Outbreak: Long Road Back (32 page)

He nearly plowed into Frannie when she stopped suddenly in front of him. Carl peered over his wife’s shoulder and was puzzled to see an old, grey haired Hispanic woman sitting there as if she were waiting for someone. “OH MY…MOMMA!” Frannie shouted jubilantly, the pain in her leg completely forgotten as she sprinted towards the woman shoving people out of her way. “OH MY GOD!! MOM!”

The old woman leapt to her feet, the plastic chair she had been sitting on clattered to the concrete floor. The two of them embraced grateful tears. “Oh baby! My little girl! I missed you so much!” Mari Rodriguez cried as she smothered her long lost daughter’s face with kisses. “I knew…I knew as soon as I heard you’d be here!”
“Mom…I’m so sorry.” Frannie sobbed as she held her mother. “I…I want you to know I’m clean now, Mom.” she whispered in her mother’s ear. “I been clean for almost twelve years now. I…I wanted to tell you…before. Thank you. I love you, Mom.”

“I’m so proud of you, honey.” Mari murmured as she rubbed her daughter’s back. “Good for you. I love you too, Frannie.”

Frannie grinned so hard it made her face hurt. “Oh, holy crap!” she said with a start and let her mother go at long last. The woman motioned for Carl and Michael to join them at the table. “Mom…um…this is my husband, Carl and…Mike. He’s your grandson.”

Carl came rushing over to the display practically shoving people out of the way. “Aim! Aim! C’mere quick! You ain’t gonna fuckin’ believe this!” he shouted when he finally found his big sister lost in thought staring at a photograph. The man grabbed Amy’s arm and started tugging her off into the crowd. “C’mon! Hurry!”

“Jeez! Language, Carl!” Amy grumbled as she tried to get her arm free of her brother’s grasp. “What’s so important?” She looked over her shoulder to make sure that Adam and the kids at least saw where she was going.

“We have a mother in law, Aim!” Carl said proudly with a wave of his hand. Frannie and this old lady were sitting at a table. Amy could see the family resemblance. The old woman and her friend were of similar height and build with similar facial features. “Miss Rodriguez, this is my sister Amy.”

Amy found herself drawn into the conversation. They talked about what had happened. They talked about Michael, who sat on his grandmother’s lap playing with some Matchbox cars he had crammed into his pockets. Adam, Paulie and Becca came over and were introduced as well. Adam left and came back with water. They talked for hours, completely ignoring the droning masses swirling around their table.

Sometime in the afternoon Amy, Adam and the kids left Carl and Frannie to get caught up with Mariana. Carl and Becca wanted to see if they could find their old house and Adam found that he could not say no to the idea. After a trip back to the parking lot they piled into the van and started off. Paulie had the map so he gave his father directions from the middle seat as he maneuvered through the knotted traffic.

By the time they made it six blocks into the city Adam felt like he wanted to pull his hair out. The streets were clogged with vehicles of all shapes and sizes. People even rode horses or in horse drawn carts. Few of the signal lights worked so the intersections were commanded by harried looking traffic cops.

“Dad! Pull over here!” Paulie said pointing frantically towards a parking lot with a few open spaces. The two teens exchanged worried glances as their father grudgingly handed over a quarter ounce of silver to park the car. Amy glanced at the kids in the rear view mirror. There was something familiar about the neighborhood but for some reason she could not quite put her finger on it.

Becca slid open the side door and hopped out of the car. The girl dug into her knapsack and produced her pride and joy: a little digital camera that she had scrimped and saved for months to buy. She had already snapped surreptitious photos of her parents and stuff. So far some of her favorites were of Aunt Frannie and her mom playing with Michael. “I think the house is that way, guys.” Becca said, pointing off to the right.

Realization struck Amy like a ton of bricks after a couple of hundred feet. There had been a lot of new construction but the smell of the roiling water made it click into place in her head. She wandered forward as if in a trance and paused at the point where a semi dilapidated bridge crossed the wide river and wandered past the sawhorses meant to keep vehicular traffic away. She could almost see ghostly outlines of the vehicles that had been emplaced when she had rolled up with Jacobson and Sergeant Emery.

“There were Humvees parked crossways, blocking the bridge.” Amy muttered, motioning with her hand to let the others know what she was talking about. The woman paused with her hands dangling limp at her sides for a moment. “There were hundreds and hundreds of people down that way.” She pointed at the south end of the bridge.
Amy walked a few dozen more paces out onto the bridge, standing near a giant hole in the cement guardrail. “I pulled our truck up right about here.” She could see the ethereal outline of the Humvee and a younger version of herself climbing into the truck’s gunner’s hatch. “They started across the bridge.” Amy pointed at the south end of the bridge and slowly let her hand move towards the north side.

A strangled keening noise like a wounded animal snapped Amy out of her mental fog. Adam sat on the curb with his face hidden in his hands sobbing into his palms. Amy hurried over to her husband and sat down next to him. The woman put her arms around him and held him. Becca and Paulie felt their feet grow roots into the blacktop. “I…I’m so sorry, Amy.” the man mumbled around the tears streaming down his face.

“Shh…” Amy whispered and showered her husband’s face with kisses. Now tears rolled down her cheeks too and she clung to her husband as the man squeezed her hard. “It’s alright.” The words she had wanted to say to him for a decade now finally clawed their way out of her chest and worked their way past all the pain. All the frustration. All the anger. “I forgive you, baby. I love you.” Just like that Amy felt lighter…as if a great big weight had been lifted off her shoulders. “I love you. I love you.”