Midnight Skills

by William Allen

  What Gerald had, though, was a nice indoor facility where Sam thought Gerald and his few remaining employees, could fabricate and assemble the stoves for sale. Barter and trade, really. Sam acted as a partner in the concern as well as an investor, supplying raw materials, limited power in the form of a rebuilt diesel generator, and foodstuffs to keep Gerald and his workers, as well as their families, alive long enough for the stoves to become a viable commodity.

  “That’s another reason we want to get set up for small scale refining here. This will help some of our neighbors survive the winter. And the spring,” Luke said. “Everybody keeps talking about making it until spring, but the gardens won’t even start producing anything until May or so. Ever notice that?”

  Amy made a noise, that to Luke’s ear, sounded suspiciously like a sob before she spoke again.

  “Yeah, Luke, I noticed that too. I guess we’ve just have to see.”

  CHAPTER 25

  The next morning, Luke woke up feeling every muscle in his body, letting him know that a general strike was in progress. Everything ached, and his left arm burned with pain all the way to his shoulder. Rolling over carefully, he noticed Amy’s absence immediately, and when he checked the clock on his dresser, he realized he’d slept until nearly eight o’clock. What the heck? Then remembered. Oh, yeah, car wreck.

  Stumbling into the shower, he tried to get clean while holding his sore arm out of the water spray, then struggled into a pair of jeans and a black, zip-up hoodie. Not as a fashion statement, but because he found he couldn’t lift his bad arm enough to get a t-shirt on over his head.

  He found his mom in the kitchen, supervising cleanup with Maggie Cartwright. Luke made sure he bumped the table when he entered, careful not to startle the teenaged girl when he walked into the room. Time heals all wounds, Luke had heard said many times, and Maggie seemed to be getting better after her prolonged captivity, but he knew she still needed more of those days and weeks to come.

  “How you feeling, kiddo?” Claire Messner asked her oldest child, resisting the maternal urge to rush over and inspect his newest wounds.

  “I’m okay, Mom,” he replied, “just a bit sore is all. Miss Beth said I was lucky I hit my head, so I didn’t hurt anything important. As for my wrist, well, I think I hurt it worse that time I jammed it in practice last year. Just needs a little time. Y'all didn’t have to let me sleep so late.”

  “Amy said you needed it,” Claire responded, “and I figured she was right. Now, give your mother a hug.”

  Like the dutiful son he was, Luke complied, and he could tell his mother was checking him for other injuries when she held him in her embrace. She thinks she’s so smooth, Luke thought with a grin, and over his mother’s shoulder he saw Maggie smile shyly in return, as if she could read his mind. Well, that’s something anyway, he thought. He saw Maggie hang up the dish towel she’d been using and drift out of the room to give the two of them some privacy.

  “I saved you some oatmeal,” his mother continued, picking up a bowl, when Luke went to sit at the table. “And there’s some honey on the table. I know how you like it. You want some milk with that?”

  “Thanks,” Luke replied. “I’ll just take some water, please. So, what’s on the schedule for today?”

  “Your dad is up with Mike and some of the guys from his shop, getting one of those refineries unloaded. They want to see if everything still works before running out and picking up a load of crude oil first. That would be a heck of a note, you all went through all that and it doesn’t even work,” his mother explained.

  “Yeah, Amy and I talked about that last night,” Luke said between bites. “Sort of. I think we are going to need it, and I hate the price we paid, but I think we are going to need it. Grandpa’s idea about making bio-diesel wasn’t a bad one, but planting canola to squeeze for oil, means less land in production for food.”

  “We’ll need to plant every acre we can in corn and beans,” Claire agreed. She paused and seemed to choose her next words carefully. “What was it like, that close to Houston? I asked your dad, but he didn’t have much to say. I think he was still hurting over losing Rudy and those other two men.”

  Luke nodded his agreement while he continued to eat, only pausing to speak after swallowing. After hearing what little David had to say about his experiences in Fort Worth, Luke knew the big cities had to have been terrible after the lights went out. Heck, Luke knew Chicago had been a nightmare after only seven days.

  “Eerie is the only way I can describe it, Mom. There may have been a few people about, but if so, they were laying low. Lots of fire damage, and of course, everything had been looted months ago. But I didn’t see a single cat or dog the whole time we were in Kingwood, and I guess that says something.”

  “I see.”

  “Sorry we worried you guys,” Luke said, changing the subject. Not something he wanted to talk about any more than he wanted to chat about a dead city, but Luke felt like he owed it to his mother. “Amy said she was there when you got word we’d run into trouble. I know it must’ve been hard for you to see us go off like that. Not knowing what’s going on when we are away.”

  Claire nodded, clearing her throat. “It was hard, back when your dad was deployed. Watching him go and wondering if this was it. The last time I’d ever see him. Then he retired, and I thought, whew, finally don’t have to worry about that any more.

  “Now, every time he leaves the house, I feel that same torture, except now I’ve got both of you to worry about. Well, Paige and Amy worry, and the rest of your all-girl squad, too. Except Summer. She always thinks you are coming back. But, honey, Paige is a bundle of nerves, ever since we lost your granddad. I just got you back, with everything you’ve been through, and I can’t stand the thought…”

  Leaning over, Luke laid a hand on his mother’s arm, waiting patiently until she looked up to meet his eye. “I’m sorry. This is the world we live in, and I can’t do anything but try my hardest to keep coming back alive. I know you still see me as your little boy, but I’m not, not anymore.”

  “I know that, Luke,” Claire said with a sigh. “I know you are all grown up now, but it took me awhile to accept this. Seeing you with Amy, that threw me for a loop, let me tell you.” She offered a tight grin there, like an admission, before speaking again.

  “She’s a good girl, though, and I think I’m finally adjusting to the idea. But I’m still trying to understand this new world we are stuck with. This horrible, rotten, stinking world. Losing Augustus hurt, and I find myself looking around for Billy. And all the other people, friends and colleagues and casual acquaintances, who I know I’ll never see again.”

  “I know, and I miss them, too,” Luke replied, no longer feeling hungry. He ate, anyway, since that’s what you did. Fuel up and provide energy for your body, even if the food tasted like ashes.

  “Wait,” Luke asked, “Why doesn’t Summer worry?”

  “Because she said she knows you aren’t bulletproof, but she’s convinced you are the thing that goes bump in the night. You know, the boogieman?”

  His mom laughed when she said it, but Luke worried Summer might just think that about him for real. She’d seen some of the things he’d done, when his back was against the wall and his higher reasoning skills were on the fritz, so he feared she might actually be a little frightened of him.

  After breakfast, Luke decided he needed to spend some time working with Archer. The stallion needed some attention from his rider, and Luke admitted to himself, he could use the time to process his thoughts.

  He knew Amy worried when he went out on a mission. That was a given. However, he hadn’t stopped to fully analyze the impact of his absence on not only his family, but his friends as well. The thing about Summer concerned him. He liked her, cared for her in a way that he’d usually only felt toward family before. Lori and Scott, too, fell in that category, and he suddenly wondered if this was what it felt like to have cousins.

  Luke knew he actually had
several cousins, since his mother’s brother and sister had kids of their own, but he’d never met them. Whatever falling out his mother had with her people, they’d stayed estranged. He’d never had the courage to ask his mother for her reasons, and any time he brought up that side of his family to his father, the man simply shut down and gave the impression he wanted to hit someone. So, whatever it was, Luke figured like Amy had mentioned the night before, he lacked the need-to-know clearance to get an explanation.

  While he stood and combed out Archer’s mane, Luke resolved to make the effort to spend more time with his friends. Not everything in this new world needed to revolve around violence and mayhem, he reminded himself, or the real work of survival never got done.

  He sensed their presence before they spoke, and Luke used the reflection off the glass of the lantern hung on the wall to determine their identities. He grinned to himself, and he used this knowledge when he spoke without turning.

  “Alex, Tina, great! I was just wondering where you guys got off to,” Luke boomed in his friendliest tone before hanging Archer’s brush on a conveniently placed hook and exiting the stall.

  “Holy shit!” Alex exclaimed, grabbing Tina’s arm. “How did you know it was us?”

  “Dude, I told you, I’m a ninja,” Luke replied with a snarly grin. A true magician never reveals his tricks, after all.

  “Who’s a ninja?”

  Hearing Paige’s piping voice emerge from behind the two older teens made Luke’s smile grow even larger.

  “Me, lil’ sis,” he replied as he stepped closer to his tall friend. Alex looked tired, but happy, and the diminutive Tina seemed to share the expression, making Luke wonder if they had enough rubbers after all. Rubbers, of course, being the archaic term used by his father when he’d sat Luke down for the inevitable birds-and-the-bees talk.

  Luke remembered that conversation and his smile only grew. It hadn’t been the stereotypical spiel. His father hadn’t asked him what he knew about sex, and his twelve-year-old son hadn’t responded with the standard, “Well, Dad, what do you want to know?” Yes, he’d actually first heard that old joke when he’d been about ten or so.

  No, recently retired Gunnery Sergeant Sam Messner simply sat Luke down at the kitchen table and handed him a cardboard box of condoms and gave him a scowl.

  “Your mother said I needed to have this talk with you,” Sam started, sounding a little exasperated. “That’s a box of rubbers. Use them if you’re going to sleep with any of the little teenyboppers around here. They might tell you they’re on the pill. That’s fine. But there’s too many STDs that penicillin won’t touch, so wrap up before you stick it in. You read me?”

  Luke had responded with a “Yes, sir,” and a grin. He’d known his father was using the same sort of command voice he’d learned in the Marine Corps. He’d been hearing it his whole life, but this time, he’d barely avoided laughing out loud at the orders being issued. Remembering that whole exchange made Luke’s grin turn into a chuckle.

  “What?” Alex demanded, recognizing the amused expression on his friend. Something, honestly, he’d worried he might not ever see again after Luke’s return to the ranch.

  “Just thinking about something Dad said once,” Luke replied cryptically.

  “What? Give. You know I love hearing his stories,” Alex demanded playfully. Tina, mindful of the warnings she’d received about Luke Messner, gave Alex a sharp glance that he ignored.

  In addition to David Metcalf, she’d heard variations of the same, though considerably more-subtle, admonitions from others. One from Alex’s own father and another from Beth Elkins about the nature of what Beth called the ‘new normal’. Not that Luke was a menace, or even a bad person, but she should just watch what she said around people, until she got to know everyone better. Politely, she was being cautioned about gossip. She might have bristled at the warnings, but the fact was, she needed the safety offered here, and she’d bitten her tongue.

  Unaware of Tina’s concerns but still mindful of privacy, Luke shook his head. “Too many little ears around right now. I’ll tell you later.”

  “Hey,” Paige chirped, “I resemble that remark! What’s so secret you can’t share with your little sis?”

  Feeling a bit impish, Luke decided to tweak them all, so he replied.

  “Dad’s sex talk. Looks like these two probably need to hear it.”

  Boom. Looking at the three red faces, two guilty and one simply embarrassed, had Luke cackling for nearly a full minute.

  “All right,” Alex finally managed to stammer, “I’m gonna get you for that one. Not cool.”

  “Guys, I’m happy for you two, really,” Luke continued as if he hadn’t heard his friend’s threat, and his words to follow were delivered with absolute sincerity. “Tina, you seem like a really nice person, and tough enough to survive in this world. Alex, you know how I feel about you. Just glad to see two good people get together. Just don’t knock her up, that’s all.”

  “Bubba, you were right!” Paige mock-wailed, waving her hands around, “my sensitive, virgin ears are burning from this conversation! Sorry for not taking your word for it.”

  Tina just looked back and forth between Alex and Luke, in a combination of equal parts stunned horror and exasperation. In truth, they hadn’t taken their relationship quite to that level yet, but Luke’s words, while completely inappropriate, were ones she grudgingly admitted, if only to herself, needed to embrace.

  “What exactly did your father tell you?” Alex finally managed to ask, and when Luke related the story, he saw Alex and Tina start to smile at the humor and his deadpan delivery. Paige, though, still appeared scandalized.

  “You’re just making that up,” she accused, folding her arms. “And where’s Amy? I’m going to tell her what you said.”

  Luke’s grin never wavered. He was enjoying this way more than he thought he would.

  “She’s with Miss Beth, back over in the greenhouse. I swear, she spends more time with those plants than she does with me.”

  “Well, brother, dear, I imagine that’s because she wants some intelligent conversation,” Paige snarked, finally getting a chance to fire back, “and she’ll get more from the bell peppers than she will from you.”

  “Hah, more likely the cucumbers,” Luke replied instantly, and saw his sister’s face grow red again at the comment.

  “Luke, are you sure you didn’t hit your head harder than you thought?” Paige’s response stumped him for a second, then he got it. This was so unexpected, she really was starting to get concerned. Luke being playful and joking around didn’t fit with the “new” Luke that his friends and family had come to expect. That realization made him take a step back.

  Nodding, he looked at Tina and forced his face to resume a more dignified expression.

  “Miss Hillebrandt, I apologize for my crass comments. I know you are still trying to get your footing around here, and I made you uncomfortable. I am sorry for that. I’m just pleased to see Alex looking so happy. So, I overstepped, and said things that were inappropriate. Can you forgive me?”

  “Luke,” Tina started, not sure what she should say, then decided to just be honest. “I accept your apology. Thank you.”

  “From the reaction, I can tell you guys just aren’t accustomed to seeing me joke around anymore. Especially after what happened on my last trip.” Luke paused, looking around to gauge his audience. “I hate that we lost people, and I’m still dealing with what happened. I guess I’m just trying to fit back in here. Sorry if I kind of forced things.”

  Feeling vaguely embarrassed, Luke turned to leave the stables, and he was surprised to feel a hand on his shoulder. Glancing back, he saw Alex standing there, a look of confusion on his friend’s face.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I was going to go find something to do,” Luke replied, and lifted his injured hand. “Miss Beth has me off rotation until this gets better. She seems to think I can’t stand watch or ride a patrol with
just a pistol.”

  “Yeah, I noticed you were a little underdressed,” Alex continued, gesturing at Luke’s gun belt. Today, he only wore the sidearm, and was without a rifle for the first time since returning to the ranch. He admitted, if only to himself, he felt naked without the reassuring presence of at least an M4 strapped to his body. Old habits and all that.

  “Well, we were going to do some work with Tina’s horses, if you want to stick around.”

  Luke thought about that for a second before giving his friend a smile of agreement. “Yeah, I can do that.”

  So, Luke stayed at the horse ring until lunch, watching while Tina and Alex, soon joined by Mr. Sheldon, Alex’s father, worked with Tina’s horses. They’d left the other mounts already stabled at the Feely family farm, and Tina agreed to allow them the use for the time being, but really, those horses represented the bulk of the girl’s inheritance from her dead family.

  Amy found her man leaning on the fence, engrossed in watching Isaac Sheldon while he put one the younger mares through some rope work.

  “That looks pretty cool,” Amy said, and she sidled up to Luke, watching Mr. Sheldon move the little buckskin around the ring.

  “It really is,” Luke agreed.

  “What’s he doing?” Amy inquired.

  “Got no idea,” he admitted. “That’s called a lunge line, but that’s about the limit of my knowledge when it comes to training. I can take care of a horse just fine, and fix minor problems, but I can’t train. The man’s a genius when it comes to horses,” Luke explained. “Grandpa was very happy to get a trainer of his talent to come work with us here. Maybe if I’d grown up here, I would know more on the training side, but that boat’s done sailed.”

  “How are you feeling?” Amy asked.

  “Pretty good. Headache’s a lot better. Kind of made an ass of myself earlier, though, teasing Alex and Tina.”

  “Yep, that can happen, I guess,” Amy agreed with equanimity. “They’re not mad, are they?”