Choices

By Kenneth J. Staller

Very few, if any, person on earth can honestly say they made every decision in their life correctly and would not change even one of our life choices. Some of the not-so-successful decisions may have been the start of some long-term problems that we wish we could change the status of now. “Man, I wish I could turn back the clock on that one,” we might say.

But what if we could have a do-over or two that would alter the course of the remainder of our lives? It may seem impossible, but it is very possible to get as many do-overs that we want.

This story is about a young girl who was given some of the most valuable information on life itself that anyone could receive and would change the course of her life and those around her forever. And it is done in a setting where she was held in a friendly captive audience, during an extended electrical power outage covering over half of the United States.

What would you do if the electrical power went out for weeks in the middle of the winter, and it is very cold and windy? All forms of communication are gone; there is no way to get gas to drive out of the area you live in, and you are stuck where you are. How would you and your family stay warm, get food, water, medications, and everything else you need to survive. In the time it took to read this far, the temperature in your home just dropped seven degrees, and it’s starting to snow very hard outside. What do I do now?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098093839

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Choices

Kenneth J. Staller

ISBN 978-1-0980-9382-2 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63874-813-7 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-0980-9383-9 (digital)

Copyright © 2024 by Kenneth J. Staller

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

About the Author

Preface

Who among us has ever wished that we could have a ‘Do Over' in life? How many of us would like to turn back the clock to a time before we made some poor choices and some uncomfortable mistakes but still have the life knowledge that we have today?

This book is about a young person that was given a tremendous opportunity that will prevent her from needing a do over, with a fresh mental start at an early age to show her how the world actually works. She is given some of the most important lessons in life that anyone could possibly receive, plus the guidance and assistance needed to transform a typical air headed teenager into a young woman with a future life of limitless possibilities.

And this is accomplished in a setting that holds her as a willing captive audience with a person that mentally nourishers her for quite a few days with little else to do except talk. Throughout this story, the young girl discovers that she doesn't have to follow the social crowd and many other world views in her thinking or her actions. She is introduced to new life options and ‘choices' and just as importantly, she is given the reasons for choosing a new way of thinking. This new knowledge will constantly change and redirect the rest of her life.

While the story setting of a national disaster is fictional, it is one that we could actually face at any moment and is something that will cause every one of us to question how safe we really are in this country. If you live on the northern end of east coast of the US, in the dead of the winter, what would you do if all electrical power is lost and you don't know when the power might come back on, maybe not for weeks? Then a few hours later you find out that all electrical power is out from Florida to Maine and all the way from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and there is no way to drive or fly out of your area.

It would be about then you realize that you are in very serious trouble because you live in the very rural mountains of northern Pennsylvania where it is very cold, every day. If you have no means to heat your home, where would you go to stay warm? Where will you get food and clean water and how would you handle sanitation issues? And what about the personal safety problems in the midst of certain social chaos, looting and many other critical problems that truly threaten your very survival and that of your family? With no electrical power anywhere, there would be no possibility of getting enough fuel for your car to drive out of the situation and you are forced to act quickly to survive right where you are.

If you were starting out in this situation right now, in the time it took to read this far, the temperature in your home would have just dropped five degrees and it is going down fast. You better get moving and moving fast. But to where and to do what? Your very survival depends on your actions during the next four to six hours.

Chapter 1

Let's Move

When Ted awoke at 11:30 pm and before he opened his eyes, he knew something wasn't quite right. Sixth sense maybe. He glanced over at his alarm clock and the screen was not lit. ‘Oh boy the power is out again' he thought. Not good he mused because when he had gone to bed a few hours earlier, it was ten degrees outside and the wind was blowing pretty hard. He got out of bed, grabbed his cell phone and checked for messages but there were none. He opened his local news app and what he saw wiped out all the remaining cobwebs in his head.

The electrical power grid was totally shut down all the way up and down the east coast from Florida to Maine and all the way from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi river and no reason had been found yet for it. All anyone knew was that there were several catastrophic failures in the electrical grid system and the power would be out for a lengthy period of time.

If you are a Gulf War experienced ex-Marine Corps captain named Ted, have a nurse for a wife named Beth and a sixteen-year-old daughter named Heidi, you get moving quickly but methodically. You suggest to your wife that she should to go to work at the hospital where she is needed and where she will have the best chance to be safe, warm and have food available. Then you pack up your daughter and head for the neighbor's home where there is a coal stove for warmth and take all your food along to help feed everyone as long as you can. Next you start to go out and acquire whatever else you will all need to survive as long as possible in the cold and new total darkness.

First, Ted took his daughter to his closest neighbors, Bob and Ann. Bob was the Pastor of their local Church and had a modest ranch home, barn and a dozen or so milk cows just a mile from Ted's home. Bob's wife Ann was a very warm and loving person and like her long-time husband, had a killer sense of humor. Bob and Ann have a coal stove in their basement that could keep them all warm, but it needs electricity to operate so a generator would be needed. Between Ted's home and Bob's home, they could pool enough food together to last for several weeks. And with Bob and Ann being in their mid- sixties, they certainly could use some help to survive.

So then, without any electrical power for who knows how long, we have some pretty big problems here. Bob said to Ted. Even though it's 1:00 am, I know how organized you are and I know you have taken some time to think about our situation. What do you propose we do first?

Ted took a deep breath and said Well I did think about the situation a little but not in depth the way we need to. From the little bit of information we received, the power may be out for days or even longer. But definitely the first thing we need is a source of heat to survive at all. All the food in the world will not be worth anything if we are frozen stiff or sick. Do you have any fire left in the coal stove down in the basement?

Bob replied I doubt it. It usually goes out within about an hour or so after we lose power. But the stove needs power to operate the coal stoker mechanism and the two air blowers.

OK Ted replied. Heidi and I are going out to the barn and get your generator and set up beside your outside cellar door in the back yard. Bob, I need you to get your two heaviest extension cords and take them to the basement. Then I would like you to get whatever you need to start a new fire in the stove and we'll be right back. Ann, would you stay right where you are, wrapped up in those blankets until we get some heat going for you?

She smiled, nodded and said, That's not too hard for me to do. I'll be right here when you need me though.

Bob and Ann may be in their sixties but they were both in pretty good physical and excellent mental shape for their age. Possibly taking care of the Church, home and a dozen milk cows everyday had something to do with that. They worked hand in hand in everything they needed to do at home and in the Church which resulted in a relationship with each other that was nothing short of wonderful. They shared a delightful, and sometimes brutal sense of humor in their everyday life that more often than not, had one of them constantly picking on the other, in a good-natured way. For them, it was a great way of communicating the good and sometimes not so good day to day conversations in life. It just worked for them and if you were close friends with them, you had better get used to them picking on you too.

Ted was a self-employed residential home builder and in very good physical shape. His daughter Heidi was a tall skinny sixteen-year-old typical teenager. If she wasn't in school, Heidi had her MP3 player going in one ear and her cell phone in the other, gabbing with her friends. She was a good girl though, never got into trouble, almost a straight ‘A' student and had lots of friends. But even though she always lived in the country, she was not an outdoors kind if girl and liked everything clean, organized and laid out ‘her' way. Finding herself without her life-giving electricity that she depended on and at the mercy of Mother Natures' elements, she was way out of her comfort zone and more than a little scared. Her father knew this and he knew he had to keep her busy with tasks to keep her mind from wandering off course into those ‘what if' areas that we all go to in times of stress. Although she felt herself slipping into the flipping out stage minute by minute, she also knew her father very well and trusted him completely. If there was anything that kept her from freaking out, it was that she knew down deep he would somehow keep her safe.

Ted and Heidi headed for the barn. They both knew their way around Bobs place pretty well but each needed a flashlight in hand to overcome the new strange and absolute darkness. He knew he needed to give her some additional reassurance that everything was going to be fine. So, he slowed his walking and stopped half way to the barn, turned to Heidi. Then he put his arms around her and gave her a big hug.

As he eased his grip on her, he looked her right in the eyes and said, We are all going to be fine. As long as we keep our heads on straight and work together, we will get through all this in better shape than we started. Who knows, we might have some fun with it too. But unfortunately for a while, life as we knew it is pretty much over. We will get back to normal again but our creature comforts are going to have to be put on hold until the power comes back on. Now, you can really help me by finding all the gas cans you can find and pour all the partially full cans into several others to fill them up. Then take the full cans to the backyard beside the cellar way and take the empty ones and put them into the back of my truck. I'll get the generator and take it to the back of the house and meet you there. OK?

Heidi seemed a little less anxious at that point and replied, I'll be your right hand. Just keep me pointed in the right direction and keep the hugs coming once in a while.

Ted gave her a smile, another squeeze and said That's my girl. We'll do just fine. Then off they went in different direction to get their tasks done.

Bob had used his generator in the barn to supply power to his milk tank circulator pump whenever the power went out. Ted checked the gas level in the generator and found it was nearly full. He carried it to the back of the house along with the extension cord that was plugged into it. After starting the generator, he plugged in the extension cord to it and threw the rest of the cord into the basement stairwell.

OK Bob he said. Here's the power you need to operate the stove. Do you need any help getting the fire going again?

Bob replied, No. I actually think there may be enough hot ashes left in there to get it going pretty quickly. I'll give it a go. Bob plugged in the cord and the stoker and fans instantly came to life. It took some coaxing but within five minutes or so, the fire was burning pretty well and there was a little heat coming out. Through the small glass in the stove door, they started to get a beautiful golden glow visible from the fire and it eased just little whisp of yellowish light into the otherwise dark basement. Bob had the hot air discharge pipe from the stove connected to his hot air ductwork that supplied heat to all the rooms of the house and for a small stove, it did a pretty good job. But with the colder temperatures setting in, Ted knew it would do a much better job of keeping them warm if the stove only blew all the hot air into the basement, where they all would be living for a while. So, he asked Bob to disconnect the stove hot air pipe from the ductwork and let the stove discharge all of its warmth directly into the basement. Bob didn't have to ask why he just did it and said he would make sure the door stayed closed at the top of the basement steps too. Then Bob and Ted moved Ann to the basement source of heat. We have the easiest steps completed Ted thought.

Heidi came down in the basement and said I took two full 5-gallon gas cans to the back of the house and set them under the roof overhang. And I put three empty cans in the back of your truck. What's next?

Ted smiled, put his hands on her shoulders and said Great job honey. I think the next thing to do is to start clearing out most of the items from the basement. The way it is now, we're not going to have enough room for the four of us to cook, eat and sleep down here. We also need to make room for a table, chairs, beds and other items we need to bring down from the upstairs.

They cleaned out more than enough room for their new living quarters, carrying all the removed items out to one of Bob's sheds. With that task done, Ted knew they had to make a road trip to acquire more items. He asked Ann to make a list of all the items she could think of that they were going to need for the four of them to live in the basement together for a while. Within ten minutes, Ann had the list completed and gave it to Ted. After Ted finished looking it over, Ann said OK boys. Better get moving before all the good stuff is picked over.

Bob asked My dear, what would you like to rest on down here? Ann replied Just the lazy boy chair and maybe the couch. So down went the chair and then a couch, then the kitchen table and chairs and a few large kitchen pots to melt snow for water.

None of them had even thought of discussing Ted and Heidi staying with Bob and Ann through the duration of the outage. They were so close to each other personally that it was just an understood need for all of them. Besides, Bob and Ann in their mid-sixties would have some difficulties toughing it out themselves. Ted's old farm house just wasn't able to sustain the heat that they needed but Bob's basement was. Bob's coal bin was full for the winter, the stove was running and between the two houses, they had enough food to would keep them alive for several weeks. They could melt snow if they had to for water but Ted knew they needed to get Bob's well pump going. Getting enough clean water for daily cooking and sanitation for four people was a big question mark and it was now at the top of the list of problems. He also knew that the generator that was purring along nicely outside was only capable of supplying 110 volts of electricity. This would be fine for the stove, a few lights and cell phone chargers but Bob's well pump needed 220 volts and quite a few amps. A larger generator and more gas were at the top of the list of things he knew he had to find, out in a world of what he was pretty sure held quite a lot of panic and chaos.

When they were all together in the basement, Bob spoke up and said We are in some trouble here. Ted, I know you have been thinking the same thing and that you have some plans of your own so we need to hear them. We need to know how each of us is going to be able to help the most. But before you explain what is ahead, we must Pray. They all bowed their heads and Bob spoke. Dear Father God in Heaven, thank You for what we have and we only ask for the ability to help as many people as possible around us. Please grant us wisdom, courage and safe travel to do all that we have to do in the coming days and help those less fortunate in desperate situations. To You be the Glory and in Jesus' name we Pray. Amen.

Ted then spoke and said he did have plans and he would share them with the others but he needed a few minutes to call Beth to see how she was and to find out about the state of things at the hospital and in town. He made the call and got her right away. Oh Ted, I am so glad you called. I was worried sick about you and Heidi. How are you doing and where are you?

We are fine Ted answered. We are getting settled in at Bob and Ann's place with them and then I need to get out and gather some items that we'll need for maybe the next couple of weeks. How are you doing in there?

I'm fine. Beth answered. The situation with hospital safety seems to be under control but the situation in the rest of the town is not very good and possibly getting worse as the night goes on. There were quite a few car accidents, fist fights, looting everywhere and even several reports of gunshots. We are only getting sketchy information from the patients that come in. We are treating them for whatever they needed but none of them want to go back out of the hospital. But we will be alright in here.

Then Ted said, All I need to know is that you are alright. I love you and I'd love to talk longer but I have to get going to gather the things we still need. It will be daylight soon and that might make the tasks harder to accomplish. I'll keep in touch throughout the day with you. Just be careful and I'll talk to you soon.

She said Alright. I love you and I know you'll take care of everyone as best you can. I'll call you with updates from here and you call me any time you can. I love you, bye

Once Ted was back down stairs, he started explaining what he thought were the essential things that they would need. Some of these were all the food they could get, more gasoline, more flashlights and batteries, medications, hygiene items, first aid supplies and a lot more. All these things and a few more were already on the list that Ann had made. Then he mentioned that a larger generator was needed for more power for the well pump. He said the first thing to do after day break would be to send Heidi over to their house to bring back all the food that was in the house and anything that could be of value. Her first task was to get the coolers and clean out the refrigerator and freezers, then empty all the food from the kitchen cabinets and pantry into whatever she could find. She also would need to find all the flashlights and batteries of all sizes, cell phone chargers, a radio and all the heavy blankets they had in the house. He told her to focus on these items and get all the items back to Bob's house and in the basement as soon as possible. After that, she was to stay in the basement, care for Ann and make sure all her medications were right beside her at all times. He and Bob were going on a road trip for other items they needed. He then asked Ann if she was ok with this and if she minded being alone for an hour or so before Heidi could get back.

Ann tilted her head forward a little and looked over her glasses at Ted and said I'll be fine. Just hurry with your work and be careful. Heidi and I will have a pot of something on the stove and ready to eat before you get back. Forgive us if we start eating without you. I am getting a little hungry.

Ted gave Heidi his truck keys and told her to go out, start the truck to get it warmed up and not to drive too fast.

Heidi hugged Ann, and said I will be right back. and then she scrambled up the stairs and out the front door.

Bob and Ted also hugged Ann, kissed her on the cheek. Ted said We will be careful and it might be several hours before we get back. We are going to try to team up with a few neighbors for our hunting trip.

She then waved an outstretched finger at the men, tried her hardest to look and sound mean and said Do not to come back empty handed or you two will be in real trouble with me and you know you don't want that.

When Bob and Ted got to the top of the stairs and closed the door, Ted looked out the kitchen window and saw that the first dim rays of sunlight were just starting to show up on the very dark and cold horizon.

Chapter 2

Flickering Thoughts

When she got to her house, there was just barely enough daylight starting to come into the house for Heidi to negotiate all the rooms. She ran in and filled all the coolers with food from the freezers and refrigerator. She grabbed pillow cases and emptied all the medicine cabinets into one of them. Then she filled other pillow cases with all the dry and canned food she could find and it all went out to the truck.

She locked all the doors on the house and was closing the doors on the tool shed when she heard a slight clanking noise inside. She had closed one of the big swinging wooden doors but she still had the other one open about a foot. The noise had been very distinct, like one that was not made by something probably falling down by accident. It startled her but didn't scare her too much, at first. But after a few seconds of not knowing what it was, she was more than a little apprehensive about what made the noise. ‘What to do, what to do' she thought.' Because there were only two very dirty windows in the shed, the inside of the shed was still pretty dark and she was very aware that she didn't have anyone to rely on for help if she found herself in trouble. She closed the door slowly and quietly as possible. As soon as she took a few steps away from the door, she heard another noise from inside the shed, similar to the first but more like a rustling sound this time. Even though she was starting to become more than a little scared, the noise got the best of her and she snuck back to the door and just listened.

After about ten seconds of silence, she said to herself, oh why am I doing this'? Slowly and quietly, she