Jerking roughly awake to the insistent ringing of the
phone was Ellen’s introduction to,” Wave
Day”, as they would soon begin to call it, minus
twelve.
“Hello.”
“Hi mom. Did I wake you? You sound a little groggy
this morning.”
“Uh huh, but it’s OK. The alarm was set to go
off in a few minutes anyway. I’m usually up long
before now, but your dad and I were up really late
talking about this wave thing that has you two so
upset.”
“Mom, we’ve had plenty of times that we’ve
clashed in our beliefs, but we both know that everything
that I do and feel is finely tuned to natural things and
events. If you go outside and see that the sun is shining
you would not be convinced by me, or anyone else for that
matter, that it wasn’t there. Try to understand,
what I see coming is as real as anything that you can
see, feel, or touch, to me.”
“You’re dad said his dream was a warning, and
that the things that you found just seem to confirm it. I
just hate the thought of giving up everything we’ve
worked so hard for, for so many years, to get!”
“Mom, I know it’s going to be hard to do, but
if you don’t go to work on this as hard and as fast
as you can, you are going to end up dying of hunger and
thirst in that damn desert. When this comes down, all of
your cash, and all of your bank accounts won’t be
enough to buy a glass of water or a peanut butter
sandwich. You’ve just got to remember that, if
you’re going to survive!”
“I know honey, I’ll do my best. Maybe if I
pretend I’m going on the ultimate vacation or
something like that, it will help a little. I’m
really starting to get scared of this, EMP, thing.”
“Sometimes a little fear, and I do mean just a
little, can be a good thing. It can give us that little
surge of energy we need to get something done, when it is
really critical, a little faster than we would normally
have done it. We think we have twelve days left to finish
our preparations, but ...What if we only have a
few?”
“Well, I hope I don’t surge too soon, or I
might wet the bed! That is on the top of my things to do
list, every morning, and you’re talking about all
this surging!”
“OK mom, I get the hint. Please get out and give dad
a hand, Get enough money to buy lots of non-perishable
food items. You know, just buy a lot! Oh yeah, go to a
bakery and buy about three dozen of those empty five
gallon plastic pails with the lids. Bakeries get their
fruit fillings in them, and they won’t have any
chemical residues in them. You can fill them with flour,
sugar, cornmeal, and every other staple you can find.
They are airtight, and will keep the pests and moisture
both out. I’ve got some that are filled with flour
that’s over two years old, and it’s still just
like the day that I stored it. You can buy large
quantities of things at that club place where you and dad
have that member card to get you in. They won’t know
that you aren’t buying for a school or something
like that. You’d look pretty silly trying to go
through the checkout at your local grocery store with
twenty or thirty large bags of flour or something like
that in a cart. Five hundred pounds each of sugar and
flour should be a good start. With everything else, that
you need to pick up, you’ll need to make several
trips in that old Buick of yours. At least it’s a
station wagon. They will help you load it if you ask them
to do it, I’m sure.”
“Mom, are you crying?”
“Sorry Honey. It just came out all at once. I
don’t want this to be happening! We were supposed to
retire to the good life in a couple of years!”
“Mom, with a little work now, who’s to say we
won’t still be able to have a good life in our
future. It will be different, I don’t doubt that at
all, but that doesn’t necessary rule out good, does
it?”
“I guess not, if you say so. Only time will give us
the answer to that one. I’m going hit the
“john”, and get this show on the road.
I’ll call you later tonight,
“OK mom, tonight for sure.”
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