by Mary Griggs
"We've been here for almost a month and you've kept this from us this whole time."
"Two weeks and, I beg your pardon, but you didn't tell me you needed new clothes until now," she answered reasonably.
"What else are you keeping from us?"
"I'm not keeping anything from you."
"What do you call hiding things we need?"
"They were hardly hidden. Those are built in cedar chests."
"And how were we to know that?"
Jay shook her head in bafflement. "What is your malfunction, Doris?"
"That's rich. You're in the wrong and you accuse me of having a problem."
"How am I in the wrong?"
"You're hoarding stuff. During World War II that was considered the worst possible offense."
"Doris, I hardly think I need to justify my actions to you. Yes, I collected materials for the post-apocalypse. Anyone else could have done the same. I will not apologize for planning ahead."
"Why didn't you tell us that you had it?"
"It's not like we've had a chance to go over every inch and inventory every item in this house. Trust me that as you tell me what you need, if it's here, it's available."
"I'm tired of being a pitiful pawn that you play with."
"Doris," Martha shouted. "Enough."
"No, it's not. You all act like lap dogs, sucking up to her."
Jay's voice was calm. "I don't ever recall asking anyone to kiss my ass."
"Oh, you never ask. You are all lady of the manor and we're here at your mercy."
"This is ridiculous. Everything I have is yours."
"But how do we know what you have if you keep hiding things?"
"I'm not hiding anything. I don't even remember all the stuff that's all over this house, unless I need it."
"We shouldn't keep finding things out like this."
Piper spoke up, "Doris, she's been more than generous to open her home virtual strangers. What more do you want? An inventory? Would that make you happy?"
She sniffed in disdain. "I'll be happy if we had more say in the running of our lives."
"You can have all the say you want. Just get the hell off my land first."
"Your land," she said in triumph. "See, I told you that she doesn't consider us full members of the household."
"And why should we? We've brought her nothing but trouble." Susan was very angry. "She's had to work double hard to provide food for us. She's offered us much more than we can ever repay."
"I'm not seeking any repayment, Susan. Frankly, I've generally liked having most of you on board."
"Out with it."
"What?"
Tapping her foot impatiently, Doris asked, "What is it that you want? Everything has a price and I am tired of waiting for you tell us."
"A little courtesy would not be out of order."
Martha grabbed her sister by the back of the neck when she would have spoken again. "Just shut up." There was a tense silence while the two sisters glared at one another.
Blinking first, Doris took a step away from Martha. "I don't know why you all are always mad at me. I'm just saying what you're too afraid to say."
Susan shook her head. "You don't speak for me and I'd appreciate if you'd stop insulting my friend."
Trying to change the subject, Piper looked from the bolts of cloth to the pattern books. "Who knows how to sew?"
"I do but I'm not about to sew everybody's by hand," answered Doris.
"Who said you had to?" Piper asked. "I'm willing to learn, if it means new clothes."
Doris turned to look at Jay. "Well?"
"Well, what?"
"You seemed to have thought of everything else. Don't you have a machine?"
"You are quite the piece of work, Doris." Jay shook her head. "Under that cactus there." She pointed what they had all thought was just a table. She opened the top to show them a foot peddle operated sewing machine.
"Do you know how to work it?"
"Yeah. When you're at that stage, I'll show you what to do."
"Jay, I can't tell you how great this is." Martha stepped toward her. Jay surprised her by moving back out of reach. "What's wrong?"
"I'm sorry. Just a little claustrophobic right now."
"Oh? Can I help?"
"No," she said. "I think I'll take a walk."
"But it's getting dark."
"It'll be better than being in here." Jay slammed out the nearest door and called the dogs. They had been curled up in their houses but they all leaped out at her command. Encouraging them to jump and bound around her, she set off down the driveway. At the fork in the road, she turned uphill and decided climb up to the remains of the old fire watching station.
With each stride, she muttered curses against Doris and her ancestors. She found it hard to believe that she and Martha were related. She also found it unreal that none of the others had killed her yet. "I can't imagine the kind of gall it takes for her to spew her guts out at everyone else when she's such a piece of work," she told the dogs. "Sure, I've got my share of problems but she's in a class by herself."
The pack wound their way up the mountain. Growing tired of swearing to herself, Jay sighed and asked her canine companions, "You guys don't think I'm only doing this because I want something, do you?"
Only doggy grins answered her. She balanced her way across a broken down bridge while her dogs ran down the culvert and across the small stream before joining her on the other side.
Out loud, Jay said, "I was getting lonely. I'm glad to have people in the house." She thought about that. "Okay, maybe not all the people that are currently in the house would I choose to invite but I'm not about to kick any of them out. There isn't a ulterior motive." Coming across a pinecone, she kicked it and the dogs chased it down.
"But she is right. I do resent having to spend my stash on her. She works my last nerve." Jay laughed, shortly. "Of course, that would be the only work she does without duress." Kicking the thoroughly chewed cone again, Jay watched the dogs race each other to it.
When the wind blew the rain off the surrounding trees and onto her, she cursed Doris again. "She's nice and dry in my house while I'm out wandering in the rain. Who's the smart one here?"
"Fuck me!" Jay yelled at the top of her lungs. The dogs whined around her. She sat down under the low branches of a young redwood. The dogs crawled around her to lean against her body.
"Sorry for shouting, guys. She makes me so angry." Rubbing and petting the closest dog, Jay told the chocolate lab, "My mama told me that you shouldn't wrestle with a pig because you both get dirty and the pig likes it. Do you suppose she knew somebody like Doris?"
She sat for almost an hour on the log, watching the moonrise from behind all the clouds. Her sweater clung to her and her butt was cold and wet when she realized that the rain was not going to lessen any time soon. Jay sighed and regained her feet. She headed back to the house, knowing that her patience was running entirely too low to continue dealing with that annoying woman. It didn't matter who she was related to, something had to change. She would have to talk to Susan in the morning.
Martha had waited for a few moments after Jay stormed out before whirling on her sister. "Where do you get off?"
"Yeah. You are the living end." Susan stroked her hand over the bolts of cloth. "This stuff is just fabulous and you treat it and her like they demean you. If you've got such a problem, why are you even here?"
"Where else can I go?" Doris wrapped her arms tightly around her body. "You've got them and her," she said, waving her hand and Cody, Carol and Martha. "What do I have?"
"You mean, other than your daughter and sister?"
"I mean that I'm tired of being alone and having to do everything myself. I want someone to take care of me for a change."
"Listen, Doris, I don't know what they're smoking on the planet you're living on but, I've got to tell you, you don't have a reason to be tired. You don't do half the work the rest of us do and I'm including you
r daughter in that. We have all been taking care of you for a long time." Susan took a deep breath. "You are lucky that Jay's been too generous to call you on your shit. I'm not. Start pulling your own weight and keep your mouth shut around Jay unless you've got something pleasant to say."
"Oh? So I don't even get to talk anymore?"
"I can't deal with this." Susan threw up her hands and turned to her partner. "Martha, you need to talk so sense into her. I'm going to soak in the hot tub."
The tall woman looked over at her sister. "You and me are going to have to talk about your behavior."
"Why is everyone on my case?"
"Because you've been entirely too selfish."
"I can't believe you'd say that to me."
"I should have said something earlier. You don't have any idea of your effect on other people."
"I don't have sit here and listen to this."
"Yes, you do." Martha was implacable. "You and are going to have a sit down tomorrow."
"Why don't you just dump on me now like everyone else?"
"Because all of our tempers are running too high right now. We need a breather or someone is going to say something that will be unforgivable."
Susan came out of the bathroom and asked, "Anyone care to join me for a soak?" Without waiting for an answer, she headed outside.
"Do you care that it's raining?"
She laughed at Piper's question. "It's not like sitting in the hot tub is a dry activity." Glancing over her shoulder, she asked her lover, "Are you going to join me?"
Martha shook her head at Susan's back. "No. I'm going to take a book to bed."
"Your loss. Try and stay awake until I come to bed, okay?"
"I'll try." Martha nodded at others. "You kids head to bed when you're ready. Clear the room when Piper wants to go to sleep."
"Don't worry. I want to stay up until Jay comes back," answered Piper. "Are you sure you shouldn't go after Susan?"
Martha smiled. "No. She'll talk when she's ready. I've learned not to push her. She can be quite the terror when roused."
"I bet. Just try to keep your efforts at détente down."
Trying to look innocent and failing miserably, Martha grabbed her book. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Whatever." Piper flipped her a salute. "Good luck on dealing with your sister tomorrow."
"Thanks, I think I'll need all the luck I can get to make it so we can have a little peace around here."
"You always were a good negotiator. I figure you'll find a way to make us all get along eventually."
"From your tongue to God's ears," Martha answered as she headed into her room. "Goodnight, everyone."
The chorus of goodbyes followed her into the room. She closed the door and leaned her back against it. Trying a few deep breathing exercises to calm herself down, Martha wondered just how she was going use her many skills to resolve the Gordian knot that the household relationships had become.
She shook herself all over and decided to forget about everything until tomorrow. Martha was sure that something would come to her overnight.
Chapter Twelve - My Soul, There is a Country
If thou canst get but thither,
There grows the flower of peace,
The rose that cannot wither,
Thy fortress, and thy ease.
Words: Henry Vaughan, 1650. Music: "Vulpius," 1609
As the rains started coming down harder, Susan sank deeper into the warm water of the hot tub. With only her nose and eyes above the surface, she allowed her mind to drift and her body to relax. She let her arms ride to the surface. The feeling of the raindrops making contact with her skin was almost ticklish.
"Having a good time?"
Susan threw herself backwards as she startled from the voice. "Who? What?"
"Sorry," Jay stepped out of the darkness and closer to the tub. "I didn't think before I spoke."
"Damn you. I think you've taken off ten years from my life." She looked critically at the other woman. In the dark, she could only see that the other woman was completely soaked. "You need to get into some dry clothes before you catch your death."
"I should be so lucky."
"What do you mean?" Susan eased her way across the hot tub and rested her chin on the side.
Jay couldn't meet the eyes of her friend.
"Tell me, Jay."
"I'm tired of the fighting."
"Martha will read her the riot act." Susan splashed her hands in the water. She forced herself to ask, "Do you want us to go?"
"God, no." Jay held her hands up. "Not at all. Things just got close."
"I'm sorry about that."
"Don't be. She's a bitch. I just have to stop letting her get to me."
"Well, once you figure out how, tell me. I've been trying since she showed up."
"Was she like this before?"
"Before the bombs?" Susan clarified. At Jay's nod, she shrugged. "I don't know. She wouldn't give Martha the time of day before the world ended. I had never met her."
"She's quite a piece of work." Jay sent the dogs back to their houses and turned back to Susan. "What's the rest of her family like?"
"They disinherited her after she came out to them. Except for novena cards on her saints day, we had no contact with them."
"Martha is an amazing woman to escape that indoctrination."
"Don't I know it."
"Just make sure that you don't forget to show her." With a flash of white teeth, Jay headed into the dark house. She nodded gravely to Piper before climbing the spiral staircase. She stripped in the bedroom and quickly warmed up in a hot shower before heading up directly to bed. Not even bothering to stoke up the fire, she climbed between the sheets and waited for the shivering to stop and sleep to claim her.
Susan didn't spend too much more time outside. Quietly, she came into the bedroom and clicked the lock on the door behind her. In the dim light, she stood for a moment just looking at her lover. The fight between the two sisters had been long in coming and she had been worried that Martha was still upset. To her lover's eye, though, she looked peaceful.
Martha had gone to bed early, with a copy of Foxfire 3. She read the volume intently, trying to glean as much information as possible. Being out here in the wilderness was opening her eyes to everything she didn't know. She was finding that she didn't much like not being the one with all the answers. If she had to read every book in the house, she would do so.
Glancing up, she watched Susan watch her. "Was that Jay I heard?"
"Mmmhmm. She made it back safely."
"I'm glad."
"Me too, darling," Susan drawled. "I was not looking forward to getting a search party out to look for her. I wouldn't even know where to begin to look."
"She can take care of herself."
"Yeah but what about accidents?"
"Jay knows this area like the back of her hand. She knows well enough to avoid the danger areas."
"But with this rain, the ground is soaked. What if she slipped and fell in a ravine?"
"She made it back. Don't dwell on worse case scenarios."
Susan sighed and finished drying her hair. "All right, I'll let it go." Her voice muffled under the towel, she added, "Although she did look a bit like a drowned rat when she came back."
"You should know. I can't believe you were out in the hot tub in that weather."
Susan pushed away from the door and stepped close to the bed. "It wasn't bad at all. You should have been there." Slowly, she dropped the towel. "I would have been less lonely with you in there with me."
"Sorry. I sort of thought that you were mad at me and I wanted to do some reading."
"I wasn't angry at you, dear. I was just frustrated." Running a hand down her naked body, Susan licked her lips. "I considered doing something while I was there."
Martha stared at her. "You wouldn't."
"If I thought that was the only way to go." She pouted. "Are you planning on doing any more reading
tonight?"
Sighing dramatically, Martha tossed the book onto the nightstand. "Well, I suppose, with sufficient inducement, I could be finished for tonight."
"That sounds like a challenge." Susan crawled into bed and curled her body around Martha's larger frame and rested her head on Martha's chest. She felt the pulse speed up under her ear. "I get the feeling that you can easily be induced," she said. Tugging on her partner's sleep shirt, Susan told her to take it off.