Autumn was at the park before me, which meant that I didn't have to wait around for her for a change. When I greeted her she seemed surprised to see me. She then explained that she'd forgotten she had agreed to meet with me today and was expecting Howard Beclan or Bedar, whatever his name is. I lost my temper and shouted at her "He's married!" That Autumn was taken aback by my outburst was an understatement. She shouted back that at least Howard and the others payed more attention to her than I did. As far as she could tell all I cared about was plants and fish. Realizing that there might be more truth than lies to the rumors I'd been hearing I asked Autumn between gritted teeth if she was seeing anyone else. She rattled off a list of almost six names, all of whom I knew to be married. My stomach churned and I told Autumn that I would no longer bother to court her since she clearly preferred married men with no prospects of a commitment. She had retorted something about being promised horses to ride, and all I wanted was to slap her for her stupidity. Instead I gritted out a terse see you around, and went to work an hour early. Imagine my shock when Annette's eldest son Scott showed up. He was there on official business Annette and his dad, Kevin, had developed dementia so he wanted to make sure that we had their details before they kicked off, as he put it. I got everything down and then asked if there was anything more that needed to be noted. Scott paused a moment and then said yeah and handed me a slip of torn that gave me the exact address of their home. My hand froze, addresses were not given out, and people were decidedly not invited over. Yet that was the very clear implications of what Scott had just done. I looked up at Scott, and he made a wry sort of face. "Look man, as eldest I know about mom's bargain with you. I won't hold you to it, not with how Autumn's behaved, but I think she might have actually cared about you. She's been in bed all evening bawling her eyes out. She's never done that before." Scott took a deep breath and then blurted "Just give her a second chance please. Our mom felt you would be a good match for Autumn, and I'm inclined to agree with her." Before I could respond he turned on his heals and was gone. The rest of my night was a bit blurry as I got lost in my own thoughts. Before I could make up my mind on whether or not to visit the Davilla home Autumn showed up in my yard. She was mad at me, and understanding what she was saying wasn't easy between her yelling and crying every other breath. Somehow I was supposed to have known that she wasn't serious about the other guys. I wasn't dealing with her outburst well and told her to go, and turned to go inside since it was way to early to go to work. Suddenly she stopped cold, the silence paused me in my tracks, and I glanced over my shoulder to make sure she wasn't about to attack me. What I saw was complete and utter defeat. "What was I supposed to do? I knew about mom's arrangement. I wasn't supposed to, but I over heard her telling dad and Scott about it before she introduced us. Yet you acted as if you weren't all that interested in me, or Carole for that matter why do you think she accepted Topher." I watched as her shoulders shuddered from her ragged breathing before she continued. "Mom used to have connections on the outside before everything went belly up, and they shoved groups of survivors into unpopulated areas. She told dad that she saw a lot of promise in you and what you were doing, and wouldn't let me accept any other offers. Now I'm an old maid and besides you the only ones who pay attention to me are the married men. So tell me what was I supposed to do, wait until we both died of old age." I was speechless and stunned, before I could reach out to her she was gone back down the hill. Grabbing my pole I went to the beach below me where I knew there wouldn't be any fish and watched the line wiggle with the waves while I did a lot of thinking. I waited a couple of days before braving the Davilla house. Fortunately Annette was having a rare lucid moment and came down the ladder to greet me and welcome me in. Scott interrupted his workout to keep a very close ear and Autumn and I. I kept circling back to what a nice house they had, because I wasn't sure how to say what needed saying in a room full of people. I suspect that Autumn was feeling the same way because she suggested that we move the conversation outside. I was hoping for a proper conversation, instead she started up again on how much I'd hurt her. I couldn't take it again. I'd been prepared to apologize, instead I snapped at her and told her that her choices had hurt me too. That I'd been ready to apologize, but that if she'd prefer to play the victim and wallow then I was gone I had other things to do and other people to see. I didn't on either count, but I hadn't stuck around for her to call me out on my lie. As I walked up the hill I tried to think of who might be eligible for courting and realized that besides Autumn the only other unattached women were either teens or young children, and I was out of time. Autumn wasn't but I was. I decided I'd ended up a troublemaker after all and was going to die without contributing to the gene pool, because there was no way I was going to chase after Autumn, even if she was my only decent choice. Imagine my shock a few days later when I went to leave my protection payment and Autumn said hi. By the large patch of packed and trampled snow she'd been waiting for me to come out for several hours. "I'm sorry" she blurted out. I think she had more she had wanted to say but I could tell that she was cold and I wasn't sure I was up for another of her outbursts. So I stopped her and asked her if she'd like to see the inside of the green house. Being older had it's advantages as Autumn stayed quite while I showed her inside and then gave her a very long tour of the small space and explained how I was only growing the simplest of plants these days. I then showed her the inside of the cabinet, and dragged on for quite another long stretch over each of the 13 fish on the bottom shelf. Out of the corner of my eye I could see her fidgeting and fighting against her grumpy nature. I carefully closed the cabinet while commenting that anyone who decided to partner with me and live here would need to learn how to maintain both the garden and the frozen fish. In addition to bearing children. I stared at her for a second and decided to do something I hadn't done since high school. I loosely grabbed her by the arms and pulled her in for a kiss. I made sure that she could break free at any moment if she chose to. I was prepared for a slap, instead she leaned in to the kiss which was nice. Gently breaking apart our kiss, I asked Autumn to be honest with me and let me know if she had allowed any of the others to be intimate with her, and that I meant if she had allowed them to have sex with her. For a second I thought she was going to explode at me again, but finally she answered. "No, I've never been completely alone with any of them, let alone allowed them any intimacy." Taking a deep ragged breath I asked Autumn if she'd like to see the main part of the house upstairs. She nodded yes. Once we got upstairs I gave her a very brief tour, which did not include the bedroom. I wanted there to be a very clear understanding between us of what would and would not be expected of each other if we did this. I also made it clear that while my choices were limited if I wasn't willing to marry a teen, I knew that her options, including the choice of child without a partner, were larger than mine. I also made sure that she knew I had only a few more moons before dementia would settle in. She pulled me in and wrapped my hands around her waist before grabbing my face and telling me that she already had made her choice when she walked up the hill at sunrise and waited for me to come out. I asked her to hold on as I remembered something I had found while gardening and cleaned up years earlier. I could tell by the shock in Autumn's eyes that she hadn't been prepared for me to have an actual ring let alone get down on one knee and make a formal declaration of commitment. We kept it simple, and promised to look after each other, and to not stray. I told her that if possible I would like up to four children by her, that is if she didn't mind having that many knowing that I probably wouldn't be able to help with their care. We sealed our promises with a kiss and declared ourselves partnered. If there was supposed to be more to getting married I didn't know what it was supposed to be. During our first moon cycle together a few things happened. Autumn hit her middle aged years. Scott and her brother Berjes stopped by to drop off a heavy duffel bag that they said was Autumn's dowry and eventual inheritance from their parents. The duffel contained a tent and a couple of books. To me it was an odd dowry, but Autumn started bawling, and that is how I learned that they'd been on a family trip to obtain a wild horse for Autumn when the world fell apart. The other bit of news was a small group had made it to the pass and found the guard station deserted. Berjes shook his head, not abandoned deserted he clarified rather remains of dead people and no back up sent type of deserted. So with great care to not disturb the dead the group made several trips and brought down enough material to set up what would hopefully become a medical clinic. They just needed people to work it and figure out what the chemical solutions did. Autumn expressed an interest in working at the clinic but felt it might be wise to wait until she had a better grip on methodology and critical analyses first. We had reached our sixth moon together before Autumn became gravid. She hadn't liked the morning sickness, but was glad that now the rumors about her being barren would finally stop. Just like after our third month together the rumors about why we'd partnered had stopped because it had been glaringly obvious that she wasn't pregnant with the weres baby.
Knowing that I'd be an elder with full blown dementia by the time our child was born, I showed Autumn how I cured the banana leaves to use for writing, how I used the berries for ink, and where I kept all of my notes on my experiences. I made her promise me to teach our child how to write and keep journals of our own. I apologized for not figuring out certain things, like loving her, so much earlier. Tonight was my last birthday, at least that I would remember.
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Have I mentioned I'm not big on being fake. Two people being fake ended up in a huge row at the park one day. I'd already noticed that certain groups refused to mingle with others. Not sure of all the details, but the row had something to do with a Howell getting one of the odd glowing folks pregnant and lying about being married. Marriage, or in the current case permanent partnering, is something that is being pressured onto all of us who are single. There's also a fair bit of talk about having everyone contribute at least one child to the gene pool even if their preference is same gender. I'm really not sure how I feel about this, and have been regretting sleeping through bio classes. I've spent more than one afternoon trying to understand the importance of what some of older folks are talking about. I need to really emphasize the try part of that. Ms. McClutchy got frustrated with my repeated questions on bio diversity, heritage tracing, and avoiding inbreeding. Carole Funke understood it and tried to help me understand it better, but even she had her limits on repeated questions. The bits I understood I applied to the plants in my garden. With really good results, so while I still didn't get all of it. I understood that for the future health of our community, and possibly the world, I would have to do my part to contributing to the next generation. I've spent more than one afternoon trying to understand the importance of what some of older folks are talking about. I need to really emphasize the try part of that. Ms. McClutchy got frustrated with my repeated questions on bio diversity, heritage tracing, and avoiding inbreeding. Carole Funke understood it and tried to help me understand it better, but even she had her limits on repeated questions. The bits I understood I applied to the plants in my garden. With really good results, so while I still didn't get all of it. I understood that for the future health of our community, and possibly the world, I would have to do my part to contributing to the next generation. While there were no obvious changes in the seasons or years, beyond moon cycle counting. At some point I realized I'd hit middle aged status. I suppose that was something that would have been celebrated with a party at one time, instead I told the garden about all the things I had wanted to do as a teen. While realizing I really needed to knuckle down on the work I'd been doing. The nice thing about having a perfect garden. I'd figured out, okay I accidentally smashed some fruit one day, how to use some of the berries with the mre stuff to make it slightly more palatable. I still didn't really know what to do with the fish I was catching. Some of the smaller minnows I just hooked back onto the hook and used as bait. Every so often I'd catch a fish that was a perfect specimen. Through trial and error I found that by packing them with just the right amount of wet snow so that an ice crust was formed kept the fish in a form of stasis. Without any tanks or bowls it was the best I could do. I had dedicated the very bottom shelf of the cupboard to the fish and once a day packed fresh snow in. I'd already learned the hard way that the fish would die and stink up the garden if I didn't. There was an unexpected, by me, bonus. Having a snow layer below the seeds and harvested plant produce was helping with their preservation. While it was one more chore to do daily it also helped with freeing up time, which was usually spent repairing plumbing. With an eye towards future decisions to be made. I bartered, traded, and scrounged over several moons until I was able to have a double bed, which was so uncomfortable I still slept in the rocker, and walls to separate it from the rest of my shelter. I officially had a bedroom. Now I needed someone to share it with. I was continuing to meet with both Autumn and Carole. Although Carole had let slip that she'd promised to Harold. Rumors about Autumn were starting to reach my ears, but I was unsure if they were true. I knew eventually I'd have to ask Autumn what was up for now I stick to writing the usual notes, but there's only so many times you can write about finding a perfect toad or fish before you get a note back that says don't write me again. As has happened a few times. Truth time, finding enough stones let alone wood for my big project had not been easy but I did it. With a few test runs at home before taking the cart down to the corner lot near the largest group of homes, yeah that still feels weird all these years later calling these shelters homes. I determined that fruits and vegetables could be safely kept out indefinitely, but fish and the odd plants that I suspect might be herbs could not be.
I even managed to get the typewriter working and using berries for ink and banana leaves for paper put together a couple of pamphlets that people could take. One was on how to grow the very common plants, the other was on how to identify the edible fish. My movements were getting stiffer and sometimes I found myself forgetting tiny details, all indicators of elder hood and dementia. Time was running out and it was past time for me to partner up with someone. Just as Carole had already done. Checking on the stand on my way to the park, and I discovered that not only were people picking up produce, but they were leaving stuff behind in exchange. This boosted my spirits up, the community was honoring an unspoken code of cooperation and reasonable sharing. I also replenished the two fliers I'd made. I never thought that I'd be excited to find two working batteries. Yet here I am happier than freshmen on movie day, when all the seniors take their exit exams. I know high school wasn't that long ago, but everything from before feels like a whole different world let alone life time. My days follow a fairly standard routine. Up before sunrise, use the toilet, and either eat a fresh pack of mre's or lick clean the previous days pack. Once there's enough light to see the rungs and the ground I go down the ladder and tend to the garden. Some mornings I have to stop and fix the plumbing before I can go down. If the sink piping isn't leaking it's the toilet piping clogging up. At first it was really hard to get the sink to stop leaking for more than five minutes, but with time and repeated fixing I got the hang of the funky plumbing we have. Which is why I know that hitting the toilet just right with a hammer works better some days than the plunger. In the evenings if I'm not to tired I read one of the few books I found that are legible at the junk yard. One of the books is on cooking. Sometimes it's hard to look at the pictures, because they trigger memories of walking down the sidewalk and the aroma of fresh pizza wafting from the corner pizzeria, or curry from the Indian restaurant. Those memories, and the hunger pangs they trigger are the reason it took me two moon cycles just to read the first chapter of the cooking book. The other three books include a book on chess with a bunch of brain teaser puzzles. A book on home maintenance and repairs, which only proved a tiny bit helpful as the sink and toilet were not put in using traditional plumbing methods. Yes all 31 shelters were constructed in less than 72 hours, that does not mean they are anything close to a traditional home. The final book I found is a toddlers picture book which reminded me of my favorite preschool teacher Mrs. Umpshaw. The type writer I got in trade from some thugs who'd been waiting for me one evening and wanted to know what I would give them to keep them from beating me up and taking my furniture. I'd caught a parrot that knew a few words and an edible snake, more foster parent weird stray knowledge, on my way home from fishing that day. I offered only the snake at first, but then their boss caught site of the parrot and offered a trade. Since a type writer was probably more useful to me than the parrot so I accepted the offer. All I have to do is get the keys unstuck and figure out a way to untangle the ribbon. Since that day I haven't really seen anymore small animals, but I see plenty of signs that they're around. Makes me wonder what ever happened to the scientist, how their arctic expedition went and if they ever tried to foster kids again after they got back. By the fourth moon cycle, and people either not being able to get to the pass out of the valley or being turned back by the military folks started opening up a small bit. I'm not going to claim undying devotion to anyone, or that I'd lay my life down so that yet another person can try to sneak past the military outpost, but I am very slowly getting folks to see that I really am not some rebellious trouble maker like the commander made me out to be. One teen girl started gushing over my green eyes. I slammed the brakes fast on her just because her parents were okay with her talking to adults didn't mean I wanted to be tied to a teen who hasn't finished maturing yet. Five days out of the week, in addition to doing as much as I can to learn and document about the valleys fish and plant life, I work at the mausoleum as do about a quarter of the towns residents. None of us talk to each other, our tasks are clear and set out. The ground above is to frozen to properly dig out graves. When folks do pass away, everyone is to scared to touch the bodies, so our work is more about recording as many details as possible; name, gender, and as many details on how they passed away as possible. So far it's mainly elders passing of old age. About the wild life. Besides signs of small animals and birds I have also founds signs that deer and wild horses have tried to get into my green house to eat the plants. I've caught a few sightings of the deer and horses. Besides being very skittish of people they seem to be in good health. That means that they're finding enough food through foraging to survive. As I've had success with my indoor garden, I've realized I had no place to store anything. Sure I had a rusted out fridge upstairs, but it stunk up the place bad anytime it was opened so I needed a different solution. By talking to my small network of connections, and I use the term loosely, a solution presented itself just not how or what I was thinking of. As to my loosely termed network it consists of the two Handy's neither of whom like me enough to share their first name, the Silver woman, the Grimes head of house, and the woman from the Davilla house who braids her hair every day. Imagine my shock when Davilla, or Annette as she's called by her family, showed up at my place. "We have a cabinet you can have, but I need you to promise me something in exchange." Annette "I would really like a cabinet if you really can spare it, but I'm not comfortable with a blind promise of a favor. I would happily offer you first choice on edible produce if you like. I'm getting perfect berries off of some of the plants." I countered "Will you hear me out on what I would like in exchange!" Annette countered. That I was willing to do, and her request was a doozy, which made me really glad I'd not blindly agreed to anything. We came to a compromise, that we could both live with, and I got the needed storage cabinet which wasn't easy to move, and so got put into the green house. Just as Annette had lived up to her half of the agreement I lived up to mine. By arrangement I met Annette at the park. With a nod of her head I understood that the younger woman with the loose hair was the daughter she wanted me to meet. Autumn was almost ten years my junior and very grumpy. I was happy that I had only promised to get to know her and nothing more. I know what Annette wants and is hoping will happen, but I've never been fake about anything in my life, not even when I wrote my application to university, and this is not the time to be fake. Because Autumn was reluctant at first I suggested joining Carole Funke, who was about Autumn's age on the hopscotch court. Not as invigorating to me as a jog or a game of hoops, but both women had fun and I got to know both of them a little better.
As the sun shifted and it got closer to my work shift I promised both women to another game of hopscotch in a few days time. Who am I? I suppose I should start there. My name is Jullio, someone once told me it's a Spanish or Mexican name. I wouldn't know. I was abandoned at birth at the Bridgeport firestation. At least that's what it read in my case file when I stole a peak as a teen. My last name is Forrest, because the agency worker was sick of using Doe and Smith as last names for unknown cases. I grew up in Bridgeport in a series of foster and group homes. My last placement wasn't to bad. My first impression of the woman who ran the group home was that she was a completely crazy hippie, right down to her name Apricot Moonbeam. Then I got to know her and the rules, and realized that I'd gotten one of the luckiest placements for a kid about to age out of foster care. Not only could I stay if I wanted to, but if I could pull my grades up to a 2.0 gpa she would help me apply to universities. There was a catch. That didn't surprise me, I was used to things having a price to pay. Her price, even though I wanted a sports program I had to apply to horticulture programs. Given the dense foliage on the tiny concrete patio that she called an exercise in urban permaculture I didn't find her stipulation surprising. What did surprise me was the acceptance letter to Starlight Shores newly formed horticulture program. It even came with a one year scholarship. I never made it to Starlight Shores or the university. The bus I was on broke down, which wasn't to bad, even though we were in the middle of nowhere. A few passengers got rentals, others got train tickets. By the end of the day it was just the driver, an older couple who were retired core medics, and myself waiting for the replacement bus. The driver had the news on, I was only half listening as I thumbed through my acceptance paperwork for the millionth time. Suddenly the radio started breaking up and then went dead. The driver was asking the station attendee a question when the teen turned and started vomiting uncontrollably. The couple rushed to the teen and then told me to get out, as the driver was trying to wipe puke from his arm. I stared as the door was blocked from the inside. I could see through the window as the old man was frantically punching codes into what looked like a radio relic from the last global war. I don't know how long I stood in the minuscule shade of the sign pole before chaos broke loose. I call it chaos because it all happened so fast, that I didn't have a chance to process what was happening as it happened. The area around the station filled up with helicopters, tanks, and large trucks filled with personnel. I found myself rushed into an enclosed truck by people encased in hazmat suits. Once inside the truck they shoved me into an even smaller empty glass container and had me strip. I watched in horror as not only my clothes and acceptance paperwork were burned but the entire station was burned to the ground after someone made hand motions indicating no survivors. I lost track of time, but eventually I was allowed out the chamber and given some clothes to wear. One of the commanders decided I wasn't worth drafting. Maybe it was he kept yelling at me to get out of stuff, or to stay away from buildings as we drove through Lucky Palms. The upshot was that I was confined to a coastal valley with several other households that had escaped the contagion. After a fashion we were lucky, we were naturally immune. To my frustration I couldn't get the doctor to say why or what caused the contagion in the first place. The other piece of good luck was that the area had already been laid out for a suburb development and there was a small stash of supplies available to throw together 30 rough buildings to accommodate everyone. When they got around to assigning me accommodations I asked if I could have my own place. I was hoping for a spot near what everyone was calling the park. The commander in charge had other ideas and stuck me on the hill just above town. I didn't complain that my shelter was only one floor, because one of the grunts gave me a wink and used the last of the raw material to add a room under the main living quarters. Down the road from me behind the main set of shelters is a junkyard. The building used to be fully enclosed, but some of the boards were pulled to make the cover for the park. The park really isn't much to speak of. I'd been excited to see the soccer ball but it vanished before the end of the first week. If the dartboard hadn't been glued to the brick it probably would have vanished too. I tried to make friends the first few days, but everyone was still in shock. The few people who weren't in shock just grunted in response. Those who did more than grunt only gave last names and monosyllabic answers. It quickly became clear that no one was inclined to trust anyone else just yet, let alone some green behind the ears kid whom the head of military had labeled a trouble maker. Thing is I've never been a trouble maker, according to the coaches naturally athletic; all the teachers say charismatic; according to Betty Sue from 6th grade a great kisser, according to all my foster parents, except Ms. Moonbeam, a total slob; and the parade of caseworkers have also said brave. So being labeled a trouble maker was a new experience. Some of the new people were for a lack of a better word rather odd. While Howell had seemed nice at first, she suddenly transformed and started attacking the chairs. Giving a wide berth seemed like a really good option. The first couple of days I was lost for what to do. The early and swift onset of winter which closed the passes didn't help. The military commander order the troops to halt the comm's and utility setup and pull out. At least they'd partially finished the one tower, but it couldn't handle a lot of calls so call times had to rationed. I was assigned Monday's and Thursdays. I found one of the privates who had been nice to me a few times and asked if I could go with. "Uh-uh, trust me Jullio you don't want to come with us. Being here in this town for the last week has been a vacation for us. They'll leave a few guards at the pass, but the rest of us are headed for Roaring Heights, and rumor is we might have to burn the whole city down. Sarge is taking bets on the number of survivors. This place is going to need people who can lead, and people who can think and learn. I'm going to leave you with my fishing pole and a couple of composition books. You mentioned being headed for a horticulture program before so why don't you use what you already know to establish what is and isn't safe for folks around here." I thanked him for the fishing pole and notebooks. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I knew nothing about science let alone horticulture. At the same time I felt like maybe I did know something, there'd been that one foster dad who'd always watched fishing. The scientist who'd gotten to go on an arctic expedition, why I'd had to move, who'd always pointed out things to look for in the dead of winter to tell if plants or animals would be back. Then there was Ms. Apricot Moonbeam who'd always picked up stray seeds and bits of plant to try to grow. It took a few hours but I caught the hang of how to handle the rod and line. By keeping a sharp eye as I walked back to my shelter I found a few seeds I recognized. I even spotted some odd mushrooms and seeds that were unfamiliar.
After a bit of work I had two decent sized tarps with dirt piled on top to use as garden beds. Outside would probably be better, but with the turn of weather it was better to plant inside. |
Founder - Jullio Forrest
Generation 3 - Cassandra
Generation 4 - Deborah
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