World After Geezer: Year One by Penn Gates

Author:Penn Gates [Gates, Penn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-03T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

The next morning the eggs are a little rubbery, but the biscuits are light as feathers. Not hard to tell who's cooking what these days, Nix thinks.

“What did those guys want yesterday?” Jason asks.

“Tell you later,” Nix answers, and gives him a look that dares him to pursue the subject. “But since Jason brought it up,” she says, glancing at George, “I want to see you, Mr. Shirk, and Margaret and Michael, in the office right after breakfast.”

“Not Cash?” Jason smirks.

“Cash already knows about it,” Nix says briefly.

As chairs scrape back from the table, Brittany appears at Nix's elbow. “I've got to talk to you for a second,” she says, her eyes bright with excitement.

“Not now, Brittany. This meeting is pretty important. I'll catch up with you later. In the meantime, keep helping out in the kitchen, OK?”

The girl looks disappointed, rather than sullen, as she turns away, but Nix is already headed toward the office. She's surprised by the changes made in the room since yesterday. Did Brittany really accomplish all this by herself, or did she sweet talk Jason into doing the heavy lifting? The shelves are already half full of books, and it's possible to see again why it was called the library.

Nix notices something sitting in the middle of her desk, wrapped in rough cloth, and her heart begins to beat faster. She strides across the room and folds back the dusty fabric. There it lies, bound in red morocco leather, and it is, in fact, the size of an Atlas. She slowly opens the cover to look at the first page. The ink is a faded bronze, the script spidery and looping. She can barely make out what it says, but she can see the date: October 30, 1671.

“What is this all about?" George's voice cuts through her sense of wonder and brings her back to the problem at hand.

“Have a seat, George. Let's wait for the others. No use repeating things." Nix gestures at the only other chair in the room. “Or—how about you and me getting a few more chairs in here?”

He turns on his heel and walks back into the hall, Nix right behind him, where they almost collide with Margaret and Michael. “Chairs,” Nix says. Michael nods and turns back toward the kitchen. By the time Cash joins them, there's a ring of chairs around her desk that makes the office look more like a kindergarten class than the principal's office.

“Nice,” Cash laughs. “Tell us a story, teacher.”

“Good of you to join us,” Nix snaps. How could she spill her guts last night, like she was at some New Age encounter group? “Can we please just get on with this?” she says. “There's a lot to discuss.”

Cash ignores the last empty chair and leans instead against the bookcase. “Shoot,” he says agreeably.

“Everybody here knows we got a visit from some of the guys over at Turner's farm,” Nix begins. “They're hungry and scared. They don't know how to prepare for the coming winter, although they're smart enough to know they should be working at it.

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