She turned to look at him with her vivid brown-flecked green eyes. “I felt pretty silly after running off.”
“No reason to,” Trev assured her. “I really couldn’t have picked a worse time or way to pop the question.”
That made Deb smile faintly. “No, you really couldn’t have. But yesterday was still pretty lonely and miserable, and I spent the entire time wishing I was with you.”
That felt good to hear. “Same here.” He carefully took her hand. “No reason we can’t give it another try.”
“Exactly.” She took a nervous breath. “By which I mean if you have something you want to ask me, I’ll handle it a bit better this time.”
That was a very strong hint Trev could expect a “yes”, and mingled elation and panic swept through him. Deb was making this easy on him, which he appreciated. But at the same time… “Let’s wait a bit.”
He saw disappointment flash across his girlfriend’s face, then she nodded a bit glumly and withdrew her hand. “Yeah you’re right. We agreed to take it slow.”
“Well that’s not exactly the reason,” Trev admitted. It wasn’t really romantic to spoil the surprise, but he didn’t want her thinking he was rejecting her or getting cold feet. “It has more to do with that “terrible time and way to pop the question” part of it.” He gestured wryly towards the outdoor slaughtering floor the others were preparing. “Not to mention place.”
“Ah.” Her eyes crinkled in a genuine smile. “In that case take your time.”
He planned to. Because in spite of what he’d said, taking it slow was also part of the reason. He enjoyed snuggling, and would definitely like to try kissing some more, but there was no hurry. Doing things right was his priority.
Of course there was such a thing as taking it too slow, especially since Deb was giving him the go-ahead to take the next big step. Still, he’d try to strike a balance.
Until then he had a less than pleasant job to do, and procrastinating wouldn’t get it done any faster. “I should get to work. You’re welcome to stick around if you want.”
Deb made a face. “Thanks, but I think Linda had the right idea.” She delicately leaned up to peck him on the lips. “I’ll see you at home.”
At home. He liked that she was starting to think of his room that way, although it also slammed him with the reality that their relationship was getting serious quick. Which was great, but it was also a first for him and more than a little intimidating. He was treading new territory here, and like it or not that territory might have more than its share of landmines.
Which made him all the more determined to tread carefully.
This was going to be a messy job, so Trev and the others converted plastic sheets into aprons and taped plastic bags over their gloves. Once they were ready they worked quickly, prepping the handful of animals and each handling their task.
The job didn’t exactly go like clockwork since some tasks took longer than others, and they especially had bottlenecks with the skinning and quartering. The cold also complicated everything, and they had to be extra careful to avoid fumbling knives held in chilled, slippery plastic covered and gloved fingers. Nobody wanted to accidentally cut themselves.
Still, they managed to finish the task well before noon, got the meat locked away in the ice shed and the hides hung to freeze as they were until they could be cured, and the extra bits of bone and gristle and the remainder of the carcasses gathered up and stored away so the town could make soup broth out of them, in large pots to be shared with the less well off and to feed the defenders and others doing work for the town. As for the offal, there were a few townspeople who owned dogs that would likely enjoy a treat.
After that the only thing left to do was clean up the area, wash up as best they could, and shake hands all around before going their separate ways. Trev couldn’t help but notice that Hailey and Robert kept their distance a bit, wary of whooping cough. Rick and Scott had come in contact with Lucas recently enough that it wasn’t quite as big an issue with them, although even they were a bit cautious.
Trev trudged home beside Matt, once more faced with grim thoughts of his uncle’s sickness. He didn’t want to think of what might happen, and not just because he loved the man and didn’t want to lose him. Lucas was the effective leader of the shelter group, a reassuring voice of reason and direction during difficult times. With him bedridden they’d struggle, and he didn’t even want to consider how they’d manage without him if worse came to worst.
When he popped into his family’s cabin his mom told him she’d already brought soup over for the Halssons, but he wanted to visit and report on how the butchering had gone so he made his way over anyway. Lewis had felt a bit bad about fobbing his share of the work off on Robert this morning, but Trev had insisted. Aside from wanting to ease his cousin’s burdens, Trev had also been worried that Lewis was so exhausted and emotionally distraught that working around sharp implements would be a risk.
If he hoped his visit would help lift the pall over the house he was discouraged. Everyone was exhausted and drawn with worry, and from his quarantine room Lucas’s coughing came far too frequently. They left the door between rooms open so he could still talk to everyone in the main room, and hear what was said, but that also meant his suffering was impossible to ignore.
Trev excused himself quickly, feeling a bit bad about it. The only highlight of the morning was that Deb was there in his room when he got home, once again comfortably curled on his bed reading a book.
When his girlfriend saw how chilled and dispirited he was she immediately went to get him some hot food and started water heating for him to wash up, then did her best to distract him from his worries with conversation.
He was definitely going to marry her.
From the looks of it the whooping cough was contained to just a few cases, all of which Terry and Dr. Langstrom were able to identify and quarantine in time to halt the spread. That was a relief, but for Lewis hardly a comfort.
He didn’t get sick, and neither did anyone else in the shelter group, but the next thirteen days were still hell for him. It was horrible knowing that nothing he went through even came close to matching what his dad was going through, but what made it worst of all was that he had to bear the burden of having given away the medicine that would’ve solved the problem.
A very small mercy in all this was that Lucas was spared from the increasingly intense coughing fits leading to vomiting, although he occasionally gagged when spitting up phlegm. But that seemed to be the only thing he was spared. As the days passed he cracked a lower right and upper left rib, both of which made even the slightest movements incredibly painful, so simply laying in bed became a chore. He also averaged only an hour or two of sleep a day at best, the coughing forcing him awake and then keeping him up no matter how exhausted he became. He also ate less and less until even a mouthful was a struggle, and he suffered for it with intense bouts of prolonged coughing.
At least he was able to drink as much water as he wanted without suffering for it, but it didn’t seem to ease his suffering either. Or more correctly, when he didn’t drink enough and his mouth and throat got dry he suffered painfully, but drinking more offered no benefit.
Terry and Dr. Langstrom had already regretfully informed him that no matter how hard they searched, there was no medicine available for treatment or even to relieve his symptoms. That didn’t stop Lewis from scouring the town looking. All he got in return was a lot of guilty apologies from neighbors, with the assurances that if they did have something they’d share it. There were two more storms during that time, and more days with infrequent snowfall. The temperature stayed low enough that all the new snow stuck around, so traveling to the nearby refugee camp or any other town or military location for help was impossible, as was calling in aid over the radio.