‘Well, we’ll soon fatten her up! And just think; if we’d been a minute earlier or later we might have missed her.’ Jane smiled at him, stroked his face and kissed him then they went off to bed.
Twenty-one
During the next week they noticed a change in Megan as she got to know them better and became used to her new surroundings and her new situation. For the first few days her mood was prone to change suddenly and she would go from being happy and laughing to sudden bouts of crying or sadness. It was hardly surprising, given the trauma that she had suffered: for five months she had struggled to survive on her own and to find enough food and water to live on, and hadn’t spoken to anyone during that time. On one occasion Jane found her curled up on her bed in tears, clutching the photo of her mum and dad.
As the week progressed, though, the crying and the mood swings became less frequent. Jamie and Jane discussed it when they were on their own in the evenings and they knew it would probably take many months for Megan to put everything behind her and move on. It wasn’t just losing her parents that she had to contend with, or the months spent on her own; there was also the whole new order of things in the country for her to understand and come to terms with.
During the days spent working in the garden with them, or when out and about checking snares with either of them, she talked constantly and asked sensible and pertinent questions. She always thought carefully about what they told her, trying to get her head around it all. She began to understand better that this wasn’t a temporary situation that would be resolved, and that this now was their way of life. Max’s company was a constant tonic to her and she spent a lot of time playing with him, which they were pleased to see.
She was keen to learn about cooking and preparing food, and watched them both in the kitchen, always asking if she could help with something. Jane showed her how to make bread: they still had some packets of dried yeast left, which would be usable for a while yet, and Jamie demonstrated how to prepare a rabbit and she wasn’t at all squeamish. They showed her how to prepare different vegetables and explained the importance of preserving the food they gathered or caught for the winter when things would be scarce, now that there weren’t fridges or freezers, and she was intrigued by it all. She also started to show some independence, asking Jane if she minded if she went down to the sea to wash on her own, and Jane said of course not.
Towards the end of the week Megan opened up a bit about her parents and her time on her own, and although sad she was able to talk about it without crying every time. On one such occasion Jane asked her if she had seen any other survivors in all that time.
‘Well, I didn’t see any people in the streets,’ she answered, ‘but I saw three cars go past. I think the first two were in March or April and the third one was in May. I saw the first two through shop windows while I was out looking for food. The first one had two men in it and was going up the road to Ninfield. The second one had a man and a woman in it. I ran outside and saw it go up to the roundabout and turn down Turkey Road.’ She explained that the third one had been going down the road into town, but she had only seen the back of it. From her description it sounded like it might have been a Land Rover. It was just possible that she had seen Sarah and Georgie on a trip into town, but then again a Land Rover was a fairly common vehicle in the surrounding areas.
The weather improved as the week progressed, becoming warm and sunny. On the Thursday Jamie offered to take Megan out fishing on the boat and she jumped at the opportunity. Bill and Emma and Sarah and Georgie were coming for lunch the following day and he hoped to catch something to cook for them. He put a life jacket on her and tightened the straps to their maximum; it was still a bit loose but she certainly couldn’t fall out of it. She whooped and yelled with a mixture of fear and delight as he rowed out over the breaking waves until they got further out and it became calmer. He pointed out to her that they needed to fix a point of reference on the shore to see how far they drifted and he used the blue tarp tied to the railing again.
He showed her the different fishing rigs set up on the three rods and explained the differences and the reasons for them. He used one with lures and another baited with strips of rabbit flesh. They were out for over an hour without any bites, but then he caught four decent mackerel and a good-sized bass. He let Megan hold the rod and reel it in and she was beside herself with excitement. After that, though, she began feeling a bit sea-sick so he rowed back to shore. They drew the boat up the beach and tied it up, secured the tarp over the top and then went back to the house. He showed Megan how to gut the fish and then put them in the cellar in a bucket of seawater to keep cool until the next day.
Later in the afternoon, while Jane was busy in the kitchen with Megan, he set out walking to the railway at Westcourt Drive to check the snares they’d put back there. He had a canvas bag with him for rabbits and his sawn-off over his shoulder. It was a nice walk in the late-afternoon sun and he noticed that several apple trees were nearly ready for harvesting; they must be an early-ripening variety he thought to himself. He climbed up the siding by the bridge and onto the track and checked the snares. He was relieved to find one rabbit, which he put into his bag, but was disappointed that there weren’t more. Some snares had been knocked over and he had just finished resetting them when he heard a vehicle coming from the direction of the sea; it sounded like a lorry or a truck with a big diesel engine.
He went to the bridge’s south side and looked out, hidden behind a bush. Round the bend from West Parade into Richmond Avenue, directly in front of him, came a large truck, moving slowly. To his amazement it was an army vehicle, bearing Red Cross insignia, and he could see three men in the cab in army uniform as it drew closer. He rushed down the siding to the road, back under the bridge and waited on the pavement. The truck stopped twenty feet from him; three soldiers jumped out of the back and stood on the pavement with rifles at the ready.
The cab door opened and two officers climbed down and stood to one side, careful not to impede the soldiers’ fire, if necessary. Both had pistols in holsters on their belts.
‘Good afternoon, sir. Would you please remove the shotgun from your shoulder and place it on the ground in front of you,’ one of them asked. Jamie didn’t have any option, so he took the shotgun off his shoulder and laid it down as requested, along with his bag.
‘Thank you, sir; just a precaution, you understand? May we have your name, please?’
‘It’s Jamie; James Parker. Boy, am I surprised to see you!’
‘Mr. Parker, may we ask what your state of health is? Do you have any sickness of any kind, or have you been ill?’
‘No, I’m in perfect health; rather ironic, given the circumstances,’ he said with a slight smile. ‘I caught the plague about five or six months ago; I was in some sort of coma for six days and then woke up. It took me over a month to recover, but since then I’ve been tip-top.’
The two officers looked at each other and then back at Jamie. ‘Well, then you’re a very lucky man, Mr. Parker, and you’re in a tiny minority,’ said the other officer. ‘We’ve only encountered twenty-two other people so far in the south-east who contracted the plague and survived.’
‘Make that twenty-three;’ Jamie replied, ‘my partner, Jane, also caught it and survived. We met about three months ago and hooked up.’ The officers looked at each other again with surprise and then came forward to stand in front of him. Both saluted, introduced themselves and shook his hand.
‘Major Harry Miller, British Army,’ said the first man. He was in his early forties and well-built, with short dark hair and a moustache. He couldn’t have looked more like the archetypal British Army officer.