Resurrecting Home

by A. American

  Thad looked up, his eyes wide. “Ooh, I like me some honeycomb,” he said, rubbing his hands together.

  Gena squinted an eye, and, pointing at him, she replied, “Now, those honeycombs are for them little ones, Thad.”

  A big grin spread across his face. “Yes, ma’am. Maybe next time.”

  “That’s better.” Turning back to me she pulled a small vial out of her pocket. “Here’s the medicine.”

  We thanked them for everything, making plans to drop in on each other. Gena said she didn’t like to leave the house, but maybe Dylan could come by for a visit. I told them we would bring meat over whenever we had it and how much I appreciated the trade. In my mind, we certainly got the better end of the deal. They assured us they were very happy with the trade. Having not had any meat in a while, they were really looking forward to the liver.

  “It’s going to be dark soon. We’ll see you guys later,” I said, and they agreed.

  Thad and I waved as we fired up the ATVs. As we pulled out onto the road, we both stopped instantly. A large group of people were walking down the road, like a herd of cows. They took up both lanes as they approached.

  “We won’t make it to the turnoff before they do,” Thad said.

  I was nodding my head. “I was thinking the same thing. I damn sure don’t want them to see us turn off there.”

  “I don’t think they’ve seen us yet.”

  “They sure don’t act like it. Let’s just head that direction. We’ll go past our road and turn into the woods, come in the back way,” I said.

  Thad adjusted the shotgun in his lap. “All right”—he looked over at my rifle—“that thing ready?”

  I checked the safety. “Yeah, but I sure hope it doesn’t come to that. There’s a hell of a lot more of them than there are of us.”

  Thad was correct that they didn’t see us initially, because it was obvious when they did. The men in the group ran to the front, with the women and a handful of kids behind them.

  “They see us now,” I said.

  “Yeah, they do. Let’s just keep moving.”

  The group had stopped almost in front of our road. We approached them slowly, trying not to look intimidating. I was now really regretting the slight buzz the liquor had given me. As we drew near, several of the men shouldered their weapons. While not pointed directly at us, the message was clear. We stopped fifty or so feet from them, I raised one of my hands. “We don’t mean no harm.”

  The men looked at one another and to the side of the road, they were clearly nervous. One of them finally spoke up, “We’re just passing through!”

  “So are we,” Thad replied.

  Another of the group stepped forward. “How is it you got gas for them four-wheelers?”

  “All we have is what’s in them. When they run dry they’ll sit where they stop,” I replied. Just a little lie.

  “Well, what’s so important that you would use the last of your gas for it?”

  Thad looked at me. He was holding the bag of veggies on his lap, and it gave me an idea. “We went to the market in town for a little trading.”

  The men exchanged words that we couldn’t hear, then the one questioning us spoke again. “Where’s this market?”

  “It’s in Eustis,” I said, jabbing a thumb over my shoulder to the south.

  “What’d you trade for?”

  Thad answered before I could. “I don’t think that much matters.”

  The man pointed behind him. “We got hungry young ’uns here. We need food.”

  “We can relate, so do we,” Thad replied.

  The man looked around. “Where y’all stay at?”

  “That doesn’t matter either,” I said.

  “I reckon it does, you want past us. There’s more of us than there is of you, and if you want by you’ll have to give us the food you’ve got.” One of the women came forward and pulled on his sleeve. She said something to him and he pushed her away.

  “We can’t do that either. We don’t have much and we have families too,” Thad replied evenly.

  “All I’m asking for is some food.” He hesitated for a moment, then his demeanor changed: he became very animated and gripped his rifle in front of him and started shouting, “Or we can just take your food and your wheelers!”

  Thad muttered, “Oh shit.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking,” I replied.

  Our lack of immediate reply seemed to annoy him even more. “Well! What’s it going to be!”

  “Look, we don’t want any trouble, we already told you that. You go your way and we’ll go ours. When you get to Eustis you can trade for food there,” I replied.

  “Trade! What the hell you think we got to trade! You ain’t getting past me till you give it up!”

  “This ain’t working,” Thad whispered.

  “I know, let’s try it a different way,” I whispered back, then stood up on the footrests. “No, plain and simple. No.”

  The words seemed to stun the man as though he were physically struck by them. He looked at the men to his side, then back at us. Just as he was about to speak I quickly raised my carbine and started to shout at the top of my lungs in a maniacal tone, “There may be more of you than there are of us, but garun-damn-tee you one thing, you will be the first to die! Bullets don’t discriminate, and them young ’uns behind you will probably be hit by the rounds that pass through your worthless ass! Someone will be burying your kids tonight!”

  The men with him took a step back, looking at one another uncertainly. The man I was addressing stood there as if turning the statement over in his mind. The woman who had tugged on his sleeve earlier now ran forward and pulled at him, obviously pleading with him. His eyes stayed fixed on me with an expression I couldn’t quite make out.

  I wanted this resolved—we weren’t getting anywhere standing in the middle of the road. “What’s it going to be?” I shouted. “There’s only two things stopping you right now: fear and common sense, and somehow I don’t think you got much in the way of sense, common or otherwise!”

  One of the other men with him held up a hand. “Look, mister, we don’t want no trouble, he’s just wore out.” He swept his hand at the crowd behind him. “We all are.”

  “Then be on your way. We’ll pull off the road here and let you pass, like I originally said.”

  The man nodded and Thad and I pulled off the road, turning so we were facing it. The group started to move, making their way to the far side of the paved strip.

  “I can’t believe that worked,” Thad whispered.

  I gave a little laugh while keeping my eyes on the group. “Tell me about it. Guess what ole Dylan said about crazy people was right.”

  I heard Thad snort and chanced a quick glance at him. Even though he had a hand up over his face I could still see his grin. “What?” I asked.

  Trying to stifle his laughter, he replied, “I’m just glad you didn’t get nekkid.”

  Despite the tension of the moment it was all I could do not to start laughing. I would have been okay too if Thad hadn’t looked at me from between his fingers. I could see tears on his cheeks. I could only imagine what these people thought of us as they came closer, Thad with his face in hands, me grinning like some kind of water-headed moron. But seeing the look on the face of the man who’d challenged us took all the funny out of the moment and I was instantly back into reality. He was staring—no, glaring at me as he passed. I casually shifted the muzzle of the carbine so it was lying on the handlebars, the message clear.

  The other men in the group offered little more than furtive glances as they passed. The women did look in our direction, one actually offering a small nod, which I returned. Once they passed we waited for them to get some distance, making sure they didn’t turn off on Gena and Dylan’s road. When we were comfortable with the distance between us we started up the ATVs and headed down the road, taking the trail through the woods. Thad slowed nearly to a stop. I did as well.

  “What?�
�� I asked.

  “That was a big group. Why was a group that big on the move?”

  “I don’t know, but I get what you mean. Something’s pushing them.”

  Thad sat there for a moment, then looked at me, his face almost solemn, and said, “Nekkid,” before bursting out in laughter. It caused me to crack up too, and we rode the rest of the way to the house laughing so hard the tears made it hard to see. As we slowly moved down the last stretch of dirt road to Danny’s house Thad looked over with a sobered look on his face. “You wanna tell everyone about this?”

  I nodded. “I think we should. We should have had someone at the barricade too. We can’t leave it unmanned anymore. I hope Danny has that schedule ready.”

  * * *

  We arrived at twilight, bags of produce in hand. Mel was out on the porch, chatting with Jess and Fred as we pulled in.

  “Where on earth have you guys been? I thought that was going to be a short trip. We’ve been ready to make dinner for an hour.”

  “Yeah,” said Jess. “I’m about ready to eat my hand.”

  I looked at Thad. “Sorry, ladies, but we had some . . . technical difficulties. I’ll explain later,” I said. “Now can you help us with our loot?”

  It was an incredible haul of garden goodness, with everything from tomatoes and potatoes to carrots and some squash. One bag was completely full of potatoes, enough to make a couple of meals for everyone.

  “Can we have mashed potatoes, please, please, please?” Little Bit said, jumping up and down. The other kids got excited too.

  I laughed at the sight of their eager faces. Grinning, I mussed her hair. “You bet, kiddo.” After the incident, seeing her smiling face was the best feeling in the world.

  “Hey, we gotta save some for stew!” Lee Ann called from the other side of the kitchen, where she was unloading some carrots.

  “Oh, I can already see it—a nice stew, with some carrots, potatoes, some of that deer meat,” Thad said, rubbing his stomach.

  “Stop talking about food,” Taylor groaned. “I’m starving.”

  Mary was leaning on the bar and looked at Taylor. “Girl, let me tell you, you don’t know what hungry is.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Teenagers.” That got a laugh out of everyone, except for Taylor, that is.

  Mel held up the jar with the comb in it.

  “What’s this?”

  “Gena put that in for the kids, a little sweet for them,” Thad answered.

  The word sweet got their attention and they quickly came running to look at the comb.

  “Can we please have some now?” Edie asked.

  Mel put the jar on a windowsill. “After you eat your dinner.”

  Because we were held up, we all pitched in for dinner, and I have to say, it was fantastic. We made steamed squash and a Dutch oven full of fried potatoes and onions to go along with the venison. Having some fresh food had a big impact on everyone’s mood. The talk was lively with lots of laughter. It was an incredible evening, probably one of the best since the lights went out. After we ate, the adults sat around on the back porch passing the last bottle of mead around. Having gone for so long without alcohol, it provided a really nice buzz.

  Little Bit, Edie, and Jace came running out onto the porch. “Mom, can we have the honeycomb now?” Little Bit asked.

  “Sure, let me get it,” Mel said as she stood up and headed for the kitchen.

  The kids were jumping up and down in excitement. When she returned, Mel took a long piece of comb from the jar and broke it into three pieces, handing one to each of the kids. Little Bit immediately stuck hers in her mouth, while Jace and Edie looked at it uncertainly.

  “Go ahead, honey. Take a bite. It’s really good,” Brandy encouraged. “They’ve never seen honeycomb before,” she added.

  “I remember my granny always had the jar of honey with the comb, always had to have the comb,” Tyler said with a smile.

  Jace held the comb to his nose and smelled it, then cautiously licked at the waxy glob. As he sucked on his tongue a smile began to spread across his face, and suddenly he thrust the whole piece into his mouth. He was still smiling as the honey began to run out of the corners of his mouth. Seeing her brother’s reaction, Edie took a timid bite of hers, and just as with Jace, a broad smile spread across her face. The kids ran back into the house, quieter this time with mouthfuls of honeycomb.

  “Hey, what about us? We’re kids too,” Taylor asked.

  “Really? I’ll remember that next time you ask to try this,” I said, holding up the bottle of mead.

  Mel smiled and took out a second piece, breaking it in half and giving the older girls each a piece. They were enjoying theirs when the little ones reappeared wanting more. When Mel and Brandy said no, they descended on the older girls, trying to beg a bite off them.

  Taylor held the comb aloft, keeping it out of reach of the swirling mass of kids at her feet. “No, you had yours, this is mine,” she said, laughing as the kids tried to climb her like a tree.

  It was fun to watch the kids being kids, laughing and playing. Laughter was a precious commodity these days. As the evening wound down, Brandy and Tyler cleaned up the kitchen. Bobbie was learning to let folks help her, so she was sitting in a chair on the porch while they went about the job. After everyone was done, I cleared my throat.

  “Not to be a little black rain cloud or anything, but”—I paused for a moment to make sure I had everyone’s attention—“we ran across some people on the road when we were on our way back.” That certainly got their attention.

  “What happened?” Danny asked.

  “It was a big pack of people. They wanted food,” Thad replied.

  “How many of them were there?” Jess asked.

  “Thirteen,” Thad replied. “I counted them when they passed us.”

  “That’s a group nearly as big as ours,” Fred said.

  “Did they have kids?” Brandy asked. I nodded.

  “That’s sad, seeing hungry children,” Mary said.

  “It’s sadder when they’re your children,” Mel added. Mary gave her a “you’re right” look.

  “What happened?” Jeff asked.

  “There was quite the lively discussion, but nothing more. We’re just lucky it worked out the way it did,” I replied.

  Thad looked at me. “Yeah, you have quite the way with words.”

  “Were they armed?” Danny asked.

  “Oh yeah, they were armed, but once I explained that if they took what they wanted, they would pay for it in blood, they lost the motivation to push the issue,” I replied.

  “Yeah, it was something like that,” Thad added.

  “Which brings me to the issue,” I said, then looked at Danny. “You got that schedule ready yet?”

  He nodded and went into the bedroom off the kitchen, returning with the wipe board. “I was going to hang it in the morning.”

  “Now’s as good a time as any to go over it. Everyone take a look. If you have any questions now’s the time to ask them.”

  Danny set the board on the counter, propping it against a post at the end of it. Everyone moved up to look it over, discussing the various jobs, commenting on who was with who and when. Overall it was very well received, and no one complained about any of the tasks or assignments.

  “This isn’t set in stone. If you need or want a change just let me know,” Danny said.

  “Any questions about it?” I asked.

  Jess looked around. “Looks pretty simple. There’s work to be done and it looks like it’s divided up evenly.”

  “With that in mind, Thad, looks like you and Tyler are on the barricade,” I said.

  “I’m ready when you are,” Thad said, looking at Tyler.

  “Looks like me and Aric will relieve you guys later,” Jeff said, then looked at Aric. “You good with that?”

  Aric nodded. “Yeah, I can still shoot.”

  “Let me walk Mel and the girls home. I’ll grab the NVGs and meet you on the
road. We need to have them there at night,” I said.

  Mel and I walked out onto the porch as everyone got ready to leave.

  Jess came out. “Morgan, I need a favor,” she said.

  “Sure, Jess, what is it?”

  “I need a gun. I don’t have one.”

  Seeing the opportunity to mess with her I smiled. “What happened to the last one I gave you?”

  She gave me a look of frustration. “You know what happened.”

  “Come on over to the house. I have one I can give you.”

  “Thanks.”

  It was a large group leaving Danny and Bobbie’s place, as Thad, Jeff, Jess, Fred, and Aric were all walking with us. Jeff gave Little Bit a piggyback ride. The evening was warm, the air incredibly still. There wasn’t even a whisper of a breeze. For some reason, watching this moment really struck me—despite everything going on in the world, we were damn lucky. All the people in our lives now were good people. Was it just dumb luck, or was there more to it? Whatever the reason, I was thankful. It was easier to go through this with the support of likeminded friends.

  As we came to our house and were about to split ways, I called out to Aric, “Hey, man. Catch.”

  He turned and I tossed him a small jar of the “medicine.” He caught and looked at it. “Thanks, this’ll help me sleep. That’s all I want it for, to sleep. I’m getting better during the day.”

  “Whatever works for you, brother, just don’t use it recreationally. We need it for medicinal purposes.”

  “Thanks, Morgan,” Fred said as she held on to Aric’s good arm. They looked like two lovebirds, another really heartwarming thing to watch blossoming in spite of the circumstances.

  I told Jess to wait there for a minute and ran inside the house. I took out the .45 I’d taken off the man I found dead in his recliner. It was a nice Colt and would certainly do the job for her. Taking the pistol, a spare mag, and a box of Blazer ammo, I went back outside.

  “Here, take this. It’s a little like the other one I gave you except this is a .45. It works basically the same. Later this week I’ll show you how to take it apart.”

  Jess took the pistol and looked it over quickly. She dropped the mag and stuck it in her pocket then pulled the slide back and looked into the chamber. Letting the slide close, she reinserted the mag and racked the slide, looking at it uncertainly.