“I think that would be prudent. Maybe we could go to Uncle Jim’s. Mom’s place isn’t big enough for everyone.” Claire’s mother-in-law lived in a cozy two bedroom cottage in a small town about an hour out of Toronto.
“When should we go?”
“I’ll call Uncle Jim tonight. I think we should go as soon as Tom gets back.”
“We should get some supplies to take with us. Who knows how much longer the shops are going to be open for? And how much longer they’re going to even have food,” Claire said. It was all too quickly dawning on Claire how rapidly everything in the cities would fall apart. The food supply would surely break down at some point. She looked out the window, and thought longingly of her mother’s huge vegetable patch. It was the height of summer over there in Australia. The garden would be brimming with food. They wouldn’t starve. Not even close.
“You’re right. How late is that supermarket around the corner open until?” Lisa asked.
“Midnight, I think.”
“We should go tonight, before we have to resort to looting.”
“Should we bring the kids? What if it’s already getting nasty out there?”
Lisa shook her head after a moment. “No, I think they should stay here. Molly can look after the boys.”
Claire glanced at her watch. “We should feed them. It’s after their dinner time.”
“All right. Dinner, then bedtime, and then we’ll go out and stock up.”
The two women made a quick dinner and fed the kids. Noah protested when Claire said it was bed time, but he eventually capitulated after a promise of two stories and that he could sleep in Molly’s room. Molly rolled her eyes at her, but smiled at Noah and led him upstairs. Claire watched them until they were out of sight, and then followed Lisa out to her SUV.
The snow had stopped falling. It was only a short drive to the supermarket from Lisa’s house. It seemed like they were not the only people thinking ahead. Claire had never seen the supermarket so packed at this time of night before. They both hovered inside the door for a moment, before being buffeted aside by the oncoming stream of people. There were only a few shopping carts left, Claire quickly grabbed one.
The bottled water shelf was almost empty when they reached it. Claire had to get down on her hands and knees and pull the last two slabs to the front. She tried not to feel too guilty about taking them both.
Claire and Lisa had written a list of essentials they thought they’d need while they’d prepared dinner. Water, power supplies, food. Plenty of non-perishables like rice, flour, beans and tinned food. Claire paused in the middle of the fresh produce area and looking longingly around at the fruits and vegetables that had been shipped here from around the world. Bananas from South America. Pears from her own Australia. Apples from New Zealand. Apricots, peaches, plums, mangos and pineapples from somewhere warmer. They wouldn’t be able to get any more fresh summer food soon.
Lisa stopped in front of the mango and pineapple section and reached out for some fruit.
“What?” Lisa demanded, almost defensively. “They’re my favourite fruits and who knows when we’ll get a chance to eat them again. The canned version just doesn’t cut it.”
“No, no, go for it. I was just thinking the same thing.”
Claire pushed her way through to the fancy cheese aisle. It was a lot less crowded there than in the staples aisle. Lisa trailed after her with the shopping cart. She grinned when she saw what Claire was dropping into the cart; some of the most expensive cheeses that they never usually bought but often drooled over. There were a few that Claire had been wanting to try for a while. If she didn’t try them now, she might not get another chance.
The slowly made their way around the supermarket and filled up the cart with an assortment of dried and tinned fruits, legumes and vegetables, rice, flour, pasta, lentils, beans, and anything else that caught their eyes. They stayed clear of the frozen section. Lisa said she thought Uncle Jim probably had a generator, but she couldn’t be sure. They’d need to go on a fruit binge over the next few days in order to eat it all before it started to go bad.
Claire looked over the shopping cart, wondering if it would be enough food to last them two months. She wasn’t sure. It looked like a lot of food, but still. She was used to being able to go shopping every day if she needed to, and she usually did.
“Do you think it’s enough?” she asked. Lisa frowned at the pile of food.
“I honestly don’t know. I’m used to only feeding me and Molly. I remember Mom buying mountains of food each week when Tom was a teenager and it would all disappear pretty quickly.” Lisa let out a sigh. “I’ll talk to Mom and get her to do a big shop too, and Uncle Jim as well. We won’t be able to fit too much in the cars with us and the kids and everything.”
“Good idea. Will your Mom come to Uncle Jim’s too?”
“I think so. She’ll want to be with us and her grandkids. She doesn’t want to abandon her house, but I think she’ll come anyway.”
They joined the check-out line. It was moving at a glacial pace. There were only two registers open. Claire frowned as she watched one woman walk brazenly out without paying for the overflowing shopping cart full of groceries. She wasn’t at that stage yet. It had only been a few hours.
“What about your grandma? Juniper, I mean, not your B.C. grandmother.”
Lisa shrugged. “I’m not sure, I haven’t talked to her yet. She’s not all that far away from Uncle Jim’s, really. It would be a challenge to get her away from her greenhouses…”
The line moved slowly forward. The girl looked extremely frazzled, but Claire thought the young man on the next register over looked very zen. Did he know? The news must still be trickling through to some people. Not everyone had televisions, or spent every waking hour online, or perhaps they were out fishing or hiking for the day. What a thing to come back to. It kind of reminded her of one of her favourite books from when she was a teenager, where a group of friends go camping for a week in the bush and come back to find their country had been invaded and the world turned upside down. Those kids had an enemy to fight though; how do you fight a space rock? Hopefully one of those astronomers down at NASA or the European Space Agency or China’s version — whatever they were called — would figure out what to do.
“How long do you think they’ve known?” Claire asked. The queue inched forward. They reached the magazine display. Claire idly wondered if they’d bother putting out an updated issue about the asteroid, one that wasn’t all about some movie star’s possible baby bump… Baby bumps. All those babies who might not ever get a chance to be born. Her babies. Claire gulped for breath, and then shook her head. Now was not the time or place. She could fall to pieces later, at home, in the privacy of her own bedroom.
“Hmmm, what?” Lisa had been staring at the magazines as well with a frown on her face. “It kind of forces home how utterly pointless it all is, doesn’t it?” She waved a hand at the gossip magazines.
“Oh, I dunno. I always need to keep up with the Kardashians.”
Lisa snorted. “Uh huh. Sure you do. Do you even know all of their names?”
“Sure. Kim… umm… K… Katie? Kylie? Keira?”
Lisa let out a soft laugh. “You’re so obviously a pop culture expert, hon.”
Claire shrugged. She’d never even been able to figure out what the Kardashians were even famous for.
At last it was their turn. The girl hurried through their purchases. Claire blinked at the total. It was more than her whole months grocery budget. She pulled out her credit card and wondered if she’d ever have to pay it off.
Once they were back at Lisa’s house, Molly came downstairs and gave her mother a long hug. Claire watched them for a moment before stepping unobtrusively into the kitchen. Mother and daughter followed her in after a couple of minutes.