by Amy Richie
“That's done then,” Doctor Gourini announced. “Is there a hospital?”
Adam searched the map. “It looks like this is meant to be the hospital,” he said after a short time. “It's the second largest building.” After Doctor Gourini nodded, Adam scratched the words onto the map.
I took a deep breath and very carefully, slowly and silently let it back out. . Things were starting to feel more serious now that the hospital had been identified. Adam took his new job seriously and appointed homes with great care, putting the doctor and Sasha in the hospital and Constantina in the home behind the council building. Without any words spoken out loud, Constantina had kept her position as leader with the new island. Relief swept over me with the thought that no one knew Dais owned the island.
“I'm not staying alone,” Angelina informed Adam with a scowl. “This place is too creepy.”
“You and Betna can stay in this house,” he assured her. “You can turn it into a bakery.”
Angelina nodded, a hint of a grin softening her frown. “For now, we can cook for everyone though,” she looked to Betna for confirmation.
Betna nodded to. “I don't want to stay alone either.”
“And Owen,” Adam looked up at his friend, “you can have this house with Katrina and the baby.”
Owen nodded his head eagerly.
“We need a lawman,” Constantina cut in. “Owen, I think you should do it.”
Owen's eyes widened slightly, but he didn't object.
“What about Rani,” Sasha asked for me. “Where will she and Dais stay?”
I found myself holding my breath in again. On Ortec, Dais and I had no place. Would they find something for us to do here? A way for us to be needed?
“You can grow your plants, Rani,” Constantina answered almost instantly. “You brought them along, didn't you?”
“Yes,” I half whispered.
“We'll need someone to raise plants,” she said again, this time more firmly. “Which house will be theirs?”
“This one,” Adam pointed down to a small square next to the one labeled 'Bakery'.
I kept my eyes on the square the entire time that Adam was writing out the word GARDEN in the middle of it. The moisture that filled them was alarming. I turned to Sasha.
“Shall we?” she grinned, gesturing toward the door.
“All right,” I replied in a throaty voice.
She winked and turned to lead the way back outside, Dais close to her heels.
Chapter 8
The rain had cleared up and the sun was now blaring down on our new island city. I craned my neck to see the sky, just visible through a thick canopy of tree tops. The freezing season was still months away, but I still wasn't sure there would be enough time to get the tomatoes to ripen. I would try though—it was my job now.
I smiled to myself at the thought. It had been a long time since I had a job I could smile about. I grasped tighter onto the handle of the small shovel I had brought with me from the big house and thrust it once again into the soft earth beside the house I had been assigned.
Most of the roof on my home was still laying in pieces all over the ground, but men were busy fixing the other buildings and they had been for the past several days when the ship had first arrived.
Dais had brought us the news after only one night spent on the island, a ship had landed. We had all hurried down to greet the newcomers, who turned out to be survivors too.
Black was dead, but the devastation he had inflicted was still being discovered. Cyrus had spoken about his island being a home to all people who had nowhere else to call home, so we welcomed them. Four men and two women. I was grateful for the men now that I saw how much they helped Owen put on the roofs. Hopefully, with them, we would be ready for the freezing season.
My attention was pulled away from the working men by a lone figure crossing the grounds toward me. I smiled wide as Sasha came close enough to see me.
“Hello.” I waved my arm in wide arc.
“Rani,” she greeted happily. “This is amazing,” she gestured down to my neat little rows that I had been making.
“I'm not sure if there will be enough time to make a proper garden, still ...” I shrugged as my words faded away. I was meant to have the garden, so that was what I would be spending my time on.
“Still,” Sasha agreed with a shrug of her own.
“How is the hospital coming along?” I asked, not wanting her to keep looking down at my work.
“As well as it can, the room is comfortable.”
“The barter men are coming tomorrow though,” I reminded her. “I'm sure they'll have supplies or we can at least put in the request.”
“Tilly needs our help,” she said after a few moments of silence. We had all talked too much about the barter men coming at dinner last night for it to be much interest now.
“With the hen house?”
Sasha nodded with a slight grimace. “She can't get the fencing to stand straight and the chickens will be coming on the ship tomorrow.”
I wiped my hands on a rag and shuffled closer to Sasha.
“Where is Dais?” she asked as we began back across the yard.
“Off exploring,” I told her with a grin.
“I should have known.” She glanced out at the surrounding trees as if expecting the small blond boy to suddenly appear, but Dais was deep into the island by now and wouldn't be returning until the sun started to go down.
“Do you know how to build a fence?” I asked in a low voice as we neared the house where Tilly was struggling with wooden fence posts.
“No,” Sasha shook her head with a grimace. “We tended the fields, and after that I only worked with the doctor.”
I had visited the farms as a child, but never helped with anything before. How were we supposed to learn something new with no one here to teach us?
“Oh!” Tilly's face lit up when she spotted us. “Here,” she waved me over.
I hurried the last few steps to her side. “What should I do?” I asked in a small voice and a timid smile.
Tilly was a very tall woman with so much red hair piled up that it looked like her head was on fire from being too close to the sun. I had never seen anyone with hair like hers, and she wasn't ashamed of it in the slightest. She just brushed it back off her forehead with a practiced hand. The newcomers all had different colored hair, leaving us to wonder if they really did come from the same place.
“You just hold this.” She indicated the wooden post she had been trying to keep straight. I took hold of the post and she let go. “Sasha, you grab this one,” she ordered with a wave of impatience, clearly she had been struggling for a while over this fence. Normally, Tilly was all smiles and deep belly laughs. “Now I'm going to take this,” she pointed down to a roll of metal fencing material at her feet, “And stretch it between the two of you.”
“Were you on a farm before?” Sasha asked before I could.
“Nope,” Tilly replied, letting her mouth pop as she bent to take hold of the huge roll.
“Then how do you know this will work?”
“I don't,” she grunted, dragging the roll across the dirt to me.
“Shouldn't we wait for one of the men to help us?” I asked her, glancing back at the men on the roof.
“Why would we do that?” She brushed at her hair.
“Because we don't know what we're doing.”
“Oh,” she shrugged, unconcerned. “I'm sure we'll figure it out as we go.”
“That's ...” My words dried up in my throat. Tilly had a strange way of looking at things, different than anyone I had known on Ortec. She reminded me a little of Nanny Grace, or at least how I imagined Nanny Grace had been when she was young. A stab of grief made me wince—I hadn't thought of Nanny Grace in a long time.
“It won't be that hard,” Tilly assured me, mistaking my grimace.
I returned her wide smile. “I'm sure it won't,” I agreed.
Chapter 9
&
nbsp; The next few weeks passed quickly with finishing the work that Ike had started for us before we arrived. It was shocking just how much work had to be done so we would be ready for the freezing season.
“We won't have time to store food of our own,” Constantina told us often around the table in the council building where we all ate together.
“The barter men will bring us things,” Doctor Gourini assured her.
“Ike won't forget us,” Owen echoed. “He said he would help, and I believe he's a man of his word.”
“True,” Angelina nodded sagely, “he didn't have to let us have this island after Cyrus died, but he kept his word to a dead man.”
Her careless words cut through me until I was screwing my face up to hold in the words I was thinking.
“Well,” Angelina continued quickly, “I'm just pointing out ...”
I let my face go slack again.
“How is the garden coming along?” Doctor Gourini asked to replace the awkward silence.
“We might have some vegetables before the freezing season,” I told him, “but it will be much better next year.”
“It's too late in the year,” Tilly announced around a mouthful of bread. “Can't expect much for this year.”
Constantina blew air out forcefully from her nose.
“The Nation will have more than they can use,” Doctor Gourini said calmly. “There's nothing to worry about.”
“Is the storage house ready?” Betna wondered out loud.
“There's a leak in the roof,” one of the men, called Marcus, answered before anyone else could say anything. “We'll get to that first thing in the morning.”
Betna nodded, her lips pressed tight together.
Sasha raised one eyebrow in my direction, but this wasn't the place to talk.
“That wood pile is coming along nicely,” another of the men commented with a wink to Dais. I wasn't sure what the man's real name was, I had only ever heard the others calling him Tiny—even though there was nothing tiny about the man. In fact, I had never before seen a man quite so large. If Owen hadn't already been appointed the lawman, Tiny would be the obvious choice.
“We're going out again tomorrow,” Dais informed him with a wide grin.
Careful not to be caught, I glance over at Constantina. She was watching Dais with something close to fondness on her face and in her smile. Theirs was a pairing I certainly hadn't expected; every day for the past week, Constantina and Dais had scoured the island for wood we could use for fires.
If the freezing season on the island was anything like the one we had endured in the big house, we would need a much bigger pile than the one they had gotten so far. On Ortec, the freezing seasons weren't nearly as cold and bitter.
When Constantina had first suggested that she accompany Dais, I had assumed it was to keep an eye on him to be sure he was doing things correctly. Now, watching her as she watched him, I wasn't sure that was right. Was it possible that Constantina had stopped hating Dais while I wasn't looking? Had I been so caught up in my fear for Cyrus's safety that I didn't notice something so drastic happening?
Sasha nudged me lightly with her elbow. “What?” I murmured.
“I was just asking,” Tiny chuckled, “if your roof was done to your liking?”
My eyes widened. Why was he putting me on the spot like that? I felt my face flame hot. “It's ... it's fine,” I mumbled.
“No leaks?” he pressed.
“None,” I confirmed, trying to make my voice louder than a whisper.
“Some of the wood left here by the Nation was outside on the ground for too long and had some cracks in it.”
“I'm sure they gave us their leftovers,” Mindi scowled. She had come with Tilly; the two women couldn't be more different.
“I'm sure they were very generous to give us anything,” Angelina scowled back at her.
“We'll make do,” Constantina sniffed. “It'll be enough to keep the snow out.”
“It's still going to be cold.” Mindi crossed her arms over her chest, refusing to see anything good about leftover pieces of wood.
Owen swallowed a large bite of food with some difficulty. “We're working hard on the council building,” his half-choked comment came. “So if the freezing season is too bad, we can all stay there.”
“It's too small for all of us.”
“We'll keep each other warm,” Tilly offered. “I sure wouldn't mind staying in the council building with everyone else.”
“I'm staying in my house,” Mindi insisted.
“Well then,” Tiny slapped his hand lightly against the table, “we'll take another look at your roof for you.”
Although the argument stopped there, Mindi's lips tightened and she didn't pick her fork back up.
“Did you ask the barter men to bring blankets?” Katrina asked Owen.
He nodded. “They said they'll bring as many as can be spared.”
“We really need some weavers,” Constantina observed.
“And sheep,” Tilly added. “I'm sure we could teach someone the skill if we had sheep.”
“After the freezing season,” Doctor Gourini said. “Right now we have to ready the houses. We don't have the time or supplies to do a barn too.”
“Well I—” Mindi started but was cut off by Marcus.
“We already have the supplies for the dairy barn,” he assured her. “We know that we'll need the milk.”
Her lips thinned out all over again. “It needs to be done soon so we can get a few cows here.”
There were silent nods all around. She was right about that; the milk would help a lot.
“It will be nice to open up a butcher shop again too.” A hint of a smile played around Tiny's mouth at Mindi's gasp and sputters of anger.
“Don't forget, we'll need everyone at the shore tomorrow to meet the barter men,” Owen hastily reminded us. Fighting back my own amusement, I peeked over at Sasha. She determinedly wasn't looking in my direction.
Chapter 10
I wasn't able to completely hide my yawn with a hand. Sasha's head whipped around to face me. “Why are you so tired?” she demanded. “Didn't you sleep last night?”
Shrugging lightly, I ground the palms of my hands into my sore eyes. “Not really,” I admitted.
“Was it the wind?” she continued to question. “It got quite loud.”
“It wasn't bad.” I shrugged again. “Was it cold at the hospital?”
“We'll have to light the fires at night soon.”
“We're going to need a lot more wood.”
“After we're done carrying stuff back,” Dais piped in from Sasha's other side, “I'm going back out for more.”
“With Constantina?”
He nodded.
“There they are,” Betna exclaimed, pointing out at the water where a large ship was quickly approaching.
“Finally,” Mindi huffed. No one paid her any attention.
I watched as the barter man jumped down from his ship and shook hands with Owen and Doctor Gourini. The man had come often in the several weeks we had been there. He had explained a few stops before that he only bartered with the nearby islands, having given up the wide open sea years ago.
“How's it coming along?” he boomed happily.
“We just have a few houses to go,” Owen told him. “Then we'll get to that barn.”
“Ike has a few cows set aside just for you guys.” His eyes swung around the group clustered there.
“Yeah?” The side of Owen's face wrinkled with his smile.
“He likes to take care of New Ortec.” His eyes lingered for a fraction on me, and I had to wonder if he knew about Cyrus. I was the first to look away.
“Did you bring some blankets?” Katrina asked, taking no notice of my discomfort.
“Yep,” he jerked his thumb back to point at his ship. “We found seven or eight of them.” His forehead wrinkled slightly as he tried to remember the exact number. “And another chicken.”
&nbs
p; “Another chicken?” Tilly exclaimed eagerly. “That will bring us to a nice even ten” She held up both hands with all her fingers extended.
“At least we won't starve this freezing season,” Angelina chimed in, her eagerness spilling over and lighting up her youthful face.
“You think ten chickens will give us enough eggs to feed everyone?” Mindi asked, her top lip snarling up.
“Not everyone,” Angelina replied with a pointed look at Mindi.
As was becoming usual, Owen stepped in before the two ladies started full out arguing. “What about oats?” he asked quickly. “We finished the storage building and we're looking to get it filled up.”
“I do have a few bags,” the barter man shook his head slowly. “Ike told me to let him know when the storage building was completed, so I'm sure the next time I make my way here, I'll have food to fill it for you.”
“Just for this year,” Constantina interjected. “Next year we will be ready to trade for the things we need.”
“It might take a few years,” Tilly objected. “But we'll certainly be better off next year.”
“How often will you be able to make it here once the freezing season hits?” Marcus wanted to know.
“It's not too far, so I'd say a few times a month still.”
“That often?” Doctor Gourini's eyes widened at the thought.
“As long as it doesn't storm too much.”
Being at the big house, it was harder to notice the storms. On Ortec, the water swelled up around us and beat on the walls of the council building—making it impossible to miss any storm that hit us. What would the storms be like on New Ortec?
As if he heard my thoughts, the barter man spoke again. “I think you guys will get hit by your first storm here soon.”
“How do you know?” Betna asked sharply, turning her head to stare the man down.
“I know the ocean,” he said simply.
“And the ocean told you it's going to storm?” Her skepticism was clear.
“Something like that.”
“If you really think a storm is coming,” Marcus spoke up, “we'd better get you unloaded so you can get back to the Nation.”
