by Reed, N. C.
“Wouldn’t that be novel?” Clay laughed.
-
“Clayton.”
Clay turned to see Evelyn Lacey, the Goat Lady as she was universally known, walking toward him.
“Hello Evie,” Clay smiled. “How are you? I haven’t seen you in a bit.”
“I’ve been busy,” the soap maker nodded. “I wanted to talk to you about the hubbub going around concerning work and money and what have you. Got a minute?”
“Sure,” Clay replied amiably. “What can I do for you?”
“Well, you can reassure me, I guess, that I’m not going to get lost in the transition around here when this whole thing gets started.”
“Uh, lost how?” Clay asked. Why did people keep asking such confusing things?
“Word is you’re going to start a money system here on the farm,” Evelyn said. “People working for pay and what have you. How is that going to affect me, you think?” she semi-demanded.
“Ah, it should give you customers?” Clay made it seem more like a question. “People with money to buy your soaps and what not? Which you can sell in the store we’re going to be building, by the way. You should do okay once you get your prices set with what the new market will bear out.”
“And if I can’t sell anything?” she wanted to know.
“Well, that would suck, for sure,” Clay nodded. “But I’m sure there are several people who will buy your goods, don’t worry.”
“Well since I have to feed thirty goats, two dogs and myself, I sure do worry,” she said pointedly.
“They’ll be fed, Evie,” Clay realized that, here again, someone was jumping to conclusions. “So will you, for that matter. We aren’t going to have a grocery store, you know. Just a trading post. What food items there are will be guilty pleasures for the most part. Candy, cookies, berries and jams and the like. Mess hall will still be serving meals, and your goats and dogs will be taken care of right alongside the other livestock. No problem there.”
“Oh,” Evelyn lost most of her bluster at that. “I didn’t realize.”
“Most people don’t seem to,” Clay nodded, sighing. “You aren’t the first, or even the second person to come to me today with concerns. You’ll still have to work in the gardens just like everyone else, but what you make will be yours to do with as you see fit. Which, I assume, means selling it.”
“I’ll still have to depend on you for oils, though,” she pointed out.
“Well, we’ll be glad to sell ‘em to you,” he grinned. “For that matter, you should find some enterprising young woman, or man, who desires your wonderful smelling soap enough to gather what you need for you, in exchange for some of your goods. Free enterprise at work, right there,” he said with a flourish.
“Hey, that is a good idea,” she mused, looking thoughtful. “Well, that’s all I was worried about, honestly. I wasn’t sure I could make it, even here, if I was forced to have money just to eat.”
“In an ideal world, that would probably be for the best, but there’s just no way to do it, here. Not in the circumstances we find ourselves in, anyway,” Clay explained. “We’re just going to try and ease our way into some kind of return to at least partial normalcy.”
“Sounds like you’ve got a good plan,” she nodded approvingly. “Thanks for your time, Clayton.”
“You bet.”
-
“Well, it does look as if I was mistaken,” Lainie agreed that evening over supper. “I would have sworn you’d have a good deal of bickering before this was finished. Instead, it looks as if no one will have any complaints.”
“Oh, I think at least one or two will probably complain before it’s over,” he shrugged casually.
“Why do you say that?”
“Just a feeling.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“You want me to what?” Lainie demanded, her voice and eyes equally flat as she gave Clayton ‘the look’.
“Manage the store,” Clay smiled at her. “And maybe the bank. Not all alone of course, but you’ll be in charge. What do you think?”
“I think now I know who you expected to complain,” Lainie shot back, almost growling. “You know that I’m busy sewing every day, Clay,” she waved her arms around her sewing area in T1. Her use of his name rather than ‘Cowboy’ was a warning sign. Her temper was likely to show up very soon, and very lost.
“Well, you can always sew over there, of course,” Clay nodded. “But truthfully, you won’t have to be there constantly. You’ll have people who work for you, you being the manager and all. You’ll do more supervising than anything, in all likelihood.”
“And just who is going to be working for me in this little endeavor of yours?” she demanded.
“Hadn’t gotten that far,” Clay admitted. “I figured you’d want to have input in the decision if not outright do it yourself, anyway. I had thought about Kandi as an inventory clerk, though, and maybe Janice as a counter person. Maybe her, Millie and a couple more? We’ll also have to have someone doing the banking, but we’ll run that out of the store, so if someone wants to deal with the bank, other than making a deposit or withdrawal that is, they can ask whoever is working to call you.”
“Sounds like you’ve got it all worked out after all,” Lainie retorted, arms folding up underneath her breasts.
“Well, you can say no, of course,” Clay shrugged. “That would leave me looking for a replacement, which would mean that I’m back to not having it worked out. I admit it’s a work in progress at this point.”
“This is why you were so cagey about my work experience and my degree,” she accused him.
“It is indeed,” he nodded. “I feel those two qualities make you perfect for the job.”
“Lucky me,” Lainie’s tone was just short of scathing, but not much short.
“Don’t be like that, now,” Clay cajoled. “If you don’t want to do it, just say so and I’ll try and find someone else with your qualifications. Probably be difficult, I admit, but there has to be someone, right? I’ll just have to start looking.”
“Don’t try to guilt me into this,” she warned. “This is like some kind of emotional blackmail is what this is.”
“How can you say that?” Clay tried his best to look innocent. “It’s just a job that needs doing, that’s all. It is an important job, I will grant you that, and naturally I need someone I can trust and depend on without question to oversee it, but at the end of the day it’s still-,”
“Oh, my, God, you are so transparent!” Lainie threw her hands up in an irate gesture. “I mean really, really, annoyingly transparent,” she frowned.
“And cute,” Clay added straight-faced. “Don’t forget cute. Oh, and have a nice ass,” he raised an index finger as if making a point. “You said that yourself.”
“I hate you at times,” Lainie almost growled. “Really, really hate you.”
“Hey now, don’t be like that!” Clay smiled broadly; arms open wide. “Don’t be a hater!”
“Hate you,” Lainie nodded firmly, as if reaffirming her stance. “Fine. I’ll look at-,”
“Thanks!” Clay cut her off smoothly. “Listen, I gotta run, but the twins and Millie have already got a lot of the leg work done, so you can get the high points from them. They’re at Operations right now if you want to go ahead and get started? And I’ll see you later! Bye!” With that he almost blinked out of the sewing center in Building One he left so fast.
“Oh, you will pay for that,” Lainie promised the air around her.
-
“And that’s where we are so far,” Leanne finished the pitch as the three teens wrapped up their ‘report’ on what they had accomplished thus far.
“I don’t think I like the idea of selling guns and ammunition to people we don’t know,” Lainie mused, looking down at the notes she had made. “Be just our luck to have them used against us at some point, wouldn’t it?”
“That is a possibility, but was something Clay really wanted to have,�
� Millie explained. “Like an old-time general store. We’ll sell everything someone might need or want. As far as we can procure or make it, anyway.”
“And what are we going to do with the products we get from people living here on the farm?” Lainie asked. “For that matter, what will we be paid for facilitating work for those people? We should get something for working as a job referral service.”
“Hm,” Leon mused, looking away into the distance. “I didn’t think of that last one. For products, we either get a commission, or else buy outright at a price where we can make a profit. I don’t know how to figure a rate for a referral service. Not everyone will make the same, and not every job will pay the same even for those who make a higher income.”
“We can always have an advertising board, and charge a monthly fee for that,” Leanne suggested. “In all honesty, it’s only going to be people like Mister Goodrum and Uncle Jake that will get any large jobs from advertising with us. Everything else we’ll pretty much have available at the store anyway.”
“That is true,” Leon nodded in agreement. “What do you think, Aunt Lainie?”
“I can see it working, at least when it comes to major jobs like that,” she nodded slowly. “You forgot Gary Meecham, though. And that armorer that came with Flores, what was her name again?”
“Sara Yamaguchi,” Millie supplied, looking at her own notes. “Sergeant. If that still means anything,” she added, shrugging.
“Depends on where you are at the time, I guess,” Lainie returned her shrug. “Anyway, the two of them are sure to get some business. No one will want to try and replace a firearm in this world. Not if they can repair it.”
“True,” Leanne nodded. “Alright, so make it four? Unless Mister Meecham and Sergeant Yamaguchi decide to go into business together.”
“Something else to consider,” Millie made a note of that idea.
“I’m going to want some time to think on the bank idea,” Lainie announced. “We’ll need some kind of safe place to keep funds, and it’s going to have to be guarded. We’ll probably have to put the safe here in Building Two and start posting a permanent guard here. Should have that anyway considering what all we keep here,” she added. “Operations, the clinic, apartments upstairs. If we open this place up for business, as in the farm I mean, then we’re going to start getting some nosy neighbors and begin having potential crooks scoping us out. We’re going to have to be ahead of that. Be sure you bring that up to His Majesty, Clayton the First,” she ordered, getting to her feet.
“Uh, why don’t you-,” Leon began, only to be cut off.
“He and I won’t be talking for a day or two,” Lainie told him flatly. “You three obviously have an idea of who might want to sell items in the store, so start talking to them. You need to know what they can market, how many of them you can depend on getting per month, and how much they will want for them. I’ll tell you now that I’ll start thinking about what I can do as far as making clothing, though I’m going to have to make sure we can meet our own needs before worrying about anyone else. By own needs I’m referring to family,” she stressed to the teens.
“Ah, I’m not really-,” Millie started, but was also cut off.
“Please,” Leanne scoffed. “Don’t make me embarrass the two of you with Aunt Lainie standing right there.”
Leon and Millie both turned an interesting shade of red at that, examining the floor for faults.
“Ouch,” Lainie actually smiled at that one. “Okay, so let’s get on this. If we have to do it, let’s get it done, and done right. If you need me for anything, I’ll be next door.”
“I think Uncle Clay may be in trouble,” Leanne mused once Lainie was gone.
“She did seem a little tense,” Leon agreed neutrally.
“Tense?” Millie snorted. “You need a better vocabulary, Ace. That woman is pissed.”
-
“I don’t understand why you’re so mad at me!” Clay exclaimed, though in truth he was trying not to laugh. “I didn’t force you to take the job, you know!”
Lainie ignored him as she finished the dishes and cleaned her kitchen. That done, she walked right past him, into the bedroom, and closed the door. Clay didn’t try to follow, knowing that the door would be locked. Instead, still trying not to laugh, he trooped upstairs to the loft bedroom, where he had stored pillows and blankets for just such an emergency. Actually, they had always been there, kept on hand for anyone staying with him, but he had never removed them.
Now, he’d put them to use as his significant other got her mad out.
-
“Operations, Gunner, please respond.”
“Go for Operations,” JJ said at once, straightening in his seat.
“Advise Bossman, heavy traffic moving north along the interstate,” Zach informed him. “Foot traffic and a few horses. No vehicles I can see, but there are a lot of people in there. No gunfire I can hear, and they aren’t running.”
“Roger that, Gunner. Will do.” JJ picked up a GMRS radio and called Clay to Operations. He was there in less than a minute.
“What’s up, JJ,” he asked.
“Zach says there is a lot of foot traffic moving north along the interstate,” JJ repeated what Zach had said.
“Okay,” Clay sighed. “I’ll head up there. Let him know I’m on the way.”
“Will do,” JJ nodded, turning back to the radio. Clay was already gone.
-
“That is a bunch of people,” Greg Holloway said quietly as he lowered his binoculars.
“It is at that,” Clay agreed. “We need to pull back out of sight I guess and let them pass. Hope they’ll pass, anyway. Greg, go back and tell Jose we need a strong security team up here in case things don’t go our way. Tell him to pick five people and send them back up here with you. Use the carts coming back since they’re quiet. Less noise we make the better until this is over.”
“Got it,” Greg nodded, heading back to their ATV. Fortunately, it was a quieter model, and the crowd was still a good way off.
“What are they running from, I wonder?” Zach asked, a thoughtful expression on his face.
“What?” Clay asked, still studying the mass of people.
“Last time something like this happened, it was people streaming south,” the teen reminded him. “And they were running from the plague. Makes me wonder what this bunch is running from.” Clay slowly lowered his glasses at that as he turned to look at Zach.
“Ah, crap.”
-
“Papa, we must stop soon.”
Isaac Miller looked at his middle daughter, Ruth.
“We have to stop, Papa,” Ruth repeated. “Abram and Mary will never say it, but she and the baby both need rest. And Martha does as well. Not to mention we need to rest the horses and see if we can find them water.”
“We cannot afford to delay, daughter,” Isaac replied evenly. “They will have to be tough.”
“Where are we going, Papa?” Ruth asked suddenly.
“What?”
“Where are we going?” she repeated. At his silence, she raised a blonde eyebrow beneath her bonnet. Waiting.
“I do not know for sure,” he finally admitted, reluctance in every word.
“If we do not know where we are going, what difference does it make if we delay a bit?” Ruth asked him pointedly. “Even a day will make no difference if we don’t know where we are headed.”
“Fine, daughter,” Isaac told the ever-headstrong Ruth. “We will leave this road at the next exit and make camp for a day and rest. Happy?”
“I would be happier at home,” Ruth said sadly. “But this will do in a pinch.” Suddenly she raised up onto her toes and kissed his cheek, just above his beard.
“Enough!” he swatted at her playfully. “Go and tell them the news,” he ordered. “Perhaps that will cheer you up. It’s no wonder you never found a husband, child. Too headstrong by far,” he shook his head in mock sadness.
“I simply have h
igh standards,” Ruth sniffed airily. “Thank you, Papa,” she added softly before heading to tell her sister-in-law that they would be stopping soon.
“High standards,” Isaac shook his head, a wry grin across his face. “Would that your mother would have lived to see you grown, girl.”
-
“Uh, Boss?”
“What is it, Zach?” Clay asked, turning from where he’d been talking to Greg Holloway. The flow of traffic had slowed considerably, with most of the crowd already gone by, many already out of sight.
“I think they’re getting off here,” Zach replied, slowly raising his hand to point toward….
“Is that a wagon?” Greg asked, leaning forward a bit as if that would clear things up.
“No, it’s two wagons,” Zach replied. “Two wagons with five people, four horses, a cow and a dog.”
“You got to be kidding me,” Clay was shaking his head.
“They’re Amish,” Greg noted softly. “I think I know that guy,” he added. “He…damn,” he stopped suddenly. “I bet the group that hit here has hit everywhere south of here already.”
“You were right it looks like, Zach,” Clay clasped the young man’s shoulder lightly. “Good eyes and good reasoning.”
“Thanks,” Zach nodded, clearly pleased with the compliment.
“Gregory, if you know this man, let’s go and talk to him once he gets up here and away from the highway. Maybe he’ll head toward Jordan.”
“I doubt it,” Greg was shaking his head. “Pretty sure this guy knows your father.”
“Course he does,” Clay rolled his eyes. “Why wouldn’t he?”
-
“I know this road,” Isaac told his son-in-law. “This way leads to Jordan, but this way will lead to the farm of Gordon Sanders” he pointed each way in turn. “I have done business with him on occasion over the years. He is an honest and God-fearing man, especially for the Yankees.”
“I’ve heard you speak of him,” Abram Troyer nodded. “Always with respect. Do you believe he might offer us a place for the evening?”
