EARTHQUAKE - Chapter 12

After he spoke with Mrs. Cartright, Major Fromme sent a soldier in a Humvee to look for Karl Cusak and tell him that Major Fromme wanted to see him right away. At the time the soldier found him, Karl was holding up the wall of a house with his dozer blade while two brave soldiers crawled underneath of it to pull out some dead bodies.

     “Tell him that I’ll see him tonight when it is too dark to work.”

“He said to tell you that he wanted to see you right away.”

      “You told me what he told you to tell me, now you go tell him what I told you to tell him.”

The soldier went away muttering.

      The soldiers who worked with Karl looked up to him. They trusted him and worked like dogs for his approval. Several times a day he would say to them,
     
      “I sure am proud of you guys. You really get it. These people were killed by something they didn’t expect, didn’t see coming. The least we can do is see they get a decent burial. Lying out in the open, in no time the vultures, rats, and maggots will be feasting on them.”

On they would go working until their uniforms were crusted with dirt and soaked with sweat. The unit sent MREs, coffee, and water. None of them stopped for a lunch break. They would grab something as they walked by, or gulp down something to drink. The unit stopped sending supper because the men wouldn’t eat until they had to stop working.

      About 9 PM, after he had showered and put on clean clothes, Karl went to Major Fromme’s tent.

“Karl, I have news about your family. Your father-in-law died on Thursday night at Arkansas Heart Hospital in Little Rock. Do you know a Mrs. Cartright?”

      “Yes, her husband was the accountant and bookkeeper at Wesson Farm in Victoria. I lived in Victoria and worked for Wesson Farm. I saw Mr. Cartright several times a week when I needed to buy parts for a piece of equipment, when I turned in my time card, and so on. His father-in-law is a part owner of Wesson Farm.”  

“Mrs. Cartright’s father sent a plane to Victoria to bring his daughter and her children back to his home in Little Rock, if they had survived the quake. They had been rescued from their house by a rescue team. When the plane came for her and the children she also took your father-in-law because he had suffered two heart attacks. When they arrived in Little Rock, she took him to Arkansas Heart Hospital before she went to her parents’ home. Her name was the only contact the hospital had. When he died, they called her.

      “Mrs. Cartright is a persistent woman. She located your daughter and yesterday she located you. Somehow she found out how to call me and she called me this morning. That is when I sent a messenger to you. Mrs. Cartright called me again a couple more times. I told her that you were out in the field and couldn’t be found. I promised that you would call. Here is my cell phone and here is her number.”

Karl’s hand was shaking as he held the phone. When a man answered the phone, he asked for Mrs. Cartright.

     “Mrs. Cartright, this is Karl Cusak. Thank you for all that you did for my father-in-law, for locating my daughter, and for contacting me.”

“In times like this we all have to stick together.

      “Here is what I have done Mr. Cusak. I had a funeral home pick up Mr. Fairfield’s body. I also secured a burial plot in a cemetery in Little Rock. I went to the shelter and told Dana about her grandfather. Major Fromme explained to me that you are a vital member of the team that is recovering bodies from the ruined houses and buildings. He said that he expected that the work would be completed by Tuesday night, but to be safe he would say Wednesday night. I asked the funeral home to plan for the funeral at 4PM on Thursday. Unless you have another minister in mind, I’ll ask our minister to do the service.

“Now, as to your wife. I am still working on that. So far I have found out that she was injured and was taken by a recovery team to Osceola airport from where she was flown to a city to be admitted to a hospital. So far, I can’t find anyone who knows what city or what hospital. I found out that they were taking them to Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Memphis, Tennessee, and Monroe, Louisiana because the Little Rock hospitals were filled to overcrowding on the first day.”

     “Thank you so much for all that you are doing.”

“One last thing, tell Major Fromme to call me when you fly out and tell me whether you will be arriving at Little Rock Airport or Little Rock Air Force Base. I will have a car waiting for you.”

      “Thank you, thank you. God bless you.”

After he finished speaking on the phone, MAJ Fromme said,

    “Thank you for all that you have done. Tomorrow I am going to call the commanding officer at Osceola. I am going to give him a heads up to expect her calls. I am also going to let him know that I would take it as a personal favor to me if he would do all he can to find out where your wife was taken for treatment.

“By the way, tell all the guys in Jack Raymond’s group to give me the registration papers from their vehicle if they have them or a description of the vehicle and its license plate number. I will have my clerk type up a letter which I will sign saying that your vehicle was destroyed in the earthquake. That should expedite getting your insurance payment unless your policy has some “act of God” clause in it.”

      There was no laundry service and they were getting covered with dirt and all kinds of detrita every day. Even their underwear got dirt stains because they were wet with sweat. Even if there wasn’t dirt and sweat there was the smell of death that got into the clothes. They all seemed to have the same idea at once. They would go into the shower fully clothed, rub soap all over their outer clothes, then drop them onto the shower floor. They did the same thing with their underwear, dropped them to the floor and scrubbed themselves. Then they would hold the soapy clothes under the running shower a piece at a time. While others were showering, they wrung out their clothes. They hung them on ropes that had been strung outside. After a day at work, they came back to clean, dry clothes on the line. They took them down, went into the shower and repeated the process.

By Tuesday night they had covered every street in Blytheville. They decided that on Wednesday each team would again go along every street that they had done and look for any place that they had passed over the first time and see if they should give it a closer look. For the most part, they had done a thorough job. However, every team found several bodies they had missed – ten bodies in all.

      Thursday morning at 7AM there was a small plane waiting for Jack Raymond’s group to fly them back to Little Rock. The plane would land at Little Rock Air Force Base. Major Fromme called Mrs. Cartright and gave her this information. She told him that she would send a van for all the men. He called Little Rock Air Force Base so that the van would be allowed on base and would be allowed to pick the men up at the plane.
     
       The van took the other men to the shelter. Then it took Karl to the home of Mrs. Cartright’s parents.

“Mr. Cusak, welcome to my parents’ home. They have asked me to welcome you on their behalf. They have gone to Kentucky to visit my brother, his wife, and the grandchildren. I think that my two little ones are too noisy for them. My brother’s children are in middle school now.

      “You will be using my brother’s room. I want you to go now and try on his black pinstripe suit. He left some clothes here because they no longer fit him. He has gained some inches around the middle since he was able to get into those clothes. There are some white shirts in the drawer, some ties in the closet. There are also several pairs of shoes. Try all those on now so that if you need to buy some clothes for the funeral, there will be time to do so.

“Before you go, let me tell you what I have found out about your wife. She is in St. Francis Medical Center in Monroe, Louisiana. She is in ICU so they won’t let her use the phone. The hospital wouldn’t tell me anything about her condition. However, I spoke to the lady whom the Red Cross sent to tell her about her father. She told me that your wife seemed to be in fairly good spirits. She did have part of her right leg amputated. That is why she is still in ICU.”

      “Thank you, Mrs. Cartright. I’ll go try on those clothes now, but I better take a shower and shave first. Then I’d like to go over to the shelter where Dana is staying and bring her over here, if that would be all right.”

Melodie Cartright said, “I’ve talked to Sister Carmela. She suggested that we pick her up at 2PM. Mary helps with the other children in the morning and at lunch time. After lunch the children take a nap. Then Dana can get dressed for the funeral and be ready for us to pick her up at 2PM. You will have over an hour to visit with her at the funeral home before the funeral begins. Before we leave to pick up Dana, the minister would like for you to write down what you remember about Mr. Fairfield – his work, his wife, his children, what he was like.”

      “Thank you, you have arranged everything. One thing, before I shower and change clothes, I must go to the shelter to register. I want to get into the same room with my buddies. It is important to be registered with them if they find a job for any of us. If I wait until this evening there won’t be anyone there to register me.”

“I understand. Try on the clothes first to see if you will need to buy anything. Then I’ll have the car drive you to the stores and to the shelter. Here is the telephone number of St. Francis Medical Center. You can call them from the car on your way into Little Rock.”

      By 11AM Karl was in the car on his way to Little Rock. He had a Trac Fone which he bought the first time he was brought to Little Rock. He called St. Francis Medical Center. At first he got a run around. He got testy.

“Listen, I was in an earthquake and so was my wife and daughter. We were separated and I have just found out that they are alive. My wife Mary Cusak is a patient in that hospital and I want to speak to her or to her doctor who can tell me why I can’t speak to her.”

      He was put on hold.

      “Mr. Cusak, this is Doctor Kubicki. I am Mary’s surgeon. Mary was pinned down in a building. Her right leg had a crush fracture and about half of the lower part of her leg had to be amputated. She has been in intensive care since the surgery. She has made good progress and barring an unforeseen setback, I will be moving her to a private room on Monday. Then she can receive telephone calls or have visitors. I will tell her that you called, that you love her, and that you will call her on Monday when she is in a room.”

“Thank you, Doctor.”

       At the shelter Karl registered and asked to be assigned to the room with Jack Raymond and his crew. He saw Shorty in the lobby and asked him to tell the others that he would be coming in this evening after the funeral.

The clothes belonging to Melodie’s brother fit Karl well enough for one time use. He wrote a page and a half of what he remembered about his father-in-law.

       At a quarter to 2PM Karl and Mrs. Cartright got into the car to pick up Dana at the shelter. When they arrived at the shelter, Karl was surprised to see a group marching up and down on the sidewalk carrying signs and chanting slogans, “GET THE WETBACKS OUT OF OUR SCHOOL.” “GET THE MEXICANS OUT OF WOODLAWN.” “WE DON”T WANT YOU HERE.”
     
      Karl was angry.

“Do you know who you are picketing and chanting about? Those are the widows and orphans of men who labored out in the blazing sun last summer to raise the food that you are buying in the store now.

      “Wetbacks? Do you know what that word means? It means an illegal alien. Let me tell you that no big farm would dare hire an illegal alien. The feds would fine that farmer big bucks. The husbands and fathers of those widows and orphans were all U.S. citizens or they had green cards. I have been working with them for over a year. Now their bodies are crushed or burnt like toast by the earthquake and its aftermath. And you are adding to the sorrow of their widows and orphans.”

Just then Dana walked out, dressed in a black dress and wearing a black straw hat. Karl wished that Mary could see her.

They drove to the funeral parlor and he and Dana talked until it was time for the funeral. Most of the funeral was like the service in a large city church except that Dana had requested to sing “Standing On The Promises”. Before she sang she said,

“On the Sunday before he died I was at Grandad’s house. We decided to have our own church service since the earthquake had made it impossible to go to any of the churches. As part of the worship we had at his house, I sang “Standing On The Promises” because I knew that it was one of his favorites.”

Karl promised Dana that he would try to see her often. After the car took them all back to the home of Mrs. Cartright’s parents, Karl went up to her brother’s room, changed back into his own clothes and came down.

“Could your car please take Dana back to her shelter and then take me to my shelter? You’ve been most gracious to us. God bless you.”