Radio Silence - Part 2

He took his keys out of his pocket and absent-mindedly put them on the small square side table next to the couch and not hanging up on the key rack by the front door. Joe looked out the window. In the darkness of the early morning, before the sun had even risen he could see his reflection. He looked even more pale than he usually did. He had felt a bit not himself the night before but nothing too out of the ordinary.

But then he made the mistake of turning on the tv to listen to the traffic report.

“Hundreds, maybe thousands are dead and dying.” A woman in a red trench coat said solemnly into the camera. “Our hospitals are overflowing and temporary ones are now being set up in community centres. Most likely if you are heading to the hospital because you think you have come down with The Sickness, you will be turned away and sent to one of the community centres. So your best bet is to head straight to your neighbourhood community centre. But there’s no guarantee that you’ll be seen there as they are all filling up.”

Along the bottom in large white letters within a bright red strip scrolled words like super bug, people sick, dying, by the thousands. He changed the channel to another talking head and on the screen in an inset was the word: Pandemic? The woman with hair that looked more like a helmet was talking about a mystery illness that scientists were struggling to identify. He changed the channel again and someone intelligent looking, with the requisite glasses, was advising people to stay indoors if they could help it. They weren’t sure if the virus was contagious so better to be safe than sorry.

With shaking hands he removed his cell phone from his pocket and dialed his mom. She was three hours ahead of him on the west coast. He hit the mute button on the TV immediately shutting up the woman with helmet hair who was looking stoically at the camera as she spoke.

The phone rang four times then went to the answering machine. “You’ve reached Carol McCandry!” his Mother’s voice said, overly cheerfully, as always. “Leave a message!” which was promptly followed by a beep.

“Hey Mom, it’s me. I’m just calling to see how you are. If you’re…okay. Sorry for not calling sooner,” Joe glanced at the TV on which a talking head with a torso now was standing outside, at the side of a road and gesturing behind at a long row of cars, sitting stock still on what looked to be a usually busy main road. He was wearing a heavy winter coat, scarf wrapped around his neck. Joe pressed the mute button again as he was leaving the message and caught the reporter saying, “As you’ll see behind me, this row of cars is not just stuck in gridlock but they are all abandoned, now, their owners, their drivers, taken away to hospital, either sick, or dying, or,” the man’s voice went a tone lower to denote the seriousness of it, “already dead.”

Joe stopped in the middle of leaving the voicemail, and stared open mouthed at the screen. Along the bottom it read Columbus, Ohio.

There was a beep that sounded impatient that brought him back. “Mom, just give me a call when you get this message, okay? To let me know you're okay. I just can’t fly out there to see how you are, y’know.” He added, apologetically, then worried it came off sounding harsh and angry, and not disappointed.

He sighed and hung up, then pressed another button.

After two rings it was picked up.

“Char?” Worry flooded his voice.

“Joe?” The woman on the other end sounded concerned, her voice slightly tinny and far-away sounding. “What’s wrong?”

“Don’t you know?”

He could picture Charlene shaking her head causing her fine blond hair to blow around her like a halo, especially in the humidity she was in.

“No, I don’t. I’ve been-, I mean we’ve been really busy out in the field the last few days. That’s why I haven’t called. If you’re calling because you’re wondering why I haven’t called, that’s why.” He could hear the excitement building in her voice. “We just dug up a great little pocket of old pottery and there were a few coins found in the bottom of some of the shards! They must have been ritualistic, like wishing wells of sorts,” she was speeding up, talking faster in her excitement to tell what was going on at her team's dig in Jordan, just outside the ancient archaeological site of Petra.

Joe tried not to sound patronizing or dismissive, but he needed to tell her what was going on. How did she not know about it?

“Char, honey, that’s great you’ve found a bunch of stuff, especially coins. I know that’s what you were hoping to find in particular, but, I was calling to see if you were okay. If you were sick.”

“Sick?” he could hear her confusion in her voice.

“Lots of people are sick. There’s some kind of bug, some kind of epidemic, they’re saying. People are dying. One minute they’re fine, the next they get sick and then, poof,” he mimed a mini explosion with his hand, “then they die.” He paused a minute to let his words sink in, and he glanced at the TV once more. The red ticker tape along the bottom of the screen was scrolling out a list of countries with infected people. It was like the entire alphabet of countries. Algeria, Albania, Azerbaijan…

“You mean pandemic, if it’s everywhere,” Charlene said, sounding distracted. He heard her talk to someone in the background. “The mesh bags are on the second shelf on the right hand side of the van,” she was saying. “And there are more oil pencils too, next to the small brushes.”

“Char!” Joe yelled. “Are you listening to me?”

“What?” Char’s voice became louder again as she spoke into the phone. “Yes, yes, I’m listening. You’re saying there’s some kind of pandemic.”

“Well you don’t sound very concerned!” he said, trying to restrain the volume of his voice.

“Well, it hasn’t reached here yet,” she said. He could picture her shrugging. “I haven’t heard anything about it.”

“Have you even been reading the news?” he almost cried.

“No,” she admitted. “Not unless its archaeology related.” She gave a little laugh.

“Not even on Facebook?” he asked, incredulous. “You know I don’t do the social media thing when I’m in the field, hon. It’s a time waster and I just get sucked in. I just send out my email newsletters every couple weeks to keep friends and family in the loop. Otherwise, I’d be checking Facebook every day instead of keeping my team in line and leading the dig.”

“Oh yeah, I remember,” he said, feeling a little guilty he hadn’t yet read her latest Char’s Chatter newsletter mail. “Okay then, well, keep me in the loop. Let me know if you…you know, start feeling unwell or anything.”

He didn’t get a reply right away and knew she was already distracted by something else going on at the worksite.

“Huh? Oh yeah, of course honey, will do. Thanks for calling. Aren’t you glad we got that long distance overseas calling plan? Talk to you soon, love you.” She made a kissing noise into the phone and then it clicked off before he even had a chance to say goodbye.

~~~

Check out Part One and part 3 below