Interrupted Journey

Part 2 - Chapter 1 - Wake up

For the first time since 'the day' I was able to sleep until I could sleep no more. Susan had managed to get the girls out without waking me and I was left to just sleep.

When, at last, I woke, I wandered downstairs to find the house unusually quiet. The two Es were doing some school type work with Susan in the living room and I strolled over to give all three good morning kisses.

I went into the kitchen to investigate the tea situation. The pot from breakfast was normally filled with boiling water and left to stew on the back of the stove for anyone brave enough to help themselves.

As I stumbled across the kitchen towards the stove I noticed that James and Rebecca were sitting rather close together at the table. I probably wouldn't have noticed anything if it hadn't been for the guilty manner in which they leapt apart when I walked in. I pretended not to notice and gave them a cheery "mornin'!" as I poured myself a mug - or, closer, a slice - of the extraordinary tea then went back to join the girls in the living room where I collapsed on the sofa.

I sat quietly for a few minutes. Though I was glad of the first rest I had had in days, I couldn't help feeling that important time was wasting. At last I reached a decision.

"Susan," I said, "can I borrow you for a moment?"

She spoke briefly to the two girls then came over to join me at the sofa. "What's up?" she asked with a smile.

"I think we need to do some planning for the group for the next couple of weeks," I answered, "and you're the best person to think about hygiene and medical stuff."

"That sort of makes sense..." she answered hesitantly, "but I'm not really sure what you want from me."

"I suppose the question I want you to answer is, 'What medical problems are we going to hit and how do we deal with them... or, even better, stop them happening?' How do we stop the outbreak of Yellow Fever from wiping us out? James has put an axe in his foot or Emily has measles. What are we going to do? Are there any extra supplies that we should be looking out for?"

"Yellow Fever is one of the few things that is not going to be a problem!" she answered with a smile. "It's a tropical disease."

"I knew that really," I told her.

"But cholera and dysentery are a serious threat, particularly if people are close to starvation. In fact..."

She was quiet for a moment.

"In fact, unless help gets here soon, those water-borne diseases are going to end up killing a lot more people than anything else. We really need to be sure about where our water is coming from - and start boiling it, if necessary."

"OK, you see the sort of thing I'm looking for?"

She nodded.

"I need to have the same sort of chat with Alice about farm stuff," I said. "Do you know where she is?"

"I haven't seen her since last night and... I don't know whether it's my place to say..."

"Oh just get on with it!"

"OK, I'm a bit worried about her. She's eating next to nothing - just drinking that toxic tea of hers."

I nodded then took another swig and winced.

"One more problem!" I answered. "I guess I'll have to talk to her. That's going to be a bundle of laughs."

"Do you want me to do it?"

"She certainly won't talk to you," I answered. "You're not 'family' yet..."

"That's sounds like a proposition!" she interrupted with a smile.

I responded with a smile of my own but went on, "She won't want to talk to me either but I might be able to bully her into it!"

I looked out of the kitchen window. The rain was coming down in horizontal sheets, as it occasionally does in this part of the world. There was a movement over in the storage shed so I put on my raincoat and some wellies before hurrying across.

There was no sign of Alice but Angela was there, doing something with the chicken feed.

"Hi there!" I said. "Have you seen Alice?"

"No," she answered in a tone that betrayed her irritation. "She went off this morning and I haven't seen her since."

"Do you know where she's gone?"

"She was saying something about checking for stray sheep on the tops."

"On her own... in this weather..." I was about to go on but I could see Angela was starting to get upset. "What's up?" I asked her.

"She didn't even tell me what I'm supposed to be doing," she answered. "I mean, we've done the basic chores but there's so much we need to be getting on with, I just don't know where to start."

I thought for a moment. "After what she's been through, I wish we could cut her some slack," I said sympathetically, "but we just need her too much. I'll have a talk with her."

"Would you? She might listen to you."

"Oh, she'll listen OK. She won't like what she hears but she'll listen."

"If you've nothing else to do, you might want to work out where we stand with the food," I suggested. "We need to do some planning and it would help if we knew how long 'til we run out."

"Good idea!" she answered. "I'll finish off here and get on with it."

"Get James and Rebecca to give you a hand," I suggested. "They seemed to be enjoying each other's company far too much when I came down this morning!"

"We can't have that!" she answered with a smile.

I glanced out of the barn door and saw that the rain had slackened off to merely heavy. "I'm going to wander across to the barn to have a chat with Mike," I told her. "See you later."

I pulled up my hood and adjusted the weather-proofing flaps on the front of my jacket
then hurried across the yard to the barn.