You bring it to a stop and set the brakes. She comes over and meets you as you climb out of the cab. She is crying and her face is all swollen and red. You notice how she is very disheveled and the black rings around her eyes. Her dress was flimsy and torn and it looks like she has slept in the same clothes for a week. Her kids are filthy and both red-eyed and crying.
She tells you that her husband has been murdered, they have been robbed, she has been beaten and raped and the children witnessed it all. She asks if she could get a ride into town because their car won't start and she needs medical attention. The phones are also out and have been for two days. She tells you that the robbers had probably taken her husband's money he kept out in the barn in a bunch of mason jars. She is pretty sure that one of the robbers looked familiar and he more than likely knew it was there.
You look at her and your heart goes out to her and her children. You explain to her as best you can about why her car won't start and why the phones don't work. You also tell her that the town she wants to go to will probably not have any hospital that's open but you'll be glad to take her and her kids to town.
She looks back towards her house and then looks at your with pleading eyes and asks if you could please do one thing for her before they left. She explains how her husband has been lying in the floor for two days because she hasn't the strength to do anything with him and could you please help her with it.
At this point she is on the verge of hysterics and you agree to help. After you explain that taking him to town would probably be a bad idea, you both agree that a burial on the farm would be for the best.
You go to the shed and acquire a shovel and she points out the spot where she'd like you to dig his grave.
After a painstaking hour, you have dug a grave that should be sufficient. Without a ruler you can tell that it is deep and wide enough. No time to build a coffin so by the time you have the grave dug she has re-dressed him in some good clothes. You bring him outside and try to lower him into the hole gracefully. That doesn't work out to well so you have to go down and cross his arms and straighten him out a little. You climb back out and she is standing beside the grave with her hands down by her side. Her children are standing there in what you think might be shock. They have just seen their dad murdered, their mom assualted and now they are watching their dad get buried.
She looks up at you again with those pleading eyes and asks if you can please say something for him and offer up a prayer.
You remember a little bit about when you used to go to church so you recite some verses that you might think appropriate. After you finish the eulogy for the man you have never met but just buried, you ask the wife for a glass of water or something cool.
She brings out a small glass of water and explains that is almost all they have because the pump won't work without electricity. You down the glass in one gulp. The digging has left you sweaty and thirsty.
She says while you finish she will go and try to get herself and the kids presentable and pack a couple of things to take with them. She tells you if there is no hospital, she has some friends that she can stay with.
After you fill the grave back up with the sandy soil, she meets you back outside with the kids and a couple of tote bags. She has cleaned herself up and gotten the kids in some clean clothes. You feel so sorry for them and you still wonder about your family back home.
You get them loaded up in the truck, let off the brake and push it on down towards Darlington.
So much for getting home in a couple of hours you think.
You make it to the intersection of 151. There is a convenient store on the corner that is not open and you think to yourself that it's a wonder that it has not been broken into yet. Maybe it has but you can't see any evidence. A few hundred yards down the road you notice a couple of folks on horseback. They look somewhat official and you drive down to where they are.
They are sitting in the parking lot of a long-closed fast food restaurant called "Cindy's". It was a spin off of one of the other similarly named restaurants but it's your guess that it never caught on.
The folks on horseback are both armed and have badges on. You explain what you have just been through and then they notice the wife in the truck. They go and talk to her for a bit. You gather that they are part of a neighborhood militia and they knew the woman in your truck.
They come back and ask if you would be so kind to take her and her kids on down to the auditorium in town. They have set up a temporary shelter down there and they tell you that the woman and her kids will receive aid at that location.
You comply with their request and take them on down into town. As you pass by the raceway you think that there will probably never be another race held there. At least not this year.
You arrive at the auditorium and you notice that the community has set up a care shelter for all the folks in the county. There were lots of folks moving things around. Some of them had horse drawn buggys bringing in barrels of water and bags of food and others in older type cars and four wheelers were bringing in blankets, cots and other supplies. Generators had been set up and emergency lights and power were keeping the folks in electricity and giving them hope.
A lot of the residents from the local nursing homes had made their way there. One of the buggys was actually bringing in some port-o-lets.
You were thinking about how everything has gone back to the old days in a hurry. You watched and you learned about how people were setting themselves up to survive and you needed to get home to get your survival plan up and running.
The woman can't tell you enough how thankful she is and plants a kiss on your cheek. You tell her she's welcome and you watch her as you pull away. She is standing there with her two children and you hope that your wife and kids are not having to go what she just did. "God bless them" you think, and you start grabbing gears towards home again.
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