Some New Business For The Continuing Story

I included the first part of this chapter just for continuity.  I'm thinking about a name for the book, if indeed, it becomes a book.  I thought maybe just NO.  We shall see.

 

Downtown

Hi, this is Jen.  It was getting later in the afternoon and I figured we better get something for Buddy to eat.  He was a really skinny big dog!

We usually filled our backpacks with whatever they happened to have in the state-run store.  You never knew what might be there.  This was official shopping done with official funny money, from the little books we had gotten at the old used to be Post Office.

I will say, it’s a funny business being orphans in what’s left of the country.

“Hey, Lou” I say “let’s go buy some Alpo or something, and see if they have something for us.”  She got up to her feet and Buddy stood up too. Lou had been squatting like an Indian on the sidewalk just silently watching the people in town today.

I looped my arm through hers, and we went down the sidewalk like a couple of nuts with a big dog.  Buddy stayed right with me and Lou. There were a few more of those stencils painted on the sidewalk.  “Follow Me”. Follow who?  Who knows!

So, on the main old highway, there is a store that used to be a supermarket.  They still call it the QFC, but it isn’t really the QFC.  It’s kind of a PNW Section Authority food outlet.  I can barely remember real supermarkets. Lots of whatever you wanted. No more.

This place was really dull.  They don’t decorate at all.  All of the old shelves and cases are there, but most of them don’t have a lot.  However, they had some canned dog food.  I was joking about Alpo.  They had plain cans that said dog food, beef, in black stenciled lettering on the top.

I got some paper plates too.  They had peanut butter and heavy whole wheat bread too.  And some little apples.  I had to buy a plastic knife for the peanut butter. 

Outside the store, I laid down a paper plate, pulled the tab on the dog food can and dumped it out for Buddy to eat.  He had been waiting a long time.  He didn’t gobble.  He ate carefully, and cleanly.  I put the paper plate in a garbage barrel near the door.  Then we all moved over to the bus stop, though there are very few buses these days, and sat down for a peanut butter picnic.  I forgot to mention that the store had canned tea, so we had some of that too.  No dessert, unless you count a very small apple. Still, we felt better then.

***

While we were up by the Post Office, I had noticed a couple of boys. I had never seen them before.  They were picking up their little booklets of fake money also.  I got a pretty good look while their backs were turned. They appeared to be in their late teens and like they might have been walking for a long time.  You know how that looks? Lou and I were pretty sure they were brothers.  Brown hair, blue eyes, taller than us. I guess they were good looking.  Thin.  We’re all thin. Well, except for Lou.  She is almost round! 

So of course, they appeared at the same store we had gone to.  Sitting in our bus stop shelter we didn’t stare. I did notice that sewn to the back of each backpack was a six-inch square piece of red fabric with word “NO” stenciled on it in white.  The plot was beginning to thicken just a little bit.

So, of course, the boys came over to the same bus stop.  I thought they probably wanted to sit down and eat something also.  Lou and I scooted down and made room.  Buddy stood up in front of us looking at them. He didn’t bark, but he didn’t budge either.

“What’s your dog’s name?” the taller one asked.  “In fact, what’s your name, or hers?” he said nodding at Lou. “I’m Doug, this wart here is Elvin.”

“I don’t really know the dog’s name” I said.  “He found us walking into town from Riverside.  And he seems to think we are his now. Oh, yeah, we call him Buddy.  He doesn’t seem to mind.”

“That’s my little sister, Lou, and I am Jen.”

Doug made them some sandwiches with the same brown bread and some potted ham spread.  Not my preference!  They had some kind of soda in cans too.  Eating, resting and looking around Doug spoke again.  “So, um, what are you doing in town, I mean besides getting your book of money and buying lunch?”

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Me & Lou & Doug & Elvin & Buddy

“That’s about it” I told Doug.  “That and getting away from the house for a while.”

We spent almost all our time just living in our parent’s old place.  We cook, keep it kind of tidy and do a little bit of gardening outside.  We read books and sometimes listen to the radio.  We don’t have a school to go to.  There are not that many kids our ages and they don’t really care what we do or how we end up.  I can’t even imagine what will happen to us in the future.  It’s totally up in the air.

It’s hard to keep track of what is going on in the world because our only source of news is the PSec radio news station.  It’s a very unreliable source of information.

Honestly, most of what we hear is by rumor. Now you may think that is even more unreliable, but often it seems to fit what we see happening around us.  Most of what we see happening around us is nearly nothing.  It’s just people trying to have some kind of a life, even though most of us who were living are not and there is nothing that used to be the bones of our common lives.  No school.  Nearly no jobs.  No normal stores.  No internet, which sounds like a dream now.  No TV.

Tucking their picnic supplies back into his backpack, Doug stands and faces me.  We just look at each other for a moment.  He seems to be thinking.  Finally, he says “Me and Elvin came into town to meet some people here on the waterfront.  We walked from Arlington yesterday. We meet in a place that used to be called the Wharf Café but is empty now.”

I sat there on the bus stop bench looking at this dusty boy and his little brother and considering what he had told me so far.

All I can ask is “why?”  I was remembering those stenciled words on the sidewalk and wondering about a connection.  “Why do you walk all the way from Arlington, to meet some people in a dead café?”

Buddy was resting his big head on Lou’s knee, and she was patting it and talking in baby talk to him.  She wasn’t paying attention to the rest of us at all. 

“It’s because we all have to get together and make a new government.  This one doesn’t work.  They are the same people who caused all of this and now they don’t know how to run a system at all.  Look around yourself Jen, and what do you see?  You see failure and loss and ruin and it doesn’t have to be this way. We have to start over.”  He stood looking at me, waiting for some kind of reaction. I pushed my hands into my pockets and stared off down the street thinking.  He was right.  It looked like a ghost town.  No cars moving around.  Seldom do we even see other people.

“In fact, Jen, if PSec knew about us they would be out to kill us too.  They sure don’t want the surviving peasants to get any notions about taking over.”

“The problem is, we don’t have anyone in charge of the whole country, or even this section of the country.  That’s what we’re working out now, if we can.”

I could see this coming a mile away.  “Jen and Lou” Doug says, “why don’t you come with us and just listen to what we’re all talking about tonight?  We’ll take care of you and get you home alive.  Promise.”

Elvin sat on the bench looking from face to face, following Doug’s words and making his little brother’s face with a grin.

I found myself asking myself, why not?  Things that cannot go on the way they are going, will not go on the way they are going.  I had to believe this.  Seemed like a truism.

“Ok, Doug, Lou and Buddy and me will follow you down there and see what gives.”

We  had left home during sunrise and now the day was fading.  Short days during fall.  I could see that we were going to be out all night.  OK, I guess that’s alright I thought.  Nobody is at home waiting for us to return.  Not even a cat.

So, we left the bus stop all together.  A group of somewhat shabby kids with a big bony dog tagging along.  We had to walk several blocks to get into the waterfront part of town.  It was about a mile.