CHAPTER TWO
Mrs. Powers sat at her desk with her head in her hands as Brain stepped inside. He'd noticed several empty spaces when he came in to start his shift, but he also noticed the sign flipped to the CLOSED side too. He needed to know what was going on, and when he entered his mother's office, he wondered if she was having another migraine.
"Mom?" he called.
"Oh, Alan, come in and close the door. I don't want anyone to know I'm back here," she said, sighing as she closed her inventory notebook. "We won't be opening for a while."
Brain squinted, "Why won't we be opening? Is there a recall on the ice cream again?" he questioned. That happened the previous summer, a listeria outbreak prompting the recall of several brands of ice cream that they tended to use. After a few days, they were able to get another supplier to provide them with a different brand. The shop was only closed for approximately forty-eight hours when this happened, not indefinitely.
"I don't know what's going on with this world, but it seems everything is crashing at once. Wheat and other grains are facing problems world-wide, as are fruits and vegetables. Now milk is being affected by some bacteria problem that spread to hundreds of dairy farms without anyone noticing. The disinfectant techniques for the cows must've stopped working as—I don't know what the article said," Mrs. Powers sighed.
But Brain understood. Bacteria changed frequently because they reproduced quickly, sometimes within seconds. When the next generation adapts against disinfectants, problems could come up.
"Wait," Brain said, thinking over what he knew about dairy farms and milking animals, "I thought they used a mix of disinfectants and flame."
His mother shrugged, "I don't know what they use. All I know is that the milk is contaminated. Grocery stores around the country are limiting customers to one gallon per week on a strict basis. You can go between stores, but operations like ours? We're screwed. And I got a call from a young couple looking to have a sundae bar at their engagement party. Not only could I not help them, but the catering company David Read has worked for couldn't help them, and neither could the country club."
Brain was stunned by this. The rich were unable to break the rules to get enough for their events. That was a first, and he knew that meant this was a serious enough problem to affect everyone.
But then he remembered his mother mentioned other problems with the food supply. Grains were affected, as were some fruits and vegetables. He knew this was a problem. He, like David Read, remembered the egg shortage and the shortcuts they used to get around using that one ingredient. His mother switched to the gluten free waffle cone recipe because it didn't require eggs, not that anyone cared for the switch. They didn't mind an extra ten-cent charge on ice creams requiring eggs in them, such as the Brownie Explosion recipe that needed eggs for both the thick chocolate base for the ice cream and the brownie chunks within the mix.
Brain looked up from his thoughts and tried to get his mother to look at him. After a moment she did, and Brain found himself asking the toughest question he'd ever had to ask, "Mom, do you think there's going to be a famine here in the U.S.?"
"They aren't saying that yet," Mrs. Powers said, pausing to swallow, "but if Europe can get hit after all these years of doing fine, then what about us? More importantly, what about the third world?"
Brain's eyes grew large as he did the math. If America, which was considered the most profitable country in the world, couldn't feed their own citizens, how in the world was a developing nation with limited resources supposed to feed their people? Tiny areas that were already self-sufficient would be fine, but areas that relied on imported resources to provide food for their people would be crushed.
This famine wasn't just going to hit America. It was going to hit the world, and take down more people than anyone thought imaginable.