“I'm not sure, but it’s always better to be prepared than not.”
“We have the generator though, right?”
“No, actually, I needed to order a part to fix it, and I can't get it until tomorrow.” She doesn’t look panicked, but she's not comfortable either. “I'm going to go outside, and pull some wood inside. It should be dry because it’s covered, but I’ll bring a bunch inside so that we have it ready to go. I’ll start the fire tonight, and turn off the heater.”
“Won't that mean sleeping out here?”
“Yeah it will,” I say while heading out the back door again.
“Here, I’ll help.”
“It’s OK, I’ve got it. If you can get out some spare bedding that would be helpful.”
“How about we work together to get everything done, then we can both relax?”
I look at her for a beat, realise that it’s not worth the argument, and toss the gloves in my hand to her.
“How come I get the gloves?” she asks, all pulling them onto her hands.
“You can wear them, or you can go get the bedding.” I'm not up for arguing with her, I don’t know how much time we have before the storm really hits, and we can't get to the wood. “Let’s do this as fast as we can.”
I want to keep as much heat inside the house as I can, but with the door wide open as I pass Kassie wood, and she places them on the floor inside the door, it feels like a losing battle.
“That’ll do,” I say, as I step into her personal space, pushing her back inside, closing the door behind me, and tossing the gloves on the top of the wood.
“Why didn't you just say there were more gloves?” She rolls her eyes at me, tossing hers on top of the ones I just took off.
“Because, I wanted the job done. There was no point in discussing it.”
“Right.”
“Where is the spare bedding kept?”
“What's the hurry? The power is still on.”
“For now. I'd rather have everything ready, and not need it, than to be trying to find shit in the dark, Kassie.”
“So, you're saying all of this could be for nothing?”
“I am, but I'd also rather have it ready, and not need it.”
“So you said.” I stand there for a few seconds waiting for her, then decide if she’s not going to take this seriously, I’ll do it all myself.
I look away from her beautiful face, and scan the room. I know Mrs Timms has loads of spare bedding, I'm trying to remember where I've seen her pull it from so that I don’t have to ask Kassie again.
“Follow me,” Kassie says, walking down the hallway to the bedrooms, and stopping at a large storage cupboard. “We can get extra blankets, pillows, sheets if needed. Plus, there are some extra warm comforters as well.”
“I think we’re going to need blankets, and the comforters, but we can grab pillows off our beds.”
“Sheets?” she asks, while piling the rest into my outstretched arms.
“I don’t think so.”
“There’s an air mattress in here too, if you want? Rather than dragging a proper mattress off a bed, and into the living room.”
“Sounds like a great idea.” I nod, then turn around to take what’s in my arms into the new makeshift bedroom for two, and dump them on the couch.
“OK, we have a mattress,” Kassie says, dropping the box with a thud on the floor. “Now, how do we get air into it?”
