by N. C. Reed
“You old faker,” Rhonda chided. Rommel sniffed at that, but made no other response. He curled back up on the floor, just a step away.
“No monsters tonight, little one,” Rhonda smiled, and went back downstairs.
*****
Mary started awake. She lay perfectly still, looking at the ceiling over her. It was strange. She didn’t recognize it. And she wasn’t alone.
Warily she raised her head, an inch at the time, until she could see down near her feet. Laying alongside her leg was a dog. A large black dog, dozing comfortably, warming her as she lay in bed.
Bed. She didn’t have a bed. All she had was. . . .
“It wasn’t a dream,” she said to herself. Hearing the girl speak, Dottie roused herself. Crawling up the bed, she licked the girl’s hand, and then her face.
“Eww,” Mary laughed, pushing Dottie gently away. “Doggy breath! But I’m so glad to see you,” she hugged the dog tightly. “I thought it was all a dream!”
Her raised voice prompted another, much larger dog to enter the room, investigating. He sniffed the air, looking at the girl. Puzzled.
“Rommel!” Mary jumped from the bed, racing to the big dog and enveloping him as well. The normally ill tempered dog allowed this hugging with a snort, sensing that the girl wasn’t a threat. He remembered meeting her, last night. And, unlike the girl, he had the advantage of knowing that last night had not been a dream.
“Looks like someone’s up early,” Mary heard a voice say. She looked up to see Rhonda smiling down at her.
“Oh my God!” Mary leapt to her feet, bounding the few steps to where Rhonda stood and throwing her arms around the older girl.
“I thought it was a dream!” she exclaimed yet again, holding Rhonda tight. “I thought it was all a dream!”
“No, sweetie, it wasn’t a dream,” Rhonda promised her, returning the girl’s hug with enthusiasm of her own. “You’re safe.”
“Oh my God,” Mary repeated, her eyes brimming over with tears. She cried, then. Cried and cried, until Rhonda wondered how many tears her little body could hold. Or spare.
“What in the name o’ tar-nation is all. . . .” Billy cut himself off as he saw the scene before him. Rhonda’s glare didn’t hurt.
“Sorry,” Billy muttered, heading for the bathroom.
“Hi, Mister Billy, and I'm sooo sorry I almost shot you!” Mary cried, running now to hug Billy as well. Billy caught the girl, a stunned look on his face. But he returned her hug, more from not knowing what else to do than anything otherwise. Rhonda managed to stifle a giggle at the look on his face.
“I’m really, really sorry, Mister Billy,” Mary told him over and over.
“It’s okay, gal,” Billy assured her, patting her gently on the back. “Ain’t no harm done. Miss is as good as a mile, my Pa used to say.”
“I’m so sorry,” the girl cried one more time, before stepping back, and wiping her eyes. Billy looked down at her, smiling.
“You said that already,” he told her, and Mary laughed at that.
“I know, but I thought it was all a dream. That I had dreamed how you came and found me, and then Miss Rhonda brought me here, and I had a bath with hot water, and she cooked me a meal, and. . .and. . .and. . . .”
“It’s all real, honey,” Rhonda promised, her eyes watering slightly at how amazed the girl was over such simple things. How hard must she have had it? Not for the first time, Rhonda paused to reflect on how blessed they were on the farms, compared to so many others. Yes, they worked hard, and it wasn’t easy to make things go, but they had food, clean water, really all the amenities they had enjoyed before the plague.
Not everyone was so fortunate.
“Thank you. Thank you,” Mary said softly, sinking to the floor and starting to cry again. Rhonda sat down beside her. Billy looked at them for a minute, and started again for the bathroom.
“You need to go get Amy,” Rhonda informed him.
“Uh, why?” Billy asked.
“To check Mary over,” Rhonda told him. “She’s been on her own, making do any way she can all this time. She needs a check up.”
“Okay,” Billy shrugged. “I’ll go soon as I get dressed.”
“Meanwhile, we’ll start some breakfast.”
*****
“Well, other than her being very underweight, and malnourished, I think she’s okay,” Amy declared. “I can’t be positive, of course, and bear in mind I’m only an RN. I can’t really do a blood work up, but everything seems okay. Her skin is in bad shape, but a few good baths, with good soap and maybe some lotion or oil and that should clear up. She does have some sores, especially on her legs. She told me they’re from walking, and falling, as she moved from place to place. Scrapes and bruises galore.”
“Will they heal?” Rhonda asked, concerned. “Are they infected?”
“As she starts to get her health back they should. Her undernourishment is almost certainly playing a part in her slow healing. Her body just doesn’t have the vitamins and minerals it needs to keep her immune system operating normally.”
“None of them appear to be infected, but I can’t tell you why, considering how she had to live,” Amy shook her head. “Keep them washed with peroxide twice a day, and bandaged. Some antibiotic ointment wouldn’t go amiss, either, just in case. Use it twice a day for three days. That should be enough. Use the peroxide for five, though. After that, she should be fine to go without the bandages. Is she. . .?” Amy gave Rhonda a look.
“Yes, but we dealt with that last night,” Rhonda told her. “When her cycle happens again, we’ll mark it. And she’ll have. . .she’ll have what she needs when it happens,” she added.
“Then that’s it, I’d say,” Amy declared. “Unless a problem presents itself, she looks fine. She needs plenty of good food, and clean water. That’s the only thing that bothers me, though if she’d developed dysentery it would likely have killed her by now. Still, if she has any problems, let me know right away.”
“Thanks, Amy,” Rhonda said. “Want to stay for some breakfast?”
“No, thanks,” Amy smiled, putting her things away. “I need to get back, and help get our bunch fed. We’ll be back over a little later, anyway, for the meeting.” Rhonda walked Amy to the door, then headed back to where Mary sat in the kitchen.
“What would you like for breakfast?” she asked. Mary looked at her.
“Whatever you have?” she replied hesitantly.
“We have about anything you might want,” Rhonda told the girl. “Pancakes, bacon, eggs, sausage, biscuits. Name it, we might have it.”
Mary’s eyes had gotten progressively bigger as Rhonda had run down the menu options. Now she was goggling.
“Where did you get all that?” she asked, her voice nearly breathless.
“Well, some of it we had, some of it we got elsewhere, some we grew ourselves, and some we get fresh here on the farm,” Rhonda explained. “Depends on what it is.”
“And you still have all that?” Mary asked. “After all this time?”
“Well, we’ve eat some of it already,” Rhonda replied in mock seriousness. “But there’s plenty to eat, Mary. I promise. Remember last night?”
“But I. . .I thought that was just because. . .well, because you found me. You can’t eat like that all the time! You can’t waste food!”
“Honey, we aren’t wasting it,” Rhonda said kindly. “We have to eat. Around here, we work, and work hard at that. Got to have food when you’re working hard.”
Mary sat, staring. After three months of living literally hand to mouth, it was beyond her comprehension that she might be eating well, and regularly, once more. Silent tears begin to flow once more as the notion that she really was safe, at last, begin to impact on her.
Rhonda sat down at the table beside her, and took one of the girl’s hands in her own.
“Want to talk it out?” she asked.
“I. . .I don’t know what to say,” Mary didn’t quite sob. “I. . .I�
��ve been alone for so long, it seems like, and so scared, of everything. I can’t. . .I don’t. . . .”
“It’s okay, honey,” Rhonda soothed. “I know some of how you feel. I was all alone for a while myself, before Billy found me. And I’m all grown up. I was still scared. All the time.”
“Daddy, he. . .he got sick, like most ever one else did,” Mary said slowly. “I took as good o’ care of him as I knew how, but nothin’ worked. He. . .he died while I was asleep,” she squalled. “I didn’t mean to go to sleep! I was so tired, and I sat down in the chair I kept by his bed, and started readin’, and the next thing I know, I’m awake, and he ain’t breathin’, and I panicked. I tried to wake him up, but he wouldn’t wake up. Finally I figured out he was passed on,” she looked at the floor.
“If I hadn’t went to sleep. . . .”
“Your daddy would still have died, sweetie,” Rhonda told her gently, but firmly. “Not all of us got sick at all. But no one who did recovered. Not a one. Anyone who got sick, died, Mary. Every single one. You going to sleep didn’t make any difference.” The girl looked up at her, tear filled eyes full of hope. She wanted, needed, to believe it.
“You sure?” she asked, hesitant.
“I swear it,” Rhonda nodded. “Same thing happened to my daddy, too,” she added, her own eyes misting over. “I took care of him, just like you took care of yours. I was awake when my daddy died, but there still wasn’t anything to be done, honey. My daddy just went to sleep, and never woke up. I’d bet your daddy was asleep, too, wasn’t he?” she asked, hoping he had been. Mary nodded.
“Yes.”
“Now you can’t blame yourself for this, Mary,” Rhonda told her. “There’s no blame here for anybody. And them that’s gone, they’re all likely better off than we are, right now. They’re in a better place, sugar. We’re the one’s in a mess o’ trouble,” she added with a grin.
“I. . .I stayed at home for a while, but. . .food kept gettin’ harder and harder to get. I finally had to just move on. I had daddy’s rifle at first, but it was too much for me to shoot. I found the one I got now in a neighbor’s house. It’s heavy, but I knew how to use it, and it didn’t kick so hard.” She paused.
“There was dog’s ever where. Seemed like every time I went out, I seen’em. Some didn’t pay me no mind, but some did. I had to shoot at’em a few times, just to keep’em away from me. I think a time or two them dogs would have killed me, I hadn’t had that rifle.”
“We’ve had trouble with them, too,” Rhonda nodded, thinking back to the day she and Billy had found the dog pack attacking the cattle.
“I. . .I never did see nobody alive,” Mary said so softly that Rhonda had to strain to hear her. “Ever time I looked, all I found was dead folks. I. . .I knew so many of’em, and now they’re all gone. Ever one.”
“I know, honey,” Rhonda laid a hand on Mary’s shoulder. “I know.”
“I walked a long way, over time,” Mary went on. “I found a little food here and there, and started gathering stuff. I was using a little wagon to pull behind me with the stuff I found. When I found the house over there,” she nodded toward the Smith place, “I decided since it was gettin’ cold, I better make me a spot. I could hear all of you going around,” she added.
“You should have said something,” Rhonda told her.
“I was afraid,” Mary shrugged. “I heard a bunch of shootin’, and, well, I was just afraid. I didn’t know who you were, and I was afraid you’d be bad. Mean,” she clarified. “Bad people.”
“I can imagine,” Rhonda nodded. “Well, you don’t have to be scared anymore. And you don’t have to find a place to stay anymore either. You can stay right here, with us.” Mary looked at her, eyes suddenly bright.
“Really? With you and Mister Billy, and Dottie and Rommel?” Rhonda laughed.
“I never thought about you wanting to live with Rommel, but yeah, right here with us. Rommel included.”
“I’ll. . .I’ll work,” the girl said firmly. “I can pay my. . . .”
“We all work, Mary,” Rhonda stopped her. “And you can help. But you’re not ‘paying your way’. You’re a girl yet, and you’re going to have a chance to go back to being a girl for a little while longer. There’ll be time enough for you to be a grown up in the years ahead. We’ll teach you how to take care of yourself, but you won’t be on your own anymore. Not until and unless you want to be. Understand?”
Her answer was to bury her head in Rhonda’s shoulder and cry until her little body was wracked by sobs or relief, and joy.
“It’ll be okay,” Rhonda told her. “I promise.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
“Well I’ll be damned.”
Jerry’s statement was the general consensus after hearing about Mary Jerrolds.
“That poor girl,” Emma said sadly. “All alone for months.”
“Thing is, she ain’t like to be the only one,” Billy noted. Everyone was gathered once again at the Todd household, discussing recent events. This was supposed to have been a meeting about work still to be done, but some time had to be devoted to the addition of Mary Jerrolds to the fold.
“I think we need to add looking for people like her to our ‘to do’ list,” Debbie stated firmly. “We can’t let these children face all this alone.” The school teacher in her was both shocked and saddened by what had happened to Mary.
“I don’t disagree,” Rhonda nodded. “But we’re going to have to make a place for them. We need to scout around, and find a safe, secure place for them. And someone to oversee it.”
“I. . .I don’t see why we couldn’t at least help,” Debbie said, looking at George for confirmation.
“Likely be others out there somewhere that can too,” Jerry offered. “But we’re gonna need to study this one. This is a big responsibility we’re talkin’ about takin’ on. We can’t just wade into this without some thought, and some plannin’.”
“So we just leave them out in the cold while we ‘plan’?” Emma demanded.
“I didn’t say that,” Jerry sighed with frustration. “I don’t have a thing in the world against takin’ in children. And you ought to be ashamed to suggest it,” he added, face reddening.
“All I’m sayin’, is we need to study on it, and come up with the best possible way o’ handlin’ the situation. As for waitin’, we’ve all of us already waited too long. And I’m man enough to admit, the thought didn’t occur to me. All I was studyin’ on at first was keepin’ my family safe.”
“And there ain’t nothin’ wrong with that,” Billy spoke up, almost as if daring someone to disagree. “There ain’t no blame to be laid on nobody, here. This is just somethin’ else we didn’t think of. Now that we know, we can try to fix it. Make it right.”
“True,” Ralph nodded. “I. . .I’d like to think that people in general would have been open to the idea of caring for a child. But some people don’t have enough for their own families right now. Be hard to question them for not wanting more burden when they can’t handle what they’ve got.”
“Since when are children a burden?” Amy asked scathingly.
“Anyone who has to be fed and can’t do it themselves is a burden,” Ralph defended himself. “I’m not saying that children in general are a burden. And to quote Jerry, you should be ashamed for thinking about me in such a way.” Amy conceded the point, considering that Ralph had taken her and Amanda in to protect them. And care for them.
“Okay, this arguin’ ain’t gettin’ us nowheres,” Billy announced, standing. “We got work to do, and a schedule already laid out. Tomorrow we’re goin’ to meet up with them other folks. We’ll have more help, and better safety, maybe. Meanwhile, there’s a house to clean, and there’s work gotta be done. Everybody can think on this whilst we’re workin’.”
Nodding, everyone got to their feet.
“Billy, we need to check on the Clifton place,” Jerry said suddenly. “We should have done it already, mind. I don’t know if there’s any
one alive up there or not. Time to find out.”
“All right,” Billy nodded. “Let me saddle Samson, and I’ll go with you.”
“We’ll ride along, you want,” George offered. Ralph nodded.
“Well, ladies, I guess that leaves us cleaning up, as usual,” Emma snorted, though it was good natured.
“House is empty,” Billy shrugged. “And I sprayed it good last night. Ain’t much to do, just some sweepin’ and the like.”
“You obviously don’t know anything about keeping a house,” Debbie snorted.
“I’ll have you know I kept my own house for some time,” Billy shot back. Rhonda nodded.
“When I moved in here, this place was clean as a pin,” she told them. “Not even dusty,” she added.
“Well, that’s a first,” Debbie said, casting a glare at George.
“Man done said there’s work to be done,” George replied, unperturbed. “Let’s get at it.”
Laughing, the group split up. The newer families had drove over from their place, and now loaded up for the drive back. Billy and Rhonda went to saddle their own horses.
The Silvers and the ‘Todds’ rode over together. Mary had, thankfully, ridden a horse before, so Billy had taken the most gentle mare he had, and put her on it. She and the horse, an old mare named Bessie, had hit it right off.
“She ain’t no race horse,” Billy told her, “but she’s a gently soul, and sure footed. Just let her follow along, and giv’er her head. She’ll take you safely where you want to go.” Mary nodded, eager to ride.
“Rommel, Dottie, lead!” Billy ordered.
“Reckon he’ll get on with Reb?” Jerry asked.
“Might as well see now, I reckon,” Billy shrugged.
Reb was on patrol when the group came down the hill. He spotted the two Rotties at once, and went stiff legged. Billy stopped at that point, and ordered Rommel to stay. The dog quivered, but obeyed. Reb barked once in warning, but otherwise simply stood his ground.