Tipping Point, page 27
“Yes! Exactly. But let’s not get into the finer points of patriarchal society. We’ve got some old-fashioned dancing and sex on the menu, and I’ve been meaning to get me some of that!”
“A woman after my own heart.”
“You keep saying that. I do not think it means what you think it means. I’m pretty sure I already caught it, or I’d very much like to know what I’m doing with Christmas wrapped around my finger.”
“Christmas? Oh, yeah, I can see where you might get that idea. But does Christmas come early this time?”
“If you play your cards right, it just might. But only so long as I get my turn next.”
“I doubt that’ll be a problem.”
“Not with you doing the work, no. Your manual labour skills are impressive. Speaking of which, this is all very beautiful by the way. You almost ruined my mascara.”
“Did you get poked in the eye by a tree branch?”
“Funny guy. No, it made me a sappy fool for a second or two, however. It was perfect for us. Not overdone with a zillion flowers or anything. Good thing we’re planning on kicking everyone back into the house soon, though, seeing as there’s no lighting. It’s going to get dark soon.”
“What, you don’t think I’m capable of ulterior motives?”
“The most devious, actually. It’s one of your best traits.”
“I thought it was my...” She gave him a poke in the ribs.
“Let’s get something to eat so I can keep up with you tonight, and then we’ll crank the tunes and have that romantic crap they call dancing. I kinda like it.”
Once she got some food into her stomach they opened the gift from Leigh and Kirk, which turned out to be a large silver picture frame with their names and the date engraved on it.
“This is really beautiful, guys. Thank you so much!”
“I took a bunch of pictures while you guys were getting hitched, and Leigh took video, so we’ll be able to put an actual wedding picture of you in the frame as soon as we print it off tonight.”
Touched, Mac had a hard time hiding the tears that were on the verge of overflowing her lower lids. She grabbed them both in a quick hug, and then Neil did the same.
The younger generation wasn’t done surprising them, though. Cameron turned off the music, and Billy brought out his guitar. Mac’s mouth dropped open when he began to play a familiar tune and Cameron started singing along. They’d chosen Nat King Cole’s L.O.V.E. and it took everything she had to keep from bawling her head off. She was just so damn proud of the two of them for doing something so meaningful for her and Neil.
When the song ended, Mac grabbed Cameron into a bear hug, while Neil did the same with his son. Then they switched, which embarrassed Billy and freaked out Cameron a little bit. She was not a hugger, and only rarely tolerated them from her mother, much less a man she’d just met, but Neil just laughed.
“That’s what you get for doing something so wonderful for your mother and me. Thank you. Truly. It means a lot to both of us...as you might have noticed from the mascara running down your mom’s face.” Cameron let out a shout of laughter at that.
Once the ferrets had been taken back to the house, they all started dancing, with everyone using their phones to take more pictures. Neil seemed determined to keep most of the songs slow ones, so he could hold her in his arms, but the rest of them had something to say about that. They wanted to party and let off some steam.
By the time it got dark everyone was full, and laughter carried on the wind behind the six people heading back to the house, most of the food in their arms. Billy had offered to drive Leigh and Kirk back to the cabin, since Cameron would be there to open the gate, but they opted to stay over and play games. Kelly and Annette were talking about joining in, so it looked like everyone had a fun evening planned.
25
LET THE GAMES BEGIN
A couple of bottles of white wine were left in ice buckets on the table. One was a really sweet ice wine, while the other was a tart sauvignon blanc. Neil was poking fun at her so-called infantile taste in vino, but she wasn’t having any of it.
“I’ll have you know, ice wine isn’t cheap stuff. They sold a bottle of it for thirty grand a few years back. Not that I’d pay that much for it myself. I’m generally happier with Molson Canadian. Far more infantile. I have eclectic tastes. At least we won’t be stealing from each other’s wine cache when the shit hits the fan. For that matter, I get the advantage there, I think. Not too many people go for the stuff.”
“I wonder why. Of course, that’s in an ideal world. People will go for anything if they’re desperate.”
“True enough. I mean, look at us.” Neil growled at her, drained the last of his extremely tart wine, and yanked her empty goblet from her hand to set on the table that still contained the last of the food.
“Let’s see about desperate, shall we?”
“I knew you’d see things my way eventually.” Mac loved poking at him, because this was the usual result. Not that he wasn’t aware of that.
“Be gentle with me, cowboy. It’s my first time.” He snorted.
“My ass.”
“You want me to be gentle with your ass? Okay. We can go there.”
“Yeah, we’ll see how far you get with that. I meant you’re nowhere near virgin status.”
“Who said anything about virgins? I said it was my first time. First time banging you as a married woman. And I’m all injured and shit.”
“You’re a crispy critter, definitely. I wonder if you’ll make a lot of crunching noises. Could be weird for me.”
“You need to get out more. Well, maybe not. You start stepping out you really will hear some crunching, though that will be your bones. Alright, take me to bed, cowboy. And make it good. I’ve got things to do.”
She certainly did plenty of them, though they all took place in the tent with her accomplice. Music continued to play outside the tent, and just under it she could hear the river and the wind. It might have been a short honeymoon out of necessity, but it couldn’t have been a better one.
They woke up early enough to watch the sun rise, which was extremely rare for Mac. Normally she was still up at that time, not waking up. It was beautiful all the same, and more so with Neil beside her, the sleeping bags wrapped around them as they looked over the still-swift current of the river.
Oddly, she felt no sense of surrealism from having married someone she’d known less than a week. She smiled at the thought of Ian’s reaction when he found out. He’d call her crazy and wish her well, whatever he might think privately, and no one ever really knew how well things would work out between people.
When the sun had risen they dressed silently in the clothes Neil had brought out with the camping gear, and headed into the house for breakfast. There was a lot of work to be done today. At least for anyone who would be allowed outside in the sun. Her floppy hat that looked so nice with her sundress was just not meant for daily use. Although the goats might enjoy chewing on the ribbons.
Neil got the morning chores completed, and brought in the stuff from the night before. Mac took care of breakfast. She was starving, so she made everything she could think of. Pancakes, bacon, omelets, toast, scrambled eggs, and even cold cereal, were put out for everyone.
They all dug in, though not everyone could sit at the table. Kelly and Annette took their heaping plates over to the futon and sat down. Mac decided she was going to have to make a bigger table for all of them, along with some more chairs. She figured there would at least be one more person once the shit hit the fan and she went to get Allan, but she would plan for more.
Leigh and Kirk took the rental car to the cabin to look after the animals there. Once Neil’s truck was emptied, Mac gave him a list of things she needed from the hardware store. The additional insulation she needed for the sheds was at the top of the list. When she added mattresses to the list, Neil went out to hook up the horse trailer. He didn’t argue with her, since he saw where things were going just as clearly as she did.
Mac got down to the business of cleaning up around the place a little bit. She had a bunch of laundry to do by this point, and when she was done Cameron started dumping her own clothes into the washer. Neil and Billy were back by then and finishing up the ferret run.
Kelly and Annette dealt with the ferrets from the shelter. Twelve ferrets created a lot of waste in one day, and the upkeep was pretty much constant. Annette began reading some of the goat and chicken anatomy textbooks that Mac had purchased, and Kelly got started on lunch.
Mac called Ian to let him know the latest news, and found out that the outages in Cleveland were getting worse. They were interconnected with Toronto, so she’d been expecting it. All the major cities were a backup for everyone else. And when one went the rest of them had a heavier load with less support. New York City was already down.
Ian had taken her advice on the insulin, as well as the most important items on the list she’d sent him, but he was still working to get the remainder. Lines in stores were long, power outages caused payment processing delays, and people were a hairsbreadth from panic. She hung up thinking it was time for a final run on fuel.
Everyone had lunch, and Mac told them the details of her conversation with Ian.
“Once we’re finished eating, I’ll set everyone up for access to the gate and doors. Billy and Neil should probably do the fuel run, and we can start battening down the hatches after that. Kelly and Annette, you should follow them and pull your money out of the bank, including anything you can borrow on your credit cards, if it’s still possible. Buy lots of underwear, sturdy shoes, and clothes.” She gave them the same advice she’d given Leigh and Kirk the day before, only adding deodorant and other personal hygiene supplies.
“This is about to blow up, I’m afraid, so we have very little time. I’m going to take a nap soon, so that I can go out after the sun is down and get some work done. We should pour a concrete pad and put a shed on it to use as a vet care building. I’ll start on an exam table once I get Annette’s input for it.
“Tomorrow I think we need to go get those other ferrets. I don’t want to wait any longer than that. Can you call them and pave the way, Kelly?”
“No problem. God, this is really happening, isn’t it?”
Mac nodded, plotting things out in her head. Neil spoke up to give his opinion.
“We should probably hit Ottawa first. The more urban the city, the faster people are going to run out of things and panic. Sault is a little more geared toward rural, whereas the capital city is necessarily more modern.” Mackenzie nodded.
“You’re right. We’ll have to make two trips, though. We can’t have ferrets confined all the way from Ottawa to Sault Ste. Marie, and then from the Sault home. We’re talking fourteen or fifteen hours. The stress would be terrible for the ferrets.” Kelly nodded her agreement.
“They can’t be sedated for that long, for one thing. If they don’t eat and drink four to six times a day, they get really sick, really fast.”
“If there are dozens of them, we’ll need to convert the truck bed or something, or make multiple trips. And that’s something I don’t want to do. When you call them, Kelly, can you find out how many there are so I know what to plan for?”
“Will do.”
Neil waited for everyone to disperse before talking to Mackenzie in more detail about her plans.
“You don’t have to take everything on all at once. We’ll have plenty of time when we get back to build exam tables and a personal animal hospital.”
“I need to feel productive, Neil. Sitting around and doing nothing while other people work is just not comfortable for me. You worked all day. I’ll get some rest now, and you can sleep through the night. This damn sun stroke, or whatever it is, is making me really tired anyway. Either that or the fact that you kept me up so much of last night and we woke up at dawn.” Neil stroked her hair and kissed her softly.
“Get some rest honey. I’ll make sure everything is taken care of.” Knowing that he would was the only thing that kept her from panicking at this point. She’d refused to let anyone else see it, but she’d been badly shaken by Ian’s news. It didn’t matter that it was what she’d been expecting. Now it was happening, and time was growing very, very short.
Neil wasn’t fooled by it, she was sure, but he didn’t say anything. Not everything needed to, or even should, be talked about. Reinforcing panic was never a good thing, and he did his best to soothe her fears without all the discussion.
When Mac finally fell asleep, her dreams were not pleasant ones. When she woke up things were even worse.
Sweat covered her body still when she left the bedroom to find Kelly sobbing and fear in everyone else’s eyes. They were all seated around the table.
“What happened?” Her own panic skyrocketed, and she had to struggle to control her emotions.
“Ottawa is dark,” Neil said softly, and pulled her into his lap to hold her.
“Obviously there’s more to the story. What is it?”
“Civilians in Ottawa overtook parliament. They were in session to discuss the power situation in southern Ontario. A few members of parliament were killed, along with our prime minister. The military police couldn’t stop the mass of people.
“We don’t know all the details. Just what Kelly got from Lianne at the shelter there. Some is rumour, of course, since everything went dark there shortly after it happened, but Trudeau was definitely killed.”
“Jesus. We need to get them out of there right now then. Can they get out of the city with the ferrets on their own? That’d be a better solution. The sooner they get outside the city, the better, and it would mean we wouldn’t have to go into the city at all. We can meet them with fuel if they don’t have enough.” Kelly nodded and wiped at her eyes and nose.
“They were already planning to go, so I told them to leave and head this way with the ferrets. They have a van, though with all the ferrets it’ll be pretty cramped. They might actually be able to get here on a single tank, so you may not have to head toward Ottawa at all.
“Sault Ste. Marie is a different story. It’s barely even a shelter, so she doesn’t have a van to transport a whole bunch of ferrets. Elizabeth said she was wondering if she was going to have to put them to sleep. She knows she can’t stay in the city, and she has no way to move them. There are ten ferrets there, so it’s not a lot, but she wasn’t able to find fuel. She apparently ended up running out while she was looking for more, and had to abandon the car and walk home.”
“We need a different game plan then. Looks like Lianne’s bunch is on alert status, rather than an emergency one, whereas Elizabeth’s are our highest priority now,” Neil said.
“Would Billy know how to get to highway 60?” Neil thought about it.
“He’s been out that way any number of times, though I hate the thought of sending him out on a rescue mission. It’s more the parent in me than anything else. I know he’d be fine, logically. I’d just rather keep him in a safe place.”
“Tell me about it. I’m the same with Cameron. I’d say it’s pretty low-risk, though. It’s more that she doesn’t know the area. Barely remembers living here when she was a kid. She does know how to handle a weapon, however.”
“Billy, too. We don’t have handguns, except for the SIG. Just long-guns. Should probably send them out with both a rifle and a shotgun, just to ease our parental misgivings. Of course, that’s assuming there’s a need for them to find the van in the first place. We’ll send Lianne exact directions to this place, and tell her not to deviate from their route in any way, so if Billy and Cam do have to go looking they won’t miss one another on the road. Hopefully they don’t get lost.
“The real issue will be communicating with them. I doubt very much they have a satellite phone, and I would bet the cell towers will start going dark soon. If they can’t call to let us know there’s a problem, we’ll have to set up a deadline for them to get here. If they don’t make it by then, then the kids will have to go.”
“You could stay here while I go to Sault Ste. Marie, but we both know that’s not going to happen. It’s far more likely we’ll have a major problem on that trip, than there would be going a short distance to find the van from Ottawa.”
“I’m glad you didn’t put that suggestion forward seriously, or I would have to kick your ass. When we send them the detailed directions, we’ll give them the timeline for when to expect a rescue. We’ll leave one satellite phone with Billy and have the other one with us, just in case, though I’m not sure how much help we can be from that distance. We might be able to talk them through a situation, but that’s about it.
“All the fuel containers are full, which is a damn good thing. Your timing was dead-on there, honey. I doubt we’ll be able to refill them again even as late as tomorrow. Your car might be able to make the trip to Sault, one way, but it definitely won’t make it back again.
“We’ll have to strap every fuel container we can to the car, so we can completely refill the tank at least once, and then have fuel in reserve in case my calculations are off. The trip there takes just over five hours, plus any driving we have to do to find the shelter. How many people are we talking there, Kelly?”
“She’s by herself. Lianne’s got her husband, but they’re in the van together. No kids other than the furry kind.”
“How many ferrets does she have?” Mac was wondering if the run was going to be big enough. They already had a tally of twenty-two shelter ferrets. She wasn’t counting Pickle and Squeaker, since they weren’t going to be a part of the group.
“Twenty-eight.” Mac whistled.
“This should be fun. Fifty rescue ferrets. We’ll have to make some adjustments, because even with the run at the back we’re going to start taking on the conditions of a back-yard breeder if we’re not careful. And we’re going to need more food for them. I bought a lot of kibble, but that won’t last as long now. We’ll have to start breeding chickens like crazy, I think.” She looked at Neil.
