Nathan Jones - First Winter

Of course, it also led to a bit of awkwardness when he’d caught her humming love songs around him. He’d avoided the awkwardness by avoiding her, which was a shame because she was one of the sweetest people he knew.

Other than Sam, of course. But then again his wife was hard to top.

As if his thoughts had been a summons Sam appeared to lean against his arm, slipping her small hand in his. Even nearly seven months pregnant with their child his wife was still very petite, which was all the more noticeable given Matt’s own height. She was more than a classical beauty too, with raven hair and just a hint of olive in her skin from her Mediterranean heritage.

“Was Corporal Bryant making eyes at Mary?” she asked, dark eyes dancing.

He shrugged and grinned at her, extricating his hand to pull her close to his side. “Where have you been all this time?”

“Helping Terry sort through the few medical supplies the convoy brought.” Sam grimaced. “There’s not much there. Clean bandages, sewing thread and needles repurposed for suturing, and a few bottles of antiseptic. No painkillers or antibiotics at all, or even so much as a bottle of cough syrup.”

Terry, Matt’s brother-in-law married to his sister April, was the town doctor. Sam and April had been helping him run the clinic nearly from the beginning, and after the violence the town had suffered through they’d had plenty of people to assist. Matt was impressed by Sam’s determination to help out with what was often a distressing task, although in her current condition he was more and more worried about her own health and the health of their child.

“Antiseptic is better than nothing,” Matt replied, although he was also disappointed that the military hadn’t sent them more medicine. That was something they really needed, almost as much as food itself.

“I’d say what they brought is way better than nothing.” His wife abruptly poked him in the stomach, giving him a fierce look. “Speaking of which… I saw a few boxes filled with packages of frosted gingersnap cookies. Want. When it’s time to divvy up our share of the food keep an eye out for them, please.”

Matt hesitated. “We’re still not sure how exactly we’re going to be distributing the food, but I’ll try to get you a few.”

She poked him again, expression fierce. “By “them” I mean every box. I want, no I need , them all!” Before he could protest that that would probably count for a good chunk of their six month shares combined, not to mention being incredibly unhealthy, she abruptly snickered. “Just kidding. I mean I’d love to have as many as possible, but I’d be fine with a package or two.”

“Oh good,” Matt said in relief. “I thought you were done with weird cravings.”

Sam grinned up at him. “We’re at subsistence living with almost no variety in our diet. You don’t have to be pregnant to be going crazy with cravings for all the food you used to love.” She abruptly hooked a hand behind his head to pull him down as she rose on her tiptoes, giving him a brief but warm kiss. “Not that I’m complaining, when I’ve got so much to be thankful for.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” he said, pulling her around to hug her with her back to his chest and his arms protectively cradling their child. Together they watched the convoy drive off with half the town crowding the gravel street waving goodbye.

As the trucks started winding their way up the western slope his wife patted his hands on her belly, getting back to business. “I’m not saying abuse your mayoral powers to get your pregnant wife some cookies or anything. If you can’t manage to snag us any then a bit of old fashioned bartering should do the trick.” She looked up and abruptly sighed. “Speaking of mayoral… looks like it’s time for you to get to work.”

Matt looked over and saw Catherine approaching with the town’s leaders. “Looks like it.” He kissed the top of her head. “Shall we, Mrs. Mayor?”

Sam craned her head around to look up at him, dark eyes twinkling. “That’s not something I ever thought I’d hear someone calling me. Especially not just out of my teens.”

“Yeah, me either.”

They made their way over to the leaders, where a crowd was starting to form now that the convoy was gone. Catherine and Lucas left everyone behind and hurried to intercept him before he could get dragged into the confusion.

“Everyone’s impatient,” Catherine warned. “You’re going to need to talk to them.”

Matt felt that familiar stab of fear at public speaking. “Shouldn’t we call a town meeting?”

Lucas gave him an amused look, gesturing at a crowd that already numbered in the hundreds. “I’d say you’ve already got one on your hands.”

“It sure looks that way,” Sam agreed.

Matt helplessly followed the older man’s gaze. This would be his first time formally addressing the entire town in his capacity as Mayor. Most of the people in that crowd were friends, or at least people who’d come to him for aid or who he’d gone to asking for help with some project on the town’s behalf. But he still didn’t look forward to getting up in front of them and talking them down from their excited state.

And this was them with good news. Matt had a new appreciation for all the times John Anderson and then later Catherine had handled the crowd in a crisis.

“All right,” he said in resignation. “Find me something to stand on. That should delay things long enough for me to figure out what I’m going to say.”

Lucas nodded and hurried off, while Catherine stepped closer and caught his arm, glancing at Sam. “Could I borrow your husband for a second, Samantha?” she asked. Surprised, Sam nodded and trailed Lucas to join their friends and family in the crowd. Once she was out of earshot the older woman turned and gave Matt a solemn look. “Whatever your speech is,” she said in a low voice, “most importantly you cannot give up the surplus.”

“Is it really that important?” Matt asked. “It’s going to go to them anyway.”

The former Mayor gave him a look like he’d just said the sky was green and rained apple dumplings. “You have no idea how important. Even beyond making sure it goes to the people who need it most, to ensure as many people as possible make it alive through what’s coming, if you undermine your own authority on this things are only going to get harder from here.”

He blinked. “I’m not sure I follow.”

Catherine hesitated, glancing at the agitated crowd, then sighed. “Listen. Every government since the dawn of time has existed by taking during times of plenty and distributing during times of need. It’s not an ideal system even when they show restraint in the taking and generosity in the giving, as endless numbers of academics and armchair philosophers will be quick to tell you. But human nature being what it is there’s a reason people tend to keep going back to it. More importantly, during those times of need people need to know there’s someone out there handling the crisis and looking out for them. Even if it’s done poorly it’s a tremendous comfort to people desperately in need of reassurance.”

That made sense, even if Matt didn’t completely like it. “That sounds a bit cynical. I have a lot of respect for the people in this town.”

The older woman chuckled and finally released his arm, patting it once. “So do I, which is why I did my best for them for so long. But even the best people are still people, and for the most part people handle crises in predictable ways. You need to stay on top of the situation at every second or the crisis will become a disaster.”

Matt noticed Lucas had grabbed one of the pallets and planted it on top of two sawhorses to make a crude platform. He hoped it wasn’t as precarious as it looked. At the sign of an obvious stage being constructed townspeople began looking more and more towards him and Catherine, a few shouting questions their way above the hubbub.