Page 8

Chapter eight

Nora

The rain lasted all night into the early morning. Right before Nora fully woke up, it slowed into a drizzle. By the time she got up and changed, the sun began to emerge.

This next day, her cooperation with Simon continued, with more ease than the day before. Nora met him again in the kitchen, Tilly leaving through the front door without more than a hello. A clean breeze washed into the little house with the door opening and closing. Feels nice. Nora loved going outside after a storm when it was a bit less dusty.

“I’ll show you around today,” she said to him as he stood by the front window. Nora glanced outside. No drone out there now but . . . She gave him the shirt she sewed yesterday. “Here, put this on, okay? To hide your metal parts?”

Simon did as told before saying, “Yes, lead the way.”

Nora exited first and then turned around to watch as Simon took his first few steps outside, holding the doorway while he exited. Soon he let go, walking toward her shakily. She reached out a hand. "Want some help?"

He shook his head. "No thank you."

Okay then. She returned the hand she was holding out to assist him back to her side awkwardly.

“It’s different, huh?” she said, taking in his wide expression. Acts just like how I would. With everything. It’s uncanny. With him standing there, in his shirt she made, he appeared indistinguishable from a human male, all sleek lines and strong physique. Nora averted her eyes.

Simon just nodded, walking carefully on the wet dirt just outside the house’s threshold. His still-intact silicone boots made a contrasting pattern in the mud next to Nora and Tilly’s bare footprints.

Nora’s eyes stayed glued to him as he walked slowly. Everything must be so different to him. Wish I could see what he remembered. She looked around, at the ruins of houses lining the ancient asphalt street. Must have been prettier than this.

Tilly was eager by their side, pointing out the features only a child would notice as she tripped over her own feet, made worse by her limp. Shallow footprints followed her as she bent low to the Earth’s surface. “The worms are out good, Mama.”

“I bet. It really flooded. Catch as many as you can in a jar.”

“Okay!” Tilly nodded excitedly and dashed off.

Nora’s shoulders stiffened, seeing Simon’s shocked expression. “We can put the worms in the garden or feed them to the chickens. I got a little worm box too we can add to.”

“A worm box?” There was a hesitation as he said each word.

A chuckle escaped her. “Yeah. Remember worms? Here, I’ll show you the chickens. They’re probably happy it’s not raining, it kind of gets wet in there. I built the coop myself.”

A pressure to fill the silence built inside of her as they walked. “It’s just over here. Right next to the house.”

Simon followed at his unsteady gait. Nora waited patiently for him to catch up, knowing better than to offer her hand after it was rejected before.

She tried to think of how her yard appeared to his eyes. Everything must seem so awful to him if Earth from before is anything like those Mars pictures. She bit her lip as she walked. Ah, well. It’s okay if he judges. Maybe he will have some better ideas on how to make things easier. That was why I woke him up, wasn’t it? For extra help? Right.

“What season is this?” he asked, interrupting her thoughts.

“Summer.”

Simon frowned. “It isn’t as hot as it usually is here during the summer.”

It’s not? Sweat already coated her back with the sun fully rising. “Could have fooled me. Still feels plenty hot. It just rained so it’s a bit cooler, but yeah. It’s still plenty hot.”

“Yes, but before it was too dangerous to be outside during the summer here in the Arizona desert. There must have been something that happened to the climate as well.”

Like what? Nora waited expectantly but let it drop when Simon didn’t elaborate. Can’t figure out everything sometimes. She kicked a dirt clod and muttered as they finished walking, “Well I guess that’s one thing better then. I’m sweating buckets though. Humid after the rain. You don’t get hot?”

A sigh left him. “I don’t sweat, no. But water does cool off any overheating from my processors.”

Nora walked a bit ahead and waved him over. “At any rate, look at this.” She pointed into the wooden chicken coop. “We have chickens. Those are familiar, right?”

The coop was made out of wood she reclaimed from the nearby houses, pieces that were not rotted out. She gestured to the six chickens they had, and the rooster. “They each make an egg every few days. It’s hard to find chicken feed, and wheat doesn’t seem to grow well anymore. But they like some of the vegetables.”

Simon came to the front of the coop. “Yes, chickens are still the same. Although yours are unlike any breeds I knew.”

“Yes, they lay at least an egg a day for us, which is nice.”

A calculating gleam came into Simon’s eyes as looked across the horizon. “Is there no one else nearby?”

A sinking sensation filled her stomach. He can barely walk. Don’t need to get nervous. She swallowed. “In the town, yes.”

“Is that close?”

Not answering that. Instead she tugged on Simon’s arm, the one that still had the synthetic skin in place. “Want to see the garden?”

“Yes.” He glanced down at her hand on his arm.

Immediately, Nora let go, feeling the pressure of his eyes on her. Not quite a friend yet. Need to remember that . Even though he talked with her and acted polite. In fact, he was probably one of the few males to ever act polite and respectful toward her. Nora dropped her hand to her side with a smile as she led him over to the vegetable patch.

She held up a potato before putting it in a bag. “How about these? Potatoes? Are they the same? They seem to do the best. We eat a lot of these.”

Simon bent over and touched the plant carefully. “We had those in our time. Humans particularly enjoyed them sliced thin and cooked in oil.”

Nora scrunched her nose, trying to picture it. “Oh, I had those before. Potato chips, right? I just bake them in chunks. Ladies I worked with in town called them tatertots. That’s how the cat got its name. Tilly named him—it was so silly it stuck. Any way you cook potatoes tastes good. Sometimes I mash them up. Tilly used to like that a lot when she was younger.”

Using a hand for balance, Simon crouched low to the ground. “Potatoes . . . are those carrots?”

“Yep!”

“And that?” Using his finger, he pointed to the weeds in the ground.

Nora reached where he indicated. “These are some weeds. You can see not much grows in the soil here, but there’s this grass that keeps coming back. If we get a lot of rain it comes to life everywhere. If I leave it too long it will take over.”

After a minute Simon grunted. “Bermuda grass.”

“Is that the name?” Nora held some up.

A chuckle left him. “That or similar. Figures that would be something that survived. It was always very invasive.”

Simon sat next to her and applied himself immediately, weeding the little patch.

She beamed at him, watching him get to work without even being asked. So dang helpful. Between the mending yesterday and now seeing how today was going, she was beginning to feel truly happy with her decision to bring him back.

There was stiffness in her fingers from all the sewing she did yesterday. With all the excitement of going to the mall and town, plus the rain, the garden had been neglected for a few days.

After weeding for a minute she got up to refill the chicken’s water. She put out a very small amount of feed that the chickens attacked before looking for more with hungry eyes. That’s not enough for them. Nora clucked and crooned, “I know you are so hungry, chickies.” She turned and hollered, “Tilly, bring the chickens some worms too.”

Tilly came a few seconds later, pail in hand filled with worms.

Nora stepped aside. “Throw them in, thanks. The chickens will like that. Give them the bunch and I’ll help you go collect some more. We can add those to our worm box.”

Around the chicken coop Nora began hunting for more, bending low and collecting the wriggling worms.

Simon abandoned the weeding and joined her once Tilly ran off, gathering the worms that were rapidly hiding themselves now that the rain had stopped.

Nora split the amount gathered between the garden and the chickens, who ate every bit.

By the coop, Tilly pressed into the front wiring. “I’m hungry too,”

Nora startled. Right, we didn’t eat this morning. She’d rushed out here first thing after feeling cooped up from yesterday and wanting to show Simon the world outside.

Shoving the worm box aside, she said to Tilly, “Okay, grab the eggs. Let me just see how the water level is doing and I’ll bring some water in. After all that rain I think we might have enough to get a bath too.” With a smile Nora poked at Tilly’s side. “You stink.”

Tilly giggled, her face lighting up as she went behind the coop and took out the eggs, except for the ones underneath the broody hens. She poked her head back around the coop. “No, you stink.”

A full laugh escaped Nora as she walked away. “You’re right, I probably do!” To Simon she motioned to follow. “C’mon Simon, I’ll show you how we collect water here. It’s still a desert, so I collect it everywhere when I can.”