Uncle Corny's Place

"Absolutely not!" was Professor Jack Hall's response upon hearing of the outrageous request of his son and daughter-in-law and their closest friends. "You'd all be dead within a month."

Sam was being visited by his parents, Jack and Lucy Hall, and his foster brother, Peter, who had come up to Nuevo Laredo from Mexico City. Professor and Dr. Hall had thought they would be making last-minute plans with their son and daughter-in-law about moving to Houston, but instead were dumfounded when Sam told them he'd changed his mind.

It was a week after J.D. and Brian had sat down with Sam and Laura with his wild idea of moving to an abandoned farm in Oklahoma. J.D. knew that a group of them would have to go since the responsibilities would be far too many for just J.D. and Brian. Laura had immediately recruited Jeremy and Elsa, and Brian suggested Luther since he had nowhere else to go and seemed so lost without Buddha.

"Professor, I've been thinking about this for days," J.D. said after his long speech, which he had practiced most of the day. "Uncle Corny's place was a frame house built in the 1920s, and it's two-and-half-stories. In fact, I think he added on to it after he bought it. There's a barn and garage and, like I said before, an outhouse and a wood burning stove and a huge fireplace and a water pump. There's room for all of us."

"And what will you eat? What if one of you gets hurt or ill? What if there are too many blizzards, or God forbid, a tornado?" demanded Jack. "That's just for starters. And how do you propose to get there?"

"Maybe we could borrow one of the Jeeps..." Sam started to say helpfully, but Jack waved him off.

"We've got comfortable accommodations set aside for you in Houston," Jack said pointedly to Sam. "And you two," Jack said loudly, turning to face Jeremy and Elsa, "you're old enough to know better. I was under the impression you were headed to Memphis."

"Jack, you're arguing with everyone again," Lucy interrupted.

"Please, just let us finish," Sam started to plead.

Lucy nodded. "J.D., go ahead and tell us about your uncle's place.
Can you tell me more about it and are you sure about where it is?"

"Cornelius Jenkins was my mother's father's younger brother. He never married. When he died the property was passed on to my mother--not Cindy--my mother Francis. Since I'm her only survivor the property is mine anyway. I visited there twice when I was a little boy.

"Where is it?"

"It's west of a town called Lawton, in a valley surrounded by mountains. They're not really mountains, just high hills."

"Do you remember what Uncle Corny raised?" Lucy asked.

"Raised?"

"A crop? Cattle? Dairy cows or horses?"

J.D. thought for a few moments. Lucy could almost see the images of J.D.'s memories going through his brain as he tried to recall what his uncle's property looked like.

"Wheat," J.D. said finally. "I don't know how many acres. He had a red plum tree in front and I remember going outside and picking up the plums off the ground and eating them. He had a vegetable garden in the back. And I remember my mother talking about how when she was little, she used to pick blackberries. But she never let me go back to where they were because the brambles had gotten too thick after she grew up."

"Probably winter wheat," mused Jack. He looked over the group in front of them, trying to make each of them cringe. "Do any of you know anything at all about growing wheat?" No one answered. He looked the longest at Sam and Sam began to sink down into his chair. J.D. finally shook his head no.

"Professor Hall, believe it or not, I do know about growing vegetables," Elsa said to him. It was the first time she'd spoken all evening, except for when she'd said hello. Jack Hall always intimidated her.

J.D. nodded in agreement. "She told me about this months ago. It's why I suggested she come along."

Elsa began, "My parents had a side business outside of their store in New York. I'm not from New York City originally, but a little town farther north. They had a large garden and sold vegetables on a roadside stand. I've been working in a garden for as long as I can remember. Canning, too."

Jeremy looked at his wife in amazement. "Canning? You never told me that!"

"You never asked!" Elsa answered teasingly. "But then I guess I hadn't thought about it until recently."

"Why don't you want to go to Memphis?" Jack reminded her. "What about your family?"

"I love my cousins, but there's too many of them already. Jeremy and the baby and I would just be more mouths to feed."

"So you've got vegetables and fruit," Lucy said, warming to this ridiculous idea. "We'll talk about the wheat later. What about rebuilding the place? I'm sure by now it needs major repair work."

"Hey, what about Judith Braun..." Luther started to say.

"The librarian?" Jack asked incredulously.

"No, I mean her new boyfriend. Ask them if they'll come along."

"Judith has a boyfriend?" Sam, Brian and J.D. asked in unison.

"Man, you guys don't know anything," Laura groaned. "She's been seeing Fred Armand for weeks."

"That dumb surfer from California?" Sam rolled his eyes. "He's half her age!"

"He's not dumb!" Laura answered, her voice raised defensively. "You're just jealous because he's so cute. He's a handyman."

"Yeah, I bet his hands go a lot of places," Jeremy said slyly, at which point Elsa knocked him on his shoulder. Jeremy shut up.

"He's really very nice," Lucy added. "I've met him too." Jack was more annoyed than ever now because of Lucy's comment.

"Do you think they'd join us?" Brian asked.

"Judith would, if Fred came with her," said Elsa. "I wonder if we could convince him....And I don't want to hear any more cracks from you men about surfers."

"Yes, ma'am," her husband muttered. Elsa just glared at him. She yawned unexpectedly. Since she became pregnant, she wanted to go to bed early, evening if it were only a cot in a warehouse.

Lucy, watching Elsa, announced that this meeting was over. Jack said something about "reconvening" tomorrow night, a term which Laura found amusing but J.D. thought was a bit insulting. They weren't planning the invasion of Normandy!

They all came back to the Hall place the next night. This time, Judith came as well, and introduced her young male friend Fred to Jack, Sam, Brian and J.D. None of them could figure out the attraction between the two. But Jack, of all people, warmed to Fred immediately. The Californian, with his shaggy blond hair and broad shoulders, may have looked none too bright, but he went into elaborate detail about houses he had worked on, his face lighting up as he proudly spoke of ways he had found to make repairs. The other men in the room pretended not to be impressed, but they were.

"What did you think of this idea of theirs?" Lucy asked Judith. "I'm amazed you're interested in going along with it."

"Oh, I think it's wonderful. I'm just flattered that J.D. thought to ask us," Judith answered. "Fred," she put her arm around his waist, "likes the idea too, obviously." Fred just smiled. "I think it's time all of us started going home...even if home is someplace new."

Sam fought to keep from snickering. Although he liked Judith, he always had thought she was just an "old maid librarian." It had never occurred to him that a middle-aged prematurely gray-haired woman might be interested in a younger man. But on the other hand, Jeremy Bernard, the former library computer technician, was at least 15 years older than his wife Elsa MacDonald.

Another surprise came from the mouth of young Peter, who had been listening intently in the corner both nights to this conversation. Lucy was shocked when her foster son, now nearly 12 years old, asked, "Can I come too?"

Lucy's eyes widened in horror. Yes, Peter was recovered from his cancer, his hair grown back dark and curly, his skin lightly tanned. Like so many others who were seriously ill who had arrived at the camps more than a year ago, he was better. True, there had been many deaths in the camp, from pneumonia, malaria, heart attacks, suicide, an occasional fight to the death, and some from sheer loneliness, but hundreds of others who had come there suffering from long-term illness had found themselves better. Few people in the camps had cancer, Alzheimer's or AIDS. Maybe it was the extraordinarily clean air. It was as if God, or Mother Nature, or fate, or whomever, had decided to atone for all the deaths in the storm and allow those who would have otherwise died to get well. Peter was one of them.

"Peter, sweetie, I know you're lots better, but I couldn't let you go there. I still need to monitor you," Lucy reminded him.

"But you'll be so busy setting up everything at the hospital in Houston that you wouldn't want to have to take care of me too," Peter answered.

Lucy didn't know what to say to that. Although she'd never said such a thing to Peter, it was true. President Becker had personally asked her to take over the pediatric wing of a public hospital in Houston. The facility was going to have to be reopened quickly. The building was there, but it had been unoccupied since the evacuation and needed many, many repairs. Lucy wasn't even sure if the place had running water yet.

"Maria can take care of me," Peter continued, mistaking his foster mother's silence for approval.

"Maria? Why Maria? She's going to Houston with us!"

"She doesn't want to go there either."

"Peter, who told you that?"

"Nobody. I guessed it."

Maria Hamilton had been the pediatric unit's head nurse at the hospital in Washington where Lucy had worked prior to the superstorms. She too had followed Lucy to Mexico City. Maria had been fortunate to be reunited with her grown daughter and her family and was living with them when she wasn't assisting Lucy and the other health care workers with the thousands of patients from America and Mexico. Maria hadn't complained, but now Lucy realized that Maria was probably suffering from exhaustion and burnout. She'd come close to that situation herself several times recently. Lucy wondered if Maria wanted to retire.

Lucy still didn't know what to say to her son's astute comments. Peter took it as permission to keep talking.

"Professor, you asked last night what would happen if someone became ill on J.D.'s uncle's farm. Well, Maria could take care of us!"

Peter didn't realize the impact his statement had made. J.D. and Sam both started talking to Jack, saying what a great idea it was. Jack, still irritated, stood up and waved his arms, bellowing "time out!"

"This gets more preposterous the more I listen to it!" he yelled. "You don't know anything about physical labor or farming or anything related to it. Most of you are just children!"

Now Sam stood up to face Jack, just as annoyed as his father. "First of all, Dad, none of us has been children since the superstorms. Not even Peter. And I know what you're hinting--that we're all just a bunch of nerds who only know things from books. Well, none of us has been a nerd for a long time either. And we can learn what we have to. As you can see, we've already figured out ways to handle some of the problems that might come up in Oklahoma. Give us a chance to figure out the rest."

Jack closed his eyes, then nodded his head. "All right. You've all got some major work ahead of you, if you're serious about this. I figure you've got two months to get ready. You will all need to start early tomorrow morning and figure out the logistics of this crazy thing."

For a moment there was silence. Then everyone realized that Jack had given his permission for his son, daughter-in-law and their friends to make an expedition to Oklahoma.

J.D. was the first to speak. "Sir, where do you come up with two months?" he inquired.

"It's the middle of February now. You'll want to get to Corny's farm at the end of April at the latest. Although it may not seem like it because there'll still be lots of snow on the ground, it'll be spring. You'll need to round up tools, supplies, food, and most importantly, seed, because you're going to have to plant as soon as the ground is dry enough. You're going to spend the entire summer fixing up the place, hunting, fishing, growing vegetables, even seeing if you've got neighbors. It'll be a very short summer and a VERY long winter. IF you make it through that first winter. You'll be on your own, completely cut off.

"Are you still sure you want to do this?"

J.D. looked around the room, his eyes last stopping on Sam and Laura. Laura sighed a little, looked at her husband, and nodded. "Yes," Sam said to J.D., and then J.D. spoke for all of them, "Yes."