Part 9
Best time to cook is when no one is around to get in the way. The rules of one person = one gallon was “discovered” by one of the men that went to see whether the Captain had been telling the truth. Despite a bunch of grumbling and complaining everyone grabbed whatever container they had and took off to go stand in line and this included the Captain and one of the backseat passengers.
When someone remarked on it the Cook’s knee was used as an excuse. One of the more chauvinistic in the crowd ribbed the Captain about spoiling her. He just shrugged and said, “I don’t want to have to get half-way back to camp and decide whether to leave the water and carry her or vice versa. And since I gotta live with her …”
Snort, chuckle, hardy har har har. The Captain inwardly winced knowing he’d need to do some sweet talking later. The Cook was well aware why the exchange took place … he didn’t want to leave their stuff unguarded and didn’t want to show what they had by not acting the same as the others … and that meant standing in line. What the Captain didn’t know was that it wasn’t him that the Cook wanted to flatten with a skillet but the other men that had put him in a position of having to act that way when he normally wasn’t.
But since there was nothing the Cook could do about it without drawing undue attention work was the best remedy to work off steam. It only took a little tender to catch the log so it would get hot again. The skillet was greased with a little ghee and then the Cook proceeded to make sour milk skillet biscuits. For every one-third of sour milk you add one cup of baking mix. Make a dough then drop into the hot skillet. Cook on one side then flip, flattening them a bit, then take out of the skillet when done. Sometimes you have to flip them more than once to keep them from burning before they cook all the way through so the Cook preferred making a lot of small biscuits rather than a few large ones.
That accomplished and the biscuits stored for later use, the cook put more water onto boil and filled up all of their thermos and just in time too as people started to trudge back into camp. Everyone looked like they were carrying some kind of water container and some size of wood. Backseat passenger #2 ran over to help the Captain and Backseat passenger #1 … Captain had a log balanced on his shoulder and a bucket full of kindling in his other hand. Backseat passenger #1’s backpack was weighted down with two gallon jugs of water and in his arms he carried small branches.
“Those aren’t our containers,” the Cook observed as the two all but melted into the camp chairs the Cook quickly put out for them.
“They’ve moved stuff closer to the highway. Rumor is it the Rangers don’t want to have to dig out trucks on muddy roads. Hide what you can because in an hour or so they’re going to be up here checking names and IDs and handing out these things to those that haven’t already gotten them.” The Captain held up his wrist and he was wearing a colored band that had numbers written on it.
“Why?”
“Color determines which area you are in and numbers are for section and camping space. Apparently where you are at determines what you get.”
“Uh …”
Tired and sore from the long hike and lack of good sleep the Captain explained, “Looks like those down in the temporary housing are going to get cots, medical attention as needed, and the biggie is that they’re going to get fed. The rest of us schmucks will get wood, water, and maybe a few other things if they aren’t needed to, and I quote, address the needs of those in temporary housing who will receive priority access to resources, end quote.”
“Well how special for them.”
The Captain gave the Cook a look not to say more, that they’d discuss things later when they had more privacy. The cook could already hear “discussions” all around them as couples quarreled and children started letting people know they were tired of behaving and being cooped up.
Lunch was already late because the Captain and crew had been gone so long. Rather than stir possible trouble while people were so irritable they took turns going into the car and eating a granola bar each.
Day 3:
L: granola bars
It wasn’t long after that that a group of officials showed up and everyone was required to show ID, get their contact info typed into a tablet and received their wrist band. This included even the very young children and babies. People were admonished not to remove or lose their wrist band or risk being evicted … on foot. Unaccompanied minors would be taken into custody. There was a painful silence after that statement even when a couple of the women asked what did they plan on doing with those taken into custody. Someone with a brain would figure out very fast the rules being outlined were not meant to be broken and that people better supervise their families at all times.
A few people complained that the people in temporary housing were getting special treatment and that the people with cars should actually get better treatment since they had followed the rules and gotten off the roads when told to do so.
“There may be an opportunity for some people to transfer into temporary housing. You’ll be notified if and when this occurs.”
The rain started coming down again, this time as hard as it had the preceding night.
As most everyone rushed to their vehicles and jumped in to get out of the weather the Captain said, “I want to break down camp.”
“You want to leave?” the Cook asked.
“Leaving isn’t an option right now. They’ve shut the gates and there are armed guards at the entrance. I just want to break down camp and stow it however we can in the vehicle. Less temptation for the envious. I gotta get some decent sleep tonight and it's not going to happen if I have to stand watch over our stuff all night. It will make it easier on your as well. We can just have another granola bar for supper.”
The Cook crooked her eyebrow and said, “Only if you have your heart set on it otherwise I had planned on skillet biscuit trail sliders.” Immediately three stomachs growled causing the Cook to roll her eyes and climb into the car so she could put the finishing touch on supper.
Day 3:
S: Trail Sliders
At home the Cook had packaged together one and a half cups of freeze dried hamburger, 6 T. mixed freeze dried bell peppers and dried chopped onions, 8 t. mushroom powdered gravy mix, and ½ t. diced dried garlic. In another bag there was a couple of packets of Worcestershire sauce leftover from a take out meal and a few triangles of shelf stable swiss cheese with the cute little cow on its packaging.
The dry ingredients were put in the smaller cooking pot and one and a half cups of boiling water was dumped in, mixed up, the lid put on securely, and then covered with the pot cozy. Fifteen minutes later the meal was ready and everyone got a portion and a triangle of swiss cheese. They also got a few mini sized skillet biscuits that they could split and put the hamburger filling into. There was silence in the vehicle as everyone finally satisfied their hunger.
Then the Cook pulled out the remainder of the biscuits and what was left of the bottom of a jar of jelly, one of the few remaining item left over from their frig, the Backseat passengers and Captain fist bumped and said they had the greatest Cook in the world. The Cook knew they were schmoozing her but she didn’t care, it was just a relief to be able to do something that took the solemn look off of everyone’s faces even if it was for a brief moment.
There was clean up and then inactivity and carbs put the Backseat passengers to sleep with their headphones on. The Cook said, “They’ll be out of battery in the morning.”
“If there’s enough sun I’ll put the solar charger someplace discreet and see about charging their gizmos. I’d like to keep our phones charged as well without running down the vehicle battery.”
“I started it while you were gone and let it run for a few minutes.”
“Good. Just don’t do that too often. I don’t want to get caught out here without fuel.”
“We still have all the cans.”
The Captain replied, “We’re a long way from home and we don't know what the gas situation is going to be when we get out of here.”
That sobered the Cook up. Then the Captain said, “How’s your knee?”
“Better. Swelling is down.”
There was an awkward silence then the Captain said, “You haven’t asked about going into temporary housing like most of the other women have.”
“One word?” At the Captain’s nod she said, “Ew.”
The Captain smiled. “Soooo … you’re ok with us getting by right here even if it is pretty primitive.”
“We've camped in worse locations with less and let’s just say we’ve talked about stuff like this enough that now that I’m faced with the reality of it I really wish we were at our BOL.” The Captain frowned and looked away. The Cook said, “You know what I mean. We made the best plans we could and things still blew up in our face. Murphy took the option away from us, it wasn’t anything we did or didn’t do. All I care about is that we’re together. And no, going to your sister’s place was NOT an option. Karen is ok but her husband is a jackass.”
“Whoa nelly, now who is slinging the cheap stuff.” At a look at her face the Captain said, “All kidding aside if I’d known it was going to be like this I still might have …”
“Uh uh. No way. You and Ted would have killed each other, and for all the other reasons we’ve discussed ad nauseam around the holidays. Besides things are the way they are, let’s just make the best of them.”
The Captain nodded, relieved despite the nagging thought he’d somehow let his family down. Then he looked at the dash and asked, “Oatmeal for breakfast again?”
“You’ll see.”
For whatever the reason, I'm delighted to read it!
