The Journal: Ash Fall (36 page)

* * *

Although it was fine to have rested in the
seasoning an extra day, the neck roast from the last deer needed to
be cooked soon, especially now with the power off and no
refrigeration. I laid out the boned meat on the countertop and
spread out my mixture of bread, chopped mushrooms and canned ramp
greens. Rolling it as tight as I could, I tied it with butcher
twine and set it in a roasting pan. With the power off, the gas
oven wouldn’t work, so it was either start the generator and run it
for a couple of hours, or test out the stove in the greenhouse. It
might also be a good time to make amends with the doctor.

He was sitting on the bench beside the fish
pond, the water barely trickling down through the gold miner’s
outstretched pan.

“Mark, can we talk?” Although he knew he
wasn’t alone from the sound of the door opening, I wanted him to
know it was me.

He turned and stood. “I was so worried,
Allex. You two were gone too long! I was afraid something had
happened to you,” he reached out and I moved into his arms,
welcoming the chance to comfort him. I wondered who was comforting
whom?

“I’m sorry you worried, Mark. I can’t promise
it won’t happen again, but I’ll find a way to make it better,” I
said, looking up into those pain-filled deep blue eyes.

I don’t know who moved first, and maybe it
doesn’t matter, but the kiss was soul deep and I clung to him as he
held me tight.

“I can’t lose you, Allex, not now that I’ve
just found you,” he whispered, his lips brushing my temple.

* * *

The greenhouse stove worked fine, though it
did require closer tending. The kitchen stove is cast-iron while
the other one is thinner metal sheeting and didn’t hold the heat as
well. Having to constantly tend the fire also gave Mark and I some
needed alone time, to decide on how to handle our new, evolving
relationship.

Jason left the trailer attached to the
four-wheeler and drove it home, returning with yet another
surprise: a bubble unit for the cart and in the bubble sat a
delighted Jacob and a nervous Chivas.

The puppy was happy to escape the strange
carriage, and roamed around the house, limping and sniffing
everything. As if on cue, Tufts emerged from under the bed and sat
in the middle of the kitchen, waiting for Chivas to find him. When
the pup came skidding to a halt in front of the cat, Tufts lifted a
clawless paw and tapped Chivas on the nose gently. I still find it
strange how they have become such friends.

* * *

It was good to have the entire family
together for dinner. It seemed like a long time, although it really
had only been a few days. So much had happened in that time, my
head – and heart – were in such a spin.

“Nahna, I know you’re taking good care of my
dad, but I think he needs me, so I want to stay here until he’s
ready to come home,” Emilee announced.

“Are you sure, Miss Emilee?” asked Mark, in
his best doctor voice. “I work my medical staff pretty hard,
especially the caretakers.” He did manage to keep a straight face,
even though the rest of us didn’t.

At first Emi looked shocked, then she smiled
and said, “You’re teasing me aren’t you, Dr. Mark?”

“Yes, I am,” he laughed, and pulled a quarter
out of her ear, much to her delight.

“Of course you can stay here, Emi,” I said.
“How much longer do you think Eric will be laid up, Mark?”

“At least a week. Depending on how his leg
looks in the morning, I think he can go back home tomorrow,
especially since his sleeping quarters don’t involve any steps,”
Mark answered.

* * *

“I know how awkward this is for you Allex,
and I promise to restrain myself,” Mark promised as I started
dousing the bedroom lights for the night.

“I won’t deny it’s awkward, Mark.” I smiled.
“I don’t think there’s much choice, and we can be adult about
this.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of,” he said
with a sigh.

July 28

“Are you two ready to go home?” Mark asked
our two house guests.

“I know I am. Mom, do you mind if I take a
shower here first?” Eric answered as he rolled into the kitchen on
the green and black bungee chair.

“I’ll start the generator,” Mark offered.

The power had been out for a couple of days
now, and I had a bad feeling it was going to be out for a while
this time. Maybe Moose Creek was back to being a casualty to the
needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few, and with the
military now in control, I had no way of finding out.

“Emi, while your dad is getting cleaned up, I
want to show you how to pick the medicine leaves so you can do this
at home,” I said, and took Emilee out to the greenhouse and showed
her the comfrey plant.

“It’s real important that you never hurt the
plant, and that means you take only the outer leaves, never ever
from the middle, okay? And we never use metal to cut the leaf, no
scissors, no knife,” I emphasized, and she nodded seriously. “We’re
going to take two big leaves today, and maybe only one tomorrow. It
will depend on what Dr. Mark says when he changes the bandages
later.”

She put the leaf I pinched off into a baggie,
and then I had her pinch one too. The baggie went into her pocket
for later, and she guarded it carefully. I mused how quickly she’d
grown up in this harsh new world we live in.

* * *

I pulled the car out of the barn and as close
to the house as I could get. Mark and I helped Eric down the steps
and into the back seat. I put the lightweight bungee chair in the
back, and drove across the street and up close to the porch, while
Mark and Emi walked our well-worn path.

“Here’s the chair for Eric,” I said to Jason
when he met me on the porch. He had pulled back a section of the
heavy plastic to make an entrance, and a brisk breeze flapped it
erratically until he managed to secure it.

“I got the crutches made last night, Mom.
He’s going to love them,” Jason boasted. “Now all we have to do is
figure out how to get him up these steps!” My brother’s porch was
graced by ten steep steps. It was going to be a challenge.

“You could try that over the shoulder
fireman’s carry again,” I suggested, however, Eric opted for
butt-scooting up each step instead. I think it saved his
dignity.

Amanda had already laid out an early lunch of
Emi’s fresh bread, home canned chicken made into spreadable
sandwich filling and pork and beans heated on the gas stove.

“I want a ride!” Jacob insisted when he saw
his uncle sitting in what he felt was his chair.

“Maybe later, Jacob, when Uncle Eric is
getting his bandages changed, okay? Right now he needs the chair
because he can’t walk,” Amanda explained.

“We picked some comfrey leaves earlier, and
I’d like to show Emilee how to prepare them to make a poultice,” I
said, excusing us from the lunch table.

“Now we tear the leaf in pieces and put it in
this washcloth bag,” I said.

“Tearing it not cutting it, right, Nahna?”
she observed.

“That’s right. The metal is bad for the
healing juices in the plant,” I further explained. “Now take the
bag and set it in a glass or ceramic bowl, and cover it with
boiling water.”

“It’s kind of like making tea! My mom used to
make tea like this,” she said wistfully.

“It’s very much like a tea. When the water
has cooled and it’s been soaking for about a half hour, then it’s
ready. Now let’s finish our lunch while this cools.”

The consensus was the lunch was wonderful and
that the only thing missing was potato chips.

“I’ll never have chips again, will I, Dad?”
Emi frowned. He looked at me, raising his golden eyebrows in
question.

“One of these days, Emi, when we can grow
potatoes again, we’ll make some chips and French fries too!”

I hope I can make good on my promise.

“Well, I think I need to check my patient
here, so we can get back home soon. It looks like rain is on the
way,” Mark said, leading Eric away from the table and grabbing his
–my—little black bag.

Emilee watched in fascination as Mark cut the
bandages away to reveal the red and swollen tissue, speckled with
black stitches.

“Oh gross, Dad!” she made a face, but stayed
by her father’s side, staring at the massive injuries.

“Yes, Emi, I know it looks bad, but it’s
really healing quite well. Here, lay your hand on it gently,” Mark
guided her little hand to a rather red area. “How does it feel?
Cool or hot?”

“Neither really, maybe cooler than hotter,”
she scrunched up her face in thought.

“Very good! If it was hot, that would mean it
was infected, which of course is bad news. Is that poultice ready?
I think you can do a couple of treatments today, and then I’ll be
over to bandage it later.”

I took the bowl over where Eric was resting,
and showed Emi how to gently squeeze out the excess liquid, noting
how it had turned green.

“You let it sit on the wound for a half hour,
while the good stuff from the plant soaks into the skin, and then
put the poultice back in the bowl to soak up more medicine. Wait
one hour, and repeat. You can do that until all the green liquid is
gone, or until your dad has had enough nursing.” I smiled at the
two.

Mark gave Eric a single Darvocet for the pain
that would also allow him to sleep.

* * *

At one o’clock, I stood at the glass door,
watching the dark clouds form in the distance over Lake Superior.
This was an angry stormy sky, not the sullen gray skies we’d had
for the last nine days.

“I think we’re really lucky, maybe even in
the top one percent of the luckiest people in the entire state,” I
said, thinking out loud. “We’ve got plenty of food and water,
sturdy shelter and heat if we need it, several different ways of
cooking or heating our food, hot showers, too. We’re relatively
safe from all that’s going on out there in the world. And even
though Eric was badly injured, he’s alive. We’re all alive, and
healthy, and together.” I felt Mark standing behind me, and
welcomed his arms around my waist as he pressed his chest to my
back. “John’s not coming back, is he?”

“No, he isn’t,” Mark stated ever so
quietly.

“I think I’ve known that all along, I just
didn’t want to face it. I don’t know why it isn’t as painful this
time. He’s left me so many times in the last few months, and each
time he came back, only to leave again. And every time he left he
broke my heart all over again.

“I’ve been thinking about the note he left,”
I continued, leaning ever so lightly into Mark’s comforting
embrace. “John and I knew each other a long time before he came to
stay with me last winter. We were close friends, not lovers, not
until he moved in. I thought that would make our relationship
strong. He kept leaving me anyway. I think he asked me to wait two
weeks for his return that he knew would never come, so you and I
could get to know each other first, before we became intimate. In
his own way he was looking out for us.”

The ominous black clouds rolled chaotically
across the heavy sky. Thunder boomed in the distance and then
closer. A flash of lightning split the sky with an ear shattering
crack, and the rain started coming down in torrents.

I turned within the circle of Mark’s arms,
reaching up to thread my fingers through his dark curly hair, and
pulled him down so I could reach his lips and asked, “Are you going
to leave me too?”

“No, I’m not,” Marked kissed me with a depth
that left me breathless.

I pulled back from the embrace and smiling
said, “Good, because my heart can’t take any more.”

I took his hand and led him to my room, where
we undressed each other painfully slowly. Sliding under the covers
with him, his skin was so hot it left a blazing trail where it
touched me.

We spent the rest of the afternoon talking
and kissing, loving and exploring, and even napping a little
wrapped tightly against each other. For a moment I thought how John
was tender and gentle, and while Mark could be tender and gentle
too, he was also passionate and playful and exciting. Then John
slipped to the back of my mind, and to the back of my heart.

The storm outside raged on, pounding against
roof and against the windows in a relentless quest for
entrance.

Hours later, I reached for my robe hanging
nearby.

“And just where to you think you’re going?”
Mark reached out grabbing my belt in a vain attempt to pull me back
to the bed.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving!” I
smiled down at him, laughing, really laughing for the first time in
what felt like forever. I playfully swatted his hand away and
stepped out of his reach.

In the kitchen, I was drawn to the glass door
again. The rain was pelting the lawn just as hard as it had been
for the last few hours, but I didn’t seem to mind it as much, and
the sky wasn’t as gloomy even though it was just as dark.

Mark came up beside me, slipping his arm
around my waist and pulling me possessively closer to his side. “So
what’s for dinner?”

“What would you like? I was thinking
something with pasta.”

He looked quizzically in my eyes. “You seem
to be glowing, Allex, absolutely glowing. I do hope I’ve had
something to do with that.”

I laughed. “You’ve had everything to do with
that, doctor.” I gentled my voice and said “I feel … happy, Mark,
content and… at peace.”

* * *

While we had the generator going for much
needed showers, I tried the TV and actually found a news
channel.

“…latest on the seismic activity along the
Ring of Fire has indicated an increase not only in the number of
tremors, but the force. In the past five days, there was a 6.9 on
the Richter scale quake off shore in Northern California; a 6.1 in
Japan; and both Peru and Chile suffered 6.3 quakes, the Chile quake
caused a tsunami warning to be issued. Geologists and scientists
are still unsure what this might mean.