Stan Morris - Surviving the Fog

Mike hesitated to let people use the emergency bathroom during the day, and this precipitated a crisis. One day, as the Council was gathering in Chief’s Room for a meeting, John and Desi entered obviously upset with each other.

“Chief, John and I are breaking up. You need to assign us bunks,” Desi announced.

“Ignore her, Chief,” said John. “She’s just mad. She’ll get over it.”

She whirled on him. “I will not get over it,” she said angrily. “You hit me!”

“I smacked you a few times on your ass. And you deserved every smack,” John countered.

“I don’t care what you call it. You hit me. And for no good reason.”

“Um…I need to use the bathroom,” Mike said, and he left the room.

“See? He didn’t ask anyone’s permission,” Desi barked.

“He’s the Chief. Besides we all know where he’s going,” John responded, trying to sound reasonable.

“Wait a second,” Erin interjected, giving John an incredulous look. “John, you hit Desi because she used the bathroom without your permission?”

“Yes!” Desi shouted.

“Of course not,” John scoffed. “I smacked her butt because she didn’t let me know she was going outside.”

“Ah,” said Hector. “She went outside to use the bathroom, and she didn’t tell you that she was going. So you spanked her for that?”

“Why should Desi have to tell you that she was using the bathroom?” Jean asked. “Are you kinky or something?”

“Any time she goes outside, I want to be informed, so that if she doesn’t come back in a few minutes, I can go check on her,” John explained through clenched teeth.

“Oh,” a chorus of voices drawled, and then there was a moment of silence as the others considered John’s reasoning.

“That does sound reasonable, Desi,” Erin admitted.

“I don’t care if it is reasonable. He had no right to hit me. I’m not a child,” Desi responded.

“A woman’s never too old to spank,” said Howard with a laugh. He glanced at Jean who was glaring at him, and he suddenly realized what he had said.

“Not that I believe that,” he stammered hastily. “That’s just something I heard somewhere.”

“At least he had a good reason,” Kathy groused. “It’s not like you were just accidentally, innocently rubbing your boyfriend, and you ended up getting a smack on the butt.” Hector winced as the others snickered.

Mike returned to the room.

“We need a new rule for everybody, Chief,” Jean said. “Nobody can go outside without finding someone to keep track of how long they have been gone.” The rest nodded.

“All right,” said Mike. “We’ll announce it tonight.” The meeting went on to other items on the agenda.

Afterwards, John said to Desi, “I’m sorry. I was worried. I love you.”

“All right. I forgive you. That was the third time I forgot to tell you, I admit. You know,” she continued. “Mike conveniently missed that whole discussion.”

“I guess that’s why he’s the Chief,” John said.

In the middle of January, the temperature plunged. The skies were overcast and dark. Hector disconnected the pump, so that the hot water in the barrels was not circulated outside. Gradually, it grew colder and colder in the Lodge. The girls abandoned the upstairs rooms. Then the boys in the downstairs room escaped to the relative warmth of the small cave. Finally, the two couples and Mike admitted defeat, and they moved into the central area close to the fire.

“I’m worried about the amount of wood we are using,” Hector said on the fourth day of the deep freeze.

“What else can we do?” Mike asked.

“Jean says that we should all move into the boys’ cave. I agree with her. Whatever heat is left in the barrels might last until this cold passes. And we will be huddled together. That will keep us a little warmer.”

“All right, let’s do it. And until further notice, we’ll only use the emergency bathroom. But keep a small fire going,” Mike ordered.

Quickly the entire tribe moved into the boys’ cave. The boys dismantled the girls’ bunks, so that they could be moved. Soon the small cave was crammed with bunks and people. There was not enough room for all the bunks.

“Double up,” Mike said.

“I want to bunk with Erin,” called a voice from a group of boys.

“In your dreams,” Erin retorted with a sniff.

“Every night,” came the rejoinder.

Gabby yelped as Tyler pretended to pull her pajamas down, and there were a hundred other human interactions as the kids dressed in all their clothes and then got into their bunks. They found that pushing their bunks together and laying their mattresses crosswise allowed them to double up their sleeping bags. Some of the boys doubled with boys, some girls doubled with girls, and some of the doubles were mixed.

There were twenty two doubles, once they had paired off. Mike found himself sharing his bag and Yuie’s bag. This made it warm enough to be comfortable. There was a lot of joking, a lot of teenage sexual innuendo, and a lot of snide comments. Someone told a story. Someone sang a song. Then, during a pause, came the sound of real music.

“What’s that?” several people asked.

“It’s Hector playing his harmonica,” Kathy explained.

There was silence for awhile as Hector played. Night came and passed. Dawn was a drear light. Jacob got up, and he checked outside.

“Still cloudy,” he said when he came back. “And it’s snowing again.”

There were too many in immediate need of the bathroom to use only the emergency bathroom, so precious heat was wasted each time a group went outside.

Mike gathered his Council together. “What are we going to do,” he asked. There was no answer.

The tribe went back into the cave, and they got into their sleeping bags. As the day wore on, it got colder and colder in the cave. To avoid the danger of carbon dioxide, Mike made everyone leave the cave every four hours and go into the central area, while some of the kids flapped blankets to circulate the air. Mike and Yuie clung together that night and shivered.

The next morning after everyone had used the bathroom, Mike gathered his Council again. “We’ll freeze if this goes on,” he said. “So we are going to have to build the fire real high, even if it uses a lot of wood.”

“I have an idea, Mike,” said Eric. “What if we build a fire, and use it to heat up the barrels? When they are boiling hot, we can use blankets to roll them back to the cave.”

Mike looked at Hector. “What do you think?”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Hector replied. “I’ll take some of the canvas, and use it to cover the opening. We’ll lose less heat that way once the barrels are in here, and we can huddle around the fire while we are heating the barrels.”

“Might as well build two fires,” Jean suggested. “Heat up two barrels at a time, and more of us can get closer to the heat.”

“All right, do it, Hector,” Mike said.

They set to work, and the activity helped to warm them until the fires were roaring. Hector disconnected the barrels, and two at a time, they were rolled on to the fire. It took some time to get the water in the barrels sufficiently hot for Hector to be satisfied. They banked the fires, then using blankets; they rolled the barrels just inside the cave. Hector used long pieces of timber to prop canvas against the wall just outside of the alcove. He hoped that this would keep the heat inside the small cave.

It worked. Within the hour, it became too warm to stay in their sleeping bags. They sat on their bunks, much happier now. They entertained one another and discussed many different subjects including their favorite, the differences between boys and girls.