Page 11 of Tommy

After dinner, I took some of the eggs, cheese, and bread rolls. He told me that the fridge at the cabin is on generator power, and if I needed to, I could plug my phone in to the outlet. He mentioned there being an additional outlet one and not that I would have to unplug the fridge. We must’ve caught him at a bad time earlier when he seemed annoyed.

Back at the cabin, greeted by a hit of warmth, I undressed down to my teddy bear briefs and only then made sure to close the curtains. The idea of being watched or seen by Hardin nearly naked was exciting, but I wasn’t going to make it weird on purpose.

I danced around in my briefs as I finished unpacking and grabbing my teddy friends from the suitcase. It was the first time in a while that I’d had a dance party to the music in my mind. That way, nobody could say I was dancing off beat.

“Figgle, I thought this was going to be a nightmare,” I told my large green and purple teddy bear with yellow buttons for eyes. “But I don’t think he hates me, so that’s a win.

Figgle was an older teddy and had been fixed and restitched more times than I could count. There was a teddy bear store in New York, only a couple blocks from my apartment. They had inspired the first instalment ofTeddy Wars, right when I could still find inspiration from anything, it seemed. The idea of teddies raging war on other teddies to be the number one gift at Christmas, and the ones that were bought as gifts were on a mission to murder all the other teddies they encountered. They weren’t books for kids, they had gore in them, or as much gore as equating stuffing to blood as you could imagine.

That night, I slept in my teddy bear onesie surrounded by the teddies I’d brought. The bed was surprisingly comfy and I’d cocooned myself in a swaddle of the duvet. I almost didn’t want to wake up when the mechanical alarm rang from the bedside table. It was pre-set for six in the morning, and I nearly threw it across the room, if I could pull my hands out of the duvet fast enough.

“Why is the world punishing me?” I called out in a groan before finally peeling a hand away from the warmth to the cold still air of the room. “Eugh.” A stretch, followed by a groan people might’ve mistaken for another sound if they heard it. “I guess all of that was real then.”

Part of me believed I would wake up at home in my apartment and get to re-do my day. I’d have definitely prepared better footwear choices and worn an actual winter coat. Theserious part of my brain was on vacation, I didn’t want to have serious thoughts while already in a spiral of doubt and shame.

“Let’s get up,” I told the teddies, but they were not in the mood to wake up so early. After getting out of bed, grouchy, I walked out into the main cabin where it was cooler. The fire was almost out, a couple of flames existed amongst the charred and red hot pieces of wood.

I wondered which of my ancestors had to go through this, because they had my upmost respect for going through with it. All the manual work, and not even a coffee pot to get them started on their day. My eye twitched, knowing I would have to bring a piece of fire wood alight to the stove, just to boil water. It was at that moment, I wondered if my agent hated me.

After a lot of uncredited hard work, I had the fire lit again and the stove working with a teakettle full of water bubbling. The instant coffee was going to hit like a sharp nail to the head, but I’d been an instant coffee drinker for a long time when I had little money. And masked with plenty of sugar, it wasn’t that bad, definitely enough to see me through getting dressed and anticipating Hardin’s heavy-handed knock at the door.

“Are you awake?” his deep voice asked behind the door, following by a tap at the window.

“I’m coming!” I pulled the curtains open to see him stood, looking through. He readjusted the hat on his head and nodded. “I don’t know how you do it, every single morning.”

He smirked, gesturing to the door. “I guess the alarm woke you, I forgot it’s programmed for six. But shuts itself off after three minutes.”

“So, everyone who stays here just wakes up at six?” I asked, opening the door to see both of the dogs running around in the snow. There was a shovel by the porch fence and the work it had done, cutting out a path for me in the house.

He shrugged, a big smile forming on his lips. “Or they throw it in the drawer to drown out the sound.”

“This might be the first time I’ve been up this early on purpose in years,” I admitted, rubbing my hands. There were plenty of times when I had stayed awake through the night to times like this, but I hadn’t set an alarm so early since I was in school. “I’m guessing your body just wakes you up at six.”

“Not a chance. I need an alarm too, especially in these colder months.”

I put my gloves and a knit hat over my head, something I’d found inside of the coat June had given me. Nothing was warm when you were out in the snow, even the sun in the sky was chilly.”Do you get used to the cold too?” I asked.

“Not at all, you just learn to look forward to getting back into the house,” he said. “Speaking of, are you stocked up on kindling? If not, you best do it while I’m around to help. I don’t want you accidentally chopping at a limb with the axe.”

This was my first time using a real wood fire, so I had used maybe a little more wood than I should have. I gave him a single nod. “To be on the safe side, I should get more.”

The wood shed was only a couple paces away, and I thought he had been offering to chop and make a neat stack for me. He just meant he would supervise the action. He helped pull wood from the pile, which was nice, and collect it when I slammed the axe right through it on the large chopping stump. Hardin changed somewhat from last night, cracking jokes. “I might have to hide that thing with the way you’re slicing through this firewood,” he said.

“This is my first time using an axe,” I told him. “Except for yesterday.”

“So many firsts,” he said. “You got enough wood?”

I wanted to make a dick joke so bad, but I held off and giggled to myself about it.I’ve never got enough wood, was thepotential zing. This was also all a surprise to me as well, I didn’t think I’d have been good at chopping wood or milking goats, even if I was good at milking wood—in a different context.

As Hardin pulled the sled of firewood to the cabin and stored it in the house, I just watched, cementing the fact he was acting differently today.

“I hope you’re prepared for what’s about to happen,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“Those chickens are about to be feral.”

“What?”

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