by Marla Monroe
“I think we should start with everything infant then work our way up to children sizes. Hopefully the clothes aren’t dry rotted. Maybe with them hanging they’ll be okay.” Gail fretted that they wouldn’t find much that would work.
“The blue jeans I brought back last time I was there weren’t rotted. They were pretty musty-smelling, but a good wash took care of that,” Travis said.
Gail must have nodded off at some point because the next thing she knew, they were pulling into a parking lot next to one of the trucks parked near the back. It was a grocery store, so she figured they were going to look for gas for the truck.
She watched as they filled the tank of their truck then filled several gas cans, as well. That would be for the garden tiller. They soon climbed back into the cab with her, and they were off once more.
“Did you fill up the tank?” she asked.
“Yeah. It will be plenty to get us back and for another trip to town if we need to come back for some reason,” Travis told her.
Benton drove a few blocks then parked directly in front of the big department store. Benton had her stay in the truck while they made sure there weren’t any animals inside. Then they helped her down and all three of them grabbed a cart to shop.
They found the baby section, and Gail loaded up on toys for an infant while Benton and Travis found a baby bed, a playpen, and a stroller. She hadn’t thought about the stroller. They left her to load them into the back of the truck as she moved on to bottles and things for feeding as well as baby bibs, diapers, and clothes. She’d filled her basket when the guys returned. Benton exchanged baskets with her and left to add those items to the truck.
“What do you think about the disposable diapers?” Travis asked.
“I don’t know if they’re any good or not. Let’s open one up and check to see if they’re okay,” she said.
He opened a package and pulled one out. They looked it over and decided it was fine. That led to filling both baskets with all the diapers they could fit in them. Benton finally returned and once again exchanged carts with them.
“I put all the loose items in a plastic bin so they wouldn’t get scattered inside the back of the truck,” he said.
“Good idea. That’s what we need to do with the clothes, as well,” Gail said.
For the next three hours they filled plastic bins with cloth diapers, blankets, clothes, and shoes. They worked their way from infant up through teens in both sexes. Travis pointed out that they’d probably end up with several children since there was no such thing as birth control anymore.
“And you know we aren’t going to abstain,” Travis said with a huge grin that included a sparkle in his light blue eyes.
“Oh, Lord. I hadn’t thought about that. You better hope my labor isn’t bad or you might not get to touch me for a very long time,” Gail warned him.
Benton’s mouth quirked down into a frown. She was sure he was thinking about what labor was supposed to be like after reading the pregnancy books they’d been going over.
She smiled. It did them good to think about that.
* * * *
Though it wasn’t dark when they finally finished gathering everything on Gail’s list, it wasn’t far from it. They’d even found more canning supplies and added them to the back of the nearly full truck. Gail was exhausted but so happy. They’d managed to get everything on her list. They made one more stop at the grocery store but locked Gail inside the truck since she was so tired.
“We’re going to get all the diapers and any canning supplies they have here while we’re in town. There might not be a lot, but every little bit will help,” Travis told her.
“If there’s any canned goods that haven’t popped their tops, we could use some more potatoes,” she told them.
“I doubt there will be any. They’ve probably been raided a long time ago, but we’ll look,” Benton said.
After they’d gone, Gail leaned against the back of the seat and closed her eyes. She’d had a wonderful time shopping for the baby. As they’d moved up into the older children’s clothes she’d thought about the baby growing up over the years. Then she’d thought about having more children and wondered how many children they’d end up with. How would she ever take care of so many, and how would she keep them clothed? Their clothes wouldn’t last forever.
By the time the men had returned with baskets full of supplies, she’d just about talked herself into panicking about how they’d take care of so many children. They’d be dressing them in animal skins before long.
“Hey, babe. Why are you looking so upset? Did something happen while we were gone? Why didn’t you honk the horn like we told you to do?” Travis climbed up and pulled her into his arms.
“Nothing happened. I was just thinking about how we’re going to take care of so many children. Soon there won’t be any clothes that are wearable, and we’ll have to use animal skins. I guess I worked myself up into a fit worrying about it,” Gail told him.
Benton climbed up into the driver’s seat. “Is something wrong? Gail, are you feeling bad or hurting? I knew you’d been on your feet too much.”
“No, Benton. I’m fine. I was worrying about how we’re going to take care of all our children. We’re bound to have a lot of them, and I don’t know how we’re going to feed and dress all of them,” she said.
“Aw, honey. Don’t think about all of that right now. We’ll handle it if that happens. Right now, we only have one baby to take care of. You and the baby,” Benton said.
Travis kissed her forehead then slid his arm around her shoulders to pull her as close as the seatbelt would allow.
“Stop worrying and take a little nap. We’ll be home before you know it.” Travis squeezed her shoulder once more.
Gail tried to relax, but it was a long time before she could relax enough to drift into sleep. Deep in her dreams, she found herself with six kids wearing loincloths and rabbit tops. They were all working in the garden all the way to the little six-year-old who used a small spade to chop up dirt clods. The guys were nowhere in sight, but the wolves were guarding them as they worked under the hot sun.
Then the men returned carrying pails of water for the garden. Over and over they walked from the stream to the garden to empty the water. Gail wondered why they didn’t use the hoses they had to water it then realized that they had worn out over the years. How many years had they been living there? She looked at the oldest two children and realized it had been at least thirteen years.
She wiped the sweat from her brow and returned to hoeing out the weeds that seemed to be an ever-present problem. Her children worked right along beside her. Did they even know how to play? She wanted them to have a good childhood, not one where they had to work as hard as she and the guys.
“Hey, babe. Wake up. You’re having a dream. Wake up, Gail.” Travis was shaking her shoulders with his arm around her.
“Sorry.” She yawned.
“What were you dreaming about? You were crying and shaking your head,” Benton asked.
“We had six children, but they were all working in the garden with us. You were carrying water from the stream to water the garden, and the children were working instead of playing. I couldn’t stand that they didn’t have a normal childhood where they ran and played instead of working all the time like us,” she explained.
“Don’t worry like that, hon. They’ll play and have a good life. I promise they will. Yeah, they’ll need to help now and then, that’s what most kids do. They have chores, but the rest of the time they’ll play like children do.” Benton patted her leg. “We’ll be home in another ten or fifteen minutes.”
She couldn’t shake the worry that they were overestimating things. How could they possibly grow enough food to feed however many children they had without the kids helping with the garden?
“Don’t fret so. I can tell you’re still thinking about it,” Travis said.
“There’s so much stuff to unload,” Gail said, then yawned,
changing the subject.
“We’re going to unload tomorrow. Everything will be fine until then,” Travis said.
“That’s good. I know you guys are tired and hungry. I’ll fix something for supper, then we all need to go to bed early.”
“Sounds good to me,” Travis said.
“I’ll fix supper, honey. You need your feet up. You’ve been on them way too much today,” Benton told her.
“They are a little swollen, but not all that bad. I rode in the wheelchair for a while with Travis pushing me.”
Gail giggled, remembering how he’d cut up with her in the chair. He’d zoomed up and down aisles and popped wheelies with her until Benton had fussed. Then they’d shopped with her pointing at what she wanted. After a while, she’d felt like walking again. They’d covered the entire store by the time Travis had declared they needed to head home. She’d gotten everything she’d set out to get and a whole lot more.
“Here we are, babe.” Travis unfastened her seatbelt as Benton parked the big truck in the back near the back door.
Immediately the wolves raced up to the truck, jumping and whining until Travis helped Gail down. Then they circled around her, eager to check her out to be sure she was fine. Gail laughed and rubbed all of them. She told each of them how much she’d missed them then allowed Benton to escort her inside with the wolves right behind them.
It was funny to her how Wolfie held the screen door open so that the rest of the wolves could come inside. They were smart animals.
“Go ahead and get on the couch and prop those feet up. I’m going to start on supper,” Benton said.
“Where is Travis? What’s he doing?” she asked.
“He’s putting the cans of gasoline in the shed so everything doesn’t smell like gas when we unload it tomorrow. It would have everything closed up in the back of the truck full of fumes.” Benton propped her feet up on a pillow then left her to fix their supper.
Gail smiled and relaxed against the pillow behind her back. The dream came back to her in a rush. She tried not to think about it, but the thought that things would get hard as the years went by worried her.
Sasha and Wolfie seemed to pick up on her mood and whined, laying their heads on the edge of the couch to comfort her. She loved them and appreciated that they’d worry with her. She hoped that worry would extend to the children, as well. She’d feel a lot better about them playing outside if the wolves were watching out for them.
She drifted off to thoughts of the wolves playing with the children while keeping watch. It was a good dream this time. One she didn’t mind drifting in.
Chapter Five
Gail woke up super excited about the day ahead of them. She turned over to see that both men had already gotten up and were probably even now unloading the truck. She hurried through her morning routine as much as she could with the huge basketball sticking out in front of her. She walked into the kitchen to find the counters full of canning supplies as well as several plastic bins stacked at the back of the little breakfast nook. She started to open one of the bins to see what was in it, but Benton stopped her.
“Don’t mess around with those, honey. They’re stacked too high. I don’t want them to fall over and hurt you.” Benton set another one next to the doorway leading into the living room. “Once we have everything unpacked, we’re going to carry some of them upstairs into the nursery so that you can go through them a few at a time.”
“I’m so excited. I want to get started,” Gail said.
He chuckled. “I know.”
“Know what?” Travis walked in carrying a bin. He stacked it on top of the one Benton had placed.
“She’s too excited to think straight,” Benton told him.
“Told you she’d want to dive right in once she woke up.” Travis ruffled her hair.
“Have you guys eaten yet?” she asked.
“Yeah, we fixed sandwiches. There’s some deer meat warming in a pot next to the fire. Why don’t you fix yourself a couple of sandwiches?” Benton suggested.
Gail sighed, but her belly won out. She quickly used the last of the flatbread to make herself something to eat. The meat had been perfectly warm for her. She watched the men carry in bin after bin and stack them in the living room now. She had no idea they’d gathered so much stuff while they’d been in town. She’d be going through them for weeks. It would keep her busy until the baby was born. That thought excited her just as much as shopping had done.
“How am I going to know where to start to find the infant stuff first?” she asked Travis when he stopped to check on her.
“The last things we unload will have the youngest things in them. We’ll carry them upstairs first. Then we’ll put the rest in the nursery and one of the spare bedrooms,” he told her.
“Hadn’t thought of that. That’s smart,” Gail said.
“Hey, we’re more than big handsome men. We have brains, too,” Travis said.
“I have a brain,” Benton said as he carted yet another plastic bin into the room. “You don’t.”
“Asshole,” Travis said.
“Back at you, man.”
Gail just shook her head. They were always picking at each other, but it was all in fun. She finished her sandwich and watched them finish unloading the truck. The last things they brought in were the baby bed, changing table, playpen, high chair, and stroller.
“We’ll go ahead and put the baby bed together in the bedroom, and the rest can wait until the baby is born,” Benton said.
“Make sure to put up the changing table though,” she said. “I’ll want to put the baby supplies in it. The clothes I’ll put in the chest of drawers we emptied out in the nursery,” she told them.
“It’s too bad we couldn’t paint the room for the baby,” Travis said. “That dingy white isn’t very bright.”
“I’ll put up the decals and borders we found. That will brighten the room up some,” Gail said.
“I’m going to make some more flatbread while you carry things upstairs. I’m down to using the clover flowers and seed pods to make the flour. We’re out of the other kind,” she told them.
“Remember to put your feet up while it’s cooking,” Benton reminded her.
“I know, I know. I’ll put my feet up. Go work on the baby things.” Gail shooed them off then walked into the kitchen.
It took her nearly an hour to make the flour and another hour to pound it into bread once she’d added water and salt. Once she had it like she wanted on the long cookie sheet, she fitted it on the makeshift grate the guys had made to go over the fire when it was banked. She figured it would be ready in an hour or so.
Gail remembered Benton’s order and grinned as she sat on the couch and put her feet up. This time she faced the staircase so she could see them when they walked into the room. She could hear them stomping around and the murmur of voices from upstairs. Every once in a while, she heard one of them curse.
Gail figured they were having trouble putting the baby bed together. The playpen would be a piece of cake even for her. When they still hadn’t made it downstairs by the time the flatbread was ready, she decided to find out what was going on. She called up the stairs.
“Hey, guys. How’s it going up there?”
“Don’t climb the stairs, Gail,” Benton yelled down. “Everything’s fine up here. We just hit a snag with the directions, but we’ve just about got it all put together now.”
“I thought I was hearing you guys cuss. Was that because of the snag you hit?” she asked, unable to stop the huge grin that spread across her face.
“Yeah, Benton thought he could put the rails on without reading the directions. Didn’t work out,” Travis said.
“That was you, asshole. I told you we needed to go by the directions.” Benton’s sullen voice made Gail’s smile even larger. She loved them.
A lot.
“Let me know when you want something to eat. The flatbread is ready. I’m going to make another batch.”
“Did you put your feet up while it was cooking?” Benton appeared at the top of the stairs to look down at her.
“Of course. I put them up, and they’re not very swollen at all. I’ll put them back up after I make some more flatbread,” she told him.
“See that you do. I’m worried that they aren’t going all the way down anymore,” Benton said.
“I’m getting close to my due time. That’s all. They have a lot more weight on them.”
“Still, you need to keep off your feet as much as you can.” Benton disappeared, so Gail returned to the kitchen to knead up more dough.
* * * *
“See, if you’d followed the damn instructions in the first place, we’d have been finished long before now,” Benton fumed.
“I wasn’t far off. Just a few steps I skipped is all.” Travis sat back on his heels.
Benton wanted to pop the back of the other man’s head. He was stubborn like a damn jackass. They’d finally finished the damn baby bed and put together the high chair. Now they were working on the changing table. It was going a little faster than the bed had, thanks to his insistence that they read the directions and follow them.
“Do you think about what we’re going to do when Gail goes into labor?” Travis asked him.
“Mostly I try not to think about it,” Benton admitted.
“Well, we need to have a plan. She’ll panic if we’re panicking.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Well, the books say that the more she walks when she’s in early labor, the better it will be. Gravity will help ease the baby along that way. Then when she’s close, one of us will need to help her give birth while the other one holds her hands and let her squeeze them as she pushes.
“I call hand squeezer,” Benton immediately said.
“I figured you’d do that. I’ll deliver the baby. We need to go ahead and gather what we need in a pan and have it ready. I think the best place will be the kitchen table,” Travis said.
