Chapter 11

At some point in the night, Silver had determined that it was not proper to sleep in their living area, and had awakened Bryan to go to bed. Bryan wasn't the type to get up and move about easily when he had been sleeping soundly. He stumbled and wove like a drunkard, had to stop twice and steady himself and fell into their bed sideways when he finally got there. Silver wrapped the blanked around him and snuggled next to him despite the odd angle as he fell back into restful sleep.

Bryan opened his eyes and automatically knew that things were not as they should be. It was still pitch black, but intuitively something was wrong. Silver was cradled against his left side as always, a pillow was under his head and a blanket covering them. Yet something was out of sorts. The sounds; the echoes of their breathing was wrong.

Using his right hand he reached out, feeing toward his nightstand and found only more mattress. "I must by lying on the bed wrong," he thought. His eyes adjusted to the dim light and he was able to determine that he was lying at close to a forty-five degree angle out of normal. He had no recollection of getting up from the bench and had no idea how he had gotten there.

He stretched a bit, feeling Silver stretch and mold to the contours of his frame. The pair was inseparable when they were asleep, usually very tightly woven together. He held tight to her, the silkiness of her smooth skin against his own feeling almost like satin.

He knew that she would have to get up soon, so made no move to wake her or change her position. She would probably awaken at any time as it was, and would likely lie around for a bit after that. Knowing that he savored the feel of her, dreading that the seconds counting down were counting down till the time when she would leave for the day.

A few minutes later Silver's eyelids blinked open in a sporadic spasm like the fluttering of butterflies taking off. A faint ruffle was heard as one eye was close enough for her eyelashes to rub the blanket that they were snuggled under. It made a faint rushing sound like blades of grass blowing in the wind. She yawned and stretched, scratched Bryan's chest with the fingertips of her left hand, which was an unconscious action which she did every morning. It served as his wake-up call some mornings when he was more tired than he was then.

She snuggled up closer, kissing him on the cheek and groaned as her sore muscles came awake. "Good morning Mr. Hudson," she muttered in a tired slurred sort of stammer. "Sleep well?"

He smiled. "Like a baby," he said, and then added "A sleepwalking baby."

She smiled and closed her eyes again, nuzzling at his shoulder with her cheek as if she couldn't get close enough for comfort.

He sighed, knowing full well that the next few seconds were all that he had to enjoy her. She squeezed him in a hug and reached over her shoulder to retrieve her phone from the headboard. Realizing that they were still lying crooked in the bed she sat up to retrieve it.

"Argggggh," she scowled. "We overslept. I need to get in the shower like now." A flailing plume of blankets erupted and Silver was seen scooting across the room hurriedly toward the shower.

Bryan pushed the pile of eschewed blankets from his face and sighed. "It was good while it lasted," he mused.

When Silver finally got herself together and dressed, she found Bryan down in the kitchen. He had prepared breakfast and her vitamins for her. She hurriedly partook as much as she could, kissed him goodbye and fled.

Bryan stood steadfast at the door watching her drive much too quickly down the driveway toward the highway. Sighing he sent her a text message reminding her that he loved her.

Moments later he received one in return: "I love u!" it read.

Sighing, feeling a little bit deflated as he always did when she wasn't there, he began to busy himself with the thoughts of the day. He had a lot to do, lot of stuff to put away, and a lot of inventory to track.

The children, being children after all, hadn't gotten up yet and likely wouldn't before the crack of nine. They would take care of themselves for the most part. Maggie watched the smaller ones and he wouldn't be far at any rate.

With breakfast settling and a long list of things to do Bryan stepped out of the door to tackle what was otherwise an ordinary day.

The first thing on the list was to check the water supply. Water on the homestead came from a tank system near the top of the hill.

There were three types of water utilized around the farm. The first type of water, which was the type that was the most refined and guarded, was the drinking water. Drinking water was pure rain water. It was collected from the top of the aboveground greenhouse on top of the hill. The first ten gallons that fell from the roof was collected into another tank which was used later on.

The rain water was collected into a barrel and slow filtered through a sand and charcoal filter system to ensure purity. The holding tank where it was stored was below ground ensuring both cool water in the summer and warmer water in the winter.

Bryan had also added a plastic basket immersed inside the tank which held several silver bars. This served not only to keep the silver safely hidden, but also because it had an antiseptic quality and kept the water fresh. Silver dimes had been used for years to sterilize Petri dishes in the chemical and medical industries, and it kept the twelve thousand gallons of water free from most pathogens.

After leaving the drinking water tank the water would go through a standard water filter and into a mixing tank where a solution of thirty-five percent food grade hydrogen peroxide was added.

The hydrogen peroxide, which oxygenated the water served as an additional sterilizer for many of the remaining pathogens which could have made it past all of the previous filters. It also had the added benefit of oxygenating the cardiovascular system of the drinker and helping to build immune function.

Since adding this particular addition to their water supply Bryan had noted that the family had experienced a twenty-five percent drop in illness. Head colds and influenza outbreaks seemed to be a thing of the past, though that could have been attributed to the healthier eating habits of the family since he had begun producing a majority of their food at home.

From the peroxide mixer, which really only added back the percentage of peroxide that fresh rain water picked up from the atmospheric ozone naturally, the water flowed down the seventy five yards of pipe into the house and to two outdoor buildings. The water flowed into special receptacles that were designed and placed with drinking water in mind.

The second type of water collected was for washing. It was also rain water collected from the nearby shed where the trailer and truck were now parked. It was collected from the roof in the same manner as the drinking water, went through the same type of pre-filtering, and had a basket of silver semi-sterilizing the water.

The main differences revolved around the lack of post-filtering, lack of peroxide mixing, and the larger volume of the tank. There was a backup system which pumped water from a well into the filtering system if there was not enough rain. It kicked in when the water level fell below a certain level. Water from this tank made its way to the house through a second set of pipes and was used for kitchen and bathroom sinks, bathing, and laundry.

The third type of water was primarily used for toilet flushing, watering the gardens, and water for livestock. It came from a mixture of overflow from the other two tanks, ground water from the well, and the first few gallons off of the roof of both collecting buildings. Rainwater was not used much for this because there was no need to be particularly pure. The tank at the top of the hill was only one in a series of six which gravity flowed with a float and overflow system to locations all over the property. Water was at a premium so long as the well did not run dry.

With a stick, marked at intervals he tested the drinking water's depth. Since it was the end of winter the drinking water was always a little low as the seasonal rains had yet to come and replenish the supply.

He noted the depth in a notebook that he carried with him and moved to the next tank. The cleaning water was at about half depth, which was as low as it got as long as there was electricity. The third tank was full, as he expected it to be since it was primarily fed by the well.

He walked over to the well and opened the access, looking down into the darkness. The reflection of water below was visible at the edge of his vision. He would need to measure it someday soon, he thought. It seemed to be lower than usual.

He walked into the aboveground greenhouse, which was the only of the properties' three greenhouses that was not set into a hill. This one was built over a large pit approximately twelve feet deep and the size of the building above. It was constructed for the purpose of producing Mediterranean and tropical fruit trees which would not otherwise grow in such a climate. There were banana, coconut, olive, orange, lemon, avocado and papaya trees. A shelf on the north side grew coffee plants, tea plants, and a trellis above was host to vanilla orchids.