Homesteaders Part Three

Mattie was the first to climb out of the loft and walk into the farmyard. The rain on her face and in her hair was soothing. She’d never been able to stand in the rain before, because every storm held winds of over a hundred miles an hour and anyone caught out in the open in a storm usually didn’t survive. That was because since the time of the change all storms were so fierce they were known as Derecho’s. These storms lasted a long time and held straight-line winds with large thunderstorms inside them. Mattie let the rain clean her hair and skin and sometime during the rainstorm, she began to cry.

Jim ran past Mattie and shouted, “Come on Mattie! You’ll be soaked and Alice will make you take a bath!” Betsy was laughing when she passed, a little slower but running for the house with Jim. Mattie got hold of her emotions and sprinted to catch up.

Alice was waiting at the door with towels and gave one to each child as they came inside. “I think we will wait for after supper before getting you three into the tubs.” All three children groaned but secretly Mattie looked forward to being clean. Being first person was great but she liked getting all the dirt and grime off of her as well. She looked down at her leggings and lifted them off her pants. They were getting stiff and the leggings were thick with dirt and grime. Alice knew what Mattie was thinking and remarked “Don’t worry Mattie, I’ve got some soap for leather, we found it when we came here, and it will make your leggings look beautiful again. I also have some clean clothes you can wear as well and we will wash the clothes you have on.” Mattie thanked Alice and started to set the table for supper. The door opened and a short, thick man limped into the house. His face was happy, his head was bald and his ears were sticking out on both sides of his face.

“Well, hello!” he boomed, “Looks like we got us another refugee from the storm!”

The newcomer of course, was Mark and Mattie liked him immediately. Alice introduced Mattie and they sat down to eat. Supper was even better than lunch and Mattie was glad to see there was more cornbread. Afterwards, she was first in the bath, in a big metal tub full of hot water and suds, with a sheet strung across the kitchen for modesty. Mattie felt her eyes start to close and she wondered again, where was she to sleep?

Mattie woke to the sound of Ned doing his strange bleating noise and jumped to her feet. Looking around she discovered she had slept the entire darkness on two benches by the table! Alice had shoved them together and then against the wall so she had plenty of room. She had made a pallet with quilts on top of the benches and she even had a pillow for her head. Mattie was used to sleeping on the ground with one blanket, if that, so having a thick quilt pallet was luxurious! But Mattie was still worried. No one stayed outside at night. Would she die of bomb sickness? Would her skin and hair fall out tomorrow? No one knew why the sickness was worse during the night, they only knew it was. Mattie took a deep breath and looked outside.

The view drew her out of the house. Absently scratching Ned under the mouth, Mattie looked around at the homestead. The valley had so many shades of green Mattie didn't have names for all the shades of green! There were pastures laid out like checkerboards with wooded lines between them. The land rolled but it all led upwards. The house sat in the center of a bowl with pastures and woodland along its sides. The sky was blue with thin white clouds along the edges. Mattie wished she could stay here forever and thought of the remark Jim made when the light came during the Derecho. Mattie’s shoulders slumped. She couldn’t stay here, she shouldn't even have stopped here! In fact, she knew she had to tell Alice and the others this morning what her real purpose was, because the people would probably be showing up on the homestead this afternoon. Mattie was trying to think what to say when a flash from the road caught her attention. Her time had run out.

“Wake up! Hurry! We don’t have any time!” Mattie was calling and running back into the house at the same time.

Alice held her arms out “It’s all right Mattie! Slow down! I can explain!”

“Explain? There’s no time! Everyone could be killed for having all this stuff and I will go through chastisement just for being here! We have to run, there’s no hope for us if we stay! Where’s Mark?”

“He is safe, he is far from here, Mattie settle!” Alice grabbed her from behind and sank to the floor, arms wrapped around her and holding her tight in her lap. Betsy and Jim sat next to them and looked intently at Alice.

Taking a deep breath Alice began to speak. Mattie was terrified but began to listen to Alice and watch the group of people on the road at the same time. Four men came onto the homestead and walked towards the house and barn.

“At the time most people call the change this land and many other lands had many, many people. Many people had a lot of food, houses and power but most had little to nothing at all. Before the people went into the caverns, we are told that W-A-R was in every land. No one seems to know exactly what those letters meant but the word isn’t even spoken aloud anymore. Whoever was causing it made everything die and burn. Even the air itself was on fire. They said it was similar to a never ending Derecho with fire added to it and that no one was safe.”

The men were inside the barn. Mattie’s heart was beating so hard she was sure the four men could hear it.

“In that time people had both first and last names. People were lined up in front of tables with the first letter of their last name and from there they were sent to their cavern to live until the air was good again. But something happened at some of the tables. People disappeared.”

“Mattie said all the ‘G and H’ people are dead!” interrupted Jim.

“We are here, though, and so is Mattie.”

Mattie jerked her head around to focus on Alice briefly but went back to watching the barn. The men came out, brushing dirt off their clothes and coming towards the house. She watched as they walked right past the water trough. Water was so precious she knew it would have been immediately tested, but the four men didn’t even look at it!

“The people whose last names began with the letter ‘G’ panicked when other people couldn’t see them. They tried to get into the caverns but it was as if a wall kept them out. They huddled at the entrance long after the doors had shut. Finally, they began to walk and the land began to claim them. Places like our homestead appeared and slowly everyone had a place to live. We can get to all the other valleys without being in danger. Mark is a guide; his job is to keep the road open between the valleys. And if anyone finds a valley they don’t see it as it really is, they see just brown, dry, dusty land.”

Mattie began to shake. The four men were on the porch. One man’s foot went through the flooring! Mattie frowned. That porch was solid, why did it break under the man’s foot? She watched as all four men came into the house and looked right at the group sitting on the floor.

“They can’t see us, children, nor hear us. People only see and hear us if they have the last name of a ‘G’ and that’s why I told you our names, Mattie, but you didn’t seem to understand what I was telling you.”

Mattie slammed her hands palm down on the floor and dug her nails into the wood. If she was having a mirage then she wanted to jar herself away from the sight. The men had shoved the table against the wall, sending a cloud of dust into the air. Coughing, they opened both doors in the little house but finding nothing, backed out. They were leaving! They hadn’t seen anyone and they were leaving! Mattie looked up at Alice. She was crying and Mattie touched her own cheek. They were damp with tears.

“You must have a person’s blood in you whose last name started with the letter ‘G’ and that’s why you are here. Without that blood in them, no one can see this place. You came home, Mattie. Welcome home.”