Remembrance

Day three, 5am

I woke up to a crying voice, and I slid out of bed. Going downstairs I followed it to the back to the room where Naomi was crying on her bed.

"Naomi, are you ok?" I asked as I sat on the bed. Naomi rolled over and clutched me tightly as she cried.

Stroking her hair I asked again and she responded.

"I miss Kat," she said.

"Who is Kat?" I asked.

"Kathleen, the girl I was staying at. She's my best friend. When Kari and I went into foster care, she was my first friend I made in the home. She was sent to live with the Grangers and Kari and I to the Mayfield's. I miss her badly," she cried out as she wept.

"I'm sure you will meet friends here. We just have to give it time to meet people," I said.

"James, you don't understand. Naomi and Katherine were lovers," Kari said as she sat on the bed next to me.

"Oh! I see," I said as I picked Naomi up and set her in my lap. "Sweetie, there is nothing I can do. I cannot go get her," I told her as I rocked her on my lap.

"I know. I just miss her. She's been my best friend for seven years, and my... " she blushed as she mumbled out the words, "for three years."

"How does she know so much about sex?" I asked. Kari shook her head at me and I quickly added, "It doesn't matter. You don't need to answer, Naomi."

Naomi wiped her eyes and sat up. "No, it's ok! I don't think she would mind me telling you. Kat's stepfather sold her out after her mother died. She was five years old when she was raped the first time in front of a camera. It went on for a year and then her stepfather screwed up and was busted by a cop posing online as a pedophile.

"She was sent into foster care and the Grangers got custody of her. She hated sex with men, but with females she didn't mind. One day I asked what it was like and she explained how it felt and I wanted to feel it. So she showed me, I had never felt anything like it. I wanted to try boys but she was scared of them. But last year, I think she was getting over her fear of men. There was a boy in class last year she really liked, but he moved away before anything serious could happen."

"I understand, well one day you can hope she will meet someone and get married and have children," I said as I handed her a tissue.

"She can't have them," Naomi whispered.

"Can't have what?" I asked.

"Children, one of the men who had sex with her when she was five hurt her real bad inside. She spent a month in bed healing she told me," Naomi replied.

"Poor, Kat. I knew she had been raped, but I didn't know she couldn't have children," Kari said.

"Yes the poor child, I hope the bastard got what he deserved!" I snapped out.

"He died in prison. They found him in the laundry room. He had been beaten and stuffed into a dryer. Or that's what Kat told me," Naomi said.

"Ouch what a way to go," I replied.

"Yeah, air dried," Naomi said as she giggled.

I hugged Naomi and asked her, "How about homemade waffles?"

"Yummy, with blueberries and whip cream?" she asked.

"Sure," I said as I got up and went up stairs, leaving the two sisters alone together. Pulling some clothes on, I walked downstairs, grabbed the rifle and a basket. I walked up the ramp and over to one of the refrigerators and grabbed a gallon of milk, the butter, sausage and the whip cream. I set the items in the basket and then grabbed the eggs too.

Going to the POD, I looked for the one we had marked as 'dry goods'. I opened it, and got a large box of the Jiffy mix, marked blueberry. Opening it, I pulled ten boxes out, and put the big box back. Going to a second POD I opened it and grabbed two of the round waffle makers I had placed in the front. Carrying the whole load to the RV I entered and went to the kitchen area where I set it down.

Sorting everything out, I plugged the waffle irons in and sprayed them with PAM. I then grabbed a large mixing bowl and dumped five boxes in it. Adding the milk and eggs I beat the mixture together and waited for the lights to go off on the irons. The lights went out and I poured the mixture into the irons.

As the first two waffles cooked, I slapped my head and ran out to a food storage container, and opened it. I started moving boxes around and finally found a box of Aunt Jemima pancake syrup. Yanking several bottles out, I then ran to the fridge and grabbed a butter container. Running up the stairs, I handed the butter and syrup to Naomi just as the irons' lights went off. Lifting the lids, I used a fork to drop them on the plate Kari had set next to the batter and quickly refilled the irons and lowered the lids.

I cooked up the first batch, and had just pulled the last two from the irons when Charlene and Jane came down stairs. I could see them sniffing the air and I pointed to the bathroom and they both went that way to clean up, first.

I started placing the waffles on plates. I slid the sausage and eggs that Kari had made up onto the platter. Looking at the eggs, I was going to have to ask how she made them so fluffy, while mine always looked like lumps of yellow batter.

While I was working on the next pair of waffles, Kari pushed me to the side and opened the oven. I never even noticed it was on as she pulled out a pan of biscuits to go with the food. I knew it was a lot of carbohydrates, but we were burning them up with all the work we were doing. Setting the last of the waffles down, I poured everyone a large glass of milk to chase the syrup down with and washed my hands once more.

Jane and Charlene came out of the bathroom and kissed me. They grabbed their morning coffee and slid into their spots as Kari sat beside her sister who was pigging out on her waffles. She was on her third one when I sat down. Shaking my head at the bottomless pit of a teenager I poured syrup on mine and started eating. We had a nice breakfast and talked about the plans for the day.

"I think we should work all day getting the rest of the stuff up here to the cave. I would hate to see any of it get wet if it rains in three days. Then I will start the door to the garage area and figure out the layout of our living quarters. I figure with you all helping; we should have it done in a month. It's not like we have to build the whole house. We can go room to room by what the plans say or we can change them. Charlene, Naomi and Kari., that means no sitting in front of the TV for three hours while Jane and I work. We are going to need all of your help," I said to my loves.

"Ok James, I think we can do that," Kari said, and continued, "But I want Naomi to have some fun time too!"

"I agree, but one of her chores is to feed and water the dogs. Can you do that Naomi? It would save us so much time," I asked.

Naomi just nodded her head, her mouth was full of waffles and I smiled at her. Pointing at the milk I said, "Better take a drink or you may get sick."

We finished eating, and I loaded the dishwasher. We all took showers together and then tossed our dirty laundry into the washer and trooped out to the vehicles. I dismantled the hot wire and Naomi ran to the doghouse while we drove to the barns and dealt with the cattle and horses. Checking their water troughs, I was surprised to see two fish swimming in them and I pointed them out to Jane. She looked and said they were goldfish and were in there to eat the algae that could form. I also noticed the tank had heating coils attached to the outside so the tank wouldn't freeze and thought it was a great idea. I also milked out the five cows and carried the cream to the truck where Jane happily took it.

Once back at the RV she handed Charlene the milk and she ran to one of the PODS and dragged a box back. I saw it said churn and I was confused for a second and then watched her set the churn up and poured the milk inside. She turned it on and said something to Naomi who nodded her head and sat down watching the glass container. Beside her were a spatula and a large bowl. We walked outside and went to the trucks.

We drove to the arrival point, and hooked up the loaded trailers. Without the tractor, I used a floor jack to lift the hitch up and remove the cinder block we used as a stand. The larger trailers had all the remaining rebar on them this time, while the rest had stacks of cement. I wanted to definitely get this all out of the open in case it rained as well as the stacks of sheetrock.

We drove the loaded trailers to the cave and unloaded them. I stacked the sheetrock in the back of the cave, on a stack of plywood, and then covered it with plastic to protect it from moisture. We unloaded the rest, and left two of the trailers there. We took just the two big trailers back. I told the girls to leave the empty truck, and we drove back to the arrival point.

The girls drove the two remaining trucks back to the cave and came back with the empty Dodge Ram. I loaded two of the pods onto each of the large trailers. While the girls were gone, I was peeking into some of the remaining plastic bins and figured out which was Naomi's room. She would be happy to have her clothes. I just wished I could find mine and the girls', so we could change out. Kalib had left some of our clothes in suitcases, but I knew the ladies would like the rest of their own clothing. Why they emptied the dressers I didn't know, but I wanted clean clothes to wear.

I heard the girls come back. I hooked one of the two remaining trailers. The girls took off. I climbed up into the tractor. I grabbed the binoculars, and climbed up onto the cab's roof. I slowly scanned around us.

I could see what looked like a rainbow to the north, and a large forest to the south. Seeing nothing but bison, and aurochs grazing, I climbed down and backed the tractor up to the portable sawmill and hooked it up. Driving the tractor to the cave, I unloaded the sawmill and then started to unload the cargo.

I set the first of the PODS down, and Jane came over. She yelled up at me, so I shut the tractor down.

"What?" I said.

"James, we need to start organizing. You're just dropping them anywhere. Unload the rest outside, and then we can get the rest of the house stuff up here. We need to be able to find things when we need them. So unload them out here and then we will put them where we need them. Do the same for the rest of the crates that Kalib supplied. The orange crates contain the house fixtures like the tubs, showers, and the kitchen items. We will need to get them in place so when we start building we can put them in," she said.

"Ok, can do," I replied and started the tractor back up and started placing the boxes where we could organize them. It took another twenty minutes and I yanked ten of the PODS out of the cave as well.

The rest of the morning was used to bring the remaining bags of cement back to the cave. Then we broke for lunch. While we had been working, Naomi had cooked three large supreme pizzas for us. We ate them and had ice tea, while we sat at the pool for lunch.

When we started back up, I brought the ten pallets of bricks up to the house and stacked them outside of the cave because they didn't need to be under cover right away. The rest of the afternoon was spent hauling more housing material; including pallets of shingles and tarpaper that I had no idea what I was going to use it for. I then started laughing as I unloaded the tarpaper, and thought of how the mastodons and animals like them were found in the LA tar pits.

By five o'clock, we were all hot and sweaty and I loaded the trailers up and we took a final load to the cave and parked the trucks. The ladies wandered over and Naomi came out of the RV with a tray of ice-cold lemonade for us. We took our glasses and drained the tart drinks, and I kissed Naomi on her lips, and said, "Thank you sweetie, that hits the spot."

"Ewww! You stink!" she said as she waved her hand in front of her face.

"Yeah, I need a shower, but ladies why don't you go first, then I will," I said laughing.

The girls ran for the shower, and Naomi stopped Jane at the door asked her something, I saw her nod her head as I filled my glass again and drank it down. I went to the cave entrance and looked out at the alien world and watched the sky. In the distance a bird was circling. Picking up the binoculars I focused on it and saw it was a large hawk like creature. The bird suddenly dove and I quickly lost sight of it as it disappeared to reappear a few minutes later with a fish clutched in its talons. The bird flew to the north and vanished into the peaks as I watched.