Desolation

We settled into our cave home almost right away, and waited for the happy day. On that day, thirteen days ago, we named him—yes, it was a boy just as Mom and I had said—Thomas, after his grandfather Thomas John Parkington Jr. In Steve’s family, Thomas was pronounced “Tomas” and so that is how we pronounce it. However, as it was custom here, first by Herb and then everyone else, we started calling him Toma right away.

Two days later, Olivia and Wilber’s baby was born, and they named her Emma, after Olivia’s friend Emma who died at Wilber’s ranch in Illinois. Oh, they resisted calling their daughter Em at first, but within days, they gave in.

This strange cave home of ours felt a little isolated at first, as we were the only ones here saying goodnight to the evening’s crickets and the green auroras. Then, the men finished Herb’s cave three away from ours. He preferred his view of the entrance to the oval. As water flows through a now broken dam, once Herb relocated from his ranch home, so did everyone else. Miguel, Maria, and their daughter, Ana, took the first cave, next to ours, saying that they were worried about Ana falling. I knew from Dad that since their episode on the roofs of the burnt houses in Mexico, Miguel admitted he was deathly afraid of heights.

Now the place is a buzz of activity. Before long, when the rest of the caves are complete, everyone will be living here.

Everyone, that is, but Mom, Dad, Sally, and Max. They continue to stay in Herb’s wood and stucco house, because they’ve decided to go to Cicada. Although I am sad at the thought of their leaving, I understand. They feel they are on a quest with Max and can contribute to maybe one day fixing what has messed up our earth. That discussion will come soon, and I’m not looking forward to it.

For our own protection, we stay out of the sun and work mostly during the full shadow of late afternoon and evening. We sleep during the heat of the day. We all wear long-sleeved clothing and hats during our time in the sun, making sure all of our skin is covered. Max, Dad and Jos—yes, that’s Joselin—came up with a salve from a local tree bark that has a natural SPF in it. Jos’s mother, even though she was a city dweller, taught her all sorts of holistic healing. Lucky for us, it stuck. So we cover our day clothes and all our exposed skin in this.

Speaking of Jos, the new love story is Jos and Herb’s son, Jas. I know Jos and Jas… you can’t make this stuff up! A few days ago, while I was in labor, I guess Jas gave Jos “the eye,” as she tells it, and from that moment on, they’ve been a couple. Jas doesn’t seem to mind Jos missing a leg, often using it as the beginning of a joke, like in, “Yesterday we were searching for Jos’s leg, when we found instead…” We’re all excited because, although Jos is a little older than Jas, they’re perfect together.

This is a community, probably not a lot unlike the tribe that occupied this place a thousand years ago. We work, sleep, laugh, and cry together as one community. And even though we don’t have many of the things we so depended on, I feel our life, in a way, is so much more full for not having them.

We all look forward to the times when, in the evening after work, we all come together and share stories about our lives before the Event. Who knew, but Stepha… I mean Steve (see, Herb has me doing it too) turned out to be a great story teller, repeating what he had read and heard, frequently telling others’ tales better than they could tell them. Often he embellishes on the stories adding his own wonderful flourish.