Chapter Ten: Revelations (pt1)
The sun was well on its way to disappearing over the horizon when a part of the group finally returned to the highway. According to Glenn and Mr. Dixon, as I'd learned was the archer's last name, a woman riding a horse came out of nowhere to take Missus Grimes to her farm... because her son had been shot.
Actually shot.
With a gun 'n everything.
Carl had been shot with a gun and he might die.
Mami wasn't a surgeon, but she told the group that when she was a resident she'd assisted several times before choosing her specialty. Which meant that we were now on our way to the farm. Glenn was leading the way with a still ailing T-Dog riding shotgun. The others were staying at the highway for one more night, in case Sophia managed to find her way back after dark.
By the time Mami pulled up in front of a beautiful manor-like farmhouse -that looked just like the ones from the movies- it was totally dark out. Her rule about no one leaving our RV was still in effect... even though she wasn't going to follow it this evening. Instead, she gave us one of the functioning walkie-talkies and made us promise not to message her unless it was an absolute emergency and to check in with her every ninety minutes.
My mother's frantic departure from the RV, with her bag of medical supplies, left a wake of silence in her absence... at least until Olivia broke it by asking for 'Dora.' Isabella made sure that all the blinds were closed while Alexander cued in another episode onto the TV in the living area, since Eva was still taking a nap in the bedroom.
We hadn't eaten dinner yet, we'd spent most of our time organizing all the supplies we had painstakingly scavenged. I knew how to make a couple of quick meals, since I regularly looked after Isabella and -sometimes- Camila after school while my parents were at work, or if my Abuelita was out with Tia Esther. Honestly, Abuelita had shown me how to make a lot of things... and well, we all liked tuna-pasta... so I put a pot of water to boil and opened one of the tri-colored screw-shaped pastas, pouring it out when I saw bubbles forming in the pot.
Mami had been able to save all the onions and potatoes from our pantry. Although most of the onions were now growing little shoots and the potatoes had more eyes than not. Mami said the first chance she'd get, we'd plant the best onions into one of those little flowerbed window box containers so we'd never run out... though we would need a black garbage bag or a deep bucket to grow the potatoes... so, for now, those were off limits until Mami recovered the eyes for planting. We'd done it once as an experiment two summers ago, so we knew that it worked... the only problem would be where we'd store it. Either way, it was a problem for another day.
I grabbed a nice-sized onion before peeling it and started to slowly finely chop it like I'd been taught before dumping it into a mixing bowl. While Isabella helped me open two cans of tuna and add them to the bowl-Alexander and I spent a few minutes trying to figure out how to get the pasta out without dumping the water.
After all, my cousin had a point. It could be reused to boil pasta again in the future. In the end, we'd had to do it slowly by scooping the pasta out with a slotted spoon, but it worked. I added a little bit of salt, black pepper, and actually opened one of the new jars of mayonnaise to add a spoonful before mixing it all together and declaring the meal done. I let Isabella -who has always been a bit... intense about making sure that everything is fair and equal- serve the portions into bowls for all of us, after making sure to set one plate aside for our mom of course.
It was good.
After making sure that there weren't any onions on our plates, we let Dottie lick them clean before dumping them in the sink. We dutifully checked in with my mother, who told us it was fine if we decided to go to sleep. It wasn't easy getting Camila and Olivia ready for bed, mostly because they both wanted Mami, but we got them into their pajamas and tucked in. Truthfully, I was freaking exhausted and my muscles were starting to truly hurt.
So were Alexander's, I bet, which was why he'd been all too eager to enforce 'bedtime' with my little sisters. I was just grateful to finally shed the dirty clothes I was wearing... even if it still felt icky not to bathe before putting on my pjs.
After taking care of Dottie and the puppies' food, we all crawled into the king-sized bed together and promptly fell asleep... at least for half an hour... before Eva woke up needing only -thankfully, since my mom wasn't back yet- a diaper change.
It was around three- no, four in the morning when Dottie woke me up. She was whining as pitifully as one of her puppies and snuffling my face insistently, the second she noticed that I was awake she bounded out the door only to return when I didn't move to follow her.
A weary sigh escaped from my lips when she whined loudly at the doorway. I carefully shuffled out of the bed before she could wake up one of the babies and followed Dottie. The golden pointedly scratched at the door leading outside.
"Crap." I mumbled, "You need to pee, don't you?"
As if she could understand, Dottie whined and scratched the door insistently once more.
I gnawed on my bottom lip, I couldn't go outside by myself and Mami wasn't back yet. I wasn't about to disobey one of her direct orders, especially not after our talk yesterday- was it yesterday? Nah, it'd been longer than that, hadn't it? Anyway, Mami would never trust me again if she found out that I let Dottie out to pee without her permission. Salvation came in the form of the walkie-talkie we'd left charging on the kitchen counter.
I only hesitated for a moment before lifting it up to my mouth and pressing down on the receiver, "Mami? You there?"
The other line was quiet for a moment before Glenn's voice filtered back sleepily, "Kid? You there? Your mom's still in surgery. Is something wrong? Is someone hurt?" by the time he asked his last question, he sounded a lot more awake. And panicked.
"No," I promised, "no one's hurt... It's just we're not allowed to go outside the RV and I need to..."
There was silence again, though not as long as the first time, "Okay, wait a sec Pillar. This is Pillar, right?"
"Yes."
"Okay, Pillar, I'll be right there. Stay put."
I looked down at Dottie, who was staring up at me imploringly. I wasn't sure if this was better or not... after all, Glenn was going to discover Dottie's existence if he came... but it was either that or Dottie would start barking and wake everyone up. Which meant noise.
Noise.
Noise in general was our biggest enemy in this new world. I slipped Dottie's harness on before clipping the leash in preparation.
Not two minutes passed before Glenn was softly knocking on the door. I grabbed Dottie's harness firmly, so that she couldn't bound out of the RV while I opened the door. I only spared Glenn a brief look -his eyes widened and jaw slacked as he stared down at the furry form trying to tug out of my grip- before leading Dottie out. We were both quiet as Dottie sniffed the ground, only moving a little far away from the RV before squatting and doing her business.
Dottie looked more than a little curious to explore the grounds, but I only had to click my tongue like Mr. Nielson for her to stick back to my side and follow me back to the RV. Before I shut the door behind me, I looked back up at Glenn, "Thank you."
He nodded, ruffling the back of his hair awkwardly, "No problem. Um, when did you get a dog?"
"I used to walk Dottie for Mr. Nielson, our neighbor. I saw her in the yard, couldn't leave her there." I shrugged guiltily, "Please don't tell the others." I whispered pitifully.
"What? Um, why don't you want the others to know?" Glenn asked in a soft voice.
My eyes burned, "They'll kick us out. We're too noisy as it is... 'cause of Olli and Evita, but Dottie's a dog... and you'll kick us out if-"
"Hey, hey. No- don't say that." Glenn denied as he rubbed my shoulders soothingly. "No one's gonna kick you guys out, especially not over a dog. I mean, yeah dogs are kinda noisy, but she's been pretty good so far. We didn't even know she was here."
I sniffed, "She's smart. We didn't notice the herd yesterday. Dottie growled at the door before running to go hide. We wouldn't have noticed if she didn't."
"See!" Glenn grinned, "The dog- Dottie was smart enough not to bark at the walkers. Everything's gonna be just fine."
"Kay," I nodded before fiddling with the hem of Papi's sleep shirt, one that I'd stolen from his bedroom before we left, "Could, maybe could you not tell no one yet? Please? Mami told us to keep her a secret, but, um, well she really needed to go potty and I can't be out here by myself."
He nodded, "It'll be our little secret."
"Thank you, Glenn." I whispered before wrapping my arms around his waist for a quick hug. The guy looked all sorts of awkward when I pulled away, but it didn't make me feel ashamed or weird... Mostly amused that he didn't know how to take a hug. He was still sort of flailing when I turned to go back inside the RV.
"That was stupid." Alexander piped up from where he'd been sitting in the passenger's seat, his voice made me jump and guilt flood into my system, "Smart, but stupid. You shoulda woken me up first."
"When did you get up?" I asked nervously as I undid Dottie's harness.
My cousin shrugged, "I heard you open the door. Freaked me out for a sec, it's a good thing you and el chino didn't go too far. If I hadn't spotted you from the window, I would've gone out there myself and dragged you back here."
"Sorry. You're right, I should've told you first." I admitted sheepishly, "Dottie really needed to go, and Mami was still in surgery... Glenn offered to help. He's the only one that knows though! I swear! He promised not to tell the others about Dottie." I gushed out, "I'll tell Mami what happened tomorrow, well in the morning... later."
He snorted and ran his fingers through his hair, "At least you didn't go out by yourself. Let's just go to sleep before Eva wakes up again."
Words: 1963
(What's this? A chapter after months of radio silence? You must be hallucinating...
I definitely didn't become motivated to update because I was avoiding finishing my Italian exam. That would be absurd. Pure slander. Perish the thought. I am at the peak of responsibility. A Queen of doing what's right.)