Chapter 24: Family Additions

April 10, 2031

The house was quiet. Outside, the full moon had already disappeared behind the mountain. Sally stirred and rolled out of bed to go pee again, the fifth or sixth time already since she went to bed. She wasn’t sure.

Ever since the baby had dropped down into her pelvis the pressure on her bladder and the need to go had become more frequent. Also her back ached and for the past seven days she felt sharp cramps as if she was being impaled with a hot fireplace poker.

She grabbed the solar lantern from the nightstand and waddled to the bathroom at the end of the hallway, taking in deep breaths with each step. From the window, the faint glow of dawn and a new day was beginning to appear over the silhouette of the barn. She set the lantern on the vanity and got into position over the toilet. Sitting down was an exercise in gravity control and she did it very carefully, finally coming to a soft, safe landing on the cold toilet seat.

Tired, she closed her eyes waiting for the pathetic trickle. When nothing came, she pushed a little. Suddenly a gush of warm liquid burst from within her like an exploding water balloon, splattering the toilet and spraying onto the floor in front of her. It ran down her legs, dripping onto her feet. She knew right away that it didn’t come from her bladder.

“Oh God,” she said, straining to look over her huge baby bump to see the puddle around her. It looked clear. But, before she could get a better look, she was hit by an intense contraction, the pain seizing her like a vise, knocking the wind out of her. She groaned as the contraction increased, then leveled off for a moment, and finally faded.

She gasped for air and managed to stand up on unsteady legs, grabbing a towel and holding it between her legs. Afraid of the next contraction, she slowly walked back to the bedroom, groaning.

“Daddy, Katie,” she said when she got to the bed and had to repeat her calling to get them awake. “I think I’m in labor.”

“Labor?” Clark gasped, his eyes widening. He jumped out of bed like a spring uncoiled and fumbled for his clothes.

“My water just broke,” she said. “It feels like the baby is going to drop out any minute.”

It took more than ten hours. The contractions continued to build in intensity throughout the morning and around noon they became so close together that Sally thought they would never cease and instinctively responded with the urge to push.

Clark helped her to get into the delivery position, holding her legs with his arms wrapped around the back of her knees, pulling them wide apart to expose her swollen birth canal. Like an experienced mid-wife, Katie stood before her monitoring the situation, adding and removing towels to soak up the fluid that came with each contraction, and waiting to catch the baby.

“I’m starting to see the head,” Katie said excitedly. “Come on, you can do this. Give me one more big push!”

Finally, around mid-afternoon, the head, covered with light peach fuzz popped out into the world.

“Ahhhiiiii,” Sally cried, bearing down one more time and the rest of the baby slipped out with absurd ease into Katie’s hands. She held it up by its ankles to clear out its lungs and gave it a little pat on its wrinkled purple-pink butt. It twitched and then uttered a weak shrill, drawing its first of many breaths.

“It’s a girl!” Katie announced, spotting the familiar folds between the wailing baby’s legs.

“My baby,” Sally cried with tears of joy rolling down her face as she saw for the first time the wet, slippery, little being that had been growing inside her.

“A girl,” Clark said with relief, trying to hold back his own emotions.

“What’s her name, Daddy?” he heard Fifi ask. She and Trish were bravely sitting on the floor by the open door to the walk-in closet. They had slipped into the room to again witness the miracle of birth. Little Matthew was napping nestled between them.

“We’re going to call her Mary,” Clark said, acknowledging what Brother Matthew had told him.

THE STRESS OF PREGNANCY and birth put Sally down and unable to take care of anything except her baby. Breastfeeding, changing diapers and sleep deprivation took a toll on her body. If she was like her mom, it would take several months to recover just in time for the harvest and canning to get under way in full swing.

Katie had her hands full with the kids, the cooking and cleaning. And, when she announced that her period was two months late, Clark was thrilled that he was going to be a father again and happy with the prospect of another addition to his growing brood. He showed her how pleased he was by making love to her, keeping it slow at first; almost worshipful, while he stoked her fire and filled her with his love potion.

He wished she and Sally could settle down and nest for a while. However, the calendar told them that that was not possible. For the remainder of April and all of May, he had his work cut out for him preparing the soil for the crops and the garden, as well as harvesting the winter wheat all by himself. Planting corn and sunflowers, sowing the oats, spring wheat and field peas were one-man jobs anyway. Squaring off the garden beds and planting the vegetable seeds and sprouts required a lot more hands.

They were fortunate that the weather was on their side and thanked the heavens for warm, sunny days. They rested on the days it rained.

There was no immediate need to go hunting wild game. They had plenty of chicken and rabbit meat in the freezer, as well as potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and vegetable conserves in the cellar from the previous fall to make hearty stews and keep their bodies well nourished.

And, ever since they discovered how to use the hand crank flour mill and meat grinder they brought from the hardware store, fresh bread was always on the table, while spaghetti with meat balls and tomato sauce turned a dinner into a party with messy slurping contests.

They were still struggling to make cheese from goat’s milk. But, as soon as they had that accomplished, pizza was going to be on their menu, too.

There was never a dull moment and the trip to Millbrook was postponed yet again until after the birth of Katie’s second baby.

September 2031

Summer, at first, took forever to arrive on the scene, but then it was gone without saying good-bye. The passage of time seemed compressed in endless activities that kept hands and minds busy.

Katie was in her fifth month pregnant, turning the kitchen upside down, canning vegetables and making fruit preserves.

Fifi, Trish and little Matthew were playing on a large tarp spread out in the backyard under the watchful eyes of Blizzard. The girls were only five, but as a team they were great babysitters for their rambunctious two year-old brother.

“Daddy, we’re out of water again,” Sally shouted, trudging toward the clothesline to hang up more diapers. “And the charge in the generator is awfully low.”

With a houseful of kids and another one on the way, washing laundry was a constant chore that quickly drained the water tank, leaving a trickle in the bathtub for their evening shower, and sometimes not even that. Also the days were getting shorter with fewer hours of free solar energy to fully charge the generator. There was only one solution.

Clark paused for a second digging up late potatoes, wiping the sweat from his brow. “I know. Tomorrow I’ll go into town to get another generator and panels. I promise.”

The next morning after a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, jerky and homemade bread, he grabbed his hunting knife, pistol and shotgun, and went to bring the car around from the garage. This time he preferred to take Brother Matthew’s car into town. It was an opportunity to keep the car battery fully charged.

“Come on boy,” he called Blizzard who was more than eager to jump in the back of the car to take an eventful ride with his master.

“We expect you in time for lunch,” Sally reminded him as everyone lined up to get a kiss and a hug from Daddy.

The last time Clark had gone into town was end April shortly after Mary’s birth to get some feed and oyster shell calcium supplements for the chickens at the feed store. The county highway then was in bad shape, but over the summer weeds and grasses had invaded every crack in the asphalt, making the ride less than enjoyable. He felt that he should have taken the more rugged, beefed up Jeep.

As expected, the streets of Farrville weren’t any better.

Houses along the highway and in town had now been unoccupied for more than five years. Deterioration was well under way and in some cases accelerating, their wooden frames progressing towards structural failure. Roofs were beginning to show signs of leaks which meant growing mold and rotting wood below. Some roofs were already sagging and in danger of caving in.

Insect colonies and rodents had surely moved in destroying walls, floors and furniture.

Driveways and front lawns had been completely taken over by wild vegetation and brush making it nearly impossible to see the once charming front porches of the houses.

The Gibson house appeared to have weathered the years well, but the backyard was knee deep in grass, weeds and a few tree saplings. Clark drove the car several times back and forth in front of the door to the workshop to flatten the overgrowth.

As soon as Blizzard jumped from the car, he was all over the place sniffing and pissing on pretty much everything that wasn’t moving, happy to leave his calling card.

This time, Clark took his time studying the solar energy system for the workshop. It was a replicate of what he saw installed at the house but with only two circuit breakers. It looked so simple. The gears in his mind started turning. He imagined that the hard part was putting up the panels on the roof. Sally and Katie definitely had to come to the workshop to learn how the system operated and then together work on a family project, setting up a system at either the farmhouse or brickhouse first.

Clark also rummaged through the array of equipment, making a mental inventory of everything available for future use. He eventually settled on an additional set of foldable solar panels to daisy chain them to the ones already at the farmhouse. The manuals described how this would cut the time in half to charge a generator. In addition, he opted for a second generator and a companion battery pack that when plugged together would expand the power storage capacity nearly threefold.

He threw in a string of LED lights that he wanted to extend over the kitchen stove to make mornings brighter during the coming months.

On his first visit 18 months earlier, he gave very little thought to the cordless tools Mr. Gibson used in his shop. There was a drill, a jig saw, a hand-held vacuum cleaner, and even a grass mower sitting in the corner behind the van. Clark knew that the options were many thanks to the advancement in battery technology. At the tractor dealership he remembered seeing cordless chain saws, and decided to stop there before heading back home. Cutting the logs into smaller pieces with the bow saw was a tedious task especially now that he had to do it by himself.

He poked around through a lineup of manuals and brochures hoping to find detailed instructions for setting up his fantasy solar project at home. He was sure that Mr. Gibson wouldn’t mind.

Hidden between a notebook and the printer, he came across a device about the size of a wallet plugged into the nearest electric outlet. He recognized it immediately as a wireless router just like the one he used at his suburban home. Miraculously, the power light was still glowing which meant the device had not been fried by the EMP strike. However, without a wireless laptop the router and printer were useless.

He abandoned the thought and wandered over to the van to take a look at the cordless lawn mower. It looked shiny and unused.

Curiosity got the best of him, and he tried the backdoors of the van and discovered they were unlocked. The cargo space inside was empty except for a couple of quilted furniture pads for transporting sensitive items like solar panels. He went around to the front to test the driver’s door. It opened with similar ease.

Lying on the passenger seat was a black computer bag that he recognized immediately. It was being advertised before the Collapse as the best faraday bag on the market designed to thwart cyber-hackers, a growing nuisance over the years. He snatched the bag and zipped it open.

“Well, tickle my pickle,” he said as he pulled out a laptop with a carbon fiber finish. He had dreamed of having one like this because of its raw beauty.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had his hands on a computer and came to realize how much time television, iPhones and computers took away from people’s thinking. He had learned to live without them, yet hated to admit how much he missed them.