William Johnstone - Phoenix Rising

“I can make a great possum stew with potatoes, onion, carrots, and jalapeño peppers,” Bob said. “I can’t wait until the garden grows.”

Karin drove the golf cart back out into the central area then. Becky was crying, quietly. Bob looked at her quizzically, but Karin got out of the cart and signaled for Bob to step away from the others.

“What is it?” Bob asked.

“She was raped,” Karin said.

“Raped?” Bob gasped. He looked back toward her. “Those bastards!”

“She doesn’t remember it, but while I was examining her, she told me she felt pain there. She isn’t wearing panties under her dress, though she insists that she had them on when she and the other girl left. She isn’t wearing them now, and there are abrasions and semen residue.”

“Damn,” Bob said.

“She’s very upset, as I’m sure you can understand. She’s likely to go through some serious depression over the next several days, at least until she learns whether or not she was made pregnant.”

“The poor girl,” Bob said. “Oh, what about her dizziness?”

“She had a concussion, that is for certain,” Karin said. “But I don’t think she had a skull fracture. I treated her lacerations. If she keeps the wounds clean, they shouldn’t give her any trouble.”

“Thanks, Karin,” Bob said. He walked back over to the golf cart, then spoke to Jake. “I’ll talk to the others soon as I get back,” he said. “For now, we have a girl missing. James is out looking for her.”

Becky was quiet for half of the trip back from the fort. Then she spoke, so quietly that Bob could barely hear her.

“Don’t tell the others,” she said. “Don’t tell the others I was raped. I’m so ashamed.” She began to cry.

“Becky, you have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of,” Bob said.

“I don’t know whether I do or not,” Becky said. “I don’t even remember it. God in heaven, how can you be raped and not even remember it?”

“It is traumatic amnesia,” Bob said. “It’s not that uncommon. I’ve experienced it myself.”

“But you won’t tell? Promise that you won’t tell.”

“I won’t tell,” Bob promised.

When Bob and Becky returned, James was back with Sarah safely in tow.

“She was all the way down to Ponce de Leon,” James said. “She had no idea we were looking for her.”

“How is Becky?” Sarah asked.

“She’ll be fine,” Bob said. “The nurse doesn’t think she has a skull fracture. But she did have a concussion and doesn’t remember a thing, so don’t be pestering her with questions.”

All the women clustered around Becky, anxious to do whatever they could for her. While they were talking, Bob brought up Jake’s offer to the two men.

“I don’t know,” James said. “It’s going to be hard to get Cille to leave this house.”

“Not as hard as you think,” Cille said. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s about time we let them in on it as well,” Bob said. “We sure aren’t going to make this decision without them.

“You got that right,” Jerry said. “Go ahead, tell them.”

“Ladies,” Bob said, “I have a proposition for you.”

Bob told them then who was down at the fort. He told them also that he trusted the men and women he had met down there.

“I trust them too,” James said. “There are some folks that, as soon as you meet them, you just know what kind of people they are, and these are good people.”

“Here’s the thing,” Bob said. “They have invited us to come down there and live with them.”

“What?” Gaye said. “You mean live there, in the fort? Have you ever been there?” Gaye wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. “Even in the summertime it’s cold there. Nothing but brick, stone, and cement.”

“Yes,” Bob said. “That’s because it is a fort, literally, and that’s what makes it attractive. There won’t be any repeat of what happened here.”

“If you ladies decide that you are willing to do this, I’ll make you a promise,” James said. “I’ll build us some place comfortable for us to stay. There is enough building material scattered around here from the hurricane that I don’t expect it will be very hard to do.”

“I’ll say this,” Ellen said. “I sure don’t want a repeat of what happened to us this morning.”

“I’m for it,” Cille said.

“If we have a vote in this, I’m for it as well,” Sarah said.

“Of course you have a vote,” Bob said. “Right now you are one of us.”

“Becky? Becky?” Sarah asked. “What do you say?”

“I’m for it,” Becky said.

“Gaye, it’s up to you,” Ellen said.

“No, it isn’t up to me,” Gaye said. “If we are voting on this thing I have already been outvoted.”

“I guess you have been,” Bob said. “But I really don’t want to force anyone into anything that they don’t want to do.”

“You aren’t forcing me,” Gaye said. “Everything you are saying makes sense. If we are down there, inside a fort with a bunch of other people, then it has to be a lot safer there than it would be if we stay here. I’m for going as well.”

“Alright, let’s load up James’s truck with whatever we think we might use.”

“Are we going to take any of the lumber, or building material?” Jerry asked.

“What do you think, James?” Bob asked.

“I don’t think so, yet,” James said. “We’ll just take whatever personal items we are going to need on this trip. It’s going to take several trips to get what we’ll need to start building.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

After Bob Varney and his group moved down to Fort Morgan they, along with Jake and the Phoenix group, began to build a place to live, using as their scheme a motel-like plan. Jake and James drew up the design of one long, single-story structure divided into individual cabins.

It was decided that each of the three married couples would have their own cabin, Karin and Julie would share a cabin, Becky and Sara would live together, and Jake and Deon would be roommates, while John, Marcus, and Willie would share the final cabin.

They began the structure by using one of the massive stone walls of the fort as their back wall. Next, they built a floor that extended twenty feet out from the wall, and stretched one hundred and five feet long. After they finished the floor, they put in a wall at each end and separated the floor into seven compartments, each protruding fifteen feet out from the stone wall of the fort. This left five feet for a front porch. Next they put on the front wall, with a door and window for each unit, then a roof, with a chimney from each unit. Finally they built a fireplace in each room.

Throughout the entire construction project, James and Jake worked very well together, James, because he was a natural handyman, and Jake, because such work was a product of his youth. He had built many wood-frame structures, even as late as last March when he had gone back home to visit his folks, and helped in a barn raising.

While the men were building their quarters, Bob and the women put in the garden. Ellen was a particularly good gardener, as was Julie, and they took charge of the layout and planting.

Fort Morgan—Wednesday, August 22

So far all of the building material came from the scrap lumber and residue left by Hurricane Ohmshidi hauled down to the fort in James’s truck. But midway through the process James announced that he didn’t think he had enough gasoline to make another trip.

“We can make our own gas,” Bob suggested.

“Ha! How, by eating a lot of beans?” John asked.

The others laughed.

“No,” Bob said. “During World War II a lot of people converted coal, charcoal, or wood, to a gas that would power their vehicles. John, you are a good mechanic and James, you can do just about anything. You two could build a gas converter.”