I unpacked the bags, setting all the items on the table.  The pasta, dried beans, and rice lay in a small mountain.

“Can you ask Winifred to let Mary know that we could use a cabinet or shelf to store the food?” I asked, turning my head to look at him.  Our faces were inches apart as he too studied what lay on the table.

“Do you always have to stand so close?”

His lips twitched.  “If I wasn’t worried about being knocked on my back, I’d stand even closer.”  He didn’t meet my gaze but reached out and picked up one of the items on the table.  “And no, I don’t need to ask Winifred.  I let Gregory know.”

“How?”

“Just like Winifred can communicate with all of us, I can communicate with the members of my pack.”

“Members of your pack.  You’re Gregory’s...what?  Leader?”

“Yes.”

“That explains a lot,” I mumbled as I turned away from him.  Like why he was so domineering and why he seemed to expect that people would listen to him.

*    *    *    *

Long after the sun had gone down, I still sat on my bed, bored.  I’d taken the pain pill, but with several of the men in the building, I couldn’t bring myself to turn off the lamp and sleep.  Not until Mary returned, anyway.  Then, as if my thoughts conjured her, I heard her yell my name.

“Up here!” I called.

Her steps were light and barely audible on the stairs.  The door opened a moment later.

“Come see everything we’ve found.”  Her eyes were bright, her cheeks flushed, and I was sure it wasn’t because of what they’d brought back.  There was a dark spot on her neck, a kissing mark.

I grabbed the lamp and followed her.

“It’s an odd collection of things, but I think we found some amazing pieces.”  She paused at the bottom of the steps to wait for me.

From above, I heard Thomas’ door open and fought not to roll my eyes.

I’d returned to the bedroom after a very long, very uncomfortable afternoon shadowed by him.  Even in my room, I hadn’t been free of his presence because seconds after I’d closed the door, I heard his door close, too.

“I’m glad it wasn’t a wasted trip,” I said, hurrying to get to the common room.  I didn’t want to linger in the gloomy hall with him not far behind me.  I pushed through the doors then stopped.

Mary hadn’t exaggerated about what they’d found.  An odd assortment of items littered the area.  I set the lamp on the table and walked further into the room.  Some of the taller objects cast shadows on other objects.  It was definitely too much to go through with the poor light of night.

“Wow, Mary.  How did you get this all back?”

“Winifred asked a few others to help us.”  She moved further into the room and patted a large looking metal upright chest.  “This is an old refrigerator.  We can use it for storing food.  Nothing will be able to get to it.”

What did she think would try to get to our food?

“And this,” she said, tapping something else big and metal and partially hidden in the refrigerator’s shadow, “will come in handy for cooking.”

I moved closer and grinned when I saw the old-fashioned stove.  I vaguely remembered my grandparents having one like it.  The metal beast had two doors and two removable plates on the cook surface.  The smaller door, I knew, was for wood.  When lit, it would heat the oven that was behind the second door and the cook surface above.  It would also help heat the room.  Mary had just made life much easier.

“That is totally amazing,” I said.  Most older people like my grandparents replaced these things years ago with gas stoves.

“And check this out,” she said, waving me over to a small, potbellied stove.  “This is for your room.  In winter.”

I didn’t miss her use of the word “your,” however, I pretended to.

“I can’t wait to look at the rest of it tomorrow when we have better light.”

Mary nodded excitedly, said goodnight to Gregory, grabbed my hand, and practically dragged me from the room.  I managed to take hold of the lantern on our way past.

As soon as we closed the door to our room, she grinned at me.

“That was the best evening of my life.  We talked about everything.  Did you know that he’s Thomas’ cousin?  He’s only four years older than me—that’s a relief—and said he wouldn’t mind living here if that’s what I wanted to do.”

“He does seem pretty sweet,” I said, returning her smile.  “I’m very excited for you.  How much longer are you going to make him wait?”  I just wanted to know when I’d be sleeping in this room alone.

“He asked the same thing today.  I don’t have a set time.  When it feels like it’s time, I’ll tell him.”

I nodded, kicked off my shoes, and crawled into bed with a yawn.  Now that she was back, the need to sleep kicked in with full force.

“Good night, Mary,” I said softly.

She turned down the lamp.  Mary saw better in the dark than I did, and there was less of a chance of her bruising her shin on her way back to the bed.

I closed my eyes and listened to her settle under her covers.

“Did you have a nice day with Thomas?” she whispered.

I didn’t answer.  It wasn’t because I didn’t trust Mary with the truth.  I did.  But I didn’t want her to feel bad that she’d had such a great day when my day had been so awful.  Plus, I had a suspicion that Thomas was in his room already.  I didn’t want him to hear what I had to say.

“Good night, Charlene,” she whispered after a moment.  “I hope you have a better day tomorrow.”

A smile curled my lips.  Mary was smart.

*    *    *    *

The amazing mounds of goods that crowded the common room looked even bigger in daylight.  There were small and large tables, chairs, dressers, cabinets, toys, lamps—not the gas kind—pieces of metal I couldn’t identify, bags filled with things—it looked like clothes—a pile of random tools, and many other odd items.  None of it was in good condition.  After Mary’s excitement last night, I’d expected a bit better than what I saw.  Though, the stove totally was a find.

Paul, Henry, Gregory, Grey, and Mary watched me study everything.  Through the open door, I listened to the thwack of the ax and the crackle and crunch of breaking wood.

“Okay.  Let’s store the tools in the other building.”  Mary and I hadn’t yet explored it, but it looked like it was in as good of repair as the main building.  “Maybe take a table out there, too, so we can take stock of what tools we have.”

Thomas opened the door and asked for volunteers.  A rush of men fought to crowd into the room.  Thomas didn’t appoint someone to move the tools but looked at me.  His deference puzzled me.

“Can you two start carrying the tools to the other building?” I said, pointing to two men toward the front of the group.  “And you two carry a table over?  Then maybe the four of you can organize them and tell us what we have?”  I said everything as a question because I didn’t want to sound bossy.  The four I pointed to nodded and got to work.

“Can everyone else grab the furniture and move it out to the yard?  The stove and the old refrigerator can stay in here.”

Within minutes, the room was cleared of everything but the odd items and the bags.  I sorted through some of the oddities and found several old window frames still with whole glass.

“If they don’t fit, I thought we could cut the glass to work in some of the windows here,” Mary said.

“Perfect,” I said with a smile.  “Anton could probably do that since he helped us before.”

She shook her head.  “He left yesterday.”

I gave Mary a puzzled glance.

“There was no point in staying.  He already had his chance.”

“Then why is...never mind,” I said.  I didn’t want to know why Thomas was being exceptionally persistent.

She gave me a knowing grin.  “I’ll see if someone else is willing to come in and help with that.”

“Before you do that, what’s in the bags?”