{"id":2451,"date":"2022-12-03T12:42:57","date_gmt":"2022-12-03T19:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/?p=2451"},"modified":"2022-12-03T12:42:57","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T19:42:57","slug":"shelter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/2022\/12\/03\/shelter\/","title":{"rendered":"Shelter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

prompt: Write about a character who discovers something while raking leaves in their neighborhood.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

available at Reedsy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anya\u2019s neighbor had been gone for a month. During that time, his brother, who lived in the next house over, had been keeping up the front yard. The HOA frowned on less-than-show-quality yards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was there now, raking the front lawn. Anya knew, from the vantage point of her own back yard, that the back yard needed some attention as well. She decided to do something about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHey, Carl!\u201d She waved at the elderly man plying the rake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnya, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight. Hey, uh\u2026do you know when they\u2019re coming back?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot rightly sure,\u201d he said. \u201cBob just told me he and Ruth were going away. Nothing else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was kind of surprised, seeing how poor her health was. But I guess she was well enough to travel anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, I thought you might know when he was coming home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNope. He\u2019s impulsive by nature, you know. Especially since he retired and Ruth\u2026. I\u2019m just taking care of the yard to keep my little brother out of trouble,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, the back needs it too. Does he have a rake I can use?\u201d Anya asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn that shed back there. But you ain\u2019t gotta do anything. I\u2019ll get to it eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a nice afternoon out, and I don\u2019t have any other plans,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ll start on the back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice now,\u201d he said, pointing at the dark clouds piling the east, \u201cbut rain\u2019s coming soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leaf-pile grew rapidly. She recalled her childhood, building huge piles of leaves to jump in, hide in, and burst from to surprise her much older brother. He always acted shocked despite her uncontrollable giggling, because he was a good brother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was lost in memories of her childhood when the rake scraped on something. She cleared it off, recognized the water-company\u2019s logo, and knew that it was the cover over the master water shutoff valve, like the one behind her house. What she didn\u2019t recognize was the second cover a foot away. The same size and type but missing the water company logo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anya thought it might be a sprinkler shutoff, but she didn\u2019t recall any sprinklers ever running in Bob\u2019s yard. Maybe it was left over from a past installation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carl and Bob\u2019s houses were here before any of the others. When they were built, the rest of the housing development was still woods where the brothers hunted, gathered firewood, and, if Bob\u2019s stories were to be believed, distilled moonshine as kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brothers had grown up in the house Carl now occupied, while their uncle lived in the house she was now tending. When both houses came back on the market twenty years ago, the brothers jumped on them, even though they had to assent to the HOA and its rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She continued pulling leaves into small piles, then joining those piles to the large pile in the center of the yard. At least the grass didn\u2019t need mowing. She\u2019d asked about it when she first moved in. The grass from his yard had mostly taken over hers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019d told her it was a fescue blend that only required an annual mow in the spring and no water other than rain. While it was slow spreading, she\u2019d allowed it to continue to take over her yard. Mowing once in the spring was far better than mowing every week during the summer and wasting thousands of gallons of water to keep it green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing how proud he\u2019d seemed of his lawn knowledge, she was surprised to find a patch of astroturf under the leaves. She was examining it and determined that there was something hard and metallic beneath it. An early fall leaf, a maple, was stuck under the edge of the astroturf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was examining it when Carl approached. \u201cFound the shelter, huh? Told him it was a waste of money, but he didn\u2019t listen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRed scare?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHah! No, we only moved back twenty years ago.\u201d Carl shook his head. \u201cBob said he\u2019d always wanted a bomb shelter like the ones the rich folks had back in the day, so he built one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cImpulsive, you said?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlways\u2026unless Ruth was watching him. She kept him in line, and he seemed to like it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anya couldn\u2019t shake the feeling that something was wrong with the door she knelt beside. \u201cHow come there\u2019s no handle for this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt opens with hydraulics. From the outside it runs on the pressure from the water main. Inside there\u2019s some sort of pump or something that can be activated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carl shook his head. \u201cThe only time he ever used it was right after it was done. He stocked it up with food, water, and dry goods, and then we sat down there watching the game and getting so drunk we had trouble climbing the stairs back out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt looks like this was opened recently,\u201d she said, pointing at the maple leaf still trapped in the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you want to see it, I can open it up for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carl went to the second cover Anya had thought was for sprinklers and pulled the large key ring he carried on his belt off. He had a water shut-off wrench on it, and he knelt to open the cover. His hand went into the hole with the wrench, and he grunted with exertion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat should get it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The door was built like a massive safe door. It raised from the surrounding ground a few inches before swinging open on hinges that hid below the ground with the bulk of the door. As it opened with a hiss, the smell hit her first. She swallowed hard, trying not to gag. \u201cStay\u2014stay there, Carl. I\u2019m going to check it out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holding her shirt over her mouth and nose did nothing to dispel the stench, but she did it anyway. The inside of the shelter was lit, and a multi-disc CD player was playing classic rock on repeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the foot of the stairs, she turned the corner and found them. They were curled together on the bed, Bob holding Ruth even in death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAw, damn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anya jumped, not expecting Carl to be there. \u201cI told you to wait.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhich just made me hurry on over.\u201d Carl looked at the couple and shook his head. \u201cYou idiot, Bob. I was here for you, all you had to do was talk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anya saw a stack of papers on the small table where two wine glasses and an empty bottle sat. \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carl looked at the papers. Tears poured down his face, unimpeded. He didn\u2019t speak but handed them to Anya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruth\u2019s last prognosis which gave her two weeks, if that, instructions for a kerosene heater which warned about carbon monoxide, and an updated will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no note, but none was needed. Bob decided he couldn\u2019t live without Ruth, so he closed them in the shelter, waited for her to die, ran the heater, and held her close while he fell asleep for the last time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Anya wondered what to do, Carl had already called the authorities and they were on the way. Despite his grief, he was the one more together and functioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rain had started. He led Anya out of the bunker and around to the front yard where the smell of death was displaced by the petrichor on the breeze. Something about the lively smell of wet earth seemed cruel given the circumstances; she began to cry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She let the rain fall down her face, mixing with the tears. She turned to Carl and saw that he was doing the same. Not knowing what else to do, she embraced him. They stood like that, crying in a silent embrace, even when the sound of approaching sirens cut through the soft patter of the rain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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