Eric Walters - The Rule of Three

“Do you think this blackout could be that big?” Danny asked me.

“I’m not sure about anything,” I said.

“Our teacher said that it took three days to fix that big one. Maybe there won’t be school for the rest of the week,” Danny said. “Wouldn’t that be amazing?”

“That would be amazing,” Todd agreed.

Nothing could be more amazing than what we were witnessing. People had started to abandon their vehicles as they realized that they weren’t going to start up, that there was no way to call for help, and that even if they could make a call there was nobody to help them since the emergency vehicles would be stalled, too. People who would have been sitting in their cars were on their feet walking. This was strange to see, because nobody in our suburbs ever really walked anywhere.

There were streams of people hiking down the middle of the street—more obstacles in my way. Most people just looked at us, but others waved and a couple stuck out their thumbs to try to hitch a ride from us.

“There’s another car!” Danny screamed.

Another old junker was coming toward us. The driver leaned out his window and waved to us. As he came to a stop I pulled up beside him and halted when we were window to window.

“Old car,” I said, pointing at his vehicle.

“We’re the only things that seem to be running. How far have you come?” he asked.

“Only a couple of miles.”

“And is it like this all over?” he asked.

“As far as we’ve seen. Where are you coming from?”

“Milton. I’ve been driving for thirty miles, and it’s like this everywhere I’ve passed through. I figure the only way my wife is getting home from work is if I get her.”

“She’s one of the lucky ones who’ll get a ride home,” I said. “Be careful.”

He gave me a strange look.

“You know, drive carefully… There are so many abandoned cars,” I said—but that wasn’t what I’d meant, and I think he knew it. I had an uneasy feeling about the way people had been looking at us as we passed. There was something in their eyes, especially the last guy who tried to wave us down. He looked angry when I didn’t stop.

The other driver headed off in one direction and we drove in the other.

“How are people going to get home?” Todd asked.

“I guess they’re going to have to walk.”

“Where’s Dad?” Rachel asked.

In the rush of everything I hadn’t even thought of that. I looked at my watch and did a quick transposing of time. “He’s halfway across the country, on the ground in Chicago. His flight isn’t scheduled to leave for another hour.”

“So he’s okay, right?” Rachel asked.

“Of course he’s okay. He’s millions of miles away,” Danny said. “Probably none of this is even happening there.”

“I’m sure he’s good,” I said. “You know Dad. Nothing fazes him. He’s probably just worried about how we’re doing.”

We continued driving, leaving the last of the houses behind. Lori lived on one of the few remaining little farms on the edge of our suburbs. I’d seen more and more of those farms turned into new subdivisions. I figured it wouldn’t be long before her farm was gone, too.

“You live way out here?” Danny asked.

“It isn’t that far. My family’s been there forever. It’s the farm where my father and his father were born.”

“What’s it like to live on a farm?” Rachel asked.

“I love it. We have lots of space and cows and horses and—”

“You have horses?” Rachel asked.

“Three.”

“I love horses!”

“Then you have to come and ride sometime.”

“Could I do it today?”

“Not today,” I said, before Lori could answer. “We need to get home.”

“But today is the perfect day,” Rachel said. “It’s not like we can watch TV when we get home.”

“Another day,” Lori said. She turned to me. “Your sister is adorable. You have to promise you’ll bring her back.”

“If he won’t, I’m sure my mother will,” Rachel said.

“No, I’ll do it!” I said, cutting her off.

Todd started chuckling from the backseat. He knew what I was thinking.

“There’s my dad!” Lori said.

In the middle of a big field alongside the road was a man on a tractor pulling a plow. Trailing behind the machines, landing in the newly turned ground, a flock of gulls gobbled up whatever grubs were being unearthed by the plow.

Then I realized that the tractor was functioning . I guessed it was an old tractor.

We turned up the dirt lane leading to the farmhouse. It was a bumpy, pothole-filled ride, and I slowed down dramatically to stop from bottoming out. My suspension wasn’t that great at the best of times, and with this many people in the car it was much more of a problem. I had already felt the extra weight in the turns, and acceleration had been even slower than usual. Todd always joked that my car could go from zero to sixty in under ten minutes.

I stopped at the end of the lane. As Lori climbed out I put the car in park, but I didn’t turn it off. I just didn’t want to risk it not starting again.

“The tractor your father is driving—is it old?” I asked.

“Really old. He doesn’t trust new when old still works.”

My theory was holding up.

“Thanks for driving me home, Adam,” Lori said. She touched my arm lightly, which sent an electrical charge through me. At least that power grid was operational.

“Um, no problem. So I guess we better get going.”

“But you are coming back, right?” Lori said. “You know, for Rachel to ride a horse. You could even join us.”

“I could do that. See you later.”

With the twins and Todd shouting back and forth to see who could say the loudest goodbye to Lori, I gave her a final wave and then turned the car around and went back up the lane. When I got to the road, I stopped and instinctively looked both ways for traffic that wasn’t coming.

“I still don’t know why I couldn’t go riding today,” Rachel said.

“Not today, kid. Maybe I could bring you back tomorrow.”

“You don’t even like horses,” Danny said.

“It isn’t Lori’s horses that he’s interested in,” Todd said.

“Shut up, Todd,” I warned.

“Is that any way to talk to your best friend, who arranged for Lori to even be in the car to begin with?” he asked. “Rather than saying ‘Shut up, Todd,’ shouldn’t you be saying ‘Thank you, Todd’?”

I took a deep breath. “Thank you, Todd.”

“Now, was that so hard?” Todd asked. “It’s no wonder that I find you so adorable.”

I maneuvered through the dead cars in the intersection leading into our neighborhood. Off to the left sat the gas station. There were a few cars parked there, and a big gas tanker stalled at the pumps. I’d meant to stop on my way home and get a fill-up, but I knew that couldn’t happen now. My gas gauge showed half a tank—it always showed half a tank because it was broken—but I knew I had a lot less than that. I hadn’t expected to drive Lori home.

We turned off Erin Mills Parkway and drove past the little strip mall at the top of the neighborhood and down the hill leading to our houses. Everything looked so normal. I rolled slowly along to our street.

There was one car at one side of our driveway—my father’s. My mother’s truck was with her at the police station, and she’d driven him to the airport before her shift had started. Her car was newer and wasn’t going to get her home. Then again, I didn’t think she was going to be able to leave the station right now anyway. I pulled in next to my dad’s car and we all climbed out.