The Girl Who Owned a City (13 page)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

T

he move to Glenbard had been kept “top secret” until the very last minute. Only the militia captains knew about it.

The children were awakened that night by the captains, who had memorized their orders: “Don't be frightened. We're moving to a new home tonight. Get all of your stuff and bring it to the front of Jill's house. But quiet—not a sound!”

The children moved quietly and obediently. They were standing patiently by the truck in less than half an hour.

After forming two lines, they passed their possessions into the truck from both sides. After the truck bottom was filled, the children scrambled up to sit on top of the bags and backpacks. The truck carried them to the fortress in the darkness.

At Glenbard, two human chains formed again. The children lifted their belongings out of the truck and into the safety of the building.

In the pitch black of the school basement, they were told to remain quiet and to listen. Lisa spoke to them. “It's very important that you know some absolute rules. This is my city, Glenbard. We can all live here in safety, but we can't make one single mistake. You must follow every rule, or you'll be asked to leave. If you don't like the rules, then you are free to move back to your homes. You don't have to stay here.

“The Chidester Gang and others will be looking for us and for our treasures. We can't give them the slightest clue that we are here. For the next two weeks, we're going to work hard to make the city into a fortress. It will be like a castle, and we must build it quietly. From the outside, this building will look and sound completely deserted.

“Okay, here are the rules for the next two weeks. Listen carefully! There will be no candles or lights at any time. You must not leave the building except at night and then only if you're going out on a special mission. Don't go near windows or any place where they can see you from outside. You must never, ever shout. Always talk softly or whisper.

“If you are building or doing any project that is noisy, you must do it in the basement furnace room. We will explain the daily schedule later when we show you around. Just be prepared for two weeks of the hardest work you've ever known. There will be no playing, no noise, no mistakes, until we're finished.

“Then,” she said, as if to give them courage, “when it's finished, we'll announce the new city to the world. We'll make a lot of noise, and we'll celebrate.”

The children were quiet for the rest of the night. Only a few muffled questions broke the silence.

Morning came, and sunlight filled their new home. The children wandered around, looking at the many curious sights. Someone had been busy in Glenbard, changing the old school into the place where they now lived.

At nine, Lisa and Jill took the citizens on a tour of their new city. They would live in the upper west section, facing Lake Ellyn. The classrooms had been converted into small apartments, with mattresses on the floor and blinds over the windows. Each apartment had a wash table in one corner with a pail of water, a metal pan, soap, towels, and a large mirror. A family name was written on each door.

Jill and Lisa had assigned the rooms, dividing all the children into “families.” Jill's adopted children were organized into four groups of four roommates. Jill had a room with her own sisters, Katy and Missy.

The building could eventually hold four or five hundred citizens, maybe even more. But now there were only 35 kids who seemed to disappear in the huge place. As they toured the indoor city, Jill and Lisa took turns explaining their plan.

“This will be our cafeteria,” Lisa was saying. “We'll eat our meals at eleven and five each day. Don't be late or you'll go hungry. Julie and Nancy, will you take charge of the cooking?” They agreed.

Lisa made it clear that everyone would have a specific job in the city. There would be weekly meetings to discuss any job changes.

She told them that Glenbard was now her private property and that they were all welcome to stay. But she wanted everyone to do something to support the city. She wanted and needed them with her. But they had to know the rules.

Lisa went on. “Someday soon, we hope to have many other children here with us, and that will make it easier. For a while, though, it will be very hard work. At least we'll be safe.”

“Here is our hospital,” said Jill, as they passed the old Glenbard nurse's office. “I'm in charge of it. Missy and Katy will be my nurses. Be sure you come to me if you have even the tiniest pain. We have lots of medicine, and I'm studying books about first aid and those things. I will become a real doctor as fast as I can.”

The children peered into the small, white room. It had two small beds with bright, clean sheets. There were cabinets of books and, in the corner by the window, there was a big sink and some odd-looking metal equipment.

They moved along to a group of three classrooms.

“Here is where you'll come to school,” Jill said. “For a while, there will be no weekends in our city. It sounds awful, but we have a lot to learn and no time to waste. There will be holidays for those who study and work hard.”

They all sat down in one of the classrooms. Lisa said, “You must report to class at seven in the morning. We'll have juice and crackers, so you won't get too hungry. We'll stop for chores and lunch from ten until noon. Then we'll have classes again from noon until two. After that, we'll work on building Glenbard into a real city.

“Craig will be in charge of the school, but Jill and I will teach some classes too. We'd like Julie Miller and her roommates to be teachers' assistants during the work periods. Okay, girls?” It was. Lisa motioned for Craig to take over.

He didn't like to speak in front of large groups, but he was excited about his new job as a teacher. This is almost as good as having that farm, he thought to himself. And it's sure better than being the militia general.

“In the morning,” he began, “we'll all attend survival classes—Lisa, Jill, and I will teach them. You'll learn about cooking, first aid, basic farming, camping, and so on. Jill will teach the youngest of you, so if you're under five, you must meet with Jill here in this room. All children older than five will meet with Lisa and me in classroom number three.

“Now, in the afternoon, we'll have special advanced classes. I know it sounds funny, but we all have to start planning for our full-time jobs. We're teaching farming, medicine, defense, machinery, and building. Other courses will be added later.

“Everyone must choose a job in one of these areas. Your morning teacher will help you decide. The afternoon classes won't begin for a month, so you'll have time to make up your mind. Any questions?” There were none, and Craig sat down.

“Oh, yes,” he remembered, “during this week everyone must report to the strategy room after lunch. We've got a lot of planning to do—especially in defense.”

“What is a strategy room?” asked Katy.

“Come along and we'll show you,” said Jill.

It was a strange-looking room with a lot of black-boards and maps of Glen Ellyn. On the far wall were photos and drawings of Glenbard and the land around it. On the long table, there was a plan of the school that showed the rooms and halls. There were about 40 toy soldiers sitting on the table.

Charlie was the new militia general.

“Strategy,” Charlie said, “means planning. In this room, we will pretend in advance how battles might go so that we'll be ready to fight them. See these play soldiers on the table? Now, we can pretend that the enemy has entered the building at this door over here.” He pointed to a place on the drawing. “We'll put these toy soldiers here to stand for the enemy. To plan our strategy, we can move our soldiers to different places on the drawing and decide the best way to handle this particular situation. By using the maps, blackboards, and other things, we can practice hundreds of different strategies.”

Charlie added, “Todd Nelson, Steve Cole, Kevin, and his three roommates will be my captains. Is that all perfectly clear?” He asked the question in a sharp, military tone. It sounded like something he'd learned while watching a war movie.

They all understood. Katy said, “That sounds like a fun game. Can I play it too, sometime?”

“War is not a game!” replied the tough new general.

Jill and Lisa led them from the strategy room to the library. “This library has books mainly for older kids, so we're going to take the truck to the Glen Ellyn library and move their books over here. Eventually, we'll have six rooms of library space.

“After the city is built, we can have candles after dark. Then you can come here to read during the evening.”

Next, they showed them the game room, which didn't look much like a game room yet. There were just a few toys, but Jill and Lisa promised to fill the room by the time Glenbard was finished.

There were many other rooms. Three rooms next to the cafeteria were for storing food, and two just down the hall were for supplies. There was a special room with huge wooden bars and several padlocks. “Here's where we'll store our guns and bombs and things like that,” said Jill.

Later they would prepare other rooms: the automobile shop for fixing cars, the woodworking classroom for building things, and the home economics room for cooking classes.

There were many more plans for the city. But for now, their lives would be simple. Defense and food supplies were their biggest problems. These must be taken care of before anything else.

Julie and Nancy made the first morning meal at Glenbard out of soup and powdered milk. After lunch, Lisa, Jill, and Craig organized the others into work groups. There was a lot to be done, and no time to waste.

Lisa and Jill had done a good job of preparation. Everyone could see that they had already put in many late-night hours of hard work. The city already seemed like a cozy place.

By six, the Glenbard citizens had sore muscles and feet, but they were also excited and happy about their new home. Lisa could hear it in their playful whispers. “Quiet down now . . . get to sleep . . . no candles!” She made an inspection of the family rooms.

That night, Lisa had a private talk with each of the family leaders. “Do you understand the rules? Our lives depend on total quiet and secrecy. I am trusting you to take charge of this room. Come to me the minute something, even the slightest thing, seems wrong. Make sure that no one moves from their beds until I come by again in the morning.”

From outside, Glenbard was still a deserted old high-school building. There were no signs of life.

But there
was
a light—a secret light—in Glenbard. A small candle burned in a tower room that had been carefully sealed. Wooden panels covered the window and the door to the hall. The edges of the panels were taped shut with black tape. From the outside, the room was as lightless as a coffin.

The secret room was for Glenbard's council. The chamber would glow inside for many, many nights to come. It was here, in endless meetings, that the leaders would shape the future of the city. The candle's light painted shadows across their faces as they sat whispering around the small table.

Lisa was in charge of these conferences. Tonight they were discussing the old problem of making a defense plan. None of them liked to talk about it, but it had to be done. And the new plan had to be good.

Looking at her notes, Lisa made her defense proposal. “The way I see it, the first thing to do is to seal this place up so that no one could possibly get in. I'm talking about steel and bolts, not wood and nails. We should put solid steel covers over the inside of every door and window. I noticed that all the doors in the gym and bathrooms are made of metal. We can use them.”

“Hey, I know,” said Craig. “In the auto shop classroom, there's some welding equipment. My Uncle Elliot was a welder. I don't think you need electricity to work it. You just light the end of the torch and gas comes from the tank. There are lots of tanks down there.” It didn't make sense to Lisa right away.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well, we could weld the metal doors to the steel window frames. Nothing is stronger than welding!” he explained.

“What's wrong with bars?” asked Jill. “It will be awfully dark in here if the windows are all covered over. I wouldn't like that.”

“It's not what we like that counts right now,” Craig said. “Anyway, with bars someone could throw firebombs inside or spy on us.”

“It sounds all right to me,” said Lisa. She thought for a moment. “But just think of the work it would take. There must be a thousand windows in this place.” She thought again. “Why not just the first floor for now? Then Jill can have her light up here. Our other defenses, I think, will take care of the upper stories. We don't want any changes to be seen from the outside till the very last minute. Craig, can you get it all set up first—everything cut and fitted and ready to go so we can put them all up on the last night?”