Read The Journal: Cracked Earth for Free Online Page B

threat of snow showers that never materialized. Though it was
only thirty-six degrees out, it felt strangely pleasant. I checked
my internet groups, sent some emails and had a late breakfast. Then
around 11:00 A.M., I went to the Moose Creek township hall to vote.
There was no line. There are seven hundred people in the township,
though only four hundred fifty-seven registered voters, so I think
that if we all showed up at the same time it would still only take
an hour. I made my choices and went home after checking the post
office for mail.
    I’m feeling good about the day, but guilty
about not meeting my November 1 deadline, and decided to go into
the city, thirty miles away.
    First stop was at a big-box store for laundry
soap, toilet paper, paper towels, and cat food. Tufts is an
important member of the household. He’s the only other
member of the household, so his food supply is a high priority to
me. While there, I decided on a couple six packs of seltzer water
(to go with my spiced rum), and grabbed a couple of bottles of
wine. It was a lucrative work season, so I opted for the good
stuff.
    Then I headed over to Mack’s, my favorite
grocery store. I picked up romaine lettuce and celery, a head of
cauliflower, some oatmeal, then checked the bargain bin for
anything good. There was nothing this time. I was getting some
sliced cheese at the deli when my phone rang.
    I recognized the number, so I answered
immediately.
    “Hey, Rick, what’s up?”
    “Allex, I have to make this fast, so just
listen.” I sighed, thinking that this must be serious since he
knows how much I hate being called ‘Allex’. “A 7.8 earthquake hit
the New Madrid Fault a few minutes ago. That will likely mean loss
of trucking, loss of power, loss of phones. The shit has hit,
Allex! Whatever you’re doing, get back home and hunker down.”
    He abruptly hung up. I stood there for a
moment, stunned. Rick wouldn’t kid around about something like
this. If shipping shut down, food supplies will disappear in a
hurry since they keep little inventory, only what’s on the shelves.
That won’t last once word gets out and then there will be panic
buying.
    I collected my cheese and headed toward the
checkout, trying to stay calm., before I realized that nobody
knew yet. I had a rare opportunity to beat the rush. I went
back to the meat department and loaded up four turkeys, two hams,
six roasts, and a dozen good steaks, putting my few other purchases
in the seat area to make room. I went back to the wine aisle for
more wine, beer and rum. I saw a bottle of wine called
‘Earthquake’, how appropriate. I grabbed six. Then I nabbed two
twenty-five pound bags of flour. It was getting hard to push the
cart, so I headed toward the check-out, snagging two big bags of
cat food. When I was passing the paper goods aisle, I left my cart,
since it was too heavy to maneuver easily, and took two cases of
canning seals off the shelf, one regular and one wide mouth,
setting them on the bottom of the cart. Nobody buys canning
supplies this late in the season.
    I couldn’t believe how calm everyone was.
Either they hadn’t heard yet, or the “someone else’s problem”
mentality kicked in. Here was a major disaster, though in another
state. It wouldn’t affect us, right? They really didn’t understand
our grid, or our transport system.
    I picked Marie’s lane. I like Marie and we’ve
gotten to be friends. She never questions what I buy because she
knows I live so far out of town.
    “Hey, girlfriend! Getting Thanksgiving dinner
early, huh?” she smiled and started ringing all of the meat up.
    “You could say that. Can I get a couple of
the tote boxes? This is going to be heavier than I thought,” I
chuckled, trying hard to act natural. I got four and put two
turkeys each in two of the boxes and the rest of the meat in the
third, the bottles in the last, and used plastic bags for the rest.
I was surprised to see the total a bit under five hundred