When he reaches the bottom step of the deck, he holds out a dirty hand. “Howard.”
Howie.Now I have a face to the name. I look back to the people at the tree line, wondering if one is Jack or Raven. My eyes fall on the kid and I wonder if he’s the one who’s a better shot with the rifle in his hands than the others.
“Jamison.” I take Howard’s hand firmly and give it a shake, locking eyes with him.
Howard looks to Andrew, who gives his name, then Howard asks, “Mind if I sit?”
I do mind that, sir. I would like for all of you to leave and never look back and also, feel free to step on a few bear traps out there.
I turn to Andrew, who still looks at me like he’s ready to set theworld on fire. I step aside, trying to be diplomatic, but I grab the rifle anyway and carry it over to the other side of the deck. Out of the corner of my eye I can see the others in Howard’s group move their weapons up, then lower them once I set the rifle down and sit between Andrew and Howard.
Howard takes his seat.
“Nice place,” he says.
“Thanks,” I say. You can’t have it, Howard.
As if reading my mind, he says, “Don’t worry, we’re all set up, we’re not going to take your house.” He reaches into his front pocket and I see Andrew flinch, but Howard only withdraws a pack of cigarettes.
The cigarette butts. They must have been his, or someone from their settlement’s. I wonder how long they’ve been watching us.
Howard smiles at Andrew, probably seeing the same flinch I did, then holds out the pack, his eyebrows rising.
“No thanks,” I say.
“Those’ll kill you.” Subtle, Andrew, very subtle.
Howard chuckles but proceeds to light up. “Not much these days don’t.” He lets the smoke out through his nostrils, like a dragon warning us that he can breathe fire. He tucks the pack and lighter into his pocket and leans back, relaxing.
“What can we do for you, Howard?”
“The town nearby—I assume you frequent it?” he asks.
“Not so much, now that the tourism industry’s kaput,” Andrew answers.
“Stop it,” I say to him. He’s poking the bear—or the dragon, to maintain the metaphor.
Howard smirks and continues, his eyes falling on the seed packetsscattered on the table. “Well, therewasplenty there to be had. But not so much anymore.” He takes another puff on his cigarette and says, “There’s more of us.” He motions to the people along the trees. “Quite a few more.”
I want to call his bluff, but there’s no point. We’re already outnumbered, so he’s got no reason to lie to us. The six of them are enough to intimidate Andrew and me.
Howard continues. “That’s a lot of mouths to feed and not much in the way of food delivery anymore. So we started out to see who might have been in the area, just poking around. Going door to door to collect.”
This isn’t door to door, it’s an ambush.
“Collect?” Andrew asks.
“Taxes. We claim these lands for our settlement and you’re living on it. You’ve been living in the house, so we’re not looking to take that from you. But this is America, and if you live on our land you need to pay taxes.”
“You wantmoney?” Andrew asks.
“Money’s not worth the paper it’s printed on anymore. We’re looking for food.”
“We don’t have any food.”
Howard holds up a hand. “Stop there. You don’t need to start our relationship off on the wrong foot by lying. We know you raided the town nearby and left the scraps. Plenty of people did. The scraps that we then took. But again, there’s more of us than there are of you, and I think we can come to some kind of mutual agreement. Maybe you’ll need medicine or protection in the future. So you’ve gotta pay up now. You help us, we help you.”
“And if we say no?” Andrew says. I haven’t spoken a word. I’m frozen with fear and I can’t help but look back at the line of people at the edge of the yard.
