Jacqueline Druga - What Tomorrow Brings

After a moment, Kit shook her head. “No.”

“No?”

“No. Jonas came through here four times and never found his wife. We were here, probably miles from my mother, and we missed each other. You said it before, if everyone is looking, how will they find each other. Someone has to stop in order to be found. I’m gonna go back to my son.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“I’m positive. If she gets to New Mexico, they know where we are. If we keep going we’re gonna always be one step ahead, or behind. It’s not how I wanted this to end, but it is what it has to be.” She pulled out the family picture she was going to place on the wall, wrote the words, ‘Maltese Colorado’ signed her name with the date, and gave it to Abe to place near where he found that book cover.

As they walked away from the wall, a man from the table asked, “Do you need us to call out a name?”

Before answering, Kit looked at the Alas, Babylon cover. “No,” she said. “We found our answer.”

They had. She placed the cover to the book in her backpack. Abe and Kit moved on.

The multiple blisters on Zeke’s palms were huge and he held his hands under the water to relieve the stinging pain.

Harland peered over Zeke’s shoulder. “I have ointment for those.”

“I’ll be fine. Just trying to cool them off.”

“Ointment will work, too,” Harland said, placing a towel next to the kitchen sink. “Finish up. Supper’s on the table.”

“Yes, sir.” Zeke wanted a few more seconds with the water, then he used his elbows to shut off the faucet and gently dried his hands with the towel.

“There are other jobs around town.” Harland took a seat at the kitchen table, “Other than working on that fence.”

“Like what?” Zeke asked, joining him.

“You can work at the school or help with the bodies.” Harland dished out the food.

“Chief Rogers said the fence can’t wait. The bodies can wait.”

“Oh, yeah? Tell it to the bodies. While you’re at it walk by and get a good whiff.”

“Winter is coming. It will be here before we know it and we need to be protected. That is what the Chief said.”

“He’s not Ned Stark, or whoever that Thrones guy was.”

Zeke laughed. He liked Harland, he liked him a lot. Harland was a good man who kept Zeke busy, and took care of him. They had a routine, got up at the same time, read each night, played cards and without fail, tried to eat dinner at the same time each evening.

“Now pray.”

They both bowed their heads for a few seconds.

“Amen,” Harland said and began to eat.

“Stew looks good.”

“Yeah, it does. Proud of myself on this one. Plus, this will be the first meal in how long that someone isn’t knocking on my door or interrupting my…” He paused when he saw headlights outside. “Oh, damn it. Who is it now?”

Zeke leaned back in his chair. “Who in town drives a half car?”

“Better to ask, who in town got access to the gas.” Harland stood and then paused. “Well I’ll be damned.”

“What?”

“It’s your mother.”

Zeke jumped from his seat and raced to the door to open it.

“Who is that with her?” Harland asked. “Oh, that’s Abe. I hope he’s alright.”

Zeke wanted to run out to his mother, but before he could she raced to the door, grabbing hold of him tightly and pressing her lips to his cheek.

“Oh my God, I missed you,” she said.

“Mom, I was so worried. You were gone a month.”

She hugged him again and kissed him. “We had a few problems getting home. We had to keep switching vehicles.”

Zeke looked to Abe when he walked in. “Thank you for getting her back.”

“It was all her,” Abe said. “Trust me.”

Harland gave a hug to Kit, then shook Abe’s hand. “You okay?” he asked Abe.

“I need a long nap,” Abe replied.

“Yeah, I bet. I want to examine you as well.”

Abe just nodded.

“Sit down,” Harland said. “We’re having dinner. Just in time.”

“Harland, thank you so much,” Kit said, placing her pack on the floor.

“How did it go?” Harland asked.

“Did you find Jillie?” Zeke questioned.

Kit shook her head.

“Gram?”

“No. We didn’t. But…” She reached into her pack and pulled out the book cover. “We found this on the search wall. People post when they are searching for family.” She placed the cover on the table. “Pap gave every single person a copy of this book as a heads up. Only he gave grandma a big heads up.” She flipped the cover over.

“COGCON,” Harland said. “So you think she went to Dulce?”

“I do.” Kit took a seat at the table. “And eventually, I believe… I hope, she’ll make her way here. I also think maybe Jillie is with her.”

“Mom, how is it out there? What’s it like?” Zeke asked. “Is there really an occupation?”

“Yeah, and it’s pretty strong. I don’t know what is going on elsewhere with it, but they have it secure out west. As far as damage… Seattle is bad. Some places are okay. Some not so okay. People are getting desperate. I think really instead of worrying what’s going on out there we should just focus on what’s going on here.” She grabbed his hand. “We can talk so much more about it later. Right now. Me and Abe are really hungry.”

Harland placed plates on the table and sat down. “For what it’s worth, Kit, I think it’s a good idea that you are staying here. I’m sorry you didn’t find what you were looking for.”

“No, in a sense I did. I found some peace, if that makes sense.” Kit touched the book cover, then moved her hand to her son’s. “Right now, with the world the way it is, I’ll take what I can get.”

It was the best answer Kit could give and she truly believed her words, they came straight from her heart.

When she first arrived at Harland’s home, right after the crash, after the bombs, he had said to her, “Sadly, for all of us, this story has no happy ending.”

Upon first hearing that, she believed him, but Harland was wrong.

There couldn’t be a good or sad ending when the story was far from finished. It never would be. The world wasn’t stable. It would be forever changing and evolving. Brought on by a war that wasn’t new, just different. People would adapt, heal, rebuild, move on and more than likely, through war, destroy themselves all over again.

Kit was realistic in knowing there was a chance she would never see her daughter, mother, sister or father again. She had accepted that, but she could no longer focus on that. She had to focus on the now and what she had.

For the time being, instead of a happy ending, Kit would be satisfied with a happy outcome. If that meant staying put, rebuilding a small town and holding her son’s hand, so be it. Kit would take it.

It the face of it all, Kit was beyond fortunate. The bombs destroyed so much, killed hundreds of millions of people. Yet, unlike so many that had placed pictures, posters and signs on that huge wall, Kit hadn’t lost everything. She still had Zeke, and he was more than enough to keep her going.

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What Tomorrow Brings

By Jacqueline Druga

Copyright 2017 by Jacqueline Druga