Chapter 554

... Christine smiled and said, “I could get used to food like this. It certainly beats Ramen noodles, huh?”

“Wow, do you have that right,” Ashley agreed. “When I saw how thick the steaks were cut, I was afraid the meat would be tough, but this is the tenderest steak I’ve ever eaten, bar none. You can almost cut it with a fork, and the taste is great, too. I think I’ve just fallen in love with buffalo meat.”

As they stared, embarrassed, at the still way-too-big, blazing fire they had created to cook with, they took their time eating, savoring the taste as they tried to appease the roaring appetite that came with the enhancement. Both began to wonder how many times they would make fools of themselves while they were learning about 2214.

After they finished eating, Ashley took a dishpan down from its peg and managed to wash their few dishes before putting everything back where they found it – everything except the coffee pot. It only had about three cups of coffee left in it to start with, and they had drunk that when they ate.

Christine discovered a gallon coffee can roughly half full of grounds sitting near the door. After noticing several other smaller cans sitting along the walls, she checked them out of curiosity.

“There are coffee grounds in the big can there,” she told her partner, “as well as in those smaller cans along the walls,” she said, pointing. “I assume that dumping the coffee grounds into the larger can keeps Jasmine from having to go outside to throw the grounds away so often, but what do you suppose the smaller cans are for?”

“Gosh, I don’t have a clue,” Ashley said, “unless... they are using them for some type of deodorizer, maybe.”

She had hit upon the primary reason for the cans of coffee grounds sitting around. Tanning hides produced an atrocious smell, and the grounds helped reduce the smell somewhat, but the grounds were also supposed to keep down insects, although Jasmine and Morales had seen few inside the cave. The grounds could also be used to “shampoo” animals with – Jasmine had read – to keep down fleas, but so far, Lobo and Lila seemed to have none.

Morales had constructed a crude brush that he used to brush the burs and twigs out of the wolves’ coats, and he had bathed Lobo in the stream during the summer. He would bathe Lila when warm weather came again – provided that she would allow it.

With a shrug, Christine emptied the strainer into the bigger of the cans before rinsing both strainer and percolator with water from a big bucket sitting on a shelf. They had never used a percolator before, but they had paid attention to the amount of coffee grounds left, and put a like volume, plus a little more, of fresh coffee back into the strainer. There was an indention on the side of the percolator, so they assumed that was the fill line for water. With water to the line and coffee in the strainer, they reassembled the pot and put the percolator on a rock near the fire. They decided that the little glass bulb on top must have something to do with making coffee, but they weren’t exactly sure what it did.

A few minutes later, the water was still not boiling in the pot, so Ashley set it in the edge of the fire. Some few minutes after that, the pot started making rhythmic sounds and they could see a bubble of liquid splashing into the glass bulb, the liquid gradually becoming darker, so they assumed the percolator was doing what percolators were supposed to do.

Curious, the two women walked around the living area of the cave while they waited for the coffee to brew, checking out the pots and containers that Morales had made, the items on the shelves, the ballista with its massive bolt standing beside it, and the hides that were either hanging on the walls or rolled up on the floor.

Christine looked over at her partner, “You know, I think we’re going to like living here when we get used to it. Back in our little house, there was never total quiet with the traffic and all the big city sounds that were a constant background to everything we did. But here, it’s sooo quiet that we can hear the percolator even from where the chickens stay. I can imagine sitting by the fire to wake up in the mornings while listening to the percolator do its thing. It’s ... a restful sound.”

“Yeah. I agree,” Ashley replied, but I think it’s going to take a little while for me to get used to this much quiet, though.”

After some time, the liquid coming into the glass bulb looked darker. “Do you think it’s ready?” Ashley asked her partner.

“You’re asking me?“ Christine said with a giggle. “We can give it a try and if it’s still too weak, we could put it back on to perk some more, I suppose.”

Ashley took one of the fur pieces that was hanging conveniently near and moved the pot out of the flames and onto the rock beside the fire. “I’ve never used a fur potholder before,” she said with a chuckle.

“Are you going to try it, the coffee I mean?” Christine asked with a grin.

A frown passed over Ashley’s beautiful face. “We just about have to. We certainly don’t want Jasmine to come back and pour a cup of the weakest...”

“ ... or the strongest,” Christine inserted.

“ ... cup of coffee in the world,” Ashley finished as they both giggled.

“Well, it looks like coffee, anyway,” Christine said after she poured the first cup.

A couple of minutes later, the two big-city girls sat drinking the first coffee they had ever prepared in a percolator, and ... over an open fire. Although they wouldn’t admit it, both were ridiculously proud of themselves for the simple accomplishment.

Time continued to drag onward, and twice the girls thought they heard the other two returning, but it turned out to be just the wind whistling past the entrance. Cautiously, they cracked the door a few inches, only to be faced with a swirling wall of white that blew down the entrance tunnel as hard gusts thrashed a heavy snowfall about.

“My goodness,” Ashley worried, “It’s starting to get late. I hope they didn’t get lost in this. I can barely make out the trees through all the swirling snow, and they aren’t that far past the entrance.”

“Well, they have those animals with them – those wolf things that helped Jasmine pull Morales out of that hole. Animals can smell their way home, can’t they?”

“I certainly hope so,” Ashley replied.

Finally, there were sounds from the entranceway as Jasmine and Morales hung up their snowshoes and brushed snow off each other. A moment later, they heard Jasmine laughingly scolding the wolves for shaking themselves and throwing more snow on the couple. Knowing that the two would be cold, each girl grabbed a piece of wood that they had brought over earlier and put it on the main fire just as the door opened and the four entered, accompanied by a blast of cold wind.

As soon as the couple had put their rifles on their pegs and hung up their cold weather-gear, “We hope this is close enough to the real thing to be drinkable,” Ashley said as she handed Morales a cup of steaming coffee just as Christine did the same for Jasmine. Christine had the sugar and Ashley had the powdered creamer and a spoon. “We remembered that you take yours with sugar and creamer,” Ashley told Jasmine.

Jasmine took time to stir in sugar and creamer before tentatively taking a sip from her cup. The expectant expression on her face changed to a smile, and both she and Morales thanked the girls profusely for “perfect” cups of coffee – whether the coffee was all that good or not.

Both girls’ appraisal of Jasmine went up a notch because they suspected that the coffee might have been a little weak, yet Jasmine pretended that it was perfect, anyway.

The wolves had immediately moved to sit by the now-roaring fire, but it was obvious that Ashley and Christine were leery of the animals, although the two young women tried not to show it.

“It’s time you were properly introduced,” Jasmine said. Calling first Lila, then Lobo over, she introduced them just as she would have a human. Both wolves smiled, but that only showed the rows of vicious-looking teeth which did little to assure Ashley and Christine.

Jasmine and Morales passed a glance that the girls didn’t see, and Morales frowned, trying to send a message to his wife, but she pretended not to notice. After taking a few sips of coffee, both Jasmine and Morales put their cups down and leaned closer to the fire. “Oh, that feels so good,” Jasmine said as she felt the heat beginning to soak into her cold body. “Nothing like a hot cup of coffee and a good hot fire to warm you up after being out in the cold. I was dreading having to wait until the coffee perked before I could get something warm into my stomach.” Nodding to the girls, she winked at her husband and said, “Can we keep them?”

Morales didn’t know what to say about the girls being there. He remembered his manners and added his thanks to Jasmine’s, anyway, but he was worried that he would say the wrong thing and either hurt Jasmine’s feelings or the girls’.

“We had never made coffee in a percolator before, although we did remember seeing one perking in an old western movie. We just estimated the amount of coffee from the grounds left in the strainer, then added a little more, but I suspect that we didn’t use quite enough,” Christine worried.

“Nonsense,” Jasmine quickly returned. “It’s delicious.”

“I could learn to like the sound the percolator makes,” Ashley remarked.

“Yes, me too,” Christine agreed.

“What do you use to measure the coffee with?” Ashley went on to ask. “We knew that you probably used something. We looked all around the coffee can, but we didn’t find anything.”

“My fault,” Jasmine said. “I dropped it in the dirt the last time I used it so I washed it and put it over there to dry,” she said pointing to a shelf. “We didn’t have anything of a convenient size to measure our coffee with, and we were just filling the strainer to a sort of guessed-at level, so my fabulous husband fashioned a measurer out of a piece of oak. Three level measures work perfectly, which you two must have achieved because you seem to have hit the amount almost exactly.”

The coffee discussion seemed to be over, so Morales motioned toward the outside with his cup. “We debated leaving the last load until tomorrow, but I thought we could beat the storm, and ... we almost did,” he said with a grimace, all the while wondering when Jasmine was going to say something about Ashley and Christine. Again, he tried to catch Jasmine’s eye, but she avoided his gaze.

“Just as well,” Jasmine went on as if having the girls there was an everyday occurrence. “We managed to get it all moved, so we won’t have to worry about the tiger’s remains attracting all kinds of scavengers to our home during the night.”

“Wouldn’t the snow have covered it, anyway?” Ashley asked.

“We found out the hard way that a snowfall covering something doesn’t keep the scavengers away for long. They can smell the blood, anyway, and they simply dig the remains out of the snow. You would be amazed at how much animal life there is out there,” she said nodding toward the door, “even in winter. Scavengers range from rat-like creatures to something we call jackals, to the big boars, and everything in between. None seem to be the least bit bashful about partaking of a free lunch, and most will attack anything their own size or smaller. The jackal-like animals will also attack in a pack no matter how big the animal they’re attacking. Never go outside without Morales or me with you, and we never go outside without being armed – and ready. This world is not forgiving. Make a mistake and you’re dead.”

Morales spoke up. “We had hoped that the animal population would be less in winter, but the only difference I can see is that they seem to be even more aggressive.”

“We’ve decided that it must be because there isn’t as much readily-available food,” Jasmine added.

Their bodies finally warm, Jasmine and Morales moved back from the fire and resumed their regular seats. While they had been sectioning the big cat into pieces small enough to muscle into the case and move to the place where they dumped the remains, Morales had tried to question his wife about the girls’ arrival. Unfortunately – at least as far as he was concerned – Jasmine adamantly refused to say anything about the subject other than telling him they would talk when they returned to the cave.

Why in the hell did this bastard just have to attack today? Morales had groused to himself as they had dragged the case loaded with bloody chunks of saber-tooth tiger through the snow.

Finally, they had dumped the last pieces of the big cat, wiped the case clean and followed the wolves back to the cave through a swirling sea of white.

But Jasmine’s refusal to even speak about the young women while he and Jasmine performed the bloody task, let alone say anything about the reason for their being here, had kicked Morales’ temper into gear and he had said some things that he had to apologize for adamantly a few minutes later. Even after the apology, he knew he was still hovering near some deep doo-doo. One misstep and he was going to be wearing it. All that, and Jasmine still would not say a word about Ashley and Christine. Women are fucking crazy, he thought as they made their way back. Buffeted by a hard wind, both of them were cold and tired in the waning light of late afternoon, the day worsened by heavy clouds, basically being led home by the wolves in the near whiteout.

As he sat near Ashley and Christine, he wanted to grab them into his arms and hug until they squealed, but he was married and loved the woman he had married. Sooner or later my wife will face the proverbial elephant in the room and tell me what the hell is going on.

Of course, Ashley and Christine were faced with the same thing. They, indeed, wanted to be held by the man they loved, but they were afraid to say or do anything until Jasmine gave them a clue what to do.

The two now finally warm, Jasmine took pity on her spouse and turned to him. Swallowing her anger at his earlier harsh words, she said, “So, My Love, do you like my presents?” she asked with a grin that threatened to consume her face.

Morales tore his eyes from Ashley and Christine to stare at his wife, but before he could say anything, she went on, “Of course, you remember when Diana and I had that long talk. You, My Love – as you know – are an enhanced Alpha, just as the men who came to witness our wedding are. They all have – and need – more than one wife. I know that you love Christine and Ashley, and considering that they apparently dropped everything to come here, they must love you, too. So ... it’s time that you welcomed them to their new home, don’t you think?”

“I...” Morales stammered out, wanting to take the two women into his arms, but his mind seemed to refuse to understand what Jasmine had just said. Oh, he understood the words, but he knew he must have misunderstood Jasmine’s intention – somehow. He knew she would never ... His mind seemed to have lost traction just as he and Jasmine had when they slipped and fell in a heap while pulling the laden case up that long hill.

Ashley and Christine dared not risk making Jasmine angry, so they just sat there quietly hoping that something would happen and they would get to hold the man they loved.

Almost giggling to herself, Jasmine put her cup down, walked over to the women and took a hand each. “Let’s go say hello to our man,” she told them as she led them the few steps to her husband. “Now kiss him, since he seems incapable of doing more than just sitting there with that silly grin on his face.”