I tried not to smile, but it was a useless fight. “And one of those clingy elven dresses for you?”
Laughing, she kissed me, and I let it ease away the frustration of the moment a little.
But the disappointment wasn’t completely gone, because I wasn’t sure I would still be here by summer time.
Still, I tried to forget about it. Why should I care what this place looked like? These people didn’t care, that was for sure. All they wanted was some place safe where they could be themselves. My ideas for a cool looking village for magic users had no meaning or purpose to people who were more concerned with just surviving right now.
So I focused on what was important instead, helping set up the solar panels and wind power systems so we could start generating electricity. The water proved to be tougher. The ground was hard and cold, requiring the use of spell fire to first melt the snow and then warm the earth enough so we could dig trench lines from the houses to the water system, and from the water system to the creek. Even with the help of magic, it would still probably take the digging team a week to get it all completed. Until then, people from each house would have to haul water from the creek.
And then there was the bus driver, Bud Preston, to deal with. Grandma Letty had woken him up enough to safely drive the group here. But she’d also sent her homemade sleepy time potion with Pamela so we could knock him out again and keep him that way overnight. Tomorrow, however, we’d need to wake him up and send him on his way back home.
As I took a turn fetching water from the creek, I worried about what using sedatives for so long on a man Bud’s age might do to his health. Grandma Letty claimed the homemade herbal mix was harmless, but had she ever used so much of it for so long on someone Bud’s age before? I doubted it. And it wasn’t like the FDA had done tests on the stuff either.
While returning to my assigned house after fifteen long minutes spent breaking up ice at the edge of the creek, two loud voices behind one of the houses brought me up short. Water from the plastic bucket sloshed out onto my jeans, forcing me to bite back a curse.
I recognized those voices. Steve and Pamela. What the heck had they felt the need to discuss out in fifteen degree Fahrenheit weather in the woods at night?
I edged closer until I could make out their individual words.
“What is your problem?” Pamela said.
“Seriously? You have to ask? We can’t stay here!” Steve all but shouted.
“Why not?” she said.
“Four people packed into every room? No running water, and twelve people sharing just two bathrooms in every house and I have to pour my own toilet water every time I flush? That idiot kid and his grandma have got us packed in like frigging sardines here! Is this what you really want for our family, for Cassie?”
“It’s just for a few months, Steve. Then spring will come, we’ll build our own house exactly the way we want it, and everything will be fine. And besides, you should be grateful. These four houses alone probably cost Grandma Letty a quarter of a million dollars.”
Actually, it had been closer to half a million once you threw in the furniture and dishes and stuff. I’d seen the paperwork when Grandma Letty had bought them.
“Besides,” Pamela continued. “We have a shot at a real life here. No more hiding—”
“But we are hiding! We’re in the freaking woods—”
“But we don’t have to hide our abilities within these woods,” Pamela said. “Cassie won’t have to feel like a freak anymore.”
“No, just grow up in some backwoods hillbilly commune with second rate education and no health care.”
“Which is a lot better than no education at all and drugged out of her mind in an internment camp! Or have you already forgotten that place? And while you’re struggling with that memory of yours, why don’t you also try remembering that you’re talking to one of the resident health care providers around here, you insensitive jackass! Second rate health care? I can heal us just fine!”
Pamela was nearly shrieking at this point. I was surprised the rest of the group hadn’t come outside to see what was going on. She took in a long, noisy breath, then let it out slowly. “Look, I’m not discussing this with you any more. Cassie and I are staying here where we’re safe and accepted. If you want to go brave that crazy world out there on the run, you do what you have to.”
I took that as my cue to leave in the other direction. I wasn’t sure why I’d even listened in as long as I had. All I’d really wanted to know was if Steve’s pissy mood was based on something I did, or if the whole situation ticked him off in general. Obviously it was the latter. And definitely none of my business.
Though I sure wouldn’t have been sad to see Steve go, if that was his decision. The guy was an idiot to think he could possibly keep his family safe somewhere else. With the way the international politics were shaping up, there weren’t too many safer places on the planet right now.
But Steve struck me as the hardheaded loner type. Maybe he figured he could put a disguise spell on his family’s faces for the rest of their lives and keep them safe that way. Whatever he was thinking, I doubted it included giving up on his family this easily. I’d have to keep an eye on Pamela and Cassie for the next few days just in case Steve tried to force them to leave with him against their will, or something crazy like that.
After seeing him kill that cop back at the gas station with zero hesitation, I had no doubt Steve was fully capable of anything in the name of protecting his family.
Once I finished delivering the water to the ladies giving sponge baths to toddlers and washing dishes in the kitchen, as well as refilling the toilet tanks in the house where Tarah and I would be staying for awhile, I joined Tarah in the living room.
She was playing Monopoly with Cassie and Mike. Grandma Letty had suggested a huge stockpile of board and card games for each house since we couldn’t safely have cable or satellite TV. I had a feeling we’d all be getting tired of the games before winter ended, as they would be our only entertainment for months.
“Mikey, you’re cheating again,” Cassie cried out, her wild head of white-blonde curls bouncing as she whapped Mike on the arm.
“Cassie, play nicely,” Pamela called out from the kitchen where she was drying dinner plates. To her credit, she gave no sign of her recent argument with her husband. Maybe they argued all the time and it was no big deal to her.