Dearly Beloved...An Addendum

 

In Roop’s funny little makeshift kitchen I started rooting through the cupboards and the short little apartment style fridge for something to make breakfast out of. He had some funny stuff. I wondered where he got figs. He had cans of tuna and crackers. He also had about a dozen bottles of various terrifying looking hot sauces.

He had six potatoes, the rest of the butter and a can of spam. Nobody really likes spam, but it's food. I thought that would work ok. We decided to grate up the potatoes and fry them. Doug said he would peel and grate the potatoes. So, I perched on a stool and watched him. We couldn’t find a potato peeler, so he found a small sharp knife and peeled them that way as finely as he could. They were big ones, so there was a lot left when he got done. The grating didn’t take him long. I watched his hands as he worked. He was careful and efficient. His brown hair hung in his eyes somewhat and I thought, you know Jen, to myself, you could trim that hair. I felt a little blush rise up on my cheeks. I was glad he wasn’t looking.

One of the funny things about those days was that of course there was no garbage man to come get the detritus of life. I took the peelings out in the alley and spread them out on the grass there on the edges to deteriorate as they would or be eaten by seagulls.

Roop’s stove was a little two burner electric job, also apartment sized. I got one pan ready and started the shreds frying. I cut up the spam and started it in another skillet.

I could hear a lot of chatting out in the front room. Elvin was filling everybody in on the details of our time in Jerusalem and Buddy kept butting in with questions and growling and grunting because he had not been there to tear the throat out of any bad guys. Because, man, he would have, he said!

I made a big pot of tea. We set the small table up in the living room and put six plates and forks around the sides. I put out mugs and the last of the sugar and a couple of spoons. It would have been nice to have some ketchup, but we hardly ever saw any of that. We were lucky to have salt and pepper. Roops went out to his stash and got some Scorpion Tabasco. Nobody but him wanted any of that.

Doug carried the skillets out one by one and served onto each of the plates and took the skillets back to the kitchen.

We sat where we could, and then I looked at Rupert in amazement as the man said a prayer of thanks both for the breakfast and our survival. We didn’t know yet what it all meant. All we knew was that we had seen an incredible event. The further away I got from it, the harder it was to realize. But there was a sense of big things happening, history being made, things changing. A force for destruction had been decapitated before our eyes by the tremendous armada of singing Lights. 

We had to explain how we had gotten to Jerusalem and why we had been taken there. The Thumbies, minions of World Com., had been sent to get Doug, and me and Elvin as it happened, to get him to swear allegiance to World Com. and receive empowerment from them to rule here. Once we had gotten on the bus we were going for a ride, no matter what we thought about it. 

I wondered if P-Sec had heard the news. No more support from World Com. for them. I wondered how this would affect our day-to-day lives. Would we be entirely on our own?

Another thing I didn’t know yet was that the key to this whole thing was a question of authority. Who decides, and can they enforce their decisions? If all that was left of the old world authority was P-Sec and they were powerless, who would decide? Well, we would find out.

As we sat around after breakfast I asked “hey do you guys remember what the stores used to be like when we were kids? I know Roops does and his mom. I don’t even know how I would be able to make choices faced with so much to pick from!” Everyone agreed that it sounded like a dream compared to now.

I was thinking that we might be even more on our own now, if the totally lame store down on the highway folded. There might be even tougher days ahead, but that it was ok, if we were to be free of suffocating control over our lives. Time would tell.

I stacked the dishes and took them out to the kitchen. Doug washed and I dried. He didn’t say much. But he seemed thoughtful. When we finished, we rejoined the group out front and took our seats again. We needed to decide who was going where.

Roops said that his mom should stay with him for now. He would find a way to take her home at some later time if she wanted to go home. Doug thought the rest of us should head out to my and Lou’s place. So, we gathered up Lou and Elvin and Bubby, said our goodbyes and started the two-mile hike out home again. It was a nice dry overcast day. Easy walking weather. In the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a Light up high. It was hard to say in those light conditions. I was just glad to know they were still with us.

We stopped at the store and bought a dozen big cans of dog food and some bread, cheese, and butter. I looked around the aisles and thought that it would be hard to get along without this paltry source of goods. The store was dreary indeed with sparsely filled shelves and the dusty floor. We saw Denise and said hi. She was her usual cheerful self as she bagged our stuff and took our play money for it.

The bus stop looked like a regular bus stop today. No portals. I guessed we were not being summoned anywhere.

Lou and Elvin and Bubby trooped along like extras from Wizard of Oz. I thought they might start skipping at any moment. Doug and I brought up the rear. He had our purchases in his backpack.

He said “Jen, I want to talk to you about something. But let’s do it tonight at home, ok? I’m thinking about the future.”

I said “sure”, and we kept walking on down the road, passing Mrs. Steele’s house, which was still standing and looked undisturbed from the street. I was thinking that there had been a time when all of this bushiness was under control and people mowed lawns and planted flowers. People drove cars and went wherever they liked. Who knew, maybe such a time would come again, if everything went well.

Our house was ok, and the key to the front door worked thanks to the Thumbie bros. The least they could do, after what they were planning for us. The power was working so we had lights. We all took turns showering and I washed a couple loads of laundry once the showers were done. We all felt much better.

I went through my dad’s closet to see if anything would fit the boys. Dad was thicker in the middle, but his shirts were ok, if a little baggy. Dad had a couple of nice sweaters that would be ok too. Doug and Elvin wore his baggy pajamas while I was washing clothes.

It was getting toward evening. Lou and Elvin and Bubby went out into the backyard to see about digging some potatoes and if there was anything else useful. Then they walked down the block to see our neighbor lady who kept chickens. They hoped to trade a bag of potatoes for a dozen of those pink eggs.

While they were gone Doug and I sat at the kitchen table and had some tea. He still looked like he was full of something to say but was having a little trouble spitting it out. I was a little nervous, but maybe a little excited too, for some reason that I did not really understand.

He started, “look, Jen, I’ve learned to like you an awful lot. You seem like a smart, good girl.” Finally, a start.

I stared at my hands holding the tea mug. I didn’t know where to look. I took a quick look up. He was smiling. That helped.

“I was wondering if I could talk you into marrying me. I mean not right this minute. Would you think about it?” he said, grinning.

“We could rule the county together!” he said! I laughed.

I would have said I was shocked and surprised, but you know what? I wasn’t!

“Ok Doug,” I said. “Ok, I will give this serious consideration,” and had to laugh again. It felt like we were pretending, in a nice way, to be real adults.

Here we go again, lol. In the tenth year of the pandemonium.docx