Dirt Dinner

On Frankie’s first night underground, she had the second most interesting dinner that she would come to have in her entire life. The dinner started out identical to a regular mealtime at their previous home -they passed around delicious meat and a loaf of soft, warm, bread- but the energy was undoubtedly different. 

 It had been only 2 hours since Frankie had looked up at the blue sky for the very last time, shrugged, and thought, "Eh, it's overrated anyway," before making her descent down the three levels of concrete steps to her new home.  

Once inside the bunker, Frankie ordered every one to complete their final tasks.

"Archie, time to permanently seal the door," she directed at her husband. 

“Kenny, thoroughly go over the checklist again,” She said to Archie’s brother.

“I've already gone through it, Frankie. Twice,” Kenny responded, holding up his index and middle finger.

“I don’t care. Check it over, again." She also held up two fingers. “Twice." Then, to everyone, she said, "According to Dr. Laog's calculations, the meteor will be here in approximately 2 hours."  

Frankie looked over the bunker and all of the work she had done. She had built almost the entire place by hand, using stone to cover the walls and ceiling of a kitchen, living room, hallway, and three bedrooms. 

As for the other two adults, Kenny and Archie also had their duties in the construction of the bunker: Archie was an engineer who usually used his skills towards designing sports arenas, but enjoyed the new challenge of designing a functioning underground bunker; and Kenny, who was in the construction trades working with electric, also had dabbled in HVAC work, therefore, he was able to make the bunker livable and comfortable. 

"Samone, it's time to start dinner," Frankie said. It had been at least 10 hours since they'd all eaten; well, everyone except Kenny, who Frankie noticed had already marked a pudding cup off of the inventory list.

Frankie and Samone went to the kitchen and cooked up a nice dinner for everyone, with the main dish being steak that had been frozen inside their ice box. They pan-fried the meat on a wood burning stove that Kenny had built, that was also meant to keep them warm during the winter. 

An hour later, the seven roommates sat on the floor and began passing around bowls of the feast in front of them. Frankie's mouth watered at the smell released from each cut she made into the savory beef.

"You're sure the stove's vent will last, Kenny?"

Kenny set down his fork, swallowed his food, and said, "You've seen the vent, you know how strong it is. It's perfectly indestructible." Frankie had seen the tall pipe that ran from the top of the wood stove and far into the air above.

"Well, looks like we're about to find out!" Samone suddenly shouted, as the beverage glasses on the table, the ceiling above them, and the walls around them began to lightly shake. Pieces of dust and gravel-sized rocks fell to the ground.

 "You all know where to go," Frankie stated with a wave. They all proved her right and made themselves as small as they could while they positioned under the stone couches. As they all gently shook in sync with the floor, Frankie relished in the satisfaction that Dr. Laog was right, which made her right. Frankie felt a small sense of pride that they were the ones who took his theory seriously; while no one else seemed to notice or care about his proclamations, Frankie did, and for that, her family was safe.  Too bad for everyone else. 

She glanced at her husband crouched next to her as he looked at the ground. He was the one who had shown Frankie the videos and documents that spelled out Dr. Laog's prediction that a comet was headed straight for a large city 20 miles south of the trio's small Indiana town, but it was Frankie who persuaded everyone to believe him the way she did.  

The destruction was to be widespread, but with proper construction, building a bunker three stories underground was projected to keep them safe. Sure enough, the shaking soon subsided, and they finished the bunker's second most eventful dinner before heading to bed. 

Two days later, Kenny disappeared. Frankie had woken up and found Kenny's room empty. She walked down the long bedroom hallway searching each room for a sign of her brother-in-law. No one knew where he was. They looked in every corner of the stone home, but he was just gone.

"I just don't understand," Frankie said. "There is no secret way out. I built this place."

"It could be like a ghost or an evil spirit," Samone offered as she sat on the stone couch. She pulled her knees to her chest and shivered.  

"Yes, but ghosts aren't real" Frankie replied. She turned to her husband, who had his face in his hands in despair, but said nothing. 

Two nights later, in the middle of the night, Frankie woke up to a scream. She shot up in bed and shook Archie awake.  

"What was that?" 

"Samone could be having a bad dream," Archie offered.  

"She could be hurt," Frankie replied and quickly headed to her daughter's room.

Frankie hit the light switch and was relieved to see Samone sound asleep in her bed. 

"Samone?" Frankie spoke loudly as she jogged towards her daughter. 

Samone opened her eyes. 

"You were screaming. Scared me half to death." 

"I was having a horrible dream." Samone shook her head as if she were a puppy that just had a bath.  

Everyone went back to sleep. The next day was uneventful. Frankie dusted the stone surfaces, wiped the rock floors, and then washed her shoes that were dirty from the dirt floor.  

"They're just going to get dirty again," Archie pointed out.  

Frankie shrugged. "Well, now they will be less dirty when they get dirty again, and then I will wash them again." It was something to keep her busy.  

The three of them had a nice dinner of pork chops cooked on the wood stove, while Kenny's absence hung in the air like dense fog. The next morning Frankie awoke to an empty bed. Archie had fallen asleep in the silk sheets next to her, but when she woke up, he was gone. Frankie looked around, but just like his brother, Archie had vanished. 

Frankie and Archie had been married for 20 years; however, they weren't exactly partners. They had different expectations in life; plus, Archie did himself no favors by having a woman on the side. He didn't know that she knew, and confronting him sounded exhausting, so Frankie kept it to herself. Now she didn't have to worry about it.

 She was worried, though. Who was next? She didn't think she could live without Samone; and she definitely couldn't live without herself. 

That night as Frankie was climbing into bed, there was a knock on her door.  

"Mom? Can I come in?" 

"Yes. Come in, Samone." 

Samone's eyes were red from tears. 

"Oh, dear, I suppose you are upset about your father," Frankie tilted her head and furrowed her brows. 

Samone laid in the spot that use to be her father's side of the bed, curled up, and fell asleep. Frankie fell asleep holding Samone tightly, as if she might float away.  

Sometime in the night, Frankie was awakened - for the second time - by the sound of Samone screaming. Frankie's eyes shot open and she noticed that her arm was holding nothing but the sheet. She jumped out of bed and rushed to Samone's room. Her heart sunk when she saw that it was empty.

She ran to Samone's bathroom and threw open the door. It was empty. She ran through the living room and into the kitchen. Nothing. She checked the storage room, and then each bedroom. Samone was no where to be found. 

"NO!" Frankie screamed as loud as she could. Warm tears swelled up in her eyes and she fell to her knees. Then, realizing that she was wasting time, Frankie quickly got up, and over the next 16 hours scoured the bunker for any sign of Samone: she pushed on each rock; she jumped up and down on the dirt floor; and she stood on the couch, pounding her fists against the rock ceiling until her knuckles bled. Nothing budged. 

Exhausted, Frankie collapsed on the dirt floor of the living room. When she finally pulled herself up, she was dizzy, and knew she needed to eat. She grabbed a can of fruit and a piece of bread, then sat on the floor of the living room and ate her "dinner". 

The first night in the bunker was the second most interesting dinner Frankie ever experienced. The top most interesting dinner happened on a night that she had canned peaches and bread for dinner; Frankie had reached that night.

Food in hand, Frankie sat down, pushed back her dusty, tangled hair, and felt engulfed by the silence. She was coming to the realization that this was now her life forever. Solitude has always sounded amazing, but now that she was truly alone, she felt the silence screaming loudly into her ears.  

Frankie picked up her fork and looked at her ragged reflection in the metal. Suddenly, the fork's shiny surface disappeared under specks of dirt. Her mind tried to make sense of it, and then everything around her began to shake. A sound similar to hail surrounded her as rocks began falling from the ceiling. They bounced off of the couches, the floor, and even plopped into her wine glass. 

Frankie screamed but the noise of the pounding debris drowned her voice out. She climbed under the rock sofa. Cold sweat ran down her spine at the thought that this must be another meteor - a much larger one. 

The rocks falling on the ground around the couch were increasing in both number and speed. Frankie squeezed her eyes shut and attempted to pray, hoping one of those angels she had heard about would come save her.  

No angels appeared, and the entire bunker continued to shake, and the rocks continued to fall. It had only been less than a minute, but to Frankie, it felt like an hour before the ceiling began to cave over the kitchen. As she could hear the ceiling directly above her begin to crack and fall, she quickly climbed out of her shelter under the couch and sprinted down the hallway - just in time for the living room to cave in. 

Frankie climbed underneath Kenny's bed and immediately she knew something was off. The ground beneath her made a hollow noise as her knees connected with the dirt. She knocked on the ground with her scraped up knuckles and winced from the pain. Surprisingly, the surface made a "thump" noise, rather than the normal thud of hitting a solid dirt floor. 

Excitement overtook Frankie as she furiously began trying to wipe the dirt away, but it wouldn't budge. She noticed the dirt was kind of shiny, as if it had been mixed with glue. Frankie crouched close to the ground and felt around, hoping to find a clue as to what was underneath this floor, and then she found one. 

Towards the wall was a piece metal that was curved like a handle. She crawled up to the latch, put her hand around it, and pulled. Nothing happened.  

Frankie realized that the weight of her body wouldn't allow anything to move underneath her. The bunker had mostly stopped shaking, so she crawled out from under the bed and sat on the floor next to the handle. She pulled on it and gasped when a rectangle shaped board began to lift from the floor, with the far side staying attached to the ground like an attic door.

Frankie peered down into darkness. Holding the latch open with one hand, she used the other to grab a few fallen stones around her. She then threw the stones down and heard them make contact with solid ground about 4 to 6 feet below. She carefully lowered herself down into the chamber, letting go of the side once her feet touched the ground. Her hands connected with cold stone as she felt around, and was both confused and relieved to know that there was a stairwell extending from the landing she was standing on.  

With new found energy, her legs began climbing up the dark stairs, using her hand on the stone walls to guide her until she reached the end, and felt another hatch above her. She reached up and pushed, and the little door broke away from the ceiling above. 

Light flooded the stairwell, temporarily blinding Frankie. She squinted as she grabbed the open edge that had been around the wooden hatch, and began to pull herself up. She was still blinded by the sunlight, but she could hear voices, and what sounded like crying.  

She thought she heard someone shouting, "You killed her!" 

"Samone!?" Frankie shouted, but her voice was drowned by the sound of a machine whirring to life. 

Frankie was out of the hatch, and her hands and knees were in contact with what felt like smooth pavement. Her mind raced with fragmented thoughts and she couldn't make sense of what was happening.

Frankie blinked a few times as objects around her began to take shape. She rapidly shook her head as if it were an etch and sketch resetting, and then opened her eyes all of the way.  

What Frankie saw didn't make any sense. 

Besides a tractor sunken in to pavement about 50 meters away, there was no evidence that a meteor had ever made contact. Frankie's eyes shifted to the yellow machine that was making a lot of noise, as it used a pulley system to pull the other tractor out of the caved-in-ground. There was a man in the cab of the tractor with his hands gripping the levers. He was focused on the task in front of him and didn't notice the ragged looking woman standing there. Frankie felt her blood rush to her toes as she realized who he was. 

On the other side of the machine was the bunker's vent coming out of the ground, except now it was something different: it was a football goal post. She then realized that she was standing on the parking lot to a football field. 

Frankie's hands were shaking and she struggled to breathe. She headed around the tractor and towards where she had heard the voices. As she got closer to her destination, her face reddened and her fists tightened.  

Soon there were three people who came into Frankie's view. Their backs were turned, facing away from the caved in bunker, but Frankie knew immediately who they were.   

Frankie drew in a large breath, pulled together all of the remaining energy she had left, and shouted as loud as she could.  

"WHAT THE FUCK?"

All three heads whipped around, and the men's faces turned stark white as they realized who they were seeing. Samone wiped the tears from her face and then sprinted to her mother's side.  

"You're alive!" Samone squeeled. 

Frankie, who was already weak and now overwhelmed by the mass degree of betrayal from her conniving husband, was having trouble getting a deep breath. She leaned forward slightly and placed one hand above her knees for stabilization. "What is all of this? What did you do?" She managed to shout. She wanted to ask them more questions, like how Archie got one of his employees to pretend to be Dr. Laog, and how the tractor "Dr. Laog" was pulling out had collapsed the bunker, and why they had covered the evidence of Frankie's existence with a Football stadium parking lot. Instead, she sunk down on to her knees, closed her eyes, and passed out. 

Frankie later awoke in a hospital bed where she spent the next couple of days getting fluids and fixed up from her near death experience. Samone only ever left her mother's side to eat or answer questions from police.  

When Frankie had gained enough strength to be released from the hospital, her and Samone moved out of Indiana and to a bustling beach in North Carolina. As a surprise to Frankie and her daughter, for the first time in her life, Frankie wanted to be surrounded by other people. 

Samone explained that the men hadn't even told her about the plan until the first night that Frankie heard her scream. Kenny had come into her room and tried to force her into the hatch, but his attempts to muffle her screams failed and he gave up. Keeping Samone quiet also failed on the second attempt, but that time he was faster. 

Frankie often laughed at the thought of Archie and Kenny in prison, being in the exact situation they wanted Frankie in: locked up and alone. However, they had it easier, because they would eventually be released from prison, whereas Frankie was to be locked up forever.  

A lot of people were angry that the two men got less than 10 years, but Frankie wasn't. She now got the chance to prove to them that she could do it better and easier: a man that can't breathe, can't escape the ground.

One day she will accomplish this, but for now, she settled for getting her anger out during none other than her weekly Women Warrior tackle football league.