“Where am I?” she asked.
“This is the Chief’s Headquarters,” the girl said. Jean thought about that, and then her eyes narrowed.
“And is this the Big Chief’s bed?” she asked, her voice sharp.
“Um…. yes,” was the girl’s reply, as she glanced at the boy.
“Listen,” Jean said, her tone becoming very serious. “I want you to tell Big Chief that I already have a boyfriend; Howard.”
She fell back and closed her eyes. The two kids looked at one another. Jean suddenly sat up again.
“And tell Big Chief that Howard and I have already done it. Three times.” She lay back down and closed her eyes.
“Uh, gee,” said the girl to the boy who was scowling.
Jean sat up again. “And tell Big Chief that I’m probably pregnant.” She lay back down, and presently she began to snore.
The boy motioned for the girl to follow him out of the building. “Get Howard,” he said.
“Now don’t be hasty, Chief,” the girl said.
“Get. Howard. Now!”
“Yes, sir,” the girl muttered, and she fled.
Howard appeared with Yuie a few minutes later. The young man’s face had a greenish look.
“Did you do it with that woman while she was sick?” Mike snapped.
“Oh, Howard!” Yuie exclaimed sadly.
“What? No! No, I didn’t do anything except take off all her clothes!”
“Oh, Howard!” Yuie repeated.
Howard put his hand on his stomach. “I think I’m going to be sick,” he moaned. Mike and Yuie sprang away as Howard leaned forward and vomited.
Jean woke three more times that day. She was feeling much better. The young boy was usually around. She wondered if Big Chief had assigned him the role of helping her. Or maybe he was guarding her. Was she a prisoner? Big Chief had not appeared yet, and she was getting anxious. She slept well that night, and the following morning she woke refreshed. Mike, she had learned the boy’s name, was sitting at the desk.
“So, I hear that Big Chief is a real tough guy, Mike,” she said casually to the boy, trying to probe for some information.
The boy looked at her. “He’s not so bad. If you don’t count the times we have to stand under freezing cold water for punishment. And, of course, the beatings hurt some, but we’re tough. We can take it.”
Jean was shocked at his words, and then things got worse. She heard a terrible moan from the loft.
“What’s that!” she demanded, as the hair stood up on the back of her neck.
There was a look of sympathy on Mike’s face. “Poor guy. He made Big Chief mad.” Jean heard another pitiful moan.
“Jeez,” exclaimed Jean.
I am SOL, she thought. The next moment, she heard a knock and then a man opened the door and came into the cabin. He looked directly at Mike.
“Chief, I got the four barrels from Mrs. Brown,” he said. “She says ‘thanks’ for the venison we sent, and she sent back a truckload of potatoes and some beets. I guess she had a good crop this year.”
Then the man looked at Jean and said, “Hola. I hear you’re Howard’s new girlfriend. I’m Hector.”
“Thanks, Hector,” said Mike. “If that idea Eric has for a solar heating system works, it will be a lot nicer in the Lodge during the winter. I’m sending Jacob back up there to kill another deer for her. That should fill her freezers.”
“Si, that will be nice, amigo,” the man replied. “Chief, Kat has finished the platform for the Porta Pottys. She already drilled the starting holes, and she’s ready to cut out the spaces for the toilet waste, so I need the jigsaw.”
Jean watched as the boy retrieved a jigsaw from a large red tool chest. The man and the boy talked for a few more minutes, and then the man left.
The boy turned to Jean who was glaring at him. “Freezing cold water, huh? Beatings, huh?” she said sarcastically. “You are Big Chief?”
Mike giggled. “Just, Chief,” he replied. Another moan came wafting down from above.
“Who’s that?” Jean asked.
“That’s Howard,” Mike replied. “Whatever you had, he caught.”
“Damn!” Jean sprang out of bed.
She was wearing a man’s long shirt, so she didn’t bother putting on her dry pants before she climbed the ladder. She found Howard lying on a futon.
“Howard,” she asked anxiously, as she knelt by his side. “Are you okay?”
Howard opened his dull eyes. “Oh, hi, Baby,” he answered. “I’m fine.” He looked like a sick dog. “I’m glad you’re better.”
Jean leaned back on her calves and sighed. “Yeah, I’m better, thanks to you.” Howard closed his eyes and slept.
Howard was sick for two more days. Whenever he woke, Jean was usually at his side. Sometimes Mike shooed her out of the cabin, and whenever he did, Jean explored the camp, marveling at the things these kids and one man had accomplished. The rough Lodge amazed her.
Everywhere she went, kids would whisper behind her back, “That’s Howard’s girlfriend.”
Some of the girls were not happy about that. Jean wondered whether she should deny or confirm the rumor. Once, when she was up in the loft, she referred to their long trek back to the camp.
“I still can’t believe you were only wearing a pair of briefs and your boots, Howard,” she marveled. “You must have been freezing.”
“It’s not like I could fit into your clothes, Jean,” he replied.
They fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes, and then Jean murmured, “You’re something else, kid.”
Howard looked up at her. “I’m not a kid, Jean. Not anymore.”
“Yes, that’s true,” she acknowledged sadly. “You’re not a kid. I think that’s what pisses me off most about this situation. You kids should be hanging at the mall, playing computer games, and trying to decide how to ask a girl to the prom.”
“Instead of trying to decide how to get you naked again?” Howard asked with a grin.
“You!” Jean smacked him on the head.
“Owww!” Howard yelped.
“Oh shit, I’m sorry, Howard. Dammit!”
Gingerly Howard rubbed his head, and then he asked, “So, do you think I will ever get to see you naked again?”
Jean sighed. “Maybe. But don’t rush me.”
“All right.” Howard took her hand. “I can wait.”
When Howard felt better, he left Chief’s Headquarters. He was eager to see what had been accomplished in the recent week. Hector had been busy. He had walled the narrow spaces between the old cabins and the edges of the cave. On the west side, he had framed an opening for a door, and then he filled it with the door that had been used to carry Jackie’s body. Presently, Hector was working on what Eric called a closed solar heating system, whatever that meant.
Howard was slightly unnerved by the sight of nine of their ten Porta Pottys sitting on the two cabin floors that had not been used to build the Lodge. The mobile outhouses had been moved just west of the Lodge, but they were close enough that they could be reached in seconds from the door of the Lodge.
“How are we going to empty the Porta Pottys in winter?” he asked. He had helped Hector and some of the other kids empty the Porta Potty tanks into a gulch just above the fog, not long after Hector’s arrival at their camp.
“We’re not,” Kathy replied. “I removed the tanks and the bottoms from the Porta Pottys and cut holes in the floors under each Porta Potty.”
Stunned, Howard stared at Kathy. “No!” he said.
“Yep, the stuff will go right on the ground under the floor. That way we should be good for all winter. It’ll be frozen until spring, and then covering it will be a really smelly chore. I wouldn’t break many rules this winter, if I were you.”