“Did it down at the lake. Wasn’t fun, I can tell you that. There must be a better way. And I don’t have clothespins, so I’m using hangers, and bending the hooks closed so they won’t blow off.”
“Whatever works.”
“We’ll see if it does.” As Judith reached high to hang a pair of drawstring pants, her shirt rose slightly. Kay noticed what was hanging on her hip.
A pistol in a belt holster.
“Where’d you get that?”
Judith wiped her face on a towel. “Get what?”
“The gun.”
Judith patted it. “It’s Brad’s .22. He wants me to carry it wherever I go.”
Kay’s mouth went dry. Hadn’t Doug said it was a .22 that had killed the two couples? And that it was probably a pistol with a silencer? “Oh. I thought you guys just had the rifle.”
“No, Brad bought this about six months ago. Being a lawyer, you never know when your disenchanted clients are going to turn on you.”
“I can imagine.” She suddenly found it hard to breathe. But that was crazy. Brad wasn’t the killer, and he had every right to own a pistol. Didn’t he?
“I’d better go in and get some water,” Kay said. “I’m starting to feel light-headed.”
“Don’t have a heatstroke, now.”
“Yeah, that’s all I need.”
Kay hurried back home, her heart racing. The family had gotten the vehicle into their driveway, and everyone was heading in. She followed them in quietly, thankful to get out of the sun, even though the house was almost as hot. As she drank a glass of water, she told herself she was jumping to conclusions. Just because Brad’s family had a .22 caliber revolver didn’t mean that he was the killer. Of course he wasn’t. Lots of people had pistols, and the .22 was a common caliber.
But Brad had been seen out at night so many times, by so many people.
She tried to put the thought out of her mind, and lay down on her bed to rest from the morning’s grueling task.
Doug came in and collapsed on the bed next to her. “We can’t just lie here,” he said. “We have too much to do. I have to figure out something to do with all our garbage. We have ten bags in the garage. We’re going to start attracting rodents.”
“And I have to wash clothes. I’ve put it off long enough.”
They both lay there, unable to move.
“Doug, did you know the Caldwells had a .22 caliber pistol?”
He rose up on an elbow. “No, not a pistol. They have a rifle.”
“Judith is carrying a pistol in a holster on her belt.”
Doug frowned and dropped back down. His eyes settled on the ceiling. “Well, that doesn’t mean anything.”
“I know it doesn’t. It just surprised me, that’s all.”
Silence followed, ticking off the minutes. Finally, Doug spoke again. “Brad is innocent, Kay.”
“I know.”
More silence. After a while, she decided to change the subject. “Any ideas how I could go about washing the clothes? The lake water seems so dirty.”
“What about the washing machine? Maybe you could filter the lake water like we have to do with the drinking water, and fill the washing machine up. Even though it doesn’t work, it’s better than washing them at the lake.”
She sat up, envisioning it. “Maybe. I have plenty of detergent for now. Maybe I could put the clothes in there to soak, then scrub them one by one. How would I rinse?”
“You could filter some more water and fill up one of the garbage cans with it.”
She thought that through. “I guess that could work.”
“I don’t see why not.”
She sat up. “Guess I’d better go get the girls working on it.”
Doug blew out a long breath and got up, too. “Yeah, and I’ll get Logan and Jeff digging holes to bury the garbage.”
“They’ll love that.”
Doug’s plan for washing clothes had seemed sound as Kay and the girls soaked the garments in the washing machine, then scrubbed the dirt out of them with a scrub brush. The problem came with rinsing. They filled the garbage can with lake water they’d filtered through towels, but after they rinsed the first few things, it was full of soap.
“This is hopeless,” Deni said. “We’re never gonna get the soap out, and even if we do, the lake water is still not clean enough. It’s just making the clothes dirtier.”
“Mom, I told you we needed a swimming pool,” Beth whined. “If we had a pool, we’d have cleaner water to use for all sorts of things.”
“Well, I wish we had one, too.” Kay wiped her sweating forehead on her sleeve. “But we don’t.”
“We could at least do it outside, where there’s a breeze,” Deni said. “It’s sweltering in here.”
“Stop complaining, would you? You’re making it worse.” Kay looked at the washing machine. “Let’s just drain it and put some cleaner water in. We can rinse with that.”
Deni went to the machine and peered in. “So how do we drain it?”
Kay froze. “I don’t know, but . . . there must be a way.” She turned the dial, but nothing happened. She went behind the machine and looked at the tubing going through the wall. “It could go out that hose there. If we could just . . . make the drain open. Beth, go get your father.”
Beth seemed thankful for a brief reprieve as she hurried out, and a few minutes later she came back with Doug.
“How do you drain this thing?” Kay asked him.
He moved the washing machine out and studied the hose. Then he looked inside the tub, and shook his head. “Got me.”
She grunted. “Then what are we gonna do? It was your idea to fill it up with water.”
“I didn’t think about draining it.”
“Great.” She slapped her hand on the machine. “So we either have to leave the water in there or bail it out?”
Doug shrugged. “I guess so.”
Deni ground her teeth together. “Unbelievable! Like we don’t already have enough to do.”
Doug glanced out the window at the guys who were digging in the yard. “They’ve got that under control, so I’ll help you bail. Deni, go find some buckets.”
Groaning, Deni left the laundry room and came back with a bucket and three small plastic waste baskets.
Doug emptied the garbage can into the nearest bathtub, so they could use the dirty water for flushing. Then they bailed water out of the washing machine until the garbage can was full again.
He emptied it a final time, then brought the empty garbage can back. “Okay, now I’m going back out.”
Kay didn’t want to see him go. “Doug, can’t you help us rinse these clothes?”
“Okay, if you want me to stop working on the garbage.”
She wanted to kick something. “No, that has to be done. Just go back to work. We’ll figure something out.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t think of this happening, but I can’t think of everything.”
“Neither can I.” She racked her brain for another solution. “Come on, girls. Let’s load up the soapy clothes and take them down to the lake.”
“No!” Deni cried. “Mom, I have underwear in here. I don’t want people seeing it! And what about our whites? They’ll all turn brown!”
“Come up with a better idea and I’ll consider it. Otherwise, do what I said.”
“This stinks!” Beth cried.
“Not as bad as your laundry,” Kay returned.
Deni hit the washer. “I hate my life!”
The girl’s declaration almost sent her over the edge. “Just do what I said.”
As the girls rolled the sloshing garbage can out of the house, Doug had another bright idea. “What if you asked Eloise for advice? She probably remembers how they washed clothes before washing machines. I’ll bet she has some good tips.”
Great, Kay thought. So now she got to look like a fool to her neighbor. Still, she supposed she had no choice. She really did need advice.
She left the g
irls grumbling and scrubbing the rest of the clothes before taking them down to the lake to rinse, and rushed across the street to consult with Eloise.
Her neighbor looked pale and weak as she answered the door.
“Eloise? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, hon. Just the usual fatigue after the treatment.”
Dr. Morton had managed to bring home an IV bag of her chemo treatment a few days ago. Kay supposed he was a decent doctor even if he was a lousy husband.
He hadn’t promised he’d be able to do it again when her next treatment was due in three weeks. The hospital was running short, he said, and with no transportation it was unlikely they’d be getting any more supplies soon. Kay only hoped something would change before then.
“Eloise, are you eating? You look like you’ve lost weight.”
“Oh, honey, I’m fine.”
Kay breathed a laugh. “You can’t be fine. None of us is fine. We’re all desperate, hungry, scared . . . and tired.” As she spoke, she followed Eloise into her living room. The back patio door was open, and she saw Jeremy and Drew Caldwell in the backyard.
She stopped. In a low voice, she asked, “What are they doing here?”
“They’re sweet boys. They’re helping me get a composting pile started.”
“Good,” Kay said. “That’s nice.”
“Here, let me offer you some water. I was getting some myself.”
Kay followed her into the kitchen, and saw Brad there, standing at the open pantry. “Hey, Kay,” he said. “What’s up?”
“Not much,” she said. Eloise had a little more in her pantry than they did, probably because she didn’t have so many mouths to feed. What was Brad doing?
He closed the door. “I was just looking to see what Eloise needed. But she’s better set than we are.”
Kay just stood there, staring at him. Was he thinking of taking from Eloise? She thought of that pistol on Judith’s hip, and swallowed hard.
Eloise seemed undisturbed. “So what brings you over here, Kay?”
She shook her thoughts back to the matter at hand. “I needed to talk to you about washing clothes. I don’t even know how to begin.” She glanced back at Brad, saw him looking through each of the cabinets.
She tried to focus. “I mean, first of all, if we’re getting water out of the lake, won’t it make the clothes dirtier? Isn’t there something I need to agitate them? I have to save what little bleach I have left for sterilizing our drinking water.”
Brad finished going through the cabinets and headed back outside.
“Have you tried washing them at the lake?” Eloise asked.
Distracted, Kay went to the window and looked out at them.
“Kay?”
Swallowing, she turned back. “What? Oh, the lake. No, I haven’t tried that. Doug had the bright idea to fill up the washing machine with water, but I can’t drain it out. We had to bail the stupid stuff. And we can’t keep the water clean enough for rinsing. I don’t know what to do.”
Eloise laughed softly. “Come on, honey, let’s go over to your house, and I’ll see what I can do. You’ve got that beautiful home and all sorts of stuff you can use. You just have to be creative.”
“But that’s just it. I’m not creative. I look at everything and just see what we don’t have, what doesn’t work!”
“Then you need to change your thinking.”
If only she could.
“Just let me tell the boys where we’re going.”
Kay stopped her. “Eloise, I don’t think you should leave your house with Brad and his boys here.”
“Oh, don’t be silly. They’ll be fine. I won’t be gone that long.”
Kay wished that tension in the pit of her stomach would melt away. As they started to the door, she looked back over her shoulder. The Caldwells were working hard to help Eloise.
What was wrong with her? She had no reason to suspect Brad in any way. All he was doing was helping a neighbor in need. She and Doug should have been doing it, too.
She almost wished she hadn’t seen that gun. It was coloring her thoughts, and making her suspect a decent man.
She decided to push it out of her mind.
She followed Eloise as she slowly made her way to the front door. As her neighbor closed the door behind her, Kay looked across the street at the beautiful home she’d been so proud of. The flowers still bloomed in the front yard as if they’d been nurtured and cared for, as if nothing had changed. But other than providing shelter, the house with all its bells and whistles was now a huge white elephant. And so were all the hi-tech appliances they had had built into it. How much money had they spent on those useless items?
When they went in, Kay led Eloise to the laundry room, where Deni and Beth were still scrubbing clothes. They were both soaking wet, and water was all over the tile floor.
Eloise chuckled.
“Miss Eloise, please tell Mom a better way to do this,” Deni said. “This is ridiculous.”
“I’d do it down at the lake,” Eloise said. “Do the soaping and the rinsing there, and it’ll save you a world of trouble.”
Deni grunted. “But my whites’ll turn brown!”
“They’ll be a little dingy, but it can’t be helped. Trust me, it’s the easiest way.”
“But we have a ton of clothes,” Kay said.
“Then you do it more often so you’ll have smaller loads.”
It sounded so simple when Eloise said it. Kay sighed. “With all our intelligence, all our technology, it seems like we could come up with something better than this.”
“I know, honey, but this is what you’ve got.” Eloise stepped into the kitchen and looked out the window, saw Logan and Jeff digging out in the yard. They were covered with sweat. “What are the boys doing?”
“Doug has them digging a hole so we can bury our garbage. Things are backing up, and we’ve got to figure out what to do with it. We have ten bags.”
“Can I see it?”
The question surprised her. “Well, sure.” She led the older woman into the hot garage and opened the door to let some light in.
“The smell is awful,” Kay said. “We haven’t had any way to dispose of anything since all this started.”
Undaunted, Eloise opened one of the garbage bags, then shook her head. “You’re throwing away stuff you shouldn’t ought to throw out. There’s a lot here that’s salvageable.” Eloise pulled out a milk carton, set it on the concrete, then sifted through and pulled out a coffee can, a plastic jug, and a couple of plastic butter tubs.
“All this can be used, child. You can wash these up and you’ll be surprised how handy they’ll be.”
Great. More work. Kay took one of the empty milk jugs from Eloise. “I just don’t have any place to put them. And I’m sick of washing things.”
“Darlin’, you have to use what you’ve got. You’ve got a whole refrigerator there with plenty of shelves. Use them for things like this. Just go wash them out and put them in there for when you need them again. And if you need to, just stack them on the counter. May not look pretty, but there’s no sense in wasting things that I guarantee you’ll have need of later.”
Eloise kept salvaging, pulling out what she thought they could use—empty cans, two-liter bottles, and other recyclables.
“Remember, when you need something, you can’t just pop over to the store and buy it. You have to think ahead. Anything that might be useful some day, you keep. They didn’t invent recycling in the last couple decades. People have been doing that for centuries.”
“I’ve never recycled,” Kay said. “It seemed like a waste of time.”
“Well, it’s not. Darlin’, you need to develop a whole new set of eyes, start looking at things as possibilities. Instead of throwing something out, think, ‘What can I use this for?’ And if you can’t think of anything but it still washes and cleans up, then save it ’til you do. That way, you don’t have as much garbage to bury. Cuts down on a whole lot.”
br /> Maybe Eloise had a point. Slowly, Kay joined in, sifting through the bags and pulling out everything that could be used.
When they’d finished, she’d condensed the trash down to half of what it was.
But Eloise wasn’t satisfied. “That’s still too much to bury in your yard.”