The Journal: Crimson Skies: (The Journal Book 3) (29 page)

“It was a really good idea to elect Tom as
the mayor, Anna.”

“I was going to nominate
you
, but I
knew you would refuse,” she admitted. She hadn’t forgotten my
dislike for attention.

“Is George here too?” I asked, looking
around.

“No. George, my sister, and her husband all
died during the last outbreak of flu a few weeks ago, before the
storms,” she said, her voice laced with sadness. “I got sick too,
but recovered. I guess that bout last winter gave me some
antibodies to fight it with.” She coughed again.

“Are you okay?”

“Sure. I’m not used to talking so much and
it’s made my throat dry,” Anna said.

“Stop by the clinic and Mark can give you
something for that cough,” I suggested.

“I might do that, first I want to tell you
about Marquette. It was bad, Allexa, really bad. Now of course it’s
moot, but in the last two or three weeks before the evacuation it
was deplorable. Everyone was afraid to go out, even during the day.
Gangs would roam the streets all the time, day or night, and were
good at hiding from the military. Then the flu hit again. It hit
pockets, neighborhoods, anywhere there was a cluster of people. The
best way to stay healthy was to isolate, but no one could do that,
we needed to group for protection. I know the colonel’s people were
doing their best, though they couldn’t be everywhere and they were
getting sick too.

“Then the storms hit. I’ve never seen such
lightning in my entire life! Once the fires got going, it was hard
to breathe. The air was always thick with smoke. Sometimes the
smoke was oily and we knew it was a gas station on fire nearby.
Sometimes it was wood smoke from a house burning. And as much as I
like the scent of wood burning, it was too thick and would be mixed
with other smells like burning plastic from the house siding… and
worse. It was that ‘worse’ that made me finally decide to leave. I
would smell the burning ‘meat’ and my stomach actually rumbled from
hunger. I had to get out.

“Once I was strong enough from my last go
around with the virus, and everyone else in the house was gone, I
gathered everything I could and filled the car. I went through the
houses on either side of me and managed to get a few more cans of
food. It took me three days, going out only a few minutes at a
time, and I was finally ready. And I came home.” Anna wiped the
tears from her pale cheeks with the back of her hand, coughed, and
took a sip of her water bottle. “I think the cough is from all the
smoke I breathed.”

“How long have you been here, Anna?”

“I left a few days before everyone else. I
wanted to be alone for a while, Allexa, please understand. I needed
to breathe some clean air and sleep in my own bed,” she looked past
me, haunted by something. Then she smiled. “You can’t imagine how
delighted I was to have electricity, a hot shower, and clean
clothes!”

~~~

“It was good to see Anna again,” I said to
Mark after I cleared away our dinner dishes.

“Yes, it was.”

“What’s the matter, Mark? You sound
distracted.”

“I am. I’ve been neglecting you,” he said
softly.

“You’ve been busy.”

“I’ve been neglecting you,” he repeated,
stepping closer, his voice husky with desire.

“
I’ve
been busy.”

“I’ve been neglecting you,” he repeated once
more, brushing his lips across my temple and trailing his kisses
across the thin scar on my chin.

“What are we going to do about that?” I
asked, but it was getting hard to breathe.

He took my hand. We spent the rest of the
evening in bed making up for hours lost.

November 12

“Mom, I’ve having a problem with one of the
women at the laundromat,” Amanda confided to me as we shared a cup
of coffee.

“What kind of a problem?” I asked.

“She won’t give back the quarters and I’m
starting to run low.”

“Who is it?” This was something I hadn’t
expected.

“Do you remember that girl with the funny red
hair, the one with the son that was bullying the other kids that
first day?”

“Oh, definitely. Tell me what happened.”

“Her name is Tonya Germaine. She came in with
a load of laundry and asked for her four quarters to run the
machine. Then, like she’s supposed to do, she used them for the
dryer. When she was done, I asked for the quarters back, and she
said she’s coming back tomorrow so she’ll use them tomorrow too,
and she just pushed past me and out the door. When she came back,
she said she forgot them and asked for more quarters.” Amanda was
clearly frustrated.

“How many times has this happened?”

“Six times now, almost every day. I know it’s
not a lot of money, and like I said, I’m running low. I don’t have
enough if all the machines are in use.”

“Is she the only one doing this?”

“Yes. What can I do?”

“I’ll take care of it,” I answered. This
young woman may need to be made an example of. It’s time to talk to
the colonel.

~~~

“I know it’s a minor problem, Jim, but if we
let her get away with breaking the rules, others will think they
can get away with things too, and then we will have a real mess on
our hands,” I explained to the colonel when I tracked him down in
Tom’s office at the township.

“I completely agree,” Jim said.

“What are you planning on doing, Jim?” Tom
asked.

“Oh, I think a little humiliation will work
wonders in this case,” he snickered. “Let’s find a couple of my
boys and pay Ms. Germaine a visit.”

~~~

I knocked on the door of the house we had
assigned to her.

“Ms. Germaine, we need to have a talk,” I
said when she answered the door.

“Yeah? About what?” she replied, eying the
colonel and his two men.

“About your behavior at the laundromat and
the theft of township property.”

“Theft? I didn’t steal anything!” Tonya
protested in alarm.

“We have it on good authority you have in
your possession twenty-four silver tokens that do not belong to
you,” Jim said, forcing his way in.

“Hey, you can’t barge in here like that, I
have my rights!”

“Oh, but I can and I did,” Jim said. He
leaned in close to her, forcing her to back up. “And that’s because
you
don’t have any rights
, Ms. Germaine. You are here on the
grace of the Moose Creek authorities, and you stole from them.
You’re under arrest.”

I swear she was going to cry!

“Arrest?” she said, bewildered, as Sgt.
Sanders and Cpl. Perkins moved to either side of her.

“You are banished from the laundromat for a
period of no less that one month and your punishment is two weeks
in jail,” Jim said reading from a blank sheet of paper, “which will
be reduced to one week when you return the tokens.” She hurried
from the room and came back with a bowl of quarters, handing them
to me with shaking hands.

“I can’t spend a week in jail… what about my
son?” she asked, her voice cracking.

“When he’s not in school, he will stay in the
jail cell with you.”

She looked aghast. “But he didn’t do anything
wrong,” she protested.

“The sins of the father,” Jim stated simply.
“Or in this case, the mother, and you were told when you first
arrived here, no one is your babysitter. Sargent, take Ms. Germaine
to the jail.” He turned back to her. “You will be escorted to the
school before it lets out, and both of you will be taken back to
the jail to serve your time.”

Tonya Germaine walked out the door
weeping.

“Wow, Jim, don’t you think that was
excessive?” I asked when we were walking back to the offices
alone.

“Yes,” he chuckled, “and that’s the point.
Those here have to know we’re serious. And before you ask the
wisdom of including the boy, he’s a bully, I’ve had reports that
haven’t changed. A bit of humiliation should turn him around
too.”

“A week though?”

“Oh, I think we’ll be able to reduce her
sentence to three days for good behavior,” Jim laughed.

~~~

Before going home, I stopped at the Inn to
see Marsha, wondering how things were going.

“I’m glad you came by, Allexa, I wanted to
tell you what showed up this morning,” Marsha said, all flushed
with excitement.

“Something good I hope. I can use some good
news.”

“Oh, yes! Two nice young men came by and
brought us three whole deer! I didn’t recognize them, but there are
so many here that I don’t know.”

“That is great news, Marsha. I’m sure the
fresh meat will be well received.,” I smiled. Art Collins had paid
his debt, in spades.

JOURNAL ENTRY: November 14

The weather has taken a definite turn for the worse.
I think our mild days are gone now, although it sure was nice while
it lasted. The digital outdoor thermometer read only thirty-four
degrees when I checked it this morning. I sipped a cup of tea while
I started a fire in the wood stove that hopefully will take the
chill out of the air.

*

I heard a vehicle pull in the driveway and
saw a pickup truck I didn’t recognize, then Lenny started pounding
on the glass door.

“Is Dr. Mark here, Allexa? Chloe has gone
into labor,” Lenny reported. “She’s waiting at the hospital.”

Mark and I quickly got dressed. I poured the
coffee I brewed for Mark into a thermos, and took what remained of
the loaf of bread, setting it into a tote box. While Mark selected
what drugs he thought might be needed, I grabbed a couple of jars
of soup from the pantry.

We were ready to leave in five minutes.

~~~

Nathan jumped out of his SUV as soon as we
pulled into the parking lot.

“Oh, thank God you’re here,” he said
anxiously. “Chloe started having contractions during the night, and
said they weren’t bad. Her water broke about an hour ago so I got
her ready to come here. She’s in a lot of pain, Doc!”

“Calm down Nathan, she’s going to be fine,”
Mark said. “This is your first baby isn’t it?”

“Yeah, does it show?” Nathan let loose a
nervous laugh, wringing his hands.

“Let’s get her inside.”

Mark and Nathan helped Chloe out of the
Explorer and into the wheelchair I had brought out from the lobby.
We got Chloe settled into one of the beds so Mark could examine
her. I was surprised to see Dr. James coming down the stairs from
our loft apartment.

“Just in time, James, you get to assist with
our first delivery,” Mark beamed. Just then a contraction hit, and
Chloe screamed.

“Take a deep breath, Chloe, and blow it out
through your mouth,” I said gently. She laid back and breathed a
few times.

“Thanks, Allexa, that helps.” She closed her
eyes to rest.

“She’s almost fully dilated. Allex, can you
prep the other bed for delivery?” Mark said to me, and I got to
work.

We had discussed earlier what would be best
to do for sanitation. Blankets and sheets could be washed, not so
the mattresses. I stripped down the bed next to the one Chloe was
in, one that Jason had fitted with rolling casters, and covered the
bedding with a sheet of plastic, tucking it in. Next went an old
blanket, folded so it became a pad, followed by a fitted sheet,
topped with a flat sheet that would be used for modesty.

“Nathan, would you help me put Chloe into a
delivery gown?” I asked the nervous new father. I pulled the shower
curtain closed around us. Once we had removed her bulky clothes, I
slipped a pink flowered cotton gown over her arms and used the
Velcro to close it at the neck. I pushed the curtains back and let
the three men move her while I held the bed steady.

I had put a blanket in the dryer before I
started and it was now soothingly warm Chloe sighed in contentment
when I tucked it around her shoulders. I went back to the kitchen
and put another blanket and a towel in the dryer.

The next contraction hit, and she let out
muffled moan. I wiped her forehead with a cool washcloth and Nathan
held her hand. The two doctors were in quiet discussion.
Contractions were now coming seconds apart.

“You’re doing great, Chloe, the baby’s head
is crowning,” Mark said with controlled glee. “Next contraction,
push!” She did. Mark’s head snapped up. “The umbilical cord is
around the neck, do
not
push until I say, no matter how
strong the urge is.”

“Chloe, look at me,” I said, moving into her
view. “I need to you to control your breathing, can you do that?”
She nodded, the sweat dampening her brown curls. “Good, now, take a
deep breath, and let it out slow, now short breaths, like a dog
panting. Great, keep it up.” I looked down at Mark, but he was deep
in concentration. Chloe groaned when another contraction hit.
“Breathe, Chloe, do not push, breathe! Now pant again, in and out
in short breaths. Again! Pant, don’t push!”

Mark looked up, relieved, and said, “You’re
doing great, Chloe. Next contraction you can push!”

I could see a little fist waving in the air
as the baby let out a cry. I grabbed the warmed large towel I had
set nearby between two more heated ones, and held it out for James
to wrap the baby. Mark took the baby and set him in the new
mother’s arms.

“Congratulations, you have a beautiful baby
boy.”

~~~

“I have to ask, Allex, how did you know what
to do about the breathing? I will admit I have never delivered a
baby under those conditions before. Of course, I haven’t delivered
very many babies at all. It was unnerving! Was that a Lamaze
method?” Mark asked.

“Yes, it was Lamaze. Eric was born the same
way. The umbilical was wrapped around his neck twice. I literally
had to stop breathing so my son could live to take his first
breath. A mother doesn’t forget moments like that,” I said,
remembering that morning like it was last week.