But the Children Survived (5 page)

Mindy put a bowl of water down for the little dog, which quickly lapped up every last drop.  Mindy refilled the bowl.  She took out the beef jerky, broke it into pieces, and put it on a plate.  She put the plate next to the water bowl. 

There was a clock on the wall, and Mindy noticed it read ten minutes to five. 

"I have to go.  I can’t take you with me, but I’ll come right back.”  Baby Girl whined a little as Mindy closed the door. 

Mindy set off in the direction she and Maria Elena had gone earlier that day.  When she got to the store she began reading the signposts until she came to Market Street.  She could see the large, cafeteria-style dining room to her right.  The tables were filled with children her age.  She could see Maria Elena in the food line and moved towards her. 

Mindy hadn’t seen this much food in a very long time.  There were vats of spaghetti, meat sauce, rice, diced chicken, canned corn, and glorious desserts.  Mindy took a tray and a plate.  She filled the plate to overflowing and grabbed a napkin and silverware at the end of the line.  She followed Maria Elena to a table in the middle of the room.  There were two other girls sitting there when she and Maria sat down.

"Mindy, this is Katie and Alyssa.  Girls, this is Mindy.  She’s just arrived.”  Katie and Alyssa were identical twins.  Mindy was fascinated watching the girls eat because they did so many things the same way.  They lifted their forks the same way.  They chewed their food the same way.  Mindy couldn’t take her eyes off them and found it hard to follow the conversation.

"Where were you, Mindy?”  Alyssa was asking.

"Uh, oh I was in Largo.”  Mindy kept looking back and forth between the girls.  They looked exactly alike!  They had flaming red hair, freckles, green eyes, and dimples.

"We were in Gulfport.  When our parents died, we were left alone for days.  We had just run completely out of food when they came for us.  I didn’t like the bodies.  I was glad when they found us,” Katie said.

“I saw one body.  There was a man across the street from Grammy’s house.  Everyone had left, the hurricane was coming, but he stayed.  I thought he just died because he was old.” Mindy stopped talking.  She hated thinking about the old man’s body.  She changed the subject. 

“Who are they?” Mindy asked, pointing at Christie and a large man in an apron. “They must have told you something?”

"Well, we don’t know who actually picked us up.”  Katie said.  “But Christie, Andrew and George take care of us.”

"And nobody knows who they are, Christie, Andrew and George that is?”  Mindy had a habit of half-squinting her eyes while pouting.  She was doing that now.

"As long as we’re cared for, does it matter?”  Maria Elena was looking in earnest at Mindy as if to say “let it go”.  Mindy’s face softened.   She kind of liked Maria Elena and didn’t want to hurt her feelings. 

"Mindy has a dog.” Maria Elena said.  Katie and Alyssa looked up. 

"How does she have a dog?  Our dog died when our parents died, and our cat too.  How do you have a dog?”  Katie said it so loud that the kids at the tables around them stopped to listen.  Alyssa elbowed her sister.

"I don’t know why she’s still alive.  She belonged to my Grammy.  She’s just a little dog,” Mindy said.  She felt strange-as though she’d done something wrong.  “I’m sorry your dog and cat died,” she said to Katie and Alyssa.

"It’s okay.  It’s not your fault.” Alyssa looked at her sister and they nodded in agreement. 

Mindy relaxed and started eating her dinner.  She slipped several pieces of meat into a napkin for Baby Girl. 

When they were done eating, they all got up from the table and took their trays to the garbage stand.  They emptied the paper goods into the trash and put the trays in a dishwasher-like contraption.  After they were done, they walked out into the town square. 

The sky was getting darker.  The angle of the lighting had changed to reflect the setting sun.  The girls asked Mindy if she wanted to watch a movie.  Mindy said she would love to, and they all went to Maria Elena’s house.  Mindy felt the glow of companionship for the first time since Grammy had left her.  It felt good to hear human voices, female voices, and to sit with girls and laugh at nothing. 

When Mindy went home to Baby Girl, she was greeted by a very annoyed little terrier.  She immediately took Baby Girl outside.  Before she went to bed, she put the meat she had saved for Baby Girl in the fridge for the dog’s breakfast the next day. 

When Mindy hit the pillow that night, she prayed to God that this place was okay.  She wanted to feel safe.  She was sick of being afraid, and as Baby Girl snuggled next to her, Mindy relaxed and drifted off to sleep.

CHRISTINA BLAIR

Chapter 6

Wilmer and March Pharmaceuticals recruited Christina Blair during her senior year at Princeton.  Christie had created a fertilizer that not only produced hardy plants, but also repelled the pests that liked to destroy them. 

When Christie graduated, Wilmer and March paid Princeton for the rights to Christie’s discovery, gave Christie a research position in their Tampa, Florida research facility, and also took care of Christie’s student loans as payment for her part in the creation of their newfound gold mine.  At 22, Christie was on her way. 

Christie bought a townhouse in Tampa’s Carrollwood section.  She also spoiled herself with a new car, a Lexus, and bought clothing she could only dream of as a student working at Starbucks.  Now she had a six-figure salary with benefits and stock options. 

Christie’s parents were beaming as they told everyone they knew that it was their Christie who had created that wonderful fertilizer, the fertilizer that would change the world!

Wilmer and March had built a state-of-the-art laboratory on a piece of property they’d acquired in a rural area north of Tampa.  The lab was like a playground to Christie.  They had spared no expense, and Christie was free to experiment to her heart’s content.  She knew that eventually she would have to produce something viable, but for now she would continue to coast on the success of the creation that had given her this great life.

Christie met Neil Cramer at a New Year’s Eve party thrown by one of her colleagues.  He was tall, with great big blue eyes and brown hair.  They fell in love quicly and married the following June. 

Neil was a struggling criminal attorney in Tampa.  He had a small office with two rooms, one for him and one for his legal assistant.  He barely broke even as his clients more often than not were destitute, and his natural compassion led him to go above and beyond to help them.  This left little time for developing a more stable client base.  Christie’s income allowed him to pursue his passion for the underdog. 

Christie believed that someday Neil would tire of the ingratitude of the masses, and join a firm that would pay him a regular salary.  Despite Neil’s blind spot regarding drug addicts and alcoholics, Christie truly loved him.  She could see herself with Neil forever.  He truly was her soul mate.

The following June, Christie learned she was pregnant.  As a scientist, the whole process of gestation was fascinating to her.  Neil tried to share her enthusiasm, but the best he could do was rub her back and feet while pretending to listen. 

Neil was prepping for a trial at the Hillsborough County Courthouse.  The client was amazingly guilty, and just how Neil would keep this guy out of jail was occupying his mind as Christie talked about her pregnancy.

Their baby girl was born on Valentine’s Day.  She was a blonde, blue-eyed wonder they named Haley.  Christie and Neil were both smitten with their little baby.  After Christie went back to work six weeks later, Neil took charge of picking up little Haley from daycare.

When Haley was six months old, Neil picked her up from daycare during a terrible downpour.  Neil was sideswiped by a drunk driver and forced off the road.  He couldn’t stop the car and couldn’t see where he was going.  The car went down an embankment and rolled over several times. 

Haley’s baby seat strap came loose, and the infant was slammed between the floor and the roof of the car over and over again.  When the car landed upside down, Neil’s head was crushed by the roof of the car.  Haley died a short time later from extreme head trauma and internal injuries.

Christie thought it was the rain that was keeping Neil, so she didn't call 911 right away.  She thought he might have pulled off the road until it let up, but when she tried to reach his cell, it went to voicemail.  She tried to keep her thoughts positive.  By eight o’clock that evening, she began to feel panic rising in her chest.  She hadn’t heard from Neil and she still couldn’t raise him on the phone.  She called 911.

The rain impeded the search for Neil and Haley.  When the police came to the door four hours later, Christie knew the news was bad.  The officer’s grim expressions said it all.  She maintained her composure until they asked her to come down to the hospital to identify the bodies.  That was all Christie heard as she fell to the floor and passed out. 

In the months after the funerals, Christie worked only sporadically.  She had no interest in research and even less in money.  When they had married, she and Neil had purchased a life insurance policy worth $500,000.  With the payout from the life insurance policy and the money from the equity in their home, Christie could live comfortably for a long time in less pricey digs. 

She gave Wilmer and March her emailed resignation and drove to the Keys, where she bought a tiny cottage big enough for one.  For weeks she spent her days in a folding lounge chair nursing a watered down margarita and avoiding eye contact with her neighbors. 

Christie started to feel restless as time went by.  She was a pragmatic soul - she was a scientist after all - and she knew that work, any type of work, would distract her from her misery.  She applied at the local Starbucks and was hired immediately.  She was working the bar one afternoon when Jacob Wilmer walked through the door and ordered a double espresso.

Christie recognized Jacob.  Once a year he would appear at the company Christmas party.  He was older, but it was definitely him.  He looked at her and smiled. 

Jacob told her he’d been looking for her.  He said he had a special project that needed a scientist, especially a scientist with her background.  Jacob wanted her to work the on project for him. 

Christie eyed him suspiciously.  She had to admit she was curious, but she didn’t know if she was ready to go back to that kind of high-pressure environment.  Jacob gave her his card and asked her to call him when she was ready to learn more. 

Two weeks later, Christie found herself in Jacob’s beach house Palm Beach. 

“What I’m going to tell you must be held in strictest confidence.” Jacob told her, as he handed her a confidentiality agreement.  He made her sign it before he would disclose the details of his offer.

It seemed that Jacob Wilmer was a bit of an eccentric; an eccentric with unlimited funds.  He had a large, extended family in New Jersey and New York.  There were 200 members to be exact.  He believed that a holocaust of some kind was on the horizon, and he was determined to protect his line. 

Jacob owned a large piece of land in Palm Harbor.  The property was a few miles south of Tampa.   He told Christie that he was building an underground city, a place where his family could live in safety on that property.  The city would have everything they needed. 

The main floor of the facility would have small houses for each family member and a communal dining room.  He would stock it with food and supplies, clothing, furniture, or anything else they might need for the immediate and distant future.  There would be a farm with animals and large tract of land for farming.  Christie couldn’t fathom the size of this “city.”

Jacob offered her the job of supervising the building of the vegetable farm.  He said her expertise with fertilizer, coupled with the fact that she had no apparent family ties made the match ideal.  When asked why he mentioned her family ties, Jacob said she would have to live in the city while she was working.  She would be unable to communicate with anyone in her family while underground.  Christie said she did have parents, and Jacob offered to compensate them if it would help her make a decision.

When Christie went home that day, she called her parents, Toni and Don.  Her parents listened to Christie say that she had been offered a great opportunity to work in her field, but she wouldn't be able to communicate with them for a while.  She lied and told them she would be entering a biosphere in Hawaii. 

Toni and Don were thrilled for Christie. They hadn't heard their daughter sound so alive in months.  They said they understood and gave her their blessing. 

Three days later Christie met with an attorney to sign a will and durable power of attorney naming her parents as beneficiaries.  She gave her attorney, Michael Crane, a key to her house and asked him to look after it for her. 

As her legal counsel and so sworn to uphold confidentiality, she told him where she would be and whom she was working for.  Michael cautioned her against doing it as it sounded a little too weird to him, but Christie was firm in her decision.  She thanked him, handed him a $25,000 retainer, and left.

GERALD TODD

Chapter 7

Gerald Todd had been a researcher at Wilmer and March in New Jersey for 10 years.  He was a tall, lean man with a receding hairline and horn-rimmed glasses.  When they opened their new Tampa facility, he was invited to go to Florida.