EMP Read online

  EMP

  By Wilson Harp

  Copyright © 2014 by Wilson Harp

  All Rights Reserved

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 1

  The 108 turnoff had always been tricky for folks who came out to visit us. The new four-lane made it easier to see, but it would still sneak up on you if you weren’t expecting it around the bend.

  For me, it was all the same. I had made that turn off the main highway as long as I had been driving. I had known the shift and speed of the car as it made that turn since the time I was old enough to stand in the back seat and watch for deer along the woods as we came home from a trip to town.

  Right now I was just frustrated with the radio as I came upon the turn. Every station out here was either country or local talk. My satellite radio was out of service and my MP3 device was in the trunk in the side pocket of my gym bag. I found an NPR station out of Rolla and was listening to some boring report about some solar flare that was going to happen soon.

  Boring, to me at least, the physicist they were interviewing was very excited. But between the subject matter and the fact that the signal kept cutting out, I decided to just turn it off.

  I was almost home anyway. Well, it felt like home. Kenton was the town I was born and raised in. Technically, I was born in Poplar Bluff, but my folks took me back to Kenton when I was three days old.

  The place where I currently lived was Oak Park just outside Chicago. Currently was the key word. I wasn’t sure what Lexi would decide this weekend. Things had been rough the last few months. I wasn’t sure what she wanted, apart from space and her need to sort things out. What things, were a total mystery to me.

  My cell phone rang and I reached up and hit the earpiece.

  “Hello,” I said.

  “David, are you on the road?” My mom’s voice sounded frustrated.

  “Yeah, I’m on the road mom. About five miles from town.”

  “Did you pull over to answer the phone?”

  “No, still driving.”

  “You shouldn’t answer the phone while you’re driving. That’s dangerous. Pull over right now.”

  I did not pull over. The thought went through my head to tell her if it was so dangerous for me to talk while driving, then perhaps she shouldn’t call while she knows I am traveling. I resisted the impulse.

  “Okay, Mom. Pulled over. What’s up?”

  “I just wanted to remind you to pick up the medicine at the drug store.”

  “Okay. Just Dad’s prescription?”

  “Yes. And it’s the white pharmacy, not Turner’s.”

  Turner’s pharmacy had been closed for close to twenty years now. Mom was getting worse.

  “Okay Mom. I’ll pick it up.”

  “Thank you. And we are having green beans for dinner with some of those fresh tomatoes your father picked yesterday.”

  It was early April, the tomato plants in the garden had barely started coming up. Dad must have picked some up at the store yesterday.

  “Sounds great, Mom. See you in a little while.”

  “Okay, David. We’ll see you soon. Love you.”

  “Love you, too, Mom.”

  I hung up the phone as I turned onto Dyer Street. I still expected the whine of the tires to change as I moved from the blacktop highway to the city street. It had always been that way growing up. But, all of the roads had been smoothed and resurfaced many times since then.

  Turner’s pharmacy was now a woman’s clothing store on the corner of Main and Dyer. Hanson’s pharmacy was what most people referred to as the white pharmacy. Hanson had bad luck with his new sign when he opened. Lost it three times the first two months. He decided he was better off just leaving it down. His white building along a row of brick storefronts on Main stuck out like a sore thumb. There was no need for a sign anymore, though the bags still said Hanson’s Pharmacy.

  A spot out front was open and I parked the car. Not as much traffic as I remember, but downtown hasn’t been the same for a long time. The new Wal-Mart in Wilcox has sucked away most of the day to day shopping. Kenton was a quintessential dying small town. Every generation seemed to get restless to move on, and while there were a few locals who had deep roots to the town, much of the new population were people trying to escape to the idealized, idyllic country life.

  I got out of my car and walked to the glass door of the pharmacy. A tinkling bell alerted everyone inside that someone had entered.

  “Well, Dave Hartsman! How are you?” Sue Parnell was the oldest sister of one of my buddies from High School. She was Sue Hanson now. She came over and gave me a hug.

  “Hi Sue, doing good. How are you and Billy?” I asked.

  “We’re doing good. Is Lexi here?” she asked as she looked out at my car.

  “No, Emma had a school thing so they stayed up in Chicago this weekend.”

  “Dave,” Billy called as he saw me. He was carrying something from the back room. He set it down behind the counter and came around to meet me near the front door. “Your momma called a few minutes ago. She said to make sure you remember to pick up your dad’s prescription.”

  I sighed and nodded. “Anything else?”

  “Yeah, we have her prescription, too. Make sure you don’t let her see you bring it in the house. She has a habit of accidently flushing them down the toilet. Your dad normally crushes one up in her orange juice in the morning.”

  He handed me the bag with my dad’s bottle as well as the bottle of my mom’s pills. I slipped Mom’s medicine into my pocket.

  “Is it helping?”

  “I think so. When she manages to find them and get rid of them, she calls me a couple of times a day. When she’s taking them… she’s better.”

  “That’s something at least,” I said. Watching Mom go through this was hard at a distance. I can’t imagine what Dad must be going through watching it day by day.

  “I have your receipts here,” Billy said. “I was going to mail them yesterday, but I figured if you were in, I might as well hand them to you.”

  “Thanks,” I said as he handed them to me. I folded them up and put them in my shirt pocket.

  “You’re a good man, Dave,” Sue said. “Not many sons would pay for their parents scripts the way you do.”

  “Well, not many pharmacists would work with me like this, so thanks to you and Billy as well.”

  “Not a problem. I have to admit, telling your folks their co-pay was five bucks a pop is pretty clever,” Billy said. “I think your dad knows, though. He always grimaces whenever he gives me the money.”

  “I figure he does. But if we all pretend like it’s not happening. I think he’s happier.”

  Billy smiled and nodded. “It’s good to see you, Dave. Give your mom a hug for me.”

  “Will do, Billy. Have a good day, Sue,” I said as I left the store.

  When I got in the car, I tossed the bag in the front seat and opened the glove compartment. Once I had stashed the receipts and mom’s pills, I sat back up and immediately jumped in shock as a face was pressed up against my driver’s side window.

  Frank laughed as I opened the door.

  “You are going to give me a heart attack one day,” I said as I crawled out of the car. I was pissed, but was very happy to see
my old friend.

  “Sorry, man. Saw you getting in the car and when you looked away, I just had to,” Frank said as he slapped me on the shoulder.

  “Well, I’ll let it slide this time,” I said as I slapped him back. “What are you doing here? Don’t you live in Wilcox now?”

  “Yeah, but I run my drops all over the place. I’m about to head out to Cape for a delivery, but I should be back in the area tonight. Think you might want to head out to the Owl? Shoot some pool and down a few?”

  “Not tonight, my folks will want to spend some time with me.”

  “Where’s Lexi?” Frank asked as he looked in the car.

  “She couldn’t make it down this weekend, school stuff with Emma.”

  “Too bad, but that means we can hang out some tomorrow.”

  “Sure, swing by in the morning. I’m sure my dad will have something for us to do.”

  “It might be a little later. If you are going to be busy tonight, I’ll probably hit a club in Cape and stay there,” Frank said. “Do you remember Karen Sue? Her kid brother fronts a local band. He’s playing at a club in town, and he’s pretty good.”

  “Let me guess. You are staying with Karen tonight?”

  Frank shrugged. “Sometimes I hang out with her when I head up to the Cape.”

  “So me bailing doesn’t hurt your evening all that much?”

  Frank laughed. “Aw, come on. I’d rather go drinking with you, but if you have to stay home, I’ll call Karen and see what she is up to.”

  “Good luck.”

  “Thanks, and give your mom a hug for me.”

  Frank turned and walked over to his delivery truck.

  I got back in my car and headed toward the house I grew up in. The trip across town was familiar and quick, although each time I drive through the old streets, I am surprised at what is and is not there. The old elementary school is there. I could probably walk in with my eyes closed and navigate the halls. But there is a new high school just a few blocks down. It’s been there for fifteen years now, but it will always be the new high school to me.

  The town has swelled and shrank in size since I left, but the new housing areas never reached the south end of town. The only house I lived in until I left for college sat on a wide plot with fallow farm fields behind it. The city limits were just on the other side of the Johnson’s property next door, and past that were the heavy woods and hills which made up this part of the Mark Twain National Forest.

  I noticed the soybeans on McKay’s farm were starting to sprout as I pulled into my folk’s driveway. There used to be three houses across the street from us, but old man McKay had bought them and cleared the land to expand his farm. Frank used to live in one of those houses and he was my best friend from as early as I could remember.

  My car door had just swung open when I saw Dad turn the corner of the house. He was carrying a bag of trash out to the can.

  “Davey,” he called as I stepped out of the car. “Glad you made it.”

  “Me too, Dad,” I said. “I’m looking forward to resting this weekend.”

  “A shame Lexi and Emma couldn’t make it down, but school is school, I suppose.”

  I opened the back door to the car and pulled my bags out. I hadn’t told them about Lexi wanting a trial separation. I had told Dad I was coming down to check on them, but I really did want to get away from the situation with Lexi for a few days as well.

  “Now, about your mom,” Dad said as he finished throwing the trash in the can. “She seems to think you are coming home from college. She says Diane will be by to see you tonight.”

  I sighed and shook my head. Diane was my mom’s cousin. She had died of cancer twenty years before while I was still in college.

  “So it’s that bad, huh?”

  “It’s a bad day. They don’t happen all that often when she keeps taking her meds, but they are getting more frequent.”

  “I picked up her prescription, they’re in the glove compartment.” The curtain at the front window moved as I was saying it.

  “She’s watching, I’m sure,” Dad said. “I saw your eyes move to the front window. She knows there is something wrong, but she won’t admit it. Don’t bring it up if you don’t want to be yelled at.”

  “Okay,” I said. I reached in and grabbed the pharmacy bag from the front seat and started to open the glove compartment.

  “Don’t,” Dad said. “Just bring mine in. We’ll get hers later.”

  “She’ll see?” I asked as I crawled out of the car.

  “Yeah, if she thinks we slipped them in, she’ll find them and throw them away.”

  I shook my head and picked up my bags. Dad shut the car door for me and we started walking toward the house.

  “This way,” Dad said as he headed to the garage.

  He pressed the button to lift the door and led me in. He reached up on a high shelf and took down an old coffee can. He showed me the multiple medicine bottles that were in there.

  “Six dollars worth of aspirin there, but it’s better if she flushes those than her meds,” he said with a wink. He took one of the bottles out and put the can back in its place.

  “Here,” he said as he slipped the bottle in my jacket pocket. “You’ll see how good she is at this. She could have been a pickpocket in New York.”

  I laughed as Dad opened the door to the kitchen and led the way in.

  “Guess who’s here?” he asked.

  “Who?” Mom responded, as if she hadn’t been looking out the door.

  “Hi Mom,” I said as I stepped up from the garage. “Good to be home.”

  “David!” she said as she came over from the stove.

  I saw the confusion in her eyes as she looked at me in genuine surprise.

  “I…” She hesitated as she tried to make sense of it. “I’m so glad to see you. Did Lexi come?”

  “No, Mom, she had to stay in Chicago. Emma had a school event this weekend.”

  “Emma. Yes, how is she?”

  “She’s doing well. She told me to give her grandma a kiss for her.”

  I kissed Mom on the cheek and saw Dad shaking his head. It must really be a bad day if she had forgotten her only grandchild.

  “Well you take your bags to your room and I’ll get dinner set. Diane…,” she paused. “Diane would have been 68 this year. I’m sure she would have loved to have met Emma.”

  “She sure would have, Mom,” I said. I carried my bags through the kitchen and down the short hallway to the room I grew up in. Dad had converted it to a guest room several years before, but it would always be my room.

  I set my bags on the bed and felt at the pocket of my jacket. The bottle was gone. She must have slipped it out when she hugged me. No wonder Dad had to trick her into taking her meds.

  I hung up my jacket and made a quick trip by the bathroom before I headed back to the kitchen. Mom was pulling a chicken out of the oven. She had stuffed it with her traditional sage stuffing and had a green bean casserole and a pan of sweet potatoes covered with marshmallows already on the table. A plate of sliced tomatoes sat on the counter. Mom always loved sliced tomatoes with any big holiday meal. I had seen the pumpkin pie cooling on the rack when I first came in. She really thought it was Thanksgiving. She was probably in a panic when she couldn’t find the turkey and had made due with a whole chicken.

  “Looks great, Mom.”

  “Thanks, David. I don’t know what came over me this morning, I was just in the mood for a Thanksgiving-like meal.”

  “I don’t know why we don’t eat like this all the time,” I said.

  She smiled, but I could tell she was embarrassed. I hated to see her like that, knowing something was wrong but not being able to see it until the moment had passed. She was in a good state now.

  Dad said grace as we sat around the table and caught up on news. The spring rains had come early and the fields looked good so far. Dad had planted a few tomatoes, but with his condition, he didn’t think he could handle the fu
ll garden this year. Mom asked all sorts of questions about Emma and Lexi. It was hard not to bring up the problems, but I answered as much as I could.

  The evening went by too quickly. I was glad I had told Frank I needed to spend time with my folks. As much as I had come down to help them any way they needed, they were helping me just as much. Just being away from the stress and pressure of my job, my marriage, my life was worth the eight hour drive and the extra vacation day. Tomorrow was Saturday and I would be able to help Dad with the repairs on his toolshed and could take them into Wilcox to stock up on any supplies they needed.

  At eleven, they finally turned in. I thought about staying up and watching a ballgame from the west coast, but it had been a long day and I wanted to be fresh in the morning. I went and lay on the bed in my old room. The night was quiet. Not the quiet of silence, but the quiet of the country. The buzz of insects. The hoot of an owl in the woods. The distant cries of a coyote and the answering bark of dogs.

  Sounds of my childhood comforted me as I slipped into sleep.

  Chapter 2

  I sat up in a panic. My head felt like it had been dunked under rushing water and I felt as if I had been falling a great distance.

  The room wasn’t mine. Lexi wasn’t next to me in the bed. I was at my parent’s house. I took a deep breath as I recognized the room.

  I closed my eyes and opened them again. I must have had a nightmare to have woken up that way. I looked around the room and wondered what time it was. There was enough ambient light outside to suggest it was morning, but the color of the light was wrong. The howls of the coyotes and dogs meant it was still late at night, but they were loud. And wrong.

  I slipped out of bed as I heard movement in my parent’s room across the hall.

  “Davey?”

  “I’m up, Dad. What’s wrong?”

  The door to my room opened and my dad stuck his head in.

  “I don’t know. Look outside.”

  I went to the window and lifted the curtain. Bright light poured in. Blue and green light. I squinted and looked up. The entire sky seemed to be on fire with shimmering sheets of light. Curtains of unnatural colors were visible in every direction.