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“Well, who gave it to him?” Ted asked wearily. He sat on the couch in the crowded lobby of the small hotel having a gathering with most of his kids.
“Dunno,” Greenie said sullenly. She shifted, so that she was nearly behind Toad. The big teen had become very protective of her.
Ted wasn’t sure what to make of their relationship. Neither one was what he might deem normal, but he couldn’t tell if either one was taking advantage of the other. He hoped that if the arrangement started to rub that one of them would speak to him. But that was something that needed to go on the back burner until this drug problem was dealt with. “Spread the word. This stuff is deadly. It isn’t fun. It’s poison. I’m telling you to stay away from it, not because I’m being mean, okay?” He looked around the room noting who nodded and who avoided his eyes. “If you drink it, you will die.”
“We’re going to die anyway,” said Little Sue morosely. “Just a matter of time.”
“Well sure, but there’s no need to rush it along,” Nixie said.
“They’re saying there isn’t any food left,” Greenie mumbled from behind Toad.
Ted rubbed his forehead. He’d been dispelling these rumors for days and now worried that there was a grain of truth in them. “Did you have enough to eat today?”
A soft rumble went around the room. Ted could see that the kids were worried. They had all been feral before he’d found them, some longer than others. Living in houses and working for money were new concepts for them. Ted feared that a food shortage might break down the advances that he’d seen in many of them.
“I will make sure that everybody gets a fair amount, okay? If it starts getting tough, we will all share. If everybody gives a little bit, we’ll have enough.” He looked at their faces seeing doubt in too many of them. “It’s only until the new crops come in. And we have the garden, too.”
“Sure,” Nixie joined in. “There’s lots of stuff growing that we can pick soon, but we’re saving it for now.” She glared around the room.
Ted had noticed some plants missing from the garden. He wasn’t sure if they had been taken to grow elsewhere or eaten. Or if he was over thinking it, and should blame the thefts on squirrels. “We have food here,” he said firmly. “If you’re hungry, you can come here. You all know that you can always come here, right?” That got a lot of nods. He was glad to see that the kids still trusted him. “But please don’t drink that stuff.”
“Purple Pickle,” Greenie said with a giggle. “Isn’t that a silly name?”
“Is it purple?” Ted asked.
“I've never seen it.”
He looked around, but the kids that wouldn’t meet his eyes didn’t answer. “Anybody have anything to say about anything?”
“When you guys gettin’ married?”Little Sue asked, starting the hoots and cheers running through the crowd.
Nixie stood up with her serious face on. “Haven’t decided yet. We’ll let you know. All done? Yes? Okay, off you go.” She shooed the kids along.
Ted knew that she was very touchy about that topic. Ever since they’d discussed the possibility of marriage, she’d run the gamut from glee to despair. He had mixed feelings about it himself. There hadn’t been any formal marriages in the community. Some couples had moved in together, but no one had done the whole ceremony and party route. He wondered if it was appropriate when they were all still scrambling for survival.
“We don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he said gently.
“I want to,” she said limply. Now she was wearing her sad face. “I don’t know. It seems like a bad time.” There was an undercurrent to her words that he hoped meant that she wanted to be encouraged.
“There will never be a good time,” Ted said. “There’s always something about to happen.”
“I don’t know what we’re supposed to do.” Nixie plopped down into an armchair across the room with a great sigh.
“There are no rules,” he said. “We can do anything you want because we are the first. So if you want to stand in front of the train station and sing a song that’s fine with me.” That made her smile, which was what he’d intended.
“Do you think it’s too crazy?”
He knew her question was actually about whether someone might object to two biobots getting legally married when they were not legal entities under the old laws of the country. Angus had been stumped when Ted had asked him for permission. He’d simply said that it was a new world, and the old laws no longer applied. But that hadn’t addressed the larger issue of how the community might react. Some days, that scared him to death.
“I think that I would like to declare, in front of my dearest friends and family that I have chosen to spend the rest of my life as your partner, mate and companion.”
Nixie face scrunched up in a big smile. She had changed since James had done the plastic surgery on her face. The angry scar that had run from her forehead to her chin was a mere line now. Along with the loss of that reminder, she seemed to have put behind her some of the anger from that attack. She smiled more often. And just might believe Ted now when he said that he loved her. “I would like that, too,” she said with a coy wink. “But we have to wait until my parents get here.”
“Of course. We should be hearing from them any day.” Ted knew that Nixie was worried about how long it was taking to hear from her parents. They should be at their Winter Camp and therefore, should have received Nixie’s letter about setting a wedding date. Ted had calculated the time for the letter to reach Rosa and Istvan, and how long it would take for their reply to arrive in High Meadow. He’d checked his math a dozen times. He was sure that they should have heard by now.
“Do you think they’re traveling already?” Nixie asked the question she’d been asking at least once a day.
“It’s always possible,” Ted answered, as he had repeatedly. “The weather might have been favorable for them to get on the road.”
“They hate staying put all winter. I bet they hooked up the wagons as soon as they could.”
This was the part of the discussion that Ted tried to avoid. Not having any long distance communication was difficult. They wrote letters but couldn’t know when they might arrive. Train stations were acting as provisional post offices now. But if Nixie’s parents had started their yearly trading trek across the country, the letter may have arrived too late.
The bell on the front desk rang, interrupting them. “I’ll get it,” Ted said almost guiltily. He hurried away, glad for the excuse to stop poking at a question he couldn’t answer. They were running the new Transition Center, and it came with a busy workload. Ted and Nixie were responsible for any refugees who came into the Survivor’s Alliance. Angus had moved them into a hotel near the train station. Ted didn’t mind. There was plenty of room for any of the kids that needed a place to stay.
Ted entered the reception area to find Drew, the head of the Greeting Committee, with a woman and two children. One child sat on the woman’s bony hip while the other shyly clutched her trouser leg.
“Welcome,” he said sincerely and was glad to see a tenuous smile in return.