The Happy Housewife (Samantha Sherman Book 1) (7 page)

She looked up books on police procedure, ELF and ALF, and then out of curiosity looked up counterculture and Weather Underground. She accumulated a stack of books and, setting them on one of the library’s research tables, checked her watch again. She had about an hour left. She hadn’t found anything on ELF, but did find a book on ALF. She skimmed through the police procedure book and a sympathetic but dated book on ALF.

Sam moved on to a book on the 1960s. Glancing through it she saw that it was a pretty generic recap of protest movements from the 60s and 70s. She remembered the majority of it from one of her online college classes. She had also read a book by David Horowitz, someone deeply involved in these movements, and the underlying efforts to bring socialism and communism to the United States, on her own. She would have to look at it at home later. It had been a number of years since she read it.

Another book caught Sam’s eye, by Larry Grathwhol. She scanned his biography … a Vietnam veteran who became an FBI informer when he returned from Vietnam. He eventually testified before Congress about the Weathermen and worked with the FBI to try and prosecute them. She scanned some of the introductory pages to get a feel. She read:

11 members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) who had written and signed a 16,000-word statement called, “You Don’t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows,” presented during the SDS National Convention in Chicago June 18-22, 1969. It was a call to arms by the more radical members of the SDS. And it defined the radical group’s goal as “the destruction of U.S. imperialism and the achievement of a classless world: world communism.”

Sam vaguely recalled how some of the peace movement had gone off the deep end and she sort of thought there had been some bombings later, in the 70s.
Interesting stuff
, thought Sam. She realized she was getting off track though.

Still curious, however, she picked up another counterculture book by Cril Payne, a former FBI agent who had infiltrated the Weatherman group. She glanced again at her watch; she had about twenty minutes left. She skimmed through the book until the word “Weatherman” caught her eye. It said:

In October 1969, the Weatherman faction put their militant, confrontation theory on the line as they battled the Chicago police in the ‘Days of Rage.’ At their last public gathering held in Flint, Michigan, in December 1969, the Weatherman ‘War Council’ decided the group would go underground. “We have to start tearing down this country,” Mark Rudd told the War Council. “We have to have a revolution in this country that’s going to overthrow—like bombs, like guns, like firebombs, by anything and everything.” Charles Manson was enshrined as a heroic symbol, and Weathermen began saluting each other with the fork sign, three fingers held up like the two-fingered peace sign but instead signifying the three-pronged serving fork left jabbed in the stomach of Robert LaBianca after his throat was brutally slashed by members of the Manson Family. It was heralded as ‘the year of the fork’ and the criterion for revolutionary action became “the heavier the better.”

Oh no
, thought Sam. The Manson Family? She’d seen way too many ‘E’ True Hollywood stories on that one. Charles Manson was a hippie who developed a cult-like group of followers dubbed the Manson Family whom he prompted to commit murder for money, drugs, and his counterculture principles. In August 1969 the Manson Family killed five people at the home of Sharon Tate, a famous actress who was eight and a half months pregnant, and director Roman Polanski. They also killed Leno LaBianca and his wife in a horrific manner.

Sam felt her stomach clench … the three finger salute. She immediately began to dismiss herself … she probably had it wrong. She felt the need to find that Horowitz book
now
. She got up and quickly located the library’s copy. She looked up Weathermen in the index and found several entries under ‘Weather Underground.’ One of them discussed:

… a famous ‘War Council’ held in Flint, Michigan, when Bernadine Dohrn praised Charles Manson and spread her fingers in the infamous fork salute. “Dig it!” she cried to the assembled warriors. “First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into a victim’s stomach. Wild!”

Sam set down the book carefully and stared straight ahead. She felt frozen, unsure of how to proceed. A familiar feeling returned and there she was back in the helicopter, back on THAT night …

As they searched around the shoreline, her crew saw what they first thought were kayakers. When it quickly ‘clicked’ that typically kayakers do not paddle around at 4:30 a.m., they circled back and found three people in the water. They came into a hover, deployed the Rescue Swimmer and hoisted up the three people. The survivors, two men and a boy of fifteen, told them that their boat had smashed into rocks and everyone onboard was thrown off. They said that there was one more person on their boat, the captain, who was also the boy’s father. He was below decks and did not have on a life vest when the boat hit the rocks. They did not immediately see anyone else in the water. While the two men appeared to be stable, with mild hypothermia only, the boy had severe hypothermia and was going into shock. The Rescue Swimmer, a qualified EMT, reported that his condition was worsening.

“Ma’am, we need to get this kid to the hospital. He’s getting worse and worse.”

The Flight Mechanic countered saying, “But there’s still one more guy down there. We’ve got the fuel to keep looking. We should stay.”

The crew looked to the Aircraft Commander, Lt. Lee, to make the final decision … should she stay on scene and risk the boy dying of shock, or leave, causing the survivor to get missed or to possibly lose hope and slip under the water?

Sam pulled herself back and checked her watch again.
Why can’t I just let go of this?
It had been years … at least the memories only came back to her now during times of stress. She knew what had happened that night had made her indecisive and less confident. She had learned the hard way that choices could have such disastrous consequences. She wondered if that was why she allowed Doug to make so many decisions in their marriage. She had regained some of her old confidence while helping Mrs. Thomas today. It felt great until moments like this made her feel paralyzed and incompetent again. Sam sighed; she needed to pick up Lindsey. She would decide what to do later.

S
am absently listened to Lindsey’s idle, six-year-old chatter. She reflexively made the appropriate noises. Having been a mom for a number of years now, she was really good at multi-tasking. She could chat with her daughter, think about where they were going next, and ponder another problem all at once. Prior to having a child, she had thought she was a good multi-tasker because of flying. As a helicopter pilot she had to listen to multiple radios, look for traffic on different planes, navigate, talk with her crew, and actually fly the aircraft. However, motherhood had taken even that to a whole new level.

“… and then Chandra and I did the splits. Well, Chandra did the splits; I got down this far,” Lindsey held her hands up so Sam could see.

“Good, Lindsey, only about five inches to go then,” said Sam. She continued, “Hey, special treat tonight. We’re going to get McDonald’s!”

“Yeah!” shouted Lindsey. Sam and Doug didn’t take Lindsey out to eat or order take-out food frequently. This was partly because Lindsey was really too young to behave for two hours in a nice restaurant or even to appreciate an expensive gourmet dinner. They tried to avoid the cheap fast food type places for nutritional reasons. Doug was particularly health conscious. Sam watched what she ate and tried to work out but she didn’t think eating at McDonald’s now and then was going to kill anyone. Their trip Sunday night was a special and very infrequent treat. But, today wasn’t like most days, so she wasn’t going to feel guilty. Really.
So why am I justifying this to myself?

Sam smiled at her daughter, remembering how much fun it used to be as a kid to get fast food. At this age, the little things in life meant so much.

“Can I get a Happy Meal?”

“Sure, honey. Guess what else? We are going to have a guest tonight! Do you remember Mrs. Thomas from church?”

Lindsey looked confused and said, “I don’t know,” which meant no.

“Well, I bring Communion to her on the weekends and she is going to stay with us for a couple of days. She had hip surgery so we need to help her out. She is a teacher at the high school where Dwayne goes.”

Lindsey perked up immediately when Dwayne’s name was mentioned. “Dwayne is so silly. He splashed me in the pool the other day.”

Sam smiled, “I’m sure he wouldn’t do something like that.” Lindsey had a bit of a crush on Dwayne and loved it when he played with her or teased her.

“He did, he really did!”

Sam decided not to tell her about Dwayne’s accident right away. She pulled up to the drive-thru window and gave their order. She hoped Mrs. Thomas liked McDonald’s.

As they pulled out with the french fry aroma filling the car, Sam absently said yes to Lindsey to have one fry on the way home. “Only one though. We’re almost there.” She asked Lindsey about her class again and they chatted about gymnastics for the five minutes left in their trip.

After arriving back at the house, Sam and Lindsey carried their purchases inside. Sam could hear the television running in the back and walked in to the kitchen to find Mrs. Thomas watching the local news. She looked up from her perch on the edge of one of the family room couches and flipped off the television.

“Hi! So nice to see you.” She was looking directly at Lindsey.

Lindsey looked down and said “Hi” in a barely audible voice. Lindsey was always shy around strangers and obviously did not remember Mrs. Thomas.

Sam jumped in, “Lindsey, you remember Mrs. Thomas from church. Why don’t you tell her about your gymnastics camp?”

Lindsey slowly moved towards Mrs. Thomas and started telling her about how she did the splits, almost. Mrs. Thomas smiled, tilted her head in a listening posture and began to nod at what Lindsey was saying. Her attentiveness quickly paid off and she had Lindsey laughing in a few minutes. By the time the three of them sat down to dinner they were like old friends.

As they were finishing up their meal, Mrs. Thomas offered to stay with Lindsey while Sam went and delivered her casserole. Sam tried to hide her wince. She really wanted to get a look at Mrs. Thomas’s album again before she left her daughter alone with her. How well did she really know Mrs. Thomas anyway?

She smiled and said, “Thanks so much but I was going to take Lindsey with me.”

“Where are we going?” inquired Lindsey. Sam looked away from Mrs. Thomas who smiled and nodded but looked a little hurt. Sam remembered the three finger salute and resolved not to feel badly.

“Lindsey, Dwayne is in the hospital. There was an accident and he was hurt.”

“Is he going to die?”

Sam always struggled with how much to tell her daughter. She hated lying but … “Most likely he’ll be all right. However, he’s very sick right now so we are going to bring some dinner to his parents. Do you want to ride your bike up the street or walk with me?”

“I’ll ride my bike.”

“All right. Let’s put our dishes away and then we’ll go.”

Mrs. Thomas interjected, “Please go ahead. I can clean up.” Sam opened her mouth to protest but Mrs. Thomas quickly overruled her, “Really, hon, I so appreciate your letting me stay. I want to help.”

“Thanks.” Sam and Mrs. Thomas smiled at each other, the awkwardness that was between them now gone.

Sam grabbed the second casserole from the refrigerator and followed her daughter out the front door which she locked. She usually wouldn’t think twice about leaving her house unlocked if she was going to be in the neighborhood, but given what had happened over at Mrs. Thomas’s place she needed to be more careful. Who knew what was going on in Fairfax?

Sam took her time walking up to the street. She suddenly felt very tired. She could not remember the last time so much had happened in one day. Definitely not since her Coast Guard days and even then only rarely would she have a day or a week in which two people died and another was badly injured.

Lindsey’s laughter stopped her from further reminiscing, thank goodness
.
She was making figure eights in the street to stay with Sam as she walked.

“Those figure eights are really nice, Lindsey. If you want to ride ahead you can. Just wait for me at Dwayne’s.”

“Okay!” Lindsey raced ahead, although not out of sight of Sam. She was spirited but not a risk taker
.
She was a good combination of both her parents.

Sam picked up her pace a bit, suddenly anxious to get this visit over with. After all, as with the Myer visit earlier, there was nothing she could truly do to help. Plus, she still needed to talk to Mrs. Thomas tonight. She glanced over at the Myer’s house as she passed. She could see a couple of people still in the living room. It was all so sad.

They soon arrived at their destination. The Walters had a ranch style house that looked pretty well kept up but on closer inspection probably needed to be painted. A bike was left out in the yard which really needed to be mowed. Sam could see one car in the driveway and a light on in the living room.

Lindsey neatly parked her bike on the walkway that led to the house. She carefully put the kickstand down. Doug had recently spent hours teaching her how to ride that bike. She really treasured it and was so proud that she had been able to ride without training wheels before so many of her friends.

They walked towards the kitchen door. Lindsey grabbed part of Sam’s shirt as they got closer, like she used to do when she was a toddler. Sam could sense her hesitation so she put a bright smile on her face and said, “You remember Mr. and Mrs. Walters and their other son William. We’ll just go in for a minute.”