by Stan Morris
“And now I’m here with you. I feel like I have something to live for again. Like I have something, someone, several someone’s to protect. Being with you is a little like being with Jackie, but better. My feelings for Jackie were like a crush on a favorite teacher. My feelings for you are like the feelings I think your husband must have felt. Not just feelings of desire, but feelings of caring and cherishing. I suppose it’s wrong, but I can’t help feeling like Comet and Star are our kids, not just yours. I hope you’re not offended by that, Mary.”
Mary could not respond at first, so she shook her head and laid her head on his shoulder. She used a finger to daintily wipe moisture from the sides of her eyes. Finally she collected herself and spoke.
“I’m not going to lie to you, Ralph. I do have feelings for you. I care about you very much. I love the way you interact with my children. I can see how much they mean to you. But I’m troubled by these feelings. I’m still mourning my husband. I need more time to come to terms with these feelings I have for you.”
“I’m fine with that,” he said, and he bent and kissed her lightly on her cheek.
Prudently, they parted and went to bed.
After that night, Mary felt as though the air was cleared between her and Ralph; that even though she was unwilling to further their relationship, they had reached an understanding about their future. Her mood lightened considerably.
And she was busy. She was determined that when the kids emerged from the Lodge, she would be there to feed them. She baked loaves of bread and froze them. She scrounged her house for every container she could find and then scoured and washed them, and she filled them with soups which could also be frozen. She knew that the taste and texture of frozen milk changed for the worse after a few weeks, so she waited until two weeks before April’s arrival before she began freezing milk. But until then, she skimmed the cream off the milk, and she made plenty of butter in her blender.
On the first day of March, she had the boys empty the containers in the solar room and refill them with fresh dirt. Then she planted them with tomato and cucumber seedlings. She had grown chard and spinach all winter, and what the members of her household did not eat, she cooked and froze. She made the boys catch as much trout as possible. They didn’t mind catching the fish, but they sure minded cleaning them. She had separated the potatoes when they were harvested, and she had soon replanted the thumb sized ones. Now the leaves of those tubers were poking through the snow. Except for meat, she thought that she could feed the campers for a month. After that? She would deal with that when it happened.
Mary welcomed the advent of spring. There was still snow on the ground, heavy in some places, but the sun had shone for much of March, so far, and now the plants would get more than twelve hours of sunlight. Soon she would need to get the plow ready to till the earth. She needed to get down to the camp to see if there was any available land that could be tilled. Mary intended to put as much land as possible into production this year. She knew that the amount of land she could cultivate would depend on the amount of fuel that could be spared. Hector had told her about the fuel tank at the logging camp. She needed to convince him that the best use of that fuel would be for food production.
For the kids, it was a great relief to get out of the house. Even chores were welcomed, if it meant getting out in the sun. Most of the chickens and rabbits had survived the winter. Fishing was fun, even if they had to clean what they caught. Ralph enjoyed walking over the fields, marveling at the hardy potato plants, and throwing the spears with the twins when they practiced.
One morning, he allowed Comet and Star to accompany him. They wandered around the fields, before heading toward the water tank to see how it had fared during the winter.
“Carry me, Daddy!” Comet demanded when he grew tired.
Star glanced at Ralph, but she said nothing. She had grown used to her brother’s endearment for the young man. Ralph picked up Comet, and he set the boy on his shoulders. As they walked toward the water tank, he asked Star what she knew about her mother’s plans.
“Mama thought that we could grow beans out here,” Star explained. “We were going to use that black plastic stuff to drip irrigate the plants. I know that we have a lot of seed. But mama never got around to it last year.”
“What kind of beans does she grow?” Ralph asked.
“I think they were more like peas,” Star replied. “I know she talked about peas from China and snapping peas. Then she said she was going to try to grow black eyed peas and green beans. But she didn’t think that green beans would grow very well here.”
“Chinese and snap peas,” said Ralph thoughtfully. “That’s right. They’re supposed to grow well in cool weather.”
“Oooo… a tiger,” Comet exclaimed.
Ralph and Star laughed. “You see a tiger, Comet?” Ralph asked.
“There,” Comet replied, pointing to the water tank.
Star gasped, and Ralph stopped. It was not a tiger, it was a mountain lion. It was pacing towards them, head lowered. It seemed to be limping slightly.
Ralph lowered Comet to the ground. “Let’s go back,” he said.
“I want to see the tiger, Daddy,” Comet complained.
Ralph and Star took Comet by his hands, and they began pulling him towards the house. The lion’s stride towards them quickened to a slow lope. The trio had only moved a dozen paces before it became clear that the animal would soon catch them.
Chapter Nine
JACOB
Ralph stopped, and he placed Comet and Star behind him. He was frightened. The animal’s coat was dirty, and its ribs were showing. Ralph wondered if the animal might be starving. He wondered if it would attack. How can I stop it? It will surely go for Comet.
“Star, you need to be ready to take Comet and run to the house,” Ralph said as calmly as he could. “I’ll try to distract it.”
Ralph wished he had brought his spear. The big cat stopped a few paces from the trio; its tail was twitching.
“I’m scared, Daddy,” Comet whimpered, sensing that something was amiss.
“Are you ready, Star?” Ralph asked without turning.
“Yes, Dad,” she replied.
She took Comet’s hand firmly. As young as she was, she could tell what was about to happen. The huge cat would spring, and Ralph would try to wrestle with it, while she and Comet ran as fast as they could to the house. Will Ralph die? She had a moment’s regret that she had never told him the truth, that she loved him.
Then Star heard a yell, and the big cat’s attention was diverted. Ralph heard the sound of his own spear whizzing by his head. The mountain lion leaped back as Ralph’s spear landed at the very place where the large cat had been crouching. The cat turned and fled as Nathan and Kevin, panting and out of breath, reached the trio. They were carrying their spears.
Ralph took a stunned breath. His legs were shaking, and Comet was clinging to his leg and crying. Regaining his composure, Ralph reached down and picked up Comet. He turned around to see Star sandwiched protectively between Nathan and Kevin. In the distance, Mary, who had been running to them with her shotgun, slowed to a walk. Everything is alright, he thought. My family is safe. Comet felt the change and stopped crying.
Ralph looked at the twins. “Thank you,” was all he could say.
They blushed, but they were pleased. “We were coming to get you,” said Kevin. “I had your spear, because we wanted to practice throwing.”
Ralph looked back at the place where the mountain lion had crouched, and saw that his spear was dead center in that place.
“Who made the throw?” he asked. Kevin raised a hand.
“You pass,” Ralph said. The twins laughed.
“That was mostly luck,” Kevin admitted.
Mary was almost to them. “Are you alright?” she asked anxiously.
“Everything is alright, Mary,” Ralph said. “These guys saved the day.”
Later, the story excited the girls as they listened. T
hey were disappointed that they had been feeding the chickens and had missed the actions of the two heroes, but they oohed and ahhed over Star’s account of the incident. Suddenly the two boys, once thought of as dorks, gained a new status in their eyes.
In private Star told her mother, “Ralph is the real hero. He was going to fight that mountain lion, so Comet and I could run back to the house.”
Mary hugged her daughter. “I know, honey, I know.”
A few days later, Mary called everyone together and announced, “I’m leaving for the Lodge tomorrow. I’m going to take a load of food to them.”
Ralph was worried by her plan. “Do you think that you can get the wagon up the road? The snow will be deep in some places. And why am I not coming with you?”
Mary shook her head. “I’m not going to take the wagon. I’m going to ride one of the horses and lead the other. I’ll be back the day after tomorrow.”
That night as they leaned against each other on the sofa, Ralph grumbled about her trip, not liking it one bit.
Mary laughed. “You’re just worried about your woman who you think is doing something that should be a man’s job.”
“You got that right,” he grumped. “You can’t haul much food on one pack horse.”
“True. The reason I’m going is to see how they’re doing. If their situation is bad, I need to know.”
At the crack of dawn, as Ralph looked on anxiously, Mary waved goodbye, and leading a horse loaded with food, she spurred the horse that she was riding away from the farm.
The going was not as bad as she had feared, though she gradually gained altitude. There was only one deep snow drift to get through, and the horses made it easily. Taking her time, she made her way along the muddy road until she came to the road running down from the logging camp. She turned right onto this road and began the downward part of her journey. Before noon, she came to the gravel road and turned right towards the kids’ camp. As the sun was sinking in the west, she was about to pass a tree when she noticed a noose hanging from a tree branch. Startled, Mary reined in her horse. Looking closely, she saw the top half of a skull poking through the snow on the ground beneath the noose.
The sun had just dropped below the horizon, when she crossed over the low hill and came to the camp. As the horses made their way down the hill, she saw the logging machinery and the large yellow bus in the parking lot. On the other side of a narrow wooden bridge spanning a swiftly running stream, she spied the deserted dining hall, the A-frame cabin, and above them the roughly built Lodge.
Mary rode her horse down the road until she came to the bridge. Then she dismounted, and she carefully led the horses over the narrow span. Continuing on foot, she began hailing the Lodge. After a few calls, the door opened and people poured out. She was quickly surrounded and greeted by eager curious voices.
“Wait a second,” she said raising a hand.
There was quiet. She looked over the group. At the rear, Hector and a woman stood and waited, closer was a mixture of older and younger girls and boys.
“On my way here, I passed a tree with a noose hanging from it. There were bones underneath. If my children had been with me, they would have seen that gruesome sight. Now, which one of you is responsible for leaving that person unburied?” Mary asked.
The two adults glanced at one another, and then they looked away. The older kids shuffled their feet or looked at the sky. Then, hesitantly, one of the smaller kids meekly raised his hand.
Mary stared at him in disbelief. “You’re Mike? You are the one that Ralph calls, ‘the Chief’?”
“Uh, yes, that’s me,” the boy replied.
Mary sighed. Ralph had tried to tell her about Mike, but this boy was still not what she had expected.
“Well then, young man, would you please bury that man?” she asked.
When he spoke, on his face was the same stubborn look that she had often received from Comet. “I left him there as a warning to anyone else who might be thinking of harming my people.”
Mary nodded. “I understand. That’s what Ralph said. But a few bones on the ground are hardly a warning to anyone. It’s time to bury the remains. Please.”
She watched as the boy turned his head toward the direction of the Hanging Tree, and she realized that he was considering her request.
“All right,” the boy replied slowly, and then he turned to Hector. “Hector, take a crew and bury him tomorrow. That is, if the weather is clear, and you can do it safely,” the boy added firmly, and in that last sentence Mary caught a glimpse of the iron in the individual.
“Got it, Chief,” the man said.
“Thank you,” said Mary politely. “I brought food, but if you have room, I’ll need to sleep here for the night.” Mike nodded, and Mary swung down off her horse.
The kids were eager to help Mary unload the horses and to put the food in the almost empty freezer. Then they took Mary inside their Lodge and showed her their home. Mary was amazed at what they had created. Hector was given most of the credit.
“It wasn’t my idea though,” he said. “I just took their idea and improved on it.”
“Man, for what you had to work with, you did good,” Mary said, as she circled and examined one of the columns.
“You can sleep in here,” Mike said showing her his room. “I’ll sleep in my old bunk bed.”
“Thank you,” Mary replied.
Erin held an impromptu revue that night in order to show Mary how they had entertained themselves during the long winter. There was singing, and skits, and jokes, and Hector played his harmonica. Then, tired from her long day, Mary excused herself and went to bed.
The sky was clear the following morning. At dawn, Hector started his truck, and he and a group of boys smothered in their heaviest clothes and blankets went to bury the bones lying under the noose. A few hours later, Mary saddled her horse, and she led the two animals over the bridge. She rode up the hill, and then she turned to acknowledge the waving kids. She disappeared over the crest of the hill as the burial detail was returning.
“She’s a nice lady,” Yuie said, as Mary disappeared over the rise.
“Yes, she is,” Mike agreed.
“And now we know that our people at the farm are all right,” Rasul added.
The snow had slowly melted. It lingered in the deep woods and on the mountains above them, but the road to the Brown farm became passable. Hector warned Mike that they needed to save their fuel for major projects and emergencies, so one day Mike, Jacob, and Hector hiked to the farm. They stopped and camped for the night at the turnoff to the logging camp, and then they continued on the next day. That afternoon as they neared the farm, the household came out to greet them. The older kids were excited to see their friends. Comet and Star trailed along behind Mary and Ralph.
“Who’s them, Daddy?” Comet demanded, giving Mike a look of suspicion.
Mike raised his eyebrows as he looked at Ralph. “They’re friends, Comet,” Ralph answered as he lifted the young lad with one arm.
The girls had to have hugs. The boys were more reserved, but they were very happy to see everyone. Mary greeted Jacob cheerfully and invited everyone inside, and despite their protests, fed them dinner. Afterwards, she showed them the farm.
“We need to decide what kinds of food I can provide that will stretch the farthest. Personally, I think that the best thing I could do would be to plow a large portion of your meadow, and sow it with wheat, alfalfa, and oats. You have more land in your meadow than I have in my fields. In the fall, I can cut everything with the combine, and then leave the combine there. We’ve got to avoid moving the machinery as much as possible to save on fuel. When we run out, we can use the horse and manpower to plow. We can use the wagon to move the food from your camp to our farm, or to move it from our farm to your camp.
“Here at the farm, I plan on planting potatoes, winter squash, peas, beans, and lettuce. Those crops, we can harvest by hand, although I will need you to send some of your peop
le to help us. I don’t think that we will get great results from beans, but they are important to supplement whatever meat your hunters can provide. I’ll keep on growing cucumbers, summer squash, and tomatoes in containers in the solar room, so that I can get some vegetables to you as soon as possible. I believe that I can provide enough grains and vegetables for everyone. And we will have milk, although we may have to do without for a year. Our new calf is a bull, but it will be at least November before he can cover our cows, so I don’t expect to be able to provide you with milk next winter, unless we have a low snowfall.” She stopped.
The campers were overwhelmed.
“Wow,” exclaimed Mike. “Mrs. Brown, you’re like a super mom or something. I can’t believe how you’ve planned this. I just don’t know…” he trailed away, unable to express himself.
Mary smiled at him. “I’m a mother and a decent farmer, and I have the skills that you need. That’s why I’m doing this. But I will need your help to succeed.” The campers gratefully voiced their thanks and their eagerness to help. Together with Mary and Ralph, they talked well into the night as they made plans for the coming year.
The campers spent the night in the loft of the barn. The next day, they helped Mary load the wagon with food. By noon they were ready to leave. Ralph drove the wagon, while the campers walked beside it. The twins were going with them, but the girls were staying at the farm. They talked to Mike about their decision.
“Mrs. Brown said we could stay if we wanted to,” Kylie began. “I mean, we miss our friends back at camp, but…”
“But, we like it here, Chief,” Paige added. “And Mrs. Brown needs us. And Comet and Star need us.”