as true and romantic apocalyptic courting, but Sela wasn’t so sure. Carol was just . . . Carol.
They were all losing weight, not necessarily because there wasn’t enough food but because they were all doing more physical work and automatically eating less in order to save food for later. The occasional biscuits or pan bread that Barb made—very occasional because flour and cornmeal were precious—were a treat rather than something they took for granted.
The valley had seen a few frosty mornings in late October, and then November brought more. The smell and smoke from fireplaces wreathed the valley almost every morning, though winter approached in fits and starts and some days were warm enough for people to go about in short sleeves. Those increasingly rare, bright days always saw people out more, moving around, getting things done.
Sela was stingy with the stack of firewood Trey Foster had delivered, because she didn’t want to be a burden on him. To stretch the supply she walked the woods, gathering sticks for kindling and larger pieces whenever she could find them. She carried a blue tarp with her, and loaded her find on it, dragging it behind her and sharing everything with Carol’s household. Sometimes Olivia joined her because getting out of the house gave her a chance to expend energy. She and her friends got together whenever they could, but everyone had chores to do now.
“I miss school,” Olivia confessed one afternoon as they gathered wood.
“I can see why.” Sela paused and stretched her back. They had a good load already, and her lower back was feeling the strain of bending down so much. “Wait.” She stared at Olivia, wondering why she hadn’t thought of it before, why no one had thought of it. “If church can start back, I don’t see why school can’t.” Hadn’t that been mentioned back at the very beginning when the grid had gone down? She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten!
Olivia’s eyes brightened. “You mean, open the elementary school?”
“No, we couldn’t heat it. It’ll have to be somewhere that can be heated. I wonder how many kids we’d be talking about? Not all kids would come because of the distance involved.” A hundred years ago kids had routinely walked miles to school, but that was a hundred years ago. People’s outlook hadn’t changed sufficiently back to those times for parents not to blink an eye at pushing their kids out the door to walk a few miles in the rain or snow. If the electricity stayed off for over a year, though, those times might return.
“Fifty, maybe?”
Sela thought that might be a good number. The elementary school had almost four times that number of students, but that included kindergarten kids and kids who weren’t close enough now to attend.
“There has to be someone in the valley with teaching experience,” she said, thinking. As usual, Carol would know more about that than she did. “Regardless of that, you kids have your books, right? What you need is structure and someone to go through the material with you.”
Feeding that many kids would be impossible, so everyone would have to bring their lunches. Just dividing the classes, getting volunteers to teach, and heating the area selected for school would be a big job. Logistically, the best places for having classes would be private houses, one for each group, so the firewood wouldn’t be used to heat entirely separate spaces. Emergency situations required emergency adjustments. Later on they’d worry about setting up a more traditional school setting.
“Thanks,” Olivia said, giving her a quick hug. “I knew you’d come up with something.”
They dragged the tarp-load of sticks back to Carol’s house, where they unloaded and stacked half of it a few feet from the back door. They covered the stack to keep it dry, then Sela pulled the remainder to her house and repeated the process.
The chores were so simple now. She didn’t have to deal with fuel deliveries, inventory, bank statements, or taxes. She had to eat, keep clean, and keep the fire going on cool days. She walked a lot, hauling water and firewood, and going about the valley. She’d met with the Bouldins and they had gone to see the Livingstons, to teach Mary Alice which particular herbs to use to keep her blood pressure under control, and how to use them. Once a week she and Carol walked to the store to meet with Mike and the rest of the community patrol, see how things were going, if any