Invasion Day: An Oral History of the Veech War by Micah Gurley (good books for high schoolers .TXT) 📕

I explain I am not from up North, but she waves the answer away.

My story? Well, it's simple, really. I found some kids and took'em in. It's what any Christian woman would do.

She throws her head back and laughs, then slaps me on the arm.

I'm just messing with you, son. Now, let's see. I was working in an old folk's home when them devils came a knocking. I was a nurse, about to retire. I'd been working there going on thirty-five years, and I was planning on going to see my kids. They were done grown by that time and off doing their own thing. The Good Lord kept them safe that day, but they're rascals, the lot of em and they don't come and see their momma enough.

Anyway, I was at the old folks home when that noise came along. Child, what a noise! I near about became sick, but I managed, though I couldn't hear a thing for a spell. We don't live near no city as you can see, but that noise carried down the state, near as I know. But nearly all the people that lived at that home died. Poor dears. They didn't have much, but they went to the Good Lord, and that's all any of us will do one day.

My youngest boy, Jeremiah, was twenty or so around that time, working on his degree; he came by all a flutter and got me. He tried to talk to me, but I couldn't hear a thing. Well, I got home and found my old man passed out cold on the floor. No account old man. (Gives a large wave.) He was fine. Woke up all confused. We slept like the dead that night, not knowing what was going on. We didn't watch T.V. much then anyway—nothing but trash on. We slept and slept, and when I woke up, I could hear a bit.

Well, we found out what happened, and not one bit of it was good. We stayed home, tried to find out what happened to our kids, and wondered if we would meet some of them invading devils. Never did see one. A few weeks go by, and we stayed home, keeping our noses clean when one day, I told my husband I needed some things from the store. He tried to tell me no, but I set him straight on that.

My youngest took me to the store and the streets were a madhouse. More cars and trucks than I had ever seen. People I didn't know hurrying this way and that, carrying their goods on them. Most people were just looking for a safe place, but I saw some evil that day too. These tough times brought out the devil in some folks, and that's the truth. But most people just wanted to get away, escape from fighting, and I don't blame em one bit.

Well, we made it to the store, but there wasn't much left to call it such. Thankfully, I knew some of the people there, people from the town and church, and they gave me some flour and such. There wasn't any meat.

Well, we got what we could, but on the way home, we drove by the home of a lady from the church. I knew her and her husband were looking after their grandchild after their no-account son took off. Well, I told Jeremiah to pull on in, and I went in to check on them.

I found them passed on, sorry to say, but sitting there in their living room, his tiny face frozen in horror, was their grandson. His name was Ben, a boy of six, and a fine young boy. I picked up that child, hugged him, and told him he was coming home with me. We drove home, I told my husband we had a new child, and that was that.

He was the first child I came upon and the first I took in. The very next day, Mrs. Washington comes by, her whole family in their minivan. She comes up to the house and tells me she's leaving to stay with family further up in the mountains. She said she found a child walking the streets last night and asked if I could take her in. Her name was Grace, a child of five if you can imagine that. Well, I took that girl right in, and she hasn't left me since. I told my husband we had a new child, and that was that.

I don't know if word got out or the Lord directed them here, but I started collecting kids left and right. Most of them came in the first year when the fighting was heavy, and things were so confusing. People going this way and that way, the telephone always going down. Couldn't get ahold of anybody, and people couldn't travel without ending up in the fighting or robbed.

The youngest I took in was almost a year old, and he was one lucky little boy. That noise bomb killed a lot of young children. Their small bodies just couldn't take it. (She shakes her head back and forth.) The poor babies. The poor babies.

How did you manage with just you and your husband?

Lord, no, it wasn't just me and my husband, no sir. Children weren't the only people we took in. We took in mothers also, with their kids in tow. They needed a place also, and someone to look after them. Everyone needs someone to love them, young man, and it's never wrong to love someone. So, we had help. Those adults we took in helped us with all the little ones.

Then one day, I said to myself, this is nonsense. All those people in that house. Well, I started looking for a place to go to. I remembered this strange ole house because I'd been here a time or two; it was a museum see. Well, I had