The Greenbrier Resort

The Greenbrier Resort

  Darrel Bird

  Copyright 2013 by Darrel Bird

 

  Part 1

  “Kristen, I need the bathroom!” Katie, Kristen’s younger sister who had just turned twelve pounded again on the door.

  “Alright! Quit whining, I’m done!” Kristen walked out of the bathroom, bumping her sister along the way.

  “Alright miss clean!” Katie looked at her petulantly, and slammed the door.

  “You two stop fussing…everyone will be ready for home church. You girls come to breakfast; you need to eat.” Their mother finished packing the clean towels in the small hall closet, but she smiled secretly at her daughters, remembering what it was like when she was that age.

  She pushed the button on the lift, thinking of the preparations she needed to make before they caught the early train to Denver. She barely heard the lift whir as it carried her down to the living room which was just off the kitchen. She wished they had a car permit, so they could see some of the scenery between their house and Denver, but then realized that the scenery would be mostly concrete barriers, and the cars that were allowed were guided by the signal embedded in the roadway. They went much too fast for much scenery at over a hundred and fifty miles an hour.

  “I heard the girls bickering all the way through the lift duct.” Her husband said between sips of his tea.

  “They’re just normal girls…Tom…do you think we will ever get a car permit?”

  “On my salary Jenny? By the time we got a permit on a dentist salary, we’ll be too old to get to the terminal, and get into it.”

  “Sometimes I just long for things we can’t have.”

  “The Bible tells us to be content with what we have.”

  “Do you really believe that book Tom? Sometimes I wonder if it’s really real. Do you remember when people thought Jesus would return back in 2015, its 2027, and we are still waiting? We risk getting sent into a government hospital every Sunday morning just to gather with three or four people, not counting Mrs. Barnes, who is nearly a hundred and six.”

  “Maybe we should mention your doubts to the pastor this morning…perhaps he has some words that would help you.”

  “Perhaps.”

  The girls came out of the lift. Katie gave Kristen a shove, nearly bowling her over the Microwave stand.

  “You girls stop that, and get your Bibles from the nook, and don’t forget to cover it back up with the step carpet.”

  “Lord help us!” Jenny looked at Tom and they both laughed.

  “No one has inspected our apartment in two years Dad. Why do we have to hide the Bibles?” Kristen asked through a mouthful of toast.

  “Do you remember Mr. and Mrs. Larson? They inspected their apartment, and found a Bible…they got shipped off to hospital in St. Louis honey.”

  “Will the government ever bring them home do you think?”

  “I don’t know…its been a year and a half.”

  “Maybe it takes a long time to make us better Dad.”

  “Honey…Niles Larson, and his wife were sane as anybody ever was.”

  “Then why were they taken to hospital?”

  “Because they were fundamentalist, just as we are fundamentalists. Now get your jacket…it’s time to go.”

  The family walked the six blocks to terminal 36 where Tom showed their papers, and got their hands stamped. It was only on Sunday that the government checked their papers. The government employees looked at them suspiciously, but let them pass on through. They waited silently in the loungers until the artificial, but pleasant voice called the gate.

  An hour later they were walking out the door of the Denver train quad. They walked eight blocks past row after row of apartment buildings, until they came to a tall apartment building with artificial plants in pots along the front. The plastic walls rose up six stories, seeming to grow out of the ground. They held their identification up to the camera that protruded from the single glass door. “Good day citizens.” An artificial voice greeted them from a small speaker, as they heard the click of the lock.

  They crowded into the small elevator that took them to the fourth floor where they walked down the hall to a plain door, and gave the pre-arranged knock. A blonde man of medium build greeted them, “Come in; we have chairs for everyone to sit in.”

  They each got a folding chair that was stacked against the wall, then unfolded them and sat down in the small and crowded room. There were six others besides the pastor.

  The pastor stood up, and taking the Microwave from the stand; he gently sat it in the floor. “Now that we are all here we can begin.” He opened his Bible and laid it on the stand. “let's pray.”

  It seemed to Kristen that the pastor just went on and on, and she began to get sleepy in the close air if the small apartment. He finished, and then closed his Bible, “I’m not going to preach out of the Bible this morning; I am going to preach about the Bible. I have felt strongly led by the Holy Spirit to do it this way today.”

  Kristen perked up at the unusual announcement. Usually the pastor opened his Bible, read scriptures, and then taught from those scriptures. The pastor began.

  “Jesus went to the cross over two thousand years ago, and this Bible I have here in my hand is all that we have left today as a witness that he died for all. We have our feelings, but feelings are not proof of much. One of the most important things about this Bible is to have it down here…in our heart.” He pointed toward his chest.

  As he talked on Kristen looked at the object, and wondered about it. She hadn’t given it much thought even though Bibles hadn’t been printed in years, and they dare not risk having them on a computer, because all the computers were inter connected. She realized that she had been listening so closely that the time had gone quickly, and it was time to go.

  When they arrived home she thought about the question she needed to ask her friend Melinda about the test on Monday, and she barely heard her father cautioning them both to put their Bible away in the nook where they were well hidden. Her father had worked out an ingenious and intricate place under the carpeted step in the stairs. She rushed up the lift to call her friend.

  She dialed her I-Comp, and her friend appeared on the screen. “Hi Kristen, what's up?”

  “I wanted to ask you a question about our test tomorrow.” Kristen asked her the question, then hung up. She was a little tired, so she lay on her bed and thought about all the pastor said that morning. I don’t see why we can’t be like everybody else. Thoughts drifted through her head like clouds, and soon she was asleep.

  Part 2

  Trevor Anderson threw his cap in the air along with the rest. Six years of college and he was through with the long hours of study. He already had a luxury government job lined up with Greenbrier Resort, just a hop and a skip from D.C. He had visited the resort with its meadows, stables, and plush hotel. What a break! I have my life lined up before me, good money, I might even be able to get a permit for a car to go between Washington, and the resort in a few years. I guess I owe that to Dad. His father was a Washington insider who worked at the Pentagon. He walked over to where his mother and father sat in a roped-off area. Only important people sat there.

  “I’m proud of you son; psychology is a good discipline, and will serve you well at Greenbrier. Will you be coming home weekends?”

  “I don’t know yet Dad; I still have to check in, and do the computer work which will take a while. Then I will have my work assignment. I’m pretty sure I will be working with the children, so I might have to work weekends.”

  “I wanted you home on week ends Trevor. Your aunt is coming out from New York next month.”

  “I know Mom; I will see what I can do.”

  Whe
n his Mothers sister visited from New York, he was expected to make himself available even though they both just talked, and went shopping in downtown Washington D.C. He saw Madeline Hammond and excused himself. He had thought he was in love with her, but they had drifted apart during college. They had remained friends through college, but she had chosen to study foreign languages. She could already speak six languages fluently.

  “Hi Madeline, off to foreign lands?”

  “Hi yourself, if you can call D.C. foreign lands, then yes, I have a job with the White House. Where are you off too?”

  “Greenbrier Resort, I’ll be leaving on the morning.”

  “Oh, you lucky stiff!” She exclaimed, hitting him on the shoulder with her fist.

  “Oww! You pack quite a punch you know!”

  He stared at her red hair, her flawless complexion, and ruby-red lips. He was tempted to ask her to go with him on a date the evening, but thought better of it; he had to catch the early rail car to the resort at six thirty the next morning. They talked a bit longer then hugged and said their good-byes. I’m walking out of her life forever. The thought went through his mind, and he promptly discarded it. Maybe not, I am moping around as if I’m going to a hanging. Cheer up Trevor, the world awaits your greatness. He laughed at his own thoughts as he walked over to some of the other students he knew.

  That evening he carefully packed his bags, then went over his college computer files to make sure everything was in order. He finished, then took a light sleeper, and slept soundly. His computer buzzed incessantly at four next morning. He fixed a toast, a cup of wake tea, and then slipped out of the house to walk the eight blocks to the rail quad. The small rail cars would take him to the center of Washington D.C. then he would be taken by fast train to Greenbrier where he would be let off at the gate.

  Part 3

  Gerald Donavan was a tough kid, who had grown up in the Bronx. He had gone from high school to reform school at a government camp in Utah, the place where most of the street kids ended up.

  His mother and father had been killed in a plane crash on the only vacation they had ever taken. They had been killed and buried in California; he was too poor to have the bodies shipped back or to attend the funeral in California.

  The instructors at the reform school encouraged him to study for a guard position within the service of the government. He liked Utah, and thought he would be able to stay at the reform school to work, but the government had other ideas, and as soon as he finished school they sent him back to the Bronx to await further assignment. They eventually assigned him guard duty at a court house in lower Manhattan just past his twenty-first birthday.

  It took nearly all his wages to pay his rent, and ride the under ground from the Bronx to Manhattan. He was getting nowhere fast, until the position flashed across the screen for a guard at The Greenbrier Resort, and he promptly applied. Two weeks later he was released from his duties in preparation to go to Washington D.C. where he would receive his computer files for Greenbrier, along with a healthy allotment of credits.

  “Pops, wheres my travel bags?” Pops was the old guy he had stayed with for the past year. He was getting dowdy and forgetful, and Gerald had to remind him to bathe. The small apartment on Center Street barely housed the both of them, and when the old man forgot to bathe, it made the place smell rank.

  “How the hell should I know kid…can't you keep up with your own stuff?”

  “I’ve looked all over my room Pops, and they ain’t there. They were there a month ago, you sure you didn’t put them in the trash chute or somethin’?”

  “I forgot to tell you, Jana called on that computer thing. She’s a nice girl…you should call her.”

  “I would if you didn’t forget to give me my messages. Where did you say my bags were?”

  “Lets see, I believe I put them in my room. I forget why I put them there though, you go look.”

  “Ok Pops.” He sighed. It was no use in scolding the old man; he knew he couldn’t help what he did. He would actually miss the old fellow, and his stories about the old days of driving cars, and even bar-b-cueing on the patio. He found the bags stuffed in the back of the old man’s closet. He sniffed them, and they didn’t smell too bad, having not come in contact with the old man’s clothes.

  He brought the bags into the small living room, and began to pack his clothes as neatly as he could, the fast train would only allow bags of a certain size.

  “Are you going to call Jana?”

  “Yeah Pops, soon as I get done packing.”

  “Where did you say you were going?”

  “To D.C. Pops, I done told you half a dozen times."

  “I just forget…I’m going to miss you boy.”

  “Yeah, I’ll miss you too Pops; you should apply for the public housing. That way, you wouldn’t get lonely. How will you care for yourself when I’m gone?”

  “I got some pills; I aim to take a pill soon as you are gone, and that’ll be that.”

  “Where did you get the long sleep pills Pops?”

  “From Georgio down the street.”

  “You know self-sleep is illegal Pops.”

  “Ain’t nothin’ they can do to a dead man is there?”

  “No, guess not.” He said sadly.

  “The government wants it nice, and clean, so they don’t have to go to the expense of fumigating the place… well…hell with’um! I’m going to laugh my ass off when they find me laying here all rotten!” The old man cackled with glee at the thought.

  “How you gonna laugh your ass off if you are dead Pops?”

  “Oh, I’ll be watchin’ boy…I’ll be watchin.”

  “I guess so…well…guess this is it…goodbye Pops.” He hugged the old man tightly, and then kissed him on his scraggly cheek.

  “good-bye son, I love you.”

  “Love you too Pops, get in the bed before you take the pills, that way the cramps won’t be so bad on you.”

  “Go on now kid, and knock’em dead.”

  He opened the door and slipped quietly out into the hallway. In thirty minutes, he was on the fast train. He looked out the window of the train, as he brushed the tears from his eyes. The train picked up speed until it reached two hundred fifty miles an hour, and the scenery passed as a blur of greens, yellows, and blacks.

  Part 4

  On Monday morning, as usual, Katie was banging at the bathroom door before she was through, “Ok, ok just a minute.” Kristen stared carefully at her complexion in the mirror. She thought she saw a dirty spot, re-wet the cloth with soap mixed with cold cream, and slowly messaged the spot with the Terry wash cloth. She hated dirt of any kind on her body, and especially on her face. She rinsed her face again, worrying that the water might have some impurity in it to work its way into a pore in her perfect complexion.

  “Kristen, I want in, I have to go to school too ya know?”

  She opened the door, and Katie elbowed her way in before she could get through the doorway, “Brat!”

  Katie stretched her lips with her fingers, and stuck out her tongue. Kristen paid her no mind as she entered the lift to go down for a breakfast of mixed fruit. She ate fruit on alternate days because her home room teacher had said it was good for her complexion.

  “Mom, why do we have to be different from everybody else?”

  “What do you mean?” Her mother looked at her closely.

  “I mean being Christians and all.”

  “Because eternity weighs in the balance honey; most people aren’t Christian. Worshiping God is our greatest privilege; would you want to change that to be like everybody else?”

  “No, I guess not. It’s really hard to tell who is Christian, you know? No one carries a Bible in public. I suspect our English teacher is though.”

  “The times for Christians are extremely hard these days, but we are more sane than they. However, we need to be humble for it is by grace alone that we are saved. Its time to go now, have you got your I-Comp in your back pack?”
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  “I have it, will Dad be late tonight?”

  “Yes, it is his day to volunteer at the hospital.”

  Kristen punched in the code on the front door, “Ok Mom, see you later.”

  Her mother frowned a little as she watched her go through the door. It seemed to her that her daughter was more occupied these days, and she knew it was her most difficult of times.

  Kristen reached the train quad just as it was coming to a stop. She boarded the train, and sat down by Melinda.

  “Hi Kristen, how was your weekend?"

  “So, so.”

  She looked at her friend. Melinda had raven-black hair, and bushy eyebrows, but she was the smartest girl in her class. Kristen zeroed in on a tiny zit on Melinda’s face, but she loved her friend too much to say anything. She sat and tolerated the zit with a slight air of superiority.

  They discussed the new boy in their class until the trained arrived at the Cheyenne terminal, where they exited and walked the eight blocks to the school. They went through the first and second scanners, and then walked down the long halls to their first class of the day. The first class happened to be American History, a class that Kristen hated because the teacher talked of how bad it was when cars plied the nation’s highways. She might have like it better if they had taught about earlier times in history when the nation was formed. She found a book with a thing called the constitution in it in funny writing. She had shown it to the teacher who promptly seized the book, and sent it to the incinerator. Mrs. Zane, her teacher had embarrassed her by making fun of her in front of the class, and allowed, even encouraged the class to jeer her, but she had read enough of the book too long for the freedom it spoke of.