S Ison - Russian Doomsday

“Thanks. It will be nice to know how to can food. Our lives may well depend on it. I just don’t want to poison us.”

“I think that if we are careful, we should be fine. After all, it’s been done for over a hundred years. We’ll be careful.”

“Oh, hold on. I’ll be right back,” she said and ran upstairs. Her feet stomped loudly on the floorboards above Pike’s head. He grinned. He was so happy deep inside, and so thankful. The world hadn’t ended yet. They were here, and they had a lot of food stores. They would need to get mylar bags and maybe some kind of vacuum rig for food storage.

He heard her coming back and turned around. Her arms were laden down with a heavy box.

“I just realized it’d be good to get these down as soon as possible,” she said as she put them down. “I’m so glad this isn’t a damp basement, but nice and cool. These are the emergency non-GMO seeds from eBay that I ordered. There are 15,000 seeds in each package.”

“That’s a hell of a lot of seeds. We won’t use those next spring, will we?” he asked.

“No. Here, look in the box.” She tilted the box and he looked down in it. There were several larger mylar packs with the emergency seeds, then there were numerous packets of seeds. “We have regular heirloom seeds for that. Next spring, we can start them in the house. But with the emergency seeds, we have our own seed bank.”

“Cool. What kinds do you have?”

“Let me see… there are tomatoes, green pepper, zucchini, sugar pumpkin, broccoli, cabbage, corn and a bunch of others,” she grinned.

“I don’t like broccoli, but the rest I’m good with. And if I’m starving, I’ll eat broccoli, I guess.”

She laughed at him and set the box on a shelf. “At least the emergency seeds are good for ten years. I will order more next spring. Maybe just order one packet of emergency seeds each year.”

“Yeah, and maybe, if the crap hits the fan, we can use some of those seeds for barter.”

“That’s a good idea, Pike, it really is. I think we should put all our garden supplies down here for now, you know, the planting cups and pods.”

She shook her head. “I can’t believe we are here. I was almost afraid we wouldn’t make it.” It was the tenth time since they’d arrived that she said it.

“Me too. I keep thinking I’ll wake up back in St. Marys. But it isn’t a dream. We are here. Tell you what. I’m going to run into town to get a pizza. How does that sound? We can kick back for the rest of the evening and relax.”

“Oh, that sounds good, Pike, I’ll hook up the TV while you’re gone. Clear us a little room.”

She laughed as they headed back upstairs. It felt weird to know that he’d be coming back to his new home with a pizza. He was sure the newness would wear off, but for now, he wanted to enjoy it.

Margo woke early the next morning, Pike was across from her on the couch. She had the pink zebra blanket around her. She smiled as she looked at Pike’s sleeping face. He looked exhausted. After the pizza last night, he had set about putting a lot of the food stores into the basement. He’d cleared a lot of space.

She looked at the time and knew he should get up. He’d wanted to go to the hardware store this morning. She nudged his feet a little and watched his face. She had to nudge a little harder, and then his eyes began to open. A slow grin spread across his handsome face.

“Good morning, sleepyhead. I thought I’d better wake you. You said you wanted to go by the hardware store?”

“Oh yeah, thanks. Do you have to work today?”

“Yeah, but if there isn’t too much going on, I’ll come home.” She grinned. “That sounds good. Home.”

“I know. It was as if time was working against us. I was going crazy and all I could think about was, ‘If we could only get into the cabin, it will be okay.’ Now we are home.”

“Yeah, we’re here now. I am going to also drop off the keys to my apartment.”

“Sounds good. Home sweet home.” He smiled and stretched, his feet nudging her.

“You were right about this couch,” she said. “It was so comfortable. I don’t think I’ve slept this well for a long time.”

“Told you. Oh, and I found a nice wooden box for your seeds. It will be nice and dry to keep the seeds stored.”

“Thanks, Pike. I’ll put them in there for safe keeping. Okay. I will see you later this afternoon.”

She got up and went to her bedroom. She smiled when she heard Pike talking to Binx. Then she heard the front door and figured he had let Binx outside. She went to the shower in her master bathroom. Pike had graciously taken the other bathroom. She took a deep breath and let it out. She was home.

Later that day, Margo sat on the steps. Pike had surprised Margo earlier with several large bags of worm casting from the hardware store.

“I figured I might as well start today with getting things we may use. Besides, it was on sale and I couldn’t pass it up. If not now, then later.” He’d grinned and blushed. She was getting to know Pike all over again. This time he wasn’t a geeky kid, but a grown man.

She watched him surreptitiously as he stacked wood. He was sweating from working so hard today. A small part of her had worried that it might be a mistake living with him when he first suggested that they buy the cabin together. Buying a home was a huge investment, and also a lot of stress and responsibility. She’d not known him well enough to know how it would go, co-owning a home.

But it hadn’t been a mistake. He was a wonderful man, and, she had to admit, she was starting to have more than just friendship feelings for him. She wasn’t sure if it was from all the tension about finding a place to be safe or working together for a common goal, but he was living up to the hype, walking the walk.

She’d met a lot of men over the years, and most of the time they were all talk. No. Scratch that. A ll of the time. Except Pike. If he said he was going to do something, he did it.

“That’s a nice woodpile out back,” Pike said coming around the house. He was filthy, and looked very happy.

“At least we’ll have plenty of wood for the winter,” she said, wiping her brow once more and looked out over the lake. It was peaceful and quiet. Wood ducks swam close in to the shore in front of them. The mournful song of the loon rang out over the water, and the hair rose on Margo’s arm. It was beautiful, and she thought she’d never tire of hearing it. It was a mournful sound, sad and primitive. It had frightened her the very first time she’d heard it, as she hadn’t known what it was back then. Then she’d found out it was a water bird and had been enchanted. Now she could listen to them all the time.

Near the edge of the lake were stands of birch, dogwood and elm. In the back of the property were massive oaks, maples, a couple sugar maples and pines, juniper, and even some pecan trees. A family of jays squabbled at a woodpecker, who’s resonant drumming filled the quiet air.

“I almost hate to talk, it’s so peaceful here. If nothing ever happens, I think we made the right decision either way,” Pike said softly.

Looking over, she smiled at him, and he blushed. She reached a hand out, took his larger one and squeezed. “I think we made the best decision. I don’t think I could have found a better home. Thank you for making this happen. There’s no way I could have done this on my own,” she told him softly, her face glowing with happiness.

He lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles gently. “I can’t think of anyone other than you that I’d want to spend an apocalypse with. I hope it never comes. But if it does come, I think we’re in a good place.”