She points to Jamie. “If I wanted to kill you I wouldn’t have spoken to you in the street. I would have shot you in the back.” Then shepoints to me. “Then when you turned around I would have taken you out, too. And yet here we are, sipping fresh sterilized rainwater and introducing ourselves.”
She sits down on the love seat across from us and puts her arms across the back of it.
“So I’m Henrietta, but call me Henri. Everyone did.”
“I’m Jamison.” He takes a drink of his water.
“Andrew. Nice to meet you.”
“You’re both well met. Now, let’s talk civics. You boys are cutting through Washington in hopes that the United States government got their act together enough to have their own little civilization down here?”
“That was the idea. We figured everyone else who was following the signs would hole up there to wait until June tenth. And the government had to survive somehow,” Jamie says. I’m glad he’s the one speaking; part of me fears that Henri comes with a well-tuned BS detector and will call me out on my half-truths as soon as the words leave my mouth.
She laughs. “Oh, honey. Our government fell apart before anything else did. Congress took years to pass healthcare bills and then argued they were unconstitutional. Then when everyone started getting sick, all they cared about was their economy. What makes you think they could make decisions regarding the safety and continuance of our country? Those pricks were all just worried about themselves. No, Capitol Hill was the first town to reach population zero.”
She holds up her hand, shaping it into an O to emphasize her point.
“It’s not just us, though. The foreign embassies didn’t even bother to pull out their people. Which is why I’m not putting much credence in the Reagan rumors either.” She shakes her head, sadness in her eyes. “Sorry, kids. It looks like it’s everyone for themselves no matter where you go.”
Jamie nods. “We figured, but no way of knowing without trying.”
“You’re welcome to stay the night here. Longer if you need.” She pushes herself up from the couch with a groan. “Best start working on dinner. Who wants to come outside and keep lookout?”
“Lookout for what?” I ask.
She looks at me, a knowing smile on her face. She reaches for her shotgun and tosses it over. “I told you, there’s monsters in the dark.” She turns, laughing and coughing as she makes her way to the back of the house. Jamie shoots me a look that says,She’s insane. I shrug and stand up, following her out the back door into the yard.
There is a high wooden fence surrounding the yard. In the center of it is a small firepit with a brick wood-fire oven and grill. Next to the house is a small wooden structure that has a moon carved into it. An outhouse. I assume she put it together after the water stopped running. Ihopeshe put it together after the water stopped running.
“My late husband built this,” she says, hitting the brick oven with her hand as she passes it. She continues to a shed in the back of the yard, shouting to us as she opens the door. “I thought it was a real eyesore at first. And we used it maybe twelve times in the twenty years from when he built it up till he died. But I tell you, it’s been mighty useful since the gas stopped working on the inside stove.”
“My house had a wood-fire stove, too,” Jamie says.
“Good, then you can help me cook. Andrew, you keep watch. You see anything come over the fence, shoot it.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Sheisjoking, right?
“And don’t yes, ma’am me. The only people to call me ma’am were telemarketers and Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
“So, Henri, what do these monsters look like?”
She looks at me with that same sly smile and hands Jamie four cans of food. “You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”
How do I say this delicately? “You are talking about monsters that come out at night.”
Nailed it.
She shakes her head. “Just because there’re stories about monsters don’t mean they don’t exist in real life. Especially not nowadays.”
“Got it, metaphorical monsters.” I nod, looking over at the fence. She’s talking about people. Howard’s crew. Me.We’rethe monsters now.
“There, now you’re using your head, kid. Just use your eyes along with it.”
I scan the fence as Henri and Jamie talk and cook dinner. The sun gets lower and Henri asks Jamie to start a fire in the pit for them so they can see. Under the gutters at both ends of the house are large black barrels collecting water from the downspouts.
At the back right corner of the yard are rows of fresh vegetables. Henri takes a pepper and a cucumber and fills a large bowl with water from the rain bucket using a spigot in the side. She washes the veggies and returns to Jamie.
Whatever they’re making smells amazing. I look back at Jamieand Henri; they’re smiling and talking as they cook. The sun has set and I can only see what the flames of the firepit light up, but Jamie looks like he’s happy to be here.
