Home Again 2020: a story of survival

By Roberta M Roy

Home Again 2020, the sequel to Too Close, is the story of Jason, Marty, and their mother, Mary Matters, after their return from Ohio to their home in Ariana. Right hemisphere brain injury has caused Lou Matters, the father, to suffer left side neglect and vision loss. As such, Lou is to stay until Thanksgiving in Ohio on his sister-in-law's farm where he will help with milking the cows. Family members there will monitor his safety as he navigates the house and barn areas. For Mary and the boys, returning requires an adjustment to Lou's absence as well as challenges to the boys settling back into school after being reunited with their family following a year on the road during which they had fled to avoid the potential for radiation contamination after the Magdum Heights nuclear plant meltdown. The first semester of the 2018-2019 school year brings them academic challenges, but Marty establishes a warm friendship with Carl, a black peer who is new to the school. And Marty's interest in producing Tic Toc music and dance videos blossoms into making them with his brother Jason and their neighbor's son, Ricky, who is a year younger than Jason. In time, they also involve Carl. Steven, Ricky's younger brother is only six and spends after school times with his after-school sitter, Sandra, and most of his weekends with his mom or visiting another first grader who lives nearby.
As for Mary, she has returned to her position in Aesopolis as a licensed school-based speech-language pathologist working with emotionally disturbed students in public school setting. For her it is business as usual. At Thanksgiving, Lou comes home to study and become a web designer as he is no longer safe to serve as a nuclear engineer.

Toward the end of the first semester of the 2019-2020 school year, the boys' lives settle into a comfortable rhythm, but a year later in January 2020, COVID-19 rears its ugly head. The effects of COVID-19 and its accompanying stay-at-home order impacts the family deeply only to be complicated by the emergence of a Black Lives Matter movement which impassions Marty who involves everyone in it, including Carl and eventually, his mother and brother.

Home Again 2020 is the story of the every day life of an American middle class family caught up in a prolonged situation in which they must constantly seek new answers, first in settling into life as it had become given Lou Matters need to change professions and his sons, who need to settle back into school after a year of hit and miss education while having to incorporate a new awareness of the importance of isolation, mask-wearing, and social distancing while developing a increased awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement. And meantime, it is the year 2020, a year in which climate change, political and social upheaval rock the country.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781938729607

Book preview

Part I - Home Again

Chapter 1: Ariana, Summer 2019

They had arrived back in Ariana yesterday having stopped overnight less frequently than Mary had planned. She had anticipated the possibility that given she would be driving her sons, she might fatigue more quickly than on the trip out, however she had not. As such they followed the same plan that she and Lou had followed going to Ohio … just in reverse. In Ohio they had put up first in Mansfield then in Youngstown and on the third night they had stayed in Williamsport, PA. They had arrived in Ariana late the previous day. On the way, they had picked up milk and breakfast rolls at Stewart’s and once home, they had ordered pizza for dinner after which they had all unpacked, showered, and hit the sack.

The morning sun lit the kitchen cheerfully. Mary had put out a bowl of Raisin Bran for herself and was brewing a cup of coffee when eleven-soon-to-be-twelve-year-old Marty appeared at the table, barefoot in a Tee shirt and pajama bottoms. He bent and gave his mom a kiss on the cheek.

Knock, knock.

Mary gave Marty a look and responded. Who’s there?

A herd.

A herd who?

A herd you were home, so I came over.

Mary closed her eyes and shook her head from side to side. Yup. That was Marty, her younger son. In the fall he would enter the seventh grade.

Marty sat himself across from Mary and fixed himself some cereal, too.

Funny, being home, Mom. Think of it. It was April 11 more than a year ago that we last sat at this table to have breakfast. Yup. It was April 12 the Plant went down. And until just last week, we have not known where each other was and what each other was doing.

Mary nodded in agreement. So, odd. I don’t even know what questions to ask. I mean I know that once you had fled Ariana to escape the threat of radiation, you and Jason camped in the woods outside of Bain for a while and that you holed up in a shelter in Bain for quite a while … even went to school from there … but then I can’t figure out what caused you to leave there. Like why would you leave the safety you had found to travel even further from your home into the open spaces and mountains north of Bain? But all in good time, I guess.

Thinking about the reasons Jason and he had left Bain, like his hanging out with the wrong kids and getting into shoplifting, Marty decided to change the direction of the conversation.

So, Mom, what did you do when the Plant went down?

As it turns out, I had headed over to have lunch with your father, except as I approached the Plant, a dirty-bomb exploded near me and I was sprayed with radioactive fallout, and although I cleaned if off as quickly as I could, it still affected me. Its effects were not immediate so I returned to home only to find Jason’s note that told me you had as we had discussed doing, escaped northward and you would contact me when you could.

We tried, Mom. It just didn’t work.

Well, the grid was down for a good while and as I stayed for a number of weeks with Lenore and Carlos after the event, even when the grid was back up, I couldn’t answer our home phone as I was not here. And as for my cell, in the rush to rid myself of the radioactivity on my clothes, I had tossed it with my clothes by the side of the road as I had to shed everything and donned the sweat suit and flip flops I had in the trunk after which I came home and showered.

That explains it. So, you weren’t home?

No. I had developed radiation sickness. Luckily, a light enough case so that the symptoms all dissipated. But it was Lenore who kept me as I needed be in a relatively sterile environment and nursed and fed.

And Ricky and Steven?

Oh, they were there. But as the radioactivity lowers one’s immune responses, we had to keep the germ count down, so Carlos and they did not come into the room I was in. And gratefully as a result, when my defenses were down, as it turned out, I did not pick up any illnesses. And they were great! All of them!

At that point Jason wandered in still sleep sodden. Mornin’. Jason kissed his mom on the cheek, tousled Ricky’s hair, grabbed a mug from the closet, poured himself a cup of coffee, and sat down at the end of the table. He was three plus years older than Ricky and had recently turned fifteen. He would be entering his second year of high school. Ricky would be entering seventh grade.

Hey, Jason. Did you know Mom had radiation sickness?

Yeh. One day in the barn, Bob and I talked about it. But you are all right now? Right, Mom?

Mary smiled. Yup. All fine!

Seems funny without Dad here … seems funny just being home … What do you think?

I think it’s weird and it’s only going to get weirder. Seeing everybody … Ricky and Steven … returning to school. After a year away.

Mary reached both her hands out and placed them on her sons’ and they all sat in silence for a while.

Then Ricky spoke again. And dad, Mom, how long before you knew he was alive?

It seemed like forever. And as for your dad, I had no idea as to where he was or even if he was alive until his memory had improved sufficiently for him to recall his family name and after which they were able to identify me as his wife and they could contact me by phone. By then it was the last week of August, some four and a half months after the April date when the Plant went down.

So, he lost his memory, Mom? asked Ricky. Completely?

It seems a dirty bomb went off near him and while he was not sprayed with radioactive materials, the impact threw him somehow against a rock and he hit his head and the impact of the fall caused right-side brain damage. In turn that caused him to go into a coma for a day or so and when he woke his memory was damaged and he could not sequence things and he evidenced left-side neglect.

How did they know that? Ricky was always the questioner. Jason more the observer.

Mary continued. Initially he did not use his left arm and hand at all and evidenced no awareness of things on his left side. Luckily, he remained able to read. And with speech language therapy and occupational therapy, gradually he improved so that when I saw him in August, he was using his left arm with prompts and practicing reading sequences and following them.

So, they had to teach him how to use his left arm?

No. It was more they had to make him aware of it and then once he was aware of it, he could use it.

"So, they just reminded him to use his left arm all the time?

Well, not so much in words.

Then how?

"For instance they had him wear his watch on his left wrist and then when he wanted to know the time, he would remember where his watch was and lift up his left arm so he could see it.

Or they would sit on his left side and when they spoke to him, he would look to his left, and if he did not, they would touch his left wrist.

And that worked?

Well, it helped. You saw how he was when we were on the farm. His biggest difficulty is avoiding bumping into things as he moves around as he still is pretty much unaware of his left field of vision.

But he can use the computer okay?

Well, that’s coming along. I think he mostly scans the left field of vision by directing his right-side imaging for both eyes toward the left. Because of that, I think his saccadic eye movements have to be more frequent and further to the left. It’s hard to know how he does it. But he is improving. For instance, he rarely bumps into things on his left side anymore.

And you think he will be able to learn to become a digital designer?

Yeah. I think so.

The three ate in silence. Somehow the absence of Lou added an inexplicably increased level of quiet to the house. And while it was reassuring to know he was safe with Leonora and Bob and their cousin Sal on the farm in Ohio, they knew their cousin Sal would soon be returning to college so there would be one less to support Lou’s visual awareness of his environs. Also, the question of whether, given his still inconsistent awareness of his left side manually and visually, their father would be able to learn web design and earn a living doing it remained to be seen.

It’s too bad he can’t drive anymore, commented Ricky.

They ate in silence for a while.

Do you think he will ever be able to drive, Mom, asked Jason.

East Cordaban State Law prohibits anyone with hemianopsia from driving. Some states permit it if eye tests suggest the person can compensate for the half view sight loss through adapting their saccadic eye movements. You know what I mean. Scanning back and forth eye movements. The question is what is well enough. As they also find that even with effective adaptation, they may not reliably see a pedestrian stepping into their path from the left side. Mary paused. So no, I don’t think your father will ever drive again.

But your dad is not alone. Many military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan also suffered right side brain damage. That was because of the use of Improvised Explosive Devices … IEDs … exploding near them causing them to be thrown against a hard surface in such a way as to result in closed brain injury on either one or both sides of the brain. But for many, it was just right-side damage which often meant left side hemianopsia.

Yeah. Bet we’ve seen some at Memorial Day parades, observed Marty.

Bet we have, agreed Jason. Except how would we know?

At least Lou was no longer at the Magdum Heights Plant and at risk for radioactivity exposure.

Thinking about the lives lost when the Plant went down was not something either Mary, Jason or Marty cared to do.

Nor was thinking about Lou having suffered right side brain damage as the result of the impact of the explosion of a dirty bomb.

* * *

The boys and Mary had had their breakfasts. Marty was in the family room chatting on the phone with a classmate he hadn’t spoken with in a year. He’d be there a while. The whir of the mower confirmed that Jason had taken it upon himself to mow the lawn.

Marty. No answer. Louder. Marty.

I’m on the phone, Mom.

Okay. If you want me, I’ll be at Lenore’s. She’s expecting me.

See ya’ later!

Mary headed out the door and down the front steps. She waved to Jason as he approached, and he idled the mower.

I’m going over to see Lenore, so in case you need me for anything, I’ll be there.

Until later then. He waved, revved the mower, and was off.

* * *

Come on in, Mary.

Lenore’s seven-year-old son Steven was just behind her.

Good morning, Lenore. Good morning, Steven.

Steven said good morning and then slipped away into the living room where his fourteenyear-old brother Ricky was watching a soccer game.

Would you like some coffee, Mary?

The two women sat at the kitchen table. As it often had, sunlight streamed through the windows, contributing to their preference for kitchen sitting when they were alone.

Oh, Mary. I am so happy for you! I just want to hug you! Both boys back! Lou going along!

I can’t explain my feelings at this time. Some place between sheer delight and awe and want ing to pinch myself to confirm it is real!

Yes. Do fill me in!

In lowered voices the two women chatted for nearly an hour. Mary filled Lenore in on as much as she knew about the boys’ year on the road and with more detail, evidence of Lou’s progress and how wonderful her sister Leonora and her husband Bob and their