“You let him in,” Joshua said, nodding to Nick.
“We know them,” Abram said. “I can’t, in good conscience, turn away my neighbor. You should go now.”
Gary had the nose of his rifle pointed through the links in the gate now.
Joshua turned away, but when he reached the car door, he glanced back over his shoulder. “I’m afraid the day will come when you will regret turning me away,” he said. “I could have been a friend and an ally.”
He got in his car and backed it out of the drive, traveling back the way he came.
“What a nut job,” Gary said. “I’m glad you finally came to your senses, Abram. And now we will really need to fortify our supplies. Teenaged boys are bottomless pits when it comes to food. And everything else, for that matter. We will have to be much more careful about food now.”
“If you say so,” Abram said, turning away and heading back down the drive to the house.
Nick followed him, leaving Gary at the gate on his own, the rifle still pointed down the road, as if he was afraid Joshua would come back. Nick felt terrible about Joshua. He’d helped Nick and the kids out of a difficult situation, and Nick hadn’t been able to return the favor. Regardless, he had to watch out for his own family. Abram could have changed his mind and sent Nick packing if he’d pushed for Joshua to join them. He couldn’t take that risk.
As they walked down to the house, Nick realized he was relieved that there were women here. Rae Ann would not be his sole responsibility anymore—she would join the women in the household activities while Nick and Corey joined the men. There would be proper mother figures in her life, something she hadn’t had for years. Perhaps Shelly or Maggie would be able to pry Louise from Rae Ann’s arms for more than a moment or two each day, and the girl would grow up to be normal. Although, that seemed like a lot to ask. She hadn’t been right since her mother had died.
Nick took a deep breath as he approached the house, and a smile crept onto his face.
Against all odds, they had made it to their new home in one piece.
When they’d been dismissed from the scene at the gate, Emma took Corey by the hand and dragged him down the drive to the house. They left Rae Ann to walk down with Emma’s mother and aunt, so that when they reached the house, they were alone. She pulled him through the living room and past the kitchen, down the hall to a large bedroom with two twin beds, two dressers, and two night tables.
“This is your room,” she said. “You should take that bed”—she pointed—“because it’s more comfortable and doesn’t squeak when you move. My dad and mom have the bedroom across the hall, so if you go wandering, do it quietly. My dad’s a bear when he gets woken up at night. He’s an extremely light sleeper.”
Corey plopped his backpack down on the bed Emma indicated, and she pulled him back out of the room.
“Come upstairs, and see where my room is,” she said, pulling him along, “and then I’ll give you the tour.”
“Okay,” Corey said and followed her up the stairs.
She stepped to the right when they reached the top of the stairs and led him down the hallway to the room at the end.
“We can’t be in here alone when my father is in the house,” she said, “but I wanted you to see which one it was.” She sat on the bed and bounced. “It’s the best room in the house, but don’t tell my father I said so.” She jumped back up and grabbed his hand, pulling him out into the hall, carefully closing the door behind them. “I was afraid you wouldn’t come,” she said, opening a door that led into one of the rooms next to hers. Because her room spanned the width of the house, there was a bedroom next to hers on one side and a bathroom on the other.
“This is Rae’s room,” she said, stepping back and letting him see into the cupboard-sized room. “I think it used to be a sewing room. That’s what the man who sold the house to my dad told him.”
“I didn’t think my dad was going to come,” Corey said. “I had to talk him into it. And then, when our car got jacked, I had to talk him into it all over again.”
“I’m glad you did.” She closed the small room and opened the door into the bathroom. “The power went out before we got here, and I couldn’t share my location with you. It’s a good thing you could read the map.”
“No, your instructions were good,” Corey said, “but it was a long walk from town. I thought it was closer.”
“I couldn’t really remember how far it was,” Emma said. “I’d only been driven here once. I had to guess.” She opened the other doors in the hall, displaying five more bedrooms and a bathroom near Aunt Maggie’s room.
“You’ve got two bathrooms up here?” Corey asked. “That seems kind of unusual for an old farmhouse.”
“Dad wasn’t sure how many people might end up living with us,” Emma said, heading back down the stairs, “so he put another bathroom in.”
She showed him the kitchen, with the giant kitchen table, the dining room, the living room, the downstairs bathroom, and the mudroom out the back of the kitchen, before leading him outside.
“That’s the biggest house I’ve ever seen,” Corey said. “The rooms are huge.”
“I know, right? Like you could have an epic house party or something. And guess what? There’s hot water. The water tank is on the roof, and the hot water heater is in the attic, so it’s got gravity-fed water pressure. There’s a spring up the hill that fills the water tank, so it’s all really efficient, and the water heater in the attic should keep the tank warm enough that it doesn’t freeze in winter. It’s genius. Come on, I’ll show you the animals.”
She’d taken him out the back door on purpose, so that they’d missed her mom coming in the front with Maggie and Rae Ann, and if her luck held, her dad would have taken Corey’s dad and Gary to look at some project that needed doing and she could be alone with Corey for a while. They walked back up the drive, and she was pleased when they reached the barn without running into the men.
She took him inside to see the birds. “These are the hens,” she said, standing at the enclosure, “and those are the Guinea fowl over there. They are noisy birds, but they eat a lot of bugs, so they are good to have on a farm.” She walked him over to the stalls. “These are where the goats are going to live, and this stall is for cows. I’m hoping we’ll get donkeys and ponies and maybe a horse, but my dad says we can only have animals that work for a living. You and I will probably end up milking the goats and the cows. I hope you like animals.”
“I like animals well enough, but I’ve never milked one. Have you?”
“The dairy farmer down the road taught me when we came up here last summer, but I probably need a refresher. Let’s go up to the hayloft,” she said pulling him to the ladder.
They climbed up, and Emma led him to the back of the barn, where you could sit on the bales and look out the door where they brought the hay into the barn. “See those big, round, marshmallow-looking things in the field out there? Those are round bales. They use them to feed cows. My dad had to find a farmer who would do square bales for us because he wanted to store them up here, and the round bales weigh like a ton. There’s no way to get them up here.”
“How did they do it? Did they have to carry them up the ladder?”
“They used a hay elevator. I never knew there was such a thing.”
“We’ll learn a lot living out here, being farmers.”
“Some of it’s fun, but it’s a lot of hard work, too. You are going to sleep like a rock and eat everything in sight. I did, when we were here.”
“Em,” he said quietly, “I was really scared I was never going to see you again. When we were walking, I was afraid we’d be stuck in the forest forever and starve to death.”
“I was worried about you too, Core.” She reached up and touched his face. “I almost died when the power went out, and I hadn’t been able to text you. My dad said we had to save the phones for emergencies, and I didn’t dare text you in the car. Aunt Maggie would have seen me, and sh
e might have said something.”
“Why did you tell me that your dad wanted us to come, Em? I think my dad is furious about that.”
“Because I knew you wouldn’t be able to convince him to come if he thought he didn’t have an invitation. So, I invited you.” She flipped her hair back.
“He figured it out, but I convinced him to come anyway.” Corey leaned in toward her and gave her a hug.
“Emma!” her father’s voice roared from below them. “Where are you?”
Emma jumped back, her eyes wide. “We’re up here. I’m showing Corey the marshmallow hay in the field.”
“Close the hay door and come down here right now.” She could hear the anger in his voice.
“Yes, Dad.”
She closed and latched the door, and they returned to the ladder and climbed down.
Her father was pacing back and forth across the barn floor, from one side to the other, but stopped when they were back on the first floor.
“I don’t want you two going off by yourselves, do you understand?” he said. “It’s a bad example for Rae Ann, and it will make your mother worry. In the future, if you have somewhere to go, you will tell your mother where you are at all times, and you will bring Rae Ann with you.”
“Yes, Dad.”
“Yes, Mr. Patterson,” Corey echoed.
“Good, now go back to the house and help your mother make dinner. Corey, you can come with me and help with mending the fences.” He gave Corey a severe look, and Corey ducked his head. “Off you go, Emma.”
Emma left the barn reluctantly, and as she left, she heard her father’s muted voice: “I don’t want you alone with my daughter. Do I make myself clear?”
Corey’s voice was barely audible: “Yes, sir.”
14
Nick followed Abram and Gary to the house, where he was passed off to Shelly and Maggie, who promised him a tour of the house and grounds. Gary had bypassed the porch and gone down to the lower outbuildings. Abram, after asking the women to look after Nick, went back up the hill in the direction of the garage and barn. Maggie took Nick into his bedroom.
“Oh, too bad,” Maggie said. “Looks like Corey already claimed the best bed.”
“You’ve been here long enough to know which beds are the most comfortable?” Nick asked.
“Oh, yeah. Almost the first thing Emma and I did was to try out all the beds. And there are a bunch in this house. It’s bigger than it looks. If you want, I’ll give you the house tour while Shelly is busy in the kitchen.”
“Sure. Why not?”
Maggie took him upstairs and opened all the doors, pointing out Rae Ann’s room. He was grateful that she made such a point of showing him his daughter’s bedroom, and he was amazed by the number of rooms on the corridor. The house could support a lot more people, even if the food stores could not.
When they finished the tour of the house, Shelly took off her apron, and they went to head outside. But before they did, Nick noticed there was a door in the kitchen that wasn’t opened for him, and he wondered why not. He’d put money on it being the basement and was curious as to what might be hiding down there.
When they reached the lower barns, Nick discovered a well-equipped repair shop, fuel storage, a woodworking shop, and a garage full of utility vehicles such as ATVs, tractors, and dirt bikes. There was also a shed with farm supplies like cowlicks, rolls of fencing, and building materials. Abram had obviously been planning this for a while. A lot of thought had gone into the items that might be needed to stay alive without electricity or communication. There were snowshoes and skates hanging on the wall, and fishing rods in a metal locker. There weren’t any firearms down here, but maybe those needed to be closer at hand.
Gary was working on an ATV in the metal shop, and he called Nick to come in for a minute. Shelly said she wanted to check on something and said she’d meet him in the next barn, so while the women moved off, he stepped in to see Gary.
“You know you’ll need to pull your weight around here,” Gary said, glancing up from the quad bike.
“Of course,” Nick said. “I think that was made perfectly clear.” He wondered why Gary felt the need to repeat this information.
“I’ve got an important mission coming up that you can help me with. Something that will help make up for the food you’ll be eating.”
“Of course, I’ll help if I can. Does Abram know about it?”
“It’s a bit of a surprise for Abram. An act of good faith on both our parts.”
“Great. Whatever you need,” Nick said, wishing Gary meant what he said. He didn’t trust Gary; there was something about a person who could casually cock a gun and point it at another person that made Nick uneasy.
“Do you know how to fire a weapon, Nick?”
“I’ve fired a gun, yes.”
“Can you hit what you fire at?”
“I have no idea. It’s not like I’ve ever done any target shooting.”
“Hmm. We may need to work on that.”
Nick wondered if he should tell Gary that he wasn’t interested in shooting at human beings, but it seemed a bit inflammatory. Maybe Gary was thinking of hunting deer and turkeys. Saying something about killing people could sound a bit insulting.
“I better catch up with Shelly,” Nick said. “She’s waiting for me.”
“Okay. I’ll catch up with you later.”
Nick found Shelly and Maggie leaning over a wooden box at the back of the next barn, and when he joined them, he heard the sound of mewing. He peered over their shoulders to see a kindle of kittens that couldn’t have been more than a few days old.
“Their mother left them,” Shelly said, “and we don’t know if she’s coming back. We were just debating how long they can survive, or if we should take them up to the house. Good mousers are invaluable in the country.”
“She might just be catching a mouse for her own dinner,” Maggie said. “They should be okay for an hour or two, as long as they are warm enough.” Maggie turned to Nick. “Don’t you think?”
“I’m not really an animal expert,” Nick said, “but I could check back in an hour if you want.”
“Would you?” Shelly asked. “And if the mother isn’t back, could you bring them up to the house?”
“Sure. That sounds easy enough.”
“Hang on,” Shelly said, and she took off the cardigan she was wearing and tucked it around the kittens. “Come on, I’ll show you the garage and the upper barn, where the animals will be housed.”
“Will be?” Nick asked. “They aren’t already here?”
“No. We had someone come in and take care of the birds, but it didn’t make sense to feed animals that weren’t being used. The goats will be delivered tomorrow, and the cattle guy is going to walk the cow up with her calves later this week. We’re waiting for a litter of piglets to be old enough to leave their mother. The kids are going to have plenty to do.” Shelly flashed a wicked smile. “They won’t have time to miss their electronics.”
“Didn’t you say you were getting rabbits too?” Maggie asked.
“We thought about it, but we thought it might be tough on Emma when she realized we were going to eat them. And now we also have Rae…I just don’t think it’s a good idea, and Abram is absolutely dead set against pets. No feeding animals that don’t contribute.”
Maggie placed a finger on her chin. “We could have a cat, then. To keep the mice population down.”
“I might be able to convince him a cat was pulling its weight. I know he’s talked about a guard dog, as well.”
They walked up the hill, past the extended garage, which housed the cars and what appeared to be a four-wheeler with a plow attached to the front, and walked on up the hill to the barn that housed the chickens. There wasn’t much to look at, just empty stalls, and an enclosure for the birds that had some laying boxes attached to it. There was an opening to an outdoor run, and most of the birds were sunning themselves in the evening light.
“What are those big birds?” Nick asked, eyeing the larger birds. They weren’t turkeys, he knew that much.
“Guinea fowl,” Shelly said. “They are really good at eating the insects in your garden. And they are really low maintenance.”
“Are they good to eat?”
“I’ve never eaten one, but I assume you can. It shouldn’t be much different than eating turkey or duck.”
“I’m not sure I could eat a chicken I’d been feeding every day,” Maggie said.
“And that’s why I’m not putting you in charge of the birds,” Shelly said. “I’d hate for you to starve to death.”
Maggie furrowed her brows. “You don’t think I could kill a chicken, do you?”
“Nope. You’d end up trying to live off chicken feed before you’d kill an animal you were responsible for. Don’t worry, unless we all die of the plague or something, you won’t have to. But my advice is not to hang out up here with the animals. Abram will be killing them, and we will be eating them. That’s how we are going to survive in this electricity-free world.”
“When we were growing up, Shelly, I would have never guessed that you’d turn into a pioneer woman. It’s kind of amusing.”
“You’re going to be very happy I did, when you’re eating fresh blackberry jam. Oh, and we have blueberries too. I might put you in charge of those. We need to put up a deer fence, so they make it through the summer.” Shelly smiled at Nick. “Come on, it’s time to get back to the house and finish dinner. Those kids are going to be starving.”
As he followed Shelly, Nick spotted Abram in his peripherals. He was walking from the barn, his face scrunched up in a scowl.
“Nick, a word?” Abram said as he closed in on Nick. He motioned for Shelly and Maggie to continue on.
“Sure,” Nick said. “What’s going on?”
Abram cleared his throat as the women moved out of earshot. “Listen, Nick. You need to keep your son away from my daughter.”
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