“Let’s get you to the Pharmacy,” said Niko.

“Or perhaps you could bring some bandages here,” Mr. Appleton said as he slumped to the floor.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

BREAKFAST WITH OUTSIDERS

My first impression was that Mr. Appleton was an ex-army guy. We had a lot of them in the area. He had that very good posture of the army men, and also the haircut. His haircut was the way army men let their hair grow out. They didn’t quite want the buzz—maybe they felt they didn’t deserve to wear a buzz anymore, but they didn’t want their hair flopping over either.

Mr. Appleton seemed to tolerate the little kids, but I didn’t have the sense he liked them one bit.

Robbie, on the other hand, was a family guy, you could see that straightaway. He looked like he was in heaven, surrounded by all the little kids. But it was the way he handled Ulysses that won me over.

After Niko went for medical supplies, the kids gathered around Robbie and Luna on the ground. Robbie was learning the names of the kids and introducing them to Luna. I saw him watching Ulysses, waiting for it to be Ulysses’s turn to introduce himself.

And Ulysses said, “Soy Ulysses,” and Robbie just reached out and grabbed him and hugged him. Spanish words poured out of the two of them and soon Ulysses was crying and Robbie was crying, too, and just holding him in a one-armed hug while the other arm held on to Luna, who decided she should begin washing their two faces with her tongue.

Ulysses, apparently, had had a lot to say this whole time. And only hadn’t said much because none of us could understand him.

Why I had chosen to study French in high school I will never understand.

Niko returned with the supplies. He knelt down in front of Mr. Appleton and cut a slit on the cuff of his new chinos. Niko began splitting them up the leg.

There were two wounds on Mr. Appleton’s leg. Near the ankle there was a horrible gash. I had never seen anything like it.

“Josie, maybe we should take the kids away?” I suggested feebly.

The wound looked like the guts of a fish, if that makes any sense. A big slash with pieces of flesh hanging out of it—green-and-yellow oozing flesh. It wasn’t bleeding, but you could see lines of red running under the skin, going up the leg, following the course of his veins. The lines were red and also a bruised kind of green in places.

The blood was coming from a different wound. This one above the knee. It looked like a bite, kind of. There was a chunk of flesh missing.

“What happened to you?” Chloe demanded.

“Razor wire,” Mr. Appleton said.

Niko poured hydrogen peroxide on the ankle wound and it hissed. Out loud.

“Come on, guys,” I said, feeling a little woozy. “Let’s give Niko some space to work. Everyone come help me in the Kitchen.”

There were protests and awws, but the stink coming out of that ankle gash was pretty ripe and eventually me, Josie, Sahalia, and Alex got the little kids rounded up and led them to the kitchen.

They were like a bunch of crickets, hopping and jumping all around, so excited by the arrival of GROWN-UPS and a DOG!

* * *

“Batiste,” I said, calling him over to me. “We need to fix something special.”

“Two breakfasts?” he asked.

“Well, the first one was sundaes, for God’s sake.”

“Don’t-take-the-Lord’s-name-in-vain,” he said quickly. Then “Yes! We’ll make a feast of thanksgiving, but for breakfast.”

Batiste ran ahead to the Food aisles. Chloe went with him to help. I guess they were starting to get along, somewhat.

I told Alex and Sahalia to throw away all the sundae stuff.

I got the other little kids busy making banana nut muffins under Josie’s supervision while Batiste and I cranked in the Kitchen.

In just under forty-five minutes, Batiste and I prepared roasted vegetable quiches, hash browns, a kind of a fruit salad Batiste told me was called ambrosia, and the last four packages of bacon.

Niko led the men into the Kitchen, just as the coffee finished brewing. Mr. Appleton was now equipped with crutches, which I hadn’t known we even had.

“Ay Dios!” Robbie exclaimed. “Look at all of this food!”

“And we made muffins for you!” shouted Max.

“And mine is the biggest!” shouted Chloe.

The little kids were a-boppin’ again, all yelling at the same time. And then Luna started barking.

“Shhh, you guys!” Josie said.

But they didn’t listen.

“Quiet! QUIET!” Mr. Appleton shouted.

The kids shut up immediately.

The silence was tense.

“I’m sorry,” Mr. Appleton said. “It’s just … we’re … I’m a little shell-shocked. It was very chaotic. Outside. And I’m not used to so much … noise.”

“We understand,” said Josie. “You’ve been through a lot.”

“Please sit down and I’ll get you two some food,” I said.

“Are you the chef?” Robbie asked me.

“Ah, yes,” said Mr. Appleton. I could see he was straining to be jovial. Trying to recover. “Who can we thank for this food?”

“I’m Dean. I do most of the cooking,” I said. “But Batiste here is the one who put this together.”

Robbie shook our hands heartily. Then Mr. Appleton shook them as well. His hand was papery but strong.

“Pleased to meet you,” Mr. Appleton said to us.

“Yes, sir,” Batiste said.

“I’m in charge of the food,” I said. “So I guess I will be the one who loads you up with provisions. I’ll be sure to give you lots of good stuff for when you leave.”

Somehow I felt strongly compelled to remind them that they’d be leaving sooner than later.

Maybe it was because they were eyeing the food like animals.

* * *

Everyone ate, but those two men really ate.

Halfway through their meal, Robbie stopped eating and said an impromptu prayer in Spanish.

He winked at Ulysses and then explained to all of us, “I was so hungry, I forgot to give thanks to El Señor for sending us here to this little paradise of a Greenway, filled with angelitos.”

“Amen!” Batiste said. “I’m always telling these sinners we should pray before each and every meal.”

Robbie chucked Ulysses under the chin. The boy shined like a new minted penny.

“Well, now we said thanks, so I’m gonna eat more!”

There was laughter at this and I gave him thirds.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

MR. APPLETON’S STORY

Niko and Josie discussed what to do with the little kids while we all met with the grown-ups.

“I don’t want to miss out on the meeting,” she said firmly.

“I understand that, but I don’t think Sahalia will watch them either.”

Sahalia was skulking against the wall, eyeing Brayden with venom.

Niko looked over to me.

“No way,” I said.

“Well, somebody’s got to keep them away!”

“I have an idea,” I said.

I walked over to the kids.

“Okay, you guys, I have a problem and I need your help. Me and the big kids and the men need to have a meeting. But Luna really, really needs a bath. Do any of you know how to give a dog a bath?”

Caroline and Henry’s hands shot up like arrows.

“Oh, oh, oh!” they chorused.

“I do, too!” yelled Chloe. “My nana has a Bernese mountain dog and I wash him all by myself!”

“Great!” I said. “We have three experts. You guys need to get all the supplies and bring them all here. Then wash the dog. Then dry her. Then comb her hair.”

“Then we’ll make her a bed and give her some food!” Max shouted.

“Then we’ll sing her to sleep!” Caroline added.

Josie watched me, nodding her head.

“Nice one, Dean,” she said. “I’m impressed.”

“Let’s start our meeting now,” Niko said to the men.

* * *

So Mr. Appleton and Robbie held court in the Living Room. Robbie groaned as he lowered himself down onto one of the futon couches and patted his belly.

“I feel so happy now,” he said, smiling at all of us. “I thank God he brought us to this place.”

Mr. Appleton chose a straight-backed desk chair. He put his bad foot up on an end table. I tried to ignore the smell.

“What would you like to know?” he asked us.

“Maybe you could just start at the beginning and go from there,” Niko said. “We’ve been here since the hailstorm, so any information you can give us about what has happened outside would be good.”

“Fine.”

He took a moment and began: “The hailstorm caused a significant disruption for everyone, as you can imagine. There was panic when the Network went down, as no one could reach 911. However, it was the news of the disaster on the East Coast that created what I would consider to be a chaotic environment. Many people gathered at the VFW to watch the news coverage, such as it was, on an old television set. It was a time of mourning and there was a sense of camaraderie that was admirable.

“I am proud to say there was no rioting or looting at any of the stores in town. At the stores whose riot gates had not deployed, people stood quietly in lines and purchased only necessities. From what I understand, people in Colorado Springs were not as well behaved.

“I set out for the hardware store first thing the next morning. My Land Cruiser was garaged, so it was undamaged by the hail, which is more than I can say for most of the cars in town.

“I was surprised to find the store was closed. There were some employees gathered in front of the store who weren’t sure if the store would be opening or not. There was a spirit of confusion and discouragement among the employees and the few customers who had arrived.

“Then the earthquake hit. People fell and were hit with some debris. A part of the roof of the store collapsed and the windows shattered. There were some minor injuries among those of us gathered around the store.