R. Ruggiero - Brushfire Plague

“I can handle that part. It won’t become permanent. Having that extra firepower could be a difference maker if we face a more serious threat. Everything is unstable right now.”

Calvin shook his head, “I’m not going to argue this. There is no way I’m going to agree to do this.”

“At least, let’s present it at tonight’s meeting. The neighborhood can decide,” Cooper offered.

“That’s fine with me, but you know which side I’ll be arguing.”

The two men stared at each other, “And you, mine.”

Calvin maintained the steady gaze for several more seconds before turning and walking out the front door. As he opened it, Cooper saw that people had already begun gathering on the sidewalk adjoining his yard.” Is it time already?

Cooper rubbed his temples, took a deep breath, and then stepped outside.

The group that gathered in the front yard was larger than it had ever been before. Almost a hundred people stood clustered tightly together to stay within earshot. The mood was better as well, with more people smiling. More people have overcome their fear of getting the illness and are now coming out.

Cooper began the meeting, but then turned it over to Calvin to give the report of the survey teams that had gone out. The group came alive with animation and side conversations when he talked of the neighborhood to the north and their grocery store.

“My kitchen’s almost empty; can we get some Spam from them?” Freddie shouted, but his joke fell flat. Cooper wondered if it struck too close to home for many.

“We know they need guns, so we are going to see if we can make a trade with them,” Calvin reported.

More smiles appeared in the crowd and murmurs of approval rippled through it.

Calvin continued, “We’d also like to supplement our daily survey about the illness. Please raise your hand if a member of your household has come down with it within the last twenty-four hours?”

Cooper watched as people shuffled their feet and looked around, but no one raised their hands.

“Raise your hand if you have heard of anyone else, a neighbor, a friend, who has come down with it in the last twenty-four hours.”

Again, no hands were raised. Smiles grew wider and several people clapped their hands together in joyous surprise.

“Does this mean it’s over?” Someone shouted.

Calvin waved his hands from side to side, “No, no, no. While its good news, we need to keep an eye on things. It could be a just a temporary blip, or it could mean something better than that.”

Calvin paused for other questions, but there were none. He then turned the meeting over to Cooper.

“What I want to talk about is very simple, really. The city is still very chaotic. The only order is what people are making for themselves. I’ve met with the Vietnamese Protection Society and they’ve offered to send six men, four with automatic weapons, to help us defend our neighborhood for the next week.”

The group erupted in whispers to one another and shouts directed at Cooper. The cacophony was impossible to discern.

Cooper outstretched his hands and yelled to gain everyone’s attention, “Please, one at a time!”

“Let me get this straight, you want to invite a gang into our neighborhood?” John asked.

“I don’t want anything. It is an option that I’m bringing to you for your consideration and decision. That’s all. Do I think it’s a good idea? Yes, I do. Money is a small price to pay for increasing my son’s safety.”

“Money? How much are they asking for?” Gus asked.

“I negotiated them down to $10,000 for the week up front. Fifteen thousand more after the banks reopen.” A barrage of whistles and exclamations rang out.

“Might as well be a million,” Freddie joked to a smattering of laughter. “Who has that kind of money?”

“We would have to take up a collection to raise the funds,” Cooper responded, tamping the frustration rising in his belly.

“I think we should do it!” yelled Mark Moretti, who was standing at the back of the crowd, leaning against a white birch tree. Silence fell on the crowd and all eyes turned towards him. Cooper waved him on to continue. Mark brushed back his black hair and stood up straight.

“It’s simple to me. We can take something that has very little value to all of us right now—money—and transform it into something that is very valuable at the current time—more security. Sure, when things get back to normal we might all complain about the money we spent, but we’ll have a better chance of being around to complain about it by spending the money now.”

Cooper watched a wave of nodding heads and whispered words wash over the crowd. Calvin stirred next to him.

“Wait a second, Mark. I’d agree with you if we were talking about spending money on a security company or some other group we could trust. We’re talking about gangbangers. Hardened criminals. We’ve fought to keep those kinds of people out of our neighborhood. Why would we not only invite them in now, but pay them for the privilege?”

Mark shouted back, “But, they’d be working for us, that’s the difference.”

Calvin’s words burned with contempt, “But what will happen on the third week when we can’t pay them anymore? And now they know everything about us—how many armed people we have, what our defenses look like, and on and on. What then?”

Mark fired back, “It will increase our odds of all making it to the third week. Haven’t you been following the news? Other cities are much worse off than we are, but we’re headed in that direction. The coming weeks are going to still being very chaotic and dangerous, maybe even more so.”

The crowd was clearly moving over to Mark’s position when Lily Stott stepped forward, her voice graveled by age, “You lie down with the dogs, you’ll come up with fleas.” Her eyes scanned back and forth across the crowd, intently looking at anyone she could make eye contact with. She said nothing more and then sat down once more on the lone bench in Cooper’s yard.

A terse silence passed as her words brought everyone to a dead stop.

Calvin broke the spell, “I couldn’t agree more, Miss Stott. We get involved with these guys, we won’t ever be free of them.”

“Lily, Calvin, you’re right. There are no easy discussions anymore. But, I’d prefer my boy gets bit by some fleas than watch his father catch a bullet, like the one that almost got me today.” Cooper turned his head so the crowd could see the bandages swathing his ear. He let it sink in before continuing, “Furthermore, I’ll be damned if I’ll watch my son get killed, or worse, by some attack that we could have stopped with a few more guns on our side. Five hundred bucks in my pocket would be cold comfort on that day.”

Cooper’s words had a dramatic effect on the crowd. More were murmuring support for the idea. However, the opposition continued. He listened as the debate dragged on. With each passing minute, Cooper grew anxious about the upcoming visit to Mitchell’s home. He wanted to end the meeting so he could rest again and then make a plan of attack with Dranko.

Like a balloon that wouldn’t inflate, the meeting meandered without resolution. An hour later the meeting ended with the group deciding to table any decision until tomorrow so everyone could “sleep on it.

Twenty minutes later, Cooper was fast asleep, after asking Dranko to wake him in an hour. His exhaustion was complete, and he slept more soundly than he had in weeks. He dreamt of Jake. They were living in normal times, except for Elena’s absence. Cooper was dropping him off at school on his way to work. He watched his son walk into the school and immediately fall in line with friends. The children’s smiles were wide and the sound of laughter reached his ears. The sun shone brightly as Jake turned from his friends to wave to his father. Cooper’s heart overflowed with the dull warmth of tranquility. As that feeling took hold, his heart began to ache, like a muscle that hadn’t been used for a while, but feels good the next day from the exertion.