“It’s nice and cool in here,” Clarisse said as soon as they walked into the darkened building.
“Yeah, a small perk. It’s all the marble. This was once a really nice building. And now it’s where, thanks to Mark, people get over their hangovers,” he said with a chuckle.
Clarisse said, “Augh, you’re kidding me.” Dalton laughed while laying Paige down on clean, crisp sheets.
“It happens. A coping mechanism for all the tragedy we’ve encountered. It’s unavoidable,” McCann said. “If it’s too bad, we hook them up with oxygen and IV fluids like you taught me.”
She nodded. McCann was a capable doctor, even without the degree. “Let’s hope Mark’s enterprise doesn’t cause more problems than it’s worth. Beer is not necessary,” Clarisse said, then asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“What do you mean beer’s not necessary?” Dalton asked.
“Meaning it’s not essential,” she explained. Certainly they could see the logic in that statement. Any indulgence that had the potential to take a soldier out of commission the next day was a detriment.
“Oh no…that’s one lesson of the past we don’t need to relive. Prohibition never worked.”
“Are you defending your right to beer?” she said and smiled, knowing full well cutting off the brew, now that they had it again, would never happen.
“I am. So you get that foolhardy notion out of your head right now,” Dalton said with a sly smile.
“I must also veto that idea,” McCann said. “Foolish, foolish lady.”
“McCann? Where do I put this one?” Bang said from the door, and Clarisse turned to see him with Cheryl in his arms. She was awake but looked a bit groggy. And Bang looked a bit uncomfortable at having to carry the unknown child.
“Hang on, Cheryl,” Bang soothed as she moved in his arms.
Clarisse looked at the adjoining bed. She wasn’t sure how either one of them would react to one another. For all they knew, they were wrong, and the two refugees didn’t belong together. Perhaps they were assuming too much. The child could be someone else’s Cheryl.
“We have the other room too, but it’s way down the hall. I’ll be here regardless. You can settle the girl next to Paige’s bed and I’ll just be across the hall where I can see them both,” McCann said.
“Okay, that’ll work. I don’t want Cheryl down there where we can’t hear her. Let me give the little one more pain meds, and then after I eat, I’ll come back and relieve you. We’ll figure out the schedule later.”
“At least there’re two of us here. What do they do without a doctor here all the time?” McCann said.
“Rick’s pretty good in a pinch,” Dalton said.
Clarisse looked at him.
“No, seriously. He can dress a wound,” Dalton insisted.
Bang laid Cheryl in the bed and McCann took the opportunity to greet his brother properly, patting him on the back and shaking his hand. “It’s only been a few weeks, but I missed you, man. I swear you’re taller, but you’ll never be taller than me.”
Clarisse laughed. Few were taller than McCann. “Boys,” she mused as she poured water into a cup and helped Cheryl sit up a little more to swallow the pain pill. The girl looked around the room and then back up to her. “You’re all right, hon. You’re safe. This is McCann; he’s going to watch over you, and I’ll bring you dinner soon.” Her eyelids fluttered, and Clarisse laid her back down on the pillow.
“Her name is Cheryl, right? She looks pretty out of it. And this one, you said her name is Paige?” McCann said.
Bang said, “What kind of name is Paige?”
McCann gave his brother a look. “Bang…Bang.”
Ignoring them, Clarisse said, “Yes, those are their names. We’ll start weaning them off the pain meds tomorrow. Cheryl’s been through a lot, poor thing. And this one,” Clarisse pointed to Paige, “was a bit hysterical on the ride over here. I had to sedate her. We think she’s looking for this one. Let’s keep her out for a while. She’s had a long day. Hopefully in the morning they can reunite if they actually know one another.”
It was Dalton who said, “You know, they don’t look anything alike. Are we sure they’re mother and daughter?”
“I don’t look anything like Dad, but I’m his son. Maybe it’s like that,” Bang said.
“True…we make our own family these days,” Dalton said.
“Okay, well, you guys go have dinner. I’ve got this for now,” McCann said.
“I’ll bring back something for the two of them, then, and I’ll stay with them tonight. I want to make sure they’re okay,” said Clarisse.
“You’re the boss,” McCann said.
And because she wasn’t sure of the reaction Paige would have at finding her daughter right next to her, Clarisse took one last look at her two patients. She’d rather have them in separate rooms. The unknown always concerned her more than anything. “Keep an eye on them, McCann. If anything...”
He smiled and put up a hand. “I’ve got this. I had a great teacher. If there’re any problems at all, I’ll radio. Go. Relax.”
She smiled then, and Bang and Dalton took her arm and led her back to the others.
By the time they returned, Clarisse was drenched in her own sweat.
“Man, it’s hot,” Bang said.
“What I wouldn’t give for air conditioning,” Clarisse said, and as they neared the building, they heard the voices of their friends and family catching up. She couldn’t help but smile despite the danger. It was always this way with their group. It made her smile without knowing it.
Rick was laughing and when he spotted her, his grin broke even wider. He scooted over on the bench to make room for them at the table, “Lemonade?” Rick offered.
“Are you kidding? Where’d you get that?” Clarisse asked.
Olivia said, “It’s powdered drink mix. Don’t get your hopes up. I haven’t seen a lemon, lime or banana in ages. It’s a wonder we all don’t have scurvy by now.”
“We have watermelon,” Rick said and passed her a plate of bright red wedges.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Clarisse said. “We can’t grow them well over there. I guess the season’s longer here.”
“They’re those little butterball ones but they grow,” Rick said.
She took a wedge and passed the plate to Dalton as she bit into the point. Juice ran down her chin and she wiped it away with the back of her hand, feeling as if she were a six-year-old again and just spent a hot day running through the sprinklers, instantly transported back in time to a normal childhood day when things were so much simpler. “What could be better on a hot summer day?”
Dalton grabbed a few dishes at a time and spooned chilled potato salad, fried chicken and baked beans on their plates while she enjoyed the sweet treat.
“This is heaven,” she said, now understanding why everyone seemed so content, at least for the moment. It wasn’t just the company, it was the food too. Olivia was always a wonder in the kitchen feeding the crew.
“There’s bacon in this?” Clarisse said as she finished a spoonful of baked beans. “You’re curing meat now too?”
It was Rick who answered in a high tone. “It’s pancetta, to be exact. We’re trading with the folks to the north. But we also have a bacon source here.”
Clarisse looked at Sam, always the silent one until a question was asked. “Is that right? Your old friends?”
Sam nodded. “I might have hooked them up last time I was here.”
“With Mark’s beer?” Clarisse asked between bites.
“They can make their own, but Mark’s a good businessman, and they were open to trade,” Sam said.
“Where are Mark and Marcy?” Clarisse asked, just realizing they weren’t among the group.
Macy looked up after wiping Ennis’s sticky fingers from watermelon juice and said, “They’ll be back. They went to get Lucy and her family from Liberty Lake.”
“Oh, didn’t we pass by there on our way here?” Clarisse asked.
“Yes, but they’re bringing them in, so it’s going to take a while,” Macy said with a nervous glance at Rick.
“Hmm,” Clarisse said to herself. She wasn’t sure what that was all about.
But Rick guessed what was on Clarisse’s mind. “We’re sending all the children and young pregnant mothers on the ferry to the far side of the lake, where they’ll be safer.”
“And I don’t want to go,” Macy said.
Clarisse glanced at her own children sitting at the kid’s table with the others and said, “Um, let’s talk about that, Rick.”
“I knew it!” Rick said suddenly as a gust of slightly cooler wind blew into the patio and just then rain poured down as if God himself turned on a spigot to full blast.
Amongst squeals, everyone grabbed what they could and hurried inside the building.
“A storm’s coming,” Clarisse said a drenched moment later as she stood on the other side of the glass watching the wind pick up speed, whipping the trees in the park hard enough to loosen their leaves.
“It’s already here,” Rick said quietly.
And because of the way he said it, a shiver ran through her, knowing neither of them were talking about the hard rain before them.