I know this is a little short, and a little awkward, but I think Stella would be a little awkward about such a change in Daryl.
The next day I got out of bed with a bit more zeal than I had previously. Last night I had a great time. Seeing everyone let go and have a good time reminded me of the time before the world changed. My family used to have BBQ's during the summer at the cabin in Maine. Afterwards we would sit around a campfire and listen to music and eat s'mores. Well the people had changed and there weren't any s'mores, but that had to have been the best time I'd had since this whole thing started. The highlight of the night, surprisingly, had been Daryl Dixon.
The night had flown by talking to him. I had even hoped that he might ask me to dance when "Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison had come on. I had mentioned that it was my favorite and for a moment he looked like maybe he would. But the moment passed and he started talking about something else.
Humming, I brushed my hair and changed into my clothes for the day. Pushing aside the curtain T-dog had hung up for me, I hurried towards the bathroom to get my morning routine done so I could start my day.
Hershel was still insisting that I not lift anything bigger than a fork, and I must say I was secretly glad today. Today was a laundry day. I hated doing laundry. Always had. Because Lori and Carol would be busy with that all day, I'd be in charge of the meals for everyone. There was still so much deer left over, I had no illusions what those meals would consist of.
Stepping outside I began gathering up things to cook up some steaks for everyone. Daryl was leaning against a fence talking to Maggie. Perfect. I figured everyone would be pretty sick of deer soon, and maybe the two of them would be able to find some stuff so that I could make it into a stew.
After I got the cooking fire going, I cut some meat off the deer and threw it in the pan. Moving it close enough to the fire so that it would start to cook slowly, I headed over to where the two of them were talking. "Morning you two," I called out.
Maggie looked over and smiled. "Some party last night huh? Don't think I've seen my Dad that happy since before we left the farm."
"Yeah that wasn't to shabby at all. Couldn't help but laugh at Carl following Beth around like a puppy all night. Oh to be young again and have your first crush." Laughing I stopped as I reached them. Daryl was silent, studying the dirt by his feet. "What'd you think Daryl? Should we do it again sometime?"
Without looking my way he shrugged his shoulders and said, "Not my type of thing, but you people go ahead and do whatever you want." He turned to move away, but I stopped him as I continued.
"Well I was hoping to ask you and Maggie for a favor today. We have all that deer, but not a lot of vegetables or anything else. I was hoping maybe you two could go see what you might be able to find in the woods. I know there's a lot of wild onion and other tubers around that would taste pretty tasty in a stew..." I let my voice trail off.
"That's a good idea," Maggie said. "It's probably time that we start looking for patches of things that are growing wild and map them out anyway. What do you think Daryl?"
"Whatever. It's fine I guess."
"Alright, I'll go let everyone know that we're heading out. Meet you back here in 20?" Daryl simply nodded in her direction.
Left alone with Daryl I couldn't help but wonder what had happened between last night and this morning. He wasn't even looking at me. He looked at the dirt, the trees, the fence, anywhere but at me.
"So..." I started hesitantly. "Thanks for doing this. Figured I'd try to vary the food as much as possible." When I didn't get any response back I continued. "Do you think we'll be able to eat that whole deer before it goes bad?"
"Probably not," was Daryl's brisk reply.
"Well can you think of anyway we can maybe preserve any of it? I'd hate to let it go to waste."
"Smokehouse. But that'd take time to build and we don't have any materials for it. Look I got to get my stuff and meet Maggie." With that he turned and left me standing there.
I watched him head back towards the prison and let out the breath I didn't even know I'd been holding. Maybe I'd been wrong. Maybe Daryl didn't want to be friends. "Fine," I muttered to myself. "From now on I'll stay out of his way." I headed back up the hill to finish up breakfast and pack up some of last night's leftovers for the scavenging team.
After Glenn, Maggie and Daryl headed out, the rest of us sat down to a quick breakfast. It was going to be another busy day. Hershel was going to have everyone start clearing the lower part of the yard out for crops. I thought to myself that it seemed like bad luck planning so far in advance, but if we didn't the group would have a hard time making it through the winter. Hershel was already worried about it being so late in spring for crops.
"Do you have any seed?" I questioned him. "Where do you even plan on getting it?"
"This whole area's farm land. The local co-ops always carry seed. Don't think too many people made a rush on beet seed. It'll take time to clear the land out, and more to turn it over, but as soon as the majority of rocks are pulled out, we'll see if the boys can't find us some tillers."
"Beets are good, they can well."Beth chimed in. "We should really only get whatever we can put up in cans."
"Course that means we'll have to find canning supplies," Lori pointed out.
"Well I passed a Wal-Mart not to far away. I bet they'll have what we need." I said. "I wouldn't worry about it now though. Don't need to try to find canning supplies before we've even put the seed in the soil."
With a laugh everyone stood up to go on about their day. I glanced around at the mess left behind. It's amazing how many dishes came out of one meal. Next to laundry, I hated washing dishes the worst. But since I couldn't put an ad out for a housekeeper, or have Sears deliver a new dishwasher, I pushed up my sleeves and got to work.
Just as I was stacking the plates up to bring them in to wash I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. It was the prisoners from the next cell block. I could tell that even in the few days I had been there they had lost weight. Rick had made it very clear to me that I wasn't to interact with them at all, but I couldn't help but think of what Daryl had said about the meat going bad. I had no problem giving some of the meat, but I had no way to get it to them. There was a space between the yards so I couldn't try to pass them anything through the fence and the doors between the cell blocks were locked and only Rick and Daryl had keys. Couldn't see Rick giving me the keys to pay our neighbors a visit. It was a problem that I'd just have to think about.
A few hours later Glenn, Maggie and Daryl returned. I was amazed at the variety of things they had brought back. There was wild ginger and onions, a variety of tubers that Daryl swore were edible, albeit bland, and even leaves for tea. After taking inventory of what they brought back, Maggie and Glenn left to sketch out a map as to where they found everything and what it looked like. Daryl moved over to where he had staked out the deer hide. After a moment's hesitation I followed him. So much for trying to stay out of his way.
"Daryl, I was thinking about what you said earlier," I said. "About us not being able to eat the entire deer before it goes bad. Well I think we should give some of it to the prisoners over there. It's one thing not to give them food that we're gonna eat. It's another to throw food out."
Daryl stood there silently with his back towards me. It was so hard not to push, to wait for him to say something, but I felt that if I tried too hard he'd just shut me down. I was just reached the end of my composure and was about to continue when he said, "Best you speak to Rick about that."
"Daryl, you know Rick's not going to like the idea. Look you don't have to do anything. Just give me the keys and I'll bring it over there myself."
Daryl swung around sharply. "Are you crazy? You want to go see two prisoners who haven't seen a woman in God knows how long, all by yourself? No wonder you were in the situation you were in before."
The cruelness of his words more than the anger in his voice caused me to take a step back. But it did something else as well. It made me angry. "I wasn't asking for your help or your permission. I can make decisions on my own. Today I'm in charge of the food stored in camp and I've decided to give some of the meat that we aren't going to be able to eat to those two. Now, will you kindly pass me your keys?" I placed one hand on my hip and stretched the other out towards him.
He looked me up and down and stalked past me to the carcass. "How much you want to give them?" he asked with his lips pressed tightly together.
"Whatever you think we're not going to be able to eat," I replied, a smile threatening at the edge of my lips.