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out. Ralph, Ray and I watched in horror from the road.
"We'd better make a statement to the police," said Ray.
"Huh," I replied.
"About the attack."
"What attack?"
"The attack where somebody tried to shoot my ass."
"Oh," I said.
"Yeah, there I am in the basement, pulling the main switch at the fuse box. By the way, your air conditioner works now. Anyway, suddenly someone's shooting at me. Shot hits the wall right next to my hand. Scared the shit out of me. So I drop my cigarette. Right onto this huge pile of toilet paper. Must have been hundreds of rolls of it. The whole basement's full of the stuff. It goes up like a torch, and I'm out of there like the devil himself's after me."
"Holy Shit!" said Ralph.
Looking back on it, of course, it was a mistake to hoard three hundred rolls of toilet paper in the house. Ralph and I agreed on this today, as we carried armfuls of the stuff from his house to the shed at the bottom of his yard. This was chiefly a safety precaution, but was also needed to make space for the camp bed we set up in his den. It's a bit Spartan and, of course, there's no television, but his computer is faster than mine was, so we'll be able to keep up with the latest news and advice on the websites better than ever. The thing now is to finish my shelter as soon as possible. Margaret and I are going to need it, until we can sort out the insurance and get the house rebuilt. The good news is that, by a miracle, the air conditioner is still working, and Ray is going to lay in some ducts to the shelter. I mentioned this to Margaret today. I think it might soften the blow a little, when she sees the house. Just the same, she's bound to be upset. It's certainly a tricky situation, and I expect to be up late tonight searching www.apocalypse2K.com for leadership advice on the most effective way, psychologically speaking, to handle an emotionally volatile female team member who returns from her mother's to find her house a heap of ashes. Ralph says he knows of a chat group that might be able to help, but I rather doubt it. I fear the next few days could be a great deal more traumatic than any societal meltdown, infrastructure collapse or eruption of anarchy that Y2K could
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