Chapter 7: Hidden Meanings

Stanley was a simple man. He, like his father before him, worked the land in the hope that it will prosper, and that the fruits of his labor will be enough to care for himself and his family. But he had found in the last year just how far he was willing to go to protect his land and his family. He had never thought that he would find himself in a firefight or participating in subterfuge. But he had found himself doing both. He never thought that he would ever kill a man, yet he had done so without hesitation.

And he would do it again. For Jake, his brother from another mother, his wife and unborn child, and this six year old girl, who had been delivered to them by an angel a month ago. Sam had been through hell in the last year. Much worse than Bonnie had. He and Bonnie had lost their parents in a car crash 14 years ago, but they had had the consistency of the house, land and neighbors to bring them back to life. And they'd had each other. Sam, from what the social worker had said, had gone from having loving parents to the chaos after the attack. Food was scarce, medical care even more so. Sam had only survived because the teachers and the parents on the field trip had worked hard against the world they found themselves in to find the surviving family members of the six year olds.

He had changed the sheets of Sam's bed for the first week that she was here. She had continued to have nightmares, but for the last week the nightmares had not come every night. Stanley loved to see Mimi with Sam. Mimi had said that she hadn't spent much time with her niece, but now you wouldn't know it. Stanley had to admit that he would be a little jealous that Sammy got most of her attention if he hadn't spent most of his time during the day maintaining the crops and the animals.

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Mimi was now five months along. She was just starting to show, and was getting lots of attention at work and while in town. It was mid august, and thanked god for the airconditioning in the J&R building, for this was the hottest month of the year, and her pregnancy meant that her body failed to regulate it's temperature like normal. But it was quiting time. With a breath, she put her long hair up in a loose bun in her hat, and headed back to the farm.

On the way there she stopped to pick up Sam at the Green's house. Lately Mimi had to work part time to make ends meet, and with Stanley working so hard on the farm, Mrs. Green had offered to babysit. Sam had taken to calling her Granny Gina. Mrs. Green had been the mother to most of the young people in Jericho: Jake, Eric, Emily, Mary, Stanley, and latey Mimi. When Johnston died they had all taken turns taking care of Mrs. Green, and she in turn had taken care of all of them.

"Gina, Sam?" Mimi said, looking through the house. The front door was open in an attempt to keep the hot weather at bay.

"In the kitchen!" Gina's voice rang through the house.

Mimi walked in to see Sam's cute little face and hands covered in choclate pudding, "What's going on here."

"I'm Gram Gina's helper, we made choclate pudding!"

Mimi smiled, "I can see that."

Sam held the choclate covered wooden spoon in an equally choclate covered hand, "Want some?"

Mimi licked the spoon, "Mhh, tasts good."

Gina smiled over at the exchange, "Sorry for the mess, want me to clean her up?"

"No, I'll clean the girl, that leaves you the rest of the kitchen."

"Oh, lucky me."

"Aunt Mimi?"

"Yes?"

"When are we going home?"

"As soon as we get you cleaning up."

"Then we're going to EC?"

"You mean DC?"

"Uh huh."

"We talked about this, DC is gone, you're living with me and Uncle Stanley."

"Then are mommy and daddy going to live here?"

"When we said that your mommy and daddy were with you, we meant that they are in heaven, looking over you 'cause they love you so much."

"So, they're not coming?"

Mimi sighed, "No honey, but Uncle Stanley will always be her for you."

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The questions that Sam had asked her that afternoon ate at her. She needed to do something that would tell Sammy that the situation wasn't temporary, "Stanley."

"Yeah, hon."

"What would you say about adopting Samantha, officially, giving her our name."

"What made you think of this?"

"She keeps asking me how long she's staying. Today she asked me if we're sending her back to DC."

"Is it something you want?"

"I do."

"We'll go talk to our lawyer in the morning."

The next morning after their chores were done, they were sitting with the new lawyer in town they had to handle their affairs since the attacks. "So you want to officially adopt your niece?"

"Yes," they said.

"Her parents died in the attacks?"

"Yeah." Mimi said, "They lived in DC near me, Sam was outside the city at the time. We just found her a month ago."

"Here are the official channels. Because there are no official death certificates, you are required to put personal adds in three major newspapers, each in a different city. If you've heard no response in two months, we can start processing the adoption process."

TBC...