Corn, Cows, and the Apocalypse (Part 1) (3 page)

             
I shrugged again.  It wasn’t the first time she had tried to cheer me up with a “you are the light of the world” style compliment, but it always made me uncomfortable.  I wasn’t more than a corner of the stage, and I didn’t really hope to be.  When she said that I was worth more than I thought, it was like she was saying I wasn’t good enough just as I was. 

             
“Did you get everything before they attacked?”  She asked taking her hand away from mine.  The cold vacancy, that was left when she pulled away, made me feel alone even though she was still sitting right next to me. 

             
“Yes.”  I answered. 

             
“Good.  Haden, toss me my Newtons.”  Haden rolled her eyes, but searched through the bags for August’s comfort food. 

             
While August devoured a handful of cookies…err…fruited cake, I poked my head into the cab.  Devin peeked over from his driving and smiled.  Damn he was beautiful.

             
“Hey, cutie, what’s up?”  He asked. 

             
“Nothing, I just wanted to see your smile.”  I said trying to control my own smile. 

             
“Well, it’s yours anytime you want it.”  He winked and offered his best photographic smile.  I giggled and pulled my head back out.  The introspective smile I kept on my face only incited more glares from Haden.  Despite Devin being
public
property, she didn’t like anyone enjoying his company, plutonic or otherwise. 

-
Spam, a lot
-

             
Ten minutes outside of the city, we pulled into our current residence, a four bedroom, two-story house, sitting on about an acre of land.  There were several out buildings, sheds, and a two car garage that we never used, because it didn’t lend an easy escape. 

             
Devin backed into the driveway and brought the truck as close to the house as he could without ruining the sidewalk.  He killed the engine and hopped out to help us off the tailgate.  He helped August first who thanked him politely before heading into the house.  He made it a point to drag Haden down his body as he set her down, which prompted her to give him a wet sensual kiss. 

             
I moved to slip out of the truck without his help so I didn’t disrupt them, but he snapped his fingers at me from behind Haden’s head.  She finally released him dragging her hand down his chest as she went. 

             
Once she was gone he looked at me.  “What was that?”  He crossed his arms and scolded me with a half serious sternness I rarely saw on him.

             
“You were occupied.”  I mumbled. 

             
“Temporarily.  Come here.”  I let him help me down.  I would have liked for him to give me the same attention that he gave Haden, but there was no way to outright ask someone to fondle you. 

             
I stepped back and smiled.  I reached for a bag of groceries, which I knew would be met with reproach.  He grabbed my wrist and pulled my hand away.  “What are you doing?  I’ll get those.”

             
I smiled.  “It will be faster if I help you.”

             
“I will get them.”  He said firmly before forcefully turning me around and pushing me to the house with a spank. 

             
I yelped for the sake of flirting, but he hadn’t actually hurt me.  “Fine,” I said as I headed into the house. 

             
I admired Devin’s devotions to his minor chivalries.  The world had changed so much, but it was the little things that kept us all from becoming an excerpt from the Lord of the Flies.  Devin would claim his manners were all flirtation, but I suspected that he needed to do certain things to keep things civil in his mind.  Sure, it was just a bag of groceries, but when you’re killing, what looks like human beings, left and right, it’s important to define how you treat the real people.

             
The front door was more or less the side door, since the house was positioned stupidly on the property.  As a result I entered straight into the kitchen.  I started my prep work for supper, which was going to be spaghetti. 

             
There were a lot of spaghetti nights, post-apocalypse.  We had the option of going hunting for fresh meat, but as you might imagine, modern conveniences left us all lazy.  No one really wanted to go find, shoot, skin, and process an animal when we could just have Spam-ghetti. 

             
Devin drug in all seven bags of groceries in one trip and set them on the floor.  “Anything else,” he asked. 

             
I wanted to tell him that bringing them in was the easy part, and that if he really wanted to help he could put them away, but I didn’t.  Kitchen duty was the job of the third sidekick.  At least that’s what I told myself.

             
“No, dinner should be ready in forty.”    

             
“Great, I’m starving.  I don’t suppose you would let me spoil my appetite a little.”  He leaned on the counter beside the stove.  The kitchen was relatively open to the living room, except for the stove and its gigantic exhaust vent that obscured the view. 

             
“Go ahead, August already has the Newtons.”

             
“Ooh, Newtons.  Okay, August,” Devin eyed August who was on the couch in the living room.  She looked up at him defensively hugging her bag of cookies.  “Pass the cookies.”

             
“They’re not cookies,” she mumbled over her full mouth with mocking offense.  “They’re fruited cake.”

             
“Yeah, whatever, cough ‘em up.”  Devin went in after the cookies, which August playfully pulled from his grip a few times before giving in.  Despite his enthusiasm he only took one and gave the rest back.  He knew how much she enjoyed them, and wouldn’t dare deprive her of her guilty pleasure. 

             
They snuggled in beside each other on the couch and talked and laughed the way old friends always do.  I watched them as I finished with supper.  When I finally went out to call upstairs for Haden, I found them asleep against each other. 

             
I debated waking them, but just decided to put some extra water in the sauce and left it on the burner to warm.  Haden and I managed to finish nearly half the kettle ourselves.  After we finished stuffing our faces, we both leaned back from the table to make room for our carb bloated tummies. 

             
Haden sipped on her beer, while I stuck with water.  I wasn’t much of a drinker, which is to say, I just never got the hang of it. Drunken Lenore was not the best party guest to have.  Sure, I might loosen up and have more fun, but the end result would always be someone’s ruined shoes.  I stuck with water.

             
Haden eyeballed me from across the table.  Our relationship was difficult to define.  If we were a polygamist family, I would have been the third wife.  I could sense that she didn’t really like me, but she respected August enough not to make a big deal about it.  In the end, it was all just jealousy, but she would never admit to that.

             
“So, have you fucked Devin yet?”  She asked.  She probably intended to ask like she was beginning a round of gossipy girl talk, but it came off like an accusation. 

             
I glanced into the living room to make sure Devin was still fast asleep against August’s shoulder.  I wished I had a Polaroid camera.  I would have used my camera phone, but cell phone reception was so patchy that we started relying on land lines instead.  Plus, I wasn’t about to take the time to go print it.  No, Polaroid should have stuck around longer.  They could have had a big come back after the rapture.

             
“No, I haven’t gotten around to that.”  I said finding a reason to stir the remaining three strands of spaghetti on my plate. 

             
“Why not, he’s really good?”  This would be Haden denying her jealousy by the way.

             
“I…”             

             
“It’s not like we’re a couple.”  More
denial
.
  “It’s pointless to get wrapped up in monogamy.  I mean crap, the world is at the end, why bother?”

             
I nodded even though I didn’t agree.  I was obviously single to the truest extent of the word, but I still liked the idea of a man just for me.  I was an idealist in a realist world.  I didn’t mention that as the reason I hadn’t made a move on Devin. 

             
“Should we wake them?”  She asked nodding to the living room.  I was about to say no, but Haden barked at them to wake up and eat.

             
As August and Devin stretched from their nap, I rinsed my plate and headed outside for some air.  I really just wanted to be away from Haden.  As much as she felt
I
was the dead leg to the group, I felt the same about her.  She was the complete opposite of me.  She was loud, direct, formidable, and confident.  I on the other hand… (Insert antonyms of your choice.)

             
I sat down on the porch, which wasn’t anything more than a concrete stoop.  The back—or front, whatever—door to house had a small wooden porch, but it was dark, and frankly, I was scared of the dark.  With good reason since the glimmer grim trekked miles during the night hours. 

             
The sun was down already, but the air was still warm.  Summer had brought in lots of humidity, and mosquitoes to boot.  There wasn’t enough bug spray in the world to combat these blood suckers.  The temperature overall was abnormally high for June.  The mid-west was known for its weird inconsistences in weather, but apparently there was a heat wave over the entire country, and possibly the world.

             
Jimmy the Card’s callers believed that the demon population was increasing the temperature.  There had been many discussions on the impact of the black plague on planetary climate, and how our situation was just the opposite.  Temperatures were rising instead of dropping as they did after the massive population decline of the plague.  Blah, blah, blah…it was hot.

             
I smacked a mosquito, just as Devin came out thumping his pack of cigarettes.  “Hey what did it ever do to you?”

             
“He bit me.”  I was surprised he came to this stoop.  Unlike me, Devin wasn’t afraid of the dark.  He usually had his cigarette on the back porch. 

             
“
She
bit you.”  He corrected before sitting down so close to me, that I had to move so he didn’t sit on my hand.  “You’re a country girl, you should know that.”

             
“Yeah, I forgot.” 

             
He lit his cigarette and took a long drag before offering it to me.  I didn’t smoke, but he always offered anyway.  The same way you offer cake to a woman who just said she was dieting.  Yeah, you know she doesn’t want it, but it still seems rude not to offer. 

             
I started to shake my head, but instead I took the cigarette from him.  Maybe I wanted to be rebellious, or maybe I just wanted to put my lips, where his had been, either way, I was stupid enough to take a generous drag and inhale it. 

             
Several
minutes later, when my coughing had stopped, the only thing I had accomplished, besides epically embarrassing myself, was getting the pleasure of Devin’s hand rubbing my back.               

             
As if she could sense our proximity, Haden chose that moment to interrupt.  “Devin your food is getting cold.”  She said nodding for him to head in. 

             
“Yeah, I imagine it is.”  He said continuing to rub my back.  I was very aware of the subtle change he made in the motion, to make it look more sensuous than comforting.  He knew as well as anyone how jealous Haden got.  He liked to play it against her.  The more irritated she got, the more often she knocked on his door.

             
“Well?”  She asked motioning inside. 

             
“Well what?  I’m having a conversation with Lenore.”  I looked away before I could catch Haden’s glare and/or finger gesture, but judging by Devin’s amusement, it must have been pretty severe.  “Bitch.”  He murmured after the door slammed shut. 

             
His hand slid off my back and for a moment he was content to smoke his cigarette.  The pensive look on his face could have been any number of things, but Devin wasn’t the type to share his thoughts with anyone, least of all me.  

             
I hadn’t realized I was staring at him until he looked back at me.  His brown eyes fixed on mine, and I became aware of how close we were.  I thought he might actually kiss me and I was paralyzed with fearful hope.  That wasn’t how it worked though.  Devin didn’t make advances.  I had to make the first move. 

             
“Thanks for dinner.”  He said. 

             
“You’re welcome.”  Devin hadn’t thanked me for dinner before.  “You haven’t even tasted it yet.” 

             
“You do a lot for us.”  He said. 

             
I shrugged when I realized that there weren’t any words coming out of my half open mouth.  “You don’t ask for much in return.”  I might have offered him another shrug since my voice box was still unresponsive, but he pushed back a lock of my hair and tucked it behind my ear, interrupting whatever logic I had left in my brain.  “Do you…need anything, Lenore?”

             
This was his version of making a pass.  All I had to do was say yes now, and once again when he posed the next question.  We would be making out in less than a minute.

             
My heart was slamming into my chest, and my face was so hot I could predict the tomato red finish it held.  I hadn’t been able to speak or move for at least 30 seconds, but it felt like minutes.  I don’t know what changed at the end of those 30 seconds, call it cowardice; call it the last vestiges of prudishness, but I shook my head and turned away from him. 

             
“No, I’m good.”

             
I wasn’t good.  I was lonely. 

             
Not that it wasn’t obvious, but Devin didn’t push the matter.  He sighed with subtle disappointment as he snuffed out his cigarette.  He had given it his best.  “Okay, let me know if that changes.  You know where to find me.  You want first watch tonight?”