Title Yet To Be Discovered (Part 7) Poem by Mike Smith

I gave a precursory knock at the door. An agreed pattern of quick hits followed by two loud bangs; Our knock. In no time flat I could hear the locks being undone before the door swung open. It was Trina. She must have been sitting at the top of the stairs waiting. The first thing I saw on her face was a mix of excitement and relief. That was followed immediately by confusion with a touch of suspicion and worry.
'Trina, I'd like you to meet my new friend Emily.' I looked down at my side and she was shyly staring towards her feet with her hands joined together tugging on the bottom of her shirt.
'Hi Emily. It's nice to meet you.' Trina had recovered from the shock of me showing up with company in an instant and was now trying to help me get the girl feeling at ease.
'Would you want to go downstairs now and meet the others Emily? ' Trina had crouched down now to meet the girl's eye level causing Em to turn slightly away from the stranger and put one thumb instinctively to her mouth.
'Hey, c'mon kiddo, ' I said as I crouched down too and slightly turned her so she was once again looking our way
'Everybody downstairs is going to be nice. There's games down there and crayons and...' I cut her off before Trina could finish
'And don't forget, I still owe you that treat.'
Finally this was enough to break her stare with the floor and her eyes came up to meet mine, the seeds of a nervous smile half formed on her face. With that we began walking down the stairs. Emily counted each one under her breath, just barely audible.
'Ten, 'leven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen.' This must have impressed Trina because she smiled back at me from ahead with encouraged eyes and an air of approval.
While we were making our short walk to the main living area I tried to prepare Emily for the encounter that would ensue.
'Okay kiddo, ' I said giving her curly blond locks a rub which inspired an upward gaze and a full fledged smile
'Once we get to our new friends I'm gonna have to talk with the adults for awhile. Remember earlier how you were brave and answered all the questions in the grocery store? '
'Yeah.'
'Well I want you to be even braver now okay? Trina will introduce you to the rest of the kids, just tell them your name and ask them if you can play. I'm sure they'll be very excited to meet such a brave and smart new person like you.' A hint of bashful coyness struck her cheeks giving them a rosey tint, but her smile and nod said she would do her best.
With that we emerged into the main room. The candles illuminated the all too familiar scene. Mick was in the background doing his daily push-up and sit up routine. Oliver sat on his cot reading from what looked to be a science textbook of some sort. On one couch Terry and Becca both sat writing into books. A journal and crossword puzzle collection respectively. The kids were over in their area playing with some building blocks I'd fashioned months ago from scraps of lumber. And the rest sat around our two tables. One group playing a game of cards, the other chatting quietly.
Barry was the first one to acknowledge us.
'Well, doesn't look like he's bleeding out our anything. And he's got a bag full-a-goodies too. How was it out there? Did you see any...' But he was cut off when Stacey noticed the kid.
'Who's that? ' The question drew the eyes of each person in the room over to little Emily who was by now being escorted to the kids area by Trina.
'Where'd you find her? '
'Where's her parents? '
'What the hell happened out there? '
'Guys! ' It wasn't an angry tone but a stern one. Spoken loudly enough to let them all know I was serious.
'Can I please at least sit down before you all throw a question assault at me? ' In an acknowledgment of my request and their
impatience the whole group (reader, body builder, and writers now standing aside the tables as well) waited quietly as I peeled off three of my four sweat soaked layers before coming to a rest at the head of the table of card players.
'Now, ' I paused to rub my temples and somehow try to decide exactly how I was going to tell the story. Surely there were details that I needed to leave out (the gun store clerk being chiefest among them) , but in the adrenaline fueled events of the day I hadn't much considered what I would say had happened.
'I think before we get too far ahead of ourselves, first things first, the barricade needs to be reassembled.'
'You didn't put it back up before you came down? ' Mick spat this question out an accusatory tone I was not willing to put up with at that moment. I shot him a glare that no one in that basement had ever seen from me before. Maybe I'd never given that glare my whole life until then. But the events of the last two days had both emboldened me and put me on edge. Barry dismissed the tension in the room with his easy going style.
'We'll put it back up Ian. Terry, Oli, your with me. Go ahead and start the story man, someone can catch us up later.' The three stood up to head upstairs.
'We'll wait.' Said Mick refusing to break eye contact with me, as if daring me to look away first.
'He's right. Everybody should be here for this. I'm too exhausted to tell it twice.'
'Pff...' With this cheap shot of a retort Mick finally broke from the stare covering his mouth with his right hand so as not to show the smile hiding behind it. A voice inside me spoke saying that if it were only him and I in this basement there soon be only one of us. For the others sake I bottled up the indignation and packed it away someplace deep down. Stored and ready if ever I needed to use it.
Just then a hand on my right shoulder caused me to flinch sending my knees into the table creating a racket. This brought a chuckle out of Mick and I barely resisted the urge to send him another death glare. Instead I looked behind me. It was Trina.
'Sorry.' She said with a look that said she meant it.
'It's fine.'
'Just wanted to tell you that it looks like your little friend is going to fit right in.' She pointed over in the direction of the young-ins. Emily was riding in the little cart with Maddox. Zoey was pulling them by the handle while Carter pushed from behind. My mood immediately softened.
'So did you say you met her in the grocery store? ' Asked Trina in the way that people will when they know the answer to something but their hoping to gather something more.
'Yeah. I just... found her there. Laying on one of the bottom shelves.'
'All by herself? '
'Alone.'
'What kind of a person could just leave a kid by herself in..' I cut her off.
'I don't know.' There was a pregnant pause. No one on our side of the room was talking. The only sounds were the playful giggles and words from the kids.
'She was terrified at first. I mean, how couldn't she be? But eventually after I got enough out of her to realize she was definitely not safe and unaccompanied I convinced her to come along.'
'How? '
'Wasn't really a hard sell. I told her there were other kids to play with and that we had toys and books and we ate three times a day. That was another thing, the girls stomach was growling when I was talking to her at the store.... She's gotta be starving.'
'Maybe we should have dinner a little early today? We can eat, give you some time to recoup, then you can tell us what it was like out there.' This was from Becca, her motherly instincts shining through.
'Sounds like a plan to me. Long as nobody else has any problems with that? ' I said looking around the room for any dissent. A mix of nods and mumbled affirmatives sent Becca and Trina off to our improvised pantry.
As they walked off and the group started going back to their usual tasks I heard him mumble it, not to himself, but just loud enough so the people around him could hear it, 'Yeah. Sure. Let's just do whatever Ian wants.' And with that Mick was back to his workout area, switching from push-ups and sit-ups to dumbells.