About 'family health care modesto'|October 5 2009: States of disbelief
It was a Saturday night when I left to go to my father's funeral. I almost missed the Greyhound to Modesto. I was already running late, and then I got jumped. You know the downtown neighborhood around the bus station in San Francisco? That last half mile around the highway? Outside of bankers' hours that whole part of town is shut down, with lit street corridors between the train stops and a few of the major financial district buildings that might have all-hours staff. My bus left at midnight sharp, so I went the short way around through the unlit area to save time. As I headed down the last street before the circle of floodlights that surrounded the bus station, a jumper held a little green dot on my chest from an alley. I'm a sensible man. I kept my side of the rules. I went immediately over to the mouth of the alley and held my hands out from my sides, moving slowly. The jumper kept his side of the rules. He just gestured and grunted as I emptied my pockets and showed him (some) of what I had. He never searched me or asked me to open my backpack. He poked his finger at the short stack of plastic I held out and thumbed two of the cards off the top, leaving me the rest. He peeled five or six hundred dollars in paper from the outside of my roll (I'd figure out exactly how much later) and waved me on down the street. He wasn't all that impressive-looking and maybe I could have taken him but why risk it? He kept the rules. I kept the rules. No one got hurt. I'm grateful to him. It was my own fault. I'd been careless. I should have gone the long way around on the Embarcadero by the dikes that held back the Bay, where the all-night street lights and cameras are. I zig-zagged down the lit area in the center of the street and made it to the floodlight perimeter around the bus station in seconds, but the jumper had used up whatever time I had saved by going the shorter way around. So I rushed into the bus station all out of breath and almost missed the bus. I printed out my ticket at home, and Security had already approved my travel, but I had to stop at the counter for some water and food bars and the last passenger had already gone through the scanners. They were starting to roll the stairs up into the bus when I crossed the thick white painted line marking off the security area. I took off my shoes, my belt, and my metal-rimmed glasses, and put them on the conveyor belt with my backpack. I walked on, holding my breath and with a grin pasted on my face. I was hoping like hell the little chip and battery on the elastic band around my gun worked like Nick on Market Street promised me it would. If the field it produced was as strong as he said it was, it would not only mask my gun from the scanner, it would obscure sensor readings of everything else in my lower regions. My interest in this was somewhat more than just abstract. I had three packs of tobacco, a sealed bottle of whiskey, and there were two ebooks on my phone that were not on the Approved list. Sure, the gun was illegal, but everyone had 'em. Most cops would just wave me on for it, but the other stuff meant fines or time behind razor wire. But I had to have 'em. I was traveling, and people aren't always willing to trade things for money. I held out my ticket with the Security "approved" logo, my vaccination card, and my state ID. Blue lasers flickered across them, and then there was a white flash in my eyes as Security checked my retinas to verify that I was me (and the same me that had gotten approval to travel). I trotted across the grid. There was no alarm. No one stopped me. Bored security guards waved me through and gave me my little tray back with my shoes and backpack and stuff. I dumped my shoes onto the ground out of the tray and stepped into them, zipped them up, gathered up my things and slung my backpack over one shoulder and shoved my wallet and keys back in my pockets. I ran towards the bus gate with an itching feeling between my shoulder blades but no one shouted "Stop!" Nick had gotten me a working scanner blinder. I resolved to investigate whatever other bargains might be found at the rear entrance of his little Market Street stall. When I got to the gate the bus door was just starting to close and the heavy armor creaked as it stopped, then reopened. The irritated driver scowled down at me from his seat but I smiled at him and thanked him warmly and rushed up the stairs into the bus. He slammed the door behind me and it sealed with a whuff and my ears popped. The bus started to move a little before I was behind the white line marked "Do Not Stand In Front Of This Line" but it wasn't too bad, I could stand. I looked down the aisle, swinging my backpack by one strap over my shoulder. The good news was there were three seats left. The bad news was that they were those last three next to the bathroom. I basically ran down the aisle between the rows of seats as the bus jerked and shimmied on the tight turn out of the bus terminal onto the highway to the Bridge to the mainland. I don't think I banged against anyone with my bag but I did stub my toe as I sat down rather suddenly when I reached the back of the bus right at the point the driver accelerated particularly quickly. Damn. I was going to be sitting right next to the frigging bathroom. Perhaps some of my fellow passengers were shorter-distance commuters and as we headed east, some people would get off and open up some a better seats. Once upon a time, even for awhile right after the Emergency started, it had only been a matter of a couple-three hours to go from the City, County and Island of San Francisco to the city of Modesto in San Joaquin County, in California's central valley. Now, it would be more like eight hours. I was overly optimistic. The sun came up, and we still didn't move. Six-plus hours had passed, and we were still waiting to cross the Bay Bridge to the mainland. I spent the time watching people walk down the aisle past my seat to the bathroom, as the bus idled with full armor seal and it got stuffy inside. We were awaiting the resolution of a jurisdictional dispute at the checkpoint maintained by the SF Bay Area Regional Authority at the exit from the Bridge to the mainland. When we first drove up to the checkpoint I saw "SFBARA" armbands on the soldiers who were guarding it. I heard a couple of shots but the crowd I peered at through the darkened bus window didn't part in panic and actually seemed to calm somewhat. The gates were soon taken over by troopers in orange-brown Euro helmets, "peacekeepers," and a sprinkling of U.N. blue helmets appeared, zipping down between the long lines of waiting cars on one-wheeled scooters. I didn't see any rebels of any of the factions, but a U.S. Army convoy passed ahead of us, APCs and hovercraft mostly, buzzing down the highway alongside the dikes by the Bay. They also had choppers and a couple of pods whizzing around overhead. One of them landed and the Army people took over the gates from the Euros. The lines began to edge forward as they waved the first few vehicles through. Then they decided to take apart the van in front of us. I sat in my seat in the back of the bus and chewed my bus station food bars and sipped plasticy-tasting water and wondered why I was there. Two days ago, Thursday night, I got the email from my uncle Bill, who apparently was now the only family I had left. "Stan: Yr father died last nite in his sleep. Funaral is Mon at Ten in the AM in Modesto. Come 2 my house. He left something for you." So the chemical poisoning from Dad's Army days in Iran had finally caught up with the old man. I knew he had half a dozen different types of cancer. Most of my friends thought I was crazy. "That's through at least two different kinds of rebel territory," my roommate Sarah pointed out. "Just 'cause there's a treaty doesn't mean you'll be safe." Her boyfriend Petros was more to the point. "You'll get your silly ass killed." I talked with old Bob Yang, the elderly man I hung out with at the job center since getting laid off. We held each other's places in line when somebody had to go to the rest room, and traded tips on applications and new job postings. Bob was the most profoundly, confidently optimistic human being I have ever met. According to him, any day now we'd both make it to the front desk before office hours ended, and we'd get Reconstruction jobs with full medical. However, that optimism didn't stop him from saying there wouldn't be any problem holding my place on line until I got back. " You young people sure like your adventures," Bob grunted. Hmmm. And that was the optimist's version. I'd just gotten laid off a couple of months before. It had been a crappy clerical job in a law firm in downtown San Francisco. As a 30-something in this day and age, I never had any illusions about a career. It was always just a job. I milked my bennies until the very last, getting a tooth filled, a cancer booster to hold off my hereditary colon cancer, and a shot for the latest flu, on the very last day before the health coverage cut off. I was single, unemployed, and going to my father's funeral. Not my best day. I hadn't even been close to my father. Yet here I was, taking on the huge ordeal of cross-country traveling. Was it worth it? All this, to meet up with one old relative I hardly knew? Maybe I would hear a few words spoken over a cremation urn? I wasn't sure of what Pop's beliefs had been lately - in the past he'd played with Hari Krishnas, the Post-Millennials, Jews for Jesus, Tibetan Buddhism, and Scientology, along with a host of others I'd never heard of before. Mom once told me that he was a different man when he came back from Iran. "You should have seen him then, son. Tall, and proud in that beautiful uniform." Maybe so, but all I know is that as far back as I can remember, Dad was never all that sure about life in general. And after Mom died of the Flu, he just seemed to lose all his intelligence points. What could he have left for me? At most I'd collect some old papers, maybe some drives with old pix on 'em. So, not much sentiment, and my family ain't rich, so there was no money or property to collect. In fact, knowing my dad, I'd be lucky if some arrears-collector didn't try to collect from me. I still don't really know why I went. So we finally got across the bridge, driving quickly through the light gray plastic tube that shrouded each lane, blocking any view of the water. The tubing stopped for a bit, and I could see the shipping cranes towering by the Bay, but then we got near the security areas of the Port of Oakland and the freeway turned back into tubes again. They stopped again in the East Bay city of Oakland. A bunch of people got off the bus in Oakland, and later in Livermore, and I got a better seat up near the front. Once we got past the Federal checkpoint at Altamount Pass we were in rebel territory, and the driver had us all shut off our phones. I didn't see any troops, just a single man in civilian clothing at the gate. The bus stopped, and the driver opened his window just a crack, and they exchanged a few muffled words through the opening. The driver passed an envelope through, resealed the window, and drove slowly down the almost deserted freeway. I still didn't see any troops, but there were hills all around us, and the bus driver drove carefully and slowly as if they were filled with rebels. Finally, we came down out of the hills and we were in the San Joaquin Valley. I hadn't been inland in years. Before the Emergency, this area of California had been some of the richest farmland in North America. It employed millions, and fed millions more. Now there were large parts of it that looked almost like desert. And the political factions had sure been busy -- we passed several checkpoints, and then, finally, back into Federal territory. Two soldiers came on the bus, one in an armored suit and the other in a regular uniform. The trooper in camo stood by the door, while the one in the suit went through the bus, big steel boots clanking as he made his way down the aisle. "ID, vaccination cert, ticket," he droned through his helmet speaker, as he stopped by every seat. I held up my papers. I couldn't see his eyes through his darkened faceplate, but I assume he thought everything was okay because he didn't put his servo-assisted fist through my face. Gleaming stainless steel pistons pumped and whined at his sides as the armored suit mimicked his motions. "Nothing here," his helmet speaker boomed. He clank-clanked off the bus, and then his partner ran down the aisle, tossing pamphlets in the laps of all of the passengers. "You are now in an area that is once again protected by enforcement of the laws of the United States," the soldier announced loudly. "Please be advised that this area is under Level Three restrictions. This means that you are under military administration, but not fully under martial law. Many of your civilian legal protections still apply." The soldier grinned and hefted his rifle. "But don't get cocky, " he added. Looking down at his handheld, he suddenly turned, and screamed at a woman sitting near the front, "No phones until you get inside the city!" She looked stricken and fumbled with her cell. The soldier got off, and the bus door sealed with a whuff, and the driver took off. I looked at my pamphlet. Big red letters shouted "The United States Government Welcomes Refugees From Fascism." They must have gotten their pamphlets mixed up, because I don't think that last rebel area we came through was Nazi, although it might have been Connie-land. I didn't see any SS lightning bolts tagged on any of the overpasses, and I did see constitutionalist "Don't Tread On Me" decals on a couple of truck windshields. But I also remember we passed a couple of buildings flying the red banner of the Workers' Militia, so who knows what color the area would show on the maps online? On the cover of the pamphlet there was a picture of a bland-looking man in a suit and turtleneck who I didn't recognize, but who I assume was the latest "President of the United States." When I opened it, an LED-lit list of prohibited items started strobing and a chip played a tinny recording of "The Star Spangled Banner." It made a very satisfying squeal when I crumpled the pamphlet in my hand. I heard a similar noise up and down the aisle, echoing from most of the occupied seats. When we finally pulled up to the Modesto bus station, it was seven in the evening. It had been 19 hours since we left San Francisco and the sky was starting to darken. All of my food bars were long gone, and I had no water left. The hot dog at the bus station was expensive, but it was the cheapest thing on the menu, and there was no way I was going to mooch off of my uncle Bill. There was no mustard or ketchup. I have no clue what animal the meat came from. The bun was stale but there was no mold on it. A bottle of water cost me less than my bus ticket, but not that much less. After I got outside the security area, I lit up my phone and got a map to my uncle Bill's house. He lived in same district as the bus station, but on the other side of it. It was about an hour's hike. The streets seemed quiet, a few people but not that busy on what was, after all, a Sunday night. There were no troops, just the occasional drone hovering over an intersection. I even saw some regular cops, in blues. Stores were open, and there were no lines. I was relieved. A lot of the stores had bank logo signs blinking, so I knew my money cards were good. I'm glad I got the map at the beginning of the walk. By the time I was a few blocks away from my uncle's house, my phone was bing-bing-binging with that signal you get when they've switched off the networks. I had to rely on the stored map. When I got to my uncle's house, there were eight cars parked on his lawn. It was dark, and the lights were on. The sound of voices, that manic, almost party-like background of a wake, with everyone frantically thinking about something else, spilled from the open windows. Uncle Bill answered the door himself. He was six foot seven, and had a shaggy fringe of white hair down to his shoulders, with a gleaming bald pate. Uncle Bill weighed almost three hundred pounds, and every pound of him was stone cold drunk. He blubbered and hugged me on the doorstep, practically lifting me off the ground. "Awww, Stan! Stan, Stan. I'm glad you could make it. Aw, Stan! My baby brother's dead!" I assured him that as the deceased's son, I was well aware of the gravity of the situation, and asked about the crowd in the house. Would he be able to give me some couch space for the night? Uncle Bill looked grave. "They're all buddies of mine, come to help me get over my horrible loss." He scratched his head. "We only have beds for four, and everyone got their claim in already." "What about Dad's space in the basement?" I asked. Bill shook his head. "Rented out already." Hooking a thumb at my back pack, he added, "You could lay down a bedroll in the hallway, if you like." Uncle Bill always had been somewhat self absorbed, and he never was all that warm and fuzzy (unless it suited him). "What did Dad leave for me?" I asked him. Uncle Bill thought a moment. "Wait here," he said. He elbowed his way through the crowd of anonymous drunks. He returned with a computer memory crystal. "Here," he said. "there's a file with your name on it. It's locked up with security. You get one view, and one printout, and then it erases, so I saved it for you." I took it gingerly. "Bill! Where's the ice?" someone yelled. He clapped me on the shoulder, and dived into the crowd. That's the last I saw him until Monday morning. My phone couldn't read the file, and the network was still down, so I couldn't download a new player or reader. Oh, well. I'd look it over on the way home. I had a drink with a very drunk woman, around forty-five but still lookin' fine. But she wasn't just drunk, she was hiccup/vomiting drunk, and I had no intention of doing anything more than having a drink. When she finally understood that I really meant it and wandered off in search of other prey, I unrolled my inflatable in the hallway, put in some earplugs, and lay down. I awoke in a puddle of sunshine that spilled from a side window. Nearby, the drunken woman from last night snored loudly, curled up in front of the bathroom door at the end of the hall. I packed up my stuff and tiptoed past her, relieved myself, drank as much water as I could hold, and went out into the kitchen. Uncle Bill was sitting in the kitchen in his undershirt, still drunk, and arguing with a man in a suit, who, apparently, was supposed to conduct the service for Dad. "But I won't do it unless you pay in advance," he told Uncle Bill. Uncle Bill looked helplessly at me, and put his hand on a shiny steel cylinder on the table, presumably Dad's ashes. "Do you have any money?" he asked. The cylinder was emblazoned with the Health Directorate logo. I looked at Uncle Bill. "You didn't tell me it was the Flu." He shrugged. "The cancer drugs made him weak. He got it, and locked himself in downstairs to hope and get over it. By the time anyone noticed, he was gone." He locked eyes with me. "So you got any money to pay for a service for your old man?" Between the two of us we came up with enough for the man to say the words, although I had to throw in one of my packs of tobacco, in addition to a lot of my cash plus a couple of my cards. We stood in the back yard, heads bowed, and the man recited something from a old book of poetry. It had a lot of "thees" and "thous" and said something about a better world. It was really idealistic, and a little silly. I think Dad would have liked it. Uncle Bill dashed away at the end to retch behind a bush. The preacher opened the cylinder, sprinkled the ashes on some bushes, and that was that. Uncle Bill tried to get some more money from me, but all I had left was the bus fare home, plus maybe another couple of hot dogs and some water. He got mad when I told him that, but he accepted my bottle of liquor and stomped into the house, slamming the door behind him. I hoisted my backpack, and headed for the bus station. It took way less time than the hour walk in the other direction, the day before. My heart was empty, and I just wanted to march along. A drone followed me for a block or two, humming maybe sixty feet above me, cameras whining, but I guess the cop sitting in an office somewhere got bored because it peeled off and headed down a side street. As I waited on line to show my ID and vaccination certificate to Security so they would approve my ticket, my phone beeped. Ah! The networks were back up! I set up the download for the new reader. After I got my ticket stamped, and went across a security grid (my nerves jangled just like in San Francisco, but once again, Nick's scanner blinder covered my butt), I had a hot dog and some water, and sat on a bench waiting by the bus gate. My phone rang. My reader was ready. The file was text, very old, written in a word processing program that was obsolete before I was born, but the write date was only two months ago. I had to authorize a charge on my phone account for the reader. It was high, and it hurt a little, the following month. The file was a letter from my father. "I'm sorry, Stan, " he wrote. "My generation left yours a hell of a mess. We used to be so proud, around here." "We were mechanics and builders, but we don't make anything any more. We used to grow things. Not any more. We used to invent stuff." "We traveled as we liked, we ate what we wanted, we talked as we pleased. But we stopped making things, and shipped in things made by people overseas, holding them at gunpoint, and we make all our money just trading paper back and forth." Dad was such an idealist. "We're not free, and the country is gone, and the world is polluted, and we're baking in the heat, and the water's rising, and that's what we left you. And we just don't care about each others dreams any more." "I'm so sorry, my beloved son. My best to you for a wonderful life after I am gone, but I do not envy you this world. Love, Dad." What a silly letter. "The water's rising"? Didn't he know there had been a slowdown in icecap melting? The water hadn't risen appreciably since the two-meter surge. If it hadn't been for the Quake, San Francisco would still be a peninsula and not an island. Sure, things were a mess, but they'd slowed down some. Dad was such a sentimental old fool. I had all my papers, and I could travel. And I ate what I wanted. I'd just had that hot dog, my second meal in two days not including food bars. I was doing better than usual. And certainly, I thought to myself, the country was still here. The man who approved my ticket at Security had a Stars and Stripes patch on his shoulder. So did the woman watching the grid. What a pile of crap. I showed my papers to the soldier in the armored suit, and climbed on board the bus for the trip home. I still don't know why I bothered to go. I never did get around to making that one printout Dad's file would allow me. |
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