going on?”
“Once our medical staff here clears you, we’ll take you to meet the community.”
“Are you doctors?” Pepe asked with odd exuberance.
The driver pointed between himself and his older companion. “I was a medic. Gilda here was a nurse. We’re as close to doctors as we have here.”
Paula noticed a pretty Hispanic girl standing in the doorway with a sharpened baseball bat, her light brown eyes steeled and cautious. She had to be fourteen or fifteen. “Who is that?”
Didi smiled proudly at the girl. “That’s Rachelle. She’ll be helping me, in case Cody and Gilda can’t help you. Who’s first?”
After trading awkward glances, Pepe stepped forward. What Paula feared would be brutal and invasive turned out to be a quick and painless look over what modesty allowed. It didn’t settle her nerves any, but she gave herself over nonetheless. Gilda was very accommodating. Isaac hesitated, but he saw Didi fondling her sword and put himself through the exam. Sean went last, nervously chattering until it was over.
The medic and nurse nodded to their mistress, who grinned cheerfully and clapped her hands together. “Alright, then. Chow time.” Then she walked out without a response.
Cody and Gilda cringed as they followed her out. “Come with us, please,” he said.
Sean wrapped his arms around Paula and slowly guided her into the lobby. From there, they exited through the alley and entered the old pharmacy, which now looked like a waiting room with rows of couches and a small podium up front. They crossed the back and entered a hallway with several open doorways.
A thick, buttery fragrance taunted Paula as she followed Didi past the old café and its kitchen. “I thought we were going to breakfast?”
“Didn’t your parents teach you to wash up before meals?” Didi teased, making her teenage minion chuckle.
Right or wrong, that rubbed Paula the wrong way. “Didn’t your parents teach you to answer people when they ask you questions, like when I asked about your name the other day?”
“Honey, please, let’s not antagonize the nice lady with a sword,” Sean said with a meek grin.
Didi stopped where the old pizza place used to be, which now bore three closed doors opposite each other labeled MEN, WOMEN, and LAUNDRY. “Let’s just say it’s a long and funny story you won’t get to hear today. In the meantime, it’s crucial to stay clean here.”
The teenager nudged Paula’s shoulder and beckoned her to follow. Paula looked back at her husband, who followed Cody into the Men’s Room. She took a deep breath and entered the Women’s Room.
The sizable shower bay surprised the hell out of her. It had everything: toilets with lots of tissue, sinks with lots of soap, shelves with plenty of shampoos and body washes, wooden shelves with towels, a dirty laundry bin, and a vast assortment of clean clothes on wooden wall-mounted racks nearby. These people were serious about cleanliness. She didn’t like Rachelle watching her undress and head for one of the many showerheads, but she stopped caring the moment the hot water hit her body. She took full advantage of the abundance of soaps and lathered up like nobody’s business. Having gone a year without hot water, she was content to let her fears of the immediate future go for a while. She hated to leave the stream, especially on an October day in Iowa, so she rushed the towels and dried off quickly.
The teenager watched passively.
As the awkwardness returned, Paula tried to strike up a conversation. The girl’s Victorian baby doll necklace seemed a good place to start. “That’s a nice cameo. Was it your mother’s?”
The girl’s face soured. “I stole it from some rich bitch up in North Bend.”
“Wisconsin?” she asked to keep from snapping at the girl’s tone. Rachelle nodded. “That’s quite a way from here. Did any of your family make it