It was
midnight and Isobel and Vaughn had not returned to Willow Brook. Ben paced the
apartment that he shared with Isobel. He knew she was tough but even tough
people made mistakes and ended up dead. Ben went to ask everyone if they’d
heard anything. The Cabels were already asleep. Rob was reading to Gabe and
hadn’t heard a thing. Molly didn’t care. Hayden was just mad that she didn’t
have her books yet. Jeff and Markus weren’t taking him seriously.
“Maybe they ran off together. I always thought they’d make a good power
couple,” Markus laughed.
“Please
don’t joke. I don’t care what happened to Vaughn but I’m worried about Isobel,”
Ben said seriously. “Even a gunshot would mean something to me.”
“There
had been shots earlier but that was some time ago. Other than those ones, the
night has been quiet,” Jeff said.
Ben
finally made himself lay down on the couch. He lay awake staring at the sliding
glass door that led to the balcony. He willed Isobel’s form to appear there,
tired and battle-worn but alive and uninfected. She didn’t show up.
Ben had spent so much mental energy on his love for Anna that he hadn’t
realized that he was starting to care for Isobel as well.
Isobel
woke as the sun was coming up. The inside of the van warmed quickly as the rays
shone through the untinted windows of the cab and onto the dark upholstery of
the seats. She had forgotten about her ankle as she tried to climb into the
driver’s seat for a better view.
“Ahh!”
she yelled from the pain. No one responded and she realized that she was alone.
Vaughn was not in sight.
“That
motherfucker!” Isobel looked out the front window and north up the crowded
freeway. No movement anywhere. Fearing he had gone back to Willow Brook without
her, she would have to stabilize her ankle to make it back without his help.
She said a silent
thank
you
as she looked around. The van she
chose to crawl into was full of computer repair materials. She could make
something work. After ten minutes of sorting through the items in the back she
had two large pieces of hard plastic from a computer tower and a handful of USB
cables. Isobel was proud of her brace. Just as she was wrapping the cords
tightly around her lower leg the back doors of the van opened.
“Good
morning cripple!” Vaughn said happily. He had an armful of first aid supplies,
including an ace bandage and an ankle brace. “I wasn’t sure what would help so
I grabbed anything related to ankles. What the hell is that?” he asked, looking
at the technical parts strapped to her leg. Isobel laughed so hard she started
to cry. Vaughn climbed in and closed the doors.
“You look like a cyborg,” Vaughn laughed wildly at her.
“Fuck you, Vaughn. I thought you had abandoned me here to die!”
“I
considered it,” Vaughn said. Isobel stopped laughing and worked at untying the
cords.
Vaughn
let her pick her own brace and put it on. He opened the doors again and helped
her down.
“Let’s
hop
to it,” Vaughn laughed.
“You
are a horrible person,” she replied. He helped her along and they made it back
to Willow Brook without further event.
Ben
surprised Isobel with a kiss when she made it to the top of the fire escape and
back into her apartment.
“I’m
so happy you are ok. I was worried sick,” he admitted.
“I’m
fine. I just hurt my ankle. We had to stop,” she said as she dropped her
backpack on the floor and fell onto a chair in the living room, completely
ignoring his display of affection. “First, and last time, I’m going out there.”
“Did
you see any other survivors?” Ben asked.
“No,”
Isobel lied. Vaughn was still in her apartment, drinking a bottle of water and
hanging around for no apparent reason. She didn’t want to bring up the
bookstore bum.
“What
did you get? Besides a sprained ankle?” Ben asked.
“Shoes
and books,” Isobel pointed to her feet and then the backpack. “You can dig
through it. I’m sure you’ll know which one is for you. In fact, can you give
everyone else their books? I think I’m going to sit here for awhile.”
“I’m going back upstairs. If you see Hayden,
tell her to come up.”
“Thanks Vaughn, for helping me back home.”
“Yep,”
was all he said as he left.
Vaughn
would have recounted their adventure with more enthusiasm and creative license
than Isobel but, as the other residents heard of her return and came to hear
her recount it, she stuck to the truth. She even told them about the Barnes and
Noble bum now that Vaughn was out of earshot. Her story was interesting enough,
making embellishments unnecessary.
“You
met someone else? All I got to meet was a dog. What was he like?” Molly asked.
She hadn’t seen any living people when she was forced to brave the outdoors.
“He
was crazy, with a capital C. I don’t know if he started that way or if the
circumstances made him lose his mind.”
“He
could have hurt you,” Ben said, putting his hand on hers.
“He
wouldn’t even let me in
his
bathroom.”
“Still,
what if he had a weapon?” Ben continued.
“I’m
not a child Ben! I could have handled it,” she pulled her hand out from under
his. “Ahhh!” she screamed as she stood up, having forgotten about her ankle
again. She sat back down, beaten by the injury.
“At any rate, we’re happy you made it back,” Moira said, “and thank you
for the books!”
“I hope they were worth it,” Isobel replied.
“I’ve already started mine!” Edward smiled, holding up his new novel, a
bookmark snug in its first pages.
Even
though Isobel brought back with her a terrible attitude toward the world, the
new literature in the complex had helped to keep everyone distracted and happy.
Rob had
never been good about asking for help with raising Gabe. In fact, he had
outright refused it from Gabe’s mother’s parents. They hadn’t believed in Rob
and they wanted to make sure that their daughter’s child was reared correctly
in her absence.
He
was happy the phones didn’t work; happy her parents lived in South Seattle and
had a heavily populated, heavily infected city between them. He knew if they
could see Gabe now, his behavior growing stranger by the day, they would turn
to him and shake their heads.
You’re doing it wrong! You’re a failure as a
father!
He could hear his mother-in-law’s voice yell. The most difficult
part of it was that he knew she would be right. Gabe’s obsession with the dead
was growing every day. It was time to ask for help.
“Hey
Gabe, do you ever miss your school?” he asked his son at lunch.
“Not
the school, just my friends,” he said as he ate peanut butter and crackers.
“What
about the learning? Because I was thinking we have a lot of smart people living
around us and I bet they’d like to share their smartness with you. What do you
think?”
“I
guess. There’s no choice.”
“You
have a choice, I’m asking you.”
“I
mean, there’s nothing else to do.”
“You’re
right about that.”
“When
do I go back?”
“Back?”
“To
school, Dad!”
“Oh,
um, tomorrow? That way you can enjoy your last day of summer vacation.”
“It’s
not summer. It’s fall.
You
need to go back to school too, Dad.”
“All
I meant was your last day of freedom. Anyway, I’ll be right back. I’m going to
talk to the first of your new teachers.”
He’d heard Moira say that she’d raised three children. He hadn’t met any
of them and so he didn’t know how they had turned out but, Moira was a kind
enough woman. She also felt like his only good option.
He
found Moira in the common room looking out the window at the dead.
“Looks
like you need some distraction too,” he said.
“Oh!
You startled me Rob!” Moira turned to him and he could see that she had been
crying.
“Is
something wrong, Moira?”
“I
was just thinking about my family; how I might not see them again.” In her hand
she held a photo but Rob didn’t recognize any of the faces.
“You
can’t think that way! You have to hold on to a little bit of hope,” he said,
hugging her.
“You
said something about distraction? That is the only hope I have. It better not
be drugs though, I don’t do those.” She tucked the photo back into a worn album
and put it away with some other books.
“It’s
not drugs,” Rob laughed. “Do you think, um, that you could spend some time with
Gabe? Teach him something. He needs to focus on things other than zombies for
at least part of a day.”
Moira
sighed. The boy had a lot more energy than she had to match. “I don’t wake up
very early and I could only keep up with him for about an hour.”
“That’s
great! That’s fine. I can bring him over right after lunch tomorrow.” Rob
hugged her and went back to his apartment before she could change her mind.
The next
morning Gabe was bouncing off the walls. He was excited to have somewhere to be
and something to do. He picked his clothes out carefully and gulped down his
oatmeal breakfast. He was ready to go at nine.
“Moira
is still sleeping, dude. You’ll have to wait a bit. Why don’t you go see if
Molly is awake?”
“Ooooookaaaaayy.”
Gabe left the apartment and went to find Molly. She was sitting in her living
room reading a book and drinking coffee.
“What’s
up, Gabe?”
“Nothing.
Moira is going to teach me stuff but she’s old so she’s still sleepin’. Can I
try that?” He pointed to her coffee.
“Hmm,
I’m not sure if your dad would like that.”
“It’s
fine, let him try it but he doesn’t need the sugar. He’s been a little hard to
contain this morning,” Rob said as he invited himself into her apartment.
“Hi,”
Molly said. “What are you doing here?” she asked, hoping it was to see her.
“Actually,
I sent Gabe here to kill some time and then I remembered that Isobel offered to
give him a haircut. Come on Gabe.”
“I
like my hair. I don’t want a haircut,” Gabe protested as he plopped down onto
Molly’s couch and grabbed her coffee cup.
“We
don’t have a lot of time so let’s go get it done.”
“No!”
He yelled, a few drops of coffee splashed over the edge of the mug.
Molly
took the cup back from him. “Will you let me cut your hair?” she asked.
“Okay!”
Gabe complied. He liked her way more than Isobel.
“Thanks
Molly. You’re the best,” Rob said. “You be good for her!” He pointed a finger
at his son and left.
Molly
was disappointed. Rob wasn’t unfriendly or mean to her but she expected so much
more from him. A kiss on the cheek wouldn’t hurt or a bit of company as she took
scissors to his child’s head.
“We’ll
do the haircut in the kitchen so your hair doesn’t get on the carpet.” She
grabbed his hand and led him to a high stool.
“I
want a Mohawk,” he said, picking up his hair in the middle of his head.
Molly
laughed and entertained the idea. It would be a good way to make a statement to
Rob to lighten up or it may just drive him further away from her.
“Maybe
next time?” she suggested. “Now sit still.”
Three
hours later, Moira sat Gabe down at their dining room table. She had lain out a
notebook, a drawing pad and as many pens and markers as she could find. She sat
down next to him to begin the lesson.
“You
smell funny,” Gabe said as he leaned away from her.
“Ha!
What a straight shooter you are. It’s moisturizer. I’m so old, if I don’t wear
it all the time I’d just crumble into dust.” She fluttered her fingers in the
air to mimic her dusted self blowing away in an imaginary wind.
“You could get a nicer smelling one.”
“Nah.
I’m too old for change.”
“Me
too!” Gabe smiled.
“You
are a funny kid. What do you want to learn about today?”
“Mummies!”
he exclaimed.
“Why
mummies?” Moira asked with a laugh.
“They
come back to life like the zombies ‘cept they look nicer ‘cause they’re wrapped
in toilet paper.”
“Well
that is true but they only came back to life in movies. The real ones stayed in
tombs built by the Egyptians.”
“Do
you think the mummies will come out of the movies like the zombies did?”
“I’m
not sure where you get your facts but you need to find a better source. The
zombies didn’t come out of the movies. We don’t know where they came from.”
“They
had to come from somewhere.”
“Let’s
keep our fingers crossed that somebody in the world is trying to figure that
out right now! So do you want to learn about Egypt?”
“Ok!”
She
talked for a half an hour on the subject and then they moved on to writing
practice. Gabe carefully spelled out the names of the other residents with his
misshapen letters. Moira found it easy to spend time with the child. It wasn’t at
all like she expected. Her children had been more poorly behaved than Gabe was.
When
Rob came by after an hour to pick Gabe up both Moira and the boy weren’t ready
for “school” to be over. So he left them for a few more hours. Gabe drew a
picture of his father and Moira played with his beloved Legos, though her
arthritic hands could barely pull the plastic bricks apart.
Two more hours elapsed and dinner time was nearing. Rob came a second
time for his son and Moira reluctantly let the child leave.
“You
let me know when you want to come over again, alright?” She hugged him.
Gabe
pulled away from her and smiled. “You’re alright for a girl, even if you
smell.”
“Gabe!
That’s not a kind thing to say,” his dad scolded him.
“It’s
alright Rob. We already talked about it. And thank you Gabe, I’ll take that as
a compliment.”