Leaving the City

"And that is the reason the Senate must pass HR 10039. In these trying times we can ill afford these weapons of death the opportunity to take yet more innocent lives."

Jean took a drink from her decaf doublemoca and continued. "Well that is it for this hour. Stay tuned to Sirius 817, XM 167. Alex Bennett is up next."

Once her assistant gave her the thumbs up signaling that she was finally off the air she leaned back and rubbed her temples. As she was standing and putting on her coat her producer came rushing into the room, instantly praising her on her ability to 'suck the listener in'. In the middle of his praises she held up a staying hand and said. "Book me a flight. I need to go see my son."

It had been months since she last visited her son at the confines of the Iowa State Penitentiary.

Monday early afternoon.
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The small dual engine prop plane roughly hit the tarmac hard. Jean was incessant. There was no first class. No wine. Nothing. Hardly a hello as she stepped from the tarmac at the previous airport to the steps, STEPS, leading up to the plane.

In a huff she sat in her seat and waited for the fat stinky man that didn't know how to be quiet that had been sitting next to her to stand and waddle off the plane.

Finally free of the confines of the plane she made her way across the tarmac and into the single room terminal. If she would have known that it'd be like this she would have just had her driver bring her up. It was only a three hour drive to the small town just on the other side of the Mississippi river. But flying had always been faster. This time it wasn't.

At last she stood by the rolling belt in the 'baggage terminal' waiting on her luggage. It really wasn't a terminal by her terms. More like a baggage closet.

The nearly middle aged, yet still young looking politico had been so preoccupied with wanting to see her son that she completely missed the news about the president and vice president.

As Jean passed through security, and sat at the booth to talk to her son, she thought back over her life raising her son trying to figure out where things went wrong. She made sure to get him the best education, best nanny's, best of everything. But she couldn't for the life of her figure out why he turned out to be the man he is instead of who he was raised to be. There was no reason for any of this. He didn't have any mental deficiency that she could find.

Finally her young and handsome son sat behind the glass and smiled at her with dead eyes.

They talked about his upcoming appeal, and how new DNA evidence might exonerate him. She knew it wouldn't. She knew without a doubt that he was guilty of raping and murdering that woman. But she couldn't blame her son. He wasn't the problem even though he was the one that committed the act.

Most of the other inmates in the visiting rooms, as well as the guards, and the imates' loved ones looked deathly ill. But Jean paid them little attention.

After their hour was up Jean and her son said their goodbyes and she went back through security then made her way back to the older rental car she picked up at the airport.

The smug woman drove the ragged rental car around the small town for a little while trying to find a restaurant or someplace so she could eat. But the only places open were fast food joints. In a huff she turned her around and drove back towards the road that lead past the prison, and to the small town she had flown into.

The pretty middle aged woman complained to herself "This trip has been a disaster. No car service. A roach motel, and Ahhh."

As she made her way towards the edge of town she listened to several different talk radio shows, all the while adding her own facts into their commentary.

When she finally made her way onto the open road she saw that the traffic was much worse than when she came down. Something happened to make the people in the city decide it was time to leave. After twenty minutes without hardly moving a foot she punched a few buttons on her cellphone bringing up the built in GPS and programed it to take her along the back-roads between this town and the next.

As Jean commented along with the talk radio host on the radio she drove along the back roads between the two small towns, only half paying attention to the road.

After a half hour of driving and turning she looked down at her phone to make sure she had programed it correctly and when she looked back up she gasped air and slammed on the breaks. Though it was too late. The mid 90s rental car slid on the ice snow and gravel and went down into the ditch on the other side of the unmarked T intersection.

Jean awoke with a throbbing headache, she didn't remember where she was, or why her head hurt. But as her vision cleared she realized that she was sitting in her rental car, the airbag had deployed, and there was steam coming from the now crumpled hood.

After sitting there for a few moments her head cleared but was still ringing. A few minutes later she searched for her phone, and found it in the backseat.

The first three times she dialed 911 she got a busy signal. Then finally the operator picked up.

"Nine one one, what is your emergency?"

Jean shook her head and told the woman on the line that she wrecked her car, and the airbag deployed.

The operator asked how severe were her injuries, and Jean explained that her head hurt, but she was fine, she just needed a tow truck to get her rental, and a ride to the airport.

The operator informed her that the FAA has grounded all flights. There was to be only official air traffic until the plague was handled.

In a huff she asked. "Ok, how about a ride to my motel?"

"I'm sorry Miss, but our officers and EMS units are overwhelmed. It may take several hours for someone to get out to help you."