Lucky

by Sage du Toit

  They still had plenty of food to get them through another month and they could always open the buckets of dried food. But they had agreed they would rather save that for traveling. There were still things they needed but they had packed a small kit bag for Tom using the backpack Sam had found. It wasn’t big enough for all he wanted so they also got the duffle bag she had put back in the closet and packed that with items from the emergency gear tub, MRE’s, ammo and weapons.

  Tom wanted to be ready to go at a moment’s notice. Their big issue was if they had to run suddenly, what would they do about Lucky and the kittens. Sam told Tom there were some pet carriers over at the cattery they could use, but they would be awkward to run and carry and they wouldn’t protect Lucky or the kittens from Nerve agent they might come across. It was a problem they were going to need to work on before they left.

  It was still freezing outside but the snow had melted in most places and then refroze as ice so it was dangerous to go outside. Sam did make a trip next door to look for a Yellow Pages book. She thought she had seen one in the cat lady’s bedroom under the edge of the bed. When she was pulling it out she saw some suitcases under the bed and she pulled those out too to see what was in them. They were men’s clothes and on top was a death certificate. She guessed it must have been the lady’s son because the date of death was just two years ago and he had died at the age of thirty. She thought the lady had looked twice that age. The clothes looked to be Tom’s size so she took the two suitcases over to the house. Tom was in desperate need of clothes. Now that he was filling back out, most of the clothes in the house didn’t fit him, except for the ones he came in. Sam had washed those along with some of her clothes and her poncho liner. But he needed more than a single set of clothes.

  They had also started exercising together. Tom was working on getting his knee and shoulder back in shape. They had cleared out the living room, cleaned up the broken glass and moved all of the furniture out of the way. They had found a few small dumbbells in the boy’s room and had blankets for the floor when they needed to lay down for stretching or floor exercises. Tom also made use of two dining chairs from the kitchen. He showed her how to do squats with the chair, triceps dips, which he couldn’t do too well because of his shoulder, as well as a lot of ab exercises. Sam was amazed at the workout they could get with just common kitchen chairs.

  They decided to go through the loft in the shed today. Tom was excited, he said he felt like they were going on a treasure hunt. Sam laughed at him but she couldn’t help feeling some of his excitement too. They hadn’t left the house in the last few days.

  After breakfast they bundled up against the cold and carefully checked out the front door before going outside. As Tom was locking the door the little squirrel came out of the tree and Sam pointed him out to Tom. They stood watching the squirrel for a few minutes as he was running and leaping from branch to branch. Tom glanced her way and she saw he was also enchanted by the little woodland’s creature. They were both happy to see the return of wildlife.

  Inside the shed they took the ladder and leaned it against the loft with Tom holding it. Because of his knee and limited range of motion on his shoulder they decided Sam would go up the ladder. Besides if she fell, Tom would be more able to catch her than the other way around. There was a double row of boxes, three wide stacked all along the front of the loft and Sam couldn’t see what was behind them. She hadn’t bothered to look yet because she thought she had found all she needed on the other side.

  Sam climbed up the ladder carefully pulled out the top middle box and handed it down to Tom. He sat it on the ground and opened it up. There were bike helmets inside. She took the next top box down and she still couldn’t see what was behind them. Tom opened that one and said there was bike gear, like tire tubes, small air pumps, chains and little tools. He had taken a little tool kit out and was unfolding the wrenches and looking at them.

  Sam took the bottom middle box out, handing it down to Tom. So far all of the boxes had been relatively light and easy to hand down. She waited for him to open it. He said it was all clothes. Sam wondered what type of clothes but decided she would just look later. There was now room for her to climb up in the loft so she waited for Tom to hold the ladder and she stepped off. He handed her a flash light and she shined it to the back of the loft.

  She looked down at Tom and smiled. He said, “What? What is it? What did you find?” Her smile just got bigger. “Come on!! Don’t keep me in suspense! Tell me!” He got frustrated with her making him wait and he climbed up the ladder to look. She shined the flashlight to the back of the loft and there were two big mountain bikes with fat tires and a smaller kids bike all nestled together and pushed up against the side wall. There was also something folded up that looked like some type of cart.

  Tom made a silent “Wow” and then climbed back down the ladder and told her to hand him the rest of the boxes. The next one she picked up was a little heavier and she had to slide it down the ladder without toppling over the edge until he could get a grip on it. The other two boxes weren’t as heavy and she easily handed them over.

  She pulled out the cart and had a hard time lifting it over the end of the ladder so he had to move it out of the way. She then handed down the cart and all of the bikes. The floor of the shed was crowded in boxes and bikes and the loft was empty. Sam swung her legs over the edge of the loft and was waiting for him to set the ladder back up.

  “You made me wait...”, he said with an evil grin.

  Sam didn’t even have anything to throw at him. She was at his mercy and couldn’t get down until he moved the ladder back. She shrugged and turned around, laying on her stomach in the loft and resting her chin on her arms over the edge so she could look down. Tom started going through the boxes he hadn’t opened yet. One box was full of various types of bags with straps on them. Some of them looked like saddle bags to her. Another box had sports bottles and mounts to put them on the bikes and a little bag that when he opened up turned out to be a mini cooking stove. He also happily pulled up two hydration packs.

  With each find he looked up at her and held it up smiling. Sam grinned right along with him and knew he was having fun on his thrilling treasure hunt. She wasn’t upset about being stuck in the loft, she was having just as much fun watching him.

  The last box had a big folded up clear plastic cover. Tom looked at Sam and asked if she knew what it was and she shook her head no. There was also a long-curved metal bar with hooks on it. Sam thought it might have something to do with the cart thing. Tom held up a small bundled roll and when he pulled the fabric out it was a small single person tent, it even had a rain shield. She was starting to get some ideas. There were also three tightly rolled hammocks and three oval shaped air mattresses, that Sam didn’t know what they were until Tom unrolled them.

  Tom stacked the boxes up by the door and then unfolded the cart. It was a child bike trailer! Sam saw the immediate possibilities and said, “Tom! We can use that for Lucky and the kittens! Does that plastic cover go over that?” Tom grabbed the cover and it fit perfectly over the front and snugged down tight.

  Tom smiled up at Sam and then moved the ladder so she could get down. They looked over the bikes together and saw that the tires were a little worn and they were all flat but Tom said that would be normal after a long time in storage. Other than that, the bikes were in good shape. There wasn’t any rust or damage on the bikes and it looked like everything had been well oiled, even the chains, before putting it up in the loft.

  Tom was prepared to carry everything around to the front, but Sam knew what a pain that would be to check every time they went through the gate. She suggested they open the window and Tom could hand the boxes through and then they could just carry the bikes around. They carried all of the boxes and left them under the window and Sam carried one bike around and into the house, leaving it in the living room.

  She pulled down the blanket covering the window and opened the shutters she had made and t
hen fully slid the window open. Tom was standing on the other side of the window with another amazed look on his face. “Did you make those shutters?” She realized he hadn’t seen them because of the blanket over the window and since she had been doing all of the heating and cooking he hadn’t noticed her vent flap.

  Sam proudly smiled and told him about making them as he passed the boxes through. She stacked the boxes up in the middle of the room so they could go through them later. Tom then picked up the bike and handed it through the window too. It just barely fit. He then told her to come back outside because he had come up with an idea while he was waiting for her to go around the house but he needed her help.

  Sam was intrigued and closed the window, the shutters and replaced the blanket. The room had already gotten cold with the window open for that short time. Lucky had come out of the closet to investigate the boxes and Sam decided to leave the window cracked and the vent flap open to see if Lucky wanted to go outside. The room was already cold so leaving the vent flap open wouldn’t be that big of a deal. She showed Lucky the vent, then rolled the bike around to the living room and went back out the door and around to the back.

  When she got to the shed Tom had already set up some saw horses and had 2x4’s laid out and was marking lengths using a tape measure, pencil, and square. He looked like a natural and something told her he had done this before. She held the boards while he cut them with a handsaw. She hadn’t found the handsaw before and she told him how she used to box cutter to cut the thin wood for the shutters. He told her it was under the tool table, along with the saw horses and some other hand tools.

  As he was cutting the pieces she told him that she had a battery-operated drill and a gas-powered nail gun in the house and there was still a fresh battery and gas cylinders for them. She didn’t know what he was making but she thought those things might be useful. He sent her back into the house to get them while he made more marks on his boards.

  When she came back he had all of the boards marked and he had a drill tool kit with lots of interesting accessories pulled out. He had a big 2” drill bit out and she wondered what he was going to do with it. He took the drill and checked that the battery still had power. He had found some clamps so he told her she didn’t need to hold the board this time. Using the bit, he made a 2” hole right in the center of the board and then he cut the board in halve so that the top of each board had a perfect half circle. He did the exact same thing to another board.

  He took the leftover board pieces and cut a bunch of small right triangles of equal size. Then he started screwing it all together. He said he hoped the screw driver held out and she reminded him there was another battery. He put all of his pieces together and made two sturdy frames with the boards with the half circles standing up and in the middle.

  “Is it some type of bike stand?”, Sam’s face was still confused as she asked.

  Tom just smiled and said, “You will see.”

  She helped him clean up and put the tools away and then she carried one of the stands into the house. They left both stands in the exercise room and went to the bedroom. It was past noon and Sam told Tom she wanted to make lunch and he readily agreed. They were still doing good with food, but Sam tried to spread out what they had and was reserving hot foods for dinner. With two of them eating it the food was going faster than she thought. But she didn’t want to skimp on meals because Tom had a lot of muscle and weight to gain back.

  She put together some crackers with peanut butter and jelly. She heated some water and made two cups of instant coffee with sugar and creamer. She also heated up a bottle for Mew.

  They ate lunch and she fed Mew, then they both picked out a candy to eat while they sorted through the boxes. Sam wanted to know what type of clothes were in the box and Tom said he needed to find something he saw in one of the boxes so he could finish his project.

  They each opened boxes until they found the one they were looking for. Tom found what he was looking for and left the room with 4 metal things in his hands. Sam started looking through the clothes. It was all bike riding gear. There were spandex bike shorts, spandex full-length pants, some of them even had padding and she thought that was a great idea. There were gloves with no fingers and others with fingers, they all had padded palms. She also found long sleeve and short sleeve shirts that felt like spandex. She remembered seeing ads about shirts like these that were moisture wicking.

  There were also some biking shoes in the bottom and she saw that one pair were her size. She tried the shoes and they fit perfect. They looked almost new. She wondered why they quit biking. They obviously spent a lot of money outfitting the whole family, there were even biking clothes that were kid size. Maybe they just lost interest as the kids got older. Sam was thinking about the photo album she had looked through and remembered seeing some pictures with all of them on bikes. So maybe they had some good times and that was enough.

  She looked through the other boxes and then stacked them all off to the side so she could open the carriage. She unzipped the front and looked inside. She saw the child safety straps were removable for cleaning and she went ahead and removed them. It was a double child trailer so there should be more than enough room for Lucky and the kittens just for traveling.

  Just then she heard something behind her and when she turned around she saw Lucky coming in the vent flap. She wondered how she got up to the window to jump back inside! She didn’t really think she would go outside. Lucky came up and rubbed against her and then smelled all around the trailer.

  Sam went to the closet and got one of the big cat blankets and put it in the bottom of the trailer. It covered the seats and went down to the floor space, which wasn’t very low. She was thinking the seats might be awkward but they should be able to make it work. She showed Lucky and she laid down in it and started cleaning herself. Sam was looking at the trailer and trying to think of how they could adjust it for the kittens.

  That’s when she remembered Tom’s project and she walked out to the exercise room to see what he was doing. He had a few candles lit and lantern so he could see better. He had put pegs on the backs of each bike and they were sitting up on the stands he had built. He wasn’t in the room and she was about to go look for him when the front door opened.

  He saw her and asked, “Well, what do you think?” He had some more blocks that had been nailed together in what looked like a vice and he took one and put it under the front wheel of each bike. He had also aired up the tires and he motioned to one of the bikes and told her to try it out and he would adjust the seat for her if she needed it. She noticed one seat was already lower so she took that one and got on. The setups seemed fairly sturdy and she put her feet on the pedals and started peddling.

  “Nice! It’s a stationary bike! I love it! We can practice riding until we are ready to leave! This is great. And by the way, that box of clothes was all biking clothes. There were even some shoes in there that would probably fit you. I found these shoes in that box and they make pedaling a lot easier than I remember it being!” Sam was completely enthused.

  Tom smiled and told her he would go check out the gear and see if anything fit him and then they could go on a bike ride, inside! They both laughed and Sam got off the bike to follow him. She was thinking if she was going to ride she might as well try some of the bike shorts and protect her legs.

  As they were going through the box and trying on the gear Tom said, “Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, Lucky was outside and she came into the shed when I was building the boxes for the front tires. I gave her a boost to get back in the window because she seemed distraught about not being able to get in.”

  Sam had already closed the window and the vent flap and she told Tom that she didn’t even know Lucky had gone out. He asked her how she normally got back inside and Sam explained that was the first time she had gone out since Sam got here. Tom said he would make something for Lucky so she could get back in the window. That way if she wanted to go out she could. They disc
ussed it and agreed that it would be beneficial for when they were traveling if Lucky was accustomed to going out and coming back.

  Tom also agreed that putting the kittens in the trailer would be a good idea to let them get familiar with it, but he brought up a good point, what were they going to do for a litter box? Sam said they could always let them out when they stopped for breaks. They could also carry a small box of litter to put in the carrier, there was a small area in the front of the carrier that was still open.

  They were all dressed in bike gear and had even sorted through the helmets and found ones they liked that were comfortable. The same with the bike clothes, they had sorted through those and packed up what they didn’t want and put them all in the boy’s room that had become their discard room.

  Sam looked at Tom and said, “This is it, isn’t? The last piece of the puzzle we needed. We now have all we need, other than time for us to get stronger and the kittens to get bigger. We can do this together! We can travel safer through the woods and even longer distances on the bikes. Now we just have to get in shape to ride them!”

  (Come back and see how Sam, Tom, Lucky and the kittens do on their trip to Texas!)