by Marla Monroe
They excused themselves and went outside to look around. She knew that Tripp had been checking the fences every morning to be sure nothing had messed with them. He was worried something would either break through or dig under it. She felt like they were worrying over nothing but didn’t say anything. She didn’t make a big deal out of it since she hated that they were anxious about leaving her alone while they were working.
When lunchtime rolled around, they came back in talking about how fast the garden was growing.
“She’s going to be harvesting some of that stuff in the next two or three weeks.” Tripp shook his head.
“Makes you wonder what it will do to us when we eat it.”
“I hate to tell you guys, but we’ve been eating stuff from the planet all along. Remember? It’s too late to worry now.” Piper set a plate of sandwiches on the table.
They all sat down and ate. Tripp told her that so far there hadn’t been any signs of animals messing around the fence anywhere.
“Maybe it is enough of deterrent just being there in their way. They’ve probably never seen anything like it before.”
“I’d feel better if we could see how something reacts to it.” Keith took a bite out of his sandwich.
“I think you two are worried for nothing. I’m the one who has to worry about you two being out in the wide open every day. Not to mention when you have to be out at night. I’m going to be a nervous wreck until you get home every night.”
“Piper, we’ll be on horses and have rifles with us. We’ll be fine.”
“You’ll have to call me up on the radio every once in a while to let me know you are okay.”
Tripp chuckled. “Yes, ma’am.”
Piper sighed. They weren’t taking her seriously, yet they were taking leaving her seriously. Men were so exasperating sometimes. She resigned herself to constantly worrying about them. She just hoped they weren’t trying to placate her and were really taking their safety seriously.
* * * *
Saturday morning, Piper couldn’t be still. She flitted from one thing to another without accomplishing anything. Keith and Tripp both commented on how tired they were from watching her jump around the house.
“Settle down, Piper, or you’re going to be too tired to go.” Tripp tried to hug her, but she pulled away.
“What time did you say we had to be there?”
“Two o’clock. That’s three hours from now. How about an early lunch.”
“Lunch! Oh, God. I forgot about lunch.” She hurried to the kitchen to see that she’d already started pulling out things to make sandwiches.
She sighed and mentally kicked herself for being so nervous. They were just people like she was. There was really no need to get so uptight about meeting them. Piper finished making the sandwiches and called for the men to come eat.
After they had finished and Piper had cleaned the kitchen, they sat in the living room waiting on time to leave.
“How will you know where to go when we’ve never been there before?” she asked.
“We’ve got the coordinates, and all I have to do is punch them into the buggy transport system, and it will direct us right there.” Tripp grinned at her.
She sighed. She had probably already asked him that once. Keith had been quiet through most of her questions. He caught her eye and winked at her now. She smiled and relaxed some. She really was being silly about the entire thing. She needed to relax and enjoy talking with the other women. She knew they wouldn’t get to see each other very often.
“You’re awful quiet over there,” Tripp said.
“Trying to calm down. I know I’m driving you crazy.”
“Naw, you’re cute when you’re all flustered.”
“She’s really cute when she’s embarrassed.” Keith chuckled.
“Guys, don’t embarrass me today. Please.”
“We’ll see. Depends on how much time we have on our hands when we get there. I love it when you get pink all over. It’s almost as pretty as my handprint on your ass.”
She rolled her eyes and frowned at him. “Don’t start. I’m hanging on to my sanity by a very thin thread.”
Keith tried to hide his laugh by clearing his throat and his smile behind his hand. She wasn’t fooled one single minute. They were both laughing at her. She would get back at them when they least expected it though. That made her grin. The guys saw her and sobered fast. They weren’t stupid. They knew she always had the upper hand.
Two hours later, they loaded up and pulled out to go to Andrew, Danny, and Rachel’s house. It took them a good fifteen minutes to get there. On the way they saw several different-looking trees that Piper would have loved to have taken pictures of. They guys promised her they’d take her driving one day when they were off.
When they pulled up outside the house, Piper’s butterflies returned. She thought for a few seconds that she might actually get sick. Then two women emerged on the front porch with four other men. Tripp got down from the transport buggy, then Keith jumped down and reached up to help her down. She found herself hiding behind Keith.
“You must be Tripp, Keith, and Piper. Come on in, and we’ll introduce everyone. I’m Andrew, by the way.” He led them into the house.
Piper thought it looked almost identical to theirs except for the decorations. She guessed they built one type of house and stuck to it. It would make for an easier time building the houses if they were all the same layout.
“This is Danny and our wife, Rachel. Over there are Ashley and her husbands, Boyd and Keeton.”
Everyone nodded and shook hands. Rachel waved for her to come over and follow her and Ashley into the kitchen. She smiled as they sat around the table. Rachel poured coffee for them.
“The men will come get their own in a little while. So, how are you getting on so far, Piper?”
“Okay so far. I’m really freaked a little bit about how fast the garden is growing. I guess I will get used to it after a while. Then there was Keith getting sick, and that scared me to death.”
“I’m glad he’s doing fine now. That’s scary. We’ve all had close calls, though, and lived through them. I’m not sure if that’s a testament to how strong we are, or if it just means that it wasn’t really a bad case.”
Ashley spoke up. “You also have to be very careful of the animals here. I got slobbered on by a muskie, and it left bubbly scars that are yellow. I hate them. We’ve got a fence around the back of the house and garden now, and if you watch to be sure they don’t dig under, then you’re okay.”
“The guys are worried about them doing that. They check the fence every morning. So they will actually do that?”
“Yep. We’ve had to hunt them down here a couple of times when they dug their way under.”
Piper didn’t like the sound of that. She’d thought the men were being overly cautious, but maybe they weren’t after all. The chance of one getting in was greater than she thought. She shivered. She needed to add that bit of information to her booklet. She thought about telling the other women what she was doing, but didn’t want to sound like she was a braggart.
“So, are you pregnant yet?” Rachel asked.
Chapter Seventeen
Piper nearly spewed out her coffee. She hadn’t thought that they might ask her that. Good, Lord.
“Um, no. Not that I know of anyway. I guess I really hadn’t thought about it happening so soon.”
“If your men are anything like ours, they’re keeping you busy in bed. It will happen soon.” Rachel smiled at her. “You need to be aware that your pregnancy doesn’t last the full nine months here. It only lasts about eight.”
“And another thing is that your baby will grow faster than you expect. Rachel and I are writing a little book about what to expect here because the books they sent are based on Earth, and it doesn’t follow the same rules here.” Ashley sipped her coffee.
“I can’t even imagine what you’re saying. I’ll be a nervous wreck when I do get pregnant.” S
he blew out a breath. “I’m making some booklets, too. I’m documenting the wildlife and the plants with photos so people can steer clear of what is dangerous. The one that got Keith wasn’t even mentioned in the booklets they are passing out at the station when you get here.”
“You’re kidding. Do you have a picture of it so we can stay away from it?” Rachel sat her cup down.
“Lord, I didn’t think about that. I actually have my camera and it’s on the memory. Do you have a printer here?”
“We do. Let’s go do that right now.” Rachel stood up and they followed her as she headed toward the living room.
The men looked up with curious expressions when they walked through. Rachel waved at them.
“We’re going to look at some pictures Piper has on her camera of dangerous plants.”
“Piper, be sure you give them one of that plant that got me,” Keith said.
“I am.” She turned and followed Rachel and Ashley.
The office was an exact replica of their office. She settled herself at the desk where the picture printer was and docked the camera to it. Then she pulled up the photos and scrolled through them until she came to the weird plant. She printed off six pictures of it, three for each of them.
“This one is of the entire plant so you can see what it looks like.” She held up one of the pictures. “This one shows you just a leaf. And this one is the leaf close up so you can see the tiny sticky spine things on the leaf.”
“Oh! I think we have several of those out in the back of the garden. I’ll have to make sure Boyd gets rid of them.” Ashley shook her head. “I can just see Daniel running back there to try and get away from me.”
“Daniel is your little boy?”
“Right. He’s one and driving me crazy. He’s about the age of a two-year-old if you go by Earth’s measurements.”
“My Clara is the same age. We got pregnant about the same time. She’s actually a few weeks older.”
“Wow, I–I don’t know what to think. I’ll definitely be calling you when I get pregnant. I’ll never figure it all out.” She shook her head and drew in a deep breath.
“Let’s go back to the kitchen and have some more coffee. I’ll probably have to make some more because I’m sure the men took the opportunity to drain the pot while we were gone.” Rachel laughed.
They retraced their steps through the living room and sure enough, they all had coffee in their hands. She smiled at Tripp and Keith. Ashley stopped off and gave her pictures to her husbands and told them what they were. Keeton actually paled when she told him that there were some in the back of the garden.
Once they were all sitting around the table again, waiting on the coffee to make, Rachel brought up the subject of there being something different about a cell in their blood.
“We all have it, even the ones who haven’t been bitten or scratched or drooled on.” She nodded toward Ashley when she said “drooled.”
“It must be in the food we eat, then,” Piper said.
“We think it’s really in the soil and that transfers to the plants and so the food we eat. For all we know, it might even be absorbed directly from the air.” Rachel seemed to have thought a lot about it.
“And this mutated cell or whatever it is isn’t causing any trouble?”
“Not that we have seen. The doctor in the city is keeping a watch over it. He’s baffled and worried, but there’s nothing any of us can do.”
Ashley got up and poured the coffee for Rachel. “You’ll just make yourself sick worrying about it. I almost did that. I was so sure my baby would be born deformed or something. He’s just fine and very advanced for his age.”
“Yep, I’m definitely going to need you two when I end up that way. I’m already stressing over the fact that Keith and Tripp have to be out at night sometimes.”
“They’ll be fine. Ours do it now. This way none of them will have to do it as often now that you’re here. Then when another family moves here, it will get even better,” Rachel said.
They chatted about the garden and ways to put up the vegetables. Piper learned that they were planning to give her some chickens when the chicks were born and a milk cow.
“You’ll have to gather eggs once the chickens are old enough and learn to milk the cow, but it is wonderful to have real milk and eggs for cooking and to eat.” Rachel chuckled. “Believe me. It’s not easy learning any of that either. I wore gloves so the damn chickens wouldn’t peck my skin off.”
Ashley laughed as well. “And milking a cow is like pulling a water balloon. If you don’t do it right, the cow will tell you about it in a hurry.”
“Hey ladies. It’s about time for Piper to be leaving. They are taking the horses back today.” Danny walked in to the kitchen with the other men behind him.
Piper stood up, feeling a little overwhelmed by all the men in one place. Every one of them was big. They sucked the air right out of the room.
Keith seemed to realize she was panicking and came around the table to take her hand with his.
She immediately felt better. She waved good-bye and thanked them for all the information and let her men draw her out of the room and back outside.
“I’m bringing the horses back to the house, and Keith is going to drive the transport. You can ride with Keith. I’m not comfortable with you riding back with me, baby.”
“That’s okay, I’m not too sure I could ride a horse anyway. It’s been a very long time since I’ve been on the back of one.”
“Come on. Let’s get you in the transport.” Keith helped her up and buckled her in the harness. She waved to the others standing on the porch.
When Keith climbed in, she was quiet until they were underway. Then she started telling him all about what she’d learned.
“How long will it take for Tripp to make it home? I hate for him to be by himself.”
“He’s going to be fine. Probably about an hour after we get home.”
“Oh. That long. Then he’ll have to take care of them and everything.”
Keith laughed. “I’m going to help him, so it won’t take too long. We’ll both be in pretty quick.”
“I’ll start dinner when we get home. It will be just about ready when you come back inside. I’m sure you will want a shower before you eat.”
“You could shower with us,” Keith suggested cutting his eyes over to her.
She laughed. “Dinner would burn if I did that. Neither one of you can pass up a chance at messing around with me when I’m nude.”
“Well, that’s the point of you taking a shower with us.”
“I think I’ll take a rain check on it this time.”
“Spoilsport.”
They pulled up in front of the house with about an hour until dusk. Piper could already see the two moons glowing in the sky. She unfastened her harness but waited for Keith to come around and help her down. Then they hurried to the house in case there was anything dangerous around waiting on them.
“I’m going to go put the transport buggy up. I’ll be right back.”
Piper watched Keith get back in the buggy before she turned and headed toward the kitchen. She needed to start dinner. Everyone would be hungry by the time it was ready. She needed something to settle her stomach after two cups of coffee and all the talk about pregnancy and the children being born early. She hadn’t told Keith that part. She thought she would save it until she did get pregnant. She didn’t want to freak them out like she had been.
A few minutes later, Keith walked back in. He washed up and then wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her cheek. She looked back over her shoulder at him and smiled.
“You looked a little freaked out when we came in to get you. What were you girls talking about?”
“Oh, just about the dangers and cooking and canning and the gardens. It’s just all so overwhelming to think about. Hearing them talk sort of brought it all home to me. I’ve been playing house in my own little world not really thinking about the reality
of having a garden come in for me to have to do all that stuff. I’ve just been so excited that it really is growing that I hadn’t thought about what I was going to do with it when it came in.”
“It will be okay, baby. We’ll help all we can.”
“You’ve got enough to do with working and the horses. Oh, and we’re getting chickens and a cow I found out. I don’t know the first thing about chickens or a cow. I have to learn how to milk the cow, Keith. Who is going to teach me?”
“Tripp knows how to milk a cow. He can teach you.”
“Do you know how to get an egg out from under a chicken so it won’t peck you? Cause I sure don’t. They suggested I wear gloves.” She pulled away from him to check the oven.
Keith chuckled. “I’m not so sure talking to the other women helped you much.”
“I’m not sure either.” She sighed. “I really had a good time, though.”
“Well, if nothing else, you gave them that picture for them to get rid of all their dangerous plants. That was well worth the trip.”
“Yeah. I felt for Ashley. She said she and her son had been back there, and she knew there were some of them back there.”
The back door opened, and Tripp came in. Piper started to go jump on him but stopped when she got close.
“You smell like horse.”
“Tell me about it. Keith, you want to help me wipe ’em down?”
“Right behind you.”
She watched them leave and then watched through the curtain as they walked through the moonlight toward the stable. When they were out of sight, she returned to the stove to check on dinner. Then she set the table and wandered into the living room. She wanted to go work on her booklets, but not before dinner. She would lose track of time and burn it. Instead, she relaxed on the couch and waited for them to return.
* * * *