by Ashley Nemer
"Then I say, if it looks like a duck, quack's like a duck,"
Sunny interrupted him, "I know, it's a duck." She started to walk upstairs as she shook her head. "Sometimes I worry about you Sam."
He didn't respond to her, but he did look over Amelia and grinned at her, "Did you break the bank?"
Amelia gave him a toothy smile and said, "Well I broke a nail, does that count?"
Sam leaned over and kissed her lips softly then took a few of the bags off her arms. "I'll help you put all these away. What did you get? It feels like bricks, these are so heavy."
"Our little community is growing, so I have been working up an idea."
"Oh boy, this sounds like more work."
"It will be, but worth it in the end I think. Here let me show you." Amelia took one of the bags from him and walked over to the couch and displayed the contents. "See, people are growing in size right, and we can't all just keep wearing hand-me-downs. Eventually they will be just tattered rags. So, I am going to start shopping every day for a month and collect items. We have room in the pantry house with the doctor's office that we can also have a make shift store."
She pulled more items out of more bags, "This way people can 'shop' when they need something instead of always having to bum a way to the mall or some store."
"How are you going to keep people from hoarding and taking all of them?" Sam asked.
"Well I thought about that too. Since money isn't really any good we can issue rations."
"Like we do the water?" He asked.
Amelia motioned with her head, "Yep, let's say at first everyone can have three clothing outfits and seven pairs of underwear and socks."
"Why three and seven?"
"Here's my logic Sam. First, well, we all kinda have clothes now so it isn't like we're destitute. But I bet people need new underwear, I know you do."
"Hey!" He protested.
She waved him away, "So then after the first month we can move it to one outfit and two underwear each month per person. I'll of course need to keep going to the stores and gathering as much clothing as I can. There is an Old Navy a ways down I want to hit up too."
"Let me guess, you're going to manage all of this, right?"
"Of course." She said without hesitation.
"Don't you think that you are kinda doing enough as it is?"
"Well I thought about that too, and I think this would be a good task for Sarah and me to do with Sunny. It will give her some purpose, some responsibility. Like she can manage displaying everything and refilling shelves when product gets low. Sarah and I can do the bookkeeping. We can take turns and the store could maybe only be open two days a week or something simple at first."
"Have you talked to your brother about this?"
"Sure, we talked about it in passing before, but I haven't told him we were going through with anything just yet. I was leaving that for Sarah to do. Since he is practically living over there full time, she sees him more than I do now days."
"Well, okay. It isn't like I can tell you no, but I don't want you doing any more projects. We need to focus on the ones we currently have. We still have our family farm to tend, our community farm to tend and all of our regular household chores."
"Sam, it isn't like I don't know all this. You remember who it is that manages things on a daily basis, right?"
"You're right, let's not fight. I just, I don't want you overworked." Sam squeezed Amelia's hand and gave her a smile. "You're such an amazing woman, you want to do so much. I just want to look out for you that's all."
The two of them sat there on the couch holding hands for a few moments before the silence was broken by a loud explosion.
"What was that?" Amelia exclaimed, before the both raced upstairs to check on Sunny.
For the second time that day Sam walked into Sunny's private space without permission, except this time he didn't need to sneak around to see the problem. There was his baby cousin, sitting on the floor, with black soot all over her face and a cauldron on the floor in front of her.
"What in the hell are you doing Sunny?" Sam barked out.
"Clearly I am blowing myself up Sam." She snapped right back at him.
"Don't take that attitude with me Sunny I saw that book I know you're up to something, you're hiding it from me and I'm not okay with that." Sam reached down and put his hand around Sunny's arm and pulled her into a standing position. "Spill it Sunny, what is going on?"
"What do you mean you know about the book, were you in my room?" Sunny shouted at her cousin.
"I mean that yeah I was and you're my responsibility. I knew something was up and I needed to see what it was."
"You had no right Sam, no right! None! This is my room. You can't just come in here whenever you want."
"Sunny, stop you need to explain how you got to our grandparent's house without help."
"Sam, maybe you shouldn't yell at Sunny, this isn't helping anything." Amelia came around to Sunny's side and put an arm about her shoulders. "Sweetie, I think you need to tell him what's going on."
He looked over at his wife and felt his blood start to boil, "Amelia, you know what's going on?"
She nodded, and Sam glared at his cousin. "Spill it Sunny."
Sunny's eyes were full of tears and he could see the streaks they were starting to cause on her soot stained face. "Sam you know something’s wrong with me."
"I don't think anything is wrong with you." He saw his cousin grab his wife's hand.
"Yes, something is, I'm different. And that book over there is helping me."
"I felt something weird when I was reading the book, what kind of family bible is it?"
"You could read it too?" Amelia questioned.
"Yeah, but I don't know how, it's in Arabic."
Sunny's head moved up and down, "Yeah I can read it, but Amelia can't. She doesn't have the gift. From what I can tell it's genetic."
"What is Sunny?"
"The power. I'm a witch." She started to sniffle her nose and he saw Amelia pull her in closer, he felt horrible for how he was handling this.
"Amelia, you should have told me."
"I promised Sunny I would let her do it. I didn't know that you were touched with it too."
Sam felt his head starting to spin. He walked over to Sunny's bed and sat down on the edge. "This seems like a lot to take in, can you just start from the beginning please."
Over the course of an hour Sunny explained about her ability to teleport spiritually to other locations. How she had started to work spells she had found in their family bible. He stayed quiet through her explanation of how she realized her powers were more than what he had thought controlling the weather was.
"Sam are you okay?" Amelia asked her husband as she walked into their room.
"Not really, Sunny told me a lot of things I just can't believe." Sam was sitting in the bed writing down what Sunny had explained to him. "Did you know about all of this?"
She shook her head back and forth, "No, not about all the genetic stuff, but I did know her powers were strengthening."
"It's still confusing, you know I didn't do great at the genetics portion in science class."
"It was pretty simple Sam. She said your grandparent’s book said it was a recessive gene."
"Yeah but I don't get that Amelia, how can she have this stuff and her parents didn't."
"Sam don't you remember when Mrs. Alberta taught us the Punnett Squares?"
"No, not at all."
"Well Sunny said your grandma was a witch and your grandpa was not. Too bad she is gone we could have asked her lots of questions."
"Yeah but how is Sunny a witch and I'm not?"
"Your grandma would have passed on a witch gene to both of her sons. I guess it would have to come from the mom's too, to be a witch. Sunny's mom must have either been a witch or had the recessive gene too."
"So, what my mom then didn't?"
"If she did have the gene there was only a fifty percent ch
ance of her passing it to you. Those aren't the greatest odds you know."
Sam rubbed his head, "This is giving me a headache. Let's just go to bed and we can deal with it in the morning."
He kept his head on his pillow for hours, thinking about Sunny. At first he was furious at both her and Amelia for keeping this from him. From Anthony too. They had been a team from the start of the event, and built this community into what it had become. Sam kept thinking about the hurricane and the damage it caused. Did Sunny make that happen, or make it worse?
What if she lost control and more damage was done.
Sam sat up from his bed and swung his feet over the edge and lightly pressed his feet to the floor. He wanted to make sure he didn't disturb Amelia and wake her up. Using the tips of his toes, he made his way down the hallway and downstairs. He crossed through the living room and into the kitchen, he was shocked to see Anthony sitting at the table.
"Hey man, thought you would be over at Sarah's."
"Yeah, we had a fight, so I came home." Anthony's face showed his pain and Sam felt for him.
"Want to talk about it?" Sam stretched his arm into the refrigerator and pulled out the pitcher of iced tea and poured himself a drink.
Shrugging Anthony responded, "I don't know. Sure. She wants us to get married next."
"We all thought you would be next" Sam said as he sat down across from his brother-in-law.
"That's just it, everyone assumes it and I just don't want to." Anthony took a gulp from his glass and swiped his hand over his lips. "I just don't feel ready."
"But you practically live with her now."
"Yeah, but I can still come home. We aren't you and Amelia, you two have known each other practically our whole lives."
Sam indicated yes with his head, "Yeah but if you're not ready then you're not ready. You can't do everything the same as your sister and I."
"That's what I told Sarah and she didn't like it."
"Did you ask her why marriage is so important to her?"
Anthony nodded, "Yeah, because she says it's the end of the world and we could die tomorrow so she wants to make the most of it."
Sam couldn't fault the logic there, he felt the same way. "Want me to take your mind off of your love drama?"
"Not if you're going to tell me about you and my sister drama."
"Ha! Your sister and I are perfect we don't have any drama. No, I was going to update you on Sunny drama."
"Is she okay?" Anthony perked up, his voice layered in concern.
"She is fine if that is what you're asking. You know how she can control the weather?"
"Yes..." Anthony said with a slight hesitation.
"As it turns out she can do more than that, or rather, is working towards doing a lot more than that. She is a full-blown witch."
"Really? Are you sure?"
Sam took another drink of his iced tea, "Yeah, she has these abilities that our grandmother apparently had. I never knew about it. Amelia has known for a while."
"What kind of abilities, like can she turn people to toads?"
Sam laughed, "I am pretty sure that is strictly a movie thing. But she can astral project, she is working on spells and her ability with the weather is getting stronger."
"Wow, I have to say I didn't see that coming. When did you find out that her powers had increased so dramatically?"
"Tonight, and I am not quite sure when your sister found out." Sam took another drink and then stood from the table. "Anthony, for what it's worth I really do think Sarah is right. Go home to her. You love her and there are far scarier things than living with the woman you love. If you're not ready for marriage then just move in with her. You know you can always come back here anytime you decide it isn't right."
"Maybe Sam, I'll think on it tonight and talk to her tomorrow."
"Goodnight Anthony, see you in the morning."
Sam walked out of the kitchen and made his way back to his room upstairs. He wasn't going to let the witch issue bother him tonight, there is always tomorrow to dwell. Tonight, he wanted to go and be with Amelia, and that was what he was going to do.
Chapter Twelve - Coming To Terms
THE NEXT FEW WEEKS were spent with the women working on the new clothing shop and Anthony working on training. Sunny had a dream that had spooked him and Sam, and he didn't want to risk her new powers not including her being clairvoyant with the abilities to see possible futures.
Sunny had painted a picture about a rainy night in the next year sometime where their walls were being attacked by strangers. Their community had fallen, and everyone was kicked out by the invading colony of survivors. What really had him perplexed was how Sunny had described the leader. A well-built man with silver hair and a staff. Anthony didn't know what to do what that. Who used a staff other than the elderly? Sunny said that the man didn't seem too much older than them, but he wasn't sure he believed it. The way she said silver hair didn't give him the warm and fuzzies. But it did make him want to prepare in case her dream was true.
Over these few weeks Anthony had gone out with John and Sam a dozen times to start procuring weapons. The women weren't in favor of this, they worried the younger kids would find a way to get ahold of them. Anthony was convinced that sooner or later, even if it wasn't in the way of Sunny's dream went, they would be attacked. It was common awareness that this community wasn't the only one to survive since the stores continued to lose supplies outside of what they were taking. It was inevitable that someone eventually would try and take away what was theirs.
Another source of concern had been their modes of transportation. Their last vehicle was on its last gallon of fuel and they hadn't found a gas station to replenish the fuel close to home in a while. Another reason to believe that there were more survivors, the gasoline was gone. Amelia had suggested they use animals. At the time, Anthony had ignored her suggestion saying that it wasn't the seventeenth century, but he was now realizing horse powered fuel would be better than the alternative.
Finding ways to make all these different issues from coming to life and solve them was a lot of pressure, and it was starting to weigh heavily on him. After he talked with Sam about the whole idea of marriage, his feelings of eternity seemed to lessen with dread. Instead, what had replaced it were loads of responsibility. He was having to come to terms with certain situations that he wasn't okay with.
For instance, worrying about their community following common rules.
In his last school year, he had been learning about different governments. While he had an 'a' in the class, he hadn't paid enough attention to some of the different philosophers that his teacher was trying to instruct on. He remembered the obvious John Locke and his social contract, but he couldn't remember everything that had gone into it. He had brought it up to Sarah one day at dinner and she suggested that they go to the library and see what they could find.
Anthony wanted to make sure that everyone felt he was being fair with the rules that everyone had agreed upon, but he was well aware that their community had gone from just four people to over twenty. As time continued it was obvious there would be more. Their houses inside the subdivision would easily hold at least five more families comfortably. There had been talk of converting one of the houses into more of an apartment home with a shared kitchen area to accommodate people who weren't here with families but still wanted a central community of people. A lot had changed in a year. Anthony just wanted the community to adapt and continue to thrive.
"I've been watching you sit at your desk now for over an hour and I haven't seen you do anything." Sarah said as she walked past him holding a basket of laundry.
With a shrug he responded, "I'm doing stuff you just can't tell."
"I don't think that pondering the world’s problems counts as productive."
"Of course it does, when you're coming up with more ways for the community to keep growing."
"What do you have in mind?" She had set the basket down on the living room floor
and took a spot next to it on the couch and started pulling out each piece of clothing one by one to fold.
"Well, for instance, I think I was wrong and we should try to find livestock to use as transportation."
"Does your sister know you just said that? Her head may explode!" Sarah was laughing as she spoke. The sound of her voice always made him feel calm, and even when she was teasing him, he still enjoyed it.
"I haven't told her yet, I was waiting for her birthday." Anthony pulled some paper out of his desk and grabbed his pen. He started writing some items down on the lined papers and tried to focus hard on the importance of priorities and what issues need to be solved first.
"What else is bothering you?" Sarah was holding up his boxers and started laughing, "I think you need to go shopping, is that on your list, these have a huge hole in them."
"It's on my list, right under, I don't know, shower and shave. Very important. I'll go to our little store tomorrow, I promise."
"I have our vouchers for clothing on the fridge in the kitchen, you just need to take it with you."
"You don't really think I will need that do you? It's my sister!"
Sarah shook her head, "It's Sunny, and she is hard pressed to give anyone a break. I'll bet that her books are as meticulous as the old accountants were before the incident happened."
"Lovely. Well I guess three pairs of boxers it is."
"You know Anthony, your sister is really doing a great job, and she is finding the needs of the community, and almost tricking everyone into fixing the issues before they become a problem."
"Do you not think I am doing a good job too?" Anthony set his paper aside and looked at her, his attention zoned in on her.
"It isn't that you aren't doing a good job, you both are. It is just different approaches, that's all."
"I think we need rules, like legit laws." He had shuffled more paper around and started writing down on the paper again. "With consequences.
"How do you think you will get everyone's buy in?
"What do you mean by everyone's? I am in charge here, I made that known before anyone new moved in." He was now staring right at Sarah and he watched her look away and avoid his eye contact. "Why, Sarah what have you heard?"