“Welcome.” Brian smiled and walked over to Jeff and held out a hand.
“Good morning, figured we’d swing by this morning, it’s gonna be a hot one, that humidity is going to rise, so wanted to get out early.” Jeff grinned.
“Come on over and have some coffee.” Brian invited. BJ ran to the storage shed and pulled out four camp chairs and carried them to the firepit. The group dismounted and followed Brian.
“Brian, this is my wife, Barb, and that is Bradley’s wife Ester.” Jeff announced, and the women smiled and nodded.
“Ladies, this is BJ, and Emma and Paadi. Please, everyone sit.
“Looks like you were going hunting, I’m sorry, we interrupted you.” Jeff said, looking at the rifles and backpacks sitting by the camp chairs.
“No, that’s fine. If what you say is true, then I think we can wait a day. I’d not like to try to bring anything back if it were too hot. We were going to hunt boar. I’d found some indications a couple miles south of here.” Brian said, sitting and giving his guests coffee mugs.
“Nice, we’ve got pigs at our place. You know, we’d be more than happy to trade with you.” Jeff smiled.
“Really? That would be great. I’ve got a smoker that I’m wanting to use. Make some bacon.” Brian grinned.
“Sure. Give me a couple days and we’ll get you some meat. Would you want a whole hog? Roughly four hundred pounds.” Bradley put in.
“Four hundred pounds?” Paadi asked, a stunned look on her face.
“I think that might be a bit much, how about half that? That way, Emma and Paadi can also can the meat.” Brian suggested as the women looked at each other and nodded.
“Sure, I’ll bring it by early in the morning, you’ll want to work on it when it’s cool like this.” Jeff said.
“Great, what can we trade?” Emma asked.
“Well, that coffee smells great and we’re getting low. We had planned to make a run, to get more, but we’ve been so busy. We’ve not had time. How about some coffee?” Jeff said.
Brian grinned; it was down to business. Between he and BJ, they’d taken damned near every can and box of coffee in all the stores they hit. The ones in airtight bags were buried underground. They’d picked up one of the food-saver machines, that suck the air out. They’d also picked up mylar bags and oxygenators. Brian guesstimate they had perhaps three hundred pounds of coffee squirreled away, if not more and that wasn’t counting instant coffee.
“Okay, how about ten pounds of ground coffee, five pounds of instant coffee and ten pounds of sugar. Do you need powdered creamer?” Brian asked, seeing the smiles ripple across his guest’s faces.
“We’ve got a couple cows.” Jeff grinned and he looked at his wife who nodded with a wide grin.
“Done.” Jeff laughed and shook Brian’s hand. They turned when Cooper came from the house toward them. He was in Batman pajamas and his hair was sticking straight up. He looked half asleep and walked to Brian and crawled up into his lap.
“I’m hungry daddy.” Cooper said sleepily, then looked around at the new people. He buried his face into Brian’s chest and Brian put his arms around the boy, holding him tightly. He knew Cooper was shy around strangers and liked being protected.
“This is my son, Cooper.” Brian grinned at the surprised looks that went around his guests.
“I’ll make him a pancake. How does that sound Coop?” Emma asked. She was rewarded by a nodding head, beneath Brian’s large hand. She grinned, her eyes crinkling.
“We’ve acquired several orphans, and they’ve adopted us as their parents.” BJ said, smiling softly.
“Oh dear, that’s so sweet. I guess I didn’t think about all the children left behind when the virus struck. The other group has children as well, but I’m not sure if they are their own children or not.” Barb said softly, her eyes softening and Brian saw sorrow behind them.
“We feel pretty lucky to have them. They’ve been a joy for us.” Paadi said, her own face softening.
Emma looked around the group questioningly before she began to pour the batter of the pancake mix.
“Oh, goodness, no, we’ve already eaten breakfast. Please, don’t let us stop you.” Ester said shyly.
Emma poured the batter onto the griddle, which causes a satisfying sizzle. They turned to look when Dillan staggered out and like a drunken sailor, he made his way to BJ and crawled up in his lap. BJ kissed the chaotic hair and held the boy in his arms. Dillan’s eyes closed as his thumb went into his mouth. Brian smiled when he heard the women coo, their hearts melting.
“I’m impressed with your camp. It looks well organized. Are those sheds new?” Bradley asked.
“Yes, we’ve all been working to turn this place into a home. We’ve put into two inground root cellars, we used chest freezers. We have one set up for meat and the other for the vegetables. We plan to put milk crates with straw into the freezer and put the veggies and fruit in them. We have that shed over there, and we’ve stocked the shed with the canned good. The building is well insulated.” Brian said.
“Well, it really shows. Were you a builder in your previous life?” Bradley asked.
“No, I was a firefighter, BJ’s the carpenter. Emma is a nurse and Paadi was a Boston police officer.” Brian grinned, his eyes crinkling. He took the plate that Emma gave him and turned Cooper around and began to feed the child. Like a baby bird, perched on his lap, the boy opened his mouth wide and ate the food.
“A nurse, wow, that’s great. Would you mind,
