Free After the Event by T.A. Williams Page A

finally got back to the house his legs ached and his face felt numb.
    When he opened the door it felt like a wave of warmth washed over him. Despite this he knew once his body adjusted the inside of the house wouldn’t feel as warm as it needed to be. He shook off his snowy clothes and walked into the sitting room where the wood stove was located. Huddled around it were his children. This was how they survived now. They wore as many clothes as possible, sat around the wood stove with a blanket or two, and kept the fire going.
    All of this would be difficult enough but for the last week Alya had become very sick. It started with a cough, turned into a fever, and was becoming worse by the day. What little food they were able to give her hardly ever stayed down.
    Alec never left her side. As she lay asleep bundled in blankets Grant could see her shivering uncontrollably, but he knew from experience that she was probably radiating more heat than the stove itself.
    Jack walked out of the room and motioned for Grant to follow. Grant followed him into the kitchen which at the moment felt more like a freezer. The man’s face reflected exactly how Grant felt at the moment.
    “Nothing?”
    “No, but Trent said he has some old rations that might be able to put a little bit of food in the kid’s stomachs.”
    “Better than nothing I guess.”
     
     
     

Alec
     
    Alec watched as the fire danced gently over the wood. He found it was easy to sit here for hours at a time just watching. Of course it was either that or step away from the wood stove only to be met by the bone-chilling cold.
    Joseph nuzzled up beside him while Alya was sound asleep in his lap. The warmth coming from the wood stove was matched only by the warmth radiating from his little sister. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Most of the time she was asleep and even when she was awake she seemed to be far away. Alec would spend hours trying to get her to eat something and the few times he was successful the food wouldn’t stay down. It was too similar to his mother. He had watched her slowly wither away and he wasn’t about to watch the same thing happen to his sister. Just as he decided he needed to talk to his father Joseph said something. It came out as a quiet little mumble.
    “What did you say Joseph?”
    The boy didn’t move and just continued staring blankly into the fire. “Do you think Ally hates me?”
    The question took Alec by surprise and for a second he just sat there dumbfounded. When he finally came to he pulled Joseph up so they were eye-to-eye.
    “Ally doesn’t hate you she loves you. Why in the world do you think she hates you?”
    The boy looked away and shrugged his shoulders. “She…..she’s always mean to me.”
    Alec tried to think back to a time when Alya was mean to Joseph and he couldn’t come up with anything. He couldn’t even come up with a time they got into a fight. Alec and Ben loved each other but when they were younger there was hardly a time when they weren’t at each other’s throats.
    “When has she been mean to you?”
    “She’s always picking on me.”
    Alec smiled. This time when he thought back he couldn’t remember a time where Alya wasn’t picking on Joseph. “Joe, just because she picks on you doesn’t mean she hates you. It doesn’t even mean she is trying to be mean to you.”
    Joseph looked confused.
    “You know that I love you right?” Joseph nodded. “How do you know that I love you?”
    “Because you’re nice to me.”
    “And how am I nice to you?”
    Joseph sat in silence for a moment and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, you play pretend with me, and watch after me.”
    “Exactly. That is how I show you that I love you, by playing pretend and watching over you. Not everyone shows their love in the same way. Sometimes people show their love through ways we might think are weird.”
    Once again Joseph was in deep thought then suddenly he met Alec’s eyes and there was a