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I started this story over a year ago and posted it then.... I know it's been forever, but I've been able to work on it again and have several chapters done. I'll post them over the next few days. I welcome your critique!
Connections
Connections is a story about how two very different families progress through and deal with an avian flu pandemic. One family, the Livingstons, have 'prepped' for two years and feel pretty confident about their ability to SIP, or shelter in place, at the first sign that the flu has significantly hit the United States.
The other family is headed by Caroline, who struggles with being a single parent and sole breadwinner for her three children. She has barely heard of avian flu, and with no family support and only a few work-related friends, she is completely unprepared for what is soon coming.
The two families are unknowingly tied together by many subtle connections, but the tangible connection comes when Sarah returns to work as an RN and cares for one of Caroline's very sick children. The families then become linked forever by the mercy, love, and hopefulness that grows within and between them.
Preface:
Cold drizzle soaked her t-shirt. She hadn't put on a coat. "Come on honey, we're getting you into the car...you're okay...you're gonna be okay". Will's body felt lifeless beneath the light blue blanket. For seventeen he should have felt heavier, but she was able to get him into the front seat. She tilted it back and eased his legs in. After carefully shutting the door she rushed to the other side.
Now stopped at 7th street, she waited for the light to change. He didn't move except to struggle to breath. She was shivering though the car was now warm. Did I bring his insurance card?
"It's okay honey, we'll be there soon". What if they ask me if he has the virus?
On the main street traffic was heavy for there being a quarantine in effect, but on the side streets there was nothing. "We're getting really close now".
She turned onto Wayne street. Relief. She could see the hospital ahead. Making her way towards the main entrance drive she realized there were barricades up. Were there armed guards? Can't be. She followed the sign directing her to an alternate drive and came to a stop behind a long row of cars and vans. My God, there are people walking up to the hospital. Beside the large facility was a huge tent. People cloaked in white were coming and going from within. Large masks covered their noses and mouths.
She felt his face; he was burning up. "We're here, honey. You'll be in soon. You'll be okay." The only answer was his labored breathing. Her eyes stung...when was the last time she'd worn make-up? Ahead of her she saw another guard and what she guessed was some sort of medical triage person. Finally it was their turn. She rolled down her window and answered questions. Yes, he was having breathing difficulty. It only started two days ago...he got sick so fast. The nurse took his temperature, 104. Did I have any reason to think he'd been exposed to the virus?
She explained as best she could what had transpired in the days before.
While a few cars drove up to the emergency entrance to the main hospital, she was directed to the tent. She was able to pull the car up close and as she got out two people were helping Will onto a gurney. They covered him with a white blanket and tossed the blue one into a large bin. He was wheeled away.
Someone else, blue scrubs covered by white, exhausted eyes barely making contact with hers, began to take information down on a form. Caroline answered the questions automatically, in a daze. When through, she was directed toward the way out. "We'll be contacting you, ma'am." Caroline was confused, her heart thumped in her chest, what do they mean she can't go with him? He is her son, her baby, he is her reason for living. They insisted, for many reasons, she absolutely couldn't stay.
She turned to go back to her car. Her head was thick; silent tears rolled down her cheeks. After turning the key in the ignition she suddenly realized...she has to go back....she didn't say.... When will she see him again? She didn't kiss him. She didn't say, 'I'll give my life for yours'. She didn't say 'you'll always be my little boy, my beautiful, beautiful son". She didn't say 'thank you for being for me what you shouldn't have had to have been'. She didn't say goodbye.
Chapter 1 - Orange Juice - Two Months Earlier
"Kim, get down here! You only have ten minutes!" Caroline brushed a wisp of hair behind her ear then took her keys from her purse, setting them on the counter top. She made sure her work folder was also there, remembering the extra paper work that had kept her up late. She wanted to rub her eyes, but resisted smearing her makeup.
"Will drank the last of the orange juice...Kim's gonna be mad!" Lucas said, popping the last of his toast into his mouth.
"Well I'll just tell her you did it", Will teased. He ruffled his younger brother's hair and Lucas looked up at him and grinned. He truly did look up to his brother, as a matter of fact he nearly worshiped him. Will was the ''man' of the house since their dad had died before Lucas was even born. His seriousness was always softened with humor. At eighteen, he was his mother's right and left hands, her closest confidant.
Kim bounced down the stairs with back pack in hand. Her blond hair was slicked back into a ponytail. As she opened the refrigerator she quickly turned back to her brothers. "Who drank the last of the orange juice?" Her green eyes flashed. "Mom, you know that's all I have in the morning! We're always running out." Will and Lucas just smiled at each other.
"Well you know you should eat something anyway. I'm sorry, I didn't have time to stop at the store on the way home yesterday. And get back upstairs right now and change that top you have on."
"I'm wearing a hoodie! Kim wailed.
"You never zip your hoodies up all the way...I can see your t-shirt underneath and it is not appropriate for school. And remember you have to come right home today to get Lucas to his dentist appointment. I can't leave work early to do it."
"Why do I always have to do that stuff?" she wailed again.
"Just take the bus to 3rd street and you can get off right in front of the office."
"I hate riding the stupid bus," Kim grumbled as she finished her milk.
"Kim, it's not the end of the world... none of your friends will see you," Will put in. "I'd do it but I have an appointment with my guidance counselor."
Caroline reached to turn off the t.v., then hesitated as the scene caught her eye. There were men dressed in white, wearing masks, taking dead chickens and dumping them into large bins. In the background you could clearly see little children watching, kicking and playing in the sloshy mud. The commentator was describing the scene with a serious tone, talking about 'confirmed avian flu'. Caroline clicked the t.v. off and turned her mind back to getting everyone out the door.
"Will, can you start the car for me and I'll be out in a minute." She handed him the keys. "I think it's cold out and it's drizzling."
"Sure Mom," he answered. "Come on brat, make sure you have all your stuff," he teased his younger brother.
Caroline changed her shoes, open toes would not work today. She grabbed her raincoat and put her work folder into a totebag. Almost forgetting her lunch, she ran to the fridge and placed the tupperware containter of salad in the bag too. For some reason she hesitated before walking out the door, thinking she'd forgotten something. She wrote herself a note, in her head, not to forget to pick up orange juice later, along with bread and margarine. If she forgot that orange juice again there was no telling what kind of monster her precious fifteen year old might turn into!
Emily Livingston burst through the mudroom door, kicked off her shoes, then entered the kitchen. She sat a basket on the counter top, then pulled off her soaked sweatshirt. "We got 19 eggs today!" The smell of bacon almost made her salivate. She quickly washed her hands then sat down at the table and bit off half a piece at once.
Her older sister stared at her, "How can you eat so much and stay so skinny?" Her own figure was slim, but she had to watch what she ate, even counting calories most of the time. Samantha, "Sam", was sixteen, and pretty in a simple, easy-going way. Her dark brown hair fell past her shoulders and her summer tan had not yet faded. She had no freckles, like her younger sister, but she did have one medium brown beauty mark on her left cheek, above her lip.
"You filled their water too, right?" Sam hoped. She didn't want to go out in the cold drizzly rain. The hens were technically 'hers', but whoever went out for morning chores usually took care of all the animals, especially if the weather was bad.
"Yea," Emily said, still chewing. "I fed Noah too so Tommy doesn't have to go out in this." Noah was Tommy's 4H project turned pet goat. Last year Emily began raising rare-breed ducks, and the whole family was passionate about their heritage breed turkeys. After near extinction, Royal Palms, a small, beautiful breed with black tipped white feathers, was officially off the endangered list. The family was proud of their small, but important, contribution to keeping rare breeds alive.
Their mother came from the laundry room with a basket of folded clothes. After setting it down she opened the door to their huge pantry. "What kind of juice do you guys want? We have five cases of orange juice, so we should probably open up one of those. I have to re-stock the apple and mixed juices." Without waiting for an answer she opened the large box and took out one of the twelve cans of orange juice. She began to pour it into a pitcher when the phone rang.
"Oh hi Brenda. How are you guys doing this morning? I don't think we're going on that park field trip today...I don't know if anyone will show up with this rain. They'll probably cancel it." She poured juice into five glasses and set them on the table. "No, I didn't even turn on the t.v. this morning." She sipped her own glass of juice and took a bite of bacon. "Did they say anything about human cases? Wow, I can't believe they're suddenly talking openly about it. Did you see the new clusters in Egypt? There's getting to be just too much to read on the flu sites."
Paul Livingston came down the stairs, adjusting his tie. He gave his wife a peck on the cheek and reached for his briefcase. "Daddy, have some bacon," Emily smiled up at him.
"Gotta get going honey." He kissed her on the top of her head, "Ooo, you're wet! he teased. Then he kissed Sam and grabbed a piece of bacon. He held it up to Emilly and smiled. "I'll see you all later... do good on your school work today." He was the 'principal' of their homeschool, though everyone knew Mom made all the decisions. He trusted her judgment and was completely supportive of their efforts. He kissed his wife again on the cheek and waved goodbye, so as not to interrupt her conversation.
"Do you think we should put out one last flyer? If we got them printed up early enough we could hit all the hot spots by the end of the day." Sarah belonged to a group of moms that worked to get information out to the public on the threat and preparations for pandemic flu. PFA, "Pan-flu Awareness" had started 2 years ago when Sarah first learned about an inevitable flu pandemic. Though she was no longer a practicing RN, she kept up her license and had learned about avian flu at a continuing education conference. It became a passion of hers to work towards getting more people 'prepped'. Their own preparations had gotten them to the point of a little over a years worth of food and other supplies. But that took a long time and financial sacrifices. She and her family had lots of time to adjust to the ideas of quarantines, curfews, the probability of near-empty grocery stores and limited power and water supplies. The realization of all of it, alone, was a huge part of preparing.
Knowing that most people had no idea of what was coming, she felt this to be a 'calling', to try to get the word out. Still, most people didn't believe a pandemic could really happen or that living in the United States would somehow exempt them from it. They didn't want to hear about huge numbers of people not being able to work, schools and day-care being closed, let alone about people getting horribly sick and dying. And since it was never even mentioned on t.v. or in the papers, how bad could the threat really be?
After reading the 'flu boards' online for the last couple of years Sarah knew that for many reasons the truth was being covered up and that the general public would be clueless till the last minute, till it was too late. Thankfully, the news hounds on the boards searched out what was being reported in different countries of the world, and others that were able to interpret what was going on gave the scientific picture of how the virus was changing, readying itself to reek havoc on the world.
"What if we attached a latex glove to each flyer this time. I mean, I know it would cost a lot, but we have money in the budget, and it would be something tangible - something more than a piece of paper. It might make people think more." Sarah gulped down some juice and absentmindedly began putting the eggs into an empty carton. "Today is the twelfth, right?" She quickly wrote 3/12 on the top of each egg.
"Okay, I'll call the library and get our usual room if you can pick up paper. I'll grab extra gloves from the wholesale place and meet you there by, say, ten o'clock?" After hanging up the phone she turned to her kids.
"Change of plans for today.... we're going to the library to print more flyers and try to get them out this afternoon. The field trip would have been canceled anyway. We can really use your help to get the flyers ready. I wanna make a prep run this evening too. Can somebody get Tommy up?"
Sam got up from the table, placed her plate and glass in the sink then turned to her mom. "It's getting really serious isn't it?"
"Yea honey, it is."
Chapter 2 - Shopping
Caroline sat at her desk, munching her salad. She took a sip of diet soda as her best friend Tanya pulled a chair up close to hers. They'd worked together for 7 years, and when Caroline's husband had been killed in a car accident Tanya literally held her together. She helped her through the pregnancy of her youngest, Lucas, and was her coach during his birth. With no family for support, Caroline saw Tanya as a sister.
"Hey, did you see the news this morning?" Tanya asked, balancing her microwave lunch on her lap. "They're making that bird flu thing sound pretty bad.... what do you think?"
Without letting Caroline answer, Beth chimed in, "Oh, it's nothing, don't worry.... they have a vaccine for that don't they?"
"No, I don't think so.... I was looking it up on the internet a little while ago." Tanya took a bite of chicken terriaki then continued. "They say it could get really bad, that so many people will be getting sick that there won't be enough to work at places.... I mean that there might not be enough workers to keep things going like trucking food to grocery stores and keeping the electricity on."
"The government won't let that happen," Beth put in.
"Are you kidding? Look at what happened with Hurricane Katrina," Caroline said as she closed up her tupperware and placed it in her totebag.
"That's why they'll do it right this time. I think they learned from Katrina," Beth insisted.
"I don't know.... even the government is saying to get stocked up on food and water and candles, that they can't possibly take care of everyone." Tanya continued, "I think I'm going out tonight to get some things, we're low on groceries anyway. With the kids getting so big we go through stuff awful fast."
"I think I'll do the same," Caroline added quietly.
Back in her own little cubicle she googled 'bird flu'. As she read about the growing numbers of suspected and confirmed cases around the globe, her head began to swim. She needed to settle her mind and focus on what was most important for her family, today. She found a list of recommended supplies - it was too long for her to think of getting everything, and where would they put it all?
Before she left for the day, she printed off one of the food lists. Once inside her car she dialed Will and left a message, "Hey honey, I'm stopping at the bank then I'll be home. I think we should do a big grocery trip tonight, I could really use everyone's help, so stick around, okay? I'll talk to you soon, Love ya."
While she waited for the teller to deposit her check she noticed some flyers. A latex glove was attached to each one, catching her eye. It was information about avian flu and how to prepare for a probable pandemic. She'd learned that there was a general consensus among scientists, the CDC, the WHO, even the United Nations that it wasn't a matter of 'if', but 'when'. This flyer looked really good... it had simple guidelines on how to stock up on supplies and how to protect your family. She put one in her totebag then headed home.
"How was Lucas' dentist appointment?" she asked Kim.
"Mom, I hate taking that stupid bus...." Kim complained. "We missed our stop and had to walk a block in the rain. It was okay, no cavities.... can I go to Shelly's tonight?"
"Honey, I told Will I want us all to go on a big grocery trip.... this bird flu thing is getting pretty serious. If we end up closed up in the house for weeks on end...."
"What? That can't happen, Mom. They talked about it in school too today, and then kids were saying they might close the schools, and no basketball games?"
"Yeah, If things get really bad in our area they might close the schools and even issue a curfew. It's to keep people from passing the disease around, Kim. Let's get going to the store. I want you all to come along and help; we can load up a couple of carts that way."
The huge, local grocery store was packed with people. "Will, you and Lucas take a cart and start off in that direction. Kim and I will get going over here... we'll meet in the middle somewhere."
"What do I get Mom?" Will asked.
"Can I get some lunchables?" Lucas begged.
"No, honey, that's too expensive. We have to try to get a lot of basic things, that we can cook more from scratch.... and Will, if you get to the medicines isle before me pick up generic bottles of Ibuprofen and cold medicine, get some vitamins too." Caroline could have went on and on. She started feeling completely overwhelmed with the thought of having to do, in two days, what she should have had 2 years to work on. "How do we stock up on food for six months, overnight?"
They ended up filling three shopping carts. Once home, Caroline thought of basically turning her bedroom into one big pantry. "We can put some things in the basement, but it's really cramped and damp down there, and if the subpump goes out it could flood." They lived in an old part of town, where the tiny houses were built nearly a hundred years ago. The Wiscona River flowed along Front street, a block from their home. Living on the south side of the river, the ground was lower, and they'd seen the signs of water damage in their basement. She would never get used to the fact that she didn't have her husband to take care of those sorts of things anymore. She hated relying on Will so much, but he never made her feel bad.
"Kim, I'll pull things out of my closet I want to keep up here, that I wear now, and you can bag up the rest. Will, if you and Lucas bring up the shelves from the basement we can organize the food on them in here. You're such a good helper, Lucas." Caroline praised him. He beamed and tugged on Will's shirt to get them going on their task.
For the next hour and a half they worked on getting the supplies organized on the old shelving and they filled most of the drawers of Caroline's dresser with things like medicines and batteries. "I'm glad you picked up extra notebooks and crayons and pencils, Will. I'll make a list tonight of things we didn't get and we can shop again tomorrow.
"Mom, aren't you going overboard?" Kim agonized.
"I feel like a mother squirrel, Kim. There might be a big storm coming and I want my family to be as ready for it as possible. Get some sleep now, honey."
In the Livingston house, Tommy collapsed onto his mom's lap. "Are we done with groceries?" They had put away the last of the food from their shopping trip. Sarah felt pretty good about their level of supplies. They had close to a year's worth of food and she knew she could stretch it out even further if she had to. Their garden would help a lot, and with the eggs from their hens and the canning they would do when summer came.... she was confident in their preparations.
"Yeah, for now, honey. Why don't you go up with Daddy and get ready for bed?" Sarah kissed him goodnight and he climbed the stairs. She sipped her tea then said, "Girls, I know we've gone over our plans before.... I think we'll go for another run tomorrow, to the warehouse club, and then, well, we might be locking things down here pretty soon."
"I know Mom," Sam sighed. I was talking to Becca online. Their family is doing the same thing, but Mom, what about the Robertsons and Kara's family.... I don't think they're gonna try to do anything till it's too late. They don't get it."
"Sam, we've done what we can for them. I don't know why some people don't listen. I guess it's lots of reasons. I made some supply boxes that we can give to people if things get real bad. It wouldn't be much but it could tide them over for a couple of weeks." It was a dilemma the family had talked over before. What do you do if and when people come to you for help? How much do you give away? If you give some, will they just ask for more and more? Some people know that the family has a lot of food and medical supplies, and some of those people are refusing to get prepped at all themselves. Sometimes it made Sarah and Paul really angry that they are working and sacrificing so much to provide for their family, in addition to working to get the word out, only to be ridiculed by some of their own family members.
"Mom, what if Uncle Nick tries to come over?" Sam asked. She knew about the problems of her mother's younger brother. He was extremely unstable, with drug and drinking problems. When he drank he got violent and Sarah had learned the hard way that helping him often meant putting her own children in danger.
"I'm going to send him an email, hoping that he'll listen and stock up on some things. But once we 'close the door', once we start SIP, that's it. Remember when we were talking about barricading the front and back doors? We're also going to close up all but a couple of the windows, as if a hurricane were coming, I guess. We have to think of this like a storm.... we have to keep it out. If the hospitals don't have enough staff and medication to take care of all the people that get sick, well, then we can't get sick. We can't. I'll do what ever it takes, Sam, to keep us all safe.
You kids are my responsibility. I have an obligation to take care of you and that also means keeping myself and your dad alive and healthy so that we can take care of you. I can help my brother to a certain degree, but he has the responsibility to take care of himself. I'll give him what we can, but in my letter I'm telling him that we won't take the risk of bringing the virus into this house. I'm also telling him that we may just be going up north to ride this out."
Sarah sighed, suddenly realizing the true enormity of it all. What they'd been thinking about and planning for, for years, was actually happening, and though she was organized and strong on the outside, deep inside she was scared to death.
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