The King of Clayfield - 01 (39 page)

The full shopping carts were still waiting where we'd left them. We didn't bother unloading them; we just pulled out the dolly ramp on the truck and pushed the carts inside. They only took up the front portion of the box. We used the straps in the truck to keep them from rolling around. It took us about a half an hour, and we were starting to lose daylight.
 

"Are we doing Tractor Supply today?" Sara asked.

"No," I said. "Let's take this stuff back to the stables, and we'll come back tomorrow."

I pulled down the rear door on the
 
truck and latched it.

"We can leave the minivan here," I said.

I got to thinking that it might be a good idea at some point to
 
park cars at strategic places around town.
 
Then if we were ever in a bind and
 
without a vehicle, we'd know where to
 
find one. I made a mental note to put that on our list of things to do. We could take a map of the city--maybe even the whole county--and
 
spend a
 
day or two parking cars. It might just save our life one day.

We moved all the guns we had with us--Somerville's .30-06 and 12 gauge, and the .22 rifle Jen had found at the Kaler house our second day together.

We didn't talk much on the way back to
 
the Lassiter house. This was the first time Sara and I had been alone together, and it felt kind of awkward, especially since Jen had been acting the way she had. I'd had no trouble talking with Sara when the three of
 
us were together, but like this, I couldn't think of
 
much to say.

"Do you still want to go out with
 
Mr. Somerville and look for survivors?" I said.

"You mean after what we've seen today?"
 
she said. "It makes me think twice about it."

"I've been wondering if he's okay," I said. "Jen's bite wasn't healing, and he had several bites on him. We should check on him tomorrow. We might want to
 
get him to the doctor."

It
 
was getting dark when we pulled into the driveway. I
 
was in
 
no rush to unload the truck, so we left it for another time.

Sara
 
got
 
a pot of water
 
warming on the stove for us to use for bathing while I worked on the fire. There were still some
 
glowing embers left
 
from the morning. I
 
got the flames going again, and
 
put
 
in some
 
split wood.

It was strange for Jen not to be there.
 
I'd grown so accustomed to having her around the past several days, and I was already
 
missing her. We'd all planned to have pizza, and I
 
didn't want to do that without her.

I went into the kitchen.

"The bath water is hot, you can take it," Sara said. "I'll start another
 
one."

"No," I said. "You go first."

She smiled, "Really. I'll make something to eat while you get cleaned up, and I'll wash up after dinner."

"We'll wait on the pizzas until Jen is back, okay?" I said.

I took the pot of water into the bathroom.
 
It was cold in there, but I got undressed anyway. I stood in the tub and gave myself a sort of sponge bath.
 
I'd bathed like this several times the past few days. It wasn't comfortable at all, but it got me clean. I
 
was thinking about all of the water I had used in the past
 
to shower or bathe, and here I was getting clean with
 
not much more than a half gallon. I could have probably used less.
 
Still, I would have loved a long hot shower right then.

When I came
 
back to the kitchen, Sara had vegetable soup on the table. There was another pot of water
 
on the stove already steaming.

"Thanks for the food," I said.

"I just warmed up some canned stuff," she said. "I'm not a real cook."

"Thanks for doing it, though."

She smiled.

"Jen's going to be okay," she said. "Don't worry about her. I broke my leg when I was a kid, and I healed up okay. She's tough."

I wanted to talk to her about Jen but I didn't know how.

"I'm sorry
 
for the way Jen has been acting," I said.

She shrugged and frowned.

"She
 
can be kind of...um..." I couldn't find the right word.

"Crass?" Sara said.

"Well--"

"How about rude? How about
 
bitchy?"
 

"Yeah," I laughed. "She can be all of those things."

She smiled again.

"Do you two have a history or something?"

"No," I said. "No history. We went to high school together, but we actually only started getting to know one another since the virus."

"She doesn't like me," Sara said.

"I think she's just...I think maybe she's....I don't know."

"She's afraid you're going to like me more than her," Sara said bluntly. She went back to eating her soup.

"Tomorrow, we can let the extra horses go," I said, changing the subject. "Do you have any ideas on that? I guess it'll be just me and you with Jen being injured."

"No," she said. "I don't know a lot about farm stuff."

"That's okay," I said. "We're all learning."

"Thank you for being so nice to me," she said. "I know you've been taking up for me with Jen."

"Sure," I said.

"I think my water is ready," she said. "You can have the rest of my soup."

She left the room with the pot of water.

When I finished eating, I poured
 
myself some
 
Southern Comfort and went into the living room to sit by the fire. I was just about over my TV withdrawals,
 
and staring at the fire (or glowing kerosene heater) had become a nice way to wind down in the evening. I presumed Jen was sleeping now, full of pain meds.

The room was so warm, and I was relaxed. I listened to the fire
 
pop and hiss. I heard
 
Sara moving around in the other room.
 
She came to the
 
living room wrapped in a blanket.

"It's so cold in that bathroom," she said. "I'll be glad when it is summer.”

"Yeah, but then we won't have air conditioning," I said. "We
 
could start using that kerosene heater in there when we're bathing."

She sat on the
 
end of the couch nearest the fire.

"That kerosene stinks," she said. "I like the fireplace better."

"How did you stay warm at the church?"

"They had a gas range in the fellowship hall. I stayed close to it."

She looked at my glass.

"Do
 
we need to drink something tonight?"

"I do," I said. "I
 
came in contact with some when I was looking for the minivan. Besides,
 
I'm a little shook up from today, and this helps."

She stood and stepped closer to the fireplace.

"It is so
 
different now," she said, staring into the fire. "It makes me wonder about everything I've ever been taught. All the people
 
I ever
 
knew are gone...are changed. It's not
 
fair that my family
 
should get sick, but
 
those men at Lowes this morning
 
didn't."

"They didn't make it either," I said.

"I know," she said. "Maybe they got it worse than the rest, but.... I don't know. Why would my pastor
 
get sick? He
 
was a good man. He'd never hurt
 
anybody before, but I saw him hurt people after. I had to lock him out of the church so he wouldn't hurt me."

She turned
 
toward me.

"Does that seem
 
right to you?"

"No," I said.

"I'm glad
 
I met you," she said. "I feel safe with you."

"I'm glad I met you, too," I said.

She took a step closer to me and let the blanket fall
 
to the floor.
 

"Whoa..." was all I could say.

She had
 
a body like one of those pin-up models from the 1950s--soft, curvy. I'd never seen a more perfect example of the female
 
form in real life, and I'd never been this close to an unclothed one.
 
Flawless fair skin, full lips, soft
 
down of pubic hair, every part of her perfectly shaped and proportioned. Standing in the firelight, she looked like a goddess. My mouth went dry, and my heart raced.

Her reddish-blonde hair was short, but her bangs curled down over one eye. She brushed
 
them away,
 
and
 
they bounced back.

I put my glass on the floor, stood up and stumbled a little.

"Whoa, Sara...what are you doing?"

She came in close to me. I could smell
 
the warmth of her body.

She didn't speak; she just took my hands and put them on her waist, resting them on the swell of her hips.

She felt like heaven. I pulled my hands away and stepped back.

"I want you to touch me."

"Sara...I...what about Jen?"

"Jen is a bully. She's not your type."

I chuckled a little, "Actually...she
is
my type. I always go for women like her."

"Well maybe you should try something different," she said, stepping close to me again. "What about it?
 
You want to
 
try me out?"
 

"But you...um...you're....What about your church? What about your boyfriend?"

"That's all gone now. I'm not a virgin, if that's what you think. I haven't been the slut that Jen has probably been, but I know what I'm doing. I'm very much a woman."

"Oh...I can...I can see you're a woman."

"I've noticed
 
how you look
 
at me," she said. "I know you want this."

I stepped away from her again.

"Wanting it and doing it
 
are two different things, and--"

My body was screaming at me:
Are you crazy?!
 
Do it!
 
Be a caveman like the rest!

"You want it, and I'm offering it, so what's the problem?"

She moved in again and put my hands back on her hips. I swallowed hard. I
 
tried to step back again, but I was against the wall. She pressed herself against me. I felt light-headed.

"You have no idea how bad I want it," I
 
said. "But--"

"Oh, I can feel how bad you want it," she whispered back.

"But I can't," I said. "I...I'd be betraying Jen."

"So you two are really together? She told me you were, but I just figured it was her being pushy again."

"Well, we never did anything official...I mean, we just kind of....”

She smiled and put her hand on my face.

"It's okay," she said, smiling. "You're being loyal. At least there's still a little right left in the world."

My hands were still on her hips, and she was still pressed against me. I didn't want it to end, but if it didn't....

She stood on tiptoes and kissed my cheek.

"You're a decent
 
man; maybe one day you'll want a
 
decent woman."