John Ringo - There Will Be Dragons

“You see,” Mike said. “They’re going to take all the animals and parcel them out. There were a lot rounded up, but not enough for everyone to have what they want and everybody wants certain kinds.”

“Am I in this lottery?” Herzer asked with a smile.

“Uh, yeah,” Courtney replied with an embarrassed expression. “And we kind of wondered…”

“What I was planning on doing with whatever I got?” Herzer asked.

“Yeah.”

“Well, I didn’t even know it was going on, so this is all kind of new.”

“You can apply for a land parcel, too,” Mike said. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea or not. But if you apply for one that is next to ours, I can try to break and work both of them. You have to pay for the land in increasing size of payments. I don’t know if I’d be able to work both of them, but I could try. And if it does work, I can split whatever profits we got off of it with you. And that would give you another source of income. Someday.”

Herzer thought about it for a minute and then nodded his head. “Okay, hang on a second. Tell you what I’ll do. Courtney, there’s a pouch in the cupboard. Could you pull it out and toss it to me?”

She handed it to him and he dumped out the tokens that were in it onto the bed.

“I’m going to go for soldier,” he said, sorting out the money that was in it into full tokens and change. “And from what I’ve been told, everything is going to be issued to me. But I got paid for the day before the roundup, the roundup and three days of convalescence. As a ‘skilled rider,’ no less. So I got a bonus on the roundup.” He pulled out a full token and change and handed the rest to Courtney. “You guys can have whatever I get off of the lottery and I’ll file a land grant alongside yours. That,” he continued, pointing to the chits, “is a loan. There ought to be enough there to get you a few spare farm tools. And a few decent tools might a big difference.”

“Thank you,” Courtney said, looking at the money as if it was fairy gold.

“Aaah, I don’t know about this,” Mike said. “I was going to ask if you could do a loan on the lottery animals, but I don’t know about this…”

“Oh, hush,” Courtney snapped. “Just say ‘thank you,’ you dummy.”

“Seriously,” Herzer said, shaking his head. “You don’t even have to say thank you. Like you said, you’re going to try to work both farms. If you can do it, and I’ve got a feeling you’re going to do well at it, then long term that means that not only is there, as you put it, a little extra income coming in, but in the old days soldiers used to dream of retiring and buying a farm. And I’ll already have one!”

At that Mike laughed and shook his head but he obviously wasn’t convinced.

“And on the cash I said it was a loan . You pay me back when you’ve got the money, but not until you’re free and clear on everything else. I know you’re good for it.”

“Okay,” Mike said, finally, shrugging his shoulders. “With that I can get some stuff that will help out. Woodworking tools, parts for a stump-jumping plow, spare rope. And if the lottery doesn’t work out, we can put it all on a draft animal.”

“So how’s farm life suit you?” Herzer asked, changing the subject.

“Hard,” Courtney replied. “I mean it’s just constant. There’s always something to get done. But…” she shrugged. “I agree with Mike; it’s better than the other stuff we’ve done.”

“I don’t know,” Mike said. “I could probably do woodworking or construction, something like that. But you do all of that with farming.”

“Would you go back?” Herzer asked, crinkling his brow. “I mean, if everything suddenly turned back on? If you said ‘genie’ and your genie appeared?”

Mike thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah. There are days when I wake up and wonder where I am for a second ’cause it’s all wrong, then it all comes back to me. And, man, those are some rotten days.”

“Yeah, me too,” Herzer said. But there was an odd note in his voice.

“Why am I unconvinced?” Courtney asked with a chuckle.

“Ah, it’s hard to explain,” Herzer admitted. “If I could just throw a switch and turn everything back on and have it go back to the way that it was, would I do it? Yeah.” He sighed again and shrugged. “But. Hah! There’d be days I’d wake up and wonder where I was for a second; then it would all come back to me. And those would be some really bad days.”

“That’s weird,” Mike said.

“Yeah, well, it’s a long story.”

“And one you’re not telling today,” Rachel said from the doorway.

“Oh, Rachel, come on!”

“The term is bed rest, not bed activity, ” Rachel said, then blushed. “That wasn’t what I meant to say.”

“I couldn’t tell, ” Courtney laughed.

“I am resting, look!” Herzer said, leaning back in the bed. “See. Rest.”

“Do you know what this idiot did the other day?” Rachel asked Courtney.

“I haven’t a clue,” the girl replied with a smile. “What did this idiot do?”

“He helped my father in the forge for four hours.”

“Oh, now that was a good idea!” Courtney said.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Herzer complained. “So I got a little headache.”

“I think you used the term ‘blinding’ at one point?” Rachel asked. “Something about purple spots? Bed rest. Bed rest. ”

“Okay, we get the point,” Mike said. “We’re going.”

“Herzer, I’ll write up those agreements and get them over to you,” Courtney said. “Thanks again. Get somebody else to look them over for you and make sure it’s what you want before you sign them. Then I’ll get them registered at the courthouse.”

“Okay,” Herzer replied. “I trust you guys. But if you insist on getting it written down…”

Herzer wasn’t sure if it was by intent to make sure he was in the first class, but the day after Dr. Daneh stated that he was “fully recovered” the first call for recruits went out.

Herzer was at the recruiting station just after dawn the next day, walking up and looking around with interest in the predawn half-light. The recruiting station was a simple table in front of a group of tents, most of which had lanterns hanging in front of them. There were about a half dozen standing around who had beat him there. One of them was Deann.

“Decided to go for soldier?” he said, walking over and sticking out his hand, grinning.

“We were working in the tanneries,” Deann admitted, taking it and shaking it hard. “I decided I had to find something else when the head tanner pointed out that once you lost your sense of smell things got a hundred percent better.”

Herzer chuckled and looked around at the group, which was about half youngsters like himself and Deann and about half older. There wasn’t much physical difference in the individuals, but it was noticeable in little ways, stance, gestures. With modern technology, people didn’t start to get “old” until they were well past two hundred. Herzer wondered how much of that was “built in” and would stick and how much was nannite generated and would go away with the Fall. For now, the “oldsters” seemed to be holding up.

They waited in companionable silence as others filtered up. Deann was the only one he knew by name, but several of the others nodded their heads at him as if they recognized him, which was odd. He was having a hard time adjusting to lots of people knowing him on sight.

“You’re still the talk of the town,” Deann said, chuckling quietly after one of the older arrivals had come by and tapped Herzer on the shoulder wordlessly.