“There's always an alternative. I think we should all get together and run the math,” Jared said, turning Kelly around to face him. “Figure out just how long the food will hold out.”
“It's six months. May, by my calculations, and if we lose any more chickens, less.”
“Come here,” Jared gathered Kelly in his arms.
Impishly, Kelly said into his collar, “Can we change the subject now?”
“Sure. We're not going to solve that whopper this minute. Maybe we could talk about something here and now. The horses look good?” Jared said.
Kelly lifted her head and looked into the corral. “Yep, a little thinner, but I'm thinking of taking them down to the Branham's place today. They had grass on their front lawn and it's got a little height on it now. Should be a good lunch for our four friends here.”
“I'll go with you. I'll look forward to it.” Jared smiled and raised his eyebrows.
****
“Emma, that was the best corn pudding I've ever eaten,” said Jared. “It's like sweet, buttery, gooey cake.”
“That's probably the only corn pudding you've ever eaten unless you're from the South,” said Emma.
“Well, that's true. I haven't had corn pudding before, but I've had cornbread. This is better.”
“Lynn helped me make it. It's just some corn meal, canned creamed corn, corn syrup and some onion from the garden. I usually put a whole stick of butter in it, but I had to use a little peanut oil this time. Lynn and I gathered the greens out in the yard. And what do you think about the salad?” She glanced over at Jess, who had devoured his corn pudding but was pushing the greens around on his plate.
“It's good,” he said sullenly, still not taking a bite. He pushed his chair back and stood up, taking his plate toward the sink.
“I'll take that, Mijo,” said Jose, reaching for Jess's plate. Jess handed it over without speaking, then headed for the living room.
“You will turn Miss Lynn here into a fine cook,” said Jared. “Now, if you will excuse us, Kelly and I are going to take the horses over to the Branham's for their lunch.” Jared winked at Kelly.
“Jared,” Kelly interrupted, clearing her throat. “I thought maybe my mom and I would take them down.”
Jared looked at her, puzzled. “Sure.” He paused, a little stunned.
“But I'll make it up to you,” Kelly said, raising her eyebrows and nodding, asking for his approval.
“Okay then, another time.” His voice and mood had changed from jubilant to disappointed.
“Will you go with me, Mom?” Kelly asked.
“Why sure, honey. Have something important to talk about?”
“Well, as a matter of fact, I do.”
“Let me get some things. Lynn, can you wash up these dishes?” Emma didn't wait for a reply, but left the kitchen for the shoe rack by the front door.
“I'll go with you two,” Jared offered to Kelly.
Kelly stepped within a foot of Jared and gave him a curt head shake. “Please. I'll explain later.”
Jared waited for the door to close behind Emma before he asked Kelly to step out the back door with him. “I thought we were going to talk first?”
“No, I have thought about this and I think now is a good time to break it to my mom. Instead of us preparing to stay we need to be preparing to go and it will take us every second to get out of here in March. Really, we can't wait another day.”
“I thought you said that the food would last through May?”
“Yes, if we take it down to the last mouthful. If we go earlier, we will leave more for Mom and Rich to use until they can get the late summer crops in.”
“Why March then? Why not February?” impatience crept into Jared's voice.
“Weather,” Kelly said, impatient herself.
“Okay, but I think I should go to the Branham's with you for security.”
“No, thanks. Really, this is a talk my mom and I need to have alone. I have a history of leaving my mother. We still have issues. I left her every year to spend the summers with my Dad, I left to go to college and then the military. My mom was finally certain that I would be around, that I had come home to stay, and now this. Who knows if we'll ever see each other again. She'll be scared, sad, maybe even angry.”
“Just be glad you have someone who is worried about your leaving,” Jared said, his voice softening some. “Can we go out tonight, alone somewhere?”
“Sure, I promise.” Kelly smiled, noticing Jared's downturned gaze. She gave him a peck on the cheek.
Emma stepped out onto the stoop wearing her cowboy boots and a nice holster to boot. “Ready?” Emma asked Kelly.
Kelly glanced at Jared and then to her mother. “Sure, Mom.”
****
Kelly and Emma saddled up two horses to go to the Branham's house. The other two horses, without saddles, were led by their reins. It had been quite awhile since Kelly and Emma had been alone together and could actually talk, privately. Every waking minute seemed to have been filled with contemplation, planning, and execution of survival.
At first the ladies rode in silence down the dirt road, turning to follow the meandering canyon. The water babbled in the stream and the sun beat down, warming their skin. Kelly was lost in thought as she sat atop Pokey, feeling his back sway under her saddle and her shoulders sway in response. She was trying to compose the right words to tell her mother how urgent and imperative she thought this move was.
“The horses seem keen to get away from the old homestead,” said Emma placidly. “I think I needed a break too. We've all been working hard to keep ahead of everything.”
“That's why I asked you to come with me today—instead of Jared, I mean.”
“You were right. The grass is up to our knees,” said Emma as they reached the Branham's.
Kelly and Emma dismounted and dropped the reins. The horses took immediately to munching the tall grass. It looked mostly brown on the tops but further down, toward the roots, the blades were still green.
“Fall doesn't give us much rain around here,” said Emma.
“Mom, I don't want to talk about pleasantries, least of all the weather.” She didn't mean it to sound quite so abrupt. “There's something big on my mind.”
“Weather is important and—”
Kelly let out a frustrated “harumph,” pursing her lips.
“Oh, I know that look. What's up, baby girl?”
“I'm afraid.”
“I—”
Kelly held up her hand. “Let me finish. I'm afraid we might all starve. I think you and Rich can do well here, but the rest of us, we have to leave. We have to go to Dad's. That way, we all stand a better chance of survival 'til this whole thing is over.”
Emma stood dumbfounded, her mouth hanging open. “We've all been working so hard.”
“I know, but it's obvious we won't be able to keep up with food production. With eight of us here, our supplies are being used at an alarming rate. We have to go into Rich's basement or hike up to the cave almost every day to get food.”
“You can't go. It's, it's... too dangerous. You'll never make it that far,” Emma said hurriedly, trying to make a sound argument.
“We have to try. You can grow things there, really grow things.”
“You're not going and that's final,” Emma said in the same tone as if she had stamped one foot on the ground.
“I don't think you can talk to me like that anymore, Mom. I'm not a child and won't let fear keep me from doing what's right.”
“Fear? You want to go charging off into the desert with those kids with the world the way it is? That's not right, honey, that's just plain crazy. Getting to Utah without a car is hard in the best of times. There are mountains to get over, tall ones, and then miles and miles of unforgiving desert, not to mention every human out there will be competing for your water, food, horses...”
“I know it's a gamble, but to stay is a certain, slow death and I refuse to take you down with us
. I won't subject you to that.” Kelly choked out her words, angry, sad and confused all at once. “I love you.”
“I know you do. I'd gladly die for you and you know it.”
“It wouldn't be you dying to save me, Mom. It would be all of us dying together. Is that what you want?”
“No! Damn it. But...”
“But what?!”
“But I never, ever want to lose you... again,” Emma blurted out.
“You could come with us.”
Emma fell silent, staring at the ground.
“Mom, did you hear me? You could come with us.”
“No,” Emma's voice slowed to a crawl. Her words were very deliberate. “No, I'm getting too old to make a trip like that. I've never imagined myself anyplace but here, living out my final days. This is my home. Besides, your Dad and I… you know, we... me and Rich wouldn't fit in.”
It was Kelly's turn to be silent.
Emma continued, “What would Rich do?”
Kelly had no answer. Slowly the two women came together in a hug. Out of words and other possible solutions, it was all that was left. Both strong women were fixers, copers, used to looking after others. The tears ran silently down their faces until their collars were wet.
All of the unspoken words of the past flowed through them and out of them as they held each other. After a long time they let go and walked, hand in hand, toward the porch on the Branham's house. The horses continued to munch contentedly.
Mother and daughter talked until late afternoon started to fade into early evening. The sun sank below the cliffs to the west, putting their little canyon in yellow-grey shadow. Finally, they rode in silence together—really together—back toward the house.
Chapter 18
Kelly and Jared reclined on their favorite rock down by the creek. This had become their place to come and talk, a hideaway of sorts. Jared lay on his back with his jeans jacket rolled up under his head, and Kelly lay with her head on his stomach.
“Look up there, Kel,” said Jared, pointing to yet another outcropping high on the cliff above them. “There's a nest up there, a big one.”
“We have a lot of large birds around here, but I don't know of any that make a nest that size.” Both shrugged. “Look at those clouds, though.” Kelly pointed to some white, fluffy clouds with dark, blue-grey bottoms. “Looks like we have weather building from the west. We sure could use rain. I don't think we have had any since we've been up here.”
“Nope, not a drop. It's hard to believe it's mid-November. Anywhere else in the country the snow would have started to fly, but here it's still in the seventies and only chilly at night. The first night I really needed a jacket was Halloween.”
“I'm just glad we're here and not on our way to Utah. It won't be long before there's snow in the mountains of Northern Arizona,” said Kelly. “I think Mom's relieved that we put off the move until March, but the delay will just make it harder on her. You know, more time to think about me and to get to know you and the kids.” She put that thought out of her mind and focused on the upcoming move instead. “When we go, we'll have to traverse desert for fifty miles to Payson until we start to climb the rim. Ninety-five miles in higher elevation to reach Flagstaff, two hundred miles of mostly high desert to Kanab, then fifty rough, mountainous miles to Alton, where dad lives.”
“That's quite a trek,” Jared said lifting his middle slightly to brush a small rock from under one hip. “Makes me tired just thinking about it.”
“Makes me tired and hungry,” Kelly said, rolling to one side and lifting herself up on one elbow. “Speaking of hungry, I was talking with my mom, who brought up the food issue for the horses. There won't be enough grass growing along the way, maybe not until April. We couldn't possibly carry enough feed for the whole trip even if we had it, so we will have to wait.”
“Is that why we're waiting?” Jared asked.
Kelly nodded, but both of them knew that the logistics of the trip wasn't the only reason they were staying.
“How long do you think it will take, the whole trip?” Jared asked, picking up on her hesitation and sadness.
“Oh, three hundred and seventy miles, an average of ten miles a day, figure in rest stops—more than forty days, I guess. We need to plan it so we're out of here after the worst of winter and in Alton before the heat of summer.”
“We should plan on delays for mechanical issues, injury, detours, stuff like that,” said Jared.
“No way to account for any of that,” replied Kelly. “We don't know what's out there.”
“I think it will be fun,” Jared announced. “A grand adventure.”
“A grand adventure alright, but it scares the hell out of me.”
Jared ran his fingers through her hair, just letting her know that he was there.
“But Jose and Jess have put a lot of thought into the wagons. Did you see the suspensions?” asked Jared.
She laughed. “They've been like mad scientists with this project. It's brought out Jose's ingenuity in the best way. The secret compartments built into the beds may just save our lives.”
“Ingenious, huh?” asked Jared. “I never would have thought about an extra six inches in the floor or disguising a removable rail to access the space. Those custom water tanks are genius, too. The second half of the secret compartment fits tin cans and canning jars perfectly. We can hide anything we want in there.”
“I just hope we can hide enough to get us by,” Kelly rolled over onto her stomach and propped her head up with her hands.
“I think they look cool,” Jared said. “The old-time covered wagon meets MacGyver.”
“I knew you'd like them,” Kelly said playfully. “The PVC hoops on top make them look like modern day prairie schooners. I wish we had something besides those huge blue tarps to cover them, though. Nothing that blue occurs naturally; they'll stick out like sore thumbs.”
“The things I'm the most impressed with are the suspensions.”
“You said that,” Kelly pushed on his shoulder playfully, knocking him back.
Jared jerked back up to a full sitting position. “Now, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, suspensions... they sit high and ride like canoes, s-m-o-o-t-h.”
“Yeah, Jose is proud of that,” said Kelly.
“You know,” Jared said, looking Kelly right in the eyes. “I didn't think Jose and Dennis were gonna come with us. How'd you change their minds?”
“Oh, I don't know,” Kelly said with a drawl as she rolled her eyes to one side. “I might have laid down the law or begged for their help along the way, maybe both.”
“Bill says travelers report that things are worse than ever in the cities. Nobody has seen anyone from the government except a couple Humvees with guns mounted on them driving through, and only a handful of those. No convoys of food, no water...”
“The longer this goes on with no direction from the government, the worse it's going to get.”
“Do we still have a government?” asked Jared.
“Who knows?”
“What's our next big push? The canning and firewood chopping seem to be going well, if we can just keep wild-man Jess away from the axes. He darn near chopped into his own foot and mine the other day.”
“Our next big job's got to be rounding up another couple of horses for the second wagon and getting them trained. That only gives us four months to find 'em and train 'em.”
“What if we can't?”
“We don't go,” Kelly said plainly. “Since I don't see that as an option, we'd better get busy.”
“Wow, you mean I get to see Kelly the cowgirl again?” Jared asked, smiling playfully.
“I guess you do.” Kelly rolled onto her back and took a deep breath. “It's so pretty here, I could stay all day.”
“Too much to do—we should be getting back.” Jared stood her up and gave her a long kiss before they departed.
****
The clan was enjoying the evening, sitting on the porch, taking
turns playing their instruments and singing. It was their usual nighttime activity because it didn't require any use of lamp oil or candles, and it was cooler on the porch. For the first time since early September, they were getting a little rain. This wasn't the violent, flash-in-the pan type rain they got with the summer storms, but a nice soaking rain that, after an hour, turned into a light drizzle.
Rich and Emma finished strumming and Kelly finished singing the last of verse of a song about a covered wagon.
We are leaving Old Sugar Creek in our wagons stout and strong,
To make it to the valley before the winter nights are long.
Please pray for our safe arrival in a land to call our own.
In the spring will fall the rains where our summer wheat is sown.
... and the wheels rolled on, and the wheels rolled on.
The pit-pat of rain resumed. The splish-splash sounds emanated from the puddles that had formed under the eaves.
Kelly said to Jared wistfully, “When I imagine our trip to Utah, I see it like that song: you driving the team, me sitting beside you, dinner around the campfire, a huge blanket of stars.”
“Your idea of it seems a bit romantic, if you ask me. Sounds like a lot of hard work and cold nights. Didn't a lot of those pioneers walk alongside the wagons to save the teams and free up space?” asked Jared.
“I hope we don't have to do a lot of walking. We didn't when I was on the chuckwagon during roundups at my dad's.”
“Yes, but on that roundup each of the cowboys had their own horse,” said Emma.
“Your remuda looks like it needs more mounts,” Rich chimed in.
“Really, I'd like four more horses: two each for the wagons and a team to trade out, “said Kelly wistfully.
“What does remuda mean?” Lynn asked.
“Well, young filly,” said Rich, making the porch swing rock lightly, Emma by his side. “A remuda is the herd of horses for the cavalry, and remounts are the extra horses to be traded in when the ones you're riding on become tired.”
“What makes you a horse expert, Rich?” Jose asked from where he was sitting on the floor with his back up against the wall.
Post Grid: An Arizona EMP Adventure Page 25
