Miracles

by Thomas A. Watson

  Shoving the toothbrush back in her mouth, “I can throw just as hard as LL, so keep on,” she spoke around the toothbrush.

  Realizing her hair was wet, Jason pulled up on the bed to see Samantha was wrapped in a towel. “There’s a shower in there?” he asked with an almost holy reverence.

  Taking the toothbrush out with toothpaste foam around her mouth, Samantha grinned. “They have to have one of those instant hot water heaters because the hot water never stops and not even you will be able to use only hot. I don’t know what the temp is set on but I tried, it nearly burnt my skin off,” she admitted, then went back to brushing her teeth. Turning around and heading back in the bathroom, “I don’t know how I like that, with kids outnumbering adults I’m sure five to one,” she called out.

  Glancing down and seeing he was only wearing boxers, “Did you strip me?” he asked, moving around the bed and heading for the bathroom.

  Rinsing her mouth out, “Yeah, you still had your pants on. Why did you leave them on and not take my clothes off?” she asked, putting more toothpaste on her brush. “You know I hate sleeping in clothes, and I’ve had to do it for seven months. But thank you for taking my boots and socks off at least.”

  Dropping his boxers and turning on the shower, “How many times have you brushed your teeth?” he asked, yanking his hand out of the shower. “Shit, that is hot.”

  “Told ya,” Samantha laughed, and started brushing her teeth again. “I don’t know, but I don’t have to ration water for formula or food, so I can brush my teeth for real now.”

  After adding some cold, Jason stepped in and could feel the grime and funk screaming as it was blown away by the hot streams of water. “Samantha, the last thing I remember was leaning back in my chair at the table,” Jason more moaned than spoke under the shower.

  Yanking the shower curtain back, “You didn’t carry me here?” she asked, but didn’t stop brushing her teeth.

  “Nope. Otherwise, I would’ve stripped you down because I know you don’t like sleeping in clothes,” Jason told her with his eyes closed.

  Closing the shower curtain and rinsing her mouth out, “Hope they can overlook us just dumping the care of all our kids on them,” Samantha said, smiling at the mirror and inspecting her teeth. Grabbing some floss, she went to work.

  “For the sleep…,” Jason paused and lifted his arm up to see it was just after six a.m. Checking the date and thrilled it was the next day, “last night and this shower, I’ll give someone a reach around.”

  Opening wide to floss her back teeth, “Wwilla yoawy us tehh razior,” Samantha called out with her mouth open as she flossed.

  Not even making an effort to translate, Jason opened the curtain. “You expect me to know what in the hell you just said?”

  Taking the floss from her mouth and staring at him in the mirror, “Use the razor and get that shit off your face,” Samantha told him.

  Reaching up and stroking the beard coming in on his face. “I kind of like it, since my electric razor died in Tennessee.”

  Gracefully putting the floss down and turning around to look Jason in the eyes, “You don’t shave that shit off your face, I’ll never shave my legs or armpits again, I swear,” Samantha vowed and Jason jerked back, and noticed her legs and armpits were shaved.

  In a panic, he turned looking around in the shower and found the razor and shaving cream. “Look, I’m doing it,” he said, filling his hand with foam.

  Thankful it wasn’t a battle, Samantha turned around and grabbed the floss. “I can live like an animal when I have to and make do. But not when we’re back in civilization,” she said, returning to her task.

  “You know where they put us?” Jason called out.

  “Nope,” Samantha called out flossing, but he understood. “I woke up to pee and just tried this door, and found a bathroom with a stack of towels and supplies laid neatly in two piles.”

  With Samantha speaking with her mouth open, it took a minute but Jason got the gist of what she’d said. “We need to wash their sheets,” Jason said, dragging the razor across his face. He wasn’t about to admit it, but he was glad to be getting rid of the beard. The constant itching was driving him insane, and the kids with them were doing a good job of that alone.

  Finished flossing, Samantha smiled in the mirror again and then picked her toothbrush back up, loading it with paste. “We need to hurry and check on the kids. I’m sure Duke is pissed off since you aren’t there,” she said, and started brushing again. “I can’t believe you call him Duke, can you please stop?” she asked for the thousandth time.

  With half his face shaved, “First, hell no, I won’t stop calling him Duke,” Jason snapped. “He looks like a baby John Wayne, and that’s what I’ll call him forever. Second, I just got in the shower and you expect me to rush?” he asked, arching an eyebrow. “I can see from the bottle of men’s shampoo in here that it’s unopened, so that means your bottles were unopened and both are half empty. I know how long it takes you to wash your hair. Samantha, you’ve been in this shower for over an hour.”

  Spitting out a mouthful of toothpaste, “Then you don’t know shit,” Samantha huffed. “I woke up at four and showered once, cut the claws from my toes and fingers and then showered again. Yes, I feel guilty because I should’ve run right out looking for the kids because I know they’re screaming, but I had to get the funk off my body while I had a chance,” she said, looking in the mirror at him. “To wash those sheets, I’ll fill up a bucket of water outside to boil them in before we wash them.”

  For the first time in seven months, Samantha was taking care of herself and Jason couldn’t say anything because he was going to indulge his Id and just take care of his body. Granted, he didn’t think he was going to shower twice, but wasn’t ruling it out just yet. “We’ll make it up to them somehow,” Jason offered, going back to shaving.

  “If I would’ve known this was here, I would’ve begged LL to head here earlier,” Samantha admitted, satisfied her mouth was clean and grabbing a hairbrush.

  “I wish you wouldn’t tell him that,” Jason said, but didn’t say it loud enough to be heard over the shower.

  Feeling better than she could’ve hoped for just days ago, Samantha walked out to the bedroom and over to her rucksack. After they’d left LL’s in May because of the Heavenly Disciples, the only baths they’d had were from a bowl or stream, and they always came after the kids. Like their clothes were washed by hand, and that was only if they could. The clothes in their packs weren’t dirty, but they damn sure weren’t clean either. Dropping down on the bed and dreading putting on semi-clean clothes, Samantha took a deep breath and pushed her body up to get dressed.

  About to move to her pack, she stopped. On a nice hardwood dresser on the wall were two stacks of neatly folded clothes. Clean clothes. Timidly moving over, she saw one set was larger than the other. Taking the shirt off the top of the smaller set, Samantha gave a gasp to see a bra, a clean bra that looked brand-new. Looking up at the ceiling, “If they ask Jason to have sex for payment, I’ll talk him into it, since that’s what Arthur offered LL,” Samantha whispered to the heavens.

  Putting on the clean clothes just felt good and when Samantha went to grab her boots, she stopped. Her boots were at the foot of the bed, but they were spotless. Picking one up, she slowly brought it to her face giving a little sniff and nearly dropped it. She hated taking her boots off because they stank to high hell, now they smelled like lavender with no hint of rankness.

  “How in the hell did they get the rankness out and clean them without burning them?” she wondered out loud. Dropping back on the bed, she put her boots on while humming softly and noticed her rucksack didn’t look as full. Dreading it but having lived out of it for so long, Samantha moved over and opened it up. All her clothes were gone.

  Opening Jason’s she saw his were also. The only clothes left were those they’d had on, which were on the floor. She turned to the gun rack to see her AR and pistol. Like always they
were spotless; weapons being the only thing that took priority over the kids and were always cleaned and ready. The fact she had killed more people than she wanted to admit made Samantha a little uneasy, but she would drop anyone who was a threat or possible threat without batting an eyelash.

  Seeing her vest hanging beside Jason’s on a door, Samantha moved over and opened the door to see it was a walk-in closet packed with labeled boxes of kids’ clothes. Opening one, she saw they were brand-new kid clothes. Closing the door and grabbing her vest, she dropped it to the floor. Snatching it back up, she brought it to her face sniffing deeply. “It smells like Downey,” she sighed.

  Jason had bought her tactical vest two years ago, and she’d never liked it because the damn thing was so hard to keep clean and seemed to weigh a ton when the ballistic plates were put in. After running around on a range all day Samantha hated the sweat-soaked thing, but the vest had to be taken apart and washed by hand. The best she or Jason had been able to do since the outbreak was wipe off the vest a few times with a rag to get the mud off. At times, Samantha had almost expected her vest to walk around by itself with only the funk to hold it suspended in the air.

  Seeing her magazines were still loaded and in the vest, she pulled it to her chest. “I’ll help hold Jason down if they want sex from him,” she vowed.

  “What?” Jason asked, coming out of the bathroom.

  Like Jason had done when she’d come out of the bathroom, Samantha levitated in the air and landed facing him. “They washed our vests,” Samantha told him, “and our boots. All of our clothes in our rucksacks are gone. I think they took them to wash them.”

  Done drying his hair, Jason looked at his clothes on the floor. “Shit, if that’s the case, I wish they would’ve just stripped my ass butt-naked and taken all my clothes,” he said, then noticed the clothes Samantha had on. “Where did you get those?”

  She pointed at the other neatly folded stack of clothes, rolling her eyes, “Don’t you think that would’ve been rude, just stripping us down?”

  “Humph,” Jason grunted. “With the way we smelled, there isn’t a person on the planet that would’ve gotten sexually aroused by stripping us.” Thinking she should’ve taken that as offensive, Samantha had to agree with him. Seeing she was pondering what he’d said, “Doll, you know I love you and think the world of you, but we stank to high hell. I held my breath to pull down my pants just to take a dump, not from my shit but from the sludge along my balls. That shit was deadly toxic to inhale.”

  Cocking her head to the side, “Bitch, try being a girl and pulling down your pants when you haven’t had a proper bath in over half a year!” she popped off. “That’s why I pissed in my pants in Tennessee, I didn’t want to smell myself. You just have to pull it out to pee. I have to drop my pants for both my bodily functions, so don’t expect me to feel sorry for ya.”

  Giving a shiver as he grabbed the stack of clothes, “Okay, you win,” he said flatly.

  Grabbing her pistol, Samantha shoved it in her thigh holster and then grabbed her AR, checking it over without realizing she was doing it. She slung it on her back and waited on Jason. As he was putting his boots on, he saw her waiting. “You can go ahead and check on the kids, I’m coming.”

  “I don’t know where the fuck we are. All I remember after getting here was a kid called Little Momma who takes care of kids better than most adults. I’m going to follow you,” she told him as Jason moved to get his vest. “Oh, I remember Joseph and someone named Sarah fighting.”

  Buckling his thigh holster on, “Yeah, remember Little Momma because she threatened to give me double chores if I didn’t get out of the daycare area,” Jason said, grabbing his AR.

  “Why would she do that?”

  “She said I was so tired I couldn’t walk straight, and if I stepped on a baby I was doing double chores until she got tired or turned sixteen, whichever came first,” Jason answered. “I got out of her area like someone was shooting at my ass.”

  Moving over after Jason put his AR on his shoulder, “Babe, if we can’t make LL stay here, I still want to stay,” Samantha told him.

  Scoffing, “LL tries to leave and I’m breaking his goddamn legs,” Jason informed her. “After they heal, I’ll break them again until he gets the idea that leaving here is bad.”

  Pondering if that was a bit harsh, Samantha finally nodded. “I’ll help you put his legs in casts.”

  Giving her a kiss, Jason headed for the door and true to her word, Samantha followed by letting Jason figure out where they were. Once the door was open, she heard Jason’s stomach growl as the smell of breakfast washed over them in the hallway. Turning to the left, they saw the hallway led to a doorway that opened up in another hallway that seemed to go on forever. From the foggy depths of his memory Jason remembered the dorm area, and it was the opposite from where he wanted to go.

  Turning right, he followed the smell of food and coffee, walking past other closed doors until he reached the stairs. At the bottom, he saw Little Momma holding a crying baby and feeding it. Well, trying to feed it. Jason stepped over a child fence that sealed off the living room from the rest of the house.

  The baby in Little Momma’s arms was bigger than the others and Jason saw only one that seemed to be near the same size, but he could tell was at least six months older than the baby in her arms.

  “Duke, she’s trying to feed you,” Jason laughed, and the baby stopped crying. Pushing the bottle away so he could look around, Duke spotted Jason and held out his hands.

  “Hold it,” Vicki snapped, making Jason freeze. “Bend down,” she told him and he did, then noticed Vicki was looking into his eyes very deeply with a scowl on her face. The intense face she had made Jason very nervous.

  “Okay, you’re not so tired you’re stupid,” Vicki declared. “Hang your vest and weapons up, then come back and get Duke.”

  Not arguing, Jason did as he was told as Samantha just stood rooted to the floor with a gaping mouth. “Bend down,” Vicki commanded, and Samantha almost went to one knee to bow to the sovereign ruler of little people.

  Like Jason, Samantha felt uncomfortable under her gaze. Narrowing her eyes, “You can help with the babies this morning, but that’s it unless you take a nap today,” Vicki informed her.

  Samantha nearly unloaded, but the words stuck in her throat, seeing the narrowed little eyes of steel seemingly daring her to disagree. “Um, okay,” she said hesitantly.

  A smile sprang up on Vicki’s face. “Go get your gear off before you help, but we can do it,” Vicki said as Jason came back and took Duke.

  Taking Duke, the first thing he noticed was Duke was clean and smelled like a baby. They’d done the best they could with the babies, but couldn’t keep the ‘baby fresh’ smell. To be honest, the babies and kids had smelled nothing like the adults. The kids and infants always had the scent of gun oil, since the grownups always had a gun in their hands if they weren’t holding a baby.

  Looking down, Jason spotted the other ten babies they’d brought in. It was in that instant, he was proud of himself. He might not remember their names, but he could pick them out of the other infants and toddlers everywhere in the room, and then realized he could even pick out all the kids. “Thank you for giving them a bath,” Jason sighed, taking the bottle. “I was coming down to start,” he said, and he was going to.

  “We did it,” Vicki said, picking up another baby and Jason noticed older kids coming in and taking a baby.

  “I think I did a great job,” Andrea said, putting Pam down and getting another baby after seeing the diaper needed to be changed.

  “Andrea, you do great with the babies, and I’m so proud of you that you stopped using your shampoo on Pam,” Vicki said, watching Andrea. “The fact you can look now to see a diaper needs changing says that.”

  Coming back in, Samantha picked up a baby and just pulled it to her face, inhaling deeply, “Oh, I’m sorry we couldn’t do this for you every day,” she said, hugging the baby tig
ht.

  Putting the baby she was holding in a bouncy chair, “You took care of them the best you could, that’s all that matters,” Vicki stated, and Samantha thought that sounded much too grownup coming from such a small girl. Turning to Samantha, “You, Jason, and LL took care of the kids a hundred times better than you did of yourselves,” she continued, narrowing her eyes just a little. “I’m going to let that slide this time,” Vicki warned. “Pops says if you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t do shit for anyone else.”

  Hearing how easily the curse came from Vicki, Samantha gave a startle. “Momma hears you talking like that you’ll catch it,” Andrea warned as she finished changing the diaper.

  “I used it correctly,” Vicki sassed.

  “She did,” Arthur said, walking up to the baby gate at the kitchen while holding Nicole on his hip and a mug of coffee in the other hand. “Vicki, I think they did an outstanding job with what they had. I know for a fact, they did a better job than I could have with that many little ones.”

  Shrugging as she continued moving about working with the babies and kids, “I said they did, but Jason was so tired he almost stepped on some of the kids yesterday. Samantha is still tired, so she only gets to help with the babies until lunch and then she takes a nap or stays out of the daycare area,” Vicki dictated, turning around and putting her hands on her hips.

  Trying not to grin because Vicki was wearing his t-shirt she slept in, Arthur just turned to Samantha. “Sorry, but Little Momma has spoken,” he told Samantha.

  Still never having taken her eyes off Vicki, Samantha just nodded. “She’s protecting the babies and taking care of them. I’ll take a nap.”

  Stepping over two babies that were crawling around, Vicki gave Samantha a big hug and then kissed her cheek. Loving the affection from Vicki, Samantha returned the hug. “Where’s LL?” she asked, getting to her feet.

  “Asleep,” Arthur said, then headed off toward the dining room.