S1, E4 The Strangers

At the end of  Episode 3, Severn and the kids—Tommy and Vi—had returned to his house with Sage and were getting ready to go into town, where they expected to meet other survivors. Before leaving, Severn asked Tommy to help him bury Sarah, Severn’s wife who died after the first lurching. That’s where we pick up in Episode 4. 

Transcript

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This is Ed Falco on the air reading The Strangers, a novel in 18 episodes. At the end of episode 3, Severn and the kids, Tommy and Vi, had returned to his house with Sage and were getting ready to go into town, where they expected to meet other survivors. Here's what's next! Before leaving, Severn asks Tommy to help him bury Sarah, Severn's wife who died after the first lurching. That's where we pick up episode four. By the time Tommy and Severn shoveled the last spadeful of dirt into Sarah's grave, the sun was almost directly overhead, and another half dozen bikes had come speeding down the mountain toward town and flown by without seeing them. Coming down the hill, the bikers view of the yard would have been blocked by trees. Severn and Tommy only saw the bikers once they were past the house and speeding toward the bridge. Vi was in sight, leaning over Ricky's kennel, feeding the coons as they yapped and barked and leaped at the wire cage. Severn wasn't at all sure that feeding the dogs was a good idea, but he gave Vi something to do, and she wanted to do it, and so he let her. Dogs were going to be a problem soon. With no one to feed them, they'd start feeding on corpses. Severn imagined thousands of dogs and cats without owners, and he didn't think there would be any pretty solution to the problem. Plus, There seemed to be something wrong with that collie in town. The dog's eyes looked mean in a way that was worrisome. That line of thinking led him to wondering just how many people there would be in town trying to organize. It led him to wondering how widespread these lurchings had been. Whether they were something local or national or worldwide. He wondered what the world would look like in a few days. And then he reminded himself that there was no good reason to think that the lurchings were over. Though someplace inside him he couldn't believe that they had happened, let alone that they might happen again. Now that a few hours had passed with the sun shining and the natural world as beautiful and exciting as ever, he found it hard to believe that everything might end in an instant. He had buried Sarah in the middle of the backyard. With Tommy helping, he had dug a grave about five feet deep. It had taken the two of them hours to dig out the rocky ground and lower Sarah, wrapped in the bedspread into the hole, and then cover her again with dirt. Vi knelt and said a prayer when Sarah was in the grave, and Severn and Tommy joined her with a few words of their own. Severn, though, was curiously unaffected by the burial and their little prayer service. Sarah was dead, but so were, if the event was worldwide, billions of others. And if the events weren't over, millions more were about to die, including Severn and the kids. He was glad Sarah was properly buried. And now that that was over, he looked around and saw Vi walking back from the kennel with a troubled expression, dragging her baseball bat behind her. Tommy, alongside Severn, leaned on his shovel, his eyes closed as if he were taking a little nap, dirt smeared over his sweat streaked face. While he was watching Tommy and Vi, Severn felt the first few drops of rain on the back of his neck. At first he couldn't see a cloud in the sky. And then he saw a high white mist forming quickly, so quickly that in several seconds the sky went from light blue to a deeper shade of blue filtered by a thickening mist. A moment later, the rain turned to something more like a light drizzle, and Tommy and Vyse stared up at the clouds forming over them. The way the clouds were forming was odd. They weren't sliding in the way clouds usually do. They weren't moving across the sky. They were forming as if steam were rising from the ground and condensing high in the air. Severn folded the plot of turf over the raw dirt of Sarah's grave and then stomped on it to push it down into the soft earth. Tommy and Vi helped him, each of them walking on the grass over the grave, pressing it down into the earth. Then Tommy and Severn carried a large chunk of stone to the head of the grave and dropped it there as a marker. By the time they were done, The drizzle had turned into rain, and the three of them trotted across the yard and back to the house. In the kitchen, Vi said, I think we should go to sleep. She folded her arms tight over her chest as if trying to keep herself from shaking. Sleep? Tommy looked at her as if she were crazy. To Severn, he said, We're getting bicycles and going into town, right? Severn dropped into a kitchen chair. What is this? Tommy asked. What? Because it's raining? Vi looked out the window, where the rain was falling lightly on the grass and flowers. Tommy turned from Vi to Severn. He started for the kitchen door and said, I'm getting the bikes. Wait, Severn said, raising his voice but not moving. What? Tommy shouted. Calm down. Severn stood and slid his chair neatly back under the kitchen table. Vi's worried that maybe this is how it starts. What starts? Are you dense, Vi said. The lurchings, the events, this is how they start. Tommy looked to Severn as if for confirmation. You could be right, Severn said to Vi. But we don't know, Vi said. So we should go to sleep anyway, Tommy said. Oh yeah, I'll just close my eyes and nod right off. Severn, Vyse said, Please, we have to go to sleep, Tommy said, If you really think one of those things is going to happen again, shouldn't we try to warn the others in town? Oh come on, Vyse said, Even if we made it to town, what would we do, start yelling for everybody to hurry up and go to sleep? Good point, Tommy said, Cause only way I'm going to sleep is if you hit me over the head with that baseball bat you won't let go of. Good idea, Vyse said. Severn asked, very deliberately, Do you really want to go to sleep? Both kids seemed to know exactly what he meant. Tommy covered his eyes with his hands, as if he was tired of thinking and just wanted to go away. Vyse said, We don't know if this is happening everywhere. It might not be. It might not be happening in Charlottesville, where Daisy and my parents are. It might just be here. What? Tommy said, his voice bubbling with frustration. What might just be here? I mean, what? He directed his question to Severn, as if Severn, as the adult, was required to have the answer. Don't you have any idea? I don't, Severn said. Sorry. Tommy leaned back against the door and then slumped down until he was sitting on the floor. It doesn't matter anyway, he said. No way I can go to sleep. If we sleep through this, Severn said, I have no idea what kind of world we're going to wake up into. He folded his hands over the back of his neck and then dropped them to his side as if frustrated about having to ask the question, but going ahead and asking it anyway. Are you sure, he said again, that you want to go to sleep? Tommy said, You're the grown up. You tell us. Fi wrapped her arms around her shoulders, holding herself tight. We have to, she said. We don't know. Outside, the rain was starting to come down harder. Severn and the kids both turned to the window, where a sudden gust of wind rattled the glass. Vi started to cry and immediately wiped the tears out of her eyes roughly, swiping her arm across her face. I'm scared, she said, as if demanding something of Severn. Tommy looked up to Severn from the floor. Severn said to both kids, drag a mattress from the guest bedroom into the master bedroom. He started walking as he spoke. Vi followed him. Sarah was a chronic insomniac, he said. She has enough sleeping pills to sedate an army for a month. Dude, Tommy said, right behind Vi. Can we take them, Vi asked. I mean, are they for kids? Vi, Tommy said, Think about that for a second. What? In the hallway, Severn pointed to the guest bedroom. To Vi, he said, I'll give you half a pill. You'll be fine. While Tommy and Vi went about getting the mattress, Severn went into the bathroom and opened Sarah's medicine cabinet. Two shelves were crowded with various medicine containers. She called this her library of sleep medications. And they ranged from Advil PM and Ambien and Ativan to Lunestra and Trazodone and Xanax. Severn knew generally which were the mildest and which were the strongest, but he knew very little about the side effects or the dangers that might be involved in giving a strong pill to a kid the size of Vi. At the bottom of the cabinet, in a clear plastic pill dispenser marked with the days of the week, Severn found the dark blue sleeping pill that Sarah referred to as the final resort. They put her to sleep quickly and kept her asleep for eight to ten hours. There were seven compartments in the container and several pills in each. He took two pills out of Sunday, slipped the dispenser into his pocket, and went to the kitchen. Tommy and Vi After depositing the mattress in the master bedroom, joined Severn in the kitchen. The clouds were rapidly growing denser. The house was getting dark. Severn, at the kitchen counter, carefully sliced one of the pills in two parts, one a little bigger than the other. He handed the smaller part of the pill to Vi and the other part to Tommy, and then he took a tumbler out of the cupboard and turned on the tap, which blasted out a quick stream of water and then went dry. Tommy. He tossed the glass into the sink in frustration and when it shattered he felt like a fool. He groaned, disgusted with himself. Both kids were watching him intently, waiting to be told what to do. He went to the fridge, came back with the orange juice and took his pill, drinking straight from the container. He handed the juice to Tommy and watched as he swallowed his pill and then he did the same with Vi. To Tommy he said, I need you to go back to Vi's and get candles, we don't have any here. Vyse said, hesitantly, I can go with him? Severn said, Be faster if Tommy took the bike and you help me with Sage. He nodded to the big lab in the corner, who looked dead except for the slight rise and fall of her chest with each breath. Tommy said, I'll go. Where are they? Vyse said, In the closet, soon as you go in the front door. There's a big box of them. She knelt by Sage and ran her hand gently over the dog's head. What are we going to do with her? Severn retrieved a yellow rain jacket from the living room closet and tossed it to Tommy. Be as fast as you can, he said, and then gestured toward the kitchen door. Once Tommy was outside, both Vi and Severn went to the window and watched as he ran down the driveway to get the bike, righted it, and sped away. You sure he'll be okay, Vi asked? He'll be fine. Severn pointed to the blue gallon bucket beside Sage. Get the water, please, he said. And he took up the belt and slowly pulled Sage over the linoleum out of the kitchen and along the hall into the bedroom. The kids had dropped the mattress at the foot of his bed, under a window that looked out onto the road. Vi's baseball bat was wedged between the mattress and the wall. Severn went to the window and pulled down the shade and did the same with the window that looked out into the backyard. He didn't know why, but somehow he felt it was important that no one should be able to see them while they slept. Vi wheeled the creeper next to the mattress and lay down with her head close to Sage's head. Severn said, I thought you and Tommy would share the big bed. Uh uh, Vi said quickly and firmly. You guys sleep on the big bed. I'll sleep down here with Sage. Severn thought it over and said, Okay, sure. He started for the bedroom door. Where are you going? To get some pillows. Vi started to get up, following him, and Severn stopped and pointed to the dog. Stay with Sage, he said. I'm just going to the other end of the hall. You can see me. In the guest bedroom, Severn gathered up a few pillows from the closet, along with more blankets, brought them back to Vi, and dropped them on the floor near her. When he went out of the room again, Vi was on her feet and following him. In the kitchen, he found a pair of wine decanters and a plastic gallon carafe and put them on the kitchen table. Fill these up with ice from the freezer, he said, and bring them into the bedroom. As Vi went about doing what she was told, Severn gathered an armful of cereal boxes, crackers, bread, and peanut butter in jelly jars, carried them to the bedroom, and spread them out on Sarah's night table. Behind him, Vi said, I'm feeling kind of funny. It's the sleeping pill. Severn put his arm around her and guided her to the mattress, where he put a pillow down next to Sage. Vi stretched out, folded the pillow so that her head would be higher and she could see over Sage. And then put one arm around the dog and closed her eyes. When Severn covered her with a light blanket, she said, I'm not asleep. I know, Severn said, and he pushed her hair back off her forehead. The skin over her left eye, the one with the shiner, looked stretched to the point of splitting, and her bottom lip was swollen. The whole of her left cheek was red and puffy and streaked with dirt. He touched her shoulder and said, Let yourself go to sleep, Vi. She shook her head and said, Tommy. As if on cue the front door opened and a second later Tommy was in the room carrying a box of candles and a pair of red, rifle shaped butane lighters. I found these two, he said, referring to the lighters. To Vi, he said, and I left a note taped to the front window saying we're over here. Good, Vi said through closed eyes. Thank you. Severn took Tommy by the arm and directed him around to the other side of the bed. Tommy said, it's starting to rain hard. And he ran his fingers through his soaked hair. The three of them were silent then, listening to rain pelting the walls and the roof. For a moment, Severn was thrown back to the night before, which seemed now like a million years ago. He remembered walking beside Sage in the dark, listening to the rain, sensing that something was wrong. Vi said, almost in a whisper, Tommy, you should get into some dry clothes. Severn went to his dresser, pulled out a pair of pajamas, and tossed them to Tommy. Tommy looked at the white and black striped pajamas as if they were infected with something. To Severn he said, I'm not wearing these. Fine, Severn said, and he pointed to the walk in closet behind Tommy. There's all sorts of stuff in there. When Tommy disappeared into the closet, closing the door behind him, Severn arranged the candles and the lighter on his night table. He leaned the carbine against the wall next to the candles. Oh, he said, and looked out toward the front of the house, as if he could see through the walls. Damn. My pistol's out there in the rain. Uh uh, Vyse said, groggily. And she reached behind her to pull the gun out of the back of her pants. Severn said, I hope the safety was on. Vyse said, I checked. Severn took the pistol from her and put it in the drawer of his night table. When he turned around, he saw that she had retrieved her bat and was holding it to her chest as if cuddling it. Tommy came out of the closet dressed in a pair of baggy denims and a black shirt. He said, I'm feeling woozy. It's the pill, Severn said. I'm feeling it too. He put his shoulders to the dresser and pushed it up against the door. Tommy asked, Why are you doing that? I don't know. Severn turned to face Tommy, who was standing beside the bed with his hands in his pocket. It feels safer. Tommy touched the bat and said, This is a little weird, kind of. Severn understood he meant getting into bed where Sarah's corpse had lain a few hours earlier. He said, I'll sleep on that side. He said Vi's name, wanting her attention. But her eyes were closed, and she was sleeping soundly. She had let go of the bat to throw an arm around Sage. Her head rested against the back of the big dog's neck. She's sleeping, Tommy said. He stretched out in the bed, making himself comfortable, and pulled up the blanket to his chest. Severn went around the bed, stepping over vines, Sage. He took the carbine, a candle, and one of the lighters. He rested the carbine on the wall alongside him and put the candle and the lighter on his nightstand. Outside, the rain was growing more ferocious by the minute, and the wind was picking up, whistling through the trees and over the roof. Tommy had fallen asleep. He lay on his back with his arms folded under his head, breathing slowly and deeply. He was a handsome kid with longish, straight black hair and dark eyes. The skin of his face was still smooth and hairless as a child, but his body was beginning to turn into a young man's, with sharply defined biceps and a muscular chest. Severn shook him slightly, and when he turned on his side, he pulled the blankets up over his shoulders. Severn was the only one awake in the rapidly darkening bedroom as the wind picked up in intensity, gusts slamming into the house, rattling the windows and the doors. There was still enough light for him to see Vi's dim shape cuddle next to Sage, and he could make out the photograph of an ocean pier that hung on one side of the window, and the abstract painting in muted, earthy colors that hung on the other side of the window. He remembered the artist's name, a guy who taught at the college, Derrick Widow, was not a hard name to remember, and Severn guessed that the guy was dead now, as most everybody in town would be dead. While he stared at the painting, which reminded him now of a patch of woods in winter, with leafless trees and a field of boulders. The light in the room grew rapidly dimmer until he was tempted to light a candle. He wanted to talk to Sarah, to tell her what was happening and ask her what to do. And he considered doing just that, talking to her, as if she was still alive somewhere and could hear him. He thought about it. It would be a relief. And then he decided against it, as if checking off an option. He didn't believe Sarah was alive anywhere, in any other dimension or space or mythical realm. She was dead, as were many millions of others. Some time ago, a long time ago, when he was somewhere around Tommy's age, Severn had been at a lecture by a scientist, an astronomer. The talk was about supernovas, and someone asked what would happen if our sun exploded. The speaker explained why that wasn't going to happen, but then said, casually, that some scientists thought that a near Earth supernova was responsible for the Ordovician extinction, which wiped out most of the oceanic life on Earth. The sentence, with its lyrical sounds, Ordovician extinction, near Earth's supernova, had lodged itself permanently in his mind, and it all came back to him now, the scientist and his talk in that moment, the Ordovician extinction. He had back then imagined a populated planet being blasted into oblivion by a supernova, and it had always stuck with him as a thought that such a thing was possible, that a cosmic event could, in an instant, end the life of every living thing on an entire planet. Now, lying in Sarah's place in his darkening bedroom, he wondered if the impact on him of that talk, and of those words, wasn't a premonition of sorts. If he hadn't somehow known that he would one day witness a human extinction, because whatever it was that was happening seemed to him likely to be just that, an extinction, he had to remind himself that he was going too far. He didn't know that these events, these lurchings, were happening worldwide. He had survived. As had Vi and Tommy, and as of that very moment, there were many other survivors. They were gathering in towns and villages and cities as he lay there in the near dark, almost certain that in a short while, all those survivors would also be dead. Again, He tried to think about the nature of the event that seemed to be approaching, and it was too hard. He knew that he was going over it in his mind, some place under the level of consciousness, constantly. Periodically, he tried to work through it, lining up all the evidence he had, all of the facts, and he would And it always ended up a mystery. Severn's body lurched forward, as if he had just fallen, and he bolted upright in bed, his heart pounding. The room was almost completely dark now, but he could still make out Vi's shape on the mattress and Tommy lying alongside him in bed. He was wildly disoriented. His breaths came like gasps, loud, as someone sobbing. He wasn't sure if he was dead or alive. He lurching, and he thought he had been awake. And so he should be dead. Tommy and Vi were sleeping, and so they should still be alive. He shook Tommy, and the boy muttered something incomprehensible and curled up tighter into sleep. Severn found the lighter on his night table and lit the candle. Outside, in the driving rain, the donkey brayed. It's high pitched squeal audible even over the rain and wind. Then the horses in his neighbor's barn started up with an anxious whinnying. There was the roar of the rain and under it a counterpoint of animals calling out in distress. In the candlelight, the room's shadows wavered and danced. Severn's breathing calmed a bit. As he concluded that the lurching he felt was natural, the kind of thing that happened when he was keyed up and resisting sleep. With the wind growing louder, building toward a constant howling, and rain driving into the windows, Severn considered trying to stay awake, to make himself fight the medication that was lulling him to sleep. His body had grown heavier. It wanted to sink down into the mattress and pillow. He thought about getting up and taking a cold shower, or stripping naked and walking out into the rain and wind. He might lie down on Sarah's grave with his eyes open to the elements, amid the horses and the donkeys and the rain and the wind and all the surrounding dead. He wanted to see what Sarah had seen, what all the bodies stacked up outside barringers like cordwood had seen, what that child in her pink outfit had seen, and all the others. The chance to die felt like a blessing. What was there for him now that Sarah was gone? Now that the world would be starting over again? For the first time in his life, he was glad that he had no children. He had always wanted children. He had wanted a clan of them. When Sarah couldn't conceive after years of trying, he had wanted to adopt. And they had planned to. Right after this or that or something, but they had never gotten to it, though it was still in the plans, or it was still in the plans until this. Until Sarah was dead and Severn was thinking that he'd like to join her. He snuffed out the candle and closed his eyes and let himself sink down into the bed. The house seemed to be rocking. At the foot of the bed, Sage whimpered a small, helpless sound. And Vi murmured something in her sleep, as if in response. Severn tried to speak. He wanted to say something to Vi, something to reassure her. But his lips didn't move, and he didn't make a sound. And then the wind and the rain, and all the roaring outside him, faded. To the silence of sleep. That was episode four of The Strangers. New episodes will be available twice a week on Mondays and Fridays until the novel is completed. If you want to read ahead, an inexpensive digital edition of The Strangers is available from Amazon, Barnes Noble, and other online bookstores. This podcast is an experiment in alternatives to traditional publishing. If you'd like to support it, and more like it in the future, please consider becoming a subscriber or supporter. If enough listeners choose to do so, that will go a long way to help ensuring the podcast's success and continuation. In any event, this is Ed Falco. I wrote The Strangers, and I hope you'll come back for the next episode.