Holly Fever (Mondamin Court #1)

Chapter 15

Darren felt something was different the moment he woke the next day. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it was there. Misshasha was asleep in her bed, snuggled up with Zoey's old doll. He left her there and went to the bathroom.

He looked up the stairs when he came out, but the upstairs was quiet. Were they still asleep? He'd been sleeping later than the girls and Zoey, but not today it seemed. He walked back into the living room and looked out the front window. Then it hit him. The sun was bright, and there was a steady drip from the edge of the porch. The cold snap had broken at last. He smiled for what felt like the first time in days. Then everything he had lost in the cold came back to him, and his face dropped again.

His sorrow was interrupted by the backdoor banging open. Esther and Ruth came piling in, stripping winter coats as they came.

"Miss Zoey took us to meet and milk the goats," Esther said. Darren snorted. He didn't approve of Esther calling Zoey "Miss." But he couldn't stop her from doing it.

"We're going to make cheese later," Ruth said.

"We've got to do something with the milk," Zoey said as she came in after Ruth. "It's getting ahead of us, and it won't keep forever. Besides, we might need that cheese soon. Mom's pantry won't feed us forever."

"I don't know," Esther said. "That pantry goes on forever and ever. We never had that much food in our house."

"Yeah, well, we were poor," Ruth said. "We didn't have a choice."

"Mom never made much money," Zoey said, "but she was a wonder at getting things on the cheap. She'd stockpile food and household stuff like nobody's business."

"Our mom was good with money too," Ruth said, as though she had to defend her honor.

"I'm sure she was. But my mom was . . . unique. Still, the point is that my mom stocked the pantry with an incredible amount of dry stuff but, one, that won't last forever, and two, they are ingredients for making stuff. We'll still need to figure out how to make food using the dry goods. For today, we are fine, but some fresh cheese will be good, and a good experiment. According to Mom's books, there are a couple of fairly quick cheeses; it takes only a couple days for them to set up. Others can take months. We'll start with the easy ones and work our way up."

Zoey crossed the house and stepped out on the front porch. Darren followed suit. They stared down the street. About halfway down the block, a tree had been blown over across the street. Elsewhere, Darren could see other strewn branches, and the power lines were down on the next cross street. The houses themselves looked intact, dark and silent.

"Think anyone is left?" Darren asked.

"Not on this block, or anywhere nearby at least. Surely somewhere . . ." Zoey sighed and went back inside.

Breakfast was granola that Zoey had found buried in the pantry, covered with tangy goat's milk that was not to Darren's liking, but he ate it without protest. Afterward, they put a huge bucket of milk on top of the stove.

Zoey began the instructions. "The first step is to curdle the milk. In the old days, they used something called rennet, which comes from a sheep's stomach."

"Yuck," Esther said.

Zoey chuckled. "Yeah, I agree. Plus, I am fresh out of sheep stomach. Mom used lemon juice. We'll do that, okay?" Esther and Ruth both nodded, watching the process with interest. When the milk had curdled, Zoey ladled a small amount in a bowl and showed it to the girls. "The chunks are called curds and the liquid, whey."