Hot Springs Surprises

The trip back to Hot Springs took two days through five states using highways that were long abandoned and relatively free of traffic and plumes of black smoke. We steered west of four nuclear plants that were melting down. As we approached every one, I turned on the Geiger Counter to record the intensity of radiation. Fortunately, we were far enough away and the winds favorable in every case but one. When we retraced our track from Fort Smith, the black smoke there was being blown by a reverse front back over us. The Geiger Counter registered in the yellow zone for over 50 miles. We were grateful to have the instrument and to leave that cloud behind.

       Our arrival back at home was late at night, so we opened the laundromat and immediately went upstairs to check on the pigeons and the rooftop garden. We gathered a few eggs and the pigeons greeted us, before settling down and going back to sleep. The rooftop garden had seen enough rain and the things that Lisa had planted there were ready for harvesting. We would get to that in the morning. It was hot, so we left the building and slept in the sleeper after taking a long-awaited bath in the grotto.

       We both couldn't wait to see the gardens, so we woke up at dawn, grabbed a bite to eat, and then, with some tools in hand, walked to the first one. Immediately, we found evidence that deer, rabbits, possums, raccoons and pigs had come into this garden, leaving their tracks and some destruction behind. We set to work. Fortunately, building walls were on two sides of the garden, so I constructed a fence that was 8 feet high on the remaining two sides to keep the deer out and with fine screening at the bottom to keep rabbits and other rodents out. Driving metal into the edge around the fence made it difficult for pigs to dig under the fence.

       Lisa set to work hoeing, weeding and watering plants where necessary and harvested what was already ripe during our time away. It was obvious we would have a lot of canning to do. After a break for lunch, we left that garden and went to the second one. The culprits were at work there, too, so I had my work cut out for me making fence over the next week or so. At least there were places around town where I could get the materials easily. It was just hard work after that. Hard work that would pay off because our crops wouldn't be pillaged.

       Lisa arrived at the third lot a few steps ahead of me and shrieked! "Oh my God! Somebody's been in our garden. They've taken all the ripe vegetables!" When I got there, I saw boot tracks in the garden and muddy tracks leading away and around a building to the south. I followed the tracks along the sidewalk until they petered out about two blocks away. The culprit was probably staying close nearby, though.

       I sure was surprised. What were the odds of two people surviving in Hot Springs when everywhere I'd gone in the country was dead? "Lisa," I cautioned calmly, "This isn't bad. This is a good sign. There's someone else alive here besides us."

       "Yeah, I guess you're right. Whoever it is, is keeping this garden free from weeds and it looks like they are trying to keep varmints out as well." She pointed to the beginnings of a makeshift fence.

       ‘With these tracks, I’m going to find whoever's doing this. I’d better go back and get my gun, though. You can stay here if you like."

       "No, I'm coming with you. I want to be behind you and your gun whenever we find him or them."

       I thought for a moment and then we decided that it was getting too hot and that we should cool off until evening when I suspected that that interloper would be in the garden. We had done enough for one day, so relaxed for a while in the grotto before returning to that garden just as the sun was going down behind the buildings. I was carrying a six shot pump action shotgun that I'd picked up with some buckshot loads and my 357 Magnum in the holster on my hip fully loaded.

       We picked a spot where a stairway went down to a lower level well entrance on the street across from the garden but in the path that we had seen and waited. Lisa was behind me and not watching like I was, but was holding me by my shoulder with her head on it in reassurance. We didn't have to wait long.

       We heard him coming by the click of his boots on the pavement. He didn't seem concerned about making any noise. He was carrying a gunnysack over his shoulder and a hoe, obviously doing a bit of garden work in the evening. He looked to be in his 50s, quite skinny, and wore a straw hat on his head to keep the sun off… Perhaps bald. He whistled while he walked. What he was whistling, I couldn't discern. But it was happy.

       The man was about to turn into the garden when I stood up and leveled the shotgun on him from across the street, yelling, "You there! Drop what you're carrying and put your hands up! You are trespassing on our territory!" Lisa stayed low and hugged my leg, making it difficult for me to step on up out of that well for a better look.

       The man dropped the hoe and bag with a clatter to the sidewalk and threw his hands up. "Don't shoot!" He yelled, walking slowly with his hands up in our direction across the street. "I'm Oscar Bradley. I'm with the city. Public works. I don't mean any harm."

       Lisa whispered. "I know that man. Used to come in the shop. Don't shoot him."

       I lowered the shotgun, came up the steps out of the well and walked over with one hand out in greeting and the shotgun on my shoulder. "I'm a newcomer here, but Lisa," I motioned with my head over my shoulder toward her, following. "Says that you're okay. So I believe her. What are you doing in our garden?"

       "I thought you left. A couple of days after you left, I got a hankering for those fresh vegetables and just couldn't help myself. Started chasing off varmints in the evening, watering and cultivating… And of course, sampling what was growing so rapidly and so well."

       "Well, if you're the only one, I guess you're welcome to it. We were growing way too much for us to consume even next winter. Just planning ahead…"

       "I'm alone. Watched everybody die. Even Lisa's father. There was nothing I could do. I was in charge of civil defense. I inspected all the buildings in town. Knew all the basements and safes. Best places to hide and to hide stuff. When things got bad, I squirreled a lot away. Mostly in one basement nearby that no one knew about because the crime bosses used it for locking away their valuables and money back in the 30s. I found it a few years ago and the place was loaded with old cash, gold and jewelry. I used that to barter for food and other essentials after everything went to hell. I didn't have anyone… No wife or kids… My dad died a long time ago and my mother died couple of years before everything hit the fan. I survived. I didn't know that you did, Lisa."

       "I did because I did what my dad told me to do. Stay inside. Besides, you creeped me out the way you looked at me when you came to do your laundry. But you don't worry me now. I've got my man to protect me." Lisa grabbed my arm and held it close.

       I didn't know what to say. But I said it anyway. "Okay… Okay. Let's just agree to get along. You can manage this plot and I'll help you put up a fence around it and help with anything else that you might need. But we will not be getting close anytime soon. Okay with you?"

       "Okay with me. I'm dying anyway." Oscar raised his right arm to show a large tumor growing out of his arm pit. "I've got open sores, too. These vegetables will help, you know, antioxidants, but the damn radiation is just too heavy. Affected everything and killed so many. I only survived because I stayed in that basement afraid for so long. Didn't have to forage after I stockpiled so much. All the others were out in it. Even your dad, Lisa. It's a shame. Nobody left. Just you and me, the creep." He started crying uncontrollably.

       The next few days were busy as we secured the gardens and cultivated the crops that were growing like nothing I had seen before. All of the dust seemed to have brought in nutrients that enriched the soil and made everything grow better. We planted a few rows of potatoes from the potatoes we brought from Idaho. We got rain every few days, sometimes, heavy, so watering the gardens was not a problem. Where we were living was. I checked the Geiger Counter and found that the city was in the low yellow range. Those two reactors melting down 50 miles to the north had been contaminating Hot Springs for a long time. It worried me greatly, but I didn't tell Lisa, knowing that she would not take it easily. Still I worried.

       Oscar stayed in his "hole" as he called his basement hideout most every day and night and only came to the garden in the evening to work on it and collect vegetables. He refused our offer of meat saying that he still had many cans of it that he was living on in his bachelor lifestyle. I tried to tell him that it didn't help his immune system any and the canned food was probably bad for his health, but he was set in his ways after so long. We tried to find something from pharmacies to treat his wounds, but they just got worse. Before long, he couldn't get up and come out with us in the garden anymore. Lisa started caring for him like she had her father.

       Before Oscar died, he told us, "You can have all of this." He waved his arm around at all of the antique treasures, cash, jewelry and gold that he had stockpiled. "I don't have the strength to write a will but, it's yours." He smiled at us with his pallid cheeks and stained teeth. Lisa patted his hand and made sure that he had the strongest medicine that night to ease his pain. Some opioids that seemed to do the trick. Three weeks after we met, Oscar died in his bed.

       We spent that night in the sleeper like most nights because it was too hot in the laundry except when a cold front came through and it was rainy. I got up early, contemplating where we would bury Oscar, when Lisa rushed out of the cab and threw up on the sidewalk. "What is it, Lisa, Honey? Are you all right?"

       "No breakfast for me… Just coffee. I think I've got morning sickness…"

       I smiled and thought to myself, I hope so, but said instead, "Sure hope you don't have the flu." I shook my head in wonder.