by Doug Kelly
“What’s in the little bag?” asked Mary.
“Seeds.” Ruth opened the bag and poured the contents on the table. “I promised myself that I would find a place to live. And when I did, I would plant these seeds and make it my home.” Ruth segregated the seeds and named them all as she did. Holding the final one up on the palm of her hand, she said, “And the big one is a walnut. They are beautiful trees.”
“Did you grow up on a farm?” asked Dylan.
“Something like that. Our land wasn’t next to the house.”
“What did you grow?”
“My father rotated corn and beans, and my four brothers helped him with the land. Oh, and we had a few cattle and goats out there, too.” Ruth started to squirm in the chair. “Excuse me.” She leaned toward Mary and whispered, “Do you have a bathroom that works? I just drank a lot of water and don’t want to go in the cold, if I don’t have to.”
Mary pointed to the hallway. “Just down the hall. If you need to flush, fill the tank with the bucket of water in the bathtub.”
Ruth untied the plastic bags from around her ankles. “This is wonderful. You have plumbing that works.” She stood up.
“That’s nothing,” Mary added. “During the warm weather, these two found a spring up the hill and siphoned water directly to the plumbing. Then they put a rain barrel in the attic, filled it with water, and connected it to the hot water line. Before winter arrived, that rain barrel gave us warm water.” Mary smiled as she reminisced. “I can’t wait to take a warm shower again. Lord knows I need it.”
Ruth turned and went down the hallway.
Mary put a finger to her lips. “Shhh. Dylan’s children are still asleep.”
Ruth whispered back, “I’ll be quiet.”
Dylan raised his hand. “Ruth. One more thing. We’re trying to conserve water. So, if it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down.”
Ruth laughed at Dylan’s humor, and felt her tension melt. She removed the knife from her coat pocket, placed it on the kitchen countertop, and quietly tiptoed away.
“What do we do now?” asked Dylan.
“Take her to Dean’s community,” Kevin suggested. “He said they were looking for some strays.”
“I think he was wanting men who can fight. You saw her. That little thing doesn’t look like she weighs more than a sack of potatoes.”
“Then what are you saying, Dylan?”
“Keep her.”
“You mean here?” asked Mary.
“Precisely. She’s the closest thing to a farmer that we’ve got.” Dylan paused. He thought he heard her back in the hallway, but it was actually Ruth fumbling with the bathroom door. “Didn’t you hear her? She has raised goats. And, thanks to Kevin, we have goats in Tom’s barn. The female is pregnant and due to drop a kid in the springtime. Plus, she is used to living without electricity, and look,” Dylan pointed at the seeds on the table, “she’s smart enough to think ahead. That little thing probably eats like a bird anyway, so I say we keep her.”
“It’s your house,” said Kevin.
“No, you and Mary live here, too. We vote on it.”
Dylan immediately raised his hand. Kevin only paused for a moment before raising his. Both men looked at Mary.
“Yes, she can stay,” said Mary.
Ruth emerged from the hallway, pulled the belt of her herringbone trench coat tight, and tied it around her waist. She put the seeds back into the plastic bag. “Thank you for your hospitality. I should be going now.”
“Where are you going? You look a little homeless to me,” said Dylan.
“I don’t know.”
“Ruth, stay here,” said Mary. “We talked about it when you were out of the room. You’re welcome to stay.”
“I…I…I don’t know what to say.”
“C’mon, just say yes. I think we need your help,” said Kevin.
“How’s that?” asked Ruth.
“Kevin is right. We have about forty acres next to us that we can plow. I found a tractor that works, and it’s stored in a barn, waiting for springtime. You help with that, the garden, and anything else around here, you can stay.”
Ruth held her chin higher and spoke confidently, “I’ll earn my keep.”
Dylan clapped his hands together. “That settles it. Welcome to your new home.”
Ruth untied the belt of her coat and removed her wool cap. Her long brown hair fell to the center of her back. She took her coat off and looked around for a place to put it.
Mary pointed toward another room. “Just put it in there. Maybe we can wash it later.”
Dylan stared at Ruth as she walked out of the room. He had not expected to see such a beautiful woman hidden under that gray overcoat. Mary caught his wandering eye and moved toward him.
Mary shook a finger in Dylan’s face. “I saw the way you looked at her. She’s a guest in this house.”
Dylan calmly blinked once, turned his head away, and looked through the blinds at the winter landscape.
“Relax, Mary,” pleaded Kevin. “I’d be more worried if he didn’t notice her.”
Mary slapped her husband on the shoulder and marched away.
A heavy fist pounded on the front door. Dylan jumped up and went to answer it. He looked through the peephole to see David Taylor holding the bow he had made for him. David pounded anxiously on the door again.
Dylan jerked the door open. “What’s the emergency?”
“Oh, man, I need your help. Come with me.” He looked over Dylan’s shoulder and saw Kevin in the room. “You, too, Kevin. Let’s go.”
“What is it?”
“I didn’t expect this. I’m telling you, I just can’t believe it.”
Kevin walked over to the door and asked, “Are you in trouble?”
“No, no, no. It’s good. I was out hunting for rabbits. I thought they would be easy to track in the snow. I followed some tracks into the bushes, but they disappeared. Then, while I was standing there thinking I was done, the biggest buck I have ever seen starts running toward me. A coyote was chasing it right to me, but it couldn’t see me behind the bush. I was ready. I pulled my arrow back, right when that buck passed the bush I released it, and the arrow went right through the deer.”
“So, did you come over to brag?”
“No, I thought I was rabbit hunting. I didn’t bring a knife. Shit, Dylan this thing is a monster. There’s no way I can move it by myself. Bring a knife and help me field dress it. Then let’s get it into the barbeque grill on your patio.”
“I heard everything,” said Mary. “Here are your coats.”
Dylan and Kevin put on their coats and went outside. David shut the door. Just before he did, he saw Ruth standing beside Mary.
“Who was that?” asked David.
“A farmer,” replied Dylan.
“She’s awfully small to be a farmer,” David replied.
“I’ll tell you about it on the way.” Dylan nudged David’s shoulder. “Let’s get moving. It’s cold out here.”
Kevin pulled his collar up around his neck and walked behind the others, using them as a wind block.
“How’s the wife?” Dylan asked David. “She’s due any day, isn’t she?”
“Yes, she is. Linda Foster has been staying with us. It’s good that I don’t have to leave her alone when I do this.” He held up the bow.
“How close is that deer?” asked Kevin.
“Look over there,” said David. “By the bridge. Do you see it?”
“I do now.”
David could not restrain his excitement, and ran through the snow toward his trophy, following the deer’s tracks as he did.
Dylan looked down, saw some red-tailed hawk feathers in the deer tracks, and wondered how they had gotten here.
“Ruth, we need to get a fire ready,” said Mary. “Put wood into the grill on the patio. I’ll be right there.”
Ruth found the handle to the lid of the grill and lifted it. A small avalanche of s
now fell behind it. She put small pieces of wood on the bottom of the grill as kindling, set small logs of split wood on top, closed the lid, and waited for Mary. Mary stepped carefully through the snow, holding a small cup of gasoline. At the grill, Ruth lifted the lid, and Mary sprinkled the gas evenly across the logs. She put the cup down and smelled her hand to make sure she had not spilled any gas on it. Mary flicked a lighter, and a small, yellow flame brought the gasoline on the wood to a blaze.
“Shut the lid,” said Mary. “That should do it.”
Back inside, Ruth blew her hot breath across her hands to warm them.
“How about a bath?” asked Mary.
“What do you mean?”
“We have enough water in buckets for you to take a bath and wash your clothes. Think of it like a baptism into your new home.”
“I need a bath more than a baptism.”
“Get every big pot out of the kitchen and fill them with water. We can heat the water on the grill. When you have enough hot water, get in the tub and pour it over you, one cup at a time.”
They filled the hot grill with deep pots of water. After the pots of water got warm enough, they poured the warm water into the empty buckets in the bathroom. Warm, moist air rose from each bucket of water. The condensing vapor looked like steam. Ruth put the palms of her hands across the tops of the buckets to feel the moist heat.
“Mary?”
“Yes.”
“Is Dylan married?”
“No, his wife is dead. He had two children with her. They’re still sleeping in the basement.”
“What happened?”
“Bad people. She was killed.” Mary frowned. “Don’t bring the subject up around him or the children. His children don’t know, and I’m sure he doesn’t want to talk about it.”
Ruth knelt by the warm buckets of water. “I understand. Sometimes it’s best to leave things unsaid.”
As Ruth stared at her reflection in a bucket of water, Ruth’s sanguine thoughts drifted back to the apartment complex from which she had escaped. After the pulse, she was able to stretch out her food supply longer than most. Her petite body did not require much food. Others in her apartment complex were not as fortunate. They quickly became desperate and went up the street to the Allied Grocery Distribution warehouse. She had heard that Sam Deville had taken it over and was assembling a gang. If the men joined with him, they could stay. If they did not, he evicted them. Therefore, it was not much of a choice and many joined Sam Deville’s gang.
Ruth happened to live in the apartment next to Sam’s, and she thought he was crazy. She had heard his psychopathic ramblings through the thin walls and tried to avoid him. Initially, Sam did not bother the women in the complex. He used the men to create a militia. As time went on, Ruth became more relaxed about the fate of the women in the building, and was nearly ready to approach Sam for help. Her food was about to run out. Then her fears came to fruition. She saw a friend taken away by two of his soldiers, to the building used as the men’s barracks. Her female friends all disappeared, one by one.
Days later, she heard a knock at the door. She opened it to see two of Sam’s soldiers. One soldier said, “From Sam,” and handed her a bag of food. They said nothing else, and walked away. She took the food without questioning it. This started to happen regularly, and then stopped just as suddenly. Ruth ran out of food and was ravenous. During the throes of hunger, she heard a knock on the door. She flung the door open, expecting to get food, but was shocked to see a smiling Sam Deville.
“Hello, Ruth. Mind if I come in?”
“No. It’s Sam, isn’t it?”
Sam pushed the door completely open with one finger. “I think you know who I am. At least you should by now.”
Instinctively, Ruth walked backwards into her apartment, not wanting to turn her back to him. Sam followed her.
“Need anything?” Sam was looking out the window at the winter storm approaching. He knew it was going to be a bad storm, and that would make it a good night for weather that would keep people from leaving, or escaping, his compound.
“Food,” said Ruth. “Where did the food go?”
Sam turned around. “Oh.” He raised an eyebrow. “I thought you might have asked about your friends first. Don’t you miss them?”
“Yes.”
“They know where the food is.”
“Where is that?”
“Let me explain something to you. My men need to feel like they are fighting for something. They need a reason to fight for me and to think of me as their leader and provider. Your friends are with my men now. I’ve paired them up with my best soldiers.” Sam got closer to the window. The bare branches of the trees were moving briskly in the cold wind, and the gray snow clouds were sinking lower in the sky.
“I don’t want to be with any of your soldiers.”
“Of course not. Not you, Ruth.” Sam turned around and sadistically smiled.
Ruth started to breathe a sigh of relief, but as his sadistic smile transformed into a lecherous grin, it choked her from across the room.
“You’re going to be with me!”
When Sam sneered and walked toward her, she became enraged and viciously slapped him across the face. He did not blink. Sam turned to the door, pushed it shut, and locked it.
“What are you doing?” she screamed.
Sam quickly pulled off his belt. The leather flicked through each belt loop and made a sound like snapping fingers as it did. He wrapped the belt around his hand several times and slapped the remaining length across his other palm to test the feel of the cold leather.
“I’m going to teach you a lesson.”
Ruth’s screams echoed through the empty hallway and across the frozen landscape.
“Ruth, are you okay?” asked Mary.
Ruth shook her head. “Sorry, I must have been daydreaming.”
“Let me get you a towel,” said Mary. “I’ll be right back.” Mary lit a candle in the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
Ruth removed her clothes and piled them beside the bathtub. She got into the tub and poured cups of the warm water on her body. She winced when the water went down the open wounds on her back. The clear water picked up a tinge of blood as it ran down her body and moved toward the drain.
Mary flung the door open and announced, “Here’s a towel.”
Ruth modestly turned away from the door. Mary gasped at what she saw. Bloody welts the size and shape of belt lashes covered Ruth’s back.
“I’m sorry. I should have knocked.”
“Please don’t tell anybody,” begged Ruth.
“God help you.”
“God didn’t help me.”
“Well, you’re here now. I’ll say a prayer for you.”
“You’re too late for that.”
“Never too late. Let me help you wash. I’ll give you some of my clothes to wear when we’re done here.” Mary carefully poured the remaining water on Ruth. She let the water flow over the open wounds and whispered under her breath, “I now baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
Chapter Twenty
The full moon broke above the horizon on a clear winter night. In a row of trees by the stream, the naked branches were still in the calm air. Moonlight shone through the trees, bringing them into silhouette. The trees’ dark shadows moved slowly across the white snow as the moon rose higher in the sky. A moonbeam pierced the darkness and brought a rabbit out from the cover of an uprooted maple tree. The hungry rabbit used its teeth to test the thick, rough bark of the old tree and quickly became discouraged with its meal. Still famished, it hopped across an untrodden section of the snow-covered meadow and gnawed the bark of some woody vegetation clustered nearby in the open field.
An owl glided elegantly to a stout branch of a tall oak tree. The bird turned to the open field, then looked and listened with its keen eyes and ears. It observed quietly from its high perch, ready to swoop down and capture its prey.
The rabbit’s light brown fur camouflaged it against the shrubbery, but the contrast and movement of its dark shadow, cast long against the pure white snow by the light of the full moon, betrayed it. The owl sensed the motion of the rabbit. It swooped down, talons first, grasping and killing the prey, then flew up to its perch and ripped at the warm flesh with its sharp beak. When the owl finished, it dropped the rabbit’s corpse to the ground. The owl’s call echoed through the trees and into the open field.
Dylan took a candle to the furnace room in his basement. He raised its flickering yellow flame to the thermometer nailed on the wall. To himself, he whispered a comment about the temperature, “Almost sixty degrees. Not bad.” Dylan was glad the house had a deep basement. He remembered the building contractor telling him that the frost line never got below two feet in Missouri. With nine-foot foundation walls, soil of a constant temperature surrounded and insulated the concrete, keeping it cool in the summer and warm in the winter, much like a cave.
“Hey, Dylan, are you down here?” asked Kevin.
Dylan turned around, cupped his hand in front of the flame, and turned to leave the room. “Yeah, it’s me. I’m coming out.”
“What are you doing?” asked Kevin.
“Checking the temperature. It’s almost sixty degrees down here, and it’s freezing outside.”
Kevin tested the heat of the small flame with his palm. The yellow light cast an eerie shadow of his hand on the hallway wall. “It’s nice down here and I’m glad we have a roof over our heads, too.”
Dylan cupped the flame again, and they started up the stairway. They quickened their pace when they heard a pounding on the front door. When they reached the top of the stairs, three more knocks brought everyone to the living room.
Darkness came early during the winter. It was early evening and would have been pitch black without the bright, full moon shining through the clear night sky. Ruth opened the blinds and moonlight poured into the living room, casting a slatted shadow of the blinds onto the floor. Dylan’s children huddled together on the floor, wearing layers of clothing and a blanket draped over their shoulders. Dylan’s eyes had adjusted to the dark, and he could see his son yawning in the dim light. Mary stood behind the two children with her arms crossed, cupping her elbows with her hands.
