Calamity in America (21 page)

“What are we having?”

“We can share a fried jackrabbit and I also fried up some prickly pear pads for each of us.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“If you wanted to get each of us a glass of water that would be great.”

I got up and went back inside and got each of us a glass of water.  I placed them on a plate so I could more easily carry them both at once.  I did have to go back and shut the door after I set the water down though.  By the time I was done and sat down the man carried one of the large cast iron fry pans over and slid a cactus pad onto each of our plates.  Then he went back and carried the other pan over and raked off some of the rabbit onto each plate.

Setting the pans back on one end of the grill he sat down and we started eating.  When he poured something on his cactus I picked up the bottle he had used after he set it down.  It was a maple syrup bottle but now contained something else.  I poured a little on my cactus and tried a bite.  Whatever it was in the bottle was just as sweet as maple syrup only thinner, and mostly clear.  I looked up at him with a question in my eyes.

“It’s mesquite syrup that I make in the fall.  You just boil mesquite pods in water and then strain out the pods and boil down the liquid.  The pods have a lot of sugar in them and a rather unique taste.  I kinda like it.”

“I do, too.  It’s good,” I said as I poured more over the fried cactus pad.  He had sliced all the cactus skin off the pads so there was only the slimy inner flesh left.  Frying removed the slimy part and with the syrup it tasted quite good.  Kind of like having a veggie pancake. 

On the table were a few shakers of salt and pepper and a couple of other things.  I watched what he used and I did the same, only I used each item very sparingly.  The rabbit was a little tough but tasted just fine.  I had eaten both jackrabbits and cottontails many, many times since things had fallen apart.  Rabbits make a good, tasty meal and thankfully there are a lot of them around.

When he finished his cactus he got up and put another on his plate.  He looked at me questionably and I nodded.  It had been awhile since I had eaten that oatmeal this forenoon and I was always hungry. 

We finished eating about the same time. I think everyone had learned to eat quickly since the end of electric power, and I did what I could with one hand to help him clean up.  He told me he could get it all but did not object too much to my help.  He even looked like he had a small smile when I put the shakers and a couple of other things inside my sling so I could carry them easier.

He washed up the few dishes and set them in the drainer alongside the sink.  It seemed so domestic, just like if we would have been a husband and wife before the collapse.

Of course, he had the holster with the large revolver on is side and I had my knives always handy.  I noticed the belt loops looked to be full of the fat cartridges to fit the revolver so there was no doubt that it was loaded.  Loaded guns were a rarity after all these years.  It likely would not have been so if the government in the last days had not rounded up and confiscated so many of the guns and all that ammunition. 

No one I talked to had known what exactly became of the guns and ammunition that the government took, but most thought that it had likely all been destroyed. 

By the time we had things cleaned up (there had been almost no talking between us) it was starting to get dark outside.

“I’ll be back earlier tomorrow and I’ll fill the water tank so you do not run out of water.  You should be able to find plenty to eat here in the house for tomorrow.  Goodnight.”

With that he was out the door and gone.  We had never even exchanged names.

Chapter 12

I had looked in on the woman while she was sleeping that first day.  Her sleep looked normal and she seemed to be breathing fine.  I started making enough of a simple supper for both of us.  It was just soup but I put in plenty of jerky so we would both get plenty of protein.  She would need to eat well so she could heal.

I rattled the pans a little louder than necessary, in the hopes that she would wake up.  When I heard soft noises from the bedroom I knew it worked and she was awake and moving around.  When she came out she looked pale and I could see that she was having a tough time walking, but I did not move towards her so I did not scare her again.

We started eating and after we finished the soup she moved too quickly and passed out.  I was just able to catch her head before it hit the tabletop.  I grabbed a pillow and propped her up and shortly after she came to again.  When she had passed out, a knife had fallen to the floor.  She must have had it lying in her lap for quick use if I attacked her.  I checked it out and the oddly-shaped knife was very sharp.

She allowed me to help her walk first to the bathroom and then the bedroom.  I think she was just too wore out to resist.  I left her and went back and slept in my old house.  The bad memories of what happened there had mostly faded and I could sleep there now without any problems.

I was up early the next morning and was very quiet when I went into the motor home and set some items I had found in there for her to use.  Then I was able to leave without waking her and I left the community.

I mostly just went for a walk.  I knew I would have no trouble getting something for our supper.  In the afternoon I saw a jackrabbit and got it with my bow.  Then I just waited until I was close to the community before I gathered a few cactus pads. 

When the woman appeared she looked much, much better than she had the evening before.  She was a very beautiful woman.  I don’t think she was quite as afraid of me today.  After eating and the clean up I bid her goodnight and went back to sleep in my old house again.  The next morning I was again up early and gone before she was awake I think. 

Today I walked to one of my nearby camps and just checked things out there.  I stayed there for lunch and walked back to the motorhome again.  I found the woman outside, wandering through the community, and decided to have her follow me to the well house.  I showed her the special pipe or well bucket that one of the other residents had made.

I took off the well cap that I had made to keep any contaminants out of the well and lowered, and then raised, the now-full well bucket which I emptied into one of the many clean five-gallon buckets I kept in the well house for that purpose.  I stopped after I had two pails full, but the woman said she could carry one so I filled another.  She made no comment when I only filled that bucket three quarters full for her to carry.

We carried them back to the motor home and I retrieved the special funnel I used to fill the freshwater tank up.  I dumped the three pails of water in the funnel as quickly as I could and we walked back to the well house and did it all again.  Then we did it one more time until I thought the tank must be very close to being full.  Again she walked with me to return the empty buckets to the well house, close the well head, and securely shut the well house door.

We did almost no talking the whole time.  That was great because I was not used to talking to anyone, especially not a pretty woman.  I did wonder about what her life had been like for the many years since things had fallen apart, but not enough so that I would start a conversation about it.  She still watched me very closely but she did not seem hostile, only cautious.  It was late afternoon by this time so I wondered about supper.

“Did you find enough food for your lunch?”

“I just had a little dried fruit and a couple pieces of the jerky I found.”

“I will make us some soup for supper.  No sense in eating separately.”

“That would be fine, though I could make something for myself if you want.”

“No trouble to make enough for two.”

We went inside the motorhome and the woman seemed to delight in the ability to switch on the lights inside.  I busied myself in the kitchen and shortly I had boiled the soup long enough to soften up the hard jerky along with the few other ingredients so the soup was done. 

We ate together in silence and did a quick clean up afterward together.  When we sat back down at the table she started the conversation.

“My name is Beth.”

I hesitated a minute, trying to remember my own name before it came to me.

“I’m Tony.”

“So you have actually lived alone for the last eight years?”

“I guess so.  I have lost track of time.”

“You certainly seem healthy enough.”

“I get by.  I forage for everything that I eat.”

“You don’t have a garden in the summer?”

“I tried growing gardens several years.  I kept trying until I ran out of seeds.  Other than watermelon seeds.  I still have some of those.  They were the only thing that I was ever able to really grow.  I guess I don’t have a green thumb.”

“My group did a lot of gardening.  We ate mostly vegetables and did very little in the way of foraging.  There had been a large ranch nearby and so we had a steady supply of beef.  The cows managed themselves and there were still plenty around when we were attacked and run off.  It was not a bad life.”

“Did you travel far to get here?”

“I don’t know.  I did not follow any highways from fear of running into that same group of bad guys.  Maybe a hundred or so total miles at a guess.  So you stay at different camps sometimes?”

“When things went bad I used the last of the fuel I could scavenge to move RV’s to likely spots around the country in a big circle from this location.  It has worked out well for me.”

“And you just forage for all your food?”

“There are some cattle still around here.  And plenty of deer.  Along with both jackrabbits and cottontails.  And plenty of javelina which, if you get a young one, they don’t taste too bad.  Plenty of quail and doves around here also.  So meat is not a problem at all for me.

“There are almost countless wild plants around here that you can eat but right now in the winter the edible plants are pretty limited.  There are many fruit trees of different species here at this little community and the dried fruit keeps well and tastes good.  I do dry some wild edibles like what I put in the soup but there are not too many wild things that I dry for winter use.  I seem to be getting by with what I eat, so it must be enough.”

“I brought many different varieties of garden seeds with me.  Like I said, the group I was with was big into gardening.  I did hunt some, and I bagged many rabbits, mainly with my bow.  I tried to keep the rabbit population down around camp so our gardens did not suffer so much from them.  I also hunted all the squirrels around camp for the same reason.  I never killed any deer because everyone liked beef better and it was easier to get than the deer.”

“So you were the camp hunter?”

“We all did many jobs, and everyone was involved working in the gardens.  I guess mainly I tanned hides and made clothes and other goods from the leather.”

“So you made the outfit you were wearing when we met?”

“Yes. That was a sample of things that I made.  I see that you are still wearing normal clothes.  You must have had a lot of clothes for them to last this long.”

“The first year or so I did a lot of scavenging in this general area.  I collected every single thing I found that I thought might sometime be useful and brought most of it all here and stored it in the houses here.  I did find a lot of clothing I could wear, plus what I had at my own house, but for the last year or two I have been doing quite a lot of patching.  I learned to never throw away any usable material that could be used for patches.  Those leather outfits must stand up to a lot of wear don’t they?”

“Yes the leather is very durable.  Too warm for the summers though.”

“Sounds like you have adapted well to the new life we all must lead now to survive.”

“After all these years those that could not adapt are all dead I think.  We might not like some of the things we now must do and sometimes it is difficult to keep your humanity intact but that is the way things are now, and we just have to live life the best we can while still trying to stay human.”

“So now your camp, your friends, everything is gone and you are just a wanderer?”

“I guess that sums it up pretty well.  I am strong, a good worker, and I have learned some skills that are now valuable, so I’m reasonably sure another camp will find me to be an asset if they take me in.  Although, as a lone woman, I must be very careful of who and how I approach anyone.  That is why I was hanging back and just following you.”

“I can certainly understand that and I am sorry I startled you and caused your injuries.  I have had several bad experiences with others who tried to sneak up on me and do me harm.  I was just being careful.”

“I don’t hold my injuries against you.  It was my own fault that I received them, not yours.  I am thankful for your help after my accident.” 

“So, when you leave here after you are healed, what direction do you plan on heading, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I think I’ll try north.  Or maybe northwest.”

“Sounds like as good a choice as any.”

We talked a bit more then bid each other goodnight.  Beth seems to trust me more all the time.  I’m not sure why that would seem to be important to me.

Chapter 13

The man’s name, I have now learned, is Tony.  He still looks scary but he has been nothing but a gentleman to me.  He leaves me alone almost all the time.  And it seems like he would be most happy if I just wandered off and left him back to his solitary life here.  But I am beginning to feel safe with him and it is a fact that even though my strength is coming back I am in no shape to travel alone in strange and very-likely hostile country.  As long as he remains a gentleman I will stay here until I am fully healed and can again be in a position to take care of myself.