Renewal 6 - Cold Read Online Free PDF Page B

here to deliver a message.” Junior was astounded that anyone would pick on a man with eighty soldiers.
    “Alrighty, then. If you’re looking for the Jenkins, you may want to head north on Highway 55. It’s just up that way about a quarter mile. Then go about four miles. You’ll see the big archway at the family farm.”
    “Thanks, friend.” Junior said tightly.
    “No problem, Junior. Good luck.” Dusty turned and walked back into the office.
    Junior spun his finger in the air and jumped back in the lead truck. The convoy circled around the square and headed east.
    As soon as the roar of the diesels faded, Dusty rolled his bicycle out of the office and started pedaling out to Teeny Town.
     
    Chapter 6 – 9
    George and Martha were alone. Their own children and grandchildren may have well been on another planet. Even if they were alive and well out in the world, there was no way to know. With Rodney buried in the frozen ground, the last of the local Carroll clan were the two kind old people sitting across the table from me. Maybe they had seen it coming and had aggressively adopted us as part of the family. Even so, we were family now without question, and they were preparing to sacrifice for us, at least in the small ways. The food, for example, was from their own personal store, which was undoubtedly disappearing as fast as our own. Nonetheless, they shared freely and with grace.
    The meal was virtually silent. Only Juannie’s efforts to keep little Jimmy from breaking into song and dance kept us from falling into total gloom. George’s blessing had been perfunctory, and filled with a certain bitterness we had never heard from him before. The weight was settling heavily around every adult at the table. Death was just another way of reminding us that no matter what we had faced since May, it was nothing compared to the unstoppable force of nature, which was even now wrapping us in an icy blanket. The big thermometer on the back porch had us in single digit temperatures as night fell. It would drop below zero before the sun came up and rise only into the teens during the day.
    We would, as we had for as long as I could remember, gather firewood.
    The Carroll’s house had taken a distinct chill, a far cry from our first meal here, which was characterized by the heat shedding from the walls of a normal summer. In the tiny dining room, our body heat was enough to slowly heat it up to a sweater temperature. After dinner, we would move to the living room, with its large picture window shedding warmth and a big freestanding wood stove fighting to replenish the heat.
    The pervasive cold eventually found its way into the conversation.
    George felt a responsibility to begin. “So, David... I hate to ask, but how cold do you think it will get?”
    “I hate to answer because I don’t know, George, but I think it’s safe to say that we’re looking at subzero all winter.”
    “The well will freeze,” George said.
    “The pump will, unless we keep it warm, but the well should be ok. The temperature below ground stays the same all year. In colder climates, you have to go deeper to get below the frost, but it stays the same below that layer. Before long, a cave will feel really warm.” Dad shrugged in a what-can-you-do gesture.
    “So, how do you figure we can keep the pump from freezing?”
    “I think we’ll need to build some kind of shelter around it and keep a fire going all winter. Normally, if we were facing zero degrees, we would just keep the water dripping, but I don’t think anyone would want to keep pumping all winter.” He smiled to break the tension.
    Jimmy saw his opening. “I’ll pump all winter.”
    “I’m sure you would little fella, but we don’t want your hand to freeze to the handle, ok?” Dad said, still smiling.
    “Ok, David. You pump,” Jimmy said, solving the whole problem from his six-year old point of view.
    We laughed at his matter-of-fact delivery.
    “Well,” George said, “I