“I don’t suppose she has another ring that she would like to trade,” said Howard. He was looking at Jean.
“Uh, hey, babe, I mean, I like you and everything, but…” Jean began to back away, panic in her voice.
“I’m thinking that Tyler might have to give Gabby another gift this winter,” Howard explained.
Jean stopped short. “Oh. Oh,” Jean said with a mixture of understanding, relief, and disappointment in her voice. Howard just smiled.
That night, Yuie said to Mike, “Did you see how flustered Jean got when she thought that Howard meant to get a ring for her?”
“Howard does mean to get a ring for Jean,” Mike replied. “I’m not that clueless.”
The engagement lifted everyone’s spirits, which had been depressed since Luis’ disappearance. In January, they had a memorial service for the missing hunter. Maria had known Luis well, and she offered to say some words. Luis was remembered.
It was cold in January. Many of the girls abandoned their rooms to sleep by the fireplace or by the central fire. A few girls snuggled up to the barrels just outside the boys’ cave. The problem that Mike and Howard faced again this year, was that the boys’ sleeping areas were warmer than the girls’ sleeping areas. The loft had turned out to be a nice warm area, since the heat from the fires rose towards the ceiling of the Lodge. Mike and Howard were getting a lot of complaints from the girls that the sleeping arrangements were unfair.
“They love having those rooms until it gets cold,” Mike remarked wryly.
“So, what do you think, Chief?” Howard asked. “Do we let them share a bunk with a boy? Some of them have boyfriends.”
Mike looked over at Desi who was chatting with Lily and Jean.
“Do you think pregnancy is contagious, Howard?” he asked.
“That is a primitive superstition, Chief,” Howard answered as he followed Mike gaze. “Okay. The girls don’t get to share a bunk with their boyfriends. So then, what?”
“Ask for volunteers from the boys to sleep in one of the upstairs rooms. Tell them that all volunteers go to the head of the shower line. If we get enough volunteers, move all the boys out of the loft, and then put some of the girls up there. The rest will have to sleep around the fires and the barrels.”
Howard made the arrangements. “That was almost acceptable to everyone,” Howard reported.
“Close enough for government work,” said Mike. “And, after all, I am the government.”
“You’re the Chief,” Howard agreed.
The only real complaint was that the boys in the upstairs room were spying on the girls in the loft as they were dressing. Much to Yuie’s disgust when she reported this, Mike started laughing, and he wouldn’t stop.
“Tough,” he said finally.
When it got warmer, the sleeping areas were rearranged again.
One day, two boys got into a fist fight. Mike had the Spears drag them into Council. They stood dejectedly in front of the Council, one with a bloody nose, and the other having a bloody lip.
“So what’s your problem?” asked their very annoyed Chief.
“He started it!” yelled the boy with the bloody lip. “He keeps telling people that Makayla likes him better than me.”
“No, Chief, he started it by telling people that Makayla likes him,” the other boy countered.
“Get Makayla.” Mike gave this order to Kathy. Moments later, Makayla entered the room, eyes downcast and wringing her hands.
“All right, Makayla, which one of these bozos do you like?” Mike asked sternly.
Makayla’s face reddened. “I don’t like either one of them, Chief,” she answered angrily. “They are both dumb a’s. I don’t know why they are saying things about me. Make them leave me alone.”
Mike asked Makayla a few more questions, and then he excused her. He turned to the two boys.
“Makayla doesn’t like either one of you, see?” he said. The two fighters gave each other puzzled glances, and then they turned back to Mike.
“What’s your point?” bloody lip asked.
John guffawed and Eric snickered. Some of the other Council members shook their heads in disgust or disbelief.
Mike was about to explode when Howard hastily said, “You guys go outside and let us talk about this.” The two fighters left the room.
“I say we have the Spears give them a beating,” Mike grumbled.
“No we can’t have the Spears give them a beating,” said Desi. “Besides, they are already dying.”
“What?” Mike asked, startled at her statement.
“They’re already dying of terminal stupidity,” said Desi. “It’s no use beating up stupid guys like that. It won’t make anybody feel better.”
“It might make me feel better,” Mike mumbled.
“I don’t think those guys have a very good chance of getting a girlfriend,” said Yuie. “So they probably won’t have any children, thank goodness.”
“Yeah, they won’t pass their stupidity genes along,” Jean added.
“Think of it as evolution in action,” Eric said.
John looked at Eric. “Scifi writer?” he asked.
“Yes,” Eric replied. “But I forget who.”
Mike separated the two fighters. For three days, one was forced to remain in the loft, coming down only to eat, and the other stayed in the boys’ cave for the same period. Makayla noisily made it clear that she considered them to be the village idiots. Insulted by her attitude, the boys agreed to fight over a different girl.
So January passed. In February, the villagers experienced another cold snap. This time, the fireplace and the barrels were not enough to make any of the rooms comfortable. Once again, the tribe moved into the small cave, but this time they were not frightened, just annoyed by the inconvenience. Everyone doubled up, and once again, Mike shared a double sleeping bag with Yuie.
Jacob offered his sub-zero mummy sleeping bag to Desi who was showing by now. John was very grateful. Jacob took Desi’s regular sleeping bag, and now he needed to double up with someone. It was at that point when he realized what a quandary he had made for himself. Everyone else had someone they were used to doubling with, and the only one not with a partner was their newest addition, Lily. The intrepid hunter was extremely nervous when he asked Lily to double with him. He hoped she wouldn’t think the worst of him.
He needn’t have worried, for Lily was gracious when he made his offer. She thanked him and accepted. Jacob found that sharing a double sleeping bag with Lily was quite comfortable. They didn’t need to make a lot of small talk, and they both enjoyed listening to Hector play his harmonica.
This snowy cold snap was a short one, and after two days the sun came out, the barrels got hot, and most of the tribe left the small cave, although many still kept to the central area instead of moving back into the rooms. Over the next week, the Lodge warmed enough to allow the rooms to be used again.
The winter was passing with much less trauma than last year. Mike kept waiting for trouble to develop between Tyler and Gabby, but although there was some bickering between them, there was never a major blow up. Tyler seems to be growing up, Mike thought one day, and then he laughed at the thought. He, himself, was only fifteen, and Tyler and Gabby were only a year younger than he. Having Howard to help him, allowed Mike to concentrate on planning for the year ahead, and their resident carpenter was always someone he liked to talk to when considering those plans.
“I need to oversee the barn at Mary’s place,” Hector said, when they discussed the coming year. “There will be some work to be done on the Lodge. Kat and I will try to insulate the outer walls. What I really want to do is build a sawmill.”
“A sawmill?” Mike asked. “How can you do that? Do you think you can use the electricity from the wind turbine? It barely generates enough electricity for the lights in the dining hall and in Chief’s Headquarters.”