It is an ordinary December day in 1960, in the sleepy Florida town of Fort Repose. On the river road, Florence Wechek, the local Western Union telegraph manager, awakens and watches the morning news as she makes her breakfast. Tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States are high—the Russians are launching more Sputnik satellites, and there is a crisis in the Middle East—but as Florence leaves for work, she is more concerned with her neighbor, Randy Bragg, who she suspects of spying on her.
Randy is a descendant of the founders of Fort Repose — a good-natured lawyer who failed as a politician and now makes his living off his family's property, and the occasional bit of legal work. As he drinks his morning coffee, he receives a telegram from his brother, Mark Bragg, an officer in the Air Force. The telegram asks to meet him at the local Air Force base at noon, says that Mark's wife Helen and his two children are flying into Orlando from their home in Omaha that night, and concludes with the cryptic postscript, "Alas, Babylon." Randy is suddenly frightened—"Alas, Babylon" is a private family signal, taken from the fire and brimstone sermons that were given at a local Black church in the Bragg brothers' youth. It means that Mark believes that nuclear war is imminent, and is sending his family to Fort Repose because he believes the town will be safer than Omaha, …show more content…
Meanwhile, Florence Wechek is having lunch and sharing gossip with her friend Alice Cooksey, the Fort Repose librarian. Near the end of the meal, Florence mentions the telegram that Randy received that morning, with the cryptic phrase "Alas, Babylon" at the end. That afternoon, Alice looks up the reference in a Bible in her library, and finds the quotation in the Book of Revelation, referring to the destruction of a great city — "Alas, alas, that great city Babylon . . . for in hour is thy judgment
Randy is a descendant of the founders of Fort Repose — a good-natured lawyer who failed as a politician and now makes his living off his family's property, and the occasional bit of legal work. As he drinks his morning coffee, he receives a telegram from his brother, Mark Bragg, an officer in the Air Force. The telegram asks to meet him at the local Air Force base at noon, says that Mark's wife Helen and his two children are flying into Orlando from their home in Omaha that night, and concludes with the cryptic postscript, "Alas, Babylon." Randy is suddenly frightened—"Alas, Babylon" is a private family signal, taken from the fire and brimstone sermons that were given at a local Black church in the Bragg brothers' youth. It means that Mark believes that nuclear war is imminent, and is sending his family to Fort Repose because he believes the town will be safer than Omaha, …show more content…
Meanwhile, Florence Wechek is having lunch and sharing gossip with her friend Alice Cooksey, the Fort Repose librarian. Near the end of the meal, Florence mentions the telegram that Randy received that morning, with the cryptic phrase "Alas, Babylon" at the end. That afternoon, Alice looks up the reference in a Bible in her library, and finds the quotation in the Book of Revelation, referring to the destruction of a great city — "Alas, alas, that great city Babylon . . . for in hour is thy judgment