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“If this catches on fire, it’s going to go pretty fast.”
“It is, and... I just... I was just a little worried about it, that’s all.”
“We could take turns staying up.”
“I don’t feel like I’m going to sleep at all. I’m tired but I’m wired if that makes sense.”
“Typically when I lie down, I can sleep pretty much anywhere, so while I would say that I’m not tired, I know once my head hits the pillow,” he laughed a little, “the floor in this case, I think I’ll be out pretty fast.”
She nodded, looking at the floor and then looking back at the stovepipe. “Do you think we should move the kittens into the room with us? Just in case we have to leave fast?”
“That’s a good idea. I wouldn’t want you to get stuck in a burning building just because you didn’t want to leave the kittens.” He paused for a moment, liking the fact that she thought about the animals and her concern wasn’t just for herself. He’d been noticing that, that she thought about him as much as she thought about herself.
“How about you move the kittens, and I’ll get a couple more armloads of wood.” He took a breath. “You don’t think moving them will make the mother not take them or anything, do you?” He wished he had more experience in that. Or even more, he wished he had his phone so he could Google it. But they were just going to have to go with what they knew, which was a little different than normal, since they could typically look anything up on their phones at any time. It was a little hard to get used to not being able to.
“I don’t know. But I do know that it will be safer for her to be in the room with us just in case anything happens.”
“It’s not like she can go anywhere anyway.”
“Exactly.”
They didn’t say anything more while he went one way out the door, and she went the opposite direction to get the cat.
He brought four more loads of wood in and stacked them neatly beside the stove while she arranged the cat and her kittens in a snug little nest on the opposite wall.
She hadn’t wanted them to get too hot, and he had to agree with that as well. Every time he brought an armload of wood in, she left what she was doing and helped stack it, so they were both done at pretty much the same time.
“I’m gonna run out and wash my hands in the snow,” he said as he brought the fourth load in.
She nodded. “I’ll go with you.”
He held the door while she went out and marveled again at how different this was from his regular life, but how much he was... He hated to use the word enjoying it, but he kind of did.
They walked back in, with Eleanor carrying a handful of snow.
“What’s up with that?” he asked, wondering if they had run out of water.
“I thought I would melt it for the cat. I had broken up a little bit of my sandwich and saved it, and I have that along with a jar lid that I was going to put the snow in for her. She wasn’t really interested in it the last time I offered it.”
“Maybe because she just gave birth.”
“Possibly.”
She arranged the things for the cat while he went over and stood beside the fire, looking at the flue and wishing he had an idea of how to tell if it was going to catch on fire or not. He hadn’t thought about it at all until Eleanor had said something. And then, after she’d mentioned it, he remembered that occasionally, especially in his younger years when he still read the newspaper, he’d read articles about people’s houses catching on fire, starting with a fire in their flue.
He usually did fall asleep fairly quickly, but he felt like it was his job to protect. Funny how a situation like this brought that out more than anything else ever had in his life before.
Or maybe it was something else. It could be that it was because of Eleanor, coming to get him, making sure he was okay, and with every interaction she had with him, doing what she could to help and think of him.
Maybe her actions brought out the best in him.
Whatever it was, he doubted he was going to get much sleep that night.
