts and sent him into a room.
It was by chance a soldier came by and recognized Zeke from the flight. He had a bandage on his head and walked with a slight limp.
“I remember you,” the soldier said. “I sat next to a member of your family named, Regis.”
“That’s my uncle. I can’t find him. I think he stayed behind to look for my Uncle Mark. Everyone says he didn’t, but he told me he was going to do that.”
“Oh my God,” the soldier said. “Was that him?”
“What do you mean?” Zeke asked.
“My captain said a man stayed behind to look for his brother who was in the back of the plane. They left him supplies. Do you think that was Regis?”
“It has to be.”
Then the soldier said, “I’ll be back.” Then he left.
Two hours later, he heard from someone that the same soldier had gone out and found two men. It was confirmed to Zeke they were his uncles and he had to just wait until he could see them.
Everyone at that point started being really nice to him. Assuring him his uncles were fine and they were just watching them for signs of exposure to radiation. While he waited to see them, he had a front row seat to the end of the world.
Every soldier and airman there who wasn’t on duty all sat in one room around tables. They listened as someone announced over a speaker system the cities that were hit, and the amount of bombs that fell on each.
It wasn’t real to Zeke. It couldn’t be.
“Los Angeles hit with three, New York four, Washington D.C. three… Dallas…”
There was a sound of stillness to the room. Not a sound was heard, nor a movement made.
Then they brought him his peanut butter lunch as if all was well in the world.
His uncles were resting and he would be able to see them soon. Or so they told him. Until then, there was nothing Zeke could do but eat his sandwich and wait.
“Dad is alive.”
“What?”
“He’s alive,” Mark told Regis. “Somewhere out there, New Mexico I think.”
“Mark, that’s insane.”
“No, Rege, it isn’t. His death was a ruse. Some defensive move and us being on the plane was part of the evacuation. We were supposed to be with him, but the bombs fell early. He’s alive. He faked his death and put us through all that shit.”