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she d made for breakfast, he ordered without preamble, Get on a
longer dress one that goes below your knee, and put on a pair
of shoes.
Her eyebrow rose, but she did as she was told,
reappearing at the snack bar in the plain dress she d come to him
in. Joseph grunted. The dress was like a sack; it did nothing for
her, but then that suited his purpose.
Although she was dying of curiosity as to what had
prompted him to send her to change clothes, she remained silent.
He was dressed as he usually was jeans, heavy work boots,
white crew neck t-shirt under a plaid flannel shirt. Joseph rose,
leaving the mess for her to clean while he grabbed a few things
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from his office. A few minutes later, he stopped in the kitchen,
looking at her pointedly. Let s go.
Prima glanced up from where she was nearly up to her
elbows in dishwater, but there was still the baking mess and the
counters to wipe down . . . Tentatively, she asked, It s okay that
I m I m not done cleaning?
You can finish that when we get back, he answered
abruptly, holding out his hand to her as if she was a child, and
she supposed, to him, she was, sort of. He grabbed a well worn
cream colored cowboy hat on his way out and settled it on his
head.
Prima dried her hands, smoothed her dress and put her
small hand in his much bigger one. Joseph had a good sized
truck, mid-sized in the Before Time, but considered huge now.
Prima could barely remember how to open the door of a vehicle,
it had been so long for her. When she shut the door, she bounced
a little on the leather bench seat, looking around everywhere,
wearing a big broad grin and giggling in delight. It was definitely
a man s truck, and it smelled of him. There were rifles in the back
window, a coffee mug sat in the holder, and she could see where
his head rubbed against the roof of the truck.
Joseph was enchanted with her natural exuberance, and
smiling indulgently. Been a while since you ve been in a truck,
huh?
Prima nodded. Since I ve been in any vehicle . . . except
the FEMExpress van.
He winced at the mention of it, even now. If you d lived
closer, I d ve come to get you myself, but I couldn t. I hate those
damned cattle cars they run.
Katherine realized that he was probably just concerned
about his considerable investment, and not actually her, but she
was still amazed and somewhat touched that he would even
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bother to think about how she d been treated on her trip down to
him.
I was okay. It was long and it wasn t fun, but thanks to
the fragile stickers, no one hurt me. She cleared her throat
nervously. Thank you for having me set to you that way; I know
there were a lot of other girls who were . . . treated very badly en
route.
He didn t know what to say to her thanks, so he pretty
much ignored it. Yeah, well, they locked your wrists so tight that
when you got here they were swollen and bruised, he reminded
her with a hard glance as he started the truck. Seatbelt. She
frowned the whole time she fastened it, as if what he d demanded
annoyed her. When she was done, he caught her eye, saying, Any
time you re in a moving vehicle that has seatbelts available, you d
better be wearing yours.
Prima gulped at that hard look. Yes, Sir.
The ride into town was slow and somewhat arduous;
the roads in general weren t very well taken care of and his road
in particular wasn t because he liked to discourage both visitors
and revenuers alike. The main road was barely passable until they
were actually in town. His first stop was his storefront,
McDonough s. The employees inside practically snapped to
attention when he walked in, and Prima found herself again
uncomfortably inspected, strange male eyes giving her the once
and sometimes twice over. She remained the required five
paces behind him, eyes downcast respectfully. There were some
customers in the store that Joseph obviously knew; he shook
hands with a man who was about his size, whose woman stood
well back from him, sporting what looked like a fresh black eye
and split lip. The woman wouldn t meet Prima s eyes, but kept
her head down at all times.
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The gruff man commented on Joseph s latest
acquisition, mentioning, as the men at the party had that night,
that it was about time he got himself a wench to warm himself on
come a cold winter s night.
Joseph chuckled and slapped the man on the shoulder,
reminding the stranger about some parts that he needed to pick
up for a generator he d rented a while ago. Joseph took his leave
of the man and walked to the back of the store to settle himself
into the makeshift office in the backroom. He made no mention
to her of what she was supposed to do, so Prima fit herself into a
small corner of the room, trying to keep out of his way, watching
everything that went on in the store with great interest, especially
the women.
There was quite a bit of traffic in and out of Joseph s
store it was a popular place and provided a much needed
service to the community in that it rented out on a daily, weekly,
monthly or yearly basis the generators and batteries that ran most
people s cars or lights. It was darned hard to get along without
electricity, and Joseph s reasonable prices made sure that most
people didn t have to, while making a tidy sum for himself. The
morning spent at his store was an incredible eye-opener for
Prima. She was just beginning to realize how cloistered she had
been up in the mountains with her father. Not a lot about her life
had changed, really, after the Plague had come. She no longer
had to go to work, as a matter of fact women were barred by law
from working at paying jobs not long after the devastation of the
female population had become apparent to the powers that be.
Her father had needed her, and she had simply returned to
working the farm granted on a much reduced level that what it
had been. There was rarely call for her to go to town, so she
stayed close to home, on Cassidy land, until Daddy saw fit to sell
her away from him.
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Katherine knew that her status had changed long
before Daddy had become infirmed, he had had to go to the
county courthouse to register as her nearest and oldest male
relative, paying a tidy sum to do so in an effort to keep her as safe
as possible, even signing the document that changed her name
from his mother s name, Katherine Marie, to Prima, the
preferred name for a first or only daughter. She had been sent to
reeducation classes daily for three months afterwards, to which
Daddy had had to drive her so that she could be certified as
reeducated . She had argued with him every night about it, even
to the point of earning herself a couple of hard strappings, but
Mr. Cassidy had been firm. He was looking towards what there
was of her future, and he didn t like what he saw at all.
Dean Cassidy would do everything he could to help his
daughter survive if not survive well after he was gone. And he
had a dreadful feeling, considering the pains in his gut that kept
him awake all night with their severity, that it might not be too
long before that came to pass. He d even made her go through
the humiliation of being certified by the State as a virgin.
But Katherine had never been exposed to what she saw
in McDonough s store that day: well dressed, well-to-do men
smoking cigars, carrying gold watches and wearing thick leather
belts from which a walkabout small wooden or leather paddle
would hang. Each man was more often than not followed around
meekly by a woman on whom that no-nonsense paddle was used
frequently and as casually as one would bat a fly, who wore a
bedraggled dress that either made a horrendous display of
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