After the Fall: Jason's Tale (10 page)

Jason stared straight back at her, stopped still by her
question. His mind raced.
What do I want?
Why is it so important to
connect with this woman and her children? Why don’t I just move on?
The
memory of the warmth he felt with Sam and Judy came rushing back to him. This
family needed someone to help them. Is that what he wanted? To be that someone?

The woman waited as Jason pondered his response. He wasn’t
sure what he should say and the very thing that came to him sounded so odd, he
was not sure he should say it.

“Well?”

The answer welled up in Jason, a powerful emotion, a need he
had long suppressed. He blurted out, “a family…to not live alone.” A great
choking sound came up from his throat as he suppressed a sob. “I’m sorry, that must
sound weird.”

“It’s okay.” She studied him for some time as Jason
struggled to get his emotions under control.

He looked at her, wondering how his answer had been
received. Her face gave no indication.
Did I go too far?

“My name is Anne,” she said finally.

“Hi, I’m Jason. I’m a good hunter—”

“You already told me that, and I think you have proven your
claim.”

“Well, I can fix things.” Plowing on gamely, he continued,
“I can fix the broken window on the house. And your porch needs its support
replaced. I can fix that as well. I notice that you get water from this pump in
the yard. If there’s an indoor pump, perhaps I can get that to work. It would
be nice not to have to go outside in bad weather.” He went on, expanding his
sales pitch, “I also have a complete field guide to edible plants found in the
mountains. I’ve been eating them for months and I’m still alive, so the guide
must be pretty reliable.” She smiled.

“On a serious note,” he was taking a risk, but this could be
the closing argument, “there are some very bad people out there. I’ve run into
them already. I can protect you and your girls if they ever come into this
valley. I hope they never do, but if it happens, I will defend you and your
family with all my ability.”

Her smile faded and she looked serious again—not mad, but
serious. “These are hard times…difficult and strange. I don’t think I could
have ever imagined such a situation as I find myself and my girls in. I wonder
at times if life will ever go back to normal. I wish it, but it hasn’t happened
yet. Being isolated up here in this valley we don’t know what has become of the
rest of the state, let alone the rest of the country.”

Anne’s eyes wandered as she spoke, as if lost in her own
words. Jason sat very still…
was she talking herself into a ‘yes’?

Anne continued, “I have been expecting the power to come on
for almost a year, but…nothing. Now you come along offering to help and telling
me how it may never come back. And on top of that you seem to think society is
breaking down.” She shuddered visibly. “You’ve acted respectful, even if a bit
odd…” She paused. Jason sensed she was making a decision. Would she take the
risk and accept the help he offered?

“You can stay.” Her voice was firm, her decision made. “Here
are the rules. You stay in the barn at night. The house will be locked. You can
eat with us, but you sleep in the barn. I am not part of the deal and when my
husband comes back, you will have to leave. And you must leave my girls alone.
If you make a pass at one of them, I will shoot you without a word of warning.”

Jason let out an almost audible sigh, “Thank you,” he said
with relief in his voice. “Thank you. I’ll be a good helper. We’ll make a good
team and I won’t cross the boundaries you set.”

“See that you don’t and I do not think we need to talk about
a team.” She paused. “I won’t guarantee how long you can stay. Time will tell
how this arrangement works out.” Another pause, “I guess you should meet the
girls.” She turned and called out to the house, telling them to come out.

The girls stepped out and walked up to their mother, who
stood up. “This is Catherine, my oldest daughter,” she said touching the taller
of the two. “And this is Sarah.”

Jason remained sitting and nodded to each girl, saying how
glad he was to make their acquaintance, trying to be polite but not ridiculous.
Catherine was about 16 or 17 Jason guessed and already taller than her mother.
She looked a lot like her mother, but darker in hair and complexion and with
the advantage of natural youthful beauty. She had dark, penetrating eyes that
bored into you with a direct look. Sarah was shorter. She had a lighter
complexion than her mother or Catherine with hair more blond than brown. Her
face was more rounded than Catherine’s. There was a sparkle and lightness about
her that was distinct from her older sister’s more serious countenance. Jason
could see that she was going to be a beauty.

Catherine gave Jason a long, studied look, much like her
mother; measuring him in a critical way.
She’s a cool one and won’t be won
over easily by anyone
.

Sarah also studied Jason but more the way a woman might if
she were interested in him. It was a bit unnerving in light of her young age
and Anne’s threat. On the whole, Sarah seemed more open and friendly than
Catherine.

Got to be on my best behavior
. His heart flooded with
joy at the prospect of becoming, even temporarily, a part of this family.

The four men hiking up the valley to the east had stopped
when they heard Jason’s shots at the pond. The gunfire sounded far off and the
bush was getting thicker. They didn’t hear any more shooting, but after some
discussion they decided that it was not worth hacking their way through the
dense cover only to find a hunter shooting at them. Instead, they retraced
their path south. A few days later they came back to an old two track heading
west onto the ridge. They decided to follow it. There was not much reason to go
further south. That area was picked over and infested with dangerous gangs.
They were looking for houses and farms to loot. Their problem was the pickings
were slim. Pushed further out by the larger gangs, they were losing momentum in
their bid for survival and getting more desperate and more dangerous. They
struck out west towards the ridge. A few days later, they reached the pass.

Jason was a flurry of activity. There was so much he wanted
to do it was hard to focus on where to start. He first set out to teach Anne
and the girls what foods they could gather in the woods and fields. They used
the edible plant guide and, after some study, they all went out on gathering
trips. After a few outings, the girls continued foraging on their own with
Jason’s admonishment to not eat anything until he had inspected it. The edges
of the fields provided a rich assortment of plants. The black and raspberry
bushes were abundant, promising much fruit as the summer deepened. There were
some marshy areas in the lower creek and fields that yielded ramps and wild
onions. Wood sorrel grew in abundance as did chickweed, so there was no
shortage of salad greens.

As he had promised, Jason replaced the broken window with
one from the barn and shored up the front porch roof with a post. Each night he
retired to the barn, whose door he had repaired. The foraging lessons and the
work on the repair projects eased Jason’s assimilation into the family
structure. All of them working together, with Anne and the girls learning new
things, energized them and they began to bond. It didn’t hurt Jason’s approval
rating that they were eating better. Anne became less guarded as the days
passed.

Jason asked Anne about the other residents of the valley.
She told him about the four other inhabited farms, noting that, except for one
family, there were no other children her girls’ ages. “I guess living here hasn’t
been so good for them in some ways…since the power went out.” She paused, lost
in her thoughts.

“The girls seem fine to me. They’re bright and learn
quickly. But what do I know?”

Anne smiled. “Well you’re doing pretty well dealing with
them…for a novice that is.”

“I grew up with an older brother…no girls in our family, so
sometimes I’m at a loss about how to respond to Sarah or Catherine. It
certainly is different.”

With Jason’s explanation of what had happened the girls
began to understand their dad would not be coming home. They had held out hope
that he would return someday. Now his departure seemed final. As mad as they
were about his abandoning them, the finality of never seeing him again was
sobering.

Catherine remained cool and distant, though polite. She was
attentive, wanting to learn all Jason had to teach her. He could see that she
respected what he knew and how he wanted to not only survive, but thrive in
this new reality, but she kept her distance emotionally. Sarah, on the other
hand, quickly warmed up to him. She still missed her dad, but delighted in
having Jason around as a substitute father figure. As she grew more comfortable
with him, she would flirt and tease him endlessly. Jason, not having spent much
time around thirteen year old girls, was not sure how to react and retreated to
maintaining a friendly distance from her attention. Often he would look to Anne
for help when he didn’t quite know how to handle Sarah. His discomfort, obvious
at times, seemed to delight Sarah all the more.

One evening after getting the kitchen pump working, Anne and
Jason were sitting on the porch as the sun began its descent over the western
ridge. The early evening sunlight lit up the trees on the eastern side of the
valley in a flood of light. They watched the sun’s lighting shining on the
mountain slope, sitting in silence, taking in the beauty of the evening.

Finally Anne asked, “What about your family?”

“My mother is retired and living in Florida. I don’t know
what has become of her and can’t really find out. My brother is in California.
He works in the computer industry. You could say we are a well spread out
family. Now we’re totally out of touch with one another,” he paused for a
moment. “Before we could all be connected…with phone and the internet. Now it
seems like complete separation, living in different worlds—worlds I can’t
reach. And with Maggie gone I’m pretty much alone. I can only hope that my
mother and brother are fine…there’s really no way of knowing.” His voice
trailed off, as he got lost in thoughts of them.

After some moments, Anne broke the silence, “So now you have
an adopted family, it seems.”

Jason turned and smiled at her. “Yes…I guess I do.” Their
eyes locked together for a moment; then Anne turned away, breaking the
connection. Jason changed the subject. “Have you ever talked to the others
about joining together, to pool resources or set up joint defense?”

“There was some talk, but we’re so isolated. We didn’t see
any evidence of violence and didn’t expect any, certainly not from Clifton
Furnace. So everyone decided that it would be an unnecessary, a waste of
resources. We have a few weapons, mostly shotguns and hunting rifles.” She
shifted in her chair to look directly at Jason, “These are independent people
in this valley. We look after ourselves. Except for the three families who left
to go to Clifton Furnace, the rest of us just want to stay here and wait things
out.”

“It probably would have been a good idea to get more
organized.”

“Do you think that’s so important? It’s not people’s style
in the valley.”

“It could be.” He went on, “I’m concerned about safety,
about our defenses.”

“But is there a real danger to worry about?”

“This is a secluded valley, but I found it. And there are
some evil people out there who have joined up into gangs. I’d hate to think of
them coming here with us unprepared…I guess I worry a lot about that.”

“I know…Sam and Judy,” she said quietly. “Do you think that
could happen to us?” She paused, then added, “How would we defend against such
an attack?”

“There are a lot of burlap and plastic bags in the barn—”

“Old seed bags. They go back to the previous owners and Ron
kept them as well. I’m not sure if he ever planned to do anything with them,
but he didn’t want to throw them out.”

Jason paused for a moment to let Anne’s thoughts clear then
continued, “Well, they’ll be very handy now. We need to set up some shooting
positions in the house and protect them with sandbags. I’d like to fill them
with sand from the creek bed and place them upstairs, not necessarily at the
windows, which is where everyone would shoot, but at shooting holes I’ll make
in the walls.”

“You want to cut holes in the walls?”

“I know. It’s not the typical handy man fix-up project.” He
faked a deep voice, “Ma’am, I’m here to cut holes in your walls, it’s the
latest in home remodeling.”

Anne gave a short laugh and smiled, “you’ll have a hard time
selling me on that one. And please include how we’ll fare during the winter
with holes in our walls, Mr. Handyman.”

“Seriously, Anne, we need to be able to shoot from the house
at anyone trying to get to us. I can cover the holes from the inside when the
cold weather comes. I’ll make sure you’re warm in the house.”

Jason worried he might be moving too fast; they were still
figuring each other out. Or, as he thought, Anne was trying to figure
him
out. Jason already knew he was attracted to her but kept himself in check,
giving her time to sort out their relationship.

“As part of my remodeling scheme, I also want to cut a hole
in your roof,” he continued.

“What? Are you kidding?” she asked in surprise. Jason just
looked at her. “You’re not kidding. Please tell me why,” she continued.

“It’s to give us a lookout position and a dominant firing
platform. Think of it as a widow’s walk.” As soon as he used the phrase, he was
sorry.

Anne looked at him sharply. “What exactly is a ‘widow’s
walk’?” she said with an edge in her voice.

“It’s a high parapet or standing space on a house, sometimes
up on the roof. It was the place where wives looked out to sea, watching for
their sailing husbands to return from their voyages. It’s a bad choice of
words; I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right,” Anne replied. “I shouldn’t be so
sensitive.”

The evening grew still and the light faded on the eastern
slopes as they continued to talk quietly about changes to the farm.

“I know you are serious about protecting us,” Anne said,
“and I appreciate it. Thank you.” She stood up, then bent down to give him a
kiss on his forehead and went inside.

Jason sat for some time as the evening darkened savoring the
kiss, digesting it, his mind swirling around it, replaying the moment over and
over. A rush of happiness began to flow over him. Finally he stood up.

Get a grip. You’ve got work to do. Get some sleep.
He
opened the door to the house and shouted out, “Good night everyone!” The good
nights came back from various parts of the house and Jason walked off to the
barn smiling.