Spring

“Well… Fuck”

Jay lowered his eyes for one more look at the photograph in his hand. The cabin in the picture appeared just like he remembered it. A small, but cozy two room wood cabin with red cedar siding and blue shutters, sitting in a small yard of emerald green grass and clover. His arm fell down to his side and he soaked in another good look at the structure in its current condition. The soft green lawn was now a fifteen year old new-growth forest, all thorny pioneering brambles and low quality softwoods. The roof sank inward. The cedar siding was broken apart and falling off. The windows were shattered. A shutter swayed in the breeze, threatening to fall to the ground in reunion with its twin. A tree stuck out of the entryway as if greeting the outside world with a wave of its branches.

“Grandpa… You haven’t been here in a while have you?” Letting his bag slip off his shoulder and land in the brush, Jay fished out his phone. “At least I get reception out here.” He mumbled, pulling up the internet. “Benton Cove Resort, closed for another week and there are no other hotels in this town... Of course there aren't any other hotels in this town... I should have bought a car, but then I’d need a license.”

He looked around and considered his options. The city was a two hour bus ride away and it wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. There was no place in town to stay the night and he didn’t have a tent. Best bet was to walk the half mile back to Benton Cove and see if their general store that claimed to have everything, actually had everything.

Jay snapped a picture of the cabin and sent it to his mom. -Photograph was old. Place needs a match. I’ll be fine though. Love you.-

***

Lilly slouched on her stool with her back against the corner wall that separated the cash register from the rest of the Holton’s General Store. It was pretty much the perfect spot. She could sit there and look at anything she wanted on her cell phone. Nothing bad, just slightly ecchi manga that was too much effort to explain if Megan started asking questions. Currently she was catching up on one called ‘My New Neighbor, Her Cousin, and the Kitchen Chef’ because the naming convention for manga was freaking insane.

“Lil.” Whispered Megan. Lilly didn’t hear her.

“Lil.” She whispered again, only slightly louder.

“Lilly!” Megan hissed as quietly as possible.

“Hmm?” Lilly responded. Looking up with her eyes, but otherwise not moving. The older woman pointed a boney finger down one of the aisles. Lilly leaned forward to get a look at what had her boss so excited. At the far end of the outdoors section was a man. That by itself was wholly unremarkable. She had known someone was in the store for the last five minutes. She just wasn't sure who it was as she could only see the back of the guy’s head. Lilly turned back to Megan. “What?”

“Watch.” Megan insisted.

Lilly leaned forward again and watched the mundane situation while wondering what Megan was on about. The man turned to look down at some canvas tarps, and getting a clear look of his face, Lilly didn’t recognize him.

She didn’t recognize him!

The two women made excited gestures at each other as the mundane and unremarkable quickly became the most interesting thing to happen in town since the last wave of tourists during the Fall Festival.

Megan quickly backed off and Lilly straightened up as the stranger approached the counter. He was a tall, young, and handsome man with an average build, short brown hair, a beard that looked like it was well trimmed and kept short, the most perfect nose, and gorgeous coal black eyes. He wore a dark gray hoodie and beige cargo pants. Lilly pushed a loose strand of hair out of her face which almost immediately returned to its previous position.

“Hey.” She said, adopting the generic friendly cashier tone she used for the tourists.

“Hi.” Replied the stranger.

Lilly attempted again to remove the loose strand of hair from her line of sight before scanning his items. A canvas, rope, duck tape, several bottles of water, a machete…

“You forgot the hockey mask.” Lilly remarked before she could stop herself.

The stranger laughed. “I didn’t see one.”

Lilly pushed the annoying strand of hair out of her face again. “It’s in aisle three.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep.”

“I’ll have to pick one up next time.”

“Forty-two, twenty-three.” Lilly said, pushing her hair out of her eyes for the umpteenth time. He paid, gave her a pleasant goodbye, and as she watched the stranger leave, she finally looped the loose strand over her horn and out of her face.

“Flirt much?” Asked Megan.

“What?”

The older woman leaned against the counter with a smug look on her face. She pantomimed pushing hair out of her face, then again, and again.

Lilly put a hand over her mouth. “Oh gods, I didn’t.”

Megan nodded viciously. “Oh yeah you did.”

“You think he noticed?”

“I don’t think he was blind dear.”

Lilly dropped back into her stool and buried her face in her hands.

“I wouldn’t worry about it Lil. The tourists don’t stay long. Though I didn’t realize it was already the twenty-first.”

Lilly lifted her head. “It’s the fifteenth.”

Both women looked at eachother, then towards the door.

Megan broke the silence first. “Soooo… Where in the Abyssal-Hell did he come from?”

***

Despite the persistence of snow in areas that remained fully shaded and the cool chill in the air, the remnants from winter; Jay had dropped his hoodie and was sporting a thin sheen of sweat. Out of breath and already exhausted, he stood up straight, letting the vertebrae in his back shift into their correct positions with small, satisfying pops. He had managed to forge a path through the brambles to the cabin’s front door and win a duel with the tree growing out of the entryway.

The inside of the cabin wasn’t in as much disrepair as he had been expecting. Stains and soft spots in the floor showed where the roof was leaking, but the boards themselves seemed sturdy enough. Leaves and squirrel nests were everywhere and there was the matter of the tree, now a stump, growing through the floorboards and out the door. The bedroom looked to be in decent shape. The mattress wasn’t much more than springs and a thick blanket of moss and soil, but the frame itself was still standing strong.

In the main room, Jay’s grandfather's favorite chair was in a similar state as the bedroom mattress. The wood stove was covered in surface rust, but seemed to be fully intact. The kitchen sink had a few inches of soil in the basin that had grown a large clump of now brown and very dead grass. Jay gave the hand pump a try, but no water presented itself. The bathroom looked much the same as the kitchen. The wooden tub had seen better days and probably wasn’t worth testing.

“No electricity.” Jay noted out loud. He remembered his grandfather using oil lamps to light the place. Jay was going to need electricity, and the internet. Sadly, this little adventure might end up costing him more than he had previously anticipated. First things first though, he needed to gather some wood and see if the stove still worked. An hour later he was outside the cabin coughing and sputtering as smoke rolled out of the building behind him. Once Jay figured out how to get onto the roof without a ladder, a precarious situation considering its current state, removing the old bird nests was easy. Getting down was a little less easy. The next step was to locate the well pump, but as the sun was quickly descending, that got replaced with barricading the entryway and trying to keep as much heat inside the leaky cabin as possible. “Hopefully it won't rain.”

***

Lilly slammed her key into its lock and burst through the door. She kicked off her shoes, dropped her bag on the table, snatched up her cellphone charger, and bolted back out, careful not to slam the door behind her. She slid her key into the lock of the next apartment over and slipped inside, again being sure not to slam the door.

“Hana, Hana, Hana, Nohana!” Lilly yelled rapidly and practically cannonballed into the bean bag chair next to the blonde.

“Lil. Lil. Lil. Lilly.” Nohana mocked in a far less exuberant tone, never taking her eyes off the TV screen.

"Guess what?"

"Hmm, you ordered something online and it just arrived." Came the blonde's educated guess.

"Uh no. That should be a day or two yet, but we need to change the population sign!"

"Oh God. Did old man Turner finally pass away?"

"No, I don't think so."

"So… Who's pregnant?"

"No one's pregnant. Well, not as far as I know." Lilly opened an app on her phone. "Someone moved here!"

Nohana paused her game and slowly turned to look at the grinning Tel'ani girl. "Lilly, nobody moves here."

Lilly turned her phone to show a picture of some guy. "Casey got a good shot of him, but I sort of talked to him at the store."

Nohana took the phone and scrutinized the image. "Early tourist?"

"Nope. Got it confirmed by Harahk himself. This guy came in this morning and paid the back taxes on the old Corrinson place."

"That run down shack in the woods?"

"Mmhmm." Lilly got up. "He's hot right?"

Nohana looked the image over again. "Not really."

"What?" Lilly stopped rummaging through Nohana's cabinets. "He's totally hot!"

"No. You just live in a small town and have no options. You said you talked to him. Was," Nohana made air quotes, "hot, the first thing that came to mind."

"What would you know?" Lilly retorted as she snatched her phone back and examined the image like an appraiser looking for signs of fraud. "Okay. How about decently attractive?"

Nohana shrugged and picked her controller back up. "I don't know. Sure."

Lilly returned to rummaging through the cabinets. "How's spaghetti sound?"

"I don't have any meat."

"I'll give you some meat." Lilly chuckled to herself and put a pot of water on the stovetop, then quickly dashed back to her place. She froze in the hallway with a grimace as the door slammed shut behind her.

***

"So you're the new guy everyone's been talking about."

It was a statement, not a question, and it made Jay's stomach sink. "Everyone?" Jay asked.

"Eh, It's a small town. You're the most interesting thing that's happened since some drunk tourists went joyriding in Corbin's tractor last summer."

"Oh, ok. Does that… I mean drunks taking tractors, does that happen often?"

"Na, most of the tourists are families getting out of the city, but we do occasionally get the college frat boys. We don't have a jail here so I had to lock 'em up in the post office sorting room."

Hal was a decent looking Tel'ani chap with the light purple skin, small horns, and the long black tail common to his race. He wore a uniform that was equal parts postman and police officer with additional badges for EMT and Fire Department. It didn't really

surprise Jay after dealing with the county recorder who was also the librarian, tax assessor, and mayor.

"Hey Hal." Came a female voice from the post office entrance.

"Good morning squirt."

The girl betrayed a slight grimace and Jay instantly recognized her from the general store. She wasn't an inch over five feet and couldn't have weighed more than a hundred and ten soaking wet. Light purple skin, small horns, long black tail, long black hair, and golden eyes. He couldn't help but notice a clear familiar resemblance to Hal, which made the "squirt" nickname make perfect sense. Unlike the uniformed Hal, the girl wore a simple pleated skirt, a dark blue hoodie, and a black choker.

"It's Jay right?" Hal asked.

Jay shifted. He hadn't actually introduced himself yet. "Yeah. Jay Higgs." Hal held a hand out to shake. "Hal Fisher. This here is my little sister, Lilly. There's another sister, but she's in the city."

"We've met. Sort of." Lilly chimed in.

"And there's our truck." Hal moved to open the loading bay door as a rather short semi began backing in. "What’re you expecting Lil?"

"Umm, just a manga."

"And you?" Clearly referring to Jay.

"A whole damn pallet of crap." He looked to Lilly. "Hockey masks." Lilly stiffed a chuckle.

"This must be the new guy?" Came the voice of a man that must have been in his fifties.

Jay held out a hand. He was likely going to be doing that a lot. "Jay Higgs."

The man grabbed it and added a pat to the shoulder. "Corbin Smithson. I run the saw mill. Heard a lot about you."

"That can't be good." Jay admitted. "I've only been here a day."

Corbin nodded. He had a weathered face with a perpetual squint and held his chin up when he spoke. "You bought the Corrinson place?"

"Uh, inherited it actually."

"Oh. How are you related to Kyle?"

"He'd be my grandfather."

"No shit. You ah?" Corbin snapped his fingers and looked to Lilly for help. "What was Kyle's little girl's name?"

Lilly shrugged.

"Tamra." Jay offered.

"Yeah, that's it."

"That would be my mother."

"I ain't seen her since she was knee high to a grasshopper. How she doin’?"

"She's doing well."

"Good to hear. Good to hear."

"Squirt." Hal yelled. Lilly only just barely caught the package thrown at her as she apparently had been paying too much attention to Jay and Corbin’s conversation.

"Corbin. Just the one?"

"Should be two. Had a belt go out on the skidsteer last week." Corbin returned his attention back to Jay. "You need any heavy equipment work done you come to me ya hear. Cost you an arm and a leg to get someone from the city. Goes for lumber also."

"I'm gonna have to take you up on that offer. How much would it cost to clear about an acre of brush?"

"Hmmm, 'bout a two fifty, maybe three. I'd have to take a look at it, but it'll have to wait ‘til tomorrow."

"So Jay?" Hal pulled a fully loaded pallet jack into the building. "How you plan on getting this out’a here?"

Jay sighed. "Um… One piece at a time I guess."

***

Jay had never worked with planks before. It wasn’t any more difficult than four by eight plywood, it was actually easier, but mostly it was just different and took more nails. Insulation was one of those, “we’ll order it and it'll show up next week,” things the general store did. What insulation existed in the cabin probably wasn’t insulating anything. At least this structure would have less holes. Jay had always planned to build a tool shed when he got here. The difference was he was building a larger shed for himself instead. Tools would have to live inside the cabin.

Kade Wells, the town’s handman, was putting together a cart for Jay. For a price obviously. It had become painfully obvious that transporting a quantity of anything the half mile between the cabin and the post office one piece at a time wasn't going to work. Corbin had been paid to clear the driveway, which over time had become a thicket of brambles and small trees that was harder to traverse than the actual forest on either side of it, as well as an acre or so around the cabin. The old well had been located and the hand pump there actually still worked.

Stolen story; please report.

Electricity was still going to be the biggest roadblock. Kade estimated the cost of on grid power to be about fifteen thousand dollars. It just wasn’t in the budget to install poles and run a powerline. In the end, he settled for two decent generators and added “learn about solar” to his to-do list. The internet would be easier. Sixty dollars per month got him a dish on his roof that picked up signal from the cell tower. It wouldn’t be the best connection, but it sure beat sitting in the library anytime he wanted to search how to do something. Still, that would have to wait a while. Once the shed was complete, his next step was to fix the outhouse. Currently it was functional, but open to the elements and not terribly inviting.

Jay let out a sigh and picked up another plank. “Lot’s of work.”

***

Lilly shook off the excess water and collapsed her umbrella before entering the library. Outside may have been damp and chilly, but the interior was warm and inviting, if not unusually full. Tousen had the town children in the room set aside for the classroom book learning stuff. Toma and Shin Lee were in a far corner arguing about something or another in hushed whispers. In another corner was a family of tourists, people from the city who paid more money than Lilly could fathom wasting, just to experience small town living for a week or two. Every year people showed up and then they left, most of which never returned. Yet, sitting at a table as far away from the tourists as possible, was a familiar, but still very new face.

Lilly dropped the pile of manga onto the counter.

“Finished already?” Asked Harahk as he got up from his computer to scan in the books.

“Yep.”

“You know, when I was a kid, we had superhero comics.”

“There’s still plenty of superhero stuff. I just like these better.” There was no point in arguing the difference between manga and comics with the older man. In the end, the two were simply stories told with pictures and speech bubbles, so it didn’t really matter.

“I don’t get how you read this stuff anyhow. It’s like everything is backwards.” Harahk mumbled more to himself than to Lilly.

Lilly grinned.

Lil: Have you met new guy yet?

Nohana: No. Why?

Lil: He's in the book box. Cool if I invite him over?

Nohana: Your place or mine?

Lil: Yours if he likes games. Mine if he dosen't.

Nohana: :\ I guess.

Lil: Great! Be there soon.

Lilly plopped down in the chair across from Jay. She stifled a laugh as his head popped up from behind the laptop like a meerkat searching for danger.

"Hey." Lilly said.

"Hello."

"Wha'cha doin'?"

"Learning about solar systems."

Lilly nodded sagely. "Hey, you play video games?"

"I used to. Been too busy lately."

"Are you doing anything important right now?"

Jay gave the Tel'ani girl a suspicious look. "Not really, why?"

"Great, you can hang out with me and Nohana. Sorry, Nohana and I."

"Umm.."

"It's not really up for debate." Lilly crossed her arms. "If you say no, well, let's just say I know a guy with a machete and a hockey mask."

Jay's mouth opened and closed several times like a drowning fish. His mind clearly didn't stand a chance against Lilly's superior logic and bad puns.

"So hurry up and pack your stuff."

"But."

"But nothing. Don't you want to spend your rainy day playing games with two beautiful women?"

“I... Umm?”

Lilly laughed as Jay turned a fun shade of red.

***

Lilly was short. She had a semi-soft, but still lithe figure. Her long black tail dropped out from under her skirt and idly twitched and curled in a cat-like manner. Her hair was black, her skin was light purple, her ears were slightly pointed, and her eyes were golden. Five inch long black horns protruded straight upward from the sides of her head. She wore calf high black socks, a black pleated skirt, and a black t-shirt with an anime character Jay didn’t recognize. The bottom hem of her shirt was cut at a slant, long on one side and so short on the other that her upper thigh was exposed. Other than that, she wore a lacy choker and a plain silver band on her right hand ring finger.

Jay hadn’t met Nohana until this point and in many ways she struck him as Lilly’s polar opposite. She was a head taller than Lilly with shoulder length blonde hair, brown eyes, and a figure that was… somewhere between athletic and curvy. Soft or doughy would be an apt description, but it was the attractive sort, so curvy beat out plump on descriptive words. She was barefoot, but this was her apartment and unlike Lilly, she likely hadn't gone anywhere today. She wore tight blue jeans and had a chain necklace that disappeared under a light blue tank top. Despite her name, she didn't appear even the slightest bit Asian.

Nohana's apartment was plain. A small kitchen with a countertop peninsula that served as the table. A living room equal in size to the kitchen. A small bathroom and another room that was likely the bedroom. Lilly made it clear that her place next door was identical, but mirrored. A single large window showed the rainy world outside. A large TV screen was mounted to the largest open wall. Under it was a game console. Next to that was a bookshelf filled to overflowing with games and a handful of DVDs. Both Nohana and Lilly sat on, or perhaps a better description would be sat in, one of the two massive bean bag chairs, leaving the other for Jay. Nohana's idea of an introduction was throwing him a controller and asking if he liked zombie games.

Jay hadn't played the game before, but the controls were intuitive and the premise was simple to grasp. Basically, it was a zombie apocalypse sandbox. Find supplies, build defenses, and survive. Jay was mostly in charge of building and maintaining the defenses. Lilly did most of the exploration and Nohana was almost entirely focused on weapons and fighting.

"Lil, one just got past me." Said Nohana, eyes glued to the screen.

"I got it… Ow, ow, I don't got it!… Ok, I got it… Sometimes this game is like anal without the lube."

"What?!" Asked Jay.

"Ignore her." Replied Nohana. "Her mind got stuck in the gutter years ago and she hasn't gotten it out yet."

"I'll stick you in the gutter." Lilly mumbled.

"Wave over. Jay, fixed the fence. Lil, get to the hospital."

"So Jay, question that's on everyone's mind, but I don't think anyone's had the balls to just ask…" Lilly paused to kill a straggler with a crowbar. "Are you rich?"

Jay chortled. "No. Not at all."

"You get a pallet of stuff like, every other day. I know. My brother is the mailman."

"I'm pretty much spending my life savings on getting things up and working."

"That sounds like a stupid idea." Nohana added. "There's no work here."

"Have you ever worked in a cubicle?" Jay asked.

"No." Said Lilly.

"Emmm. Sort of." Said Nohana.

"I figure even if I end up broke and homeless, it's still better than waking up every morning and contemplating suicide."

Lilly briefly tore her gaze from the screen and glanced at the man beside her.

“That got dark quick."

"Some of the people I have to deal with, I wish I could travel through the phone and beat them within an inch of their pathetic lives."

Lilly turned her head to stare at the woman next to her. "Holy gods in Hell Hana! Really?"

"Na I get it." Jay replied.

"I'm supposed to be doing customer support for orders and shit. Yesterday some dumbass asked me what I was wearing."

"That happen often?"

"Often enough."

"If it was me." Started Lilly. "I'd tell them that I wasn't wearing anything."

"If it was you, you'd quit within an hour." Nohana retorted.

"I think we're getting off track. We were supposed to be interrogating the new guy, not talking about your horrible job."

"So inviting me over was a ploy to get things to gossip about?"

"Mostly." Lilly admitted.

"Next wave is going to start soon." Said Nohana.

"Why move to the ass end of nowhere?"

"Because at twenty-two, I was fat, miserable, and ready to retire and die."

Lilly looked Jay over. He was not fat. "You’re not fat."

"Yeah.”

“What do you mean by ‘yeah’? Fucking explian.”

“Okay, so I was sitting on the couch in the middle of the night watching TV with an empty bag of potato chips and half a beer. Infomercial starts. Guy says, ‘Are you stressed out? Suffering from burnout? Have a home full of stuff you don't care about and still owe money on? Are you fat? Unhappy? Does your diet consist of pizza, chips, and alcohol?’ ... I was like yes. Yes to all those. And he says, ‘If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, then you are unhealthy.’ I think he was selling vitamins or something."

"Zombies inbound." Said Nohana.

"Ok, but back to my previous statement of you not being fat."

"Well I ah, sold a bunch of stuff. Joined a gym. Ate better. Started looking at my job as a means to an end instead of my punishment for existing and started learning how to actually do things. About the time I got my shit together, my grandpa died and nobody wanted the land. So I cashed out my retirement plan and here I am. There's more to it than that, but that's the basic story."

"Fuck!" Yelled Lilly. "I just got zombie raped. Fucking reverse necrophilia."

Nohana sighed. “Keep your pants on.”

“I’m not wearing pants, Hana.” Lilly turned to Jay. “You totally looked!”

“I… Umm…”

***

“What about refrigeration?” Asked inspector Carlos Swanson. Jay would have expected an older, heavyset, balding man, but Carlos was gaunt and lean and looked to be in his early thirties. He had a large mustache that wiggled when he spoke. Jay found it immensely distracting.

“Product will be packed into a cooler and shipped within an hour or so after harvesting. Even if I had a refrigerator, it wouldn't see any use.” Jay responded.

The man nodded. “Water source?”

“On a well. I haven't gotten that hooked up to an actual pump yet though.”

“Hmmm. If you're not using a municipal water supply, you'll have to have a certified water filter.”

Jay opened his phone and searched for, ‘certified water filter.’ “Does this one work?”

“That'll do. Yes.”

Jay added it to his cart and hit buy. “Did I need to call you back after that's been installed, or is ordering it good enough?”

Carlos looked towards his little blue economy car. Jay’s question had been specifically selected. It was likely that the man made the exact same amount of money sitting in his office as he did driving the two hours out to the middle of nowhere. “I think that's good. Everything seems up to code.”

Jay let out a long sigh of relief as he watched the inspector drive off. The building, which looked from the outside like a small shipping container, as well as the inspection fees, cost him roughly twenty-five thousand dollars. All that so that he could legally put lettuce in plastic containers and roast coffee. The requirements and fees for government compliance were stupid, but at least it was over. He opened the doors to his government certified food handling environment. A full third of his budget, a third of his life savings, for a freaking kitchen he couldn’t even cook lunch in.

***

Lilly was sitting in her preferred corner when the bell rang. She didn’t bother taking her eyes away from her phone.

“Lilly.” Came the voice of the new guy. “Do you have any scales?”

“Aisle two.” She replied, flipping to the next page of her manga, not finding even new guy worthy of pausing for.

“No. I mean a kitchen scale.”

“Umm… Check aisle six. Half way down.”

Jay set something down on the counter and, regrettably, Lilly had no choice other than to stop reading and do her job. She stared at him for a moment. “What’s with the lab coat?”

“I just got the high tunnel up and…”

“Are you making meth?”

“In a high tunnel?”

“What?” Lilly asked innocently. “I don't know how meth is made. So, growing pot then?”

“Why would I need a lab coat to grow pot?”

Lilly shrugged.

“I'm growing lettuce.”

“Why would you need a lab coat to grow lettuce?”

“The coat is part of the sterile environment requirements.”

Lilly froze. A confused look plastered on her face. “But lettuce grows in the ground.”

“Yup.”

“How are you supposed to get a sterile environment?”

Jay said nothing. Just tapped the scale, indicating he wanted her to do her job and ring it up.

“What am I missing?” She asked, still looking like a deer caught in the headlights.

“Large companies make rules that they can afford to comply with but are hard for the little guy, then they pay politicians to pass the rules off as law.” Jay replied as if it were obvious.

“Nah, that can't be true.”

For a moment, Jay just stood there. “Maybe, I just like the coat.”

“Uh, that’s Twenty-seven fourteen.”

“Hey Jay?” Lilly said before he walked out.

“What?”

“Do you have more lab coats?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Could I borrow one?”

“I guess. What for?”

“Ummm. Personal reasons.”

***

Hal buttoned up his shirt, snapped the collar, and smoothed out the wrinkles. Checking himself over in the mirror, he gave an approving nod and entered the kitchen. Selena was busy cleaning the morning dishes. He gave her a kiss, said his farewells, and walked into the alleyway. The main streets of Benton Cove were pedestrian only cobblestones set into pleasing patterns. Most of the business surrounded the town square, behind those lay most of the houses and the few parking lots that were needed to serve the population and the tourists. Like every morning, Hal first entered the Holton’s General Store.

“Morning squirt.”

Lilly was in her usual place staring at her cellphone. Sitting at the counter that made up the coffee bar were Megan and Harahk. Both looked up from a mess of papers and greeted him.

“What are you two plotting now?” Hal asked.

“Summer festival.” Replied Harahk. “Need to figure out who’s coming and where we’re going to put them.

Lilly dropped his morning cup of coffee onto the counter. “Three dollars.”

“Three dollars? Why is my sister trying to rob me?”

Lilly rolled her eyes. “Just trust me.”

“It’s fancy coffee.” Megan said. “Though she at least gave us the option of the normal stuff.”

Hal sniffed the black liquid. It smelled… Hal really couldn’t put a word on it. Different, wasn’t quite correct. It smelled like coffee, just more. Like Lilly had somehow managed to distill the scent of a freshly opened can into a single cup. The taste was… Good. Bitter like coffee was supposed to be, but more than that. Earthy and smooth came to mind, but it still didn’t fit. Again, it was simply the way coffee was supposed to be, it just tasted more like… well, coffee.

“Good yeah?” Asked Lilly, staring at him intently.

“Two dollars good. I don’t know about three. Where’d you get it?”

“Stole it from new guy.”

Hal gave his little sister a look that only she understood.

She sighed. “I talked him into selling me a bag for basically wholesale.”

“He’s ordering fancy coffee?” It seemed odd. He hadn’t placed Mr. Higgs as that wealthy. The guy was just a kid, well, a kid in the same way Lilly was. At some point he was going to have to admit that she wasn’t a kid anymore, but that would also be

admitting he wasn’t a kid anymore. At what point does a guy stop thinking of himself as a kid?

“No. He’s ordering raw coffee beans, roasting them, and slapping a massive price tag on fancy bags.”

“What’s he plan to do with it then?” Asked Harahk.

“Probably sell it to the tourists. That’s what I’d do.” Replied Megan.

“What she said I guess.” Said Lilly.

“Hmm. Maybe he wants a booth at the festival?” Harahk said, throwing the question out to the others.

“I’ll ask him.” Replied Hal before taking another sip of coffee. “I want to see this chemical water garden thing of his anyway.”

“Hydroponics.” Lilly corrected. “It’s just those plastic pallet, tub, bin, things he’s been getting in, the ones that are always full of stuff. He just fills them with water and plant food. The plants sit on floating foam boards. That’s literally all it is.”

“Plants grow in the dirt.” Megan retorted.

Lilly shrugged. “That’s what I said, but apparently they can also grow in water.”

“Humph. I’d call it hocus pocus, but nobody does magic anymore.”

“Tero does magic.” Harahk chimed in.

Megan frowned. “I meant other than healing.”

Hal sood up, reluctantly handing Lilly the three dollars she conned him out of.

Selena knows a spell to start a fire.”

“So do I.” Megan fished out a lighter and waved it around. “Ooooh, magic.”

Hal rolled his eyes. “I bow down to your mastery of the arcane Mrs. Holton. See you around squirt.”

Hal heard Megan chuckle as he left with his coffee cup in hand. It was a beautiful sunny day. The cold chill of winter was completely gone and the oppressive heat of summer was still a month or so away. The world was green and alive with the chirping of birds and the distant sound of Mr. Quigley’s lawn mower backfiring. A single circuit of town brought Hal to the post office just as the day’s truck was swinging around to the back. He signed for the pallets and once off the truck, began sorting. A pallet for the store, junk mail for him, letters for Mrs. Fox, a package for Nohana, and a small package for Mr. Higgs. Hal pushed the pallet jack under the load for the store and began dragging it to its destination for his little sister to deal with.

Mail rounds took a few hours. Lots of time for all the “Hey, how ya doin’s” and “nice weather we’re havin’s”. The resort was nearly full of tourists with all of their, “Why is that police officer delivering mail?” or “Why is the mail man carrying a gun?” looks. Finally, it was time to deliver Mr. Higgs’ package, left for last simply because he was the farthest out of town. A lot had changed since Jay came to town. Hal hadn’t seen the half mile long driveway of the old Corrinson place so clear of trees and shrubs since he was in his teens. The yard had been cleared out and was starting to green. A large white high tunnel greenhouse dominated the clearing followed by a shipping container, a newer looking shed, and the old cabin. The latter, still looking worse for wear. Hal supposed it wasn’t the highest priority.

Jay was standing behind an outdoor counter. Two tourists, a man and a woman both human, sat on stools sipping from large coffee mugs.

“If you’ve ever made popcorn then you’re familiar with that moment where after the first few kernels pop, the whole thing goes. Coffee is much the same except it’s more of a crack than a pop. Pretty much anything after the first crack is called a light roast. Usually this means less flavor, but more caffeine.” The tourists nodded along with Jay’s presentation.

“Now if you keep roasting, coffee beans hit a point where they will crack again. Anything just before this point is considered a medium roast and anything after is a dark roast. What you’re currently trying was pulled off the heat the moment the second crack started.”

“It’s good.” The man chimed in.

“The beans then need to be immediately cooled to stop the roasting process, then they need to offgas for a day or two. You can drink it immediately after roasting, but it’s smoother if given time to rest.”

“So, how much are you selling this for?” Asked the woman.

“Oh. This I would sell for about thirty dollars per pound.”

“That much?” Scoffed the man.

“Yeah. This isn’t an everyday coffee. It's a hot cup and a good book on an early spring morning kind of thing. That said, I can’t legally sell you this roast.”

“What? Why not?”

“Well, the beans were roasted in a kalaha, erm, a type of wok, ah, over an open fire. They were then cooled in this clean natural air, and left to offgas in an oak box at the current humidity level. All of those things give the coffee its character, but the government says it’s not safe.”

“Not safe?” Asked the woman. Slight concern evident on her face.

“Yeah, for instance, there is a certain level of dust allowed in the air used to cool the beans. In a building it’s a lot easier to measure that. That said, most dust out here is pollen whereas most dust in a building is…” Jay looked at the two. “Well, it’s not pollen.”

The couple stole a glance at each other.

“So you don’t sell coffee?”

“I do. Some people can’t tell the difference between this and the machine roasted stuff, but I can and even though it costs me more to do it the government's way, the quality just isn’t there, so I can’t charge as much.”

Jay looked up at Hal. The gaze of the two tourists followed. Hal held up the package. Jay motioned to the shed and went back to talking to his guests. Hal dropped off the box and walked back to town. He’d make a circuit of the town and try again later.

Once the tourists passed though town heading back to the Big Lake Resort, Hal made his way back up the winding driveway. “Morning.”

Jay looked up from the well pump. “Good morning.”

“Sorry for walking up on ya while you were busy.”

“Oh, it’s not a problem. What’d ya need?”

“Summer festival is coming up. Harahk wanted to know if you wanted to put up a booth and I personally just wanted to see the water garden.”

“Water garden? Oh, sure.” Jay started toward the high tunnel. “When is the festival?”

“Three weeks from now. Bunch of people will show up in the morning. There'll be games, plays, food, the whole nine yards.”

“Sounds good. What do I need for a booth?”

Hal shrugged. “You’ll have to talk to Harahk.”

They entered the high tunnel. Large plastic bins lined each side. Most had foam boards filled with multiple pots. Not all the bins were filled and it looked like each bin was at a slightly different stage of growth than the next.

“Whelp this is it.” Jay said, arms outstretched. “Obviously you’re familiar with the plastic bins. They’re a bit pricey, but they stack, they’re easily moved with a pallet jack even when full, and at only twenty four inches deep, they don’t need so much water. Each one has an air pump to keep the water oxygenated. Plant roots need oxygen or they'll start to rot.” Jay lifted one of the rafts showing a couple foam strips that kept the larger boards out of the water. “These keep a small portion of the roots out of the water so, even if I run out of power, I should have a day or so before anything has a problem. Each bin has staggered growth. I’ll be harvesting twice a week once the first bins reach maturity. Aaannd, that’s basically it.”

Hal nodded along. “How do they stay alive?”

“The substrate in the net pots hold the plants in place like soil. The water has a mixture of minerals that the plants require to grow. The only other ingredient is sunlight.”

“And, this is profitable?”

“Yeah. I do have a guy in the city that basically has everything you see here already sold. The whole system should pay for itself in about a year, even with shipping and my friend’s commision. That said, it’ll take several years for it to pay off the kitchen I needed for legal reasons.”

“So, you do have a stable income?”

“Until about mid fall. Part of selling coffee to the tourists is about expanding repeat business.”

“What about winter?”

Jay shrugged. “My biggest obstacle right now is setting up the basic systems and making enough to survive. Next spring I can hit the ground running. Plant starts for nurseries, expanding coffee sales, maybe some value add stuff. Right now it's just the basics.”

Hal nodded and took another look around. “Well, thanks for showing me.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

“One more thing.” Hal said as they exited the greenhouse. “I think you’re alright. As long as you can support yourself, you have my permission to date my sister.”

Jay stood in the doorway, his lettuce growing operation behind him. “Umm… Okay?”

Hal grinned to himself as he left the old Corrinson place and its new resident. It sure was a nice day out.