Page 19 of His to Mate

9

“What’s going on over there?”Ann asked a few days later.

“Joana is pregnant,” Meg, the nurse that had spoken at the last meeting, told her.

Ann glanced in the direction of the woman named Joana, and saw Penelope doing her damnedest to ingratiate herself to the woman. Penelope might turn out to be a problem, but for now, the meetings had a focus at least.

“Thanks, Meg. Have you checked her out?” Ann knew it wasn’t really any of her business, but she was curious, and wanted to make sure the woman was taken care of.

“Yes, and your husband sent a few men out to help me with the clinic. I’ll have it open soon.” Meg’s brown eyes were filled with excitement and Ann was happy about that.

“That’s good news. I still think the aliens have some technology that could be of use to us, though. I’ll talk to Rager about it.”

“That would be great. I wasn’t hinting, by the way, just letting you know.” The woman looked away, as if worried, so Ann put a friendly hand on her arm and smiled at her.

“I know, Meg. Don’t worry.” She stepped back from the small group of women she’d been chatting with as Meg’s face relaxed.

“Thanks, Ann.”

“Let’s get down to business.”

There was a podium set up in the front of the living room, her headquarters for now, and she went to stand in front of it.

“Good afternoon, ladies. I’m happy to report that a lot has changed over the last few days. Instead of discussing the best kind of potato salad, and what baby names we should pick out, we’ve now got a library started thanks to this kind lady.” Ann paused to point at the woman in question, and waited for the applause to die down. “And Meg has just told me we’ll have a clinic soon. We’re making progress, good progress.”

More applause and Ann looked around the room. She knew the faces but some of the names still escaped her. She decided she’d have to sit down and memorize them at some point. A new face caught her eye and she made a mental note to introduce herself to the woman. She was pretty, with black hair and tanned skin. It wasn’t the prettiness that caught her attention, however, it was the startling lightness of the woman’s blue eyes. Ann nodded at her and then continued.

Nope, no other new faces. Time to ask questions, then. She now had an agenda for these meetings and a plan of how each one was to go. Deviations could happen, but she wanted to stick to the plan she had if it was at all possible.

“Now, does anyone have suggestions about what we should do next?” Ann waited but the women just looked at her blankly.

It reminded her of a few nights ago when she’d hidden at the side of the shed as the men inside filed out. Each one of the eight men had walked out with the exact same blankness on their faces. She’d managed to get back to her bedroom and cursed herself for going out. She’d wanted to get some air to help her sleep and had gone to bed with more worries.

She’d told Rager about the meeting, but he hadn’t said anything else about it since then. The meeting must not have been as sinister as she thought if Rager hadn’t said anything more about it, and the fact that these women wore the same expression as those men was only coincidence, she told herself. With a minute shake of herself, Ann began to speak again.

“I suggest some of you that don’t have projects yet get into groups and try to find something to do that can keep you busy. What resources do we need that we don’t have yet? Will we need daycares, maybe? Or pre-schools? I know we’ll need teachers eventually, perhaps some of you can look into what courses teachers had and start training some people in those fields.” Ann leaned against the podium, her elbows were flat against it, and she could see she had their attention now.

“I know some of you may not like it, but I do know a wolf shifter that used to be a science teacher. She’s a cook now, but she was one of the best science teachers around, and she would be a valuable person to speak to.” The women started to shift around and murmur, so she held her hands up and stepped back a little. “I’m not saying we put her in charge of the children, I’m saying we should talk to her about the process of teaching. Get some ideas from her.”

That calmed them down and she smiled as she started to relax too.

“Now, does anyone else want to speak?” Ann could see Penelope wanted to but didn’t dare put her arm up. Good, she could sit down there and keep her vileness to herself. “If that’s all then, I’d like to end this part of the meeting.”

Nobody protested so she walked away from the podium to the place where sandwiches and some tea had been set out. She’d found quite a few large cans of powdered tea. It wasn’t the greatest flavored drink in the world, but it was cold and tasted of something besides water.

She saw that the women had started to form into work groups, although Penelope’s little group of three seemed to be disinterested in doing anything at all. They just stood around and watched the rest of the women as they tittered behind their hands. Ann decided they’d either find something to do or they would become outcasts. The new Earth had no room for people that only wanted to stand around idle while they gossiped.

She saw the new woman over with Meg’s newly formed group. There were four women with her, all eager to talk to Meg. Ann went to them and listened as Meg spoke.

“I can’t train you to be nurses, but I can train you to be as near to one as I can. It will take time and dedication.” Meg looked at each woman sternly and they happily nodded.

The new woman spoke up then.

“Hi, I’m Skye. I was still in my second year of an RN when the cataclysm happened. I might be able to help. I didn’t get to get my degree, but in my spare time, I studied as much as I could. I raided the local bookstore for my course books and went through every single one I could get my hands on. I just don’t have any practical skills, obviously. I was on my own, so…”

Her voice trailed off as she saw that she had everyone’s attention. Her cheeks turned a dusky pink and she looked away.

“That sounds magnificent, Skye,” Meg said, her voice soft. “Right now, you’re probably as well prepared as you can be. And you can teach the others too. Thanks for stepping up.”