Didn't See It Coming

Just a fun trip toward the end of time.

      Ramona left Georgia in 2001, not long after the terrorist took down the Twin Towers.  Dallas looked like a wonderful and safe haven back then; still American, but far enough from the Atlantic and Pacific that she felt more secure somehow.  Then she met Horace and he more or less made an honest woman of her for the first few years of their marriage, but Horace took everything to extremes and by year four Ramona couldn’t really stomach all “the Lord is Coming” stuff that Horace and his mother were always shoving down her throat.  So, it was in the summer of 2005 that she started seeing Joey Oliver.  Now there was a stud.  He was the most fun in the world and easy on the eyes.  Together they painted Dallas ten shades of red without Horace even guessing a thing. 

       The fun with Joey lasted well into 2015, but it was that next winter when the nuclear “accident” happened in Turkey. Some people said the United States dropped a nuke on purpose, some said it was the Terrorists, and some said it was truly a massive nuclear plant disaster, but it was all the same to her.  Ramona wasn’t all that into the news, but it was hard to ignore the fact that she had to live indoors with Horace and his mother for a solid three months because of the fear of fallout and then the way her internet went out for days at a time.  It was just miserable for a while.   She had to admit they would have gone without if Horace hadn’t been prepared for the time when “the Lord was Coming”.  It meant he and his friends had stores of things in their basements that weren’t available on the shelves for the time being.

           When she ventured back into the world Joey Oliver had left Dallas.  His brother, Thomas said Joey was headed inland to Omaha, but they hadn’t heard from him in the months they’d all been indoors.  The barmaid from Pop’s Bar had gone with him.  It had been their favorite hangout, but then Ramona didn’t expect a real commitment from Joey and it suited her fine that Joey’s younger brother, Thomas took over as her boyfriend. There wasn’t as much fun in Thomas or as much ‘stud’ in him as there had been in his older brother, but he was a diversion.  All the while, Horace kept on preaching.  The idiot hadn’t known how to fix the computer once it broke, and there were no new computers on the shelves.  Of course, the government said it was a temporary thing, and Ramona believed it like most people. This was the United States Government after all. Once the initial panic was over about the slowing of the economy and all that, it was just a matter of waiting it out. They had to be strong and like happened during the Great Depression, there was an end in sight. There would always be nay-sayers and alarmists who made bad times worse with their predictions of doom and gloom.

      It was in the middle of the record heat of 2016 when the heating and air conditioning unit broke and there were no parts to fix it.  Horace was wonderful with things like that, but he finally gave up, saying electricity was by far too expensive a commodity to keep using anyway.  What a joke, she’d thought, until she had to give up her blue ray widescreen t.v., and her collection of movies was suddenly not available to take her mind off her problems. It was even more of a hassle that winter when she had to help “keep the hearth warm” as Horace and his mother liked to call the ridiculous tasks of cutting, hauling, and keeping the infernal fire in the hearth lit.  Ramona thought they were both twits, but that was when she started going to church with Horace.

      The summer of 2017 a lot of people were sick including Thomas Oliver, a flu pandemic was what they called it, and Ramona was lonely without someone on the side to keep her mind off Horace and the mess things were in around the house.  It was temporary she knew, but it was another time of staying inside for a lonely three months.  On top of that, it was when the generator broke and there were none in the stores to buy.  It was just a nuisance.  Horace and his mother made a stupid game of hunting and cooking in the fireplace of all things.  Ramona just refused.  Things would get back to normal soon and she just wasn’t into this whole back to nature, camping out thing.  President Obama promised though she wondered how legal it was that they’d put off the presidential election another two years as a precautionary measure.   They’d said repeatedly, there was just no need to change horses in mid-stream.

       It was in 2018 that she miscarried three times.  It was by far the most miserable year of her life, and Ramona never really understood exactly what “particle contamination” was or why it was causing a problem with her pregnancies.  It was happening all over the country, but the government said it was temporary.  The children would happen later, particle contamination be damned.   It was the stench of dead livestock that was most obnoxious during this time, but then it was over.  Traffic was easier to deal with and life went on.

     In 2020 Ramona started seeing Chuck Bowman.  Chuck was one of the few farmers who still had healthy animals.  Chuck always laughed about it because he’d used thick cement for his barns because it was cheap and some stupid accidental layout of the hills and the direction of the winds around his land had kept his land from “particle contamination”.   Of course, he had to keep his livestock under lock and key these days and hire guards for the fields. It seemed that gangs were just everywhere and worse every year.  They weren’t just in the large cities like it used to be.

       Chuck had been the one to tell her twelve more people they both knew had died from cancer.  It was epidemic or so it seemed, but then President Obama said cancer levels were not rising. It was the damned alarmists again.

     Maybe she’d fussed at Horace and his mother too much.  Ramona had been out with Chuck, doing Karaoke at Pop’s Bar until late when someone called them from across the room to say there was something odd happening in the sky.  They all went out to look at the close encounter with what the government later called the “Miracle Comet”.  There had been fire in a sky as bright as daylight.  When she got home at one in that morning, it was still light outside.  She’d run to tell Horace and found an empty bed, and an empty house.  Horace had left no note, but she knew they’d thought it was a “sign” and had gone somewhere…Maybe they’d gone inland to Omaha or somewhere like Joey Oliver had.  Other people had left that night, too.  “The Miracle Comet” became a second moon, smaller perhaps, but nearer and much more spectacular.  There were rumors that the oceans had changed, but there was no television or internet to get the news, and newspapers were a rare commodity.  She’d had no word from her sister in Atlanta in years.  Families just weren’t as close as they once were, she complained.

     Some of the men had agreed to take in women without husbands or people to help them.  Ramona didn’t hesitate to take Chuck up on his invitation to stay with him and his wife.  He’d already taken in three other women and a half-dozen children.  With that many people, it wasn’t that hard to help with chores around the house even if the conditions were more primitive than Ramona expected them to be in a rich man’s home.  Chuck kept his house warm using hog manure.  The smell of hog poop was always overbearing.  Learning to sew by hand was a pain in the behind, and canning fruits and vegetables was time-consuming, but the bad times would be over soon.  Chuck was actually bartering for their vegetables and other necessities, but Ramona was sure, really sure, that someday soon, Horace would come back.  Or maybe Joey Oliver would come back from Omaha.  If Omaha was still there…

 

Reviews

[Lydia Shutter]

I was interested in this story immediately. Horace, the boring religious husband who has more in common with her mother than her. Joey, the bad boy who is fun. Great way to set up a story. I also liked the bits of current events you interjected....2008/2010/2012.....almost a new man for every new set of events. And in the end, the irony of Horace leaving and Ramona living in Chuck's home doing all the tasks she did not dream of doing in her own home with Horace. President Clinton, huh? :) There are a few life lessons hidden between the lines here...and I enjoyed this immensely. Lydia

[Marie]

Great work, this was really well written.

[Tom G]

Mimi Carolina to Texas and beyond - - sounds like Buz Lightyear. Good write. TomG

[Holly Marsh]

Interesting piece. Sorry it's taken me so long to review it. Your e-mail put a fire under my a*s. The future seems bleak! But I guess that's the point. I liked Ramona's longing for the familiar- for the luxuries we use everyday and see them as normalcies of life. I wanted something more to happen at the end- either things would get back to normal, or for something even more disastrous to happen. But it made me think--sometimes when we want things to change so badly, they remain stagnant. Good work. :)

[Rain]

This was so cleverly written. Like Lydia, you had me from the get. Your blending of characters was terrific, and although fiction, it is so plausible..except the President Clinton fantasy. hee hee. I really liked this.
Rain..

[Emily B]

Wow! It took me a day or two to get here, but what an incredible story. I like her. I'm not sure why, faithless as she is. Horace and his mother sound awfully hard to endure. It has a twilight zone feel to it without the creepy music and odd narrator. This is great!

[Helen Woodward]

Well, sorry it took me soooo long Mimi!
This is not as far fetched as it may sound, poor Horace...I feel you hit the nail on the proverbial head here, but I try hard not to be alarmist about the things that are changing for the worst.
Going back to basics will be hard for many and if todays parents taught their young children how to sew and cook from scratch they would be preparing them toward self-sufficiency.
Hog poop! Holy Hell what a smell!!! No wood? Chuck sounds like good people to me...
"what exactly particle contamination was"...change to (exactly what) I would say that quite a bit of research went into this, if not, you are a very aware woman.
Nice work...

[Antony]

This is scary and a great story, something that made me stop and think of what could actually become a reality in our world. I enjoyed this.
Tony

[TL Boehm]

you know, I really like this. It has that sci fi feel to it but it is written in a tone that I can understand. Meaning - I can easily get 'into' this without trying to go back and figure out technical jargon specific to the 'world' being created, even though you have truly created a world here.
Giggling at president Clinton. That made me crack up. But underlying is a serious message to this piece. My only 'negative' would be that I wished this would have continued.
Wonderfully written.

[Helen Woodward]

Mimi, I'll have to get back to this as I want to give it my full attention xx

[Angelheaded Hipster]

I really like the end of the world feel I got out of this....and it could be a reality....that could be a very scary thing....
I do find it sad that she couldnt be happy with Horace...I mean, without the religious overtones, he seemed like a good guy..she just seemed selfish.
It looks like you did your research with this one as well...I can always appreciate a well planned out tale...of destruction, love, loves lost....etc.