They were both up before dawn and doing chores in the cool silence. Kyle headed over to the hen house to get some eggs and shore up some chicken wire. Evelyn went to the barn to check on the livestock. She milked their two cows while she was there.
They returned to the cabin and placed the eggs and milk on the kitchen table, then visited the greenhouse, which was overflowing with tomatoes, squash, corn, beans, cucumbers, carrots, basil, dill, and sage. The fall crop wouldn’t be as productive, but at least they would have spinach, kale, and cilantro.
Evelyn glanced at their two beehives on the way back to the house and muttered, “I miss Google.”
“I don’t miss Google at all,” said Kyle. “Or GPS. Or traffic jams. Or constant noise. Or all that pollution. Anyway, the Benjamins told me the other day they’d be willing to trade some grain for tomatoes. Wanna ride over there today with some tomatoes? We can take the guitar and harmonica.”
“I miss amplification.”
“I do, too, but we might as well make the best of things. The solar storms knocked out most of the transformers around here for probably another year at least. Who knows? We could be living like this for the rest of our lives. We’re lucky we set ourselves up like we did.”
“It used to be so nice to just sit around after a long day and watch Game of Thrones.”
“The auroras after the storms beat anything I ever watched on Game of Thrones. We’ll never see anything like that again. Anyway, let’s use apple wood for the fire this morning. Best smell ever. I’ll unwrap some ham, and we’ll be set.”
As they sat at the table after breakfast and sipped the last of their coffee, Evelyn looked at the marigolds sitting in the windowsill. “I think I’ll bring The Secret Garden along to the Benjamins in case we decide to stay a while.”
“Good idea,” said Kyle. “Let’s throw the scraps in the compost pile and get going. But you know what, Evelyn? If you ask me, the best thing about the good old days is that they’re over. All we need to live are air, water, food, and shelter.”
“And love.”
“Of course! That too.”
They smiled and hugged. Then Kyle grabbed his rifle, and they walked to the corral to saddle up the horses.
