He opened a drawer and there were some of Manda’s clothes in there. “I had her bring some of her old stuff out a few months ago. We brought out some of Cole’s clothes, too. I saw this …” he stopped. He was about to say he saw this coming, but he was determined not to gloat, so he pretended to switch topics. “I saw this dresser at a garage sale when I got the bed. Just $50.”
Lisa made a mental note. They would have far fewer changes of clothes out there. But, then again, that meant doing fewer loads of laundry. That would be one of the big changes to living out at the cabin that she and everyone else would have to adapt to: wearing the same clothes all the time. Tee shirts and shorts or jeans, at least in the summer. No dress up clothes; those seemed like a waste. Besides, no one brought dress up clothes. Dress up for what? Work in an office? No one was going to work anymore, at least not out there. Dress up for a fancy dinner at a restaurant? Not happening. Lisa realized that she dressed up for other people, to fit in with them when they were similarly dressed up, but there was no one around now who was dressing up. She could live in tee shirts and shorts, or sweat pants when it got cooler. It would take some getting used to, but it would be fine.
Lisa realized the same would be true for makeup. She didn’t bring any. At first she felt naked without it. Then she thought about it. She put on makeup to go to work or the mall. That wouldn’t be a problem anymore. At least, until things got back to normal. She wasn’t around her girlfriends who all wore makeup. She didn’t need to impress anyone out there. So, after her first impulse, which was to feel naked without makeup, she actually got comfortable with the idea. She didn’t have to spend all that time on makeup. What a relief. Maybe this vacation out at the cabin wouldn’t be so bad after all. “Vacation” was what she was calling it in her head. She was viewing this as a vacation.
On every vacation they had ever been on, Grant would bring in the heavy luggage and Lisa would put it in the dressers and closets of whatever hotel they were in. She wanted to organize the stuff. Grant would get one dresser drawer for his stuff and she and the kids would get the rest of them. Grant and Lisa smoothly transitioned into their vacation roles. “I’ll bring in all the stuff,” Grant said. “It’s all in your Tahoe, right?”
“Yep,” Lisa said. “Thanks.”
Things were feeling a little “normal.”
While Grant was out at her Tahoe, he saw Drew and Eileen who were chatting with John and Mary Anne. They were about the same ages. It was nice to see them making friends so quickly. Not that he was surprised; it was just nice.
When Grant came up to them, Mary Anne and Eileen were talking about canning. “Oh, I haven’t canned in years,” Eileen said. “But I’d love to get back into it.” Grant remembered that Eileen and Drew grew up in little tiny farm towns in Eastern Washington. They would get snowed in for weeks at a time. They had some skills to dust off and use out there.
Grant said, “Excuse me.” He motioned to Drew and Eileen. “When you’re ready, I can show you where you will be staying and where to put your stuff.” They broke off the conversation and followed Grant back into the cabin.
As they were walking toward the cabin Grant said, “It’ll be a little cozy, but…”
“We’ll probably be up in the loft,” Drew said. “Fine with me. I snore a little, but not too bad.”
“I think it will be great to be so close to the kids,” Eileen said.
When they got upstairs to the loft and saw their bed, a nice queen size, next to the kids’ bed, Eileen said, “This is how we did it back on the farm. A few kids per bed and grandma. Six kids, but not six bedrooms like everyone has now.” Grant nodded.
That’s right, Grant thought, things were getting back to what was historically normal. It was not “normal” anywhere else in the world or throughout history for everyone to have their own room and several bathrooms in each house. It was nice, but not normal by world standards. People didn’t burst into flames back in the day when kids shared beds and grandparents lived in the same house. In fact, it made most families closer. It would take a little adjustment, but Grant thought this coziness just might be a good thing. Hey, he thought, they had free babysitting built right in with the grandparents there. And they had people with skills, like canning, right there, too.
Grant showed them their dresser drawers. “I’ll go out to your car and get your things,” he said to Eileen, knowing that she would account for about 75% of the luggage. Sure enough. Drew packed light. He was happy to bring just casual clothes. He had worn a suit for years and couldn’t stand them. This would be like a fishing resort vacation, except with the family instead of his business buddies.
Drew still had his pistol on him although it was concealed. Out in his car, he had a shotgun and a few boxes of ammo. He also had a .357/.38 Marlin lever action carbine and a few boxes of ammo, which would be nice for him to have. He had a Ruger 10/22 carbine and an old Browning Buckmark .22 pistol. Perfect. He had one suitcase of clothes. That was it.
Eileen had filled the car with her suitcases. That was fine. She had brought some dress up clothes. She was looking at the cabin as a more “normal” vacation where she might have people over and want to dress up, or maybe go out to a nice dinner. She could think that if she wanted. There was no harm in having those things as long as she didn’t get upset when she had no occasion to wear them. She brought a lot of makeup. That was fine. Maybe Lisa could borrow it if she really wanted to have some.
Lisa came up to Grant and whispered, “Uh, I don’t have any feminine supplies. How long do you think we’ll be out here?”
“Long enough to need them, maybe,” Grant said. That was an understatement. But he didn’t want to say that he assumed they could be out here for a few years.
Grant had meant to go to Costco and get several hundred…feminine supplies. He didn’t even like saying “tampon.” He almost got some of…those things one time, when he and Manda were at Costco. He was about to give her a bunch of cash and have her go in and get several hundred for her and her mom, but he chickened out. He just couldn’t acknowledge that she and her mom…needed those. It was totally irrational, but he was raised that men just didn’t talk about that topic. At all. Ever.
Grant felt like an idiot. Mr. Prepper didn’t have a very important and totally foreseeable item. He was kicking himself for not just manning up and buying several cases of…those things.
“In the morning I need to go to the store and get some,” Lisa said.
What? She thought she would just waltz into town and get some like this was some item on her shopping list? Did she have any idea how dangerous things were out there?
Normally, Grant would volunteer to go on an armed escort run into the looting city and get the supplies, but not these supplies. There was something about a guy buying feminine supplies that was, well, impossible. He thought about it: he was really willing to risk his wife dying on a trip into town just so he didn’t have to buy tampons? What was wrong with him? Talk about “normalcy bias”—he was suffering from it. Not for long.
“I’ll go into town with some of the guys for back up,” Grant said. “We’ll make a big list of things like this and hit the store in the morning.”
Lisa smiled. She remembered how, just a few years ago, Grant would joke that the most humiliating thing that could happen to a man was buying tampons. But, now Grant was being a good husband and doing it. He wasn’t so bad, Lisa thought.