Wilson Harp - EMP

“David!”

I sat straight up. I wasn’t where I was supposed to be.

“David!”

The voice was insistent. A door opened. Not from where I expected. Why was Lexi yelling? No, it wasn’t Lexi.

“David, get up. Now.”

Anne was framed in the doorway, a light silhouetted her.

“What?” I asked. I was sure my voice sounded feeble and confused, because it was.

“David, get up,” she repeated.

“Come on, grab your pants and put them on.” I heard Kenny behind her.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed. The bed in Kenny’s house. I had stayed up at Ted’s compound because Anne…

“Aren’t you supposed to be with my folks?” I asked Anne as she tossed me my t-shirt from a chair.

“Get dressed,” she said. “You have to get dressed.”

Her voice was strained and I saw her eyes were red and puffy.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. I was alert and aware. My senses were sharp and my movements efficient as I pulled on my pants and located my boots. I had slipped my t-shirt on and had my boots in my hand before she spoke again.

“Ride Bonnie, and get home David. You just need to get home.”

She was calm, but rattled. I could tell something terrible had happened, but I also knew I would get no more information out of her.

When my feet were firmly planted in my boots, I hurried out of Kenny’s house. The room that had been set up for me had no windows, but as I moved out of the glow of the lantern Kenny held, I noticed the pre-dawn light was already wakening the world.

I left his front door and almost ran into Bonnie. She was saddled and ready to go, so I mounted her in one smooth motion and guided her toward the gate. She sensed my unease and by the time we hit the driveway, we were at a trot. When her hooves hit the blacktop, I urged her to run. We were at a full gallop once we hit the highway. I knew Anne would have to check her hooves later, but at the moment I just needed to get home.

I raced past the checkpoint, the men there calling to me. I had the stray thought they might shoot at me since I didn’t heed their call. But as there was no sharp report that crackled through the morning stillness and I didn’t topple from Bonnie, I assumed they recognized me and let my wild passage go unimpeded.

Through the town Bonnie galloped. More people were up and about than I would have figured, but I normally didn’t head into town this early. It wasn’t so crowded I had to hold my mount back, though. I pushed ahead and rode hard. If Anne had mounted up and sought me out this early, and if she wouldn’t tell me what the problem was…

I pushed forward even more. Bonnie had foam flecking at her mouth and her flanks were getting wet. I was running her harder than she had probably been ridden in years, if ever.

I saw my parent’s house and I saw the small group of people on the front lawn. Then I saw Luke. He stepped out of the house and I could see his head bobbing, as if he was crying. Someone in the group had seen or heard Bonnie racing down the road. They turned as one, and I saw Luke hold up his hand in the light mist of the morning.

I pointed Bonnie toward the house and pulled her up as her hoof hit the front lawn. I jumped from the saddle and ran the last 15 feet or so.

“David,” Luke said. “I’m so sorry.”

I pushed past him and saw my mother sitting on the couch with Rose. I froze. I knew something bad had happened when Anne woke me, but I didn’t want to think about who it was. I felt like someone was squeezing my heart. I turned and ran down the hall. I looked in their room. Their room. My mom and dad’s room. There in the room that I didn’t belong. There was my dad, sleeping in the middle of the bed. Sleeping. But he never slept on his back and he never slept in the middle. The sheets were neatly tucked around him.

“David, I’m so sorry,” Luke said softly from behind me.

“When? Did he… Was I too late?”

“He was gone when your mom woke. Anne tore out of here to get you, but by then… I’m so sorry David. He passed in his sleep.”

I felt Luke’s arm around me. I realized my legs were weak and I shouldn’t be standing, but Luke was holding me up.

“Let’s go to your mother,” he said.

I tore my eyes away from my dad and nodded. I kept my eyes closed as we went to the living room. I never wanted to see the house again. Its image was a mockery of my life. The place where I had grown up. It couldn’t be the place I saw my dad dead.

I sat on the couch and found my mother had her arms around me.

I wanted to say something comforting to her. I wanted to remind her he was a good father, husband and man. That I loved him and he loved me and her. I wanted to express my love for him, my love for her, and my sorrow for her.

I couldn’t. All I could do was sob and hold her. She did the same. No words of comfort, no words of grief came from her. Just tears and her arms.

I opened my eyes and saw her. Her face was contorted in pain, her grief mirrored mine. I blinked away the tears and saw there were others in the room. They whispered and spoke. I heard a few people in the kitchen.

Luke and another man walked out of the hallway and crossed the living room to me and my mother.

“Abbey, David. We need to get Pat ready for burial,” Luke said softly. His eyes still brimmed with tears. I knew how much he loved my dad.

Mom sobbed harder as Luke told us what we both knew.

“What should we bury him in?” Luke asked me. Mom was too far gone to make a decision.

“His suit,” I said. “He would want to be buried in his suit.”

My voice cracked and I felt weak. The light coming through the windows was no longer the low golden light of morning, but was now the clear white light of noon. My stomach growled. I wondered how long I had been sitting with Mom.

“Here, try to eat,” Rose said to Mom as she approached with a bowl of soup. “You need to eat.”

Mom let go of me and wiped her eyes. “I’m so sorry, David,” she whispered.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” I said back. “I don’t know what to do or say.”

“Neither do I,” she said. “I will never know what to do again.”

I knew what she meant. More than the EMP, my world was different because of this. I could always rely on my dad. He was always there if I needed him. I didn’t realize how much I just needed him to be there.

Mom took the offered bowl of soup and sipped some from the spoon. Sarah handed me a bowl.

“I’m sorry about Pat,” she said. “I wish it hadn’t happened.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I wish none of this had happened. If it hadn’t, you would be home with your family and I would be home with mine. Dad wouldn’t have run out of pills and he could have been going to his cardiologist.”

“But it did happen, David. If my mom and dad had picked me up after their cruise and I got back home with my friends. I would have complained about being stuck here for spring break.”

She reminded me so much of Emma. I hugged her to me and she hugged me back.

“But,” she continued. “I would never have realized how much I loved grandma and grandpa. And how much they loved me.”

I looked at her and realized she was trying to comfort me. She realized I needed help seeing the situation for what it was. I was heart-broken like I had never been, and I needed help to see it.

“What about your parents, honey?”

“They were on a ship in the middle of the ocean. They have to be dead by now.”

I broke. My tears flowed like rivers and I wailed as my grief, my fear, and what I knew as the truth all came rushing in on me at once.

It was some time later I realized I had been holding my mom again. She whispered words of comfort to me as she kissed my forehead.