The Town of Last Haven: A Zombie Novel

Part 35

Julia stayed asleep far into the night, waking up in the early morning just before the sun peeked from over the walls. She cracked her neck from side to side and then cracked her knuckles with an audible crack-crack-crackling sound. She smiled sadly, thinking back on what her mom would have said. Rather, what she would have done.

Julia's mom used to hate the sound of cracking knuckles; she'd told Julia a hundred times not to do that because to her it sounded worse than nails on a chalkboard. And what always got to Julia was the sound of ripping fabric. It bothered her like cracking knuckles bothered her mother. Just something about the two that Julia recalled.

When Julia went downstairs and into the kitchen, she smelled the leftovers from breakfast that had been gobbled up by Trent and Clarise playing outside in the yard. Trent had his old action heroes--old ones from Austin--and Clarise had her old dolls. 

Julia went outside to see her brother and sister playing, asked how they'd slept. Trent looked pale-faced to Julia, and Clarise asked her if she was alright to stand and move about. Julia told her she was quite capable, and Clarise left it at that.

"Where's Natalie?" Julia asked Trent and Clarise.

"She's in the guesthouse with Jake," said the two together.

"And Austin's gathering the last of his things from Luke's house to bring back here." Trent then added, assuring Julia that Austin wasn't returning to the Wallace household to stay, despite the summer's heat-baked radish cookies that Mrs. Wallace would make.

Julia was more interesting in her sister's whereabouts, so she headed across the dirt driveway to the guesthouse. The lights weren't on, but that didn't mean a thing. Unless there were solar-powered lights in town, no one had electricity or anything like it. The whole town was reduced to using lanterns, torches, and flashlights.

'Do you know what Natalie and Jake are doing?' Julia was inclined to ask, then didn't. She knew Natalie was infinitely more reserved than she herself was, so she didn't suspect that Natalie and Jake were having sex.

Julia didn't feel a real need to knock on the front door of the guesthouse, but she did anyway. A breeze blew, and Julia smelled the lingering scents of dying flowers. She knew Natalie would be gardening a time later--perhaps with Jake at her side?

"Come on in," Jake said from the other side.

Julia opened the door and went in, going to the living room and seeing Natalie and Jake sitting together on the sofas reading. The sight surprised Julia; she'd not expected Natalie to be alone with a boy, but she spent so much time with him as it was. It had been only a few days since Jake moved in, but Julia knew how Jake felt towards her sister; she saw the way he looked at her.

It was a deeper look than what Luke had given Julia, but she wasn't envious of her sister for having it, having Jake look at her that way.

"What're you two doing up so early?" Julia moved closer to them, looking back at the window to see the sun slowly rising above the wall. "And what are you reading?" she asked, looking to the growing stack of books on the coffee table beside them.

"I couldn't sleep being so worried about you, so I went into the living room to read," Natalie explained. "And then Jake checked on me to see if I was alright. I said yes, we got talking, then when I thought we were being too loud, I came here." Natalie allowed herself a blush, then looked away from Jake so he couldn't see her red cheeks. "And we just started reading, then we wound up like this." Natalie blushed harder, Julia seeing she was trying to control herself and failing to do so.

"Have fun, you two." Julia offered a small smile, still somewhat tired from the happenings of days' past.

She moved towards the door, Natalie telling her that she'd be gardening later after seeing Jake off to the watchtowers for the midmorning shift. Julia glanced back at her sister when she knew Natalie wasn't looking, and Julia's mouth fell open slightly when she saw the light in her sister's eyes--she'd fallen in love with Jake.

'So quickly,' Julia thought to herself. 'Be careful.' Julia didn't want to see Natalie's heart break like her own did so quickly and so soon. Somehow, though, Julia knew that Jake wouldn't break Natalie's heart. She did wonder, however, how much time would pass before they admitted their feelings for one another. Time was precious, so precious.