Simon bent over and touched the plant carefully. “We had those in our time. Humans particularly enjoyed them sliced thin and cooked in oil.”
Nora scrunched her nose, trying to picture it. “Oh, I had those before. Potato chips, right? I just bake them in chunks. Ladies I worked with in town called them tatertots. That’s how the cat got its name. Tilly named him—it was so silly it stuck. Any way you cook potatoes tastes good. Sometimes I mash them up. Tilly used to like that a lot when she was younger.”
Using a hand for balance, Simon crouched low to the ground. “Potatoes . . . are those carrots?”
“Yep!”
“And that?” Using his finger, he pointed to the weeds in the ground.
Nora reached where he indicated. “These are some weeds. You can see not much grows in the soil here, but there’s this grass that keeps coming back. If we get a lot of rain it comes to life everywhere. If I leave it too long it will take over.”
After a minute Simon grunted. “Bermuda grass.”
“Is that the name?” Nora held some up.
A chuckle left him. “That or similar. Figures that would be something that survived. It was always very invasive.”
Simon sat next to her and applied himself immediately, weeding the little patch.
She beamed at him, watching him get to work without even being asked.So dang helpful.Between the mending yesterday and now seeing how today was going, she was beginning to feel truly happy with her decision to bring him back.
There was stiffness in her fingers from all the sewing she did yesterday. With all the excitement of going to the mall and town, plus the rain, the garden had been neglected for a few days.
After weeding for a minute she got up to refill the chicken’s water. She put out a very small amount of feed that the chickens attacked before looking for more with hungry eyes.That’s not enough for them.Nora clucked and crooned,“I know you are so hungry, chickies.” She turned and hollered, “Tilly, bring the chickens some worms too.”
Tilly came a few seconds later, pail in hand filled with worms.
Nora stepped aside. “Throw them in, thanks. The chickens will like that. Give them the bunch and I’ll help you go collect some more. We can add those to our worm box.”
Around the chicken coop Nora began hunting for more, bending low and collecting the wriggling worms.
Simon abandoned the weeding and joined her once Tilly ran off, gathering the worms that were rapidly hiding themselves now that the rain had stopped.
Nora split the amount gathered between the garden and the chickens, who ate every bit.
By the coop, Tilly pressed into the front wiring. “I’m hungry too,”
Nora startled.Right, we didn’t eat this morning.She’d rushed out here first thing after feeling cooped up from yesterday and wanting to show Simon the world outside.
Shoving the worm box aside, she said to Tilly, “Okay, grab the eggs. Let me just see how the water level is doing and I’ll bring some water in. After all that rain I think we might have enough to get a bath too.” With a smile Nora poked at Tilly’s side. “You stink.”
Tilly giggled, her face lighting up as she went behind the coop and took out the eggs, except for the ones underneath the broody hens. She poked her head back around the coop. “No, you stink.”
A full laugh escaped Nora as she walked away. “You’re right, I probably do!” To Simon she motioned to follow. “C’mon Simon, I’ll show you how we collect water here. It’s still a desert, so I collect it everywhere when I can.”
Chapter nine
Simon
Simon helped Nora as she filled several containers with water to the top, opening a spigot at the bottom of a rain catch where it collected from gutters above. As he watched her lift the heavy jugs, he had to admit Nora was strong.She has to be.After her evasion of answering how far away others were, he deduced that she really was doing everything on her own.
He stepped in line and handed the filled jugs to her.I can’t just let her do all the work.Then he pulled the little cart for her, before she could grab the handle, as they walked back from the garden area. “I’ll take that.”
Nora blinked rapidly. “Oh. Alright. Just this way back to the front of the house.”
Each new thing he saw in this new world led to new questions. “Do they not have running water anymore?”
Nora shook her head, walking next to him. “Like what the pipes used to be for? No. The town still has some. We pay for water there if we can’t get enough out here, but no services this far out.”
