Holly Fever (Mondamin Court #1)

Chapter 38

"Let me check the street," Zoey said to Ruth. She unslung the rifle and checked around the corner of the house. "It's clear.

They led the goats out of the Hillcrests' backyard and back to their house. The four of them worked together, a team. It was April, almost six weeks since Darren's death. It was spring weather, and they wore only light jackets.

The goats bleated joyfully as they headed for home. Zoey and Ruth gave wary looks up and down the streets. They had faced bandits once more since the incident with Darren, Misshasha, and Ruth. Those bandits had backed away when Zoey appeared on the porch, armed, while Ruth and Esther made a show of flashing guns from the second-floor window, keeping their faces and bodies from view. After a couple of tense minutes, the bandits had decided the house wasn't worth the potential loss.

Radio Free Des Moines made it sound like some sort of order was being reestablished downtown. Zoey was almost curious about what it was like, but Ruth had turned skittish and didn't want to leave the block for any reason.

Zoey couldn't blame her. She shook her head. Maybe someday, if things continued to rebuild. She pushed the thought from her mind as she went into the pantry. She dug through their stock of rations, turning her mind to supper. There was dough rising on the counter and a couple of eggs from the chickens.

"Goats are back in the pen," Esther announced as the girls came back in.

"Good, I have one more chore I want to get done today," she said as she pulled out a couple of cans of soup. Then she revealed a handful of jelly packets she had scavenged from the military rations. "And then a treat for tonight."

The girls smiled at the packets. It struck Zoey as funny—last fall no one would have thought a single jelly packet to add to your bread could be a treat. But they hadn't had sugar in over a month. The rations were healthy and filling, but they'd had little variation in flavor or taste.

"What's the chore?" Ruth said.

"Just a second," Zoey said as she sat the soup cans on the counter. "We'll do that, and then clean up for supper, okay?" She found a flashlight and ran to the basement. She came back with several trays filled with potting soil and a box filled with little paper packets. "Rations won't last forever. We need to start growing our own food."

"Cool," Esther said.

"Tomato," Misshasha said, pointing at one package.

"Yes, Misshasha," Zoey praised. She looked at the package. "Mom always said they were hard to grow from seeds, but we'll try a few. Be tasty. Some of the greens and stuff are easy. I used to help with the planting. This year we'll have to turn most of the front yard into garden as well. Maybe some of the neighbors' too. Think they'll mind?" she joked.

She pulled a basic book on gardening down from the shelf and started looking up information on when to start seedlings. She supervised as the girls selected what they wanted to grow and talked about the future garden.

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Holly leaned against her hoe and stared at the line of crops Josie was planting behind her. She felt good . . . tired, but good. She'd miss Cat and the other kitchen staff, but this was where she belonged now.

She'd been one of the first volunteers for the urban gardening initiative. They'd torn up every piece of grass they could find, block-wide parks downtown, lawns on the state capital, you name it. It seemed almost unbelievable now that they had ever let those spaces be used for something as frivolous as grass. They replaced them all with orderly garden rows.