A Place To Call Home

The Barn Dance

Autumn- October 2034

Tonight was the Autumn Barn Dance, this was something they did every year at The Jackson Community. It was a chance for people to get together and have some fun, Ellie was looking forward to seeing this traditional celebration for the harvest festival. She had never experienced anything like this before since she had moved into the community, it was all new to her. Tommy had told Ellie it was like Thanksgiving but it involved the end of the crop year, they also did a Halloween theme with the children at the dance. When Tommy had mentioned Halloween she thought back to the time when she was hanging out with Riley in that Costume Store in the Mall, all those Halloween masks and costumers would have been perfect for the community. 

Ellie wasn't going to get dressed up for the Autumn Barn Dance like some girls did in the community, she had showered and put some clean clothes on. She had decided to wear some jeans and a green coloured shirt, it was a simple outfit. She tied her hair up into a ponytail and put her sneakers on, the evening was chilly so she had decided to wear a checked red shirt. She checked herself out in the mirror while she pushed her lips together and did a sexy pose, she looked presentable for the dance. Switching the lights off in her garage apartment Ellie left her cosy home, she closed the door behind her and hurried across the backyard towards Joel's house. He always left the back door unlocked for her in case she needed him, it was pretty safe in The Jackson Community so it was normal for people to leave their houses unlocked. She entered his house and called out his name, she heard him telling her he was the living room. She hurried to the living room and stopped in doorway, Joel was relaxing on his couch with a book. He was already dressed in his casual attire, he was just like Ellie when it came to dressing down instead of dressing up.

" Are you ready to go?" Ellie asked.

" Yep, I've been waiting for you for awhile now." Joel replied while he closed his book and got up from the couch. " Let's get moving, Tommy was expecting us over an hour ago." 

Ellie waited for Joel in the hallway, he grabbed his jacket from his coat peg and opened the front door for Ellie while he switched the hallway's light off. Ellie hurried down the pathway and left the gate open for Joel, she was pretty excited about the Barn Dance. It wasn't long until Joel was closing the gate to his front yard, he walked down the steps and met Ellie on the sidewalk. They walked together down the street passed the cemetery, the barn the community used for dances was on the other side of the community. Most of the farming fields were located near the barn, the barn was used most of the time to store corn before it was transported to the bakery. 

The evening sky was clear and the moon was bright, it was a beautiful night for a party. A gust of wind blew some colourful leaves in front them while they walked, Ellie couldn't help but crunch them beneath her sneakers. Joel spoke to Ellie about his patrol in the morning, he was going to have to leave the party early since he had to be up at 5am. Ellie was fine with that since she had to be up early too, she had been helping to fix the outer wall of the community all week. There had been an attack on the wall at the beginning of the week, some Hunters had tried to break into the community. Luckily Tommy had been returning with Joel from one of the night patrols, he had used his sniper skills to take them out.  

" That's way too early!" Ellie said. " Do you think I can start training soon for patrols?" 

" I don't see why not." Joel replied, he put his jacket on. " You already know your way around a shotgun, I'll speak to Tommy about it while I'm patrolling with him." 

" Okay." Ellie said. 

" Maybe I could take you out on a patrol, you know to ease you into it." Joel said.