Scott Williams - The Pulse

After glancing in her direction and seeing it was obvious she knew his voice, Grant opened the door and introduced himself to the visitor standing on the porch. Joey looked as if he had been drinking all day, which he had. He was holding a beer in one hand and half a six-pack of cans dangling in their plastic rings in the other. He was wearing a New Orleans Saints T-shirt, flip-flops, and shorts, and looked as if he were coming to yet another in a long series of parties.

“I’ve been looking for you all afternoon!” he said to Jessica as he pushed past Grant, barely acknowledging him. “I thought you would stay home until I got back, or at least stay at Casey’s.”

“Well, I guess you can see that the lights are out, Joey. What was I supposed to do, sit there in the dark?”

“We came over here because my friend Grant has all this stuff,” Casey said, pointing out the lantern, the piles of gear, and the bags of groceries they had bought earlier that day.

Joey glanced around the room at all the gear and the three bicycles leaned against walls where they had brought them inside to keep them from getting stolen. “You must be a freakin’ Boy Scout, huh?” he said to Grant. “What the fuck are you gonna do with all this shit?”

“We were just making plans to evacuate the city,” Grant said calmly. “Things are not going to get better here before they get a lot worse.”

“That’s bullshit! I don’t know why everybody’s tripping out about a little blackout. They’ll have the lights back on tomorrow or the next day. Besides, how the fuck are you going to evacuate when nobody’s car will run? Mine sure won’t. They say we’re all gonna to have to get new computers in them because they’re fried. All we can do is wait ’til the lights come on and the parts stores open.”

“I don’t think they’re going to get this fixed any time soon, Joey.” Casey said. “Stop and think about it for a minute. What could we do if we stay here? What are we going to eat? The stores are already running out of everything.”

“Well, they still had beer back at the Circle K a while ago, even if it was just Coors Lite piss. But I’ve got a half a case of Abita back at my house, and plenty of sandwich stuff and chips. Come on, Jessica. Let’s go home. I can think of things we can do without lights.”

“I’m not walking all the way back to your house tonight, Joey. It’s too far in this dark. I’m staying here, and you should too. I don’t want anything to drink. I’m scared and I just want to be with friends until it’s daylight again. You need to just stay here with me; I’m not leaving tonight.”

Joey put up an argument but seeing that Jessica was not going to change her mind, he acquiesced, and opened another beer for himself when no one took him up on his offer to share the three that remained. Casey could tell that Grant would have been happy to see him go and she would have too, but since Jessica wanted him there Grant offered the two of them his room, where the only bed in the apartment was located. Then he stretched out his sleeping bag on the living room floor, giving Casey the couch, which was a bit narrow, but comfortable enough. Casey spent at least another hour awake that first night, lying in the darkness listening to Grant’s steady breathing from the floor and thinking of her dad, wondering if he and Larry had made it to land yet, and if so, if they had found the electricity still on in the islands. She also thought about how strange it was that here she was sleeping on the couch in Grant’s apartment, just a few feet away from him—a guy she barely knew but had thought about often since first meeting him. It was so strange how circumstances had brought them together in a situation where almost anything could happen. So much had happened already since she woke up this morning, she could barely comprehend it, and if this much could change in one day, she wondered what might be in store the next morning. Sleep did come at last despite her worries. When she woke and sat up on the couch it was daylight, and Grant was standing in the apartment’s tiny kitchen, pouring hot water he had boiled on his propane camp stove into a French press sitting next to it on the counter.

“Coffee will be ready in about five minutes,” he said when he looked her way and saw that she was stirring.

“That sounds great! Good thing you had that stove.”

“Yeah, I would imagine quite a few folks here in the city are going to be doing without their morning brew today.”

“Are they still asleep?” Casey asked, nodding towards the closed bedroom door.

“I guess. I haven’t heard anything from them.”

“I’m sure they were both exhausted since they didn’t get any sleep the night before.”

“I can see why you don’t like that guy,” Grant whispered as Casey stepped into the kitchen where they waited on the coffee to steep another minute or two.

“Like I told you, he’s a real jerk. I can’t believe Jessica hasn’t already dumped him.”

“There must be something about him she likes.”

“His looks, I suppose. I’m afraid he’s going try and talk her into going back home with him today.”

“That would be a dumb idea,” Grant said. “I think we need to be getting ready to leave, and maybe even head out later today.”

“Do you really think we have to leave this soon? Isn’t there some possibility help will be coming, and maybe we ought to wait just a little longer and make sure we really have to evacuate?”

“Based on how things were after Katrina, I have to say no, that’s not a good idea. Even with outside help coming in and a large portion of the population already gone, things got really bad early on and stayed bad for a long time. We simply have to go where there are not so many people crammed into one area. These people are going to get desperate, and it’s not just because they’ll be missing their morning coffee, either.”

“I just hope we can get to your cabin and it will be as safe as you say it is.”

“We’ll get there all right, assuming we get moving soon enough. I can’t guarantee it’ll be safe, but I think it’s a way better choice than staying here.”

“I’ve got to somehow let my dad know where I’m going. I know he may not be able to get here, but if he does, he’s going to be looking for me. I need to leave a note with detailed directions to the cabin. I need to leave one in my apartment and one in his car at the airport. Can we go by the airport on the way out? It’s not that far out of the way, is it?”

“It’s several miles out of the way, but doable. I don’t want to make this trip any harder on you two than it has to be. I’m actually more concerned about Jessica than you. I don’t think she realizes the danger, and I wonder if she has the stamina to make it.”

“She’ll be okay,” Casey said. “I don’t know what either one of us would do without your help, though. I guess we would just be stuck here like everyone else.”

“I’d hate to leave you two here in this mess if I can do something about it. And as I said before, if I didn’t bring you along, I’d just be making the trip alone. Speaking of which, why don’t you write that note for your dad’s car now—I’ll draw a map of the route to the cabin to go with it—and I’ll ride over to the airport alone this morning. That way I can scope out what’s going on today and see if I can hear any news of things beyond the city. Do you have a key to his car?

Casey said she did and went to get her key ring out of her backpack. She told Grant about her mom’s accident and how after they lost her she and her dad had been nearly inseparable throughout her teen years. Though it hadn’t been easy, Casey thought her dad had done a great job as a single parent. Hardly a day went by that they didn’t talk for at least a few minutes, and she knew her dad would be frantic with worry about her after being completely cut off from all communication. He had not liked the idea of being out of touch even for the three days he would be sailing offshore with her Uncle Larry. Though it might be impossible for him to get to New Orleans any time soon, she had to leave him as much information as she could about her plans on the off-chance he would somehow find the notes before she could return to the city.