Status: In Progress.
There Goes The Sun
2. Public School Number Something Or Other.
June 21.
We are not alone! Thank God.
Here’s what happened. We had made our way down to Jacksonville - not bad progress, even when you add in how we didn’t exactly have much else to do but walk. We were both pretty tired by then - I’d been carrying Ed for a mile or two. I would have stopped sooner, but I had a feeling it’d be pouring rain soon, and I didn’t want to be hanging out in the middle of the road, you know?
Besides which, it wasn’t just any road we were on then. It was Greenbrier Road, the Ghost Light Road. Uncle Henry used to do business here in the City of Jax, and he’d swear up and down that whenever he’d drive the road at night, this freaky orb of light would follow him. And no one, least of all him, could ever explain it.
Freaky, yeah?
Anyway, I hurried right along that road. Eventually we came across this old school. No name or anything that I could see, just Public School Number Something Or Other. Looked like any other old school - old. Empty. Smelling of smoke even though there wasn’t a fire to be seen. And slightly creepy, but beggars can’t be choosers.
I figured we could wait out the storm, maybe spend the night before moving on. No big deal. So Ed and I go in and chill in this classroom, and we’re having a snack, and what do we hear that almost makes me choke on the gummi bears?
A baby, crying.
Scared me to death, that did. We hadn’t exactly counted on, you know, others.
Ed started running around, following the noise, I guess. I followed him as best I could, but it was pretty hard to keep up, being pretty tired and all.
Finally we got to this little classroom at the end of the first floor. There was this woman sitting on the floor, holding a baby girl who I don’t think was even a year old. She looked about as surprised as we did, but once we had convinced each other that we were real, we started talking.
Her name’s Crystal, and the baby was her daughter Vero. Along with her husband, Vero’s daddy, they had moved to Naples about a year ago, from up north - Virginia way. And now they had been heading back up to Virginia, to see about her husband’s relatives and such. He’d gone out a couple nights before to get some provisions, and hadn’t come back yet.
I could tell Crystal was pretty anxious about it all, and I don’t blame her for it either. I tried to get her to take a couple of our sandwiches, but she wouldn’t hear of it. She did take the extra water bottle and some little snacks, though, so that was good.
She was really apologetic about Vero’s crying, too, saying she could only imagine how surprised and scared we must have been. I said it was no trouble at all but I think she could tell I was just trying to make her feel better.
She asked if I was traveling all alone, and I told her that except for Ed, I didn’t have anyone left. And I told her a little about Aunt DiCamillo - not everything, but the whole truth isn’t always necessary, right? - and Uncle Henry and how Ed and I were going to Key West to get on the boats out. She didn’t know about that - said her husband had taken the radio with him.
And that’s when I asked, why not come with us? Ed and I wouldn’t mind the company at all, and even though we didn’t have a radio either, we knew the state and it might be safer to start moving about than just hanging out in one place. And she could always get news from Virginia once we reached Key West or Miami or maybe even Tampa.
She didn’t want to leave, at first. She said she’d have hated to leave and then have her husband get back only to find them not there, but thanks for the offer and it was very sweet of us to give up some provisions.
I gave her another thing of water, which I convinced her to take by saying it was for baby Vero, and since the rain had stopped, started out with Ed. No use talking to a dead horse or however that expression goes.
I hadn’t gotten three steps out of the school before I heard her running after me.
“Hey, Bonita? It - I think it might be better if we go after all. If you don’t mind.”
Like we could just have left them there after all that, right?
We are not alone! Thank God.
Here’s what happened. We had made our way down to Jacksonville - not bad progress, even when you add in how we didn’t exactly have much else to do but walk. We were both pretty tired by then - I’d been carrying Ed for a mile or two. I would have stopped sooner, but I had a feeling it’d be pouring rain soon, and I didn’t want to be hanging out in the middle of the road, you know?
Besides which, it wasn’t just any road we were on then. It was Greenbrier Road, the Ghost Light Road. Uncle Henry used to do business here in the City of Jax, and he’d swear up and down that whenever he’d drive the road at night, this freaky orb of light would follow him. And no one, least of all him, could ever explain it.
Freaky, yeah?
Anyway, I hurried right along that road. Eventually we came across this old school. No name or anything that I could see, just Public School Number Something Or Other. Looked like any other old school - old. Empty. Smelling of smoke even though there wasn’t a fire to be seen. And slightly creepy, but beggars can’t be choosers.
I figured we could wait out the storm, maybe spend the night before moving on. No big deal. So Ed and I go in and chill in this classroom, and we’re having a snack, and what do we hear that almost makes me choke on the gummi bears?
A baby, crying.
Scared me to death, that did. We hadn’t exactly counted on, you know, others.
Ed started running around, following the noise, I guess. I followed him as best I could, but it was pretty hard to keep up, being pretty tired and all.
Finally we got to this little classroom at the end of the first floor. There was this woman sitting on the floor, holding a baby girl who I don’t think was even a year old. She looked about as surprised as we did, but once we had convinced each other that we were real, we started talking.
Her name’s Crystal, and the baby was her daughter Vero. Along with her husband, Vero’s daddy, they had moved to Naples about a year ago, from up north - Virginia way. And now they had been heading back up to Virginia, to see about her husband’s relatives and such. He’d gone out a couple nights before to get some provisions, and hadn’t come back yet.
I could tell Crystal was pretty anxious about it all, and I don’t blame her for it either. I tried to get her to take a couple of our sandwiches, but she wouldn’t hear of it. She did take the extra water bottle and some little snacks, though, so that was good.
She was really apologetic about Vero’s crying, too, saying she could only imagine how surprised and scared we must have been. I said it was no trouble at all but I think she could tell I was just trying to make her feel better.
She asked if I was traveling all alone, and I told her that except for Ed, I didn’t have anyone left. And I told her a little about Aunt DiCamillo - not everything, but the whole truth isn’t always necessary, right? - and Uncle Henry and how Ed and I were going to Key West to get on the boats out. She didn’t know about that - said her husband had taken the radio with him.
And that’s when I asked, why not come with us? Ed and I wouldn’t mind the company at all, and even though we didn’t have a radio either, we knew the state and it might be safer to start moving about than just hanging out in one place. And she could always get news from Virginia once we reached Key West or Miami or maybe even Tampa.
She didn’t want to leave, at first. She said she’d have hated to leave and then have her husband get back only to find them not there, but thanks for the offer and it was very sweet of us to give up some provisions.
I gave her another thing of water, which I convinced her to take by saying it was for baby Vero, and since the rain had stopped, started out with Ed. No use talking to a dead horse or however that expression goes.
I hadn’t gotten three steps out of the school before I heard her running after me.
“Hey, Bonita? It - I think it might be better if we go after all. If you don’t mind.”
Like we could just have left them there after all that, right?