Chapter 20: A nice picnic

[May 2373 AD – POV Timotheus Mellark – District Twelve]

After spending a few weeks on a prospective site for a future hydro-storage plant, I had driven to the farm owned by Rue's grandparents on Friday afternoon. I had slept with Rue in her narrow bed in her room, and I had liked that. Her grandparents had allowed us to sleep together as Rue suffered from bad nightmares, and I seemed to be one of the few people who could make her sleep well without any bad dreams, as we had realized after I had found the little girl in the mountains. Above and beyond that, we both enjoyed being close to each other, and I had been kind of surprised about my own feelings, staying in Rue's narrow bed with her on top of me for much longer than usual, enjoying the environment and in particular being with that very special girl. It wasn't anything like sexual, and she was way too young for anything in that direction anyway, but we seemed to be something like soulmates or so, and I felt like I had known her since my early childhood days and liked her like my baby sister Ruth.

After breakfast a very happy Rue had agreed to head out for a picnic and show me some more of the farm. Before we set off, though, I had asked to use the phone, and I placed a call to my brother Peeta. He asked right after I had greeted him:

"Bro, where are you?"

"I am on a farm, with Rue and her grandparents."

"Visiting your girlfriend, right?"

"Peeta, she is not my girlfriend, even though we slept in the same bed."

I heard him laughing, and I realized what I had just said. When he had calmed down, he said:

"You know what you have just admitted, right? But seriously, you actually have a girl in bed with you who is not our little sister?"

He was fully right of course. As far as I recalled, that had been the first time ever I had a girl of any age in a bed with me, except for my sisters.

"Brother, this is Rue – I told you about her, right? And you know how young she is and in particular how young she looks?"

We continued the usual friendly banter for a few minutes, until I got to business:

"Peeta, if I recall correctly, you have mentioned a few times that you would like to get a larger variation of flour for baking."

"Oh yes, indeed. Our customers demand different tastes, and I believe that having flour made from something different than just wheat and rye would be a great thing. By the way, it's so funny, when I think about my namesake's brothers, a century ago, who were called Wheat and Rye, just like the grain. I mean, my name is also kind of odd, but at least more original than that. Okay, back to the topic. I would love to experiment with the alternate flour, at least. However, all of the farms I have recently contacted do not bother with anything else."

"Well, on this farm here, they do."

"They do what exactly?"

"I was shown around just the day before, and Rue's grandfather claims that they have been growing emmer, einkorn, and triticale for decades, on a small scale, as demand is very low. He says that there are a few delicatessen stores asking for flour made from those."

"Tim, my brother, are you sure about that?"

"Well, I cannot prove it, as I do not know enough about grain to judge, but I do not believe that this was a joke. And, the plants do look slightly different. I have recorded some data with my tricorder, and I will send those later."

"Dear brother, can you get me some flour samples from those?"

"I will ask, and if they have any I can grab, I will load the samples and bring them home tomorrow. I can drop them at the bakery first thing Monday morning."

"That's great – I will be looking forward to that!"

"How are things with Lizzy?"

"Just perfect as always. I still cannot believe that she more or less took over the financial books already, despite still going to school. Even Dad acknowledges that she is real good in that. Neither Uncle Peter nor I are good in financial stuff, and we prefer to focus on baking. As you know, Dad has been in charge of the bakery's finances so far, but I guess Lizzy can fully take over in a year or two. She is a genius in organization and financial stuff, besides being my beautiful fiancée. I sometimes still think I am dreaming when thinking about the fact that we are actually engaged."

"Yes, I also do not understand how you actually managed to get the girl of your dreams engaged to you. But I am happy for you, even is that implies that you will likely get married long before I do."

"Yes, I guess that I will. But at least, you've got yourself a girlfriend now; that's a start, at least."

He could not stop teasing me with that, and to some extent the teasing was actually justified. Despite my age of 25 years, I had never had a girlfriend, and any relation to a girl close to my own age had ended very quickly. Either we found out that kissing was yucky, or my nerdy behavior stopped everything else, or whatever, and I felt something was missing in my life. But, I could take teasing from my brother at any time; that was all right, as he was the best brother I could imagine to have. Besides, he had not yet met Rue, and he did not know much about her problems and her special situation.

Peeta had been in love with Lizzy, who lived next door from us, since a decade ago or so, even though she was three years younger than him. She had returned the feelings, and they had been together since Lizzy had finished elementary school; that had been the earliest time Lizzy's parents had allowed her to even think about having a boyfriend, but they had eventually bowed to my brother's charm. Peeta had proposed to her right on her 18th birthday; but that had only been a formality; they had both reached agreement about their future plans when Lizzy had barely completed puberty. The wedding date was not yet set, but Lizzy was already applying her skills in the company; she was in her last year of school and had almost completed her final graduation examinations now. She had already applied at the local university to become a master of business administration or something like that. I liked her too, and I was looking forward to having her as sister-in-law.

Now it was time to get started on my exploration tour with Rue. Her grandfather, on the day before, had shown some of the fields, but Rue herself was more interested in the various farm animals today. We started with the cowshed next to the farmhouse; as milking the cows was one of the first morning activities a traditional farmer would have to do, it made sense to have this building close to the farmhouse. It appears that the young girl had picked up a lot of knowledge in the past weeks, and she explained that, although there was a machine for milking, one of her grandparents attached it to each of the cows themselves.

"This is somewhat old fashioned, you know" she commented. "Some modern farms have an automatic machine, where a cow can step into a certain enclosed area when it feels like it's time, and the machine attaches itself to the cow in a fully automatic way. I will need to convince Grandpa to invest in something like this."

"But, isn't that expensive?"

"Yes, it is, and this is a problem."

The farm did not have pigs, except just a few for being fed with anything which was left. However, there was a large enclosed section with hens, and the whole area was also covered by wire-mesh fence.

"Do you need the fence on top to keep the hens from getting out?"

"No, not really, but it is needed to keep predator birds from getting in. Grandma told me that a few pairs of chicken hawks live in the area, and before they had the fence on top, they lost quite a few hens to them. Around the ground, the fence needs to be reinforced, to keep the occasional fox out.

"You have learned all that?"

"Of course – I am not just here to go to school and play, this is so interesting, and I am going to help Grandpa and Grandma a lot soon. I can't help much with physical work yet, but I can help with ideas and planing."

"I bet that you can; you probably already know more about farm work than I do."

The little girl smiled at me and seemed to enjoy my admiration. I was not just flattering her; I had heard about her grades at school from my sister Primrose, and according to what she told me, Rue and Prim shared the position as class winner, despite Rue being two years younger. In some areas she, Primrose, was doing better, like in languages and specifically in sports, where the younger girl was at a disadvantage due to her small and petite body, in some other areas Rue was better, specifically in mathematics and sciences. Primrose had mentioned a few times:

"If it wasn't Rue, it could be frustrating. I am learning hard and usually score above 95% in most classes, which is already excellent, but then there is Rue, and in most sciences she's got a straight 100%. I have no idea how she's doing it, but she seems to absorb new information like a sponge, and her intellect is absolutely stunning; I am certain that she understands some topics better and in more detail than our teachers do. It could be almost scary, but she is so lovable and cute that I can't be angry with her."

It seemed to work here on the farm like at school; she indeed absorbed new information like a sponge, and when she told me about the various animals, one could have as well thought that she had been living here for many years already.

"Grandpa started a subscription to a few magazines on advanced farming for me" Rue mentioned a few minutes later. "He says that he doesn't understand most of what's written in there, but I do."

"Like what?"

"The latest edition showed some examples of combining solar power with agriculture. Some people wanted to find out to what extent some farm land can be covered by solar-electric cells without reducing area for agriculture much or at all. The magazine shows pictures with people constructing rows of solar cells about 5m above their fields, but with larger gaps between the rows, so that only about 10%-20% of the total area would be shaded at any time. At that height, the farmers can still drive their big tractors without a problem. Now, one would assume that plant growth is reduced by that, but it actually happens that some plants benefit from the partial shading. The magazine has some examples, and I would love to experiment with that. Things like that could be my very own playground, if Grandpa allowed me to do it and if we had the money needed for it."

This girl certainly had interesting ideas; was she the female version of a nerd or a geek? If she was, I sure did not have a problem with that. We moved on, visited the rabbit enclosure, the area with the turkeys and some more, and before we moved further out, Rue suggested:

"We are going to leave the immediate area of the farmhouse now, so that you may want to grab your backpack."

I did as she suggested, and after the hours we had spend in the morning, with her chatting a lot about the farm and everything around and Rex happily walking with us, she now showed me to a nice hill with a wonderful view around. One side of the hill was enclosed and there were goats and sheep feeding from the grass, so that we heard some bleating while I unpacked my supplies and arranged our picnic. A blanket was spread on the ground, and I started to lay out all of the food and drinks I had with me, until her eyes almost dropped out of her head. I did not need to encourage her, and after we had said grace – I always did that before eating, as I had learned it that way from my mother – we started to eat. Of course, I had a large box with food for my dog with me as well; he would not have to just watch us eating.

Rue really seemed to enjoy our picnic, and once we had eaten, she yawned a little. I spread a blanket on the ground, stretched my body on it and invited the little girl to get down to my side. She did so, rested her head on my chest and was obviously asleep with minutes. A few times she moaned a little while sleeping, and I think that she even said my name a couple of times. I sure hoped that she had good dreams.

When she woke up again after an hour or so, she wanted to talk about something.

"So," Rue wanted to know, "the girl closest to you has been your youngest sister? No girlfriends?"

I laughed and replied: "Yes, for sure, the girl closest to me so far has been my little sister Ruthie. And about a girlfriend..."

"Yes?"

"I am not sure if I am ready to talk to you about it, but if I don't, Peeta or Ruth will spill it anyway sooner or later."

"Spill what?"

I got her curious now, that was obvious, so that I continued with some hesitation:

"Well, I have never … really … had a girlfriend?"

Rue had quite big eyes now, and asked: "No girlfriend? Ever?"

"No, not really. I mean, it's not that like I don't like girls, and there were a few I would have liked to get closer to, but..."

"But what?"

"Before I had my eyes fixed a couple of years ago, I wore glasses, and my body was more lanky than athletic. Most considered me something like a nerd, as I mentioned when we were at my camp in the mountains, and I failed to impress the girls I was interested in."

Rue looked like she was really interested about that, and I talked on:

"Besides, most girls talk a lot about fashion, jewelry, people, who goes steady with whom and stuff, whereas I like to talk about nature and technical issues; this usually does not fit well. I mean, you are different; I can talk to you about practically everything..."

"Yes, same here; and considering that, I am actually glad that you do not have a girlfriend."

"You are? Why?"

"If you had a girlfriend, she might not agree to you spending so much time with me!"

After supper I asked Mr. Jones about the flour and mentioned that my brother would love to experiment with that in the bakery. Rue's grandfather replied:

"Sure, we always have a few sacks round. Feel free to grab one sack of each kind. I do not think that this will be any good, but go ahead anyway."

In the corner of the barn he pointed me to what were indeed quite a few sacks of flour, all properly and neatly labeled, and I loaded three 25kg sacks – one each from einkorn, emmer, and triticale – into my car: of course I paid an appropriate price for that.

Soon we retired to our beds, but both Rue and I were not quite ready for sleep yet. As the girl had learned that I also liked fantasy stories, she started to tell me a little bit about some of her own fantasies, with dragons and unicorns and magic and all, and she was very happy to find out that I not only liked to listen, but also participated from time to time with contributions, additions and options of my own.

Once more Rue and I both had a wonderful sleep, with her in my arms. On the next day I joined Rue and her grandparents in going to church, which was located in the small town closest to the farm, Kirchheim. The Lutheran church was not large, but it had a small gallery, and normally only few people used it. Mr. Jones had talked to the pastor and explained Rue's condition and her social shyness, and we basically had a small section of the gallery just for ourselves, with the next person in more than five meters distance; this was good enough to allow Rue to feel comfortable and able to not getting distracted or feel uneasy.

When we were back at the farm and Rue helped her grandmother to prepare lunch, Mr. Jones took me aside for a talk.

"Rue's birthday is coming up soon" he said.

"Oh yes," I replied, "I think that she mentioned that her birthday is in June, indeed."

"Yes, and I wonder if you'd like to help getting something organized for her."

"Sure I'd like that. I guess we'd better not get a big party started; she would not want to have many people close to her."

"No, she wouldn't, but on the other hand she likes the other kids in her class, or at least some of them. I was thinking about using an empty barn for some event…"

"Hm, that should be doable I guess. When is the big day?"

"It is June 11th, Monday week after next."

"Did you just say June 11th?"

"Yes, I did – why? Is something wrong with that day?"

"No, no at all, but it happens to be my little sister's birthday as well."

"Oh, wow; okay, this probably implies that you cannot come, I guess."

I was inclined to agree at first, but when I thought about it, I had an idea:

"I am not so sure about that. When Ruth learns about Rue's birthday, she will probably insist to celebrate it together. I wonder how large that barn you have in mind really is?"

"Quite large, but what are you thinking about exactly?"

"As I said, I am convinced that Ruth would love to celebrate her birthday together with Rue, and I am positive that Rue would like that as well. Why can't we have both parties together in the barn?"

"Well, that might be possible, I guess, but how many guests is your sister going to invite? It might be a little tricky to prepare enough food and to get the transport organized."

I understood his concerns and thus suggested:

"Ruth is extremely popular, and she usually has quite a crowd around for her birthday. Let's make a deal; if that barn is large enough and you can prepare chairs and tables and such, I will take care of the transport and the food and drinks. I mean, my family does own a bakery, after all, so that we can directly tap the source."

Grandpa Jones seemed to like that, and while Rue spent some time with her grandmother, we walked out to inspect the barn. It was indeed more than large enough, and it would not be crowded even with more than fifty children in it.

Soon after lunch I took my leave and left for home, not without promising to come again soon. I had noticed that all three of them seemed to like having me around, and I also enjoyed their company a lot.

On my way home I considered what Rue had said when we had had our picnic, and of course she was right. If I had a girlfriend, I would want to spend my weekends with her rather than Rue, and she would probably not approve of me having Rue in my bed sometimes, either. That was not good, and I would really miss that. So, I guessed, no girlfriend for the foreseeable future; of course, this just meant that my situation would not change. Maybe I was really socially retarded; many of the young men I knew around my age were either already married or at least engaged, and most of them had already had more than one girlfriend.

Right on Sunday evening I asked Ruth if she wanted to celebrate her birthday together with Rue, and, as expected, she loved the idea. She had just started to prepare invitations, and I suggested to have a chartered bus pick up the kids plus a few of Rue's classmates directly from school and bring them to the farm. In the evening, not too late, as next day was a school day again, the bus would bring them home again; I volunteered to get this part organized, I helped Ruth to change her invitations, and we got things rolling. Of course I also called the farm and told Mr. Jones that the plan was on.

[Author's Notes: Now let's see how this birthday planing works out.

Side note: Since a couple of weeks ago the monthly traffic stats seem to be broken on the page; maybe some readers could write a quick review, please?]