While all this was going on, Reason and the kids were still at Adele's. And still helping.
"Ah, guys," Adele asked, seeing the kids looking around the supply shed," What are you doing?"
"We're looking for dream givers." Dean exclaimed, peaking inside.
They were still working their way through Gossamer at bedtime, and the little guys had become obsessed with the idea of dream givers.
"Ah, I only think those come at, Dean—" Adele began, then glanced over to where Reason was crouched in front of the succession garden, and looked like she was …whispering?
Adele carefully walked over to Reason. "Hey, Rea, whatcha doing?"
Reason jumped up. "Nothing. Nothing." Reason smiled at her, "So, how'd it go?"
"I got some danilions." Adele said, setting the bucket down, "Might be the last of the season." At least when this is over, she'd had a fully stocked pantry. "You know, you don't have to keep doing this?"
"So, you've said." Reason replied.
And so, Adele set to catching up again. As promised, she showed the boys how to make watermelon pickles, canned the dailies and made the sap into ointment, and did the laundry. By noon there was no more to do.
But Adele had an idea.
"Hey, Reason." Adele called out, "You collect cans?"
That was how they wound up, walking on the side of the road, gathering old soda cans and putting them in trash bags for Adele to take in for the money. It was one several side hustles she had.
"So, you have your firewood stand with Alwyn the taxidermist, and this?" Reason asked, putting a can in a black plastic trash bag.
"Well, I also make pourpori throughout the year and sale it at this bi-annual craft fair a town over." Adele answered, "I usually try to pair up supplies run with it."
"And that keeps you supplied the whole year?" Reason questioned.
"Hey, expect for a few things I don't have the ability to, I grow my own food, make my own soap, sew our clothes myself, I only really shop for supplies four times a year and stock up in bulk." Adele responded, "Kind of makes the budget even out."
"Fair point." Reason replied. After a beat she came out with it, "Have you ever thought about making your own power?"
Adele tilted her head. "What?"
"Well, when I was setting my stuff, I read up a lot about methane convertors…" Reason trailed off.
"A methane convertor?" Adele repeated, crushing a can in her hands.
"Yeah, I mean, I don't have the schematics on me," Reason began, "Look, you have enough poop. We could find the instructions and town, some scrap metal, we could have it up and running in a few days."
"I'm not sure…" Adele began.
"Look, just because you've dropped out society-" Reason began, "I get it, people are savages, but that doesn't mean you can't be little comfortable. Come on, wouldn't it be nice not to have to light a candle during night time feedings?"
Adele pondered this for a minute. "We're going to need a lot more cans, though."
They came home to find the Magda, the boys huddled up as she read, "…But then, the door flew open and in walked the miller, Luella's father. 'Where is that beautiful new granddaughter of mine?' he asked in a cheery voice. Then his eyes went from his daughter, holding the baby, to the kind, standing next to her—both looking frantic—to Rumpelstiltskin. The miller hastily held up his fingers in the sign meant to stop the evil eye. 'It's our ole neighbor, the witch Rumpelstiltskin!' he cried."
"What happened to Gossamer?" Adele asked, curiously.
"We…wound up finishing and they wanted another story." Magda exclaimed, somewhat sheepishly.
"You have trouble saying no, don't you?" Reason chuckled, then changed the subject. "Hey, how 'bout a project?"
The boys lit up. "Yea!"
The rest of the day was spent nailing metal together, carefully attaching wires -Cyrus did most of that—and, um, gathering the material. Also, Reason put together the lamp she and Adele had found at the dump.
That night, Magda sat the bear bulb in the white iron floor lamp now set up in the kitchen, a bundle of wires sticking out of it and running into the wall. It was primitive, but it worked. "Okay," Magda called out, "It's ready."
"Alright, Cy," Reason called out, "Let there be light!"
Cyrus started tightened the lid on the methane they had already converted, locking it in. A few second later, in the house, the blub lit up.
The group erupted into cheers. "We did it!" Adele exclaimed in disbelief, "We actually did it!"
"We did it!" Dean repeated.
"We did it!" Castiel chimed in.
"Good job everyone." Reason said, then realized they had a problem. "Um, anyone have any idea how to turn this off?"
That night having finished both Gossamer, and all the storied in The Rumpelstiltskin Problem, it was time to pick out a new story, this time picked out by Castiel. Carefully looking through the small shelf, that as his brother did a few nights before. He pulled out a small paperback book with a picture of two darkhaired children, a boy and girl with huge, colorless eyes staring down at a garden of red lollipops.
Taking the book, he snuggled back in the bed, handing it to Adele. "Hansel and Gretel, eh?" The physic commented, "Always a classic."
The next morning, Adele came back as usual to everyone working, while the boys were playing in the front yard with Magda, the boys' mind still filled with witches.
Magda was pretending to sleep as the boys were creeping around her invisible "cottage." "I found the gold thread." Jerod whispered to his cohorts, who quickly hurried to him.
"Quick! Put it in the bag before she wakes up." Dean hissed, causing Magda to break character and smirk.
As they were loading up the ersatz "gold thread" Magda bolted upright right. "Who goes there?!" Then using a short, thin stick as a wand, she shouted, "Stupefy!" Though she knew they would have no idea what that meant, then began tickling them. Still three against one, Castiel managed to run away.
"Oh no you don't!" Magda declared giving chase, until she realized the other two "intruders" were trying to escape. "Oh no you don't, either!" She pointed the wand at them, "Freeze!"
The two pale haired tykes froze suppressing laughter as Magda pretended to shackle the pair. "Thought you could steal from me, did you? Well, I eat thieves, once I fatten you up a bit." She poked at Jerod's tummy, tickling him and causing him to giggle.
"Let us go you evil witch!" Jerod demanded once he had gotten back into character.
"No." Magda told them, hamming it up, "Soon I have a meal of two fat little boys." Then she began feeding her two "captives" with an imaginary spoon.
Adele watched as Magda "fattened" her would be victims for a few minutes, while Cas crawled, ducked and dived, trying to get back to his cohorts to rescue them. At last the time had come. "You'll nice and plump now." The "witch" finally declared, poking Dean in the belly.
"Oh no." Dean responded, in a hush whispered. When Magda paused, he whispered, "Keep going."
Magda giggled, then turned it into a cackle, rubbing her hands. "Oh yes. Now, how would you like to be cooked?"
As Magda the witch began making an imaginary fire as Cas sneaked back into the invisible cottage. "Cas, help!" Dean whispered.
"She's going to eat us!" Jerod added.
Cas put a finger to his lips, before creeping towards Magda. Picking up the wand, she whirled around. "There you are!" Cas turned to run and Magda gave chase, declaring, "You won't get away this time!" However, he was able to get the other hand this time, tickling her and sending her to the grown, grabbing her wand.
"Oh, my wand! My wand!" Magda lamented, trying to retrieve it.
Cas, however, managed to keep it away from her as he grabbed some of the imaginary golden thread and used it to "bind" her arms to sides. As the "witch" struggled to get free, Cas "freed" his compatriots before fleeing with the rest of the gold thread.
Adele laughed, clapping her hands at the show, when she noticed something from the corner of her eye. In her succession cropped garden, was an overabundance of greens sticking out of the ground, ready to be removed from their earthy homes, and Reason crouching in front of it.
"Great job guys." Adele told them, walking off the garden. "Reason," She began slowly in dawning comprehension, "What did you do?"
"I was able to recalibrate Avery's spell." Reason explained, "Instead of everyday you'll get a full crop every few weeks."
"You did this?" Adele questioned, "You? The girl who accidently turned the two kids playing with my sons into the children they currently are…"
Reason's stomach nodded and her heart did a little dip as she realized she might have overstepped. "I'm sorry, I should have asked first…."
"No, no it's not that." Adele cut her off, "Granted, you should have. But it was a niece a gesture. Thanks." After a beat she asked, "So, any other surprises waiting for me?"
"Well," Reason began, drawing out the word nervously, "You might want to come to take a look at your apple trees…."
After some emergency storage, the group set amongst a new project, making a little windmill out of scrap metal they picked up at the dump. Oddly enough the little ones were able to help on this one, holding the slats while the adults or older children hammered them in place.
"What's this gonna do?" Dean asked, as Cyrus helped them old the metal in place.
"We're going to connect this to the wiring in the house." Cyrus explained, pointing to the cabin, "And when it blows, it's going to turn to the wind into electricity."
"I thought the poop was 'spost to do that." Dean responded.
"It is." Cyrus explained, "This is just back up."
"Back up?" Dean repeated, his face scrunched in confusion.
Adele knelt down. "See honey, there's this thing called hyper-redundancy. That means that you have extra everything so that if you lose it, you always have another. If something happens to the poop, then the wind can keep this placed powered, and if something happens to the wind, the poop can keep this placed powered up. Is this making any sense?"
"I think so." Dean replied, although he wasn't sure he understood.
As it turned out, it took two telekinetics to nail a windmill to the top of a house: On to hold it in place, the other to screw in the nails from the ground.
"Alright." Adele said tightening the last screw, "There we go." This cause the little boys to erupt in applause. Magda joined them, clapping softly.
The night, when Grace started crying, Reason rose from her side of the bed. "I'll get her."
However, Adele was also up. "No, I got this."
Adele picked the squalling tot up bouncing her as they walked into the kitchen, which seemed to calm her. At first, she sent for the candle over the oven, then remembered. She walked over to the floor lamp, flicked it on. It didn't completely illuminate the room, but did more for it then a candle. Looking down at Grace, she smiled. "You know, I think I can actually get use to this."
The next day, Adele slipped into town again with a load of wood, this time with Cyrus.
"Hey, Alwyn." Adele greeted her aquatinence, sitting the logs on the counter, "Brought you something."
Alwyn began to count the wood, when noticed Cyrus.
"Can my friend use your phone to check in with his parents?" Adele requested.
"Sure." Alwyn agreed, before turning back in the wood.
"Thanks, mister." Cyrus told him before walking off.