Again, I missed a few days. It’s been busy. But I found some time to get my survivors a little further down the road.
Upon our first meeting, I found Jeremy to be a decent guy, and Fred was nice enough for a kid on the cusp of puberty. One of them would be useful, and the other one would be a burden. At the end of the world, I suppose you have to take both and hope one outweighs the other.
Jeremy was a teacher, or at least he had been before recent events. He taught high school social studies at the school I hadn’t attended. I was a proud Titan, an alum of the other high school in town. He was an Eagle. I was willing to overlook that, at least mostly.
Had Fred been old enough, he probably would have been an Eagle, too. That made me a little envious of the kid, not for being a potential Eagle but because he wouldn’t be a Titan either. He’d be something else.
That was upon our first meeting, though. Now, he’ll be nothing more than Fred.
Fred really liked Haley, probably because Haley really liked Fred. There could be any number of reasons, I suppose. Haley was closer in age to Fred, child though he was, than she was to Evelyn. She didn’t seem particularly fond of me, and I hadn’t given her much reason to be. Maybe there really is some kind of maternal instinct. Haley’s chances of being a mother had been obliterated by our circumstances, so maybe she was drawn to the boy.
Maybe Fred’s puberty had kicked in after all.
Whatever the reason, the moment Haley and Fred locked eyes, they were a pair. I assume that was a relief to Jeremy, but what do I know? I didn’t have kids, and like Haley, now I never will.
As we made our way down the highway, Jeremy, Evelyn and I led, trying to make whatever small talk entails when every topic is big. Smallness had ceased to be interesting. Or maybe it had become so interesting we couldn’t see the bigness surrounding us. I’m not sure.
But we talked about high school. Evelyn had moved to town with her husband, so she didn’t know the subtleties of local teen sports rivalries. She didn’t know why it was important that Titans went to the McDonald’s on Spring Street, while Eagles went to the one on Darcy. She didn’t know where the bussing demarcation lines had been drawn decades ago, or why those lines meant knowing if someone’s dad worked at the Northside Bottling Company or the Riverview Plastics Plant could tell you everything you needed to know about their home life.
Evelyn was born on the coast, far far away from here, where her friends’ parents didb’t work in manufacturing. Her father had run a supermarket, and her mother was a journalist at a well-known and, according to her, well-respected newspaper. She met her husband in college and they moved to the middle of the country so he could pursue his career. He was a business guy. Our city allowed him to be a big fish in a small pond, rather than drowning in the ocean he was born into.
He died many years ago, long before he had to witness what his wife witnessed. What I witnessed, and Jeremy and Haley and, oh god, even Fred, too. By Evelyn’s account, he had a good life in management. I wonder if he’d be able to manage anything these days. He’d be an old man, and the world has either extended or shrunk beyond managing.
Haley and Fred seemed to do just fine behind us, chatting and joking, occasionally laughing at some inside joke about something they saw along the road. I could hear them, but I didn’t pay much attention. Haley could take care of the kid.
I like to think Haley and Fred were together when the end came for them. I don’t know, Reader Who Does Not Exist. But I can like to think whatever I want to like to think. That’s my prerogative, as the last.