Above the Hush Read online

  There was government structure but on a smaller scale. Almost as if each state was its own country. Our area had a mayor and statesmen that kept things in order. Organized food runs and outposts until everyone started being self-sufficient. They kept us fed, but it was an unspoken, unwritten law that each person had to contribute to the outpost.

  We did.

  Then everyone settled into routine, self-made communities that either farmed or manufactured. If you needed anything you bartered with a nearby community or waited until the monthly trade day. In the state of Virginia that was the first Saturday of the month in Lynchburg. Rain, shine or snow. I preferred shine, because it was a miserable ride by horse and buggy in the rain.

  On my journey to find my family, I fell in love with Pippin Vineyard and the beauty of it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t cleared as safe from radiation, so when no one claimed Afton Mountain Vineyards we did. The land had several guesthouses and cottages, enough for all of us to live on the same land and work it.

  Theoretically it was a good plan, everyone wanted wine.

  I didn’t have a clue about farming, grapes or winemaking, but I did learn the Dewey Decimal System enough to go to the library and get educated.

  West asked me if I thought it was a good idea with Michael’s history. Michael was doing good. He met a young woman named Lana, they claimed marriage and lived together in our community. They want badly to have children. One day they would. He slipped up a lot, but he was far better than he was before the event. In hindsight the vineyard wasn’t healthy for my son. But it wasn’t just about him. It was for the greater good. The vineyard was healthy for the community I built on that land. We had a good trade and it yielded quite a bit for us.

  Shane was a vital part as well, a decision maker and he truly kept us running. It was weird but I always held high hopes he’d end up in some sort of romantic entanglement with Jane, despite the age difference. Jane wasn’t interested. She focused on watching the sun and had taken Troy under her wing, not only as a protégé but like a son.

  Within three years of being there, we went from me, my children, Shane, West, Troy and the Colonel to thirty-three people and counting.

  Despite the growing Afton community, one person never showed up … Ken.

  I didn’t give up on him. Not once and I probably never would.

  One a month, weather permitting, I traveled north to Waynesboro to check the note on the door and to look for Ken. My house and neighborhood was overgrown, it seemed faded and washed out by the sun and heat.

  Every trip to the monthly trade I looked for him. Every holiday I set a place for him at the table. I wouldn’t let myself believe he was dead. When asked where I thought he was, I simply stated, he moved on. Maybe found love. Anything but gone.

  West was always edgy when we left for trade, as he was this day. He blamed it on the cold, I blamed it on the travel distance. If West had his way, we’d stop going to the monthlies and set up our own post center of the communities, like a store with Troy working it.

  I preferred the monthly trades, not only to look for Ken, but it was the new way of networking. West claimed I was the boss and it was my choice. It wasn’t.

  I would like to take credit as the leader, but it wasn’t just me, no matter what people thought or said. I didn’t do it alone. No one does.

  When I was first reunited with my children, Michael was upset and West gave him a warning, something about ‘remember what I told you’.

  One day I asked West what that meant. He simply said he told Michael, “When your mom wakes up be supportive. Don’t make this about you, it’s not all about you.”

  How quickly he had taught my son in those days.

  The hard-core reality was, those words, ‘It’s not all about you’ applied to everyone. It could never again be about ‘one’ person, not if we were going to survive and thrive as a community. Every choice, every decision was made with the greater good of all involved.

  The event took so much from us, family, friends and lifestyles, but it also gave the world something else … a fresh start. A fresh start to do things right, perhaps better.

  Eventually, future mankind would probably mess that up, but in the meantime, we all would do the best we could to just move forward and make it work.

  The world was much different. It was about the ability to adapt and change. Trial and error, learn along the way. It wasn’t always easy and it wasn’t always perfect, but we did the best we could.

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