The Rule of Three (12 page)

“I think I know what to expect,” my mother said. “I just don’t know if we can handle that. I hope you’re wrong.”

He shook his head. “I’d like to be wrong, but I’ve seen this before.”

“Nobody has seen this before,” I argued.

“Not here, but in places where I’ve been stationed. I don’t expect the patterns to be different here. They haven’t been so far. After three days is when things start to get hairy.”

My mother looked worried, though not scared.

“Are you hearing anything official from any level of government?” Herb asked.

She shook her head. “A few hand-delivered messages from the chief. Both stations in his command are understaffed, with officers deserting to protect their families.” She paused. “At a time when things are getting worse, my colleagues and I have fewer officers on hand. That’s compromising our ability to contain the situation.”

“The solution may be to try to do less,” Herb said. “Your choice is to protect everything badly or protect some things well. What would you think about drawing back the patrols to only look after this neighborhood?”

“I can’t do that. Not yet.”

“Would you consider putting more civilians on sentry duty?”

“That we could do.”

“And arming those civilians?” Herb asked.

She didn’t answer right away. I wondered what she’d say if she knew I had Herb’s pistol in a holster strapped to my waist.

“I don’t think I have the authority to make that decision,” she said.

“You’re the only one who does,” Herb said. “Although I understand why you wouldn’t want to do that … at least not yet.”

She shook her head. “Hopefully not ever. You know, Herb, I really appreciate what you’re doing, the perspective you’re bringing.”

“I’m just trying to offer whatever insights I can to help you with the decisions you have to make. I guess I feel lucky I’m not in your shoes and grateful that you’re there showing leadership.”

“It feels more like partnership. I’m happy you’re here. Thanks for all your input. I need to get back to the station. Adam, you’re in charge of the twins … assuming they wake up.”

“I’ll watch them.”

“And I’ll help,” Herb offered.

My mother got up and left the room, leaving Herb and me alone.

“So what really happened last night at the farm?” Herb asked.

“What makes you think anything happened?”

“You’re not a very good liar even when you don’t say anything. Was there a confrontation?”

“Nothing that we couldn’t handle.” I pulled the gun out of its holster and offered it to him.

“I think it’s better if you just hang on to it for now.”

“I don’t think my mother would be happy about me having it.”

“And how about you?”

I held the gun in my hand. I wasn’t sure I wanted to give it back.

“I’m sure the Petersons appreciated your staying out there last night.”

“I think they’d appreciate somebody going out there again tonight,” I said.

“How many people do you think you would need to provide protection tonight?” Herb asked.

“Me and Todd could do it, plus of course the Petersons.”

“That was
last
night. Each night they’ll need more people until finally…”

“Finally what?”

“Something has to change. I’m just not sure what that change is going to be yet. You should go to bed, too, and we’ll talk later. Hang on to that sidearm until then. If necessary, I’ll talk to your mom about it.”

15

I heard crying when I went upstairs. It was coming from behind the closed door of Rachel’s room. I knocked at her door and the weeping noise stopped. “Can I come in?”

“Wait a second,” my sister answered. I could hear the tears in her voice. “Okay, come in.”

She was sitting up on her bed, and her red eyes squinted at me.

“Are you all right?”

“Of course I’m all right,” she said. She attempted a weak little smile, and then she burst into tears again.

I rushed over and wrapped my arms around her. But this only forced more sobs out of her and she became louder—much louder.

“Rachel?” Danny rushed into the room. “What’s going on?”

He looked at me accusingly, like I was the one who was causing her distress. I shrugged. Danny threw an arm around her as well. She tried to answer his question, but it sounded like a jumbled combination of sobs and mismatched syllables that I couldn’t understand. But Danny seemed to.

“Dad is going to be okay, right, Adam?” he asked.

“Yeah, of course.”

“But, but, he’s alone,” Rachel howled, and then dissolved into more sobs.

“He’s not alone,” I said. “He has his whole flight crew with him. There are a bunch of them, including his copilot, the engineer, and all of the flight attendants. They’re all together, plus they have all the staff and crew at the airport down there to help them.”

“That’s right,” Danny said. His face showed relief, and I realized that I wasn’t just trying to ease Rachel’s fears.

“I’m sure they’re all taking care of each other,” I said.

“Really?” she asked.

“He’s probably just worried about us,” I said.

“But why would he be worried about us?” Rachel asked.

I’d gone too far. I didn’t need her to be anxious about what was happening here. “You know how he is,” I said. “He’s always worried about us even when we’re
safe
and when there’s
nothing
to worry about. We’re completely
safe
.”

I emphasized the words I wanted her to hear. That’s what Herb did. And then I tried to distract them with a chore.

“I need your help, guys. I want you both to get up, grab some breakfast, and then go down to Mullet Creek and get some water so we can flush the toilets.”

“I don’t know why we need to go down to the creek when we have a whole pool of water in the backyard,” Danny complained.

“Because Herb told us that’s what we should do.”

“Is Herb in charge?” Danny questioned.

“Of course not. He just knows some things from his job. He said that pool water is best to use for drinking. Even when it has to be re-treated it’s still more pure. How about if I go with you two to get the water? That’ll be easier.” I guess I’d have to find a chance to sleep later.

“That would be nice,” Rachel said. She used her sleeve to wipe away the tears.

“Get dressed, eat, and then the three of us will go together. It’ll be fun.”

Danny shook his head. “Fun isn’t what it used to be.”

*   *   *

We each carried two buckets. I figured six would be enough to flush the toilets for the whole day. Even without clean water coming in through the pipes, the toilets still worked. It was simple gravity—you poured water in the tank and then flushed, sending the contents of the bowl down the sewage pipes leading away from our house and toward the treatment plant and the lake beyond. I knew that no treatment was taking place. I couldn’t help but think of what the effect would be of all that sewage flowing untreated into the lake, but right now I was more concerned about it sitting in our toilets if we didn’t flush it.

We weren’t alone walking for water. People who had always relied on water coming through their taps were now reduced to scooping water from the two creeks that ran through our neighborhood. Lots of people were either headed down to Mullet Creek or coming back up. You could see the strain in the arms and on the faces of those returning as they carried overflowing containers of water.

We nodded or said hello to people as we passed. There were many people who looked familiar but not that many I really knew. Of course I knew some of the kids from school or soccer or baseball, but I was almost shocked by how few people I did know when it came right down to it. And it wasn’t just people a street or two over, but neighbors right on my street whom I’d never gotten to know before this. The last few days I’d seen people standing in front of their houses—I’d even joined a couple of conversations. Normally they were just little heads visible through their car windows as they raced past my house. Then they were either gone around the corner or disappeared into their garage and then into the house through an interior door so that they never even needed to appear in the outside world.

We came along the walking path that ran behind the houses and cut through the electrical-tower field to the closest little creek. It was hidden by a thin curtain of trees and weeds. Other paths cut through the brush, leading down to the water. A couple of kids ahead of us went down one path carrying their pails, and almost immediately a woman emerged carrying a bucket. She nodded to us as we passed. She was familiar-looking, but again I had no idea who she really was.

“This is like the nursery rhyme,” Danny said.

“How do you figure that?” I asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Rachel asked. “Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water.”

“Jack fell down and broke his crown and—”

“We’re going
down
the hill, nobody is breaking anything, and only another twin would think it was obvious,” I said.

There were half a dozen people already at the creek—but where was all the water? The creek, which was never big except after a rain, was flowing even less than normal.

“What happened?” I asked.

“There was more water yesterday,” Rachel said. “It wasn’t like usual, but it was much more than this.”

There was just a small trickle of water, inching its way past the rocks at the bottom. People were gathered around the depressions where water was still pooling. They were using cups to scoop it up and then dump it into their water jugs and pails. We hadn’t brought any cups. Maybe I could use one of the pails as a scoop. We squatted down and I sank the pail into the shallow water, using it like a ladle and then pouring it into one of the other pails.

“You know what this reminds me of?” Danny asked.

“Now what? I can’t even imagine,” I said.

“It’s like one of those commercials, kids sitting in the dirt with no water in sight. You know, those international charities that sponsor children. Maybe we can get somebody to
sponsor
Rachel.”

“At least somebody
would
sponsor me,” she said.

I laughed even though I knew this wasn’t something to joke about. If this creek dried up where would we get water from? What if this situation did go on for four more days, or four weeks, or four months? I guess we could start to draw water from the pool. It was clean and chlorinated. We could drink it, which was why we shouldn’t be wasting it on the toilet. Was that why Herb didn’t want us to use that water for flushing? Because he thought it could go on that long?

Then I thought about Lori’s farm. They had water, lots of clean, fresh drinking water. I could bring out some containers, and that would be my excuse to go back.

Slowly we filled up the first five pails and then scooped out as much as we could into the sixth. That would be enough. We trudged back up the slope and along the path to our house. There were more people heading down for water. Was that what had happened to the flow? Were so many people in this neighborhood and others from upstream drawing water out of the little stream, pail by pail, that they were draining it? Was that even possible? But what else could it be?

“Wow, look at that,” Danny said.

I turned. On the horizon was a thick black cloud rising into the sky.

“That has to be some big fire,” Rachel said.

“Did it just start or didn’t we notice it?” Danny asked.

“I’m not sure.”

“Where do you think it is?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think it’s close. It looks like it’s north of Eglinton, but really it could be farther and bigger. There’s no way of knowing.”

“You could drive there,” Danny said. “You could drive us there.”

“I’m not driving us anywhere. Let’s get home.”

“Mom is coming home today, right?” Rachel asked.

“Right. And when she comes home she might even know about this fire.”

“What are you carrying?” Rachel asked.

“This would be water,” I said, holding up one of the pails.

“I meant under your shirt.”

“Nothing. C’mon, get busy.” The pistol in its holster made a bulge under my jacket. I pulled my stomach in so that the gun was less visible. I knew I should have left it hidden under my bed as long as I was in the neighborhood, but I just felt better with it on me. As uncomfortable as it was to have it, I still felt more comfortable carrying it. Herb must really be getting to me.

“It certainly looks like something,” Danny said.

“Maybe once the electricity comes back you can both have your eyes checked.”

“That’s not on the top of my list once things go back to normal,” Danny said.

“What is on that list?” I asked, moving away from the original topic. I slowed down slightly to allow them to get just a little in front of me. I didn’t want them to have another chance to look at the bulge under my jacket.

“Ice cream, a cold Coke, video games, and air-conditioning,” he said.

“Fair enough. It was hot last night, especially for late April.”

“I’m just glad this didn’t happen during the summer,” Danny said.

“You’re right—it would be a lot hotter,” I said.

“And we wouldn’t be in school.”

“You’re not in school now,” I pointed out.

“Exactly, but it’s better to be
missing
school.”

“I don’t like to admit it, but he has a point,” Rachel agreed. “But I like school—well, at least my friends from school.”

“You still have friends from the neighborhood,” I said.

“But I want
all
my friends.”

Other than Todd I hadn’t really talked to many people my own age except Lori, and I
was
going to see her again. I just needed a reason.

“Would it make you happy to go horseback riding again?” I asked Rachel.

Silly question. I smiled at the eager expression on her face and assured her I’d ask Mom as soon as I got a chance.