Home Coming (The Survivalist Book 10) A. American (read after .txt) 📖

As I was heading for the door, I said, “Will do, Miss Kay.”

Ruckus was in his shoebox sound asleep. But as soon as I picked him up and put the dropper to his mouth, he was wide awake. Baby squirrels are funny. They push against what they’re feeding from. I guess it stimulates milk in the mother. So, he was pushing against the dropper as hard as he could. You don’t have to squeeze the milk out, they’ll get it! And you have to be careful not to let them take so much they aspirate it. Not only will they choke, they could develop pneumonia.

So, when Ruckus started coughing up milk, I took the dropper away and let him get it up. Wiped his little face and finished feeding him. Then I dampened a cloth with warm water and wiped his butt. They gotta poop and I ain’t about to lick it like his momma. With the mouse fed, I put him back in the box and closed it up.

Mel still wasn’t back, and I had free time, so I checked on the vinegar. It was certainly vinegary and tasted about ready to me. I got the crock through the plywood door, only thing I had to repair it with, and onto the back deck. Going to the shed, I grabbed an empty bucket and looked for something to strain it with. I found a little pool net, the sort of thing you dip leaves from your pool with and set it on top of the bucket and slowly poured the contents of the crock through it.

I had to stop a couple of times to clean the net; there were a lot of fruit skins and they quickly filled the shallow net. Once it was all filtered into the bucket, I tasted it again. Definitely vinegar, and I estimated there was a little over two gallons. Satisfied with the product, I set it in a corner and poured myself a glass of tea and headed for the porch to wait for Mel and the girls.

I was on my second glass of tea before the Suburban rolled into the yard. As soon as they got out, I could tell it was a hard day for them. They looked hollow, spent. I stood up and stepped down off the porch. Taylor walked towards the house with her shoulders slumped. As though every step took considerable effort.

As she approached, I said, “Hey, kiddo. How’d it go?”

Without looking up, she replied, “It was terrible. I’m really tired and want to go to bed.”

“You don’t want supper?”

“No. I’m not hungry.”

“You alright?”

“I’m fine,” she muttered as she opened the door and went into the house.

As Lee Ann walked up, she asked, “What’s for supper? I’m starving.”

“Miss Kay is working on something over there.”

Adjusting the H&K slung over her shoulder, she replied, “I’m going over there now. I haven’t eaten all day.” Mary was standing behind her and said she’d go with her.

As they trotted off towards Danny’s house, Mel walked up and stopped in front of me. Her head was hanging, and I leaned out and wrapped my arms around her. “How bad was it?” I asked.

Her head rocked against my chest and she said, “It was terrible. The children, the women; it was horrible.” She stepped back and wiped a tear from her eye.

“Well, you don’t have to go back if you don’t want to.”

She shook her head. “No. It wasn’t easy, but I’ll go back. We all need to do our part.”

Stepping beside her, I put an arm around her. “You hungry? You want to go get something to eat?”

“I’m tired and all I want to do is go to bed, but I do need to eat something first.”

“Ok, let’s go see what Kay’s cooked up.”

She rubbed her face and said, “I need to go feed the Ruckus.”

“I already did. Let’s get you something to eat.”

She patted my chest, “Thank you, baby.”

We found a loud gathering on the back porch. The kids were sitting together, eagerly eating from their bowls. Aric and Fred were sitting with Jess and Doc. Mike, Ted, Dalton and Wallner were all sitting together. Kay and Sarge were sitting together, and when she saw us, Kay got up, saying, “You two sit down and I’ll get you something to eat.”

Mary poked her head out of the kitchen window and said, “Just stay there, Kay. I’ll bring it out.”

Mary came out of the kitchen and Mel and I sat down at a table with Lee Ann. Mary set bowls in front of us and she and Mel talked for a minute about the trip to town. As they were talking, I looked into the bowl and asked Kay, “What is this?”

Acting apologetic, Kay replied, “Oh, it’s a goulash of sorts. I’m sorry, it’s not very good.”

“Nonsense!” Sarge barked. “It’s fantastic!”

I sampled the concoction. “Damn!” I shouted, and Kay looked over. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Kay. This is really good!”

“Well, thank you, Morgan. I’m happy you like it.”

We finished dinner and collected Little Bit, said our goodbyes and left for home. I checked with Lee Ann, but she said she wanted to stay and wasn’t ready to go. Mel was tired and not very chatty during dinner. I could tell she just wanted to go to bed. It was uncomfortably warm for this time of evening. It felt as though a low-pressure system had moved in and pushed a lot of humid air with it. It was going to be a hard night to sleep.

“Daddy, did you feed Ruckus?” Little Bit asked. She was holding my hand as we walked to the house.

“I did,” I replied with a smile. “But he probably needs to be fed again. You want to feed him before bed?”

“I do, I do!”

“Can you help her?” Mel asked.

Squeezing her hand, I replied, “No problem, babe. I know you’re tired.”

When we went inside, Mel kissed Little Bit goodnight and headed