| abstract
| - Marian Staley was a mother and housewife in Everett, Washington. Her husband, Bill, was a B-29 co-pilot in the Korean War before and after it was folded into World War III. Marian raised their daughter, Linda while her husband was at the front. Marian watched with increasing panic as President Harry Truman authorized atomic attacks in Manchuria on January 23, 1951, and Joseph Stalin's retaliatory attacks in Europe on February 1. For the time being, she had to settle for the presumption that Bill was still alive. She realized the toll his absence was taking on Linda and on their marriage. Throughout January and February 1951, the U.S. and the Soviet Union traded atomic bombs within their respective spheres of influence until the Soviet Union invaded West Germany. On the night of March 1, Marian learned that nearby Seattle was expanding its civil-defenses, and that air raid warnings would start the following week. However, in the early morning hours of March 2, a Soviet bomber, in an audacious raid, dropped an atomic bomb between Seattle and Everett. Marian and Linda survived the blast. Their house was destroyed, but they took shelter in their car and fled. The Staleys made their way to a refugee camp (officially Seattle-Everett Refugee Encampment Number Three, more popularly known as "Camp Nowhere"). They continued to live in the Studebaker rather than in the tents the National Guard provided. The flash burns they'd received healed cleanly, and they didn't show any other symptoms of radiation sickness. Other people weren't so lucky; mass graves filled up regularly. After several days in the camp, they ran into their cobbler, Fayvl Tabakman, who introduced the Staleys to friends of his, Yitzkhak and Moishe. The Staleys became relatively close to Tabakman and his friends, eating meals with them, and discussing their past. Marian came to realize just how lucky she'd been up til now. About six weeks after the destruction of Seattle, Marian, Linda, and Tabakman went back to the Staley's car/home, and found a teenager, Daniel Philip Jaspers, trying to break in. When he charged at them, Tabakman picked up and rock and threw it, hitting the teenager squarely in the nose, knocking him out. Before Marian went to find a Guardsman, she asked how Tabakman learned to throw like that. He replied with grenades. Jaspers was taken into custody, and Marian made a point of watching out for him for a time, but her husband's status became more important. She also wondered whether she should leave the camp and find work. Still, as she talked to Tabakman and learned of his personal history, she realized her situation wasn't as bad as it could have been. Unfortunately, in May, Bill was killed when his bomber was shot down over the Soviet Union, leaving Marian completely uncertain what to do next. For the remainder of the month, Marian wandered about in a fog. She made sure Linda went to the kindergarten the camp had established on school days, but frequently meandered around the camp until school let out. She grew closer to Fayvl Tabakman, since he had some understanding of what she was going through, both in his capacity as a fellow refugee, and as a Holocaust survivor. In July, he even suggested that he, Marian, and Linda go to a movie. Marian accepted his offer. However, plans changed when she learned that she was receiving a $15,000 pay out from Bill's life insurance policy, more than enough for her and Linda to leave the camp and start over. A few days later, after a quick good-bye party with Tabakman and his friends, Marian and Linda left the camp and headed south. This article is a stub because the work is part of a larger, as-of-yet incomplete series.
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