Resurrecting Home

by A. American

  “That’s it for me, guys, I’m spent,” Thad said.

  Danny and I concurred, so the kids ran off. Looking over at the porch, I spotted Aric, looking mellow, like he was a part of the chair he sat in. Fred was laughing at him and he was smiling a sloppy grin.

  “We need more tables and chairs,” Bobbie yelled out to Danny, standing in the open door to the house.

  She was right—even now, the house was full of people and there were more on the porch. If we were going to have communal meals, then it would make sense to have enough seating for everyone.

  “We can get some from the abandoned houses,” Mel suggested, walking out past Bobbie.

  “Yeah, we’ll round some up tomorrow,” Danny said.

  “All of this cleaning and planning has got me beat. What’s for supper?” Thad said, patting his belly.

  “A little of this and a little of that,” Mel said with a grin.

  Thad’s brow narrowed.

  “Don’t worry, you’ll like it,” Jess said with a laugh. “There’s something special for you.”

  Now Thad looked really concerned. “What’cha mean?”

  “Well, we’re having beef stew,” Jess said with a smile. Thad’s face turned into one enormous smile. Jess continued, “But you’re not.” She gave a very coy smile, batting her eyebrows at him.

  Before Thad could say anything I burst out laughing, which got Jess laughing. Thad gave me a shove that nearly knocked me over. As for everyone else on the porch, they had no idea why it was so funny and were looking at us as though we’d gone mad.

  Mel cocked her head to the side, hands on her hips. “Okay, what’s the story?”

  “Oh, they think they’re funny, Miss Mel. Let them tell you,” Thad said.

  I was still laughing and couldn’t get it out, but thankfully Jess had managed to get herself under control.

  “When we were walking home we were going to have beef stew for dinner one night, and when Thad asked what we were having I told him but said there wasn’t enough for him. Let’s just say he did not react well.”

  The explanation didn’t seem to do it for them. “Guess you had to be there,” Jess added.

  We had dinner together with people scattered everywhere, some at the table, some at the bar, others on the back porch. There were even people sitting on the deck on the floor. It was noisy with so many people, so many different conversations going on at once, but it was a good time. We’d spent so long with so few of us that it was nice to be around other people. Other people you could trust, not having to worry about whether or not they were going to try and rob you blind or worse.

  After everyone was done with their meal I stood up. “Hey, guys, we need to have a discussion.”

  “Uh-oh, this doesn’t sound good,” Jeff said as he pushed his plate away.

  “It’s nothing like that, we just need to go over a schedule. There’s a lot that needs done around here and we need get it organized so everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing and when.”

  “That makes sense,” Mel said.

  “So let’s go over the things we need to be doing. Guard duty is the first thing.”

  “We need to have at least two people down there at all times. Their relief should know when they are supposed to be there and make sure they get there on time,” Thad said.

  “Everyone here is capable of pulling guard duty,” I said, then noticed Brandy giving Tyler a nervous look.

  Tyler looked at her, then back to me. “Morgan, Brandy isn’t very good with a gun. Can we keep her off that job? She can work on something else to make up for it.”

  “I’m scared of guns, just don’t like them,” Brandy added.

  “Not a problem, there’s plenty more to do,” I said.

  Tyler nodded. “Thanks. If need be I’ll pull extra duty down there to make up for it.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not necessary. There’s plenty of people.”

  “Next thing is the cooking,” Danny said.

  Bobbie held up her hand. “No offense to you guys, but we’ll handle the cooking.”

  “I can help with that every day. I don’t mind a bit,” Brandy offered.

  “I can do both, wherever I’m needed,” Mel said.

  “Me too,” Bobbie added.

  “Well, if you ladies want to do the cooking, we’ll try and make sure you guys have early shifts at the barricade then,” I said.

  Jeff raised a hand. “I want third shift out there. I like it at night.”

  We discussed the details of the schedule for another hour or so, going over the other items that needed done daily, such as hunting and, most important of all, the distribution of water. Since Danny’s and my houses were the only ones with running water, we would use the tank on the trailer to haul water to the other houses and fill buckets or barrels or whatever we could find so they could use the toilets and have drinking water.

  When it came to the hunting, Taylor raised a hand. “Can we hunt?”

  “Of course you can,” I replied.

  “Can I hunt too? I want to hunt. I have my Cricket,” Little Bit pled.

  I smiled. “Yes, you can hunt too, just don’t go alone.” I looked at Lee Ann and Taylor. “At least one of you two needs to be with her.”

  The girls nodded. Taylor in particular looked excited about the prospect.

  Jess held up a hand. “I have a question.” I nodded at her and she continued, “What about showers, since we’re talking about water? Your houses have running water—is there a way we could schedule it so everyone could get a shower once or twice a week? I’m tired of washing in a bucket.”

  “Me too!” Fred concurred.

  I looked at Danny and he nodded. “I don’t see why not. We just have to space them out so we don’t draw too heavily on the system, and they won’t be hot showers.”

  “Fine by me. I’d just like to able to wash thoroughly,” Fred said.

  “Me too, that sounds wonderful,” Brandy added.

  After our discussion was done, everyone volunteered to clean up. Bobbie was very particular about her kitchen—hell, her whole house. She was like a drill sergeant in the way she dictated orders. Nonetheless, we all pitched in to get the job done quickly. As everyone was preparing to leave, I pulled Danny off to the side.

  “I think tomorrow I’m going to move the bulk of the solar setup over here. I mean, if we’re going to do all the cooking and having our meals over here it only makes sense, plus the added running of the pump for showers.”

  Danny nodded. “Yeah, looking like this is becoming the center of our little community.”

  “That’s what I was thinking—make your place kind of our command post. It’s the biggest house around and everyone already kind of thinks of it that way.”

  “Whatever you want to do, I’m in.”

  Aric and Fred were moving toward the door. “Hey, Aric, did it help the pain?” I asked.

  He nodded, seeming a little more “with it” now. “Actually it did, and a lot better than the painkillers I had.”

  “They should have legalized it a long time ago, shame there’s only a little,” Jeff added.

  “Well, it’s for medicinal purposes,” I said with a chuckle.

  Mel sidled up next to me. “I’m tired. Let’s go home.”

  I nodded. “Come on, Little Bit, time to go,” I called.

  She protested for a minute but quickly gave up—she was tired too. Her sisters were already on the front porch. Everyone said their good nights and headed off toward their homes. We cut through the hole I’d made in the fence.

  “Where’ve you two been all night?” I asked Lee Ann. “I barely saw you and Taylor at dinner.”

  “We were hanging out with Jess. She’s really cool.”

  “Good, how’s she doing?” I asked.

  “She’s good, I guess. She’s fun to be around.”

  As we crossed the yard, the three dogs came trotting up. Looking at Meathead, I asked, “Where the hell have y
ou three been?”

  Mel laughed. “Like he’s going to answer.”

  “I haven’t seen them since we got home.”

  She scratched Drake’s head. “They look healthy enough and seem to be happy.”

  The dogs were bounding around, making Little Bit laugh. The three girls started to run the last stretch to the house with the dogs in hot pursuit. Going inside we quickly got everyone settled down and Mel and I went to bed. It was still cool in the evening, and with the windows open, it was really nice.

  Mel curled up in the blankets. “It feels so good in here.”

  “I know, shame it isn’t going to last forever.”

  “Ugh, I know, it’s going to get so hot soon. What are we going to do?”

  “Change the sheets, often.”

  She rolled over and looked at me. “What?”

  I laughed. “’Cause we’re going to sweat like pigs at night. Remember that camping trip to North Carolina? The one up on Wilson Creek where it was a hundred degrees but it felt like a hundred and ten?”

  “Craaaap, that was miserable. I really hope it isn’t that bad.”

  I swatted her on the ass. “Don’t worry, it won’t be.”

  “Good.”

  “It’ll be worse.”

  She kicked me in the back of my leg. “I hate you right now.”

  I stifled another laugh. “Don’t worry, it gets worse.”

  She laughed. “Good night, babe, love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  Chapter 3

  The next couple of weeks went by quickly. We were developing a pretty sound routine. The garden plot had been finished, thanks to the manure that we had collected. That was a process. Our expedition had revealed the outcome of many of the livestock that once inhabited our neighborhood. On our first expedition, Lee Ann, Tyler, Jeff, Danny, and I found a horse carcass, picked clean to the bone.

  “Who would eat horse?” Tyler asked.

  I looked at him. “If the Lone Ranger showed up about now I’d shoot Silver right out from under his ass.”

  Danny and Jeff laughed, but Lee Ann didn’t see the humor. She stared down at the bones of the animal. “I used to feed him apples and carrots. He was always at the fence when I would go out for a walk. He was a nice horse.” The sight of the remains of the old gelding had an obvious impact on her. I could feel the sadness wrapping around her.

  Putting my arm around her, I said, “I’m sorry, kiddo. These people must have been very hungry to resort to this.”

  “I know, but it’s still sad.”

  Once word got back to the rest of the group it was the subject du jour for the rest of the day and would have been at dinnertime till Brandy squashed it, not wanting her kids to hear it. No one argued, as by then everything that could be said about it had been. But food and sources of it were never-ending topics of conversation.

  During this pleasant spell there’d been two trips out to the camp and one to the river. Trips to the camp were mainly so Aric and the girls could check up on Kay and Danny and I could see what we could scrounge. The trip to the river was a nice day. We hung out with Sarge, who was getting around a lot better now, fishing and combing the riverbanks for food. The fishing had been good. Using the gillnet we caught an impressive number of mullet, so much so that we left the guys with enough for several days. The rest would be smoked at Thad’s place. The garden plot looked great, with squash plants already impressively large and plump green tomatoes hanging on the plants. Sarge took impressive care of the garden, vicariously of course, considering the main efforts were put forth by Mike, Ted, and Doc.

  The weather had been very nice during this period, with many warm days and cool nights. After nearly two weeks in the ground, the seeds had sprouted and were growing very nicely. The cans had contained a good assortment of seeds, and if things went right in a few weeks we’d have fresh vegetables from the garden. The real problem was the now. Things were getting desperate around the hood. With great effort we’d managed to stretch out what we had, and the bounty we’d found in the house had certainly helped things go this long. But as the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and we were now at the end. Fortunately, though, we had seen it coming and taken action. Hunting had become an industry as of late, which helped ease our troubles. Since setting up the schedule, there were one or two people hunting every day. While not always successful it did manage to keep us in some meat, and on the days there was a surplus Thad put his smoker to use.

  In an attempt to manage our resources, we divided the area up into sections so as to not clean the game from any one area. My girls became very proficient in snare sets. They took to it like a job, and it became our primary source of steady meat. Using small sets of simple loop snares, they caught rabbits in profusion. Limb rats were also taken in this manner or with a .22. This is where Little Bit really thrived: she became an expert marksman with her small rifle. She learned the habits of the animals and how to hunt them, how to circle a tree or have one of her sisters do it to force the rat around so she could get a shot. Her trophy was the tail, which she cut herself and tied to the fence to dry. There was now a very impressive string of tails suspended on the fence between Danny’s and our house.

  Up to this point, we were essentially hunting every day for that day’s food. While it was a system that was working, it wasn’t a very comfortable way to live. It was going to take a concerted effort at a serious hunt to try and bag a couple of deer. It was odd that there were still so many around—I could see them moving at night with my NVGs.

  With spring now in full swing, every day there were more plants to eat. While many of them weren’t as palatable as crisp young spinach, a source of greens was a source of greens. We didn’t want to fall into the trap of malnutrition. I spent as much time as possible collecting edible plants. While most anyone could hunt, you really had to know what you were looking for when it came to plants. Modern society has a near phobia about wild edibles, but with a good eye, it’s possible to enjoy nature’s bounty without harm.

  Aric showed an interest in the collection of plants; he was always looking for ways he could contribute and started following me on my outings. With Aric came Fred, of course, then Jess joined in. I spent a considerable amount of time showing them what to collect and how it was used. They quickly became expert foragers and soon there was more available in the way of wild edibles.

  We kept the kitchen supplied with the likes of lamb’s-quarters, chickweed, wood and sheep sorrel, dandelions, thistles, evening primrose, and my personal favorite, kudzu. It was my favorite not because it was any sort of culinary delight but because it was plentiful and very easy to collect. It took considerable effort to convince everyone that it was safe to eat. Once the conversion was made, though, it was hard for me to keep up with the demand.

  Without a doubt the favorite use of the kudzu was kudzu chips. The house we had raided had yielded us a couple gallons of peanut oil. Using this, Mel and Bobbie would fry the leaves, dropping them in one at a time and frying until they were crisp. We still had plenty of salt—it takes a long time to eat five gallons of it—and so they would lightly salt the crisp leaves. They were much like store-bought chips and soon were the most popular snack we had—not that we had many options.

  The real work came one afternoon when I decided to dig up some of the kudzu roots. Kudzu roots can go as deep as ten feet and achieve impressive size, but the reward is worth the effort in the production of a fine starch. Starting at the base of a vine, I started digging. Four feet later I found the root. It was nearly eighteen inches long and as big around as a coffee can. The thing probably weighed five pounds or better. Enlarging the hole, I found several more, by the end of the day I had filled a wheelbarrow.

  These roots were peeled, sliced up, and laid out on screens to dry. They took a couple of days to completely dry out in the sun. Once they were dry, they needed to be pounded into powder. This presented a problem, as we didn’t have the proper conta
iner for it, but Thad, Jeff, Danny, and Tyler worked with me to make a tub for the job. First we cut a three-foot section from the trunk of a large downed oak tree. It was so heavy we couldn’t move it, so we worked it in place. After splitting the log down the center along its length, Danny used the saw to begin gouging out the center of it. Once he’d done what he could with the saw, we used the limbs from the tree and built a fire inside the hollow. By raking the coals around inside, we controlled where and how much was burned. It took most of a day and lots of shit-talking to get done. We had a lot of fun, though, which really took the work out of it.

  We worked in the midst of the fallen tree, branches and small limbs everywhere. We collected them as needed and dropped them into the fire. I kept a close eye on it as it burned, using a stick to push the coals around. Danny stepped up and dropped a handful of small twigs in. I laughed at him. “Don’t throw your back out or anything.”

  Jeff dropped an enormous piece of wood into the fire. Using the stick I flipped it out. “Dude, we want to hollow it, not burn through it.”

  With his hands on his hips, he replied, “Bitch, bitch, bitch. Make up your mind.”

  Thad started laughing. “Don’t make me separate you, kids.”

  “Pfft, like you could,” I shot back.

  Thad straightened up and glared at me. I swung around with the stick I’d been using to move the coals, its tip a glowing ember leaving a trail of smoke as it moved. “Git back, I’ll burn the shit outta you!” I shouted in my best hillbilly drawl.

  Thad started laughing. “I’ll stick it where the sun don’t shine.”

  “Damn!” Jeff shouted, rubbing his backside. “Would that hurt or what?”

  “Yeah, like a hot poker in the ass!” I shouted over my shoulder.

  The rest of the day went about the same, plenty of carrying on and trash-talking. But the work went smoothly. There were no big discussions, no arguments over who was doing what—it simply got done.

  Looking at the finished product, Thad said, “That is pretty cool. I never would have thought of it.”

  Tyler looked over at me. “Yeah, where’d you learn this kind of stuff?”