Okefenokee

Junior started to tire, his arms grew heavy. “I think we are going in circles. Dad told me the mainland was an hour away rowing.” He stopped rowing. Then he turned and stood up. “I don’t see the tree formation.”

Mom, “Do you need a break. I can row for a while.”

“Yeah, go ahead.” They swapped positions. Junior sat with sweat poring from his head.

Mom rowed for thirty minutes before she tired, “I need a rest.”

Junior stood to swap with her when he spotted the tree formation, “There it is!”

Mom stood and looked, “Good, whew.”

Junior, “It looks like it’s still an hour away though. At least we will stay on course with it in view. Since you are facing it point left or right if my heading goes off.”

“Your heading will be off because there is no direct path.”

“At least it will give me a feel of where the mark is.” He rowed along the wet pathways turning left and right, sometimes heading in the opposite direction while watching Mom’s hands.

After an hour Mom said, “There it is,” she could see the land below the trees and they were less then a hundred yards from it.

Junior kept rowing but he was out of gas and struggling to get closer.

Cyndi told Junior to swap positions and her rested rowing energy brought them to ground. They stepped out of the boat. Cyndi managed to jump and not get her feet wet where Junior just walked through the water. They pulled the boat out of the water and went to the RV. She said, “It looks like it needs a wash.”

Junior wondered about what she said not understanding why she would want to wash it. He followed her up the steps as she opened the door.

Cyndi, “Wow, the inside looks pretty good. What do you think? Are you impressed?”

Junior, “It’s something all right. I can’t believe what I am seeing, I only know living in a tent.”

Cyndi, “We should get started. We have a long way to go” They left the vehicle and walked along the dirt road with thick forests on both sides. The flora on either side of the road looked pretty much like their island. Junior thought it would be somehow different. It was hot with lots of bugs. Juniors moccasins were soaked and picking up the dirt forming mud and weighing them down.

The road became paved so they still had a couple of miles to Rob’s house. They walked for about an hour in all when the house appeared. They were relieved. Both were having trouble walking with their feet screaming from inflammation. It looked weathered from twelve years ago but she only saw it for a day. Junior stood in front while Cyndi gathered the hidden key and opened the front door.

Junior was amazed by the reflection of himself in the window. “So that’s what I look like.” he said.

“Yes, you are the spitting image of your Father.” She noticed a lot of dust and the roof had been leaking.

Junior, “Family home, pretty nice.” He smiled. He liked what he had seen so far. We would be safe from bears in this home wouldn’t we be?’

“I have got to sit down,” she said finding a chair at the kitchen table. Cyndi’s mind had been so focused on their task she put Rob’s condition out of mind. This is how Rob would handle it she thought. She didn’t have a choice, but the mention of the bear from Junior snapped her thoughts back to her worries. She got up and purposefully went to the garage and spotted the bikes. Junior was interested in them but wasn’t sure what they had to do.

Cyndi grabbed the air pump and fixed the hose to the Schrader valve on the front wheel. She whisked away spider webs from the spokes and grabbed the handle of the pump. She pressed down and air could be heard filling the inner tube. She smiled at Junior who looked on. She pumped again and again. The tire which had a flat spot at the floor started to rise like a cake in the oven and take form of a perfect circle. She did the same to the rear tire. “Fill the tires on the other bike,” she said as she mounted her biked and pushed off down the driveway for a test ride. It wasn’t as smooth as she remembered from her last ride when she was about Junior’s age but it was far better then walking another step on her sore feet. She went up the street a little way.

Junior watched with anticipation and couldn’t wait to join her. He unscrewed the valve cap on the front tire leaving the spider webs, attached the air hose screwing it on tight and mimicked his Mom’s motions. It seemed to be working but when he unscrewed the air hose he did it too slowly and much of the air escaped leaving a flat spot at the floor again. He scratched his head and then repeated filling the tire as Cyndi pulled up next to him and watched. He unscrewed slowly again and the air leaked out. He looked to his Mom perplexed about it.

Cyndi, “You have to unscrew it quickly,” she said.

“Oh,” he went through the motions again adding her tip to the ending and it worked. He got a kick out of the whole thing, then finished the rear tire. His heart was pumping with excitement and couldn’t wait to ride the contraption.

Cyndi, “Take it for a spin.”

Junior mounted the bike without a thought of how to ride it while pushing off but only went a few feet before he and the bike fell over. He scraped his knee on one side and looked confused getting up. “How did you do it Mom?”

“I’m sorry, I forgot that you never rode a bike before. You have to push the peddles forward and down with each foot as the peddle comes around each revolution. Watch how I do it.” She pushed off and started peddling and went up the street again. When she returned she said, “Now you try.”

He attempted it again and went down the driveway. He crossed the road but fell in the bushes when he tried to turn. He got up and said, “This is hard.”

“We had a saying. Once you learn to ride a bike you never forget. But you never learned. Let’s try again.” She went along on foot holding the bike up while Junior tried again. “If you slow too much you will have to put your feet down. Once the bike is moving, use your balance to keep it from falling over. To brake use the peddle motion in reverse.” She let go of the bike hoping he had it under control.

“What do you mean by brake?” This was not a word that was covered in their daily life. He was moving too fast. The road was slightly downhill. He panicked and tried to turn without braking and went into the bushes again falling down. He walked it back. Explain braking to me.”

“OK, watch me.” She mounted and rode the bike down the street and back. “Watch how I apply braking.” She stopped peddling forward and pressed backward on the rear peddle and came to a stop right next to him.

“I get it. Let me try again.” He rode the bike nervously and his hands were shaking on the handlebar. He applied braking and set his feet down. “I did it.” He was so excited.

Cyndi, “Do you think you can handle riding into town?”

He wasn’t sure but said, “Yes,” anyway. He started to get better at it but was still a novice. He couldn’t help the pride he felt succeeding though.

“Good let’s go then,” Cyndi pushed off and rode down the street with a shaky Junior close behind. They came to a main road labeled SR 23. “This is where Rob told us to turn right toward town.” There was a sign with Hometown, three miles ahead printed on it. “This is cool riding on this road with no cars. It’s the ultimate bike path.”

Junior was being hit with so much new info. It was overwhelming him. He didn’t understand cars, SR’s, bike paths, bikes or why it would be nice not having cars on the road.

They passed many discarded vehicles with several sitting in the center blocking the road. They looked as if time forgot about them, dirty with flat tires. Some had random assorted doors, hoods and trunks open. There was no sign yet of any people, just birds sitting on the overhead power lines watching.

They arrived at a commercial area with buildings lining both sides of the street. There was no upkeep of weeds or small trees sprouting through any crack they could find in the concrete. It appeared as if the forest was attempting to reclaim its right over the land. They stopped and got off the bikes.

Junior commented with a painful look, “It was a good way to get here but my butt hurts, may never be the same.” He was getting a good taste of the life that she left behind all at once. His attitude did not waver though. “What are we looking for?”

Cyndi was looking hard as she panned the area squinting while looking. “There,” she said pointing at one of the larger buildings. “It’s a medical center. Let’s go.” They set their bikes near the front and walked up to the entrance. They stepped carefully to avoid the broken glass missing from the windows. The outside walls were covered with wild vines. Inside the building was ransacked. Any object that was not part of the building was strewn all over the floor. “Oh no. Our troubles may only be starting. They have taken everything.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. Nothing looks like fresh carnage. It may have happened when the evil eroded civil society here back when we left for the swamp or soon after.”

Junior, “We can’t give up. Let’s sort through it. Are we looking for small bottles like the one you gave the pills to Dad from?”

“Yes, but they have to be a certain kind of medicine so searching all of this could take a long time.”

Junior knelt down and started going through the debris. “Here’s a bottle.” he tried to read the name on it but could not pronounce it. He handed it to his Mom.

She looked at it, “No. There are not that many rooms here so let’s look inside each and hopefully we will see something more encouraging.”

They separated each taking different rooms. Cyndi went into a room and there were boxes of prescriptions that looked as if someone collected the bottles in the box to take but then left them for some reason. She picked up the bottles frantically hoping for antibiotics. “Hopeless,” she said to herself. She looked around but didn’t see any other good signs. She moved to another room while thinking to herself, we haven’t seen any decease bodies. She wondered why. Outside they would have been picked apart by vultures, but inside the desiccated carcasses should be present and they are not.

Junior was trying to keep his mind on what he was doing. The city excited him in a way that didn’t surprise him.

They met out in the lobby after their failed search. Cyndi, “Did you come across any dead bodies?”

“No, did you?”

Cyndi was perplexed by it, “No. Rob said there were more health care centers on the south side of town as well so we should move on. If you see a pharmacy let me know.”