Miracles

by Thomas A. Watson

  Looking out over the fifty-acre area that would be the lake, “I’m sorry,” LL said.

  “Pfft,” Wendy buzzed her lips. “It wasn’t because Arthur was tired and might make a mistake, I wanted the kids and Todd to go with him. When Arthur is tired he gets extravagant, and I wanted to avoid that at all costs.”

  Leaning up between the front seats, “Not to be rude, but could you define ‘extravagant actions’ by Arthur?” Jason asked.

  “He goes hunting around us after working all day. Anyone can tell when Arthur is tired by how he hunts. The last hard day he had and then went hunting, he chopped a member of a local gang’s arms off and sent him back. The man had gotten away from the attack when Arthur stormed their area. Arthur chased him down through a neighborhood as the man shot at him. Never firing a shot, Arthur got in front of him to distract the man, offering himself as a target so his dogs, Donald and Daisy, could take the man alive,” Wendy said with a foreboding expression. “He could’ve just shot the bitch in the legs, but no, he wanted to ‘play’ with him.”

  Nodding as he sat back, “I would call that extravagant,” Jason agreed as Samantha leaned over and whispered.

  “You try something like that your legs will be in casts for a year,” she informed him.

  Explaining the area around the levee, Wendy took off driving around the area. It was two hours later when her radio went off as she was driving along the perimeter fence, “Momma, Pops heading back,” a young voice called out.

  “Thank you, Pat,” Wendy called back and then froze, stopping the UTV.

  “You’re welcome, Momma,” Pat called back, and Wendy let out a relieved sigh.

  “Holy shit, I got his name right from over the radio,” she nearly cheered.

  “Momma,” Pat called back in a low voice.

  “Yes,” Wendy answered.

  “Can you come home and make Joseph and Sarah stop shouting at each other?” Pat whispered.

  Squeezing the radio so hard the plastic creaked, “Are they shouting inside with all the kids?” Wendy fired off.

  “No, Momma. They’re out back near the swimming pool,” Pat answered. “Little Momma sent them outside just as soon as Joseph walked in.”

  “I’m coming,” Wendy said, just dropping the radio in the seat.

  “Is Sarah a problem?” Samantha asked as Wendy took off along the inside path of the perimeter fence.

  “I like her. She can organize even better than Arthur, and I thought that was impossible. Just after watching everyone work for two days and seeing how they functioned in different areas, she started making the work schedules,” Wendy said. “And let me tell you, she’s fucking good at it. She knows which kid can do cement better than others, drive heavy equipment… Because of Sarah’s ability to do that, work is moving along really fast. Even Arthur said she’s taken months off his schedule.”

  Really liking Sarah even though they hadn’t met her, they all saw Wendy just shake her head. “For some reason, Joseph and Sarah hate each other,” Wendy sighed.

  The fact Wendy wasn’t unleashing on Sarah and not taking Joseph’s side, told LL just how much Wendy liked Sarah. “My middle two boys were the same way,” he said. “I made them work together for an entire summer. They finally stopped,” he offered on the sly.

  Turning on a path through the woods, “Tried that, weeks ago,” Wendy scoffed. “Had to stop it on the third day because both picked up shovels, trying to take each other’s head off.”

  Listening but scanning around the forest, “Well, I’ve met Joseph, so I’m taking his side,” Jason said, and Samantha punched his arm.

  “Don’t start the male pride right off the bat,” she snapped, and LL gave a snort.

  Turning to look at the back of LL’s head, “Logan,” Samantha barked. “You want me to crawl up there?”

  Wiping the smirk off his face, “Sorry, dust made me sneeze,” LL said.

  “This Sarah just needs to chill,” Jason said, even with Samantha glaring at him.

  “How can you say that? You haven’t even met her,” Samantha grumbled.

  Feeling the glare on the side of his face, Jason refused to turn and acknowledge it. “Don’t have to. I’ve met Joseph and his parents,” Jason told her.

  Thinking about that and unable to deny it sounded good, logical, and within reason, Samantha just gave a huff and turned to watch the trees pass by. When they approached the house from the west driving over the other small bridge over the moat, the three all sat up in wonder.

  “This is fucking awesome!” Jason shouted, looking down at the moat. “Look at that current!”

  “Yeah, at the corners, Arthur has sump pumps that’ll suck down anything up to the size of rat and drown it before grinding it up. Then the chunks are pushed out on a conveyor belt to the outside of the moat. So far, it’s only got a few rats, but he really built it for the ants,” Wendy said with a shiver, but didn’t see the other three shiver with her.

  “Fucking ants,” LL said, trying not to tremble in his seat.

  “Yeah, we always had like twenty or so cats around the barn but since this started, they’ve been breeding hard. They’ve doubled their number and so far, leave the farm animals alone so that tells me, they are-,” she stopped as LL spoke.

  “Eating mice and rats,” he said. “This had to be put in before you saw ants.”

  “Actually, no. Arthur wasn’t going to finish it until after the lake, but he was going to finish it because he said he wasn’t waking up covered in ants and rats,” Wendy said, pulling into the line of UTVs parked along the side of the back patio. “The work for it started before I came back, but Arthur said the ants wouldn’t be out this far, so he moved forward on other projects, only working on the moat in spare time.”

  Unable to deny that was smart, “Then, why is it finished?” LL asked, climbing out.

  “Because I fucking saw the ants and had to walk through them! I showed him the error in his thinking!” Wendy shouted. “We were all going to sleep on the fucking ground eating tree bark for all I cared, but that goddamn moat was getting finished before the lake!”

  “If you expect me to disagree with you, sorry, I’m not,” LL said. “We’ve had to move twice because of ants. You can’t even go in a town of any size anymore because of rats. We watched a man, a full-grown man, get taken down outside of Memphis by rats and no, he wasn’t a crazy.”

  Shivering so violently she danced across the ground, “Maybe we can put in another moat?” Wendy wondered.

  “You are so goddamn stupid!” a shrill female voice screeched.

  They all turned to see Joseph and a woman standing chest to chest, glaring at each other on the other side of the swimming pool. “Bitch, if brains were gun powder, you wouldn’t have enough to blow your fucking nose!” Joseph bellowed.

  “I take it, that’s Sarah?” LL chuckled as Sarah screamed at Joseph.

  Rolling her eyes, “Yes,” Wendy moaned as Ellie came out. “Ellie, will you take them inside and show them around, then make sure they eat?” Wendy asked with a look of utter exhaustion on her face. “I need to break up the children,” she sighed, waving toward Sarah and Joseph.

  Thankful for the task, “OH, yes,” Ellie praised. “We drew straws inside to see who had to come out and try to break them up. I lost, Momma,” Ellie said, making Samantha, Jason and LL give a startle. “They’re fighting harder than they have in a while.”

  “I hear,” Wendy said, handing her AR to Ellie. “Put this in the gun rack in my room,” she said, then looked down at her vest. Undoing the straps, “Take this also and put my pistol up,” Wendy said, pulling off the vest. “I don’t want to be tempted to shoot either of them.”

  Taking the vest, Ellie just nodded. LL, Jason, and Samantha just stared at Wendy. Seeing the shock, “I wouldn’t shoot to kill them,” Wendy assured them but mumbled, “today.”

  “I would only shoot them in the leg,” Wendy said, taking a deep breath and preparing to join the fray.

&
nbsp; As Wendy walked off, they saw Kit and Kat bound over to walk with Wendy. “Let’s get inside,” Ellie ushered, heading for the door. Walking in, the three stopped to look around in wonder. They could see the work done to expand the kitchen and turn the garage into a dining room.

  Looking in the living room at the daycare area, they saw a little girl with one of their babies in her arms. All over the floor on pallets were babies and kids asleep. “Fuck, they have quite a few kids as well,” Jason mumbled, seeing their kids intermingled among the group. Glancing at the window over the sink, Jason saw Wendy had reached Sarah and Joseph. He could tell just by the body actions that all three were bellowing at each other but thankfully, he couldn’t hear it.

  “Need any help, Little Momma?” Ellie called out softly.

  Looking up with a gentle smile, Vicki shook her head. After putting Wendy’s stuff away, Ellie started the tour of the inside and then led them back to the dining room to eat.

  It was a half an hour later that Arthur pulled up to the house in UTVs with his group. They had all heard the yelling as they’d crossed the moat. “Pops,” Shawn said, turning the UTV off. “Can we just let them duke it out today?”

  Taking his fedora off and wiping his brow, “Son, if we let them throw punches today, someone is getting hurt,” Arthur sighed.

  “Joseph wouldn’t hurt Sarah bad,” Kirk said from the backseat, getting out.

  “Son,” Arthur said, getting out. “If Joseph threw a punch now at Sarah, he would be fighting his momma, which he would never do. But I can guarantee you, as mad as Wendy is, she would hit him three or four times before she realized it because after the last time Wendy beat his ass, Joseph wouldn’t even try to block his mom’s hits.”

  Closing his eyes and saying a prayer, “I’ll come with you and help if you want me to, Pops,” Shawn offered.

  “Thanks, but no,” Arthur said, and Shawn cut his eyes to the sky and mouthed a ‘Thank You’ to God.

  Pushing his AR to his back, Arthur strolled across the patio as Todd stopped beside Shawn and Kirk. “That is too much raw emotion from too many people in such a close proximity,” he said, watching Wendy screaming so loudly, she vibrated across the ground.

  “I’m going inside before Pops starts,” Shawn informed everyone, breaking into a run for the door. Needing no encouragement, everyone that had gone out with Arthur stormed the back door, only to be met by Vicki.

  “You wake up the kids and you’ll be doing double chores until the earth stops turning,” she growled at them with narrowed eyes.

  “Sorry,” Todd whispered as they quickly closed the back door, stopping the noise from the ‘discussion’ going on outside. “We would’ve used the dorm entrance, but didn’t want to get close.”

  Stepping over the child gate that separated the living room from the kitchen, “Fine, but I meant what I said,” Vicki said, moving to the kitchen and grabbing a tray that held snacks. “Go eat and get cleaned up, in case I need some of you to help with the new kids.” Not about to piss Little Momma off, they scurried away, silently of course, to the dining room.

  When Todd sat down, Jason moved from his chair to sit beside him. “What the hell is double chores?” Jason asked in a low voice, watching Vicki carry the tray of snacks back to the living room.

  After Todd explained, Jason looked off. “I’ve never been scared of anyone or anything in my life,” Jason said. “But I went to go check on the kids and she threatened me, a grown man that has been in three dozen firefights since this started. When that little girl,” he stressed, “glared at me and threatened me with double chores, I ran off like a bitch.”

  Turning to Jason to see he had taken his gear off, Todd saw Jason was older than he was but not quite as old as Arthur. “Well then, that just shows you’re smarter than I was,” Todd said. “I got double chores my second day here because I didn’t listen to Little Momma.”

  Glancing at the doorway back into the house, “We have fought and provided for those kids and for the first time, I really feel they’re okay and they aren’t even under my ass,” Jason said as Todd glanced over to see Samantha and LL both sound asleep in their chairs with empty plates in front of them.

  “Sir,” Todd said, and Jason held up his hand.

  “The name is Jason, not sir. I’m going to give you some advice, don’t ever call LL ‘sir’. He turns into an instant asshole.”

  Knowing LL was in his late fifties or early sixties, Todd just nodded. “I’ll try,” he said.

  “I’m just warning you, the old fucker can hit hard and throw shit harder,” Jason scoffed.

  “Then I’ll try very hard,” Todd said.

  Leaning back in his chair, “I take it, Arthur is outside jumping into the battle royale?” Jason asked.

  “Oh, Sarah and Joseph will stop fighting when Arthur joins in. It depends on how bad they pissed off Momma if she stops,” Todd replied. “Those two just get Momma so mad when they don’t listen to her, she lashes out. Unfortunately, it’s always Pops that catches it.”

  “Don’t ever get between a husband and wife arguing,” Jason advised.

  Scoffing, “I wouldn’t stand up to Momma in that Abram’s tank we have down there in the valley,” Todd said, then cringed because he had raised his voice some. Glancing back to make sure Vicki wasn’t in the doorway, “Pops is a badass, but Momma… She’s the one I’m terrified of,” Todd said.

  Coming into the dining room, Andrea came over and clipped an ID badge to Jason’s shirt. He looked down to see his picture and name. “Everyone wears them,” Andrea said, then glanced over at Samantha and LL. Putting their badges on the table, “I’m not waking them up.”

  After looking at his badge, Jason realized everyone had them. “This is beyond smart.”

  “Yeah, it was getting hard to keep up with names here,” Andrea said, sitting down on the other side of Todd.

  “Shit,” Jason said, stretching out in his chair. “For three weeks, I got the name of all eleven babies wrong,” he grunted as he finished his stretch. “Samantha got pissed off because I just started calling every baby ‘kid’. Hell, I couldn’t even get the sex right. It wasn’t until I proved to her that she was calling some by the wrong name, she crawled out of my ass. I went and found some ID bracelets and those babies are still wearing them.”

  “Pops was going to do that, but hasn’t got around to it,” Andrea said.

  “I have extra,” Jason said, grabbing a glass of tea. “How much longer will they be outside?”

  “I’m sure Pops has already separated Joseph and Sarah. I’m not going to check and see how Momma is reacting,” Todd said.

  Shaking her head, “Momma is pissed,” Andrea offered. “She’s screaming in Pop’s face now.”

  Seeing it was near three in the afternoon, “I hate to be a punk. You have some place I could lay down?” Jason asked, looking over at his wife and thinking she was about to slide out of her chair. “I swear I’ll do some work after a nap.”

  “You and Samantha are staying in the main guest room upstairs. LL is staying in Joseph’s room. Joseph said he was sleeping on a cot he put in for Robin. We’ll get the other guest room ready for LL tomorrow,” Todd said, and Jason ran through the people he’d met, trying to remember a Robin.

  “The others are making spots for the kids,” Andrea chimed in, seeing Jason was struggling to keep his eyes open.

  “You’re sure the kids with us are safe?” he asked, losing the battle with his eyes and they closed.

  “Safer than anywhere else,” Todd answered.

  With a sense of safety he’d never dared dream of for the kids they had taken on, Jason tilted his head back and was almost instantly out.

  “Let’s go get some others and get them upstairs,” Todd said nodding toward the three, getting up.

  “Eleven infants,” Andrea exclaimed in awe. “I would’ve gone insane.”

  Pulling Andrea from the chair, “The three kids I had nearly did that to me, and they could walk, talk
, and tell me they were hungry, and pee by themselves. I just wonder how they got stuck with eleven newborns when this started,” Todd wondered, walking out holding Andrea’s hand.

  Jason, Samantha, nor LL ever acknowledged or stirred as each was carried upstairs. Like their caretakers, none of the kids that had arrived with them, not even the eleven seven-month-olds woke up until the next morning, even when they were moved.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Hell would be a nicer place

  Not wanting to, Jason struggled out of his sleep because his body needed relief. Blinking his eyes, he saw the nice room and glanced at the wall to see a metal gun rack mounted to the walls like you’d see in movies. His eyes immediately fell on his and Samantha’s weapons in the rack as he tried to convince his body to ignore the functions it wanted addressed. “I can never open the door of the van without waking up at least three babies and one kid,” he mumbled, closing his eyes and trying to ignore the pain his bladder was sending to his brain.

  ‘I’M NOT IN THE VAN!’ Jason screamed in his mind.

  With his eyes flaring open and shooting out of the bed, Jason panted while looking around his surroundings. The bed was empty and he saw his, Samantha’s, and LL’s rucksacks against one wall. Not seeing his vest or boots, he started spinning around and saw his vest was hanging from a door in the corner. A door across the room opened up and Jason jumped three feet in the air.

  Coming out of the bathroom brushing her teeth, Samantha thought Jason looked like a cat thrown on a hot tin roof as he seemed to hover in the air. He landed looking at her, but she could see the panic in his face. Pulling the toothbrush out, “Babe, it’s okay,” she told him, and he just stared at her. “Forget my name, I dare ya.”

  Blinking his eyes as his brain booted up, Jason just sank to the floor panting. “I’ve never slept so hard in my life,” he admitted, then lifted his head to peer over the bed. “Samantha, you really think I could forget your name? I should call you shithead for two days for that.”