by Kate Morris
“I’m glad you’re coming to the farm for a few days. It’ll give us a chance to talk.”
This makes her frown. Being alone with Simon is not high on her priority list right now. Spending time apart is better. Absence is good. She rushes from the kitchen and bids him a hasty goodbye. Then she gets to work with her uncle, who is already taking care of the injured and sick people and children.
“Good morning, Sam,” Henry says as he enters the makeshift children’s hospital where they have also housed kids from the highwaymen’s group.
“Oh, hi,” she says, surprised to see him. “When’d you get here?”
Yesterday, he’d gone home to his farm to check on everything and make sure family members were assured of their loved one’s well-being who’d been in the battle. Running the compound with Dave is a great responsibility but also a burden. He does it with ease and never complains.
“Just now,” he answers.
Melora walks over to them and asks, “Have you seen Jessica’s chart? I can’t find it anywhere. I swear! This place became so unorganized overnight.”
Sam smiles and hands her the file, “I have it. I was just getting ready to check on her.”
She is one of the children who still has Scarlet Fever and has been fighting it for about three weeks. She is only three years old, and Sam prays for her every night to get well.
“Thanks. I’m gonna use it to club your uncle over the head,” she complains half-heartedly with a smile. “He’s like working with a five-year-old genius savant doctor.”
Sam laughs. It’s definitely true. He is very professional, wonderful with children, and a brilliant pediatrician, but he is very unorganized. He is prone to looking for a pen when it’s simply resting on his ear. He loses his stethoscope about twenty times per day. Most of the time, Sam has to remind him to eat something.
“Yeah, he’s funny,” Henry comments, earning a wide smile from Melora.
Sam notes the twinkle in her eye. Perhaps the others were right about Melora, and she actually likes Henry. She probably does for all Sam knows about this love stuff. With regards to her own love life, she doesn’t seem to have any of it figured out, either.
“I know!” Melora says with a laugh. “Can you help me, Henry?”
“Um…do you need me, Sam?”
“No, I’m headed back to my uncle,” she tells him and watches as he nods and leaves with Melora, who looks up at him more than once as they go. Sam doesn’t feel jealous, and that concerns her.
Instead of dwelling on it, she walks back to her uncle, who is now working with Simon and two of Robert’s doctors in their research lab.
“You should really consider coming up there to work, Simon,” Dr. Avery is saying to Simon over in a corner. She even briefly rests her hand on his forearm.
“Uh, maybe. We’ll see,” he says uncomfortably.
Dr. Avery’s first name is Eliza, which makes her name Eliza Avery, which in Sam’s opinion sounds fake. She doesn’t care much for Eliza Avery, who is always hanging on Simon’s every word when she is around him and talking about him with some of the women in town that Sam has overheard. She’s very tall, too tall and blonde. Sam wishes she’d get called back to Fort Knox. She’s sick of seeing her around when she has to come to town.
“Definitely!” Dr. Eliza Avery says with more vigor as Sam takes a stack of charts from her uncle. “You’d love it there. The research lab is fully up and running now. We’re growing cultures and compounding new drugs every day. It’s great. The research and experiments we’re doing are fantastic. Without government mandates and laws, we can progress so much more quickly.”
“That is pretty exciting,” he enthusiastically comments this time.
“Yes, and you’d have your own dorm room in the doctor sector with the rest of us!” she adds and touches his arm again. “We’d be like roommates.”
Sam would like to groan.
“Studying all the time and getting the lab experience would be very beneficial,” he agrees as if considering her offer.
“Think about it, Simon,” she further persuades. “I don’t think you’d be sorry. Besides, I’d get to see you every day. Once I leave here soon, I’m not sure when we’ll see each other next.”
Sam is beginning to wonder if something is going on between them. Perhaps that is why he’s behaving so strangely around her lately. Maybe he wants to tell her he has a girlfriend now.
“Probably sooner than you might think,” he says, but seems totally oblivious to the fact that the woman is hitting on him.
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, Herb and Reagan want to make a trip up very soon. They’re both anxious to see what’s been going on in the medical labs.”
“Well, hitch a ride and bring your things. Then you could just stay,” Eliza Avery states without pretense.
“Perhaps,” Simon murmurs as he looks through a microscope.
Sam would like to laugh but refrains. She might’ve been a bit too hasty about his new, hypothesized relationship status. He is completely clueless when it comes to women. This isn’t the first one in town who has made her interest known. There have been others, and he has been just as oblivious in the past with them. It bothers her, but Sam doesn’t want to admit the reason why. She has worked hard at closing her heart to Simon and fighting those feelings that seem to curse her with their very existence. Eliza Avery catches her eavesdropping and sends her a confused look. Sam glances away.
She works with her uncle until it’s time to go instead of trying to overhear more of Simon’s conversation with the pretty young doctor. When she walks to the crash house, she finds it empty and heads to the clinic where everyone is assembled and prepping to leave. According to Kelly, who came to town this morning, Cory and Simon are gone again and won’t be returning to the farm until after they have either exhausted every lead or found the car dealer.
With the weather being so cold, she rides in the cab of Dave’s pick-up truck instead of in the bed. He’s bringing a few of his men and her uncle. Henry is staying in town to work with some of the volunteers and then will return to his farm. She wishes she was going there instead. Seeing the family, even for short visits, is becoming more and more difficult.
When they arrive, they are welcomed with open arms. Her uncle immediately leaves with Grandpa for his office, and she is left to hang out with the girls until the meeting which will be after dinner.
“They’re both getting so big!” she exclaims of baby Daniel and Charlotte.
“Like Hannah’s stomach,” Reagan teases her sister, who only grins.
“Hannah is beautiful,” Sam corrects.
“Hannah is miserable!” Hannah remarks about herself in the third person. “I wasn’t nearly as sick with Mary.”
“It’ll be a boy,” Sue says. “Just watch. Whenever you carry and have the opposite symptoms, you’ll have the opposite sex.”
“Good Lord, let’s hope it’s a boy,” Reagan jokes. “The women around here are already outnumbering the men, even the babies lately.”
“Daniel is helping to balance it out,” Sam says, looking down into his tiny face as she cradles him. “Aren’t you? Yes, you’re a sweetheart.”
“Oh, brother,” Reagan says with a scoff. “Let’s not create another John or Cory.”
Hannah laughs gently from the chaise lounge in the music room. Mary is napping against her mother, who is also reclining, and Sam has the urge to draw them. Her daughter is dressed in a long white dress just like her mother and is as dark as Hannah is light. Mary has that youthful summer tan that children get from playing outdoors, but her mother is always fair. Hannah’s long hair is pulled up artfully on top of her head and secured with a blue ribbon, and her daughter’s is braided on either side of her head and tied off at the ends with light pink bows. She resembles Kelly so much but is so like Hannah. They look like something out of a time gone by framed in the late day sun streaming through the big bay window. A sudden pang of missing Grams st
rikes straight through Sam’s heart.
“And how is life on Henry’s farm, Miss Samantha?” Sue asks, changing the subject.
“Oh, fine,” she answers as honestly as she can manage as Paige walks into the room.
“Are the guys back yet?” she asks.
“Which ones?” Sue asks with a keen expression.
“Uh, my brother,” Paige clarifies and takes a seat with a book near the piano.
Sam doesn’t miss the look that passes between Sue and Reagan.
“Nope,” Sue answers. “They were told to come home for dinner, so I suspect they’ll be here soon.”
“Good,” Paige answers. “I don’t like this. All of it is just too unpredictable.”
“They’ll be ok,” Hannah says gently. “Don’t worry, Paige. They’re only looking for one man.”
Paige’s fair brow wrinkles. “I don’t know about that.”
“Why do you say that?” Sam asks.
“Someone’s been helping this guy. He didn’t escape by himself. There’s something fishy going on. I don’t want Simon to rush into a trap out there.”
“Or Cory,” Sue prods.
“Right,” Paige answers and fidgets in her seat. “Or Cory.”
Paige goes on to hit Sue with a look that clearly says to back off. Sue laughs and turns to Sam.
“So, Miss Samantha,” she says with a rueful smile, “anything new with Henry?”
Sam nearly chokes on her tea, not because it is hot, though. “No, ma’am. Henry and I are just friends.”
“Bummer.”
“Why’s that a bummer?”
“We’re trying to repopulate the earth after an apocalypse and you two girls won’t even help out with that task. We can’t leave it up to Reagan!”
Paige laughs, but Hannah frowns.
“You’re damn right,” Reagan agrees, earning a disapproving glance from Hannah. “I’m never going through that again. This kid thinks I’m a human milking machine.”
She’s berating her baby, but the soft glow in her green eyes belies her true feelings. Sam smiles as Paige and Hannah laugh at Reagan’s dismay.
“Sorry, but I’m not going to be helping out with that anytime soon, either,” Sam remarks.
“Me, neither,” Paige says.
Sam looks over and smiles at her conspiratorially but sees that Paige’s smile does not reach her gray eyes. There is something sad behind them, something she doesn’t want anyone to see. Sam sees it, though. She knows these four women so well, as if they were her own sisters. None of them is good at hiding things.
“Maybe you ought to forget about Henry,” Reagan says in an uncharacteristic show of offering relationship advice.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sam asks. “Don’t you like him?”
She makes a sound as if she isn’t committed either way. “Henry’s alright. Seems like a nice guy. I don’t think you should put all your eggs in one basket. You don’t seem all that jazzed up for Henry anyway.”
Sue laughs, but Sam says, “Reagan!”
“Just an observation, scientific one, of course,” she jokes.
“How would you know whether or not I’m enthusiastic about Henry?” Sam asks, slightly offended.
Reagan snorts, “I’ve seen you around him.”
“So?”
She shrugs and doesn’t say anything else, which also irritates Sam. She is assuming too much about her relationship with Henry. The girls go on to speak about the highwaymen and their own theories on the situation, but Sam finds herself going back to Reagan’s comments. It bothers her more than she wants to admit. Reagan shouldn’t assume things. It’s rude. Also, it makes Sam doubt her feelings for Henry, which makes her feel terrible.
Sam excuses herself to go for a walk and leaves the girls. She needs some space to clear her head. She grabs her art bag, jacket, and a stocking cap from the laundry room and heads out. After checking on the horses, she hangs out with Huntley for a while then goes to the woods. There are still a few birds hanging around, obviously left behind by their friends who have more wisely chosen to fly south. As a cold wind gust blows through the trees whose leaves are now blanketing the forest floor, Sam wishes she was in the south somewhere warm and preferably on a beach soaking up the sun.
She walks past Derek and Sue’s home and sends a friendly wave to one of Robert’s men who is chopping wood and splitting it in the side yard. It makes her wonder where that crazy car salesman is staying.
Walking further into the woods, Sam climbs up onto a thick, fallen tree trunk and takes a seat. Pulling the sketch pad from her bag, Sam sniffs and sharpens her pencil. The drawing comes easily of Hannah and Mary sitting by that window in the music room. A scene so lovely just ought to be drawn and memorialized.
Her mind keeps traveling back to the missing car dealer, and it bothers her that he got away so easily.
“Hey, Samantha,” Simon says, startling her out of deep thoughts. “Sorry to scare you. Huntley told me you went this way. Watcha’ doing way out here by yourself?”
“Drawing. It’s quiet out here. Always is.”
“Wow, that’s…wow, Sam,” he remarks as he regards her sketch closely. “Like a photograph.”
“Thanks,” she says and flips to a new page. “Sit. Let me draw you.”
He cringes and says, “I don’t…”
“Sit. Do what I say,” she orders and then smiles.
He smirks but sits anyway. The light is coming through the trees in a nice way as she quickly sketches him out. It doesn’t take long to get the basic outline and his eyes and nose and mouth. She has his face memorized. Every member of the family she has memorized, but Simon she could draw just from memory alone and get every tiny, minute detail down perfectly.
“Simon, where do you think this car dealer man went?” she asks him a few minutes later as she starts shading.
“We’re not sure,” he says and tries to peek at the sketch. Without any luck, he sighs and continues, “We tracked all day and came up with squat. We’re starting to think he fled the state. Kelly said he’s not sure if it’s worth it to keep pulling manpower from all of our compounds to chase down a few idiots.”
“A few?”
“He’s assuming that the car dealer had help,” he explains.
She nods and shades in more detail. His face is covered in late day stubble. “I would agree with that. It would also have to be someone who had a lot to gain from helping him. Nobody would take that big of a risk for just anyone.”
“I would risk that and more if you were in trouble,” he says and reaches out to touch her knee.
Sam looks down at his hand before he pulls it away. “What about Eliza Avery? Would you risk a lot for her?”
“Who? Oh, Dr. Avery?” he asks confusedly. “Um, yeah, sure. She’s a valuable member of our team. Robert needs her. His science center is doing very well, especially with help from her.”
“That’s special,” she remarks icily, to which he frowns confusedly.
“Yes, we’re lucky she’s working with us. I know Robert has plans of adding more doctors to his team.”
“You?”
He frowns and says, “No, I don’t think so. I’m not exactly an asset to a team like that.”
“Why not? I heard you talking to her. She sounded like she really wants you to move up there.”
Sam tries not to let that edge of jealousy creep into her voice. It’s an evil little thing, jealousy, the way it works its way into one’s life.
“Yes, she’s mentioned that a few times. I don’t think I could, though.”
“Why?”
“I can’t leave Reagan like that. She needs my help as Herb takes time off. He isn’t working at the clinic as much as he used to. She wants him to slow down even more, but you know Herb.”
This causes her to forget everything she was thinking about jealousy. She worries that something could be wrong with Grandpa.
“Is he sick?”
“No, there�
��s nothing wrong, not that he’d tell us anyway,” he remarks casually. “It’s just that we both noticed he gets tired a lot faster. These all-nighter shifts he tries to pull are wearing him down. He shouldn’t be working shifts like that at his age. He needs to slow down. That’s why I can’t leave. Reagan would be the only doctor in town.”
“What about that woman you guys rescued the other night? Dr. Brown was it? I thought she was a doctor, too.”
“Yes, she is, but she doesn’t want to stay in Pleasant View. She’s going to try and keep going up to North Dakota with her daughter. That’s where she was headed when the highwaymen attacked the caravan she was traveling with. She has family up north. She’s not sticking around for more than a few weeks until she gets back on her feet.”
“Yes, I can understand,” she says quietly. “I can also understand why you would feel like you can’t leave.”
“No, the patients who come to Pleasant View would only have Reagan if I left. She wants her grandfather to act in a more advisory role and retire.”
“That’s a good idea.”
He offers a grim smile before saying, “We could use more help, nurses, doctors, you.”
“No, I’m not doing that,” she says. “I only want to help out when I’m needed. I don’t want to be a doctor.”
“I know,” he says gently. “It’s ok. You have so many other gifts, it would be a waste to spend your time in our lab or the clinic.”
His words bother her. She doesn’t want to think about Simon anymore. She has spent a great deal of time getting over him.
“We should head back,” she says. “It’s getting dark.”
“Sure, I’ll walk you,” he offers and even holds out his hand to help her down.
Sam ignores it and hops to the ground.
“Do I get to see my portrait?” he asks.
Sam smiles coyly and hands over her sketchpad. “Sure!”
He takes it with a broad smile that quickly fades to a scowl. “What…? Hey! Did you draw the backside of a horse?”
She laughs gaily and states with pluck, “I was going for jackass, but I’ll take horse’s ass, too, whichever you prefer.”
At first, he looks angry but then grins. “Samantha Patterson, you sly little minx.”
