2nd Earth: Shortfall

by Edward Vought

  When we get to the farm he is impressed with what we have done to clean it up, and to make it pretty up to date, considering what we have had to work with. When we get to our house and the children come up and call me daddy he looks surprised. He asks me how long we have been here, he can see that Teddy is around ten and Kathy is eight. We explain that the children barely knew their fathers if they did at all. It is not uncommon for men to disappear in the big cities for a variety of reasons that we can think of, and there are probably some that we don’t have any idea about. For all we know, they may make the trip the other way than the way we came in, only going out. He has a lot of experience with windmills, and with propane, and natural gas. He worked for a company when he was a civilian that set up windmills and did drilling for gas.

  In the military his job was with the Army Corps of Engineers going into areas and doing basically what he did as a civilian. After an excellent hamburger on a home baked roll we take a walk around the farm to talk about some changes that may help us. He says we are doing very well for not really knowing any more than we have read in books. He does recommend that we get as many repair parts for the windmills as we can just in case and he can even help us know which ones will wear out the fastest. I explain my fears about depending on propane and then running out a couple years down the road. He says that sounds like a valid concern to him, I also tell him about the gas well that we found over by the pond. That peaks his interest and he wants to take a look at it as soon as we can.

  That’s all I need to know to take him for a walk to the pond. When we get there he is familiar with the pumping equipment because he is telling me all about it. He says this one obviously stopped because there was no reason to keep pumping gas to where it is supposed to. I ask him if there is any way to find out if the well is still any good. “If it is can we get the well working again, and if that is all possible, is the gas something we can use?” He smiles at me and says “unfortunately not” to all my questions. Natural Gas and propane are often found in the same deposit in the ground. Actually, propane has to be refined out of natural gas and even oil deposits. We would need a very sophisticated refinery to be able to use the gas in that hole. The good thing is, if society ever reaches that stage again, we are ready for it.

  It is late afternoon, and he is pretty tired, so we will go into town tomorrow to see if we can find the parts we should have on hand for the windmills. He gets to meet the rest of the family and our neighbors at supper. We have a special supper in the meeting building so everyone can meet him at once. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that his name is Ken. It is decided that he will stay with Billy and Ramona, at least for now, they have a couple extra bedrooms plus anybody that would try anything with Billy around, would have to be crazy. In the morning he wants to talk about the windmills we are using now. Tim and Tommy explain to Ken why they have done things the way they have, the book we have tells us too. Ken agrees with it pretty much, but says the job of switching some of the houses over to the new windmills could be done easier if we do it another way.

  Don’t ask me what he said, because I lost the conversation when he said windmill. Tim and Tommy seem to know what he is talking about though, so we decide to go into town to get the stuff we will need to make the changes. On the way in he talks Tim and Tommy into putting up another windmill to run the new building and to power the electricity we will need in the greenhouse. I stayed home so that someone would be around to watch over the family. When they get back I am happy to quit painting bedrooms and help with the windmills. Tim and Tommy watch him closely as does Ryan and Roy who came over from our neighbor’s farm to see what we are doing different. Ken is going to go over there after we are done to look at their setup and make any suggestions that may help them.

  We no sooner get the windmills switched over then Jenny, Samantha, and Jessica come looking for Frank, because the incubator that they have been using to hatch the baby chicks is not working right. Ken knows something about incubators so we go to take a look at it. Come to find out all it needs is reset because it is on a line that is connected to one of the circuits that was switched over. The guys say they would have waited, or at least warned everyone, if they had realized it. Ken and Frank show Jenny, Samantha, and Jessica some things the books didn’t mention that help them feel more comfortable using the incubator. Tomorrow we are going to enlarge the chicken coop inside the barn so that when the chicks are big enough, they can stay in the barn during the cold weather. Thanks to the diligent efforts of Jenny, Samantha, and Jessica we now have a very nice flock of chickens that allows us to have eggs a couple days a week for breakfast and still continue to increase the flock.

  The evening goes by as usual. We all enjoy the routine and the serenity that we have here compared with the city. Dayna has some good news tonight, she has been talking with Robin, Melissa, and some of the other women who have had children, and they all think she is pregnant. The twins ask her if that means she is going to have puppies like Princess, that’s what they call the mommy dog. We explain that she is going to have a little baby just like little Adam and Sara and the other newborns we have had join our family. They get excited and ask if they can play with the baby and hold it sometimes. They get even more excited when Dayna tells them it will be their little brother or sister.

  In the morning Ken goes over to the neighbor’s farm with Tim and says that their windmills are functioning great and says they shouldn’t need to add anymore unless they decide to build more like we have. They are planning to do pretty much everything we have done, as far as adding a greenhouse and the large building. We know where there is another greenhouse so we make plans to help them get that, and we saw another large metal building a few miles past the small town we always go to. We lend them several of our young men to help with the projects. It is when I return from working at our neighbor’s farm one evening that we realize one of the greatest fears a parent can have.

  It is late afternoon when I get home and go into the house where I am looking forward to the warmth and great atmosphere that always abides with us here. As soon as I walk into the house I know something is drastically wrong, because there is no one to meet me like usual. In fact the house has no sound, which is totally different with five children living here. I head back out to see if I can find someone who knows what is going on. I hope with everything I have that everyone is in the meeting building, but the feeling I have in the pit of my stomach tells me I am going to be disappointed. As soon as I step on the porch I see Dayna and Melissa running toward me, and they don’t look happy. They have been crying and probably still are. They ask me if I have seen Tina and Tammy this afternoon.

  “Jon, please tell us that you took the twins with you this afternoon. The last time anyone remembers seeing them is at lunch time when they were following Jenny, Samantha, and Rachel to the chicken coop. We were hoping maybe you came home and took them with you.”

  Now I know why I have this feeling of dread, in this weather those two four year olds can’t last very long in the woods or anywhere outside. I tell them I haven’t seen them and they start crying more now. Dan, Don, and Andrew come running to tell us they saw the girls a couple hours ago walking toward the meat barn following Zeus, that’s what they named their puppy. Great, that pup is not afraid of anything and those two will follow him anywhere. The barn is a good place to start so we run there to see if there is any sign of them. It snowed this afternoon and we can still see the little footprints in the snow leading to the barn and then towards the woods behind the barn. Sure enough they are following the puppy or walking with him, his prints are clear as well.

  Princess comes running from the area of the houses and acts like she wants me to follow her. I take her head in my hands and tell her to find the twins and Zeus. She seems to understand what I am saying, because she takes off running in the direction the tracks are going. The guys ask if they can go with us, I’m not about to turn down help at a time like this. It’s a good thing Princes
s slowed down for us to catch up with her or we would have lost her in the darkening woods. Poor Melissa is almost hysterical. I’m not far from that myself. My biggest fear is that we will find those two precious babies lying dead somewhere in the snow. Dayna keeps assuring Melissa that everything will be okay. Melissa keeps saying it’s all her fault, she thought the girls went out with Jenny and the others so she didn’t worry.

  “Jenny, Samantha, and Rachel are scared to death, they say it’s all their fault and will never forgive themselves for not making sure the twins were home safely if anything happens to them.”

  I tell Dan that nothing bad has happened, we will find them any minute now, and everything will be fine. Dayna whispers in my ear asking if I really believe that.

  “Yes I do, I have to. The alternative is not something that I will be able to live with.”

  Melissa says she refuses to believe that her babies won’t be home tonight. Just as she says that, Princess, who has been walking just ahead of us, starts barking and runs ahead as fast as she can run. We start after her and hear the girl’s voices laughing and the puppies high pitched barking. We run as fast as we can and in about a hundred yards we see the girls petting Princess and laughing. They seem to be talking to someone, when we get to them Melissa grabs Tina and Dayna grabs Tammy. They are hugging them, crying, and laughing all at the same time. Finally we can ask the girls what they are doing out here in the woods alone.

  “We followed Zeus because we didn’t want him to get lost, but then we didn’t know where we were and we were getting very cold and didn’t know the way home any more.”

  Tina starts explaining, then it’s Tammy’s turn.

  “We started to cry, but then Gramma and Grandpa found us and carried us back here. They were right here when Princess came up, but they said they had to leave when they saw you coming. Daddy, Gramma said they will talk to you soon, they both said they are very proud of you and love all their grandchildren very much.”

  Tina looks at Tammy and they both nod their agreement. We can see behind the girls and there isn’t even a smudge in the fresh snow, much less footprints. Melissa asks the girls, while we are carrying them home, why there are no tracks in the snow. They both say that Gramma and Grandpa carried them all the way.

  “They weren’t even wearing coats, but when they picked us up we felt as warm as if we were sitting in front of the fire. They hugged us both and took turns carrying us so that we all got to know each other. You should have seen them Mommy and Daddy, they didn’t leave until you came up to us.”

  Just about everyone in the family is coming to look for the girls when we get close to home. Robin and the children run to meet us with several others before we get out of the woods. The mood changes drastically for the better almost immediately, we have almost had a tragedy, but now we can celebrate the return of our babies. When we get into the house, after everyone hugs and tells us all how happy they are, we finally get the chance to speculate on who the children can be calling their grandparents. When we ask the girls, Kathy, Karen, and Teddy say they have seen them too. They have talked to them and have even gotten hugs from them. Robin asks them why they never said anything about this before. They tell us that Gramma and Grandpa told them not to.

  We are starting to worry that there may be people living nearby that are meeting the children secretly. Robin asks the children if they can describe their grandparents for us.

  “You know what they look like,” Tammy and Tina are smiling. “You have a picture of them upstairs.”

  They run upstairs and come running back before any of us can get up there with them. Tina hands the picture, that I keep next to the bed on the nightstand, to her mommy. Melissa shows us the picture that I keep of Gunny and Ma Horton. The children all say that they love their Gramma and Grampa very much.

  “Gramma is funny, she always calls Grampa, Francis, and he rolls his eyes whenever she calls him that. He saw the truck you drive Daddy and told us to tell you that he remembers when both of you rebuilt one just like it. How come Gramma and Grampa can’t come and stay with us?”

  I wish I could say something, but the tears are flowing freely down my cheeks right now. Dayna starts to hug me, but the twins along with Kathy, Karen, and Teddy beat her to it. They tell me not to be sad, Tina and Tammy are fine now. I know for sure I could never go back to living the life I was before I came here and became part of this wonderful family. The evening goes by with us reading the children’s favorite stories to them until they all fall asleep. When we can finally go to sleep I have a wonderful dream in which Gunny and Ma Horton meet me in the woods and tell me how proud they are of me and how much they love all their grandchildren and our whole family.

  Ma tells me I better take good care of my family or she will come back and tan my hide good. I tease Gunny calling him Francis and he tells me if I keep it up he will haunt me every time I try to make love. Ma smacks him, but he tells me if I don’t think he will, keep calling him Francis. I know better than to test that old war horse, he will do whatever he says he will. I hate to wake up from that dream, but when I do, I tell Dayna, Robin, and Melissa all about the conversation I had with the grandparents. They all laugh when I tell them what Gunny said and tell me I better not get into that kind of trouble or I will answer to them as well. We all agree that we hope the children continue to receive visits from their grandparents, I hope I do as well.

  The days turn into weeks and the weeks turn into months and before we know it the weather is turning nice again. It is mid March and Frank says it is time to start planting. The winter wheat is doing great and will be ready to harvest in late spring or early summer. We planted the hard red winter wheat and are planning to plant some of the soft white spring wheat. Don’t ask me what all that means. Frank is the farmer in the group.

  Dad and Frank are doing most of the planting except for a comparatively small amount we are planting in the individual gardens around the houses. The greenhouse is an excellent place to start our tomato plants and others that we are planning to put in the small gardens. We will plant a couple acres of tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, green beans, yellow beans, carrots, and corn for eating, and corn for feed and seed. In the smaller individual gardens we will plant some of the same crops, but we will also plant lettuce, a couple different kinds of squash, cucumbers, and a couple varieties of bell peppers. We sure are glad to have Frank and his wife Connie with us to help us learn how to be more self sufficient. Their children are a big help as well. Our whole family is willing to work and do whatever is necessary to survive or just to make life easier for each other. Dayna is definitely pregnant. She looks so cute with her little round belly. Since we are not sure that all the seed we found is going to grow we plant more than we think we will need just in case. Our neighbors are doing the same. Hopefully we will have a good crop so both families can be comfortable this coming winter and even be able to share if we get other neighbors.

  Today is a beautiful spring day with the sun shining brightly and the thermometer on the barn says the temperature is 75 degrees in the shade. We have spent just about the whole day planting potatoes. We were very lucky to find a field that was full of potatoes growing wild. We dug up all that we could and now we have enough seed potatoes to plant almost three acres of potatoes. It wasn’t all that bad with the tractor doing most of the work, but we did follow along with a hoe to make sure all the seed got covered properly. We didn’t plant all three acres today, Frank says it is better to stagger the planting of the crops so that they are not all ready to harvest at the same time. Dayna says she wishes we had a swimming pool. She saw them in the books we have been reading and thinks it would be great. Personally I am thinking about that pond that we have in the back. There are some indications that tell us that the people who once lived here used it for swimming in.

  We decide to take a walk back, so naturally we are joined by our entire household along with seven puppies and their mom plus several other interested parties. I am wear
ing shorts and a tee shirt so when we get to the pond I decide to see how deep it is and I just go ahead and jump in. If I had thought this through I would have realized that the temperatures have only gotten above fifty in the past week so the water in the pond is still pretty cold. In fact it’s down right freezing. When I finally scramble back on shore everyone is smiling, well some of them are laughing almost uncontrollably. Even the puppies look like they are smiling, but they look like that all the time anyway. The twins come over and ask me if they can go swimming with me. They remind me that they can’t swim yet so I will have to hold them. Melissa their mother tells them, between fits of laughter, that the water may be a degree or twenty too cold for swimming yet.

  Tim along with Charity who is pregnant as well comes up and asks me how the water is. Naturally I tell him the truth. After all he is my brother-in-law. I tell him it’s fantastic and that I am just getting ready to go for another dip. Dayna smacks me for lying to her sisters’ husband. He tells her it’s okay, he figured out how cold that water would be still and came up mainly to rub it in that I am so dumb. Ken comes along with Dayna’s other sister, they are now married and I wish he would have stayed in the other dimension or whatever it is. Between him, Tim, Billy, and Rod I get harassed as bad as I did by those nurses back at the hospital. We all decide to head back to the houses for the evening, now that everyone is cheerful at my expense. I have a tendency to cheer up our family’s days by doing something, let’s say somewhat less than intelligent, sometimes.

  I get the last laugh tonight though, when we get home I have four lovely young ladies who are more than willing to sit on my lap and help me get warm. Okay, it’s the girls, but so what if they are young, they still love their daddy, which makes me about the luckiest man alive. Between the children and the puppies that join us I am warm in no time. I mentioned that Ken married Dayna’s other sister Carrie. I forgot to mention that dad found a book with several wedding ceremonies, in a church we were looking around in one day when we were in town. Now we actually have a ceremony when people want to get married. Dayna, Robin, and Melissa have started keeping a journal, actually they started before we came down here, that chronicles everything we have done here and all of our experiences.