LIZZIE SCOURED THE HOUSE FOR baby clothes, diapers, wipes, things Saj needed. She snagged the mobile above his crib and carried it all out to the car through the front door. He seemed satisfied to sit and listen to music, but she didn’t want to leave him long with that diaper rash.
The crib, one of those fold up ones, was portable if she could figure out how the damn thing folded up. Jason’s had been like a bear trap, virtually impossible to open and way too easy to get painfully pinched, it was a miracle she still had all her fingers.
Lizzie surprised herself by getting it on the first try. It became a compact, bulky box. Saj watched her as she stuffed it in the CRV. She handed him a teething biscuit and chucked him under the chin, noting how tight his clothes looked. They wouldn’t fit him long. Back inside she uncovered a stash of clothes, but they all looked big. She took them anyway and climbed into the driver’s seat.
She returned to the car. “Need to get some better music in here, Saj.” She put the CRV into reverse and it started rolling backwards into the street. She kept her foot poised over the brake and gradually turned the steering wheel. When she was pointed mostly in the right direction she stepped on the brake. The CRV lurched to a quick halt. She shoved it into N-neutral.
Lizzie took her foot off the brake, shaking her head. “Sorry, Saj, Sissie’s not a very good driver yet.” She let the car roll slowly down the hill. Probably safer not to even use the gas.
Saj wasn’t so sure and he began to whimper. His cries built steadily toward a wail.
“What’s wrong, Saj?” She turned in her seat. He’d dropped what was left of the slimy teething biscuit. She could see it; she stretched but could not reach it. “I’ll get you some good food when we get home, ‘‘kay?”
She turned back to the front as a young man stepped in front of the car, waving. She stomped on the brake, but realized too late it wasn’t the brake. She spun the wheel as the car gunned forward, she jammed both feet on both pedals, not wanting to make another mistake.
The young man jumped behind a car as she swerved to a stop, engine racing. She shoved it in park, threw the door open and hopped out. The adrenaline had her wired. “I nearly killed you. What the Hell were you doing?”
“Lizzie? Is that you?” He came out from the parked car. He had longish hair, a Led Zeppelin T-shirt over a beer belly and black, white and gray camo fatigues.
“Do I know you?” She bent over shaking. Her brain twisted in her head. She knelt down trying to stabilize it.
“I was a senior when you were a freshman.” He offered his hand. “Curtis Madison? Went by C.J. back then.”
“C.J.? What the hell?” Lizzie stared at his hand. No contact. She grabbed the handle on the door and stood back up. “I’m trying to get back to my house. You want to drive? Might be safer.” She grimaced. “My first day driving.”
He got in the driver’s seat and she took shotgun.
“Oh, C.J. meet Saj.”
“Curtis.” His eyes followed hers to the baby. “Sure. Lincoln Street, right?”
“You know where I live?”
“Your note. At BHS? 2224?”
“Oh, yeah.” Now that she knew there were more survivors she should go erase the whiteboard.
“Wrote my number down there, too. Your kid?”
“No. Saj is another survivor Zach and I found.”
“Zach? Zach Riley?”
Lizzie nodded.
“That red-headed kid?” He slapped his thigh. “I used to sell him pot and shit.”
“Yeah, that’s him. He's picking up Nevaeh. You remember her?”
“Oh, yeah. Zach had a crush on her, right?” C.J. made a right onto her street.
Lizzie laughed. “Zach had crushes on everybody.” That niggling thought about survivors was back. “You were on the trip with us to Honduras. The water purifying trip? You were the sick one, right?”
“Yeah, that was me. Ended up making everybody miss an extra week of school.” He pulled to a stop in front of her house. “Why?”
“A bunch of the survivors are from B.H.S. We were all on that trip.” She hopped out of the car and extricated Saj from the car seat. “Maybe that’s why we’re immune.”
“Maybe you guys owe me.” C.J. carried the crib in from the car.
She walked behind him carrying bags. He set it inside the front door and turned to face her leaning his arm on the door jamb. He was uncomfortably close.
She ducked under his arm and brought the bags into the living room.
“Mind if I hang out until Zach gets back.” He plopped on her couch. “That cool?”
“Sure. Thanks for the help.” She preferred not to be alone, even if it meant hanging with the annoying C.J. “You hungry?”
“Always."