walked out of the saloon.
“I’m confused,” Jana said. “Am I hired or not?”
“Talk to Virgil in the morning,” Tolya said. “In the meantime, here is Barbara Ellen Debany, your housemate.”
Blond hair, blue eyes, some freckles across the nose and cheeks. Early to mid-twenties, so they were close to the same age.
“I’m so glad to meet you,” Barbara Ellen said with more enthusiasm than seemed warranted. “My friends call me Barb.” She glanced at Tolya. “My human friends call me Barb.”
“I’m glad to meet you too.”
“There are papers you need to fill out,” Tolya said. “Then you should go to the hotel and get the key for your room.”
“But you just said …” Jana looked at Barb.
“You’ll be more comfortable in the hotel until you have a chance to pick out furniture for your bedroom,” Barb said.
That made sense. Jana filled out the paperwork and had barely written in the final answer before Barb handed the papers to someone named Yuri and hustled her over to the hotel.
“What’s the hurry?” Jana asked.
“Our house was one of the few that was cleared out, so we have to replace everything we want, right down to the kind of hangers you prefer.”
That sounded daunting.
“The thing is, we all get to pick from whatever is available, but it’s first come, first served, and even though things are jumbled, it’s easier to select things from a place that looks like a warehouse yard sale than going into houses that …” Barb blew out a breath. “That look like someone still lives there. Depending on where they choose to live within the new town boundaries, some of the folks coming in today will have to clear out the houses by themselves. Everyone is expected to put in at least a couple of hours of sorting a day, but I think it’s harder when other people’s clothes are still in the closet, and there are photographs on the walls. You know?”
Jana didn’t know but could imagine it quite well. “I’d like to swap out some clothes so I have what I need for a couple of days.”
“We’ll go to the house next so you can do that and also choose your bedroom and take a look at what I’ve already selected for the living room, dining room, and kitchen,” Barb said. “And you might want to choose a bicycle. There’s a ‘bike corral’ next to the hotel and guests can borrow a bicycle to get around or just for fun. But it’s also the place where bicycles retrieved from emptied houses are being stored and can be claimed.”
“Oh.” Jana tried to hide her disappointment. “I thought I would be getting a horse.”
“Not enough room in the yard to keep two horses—or even one horse, for that matter, which is why my horse is at the livery stable. I have a bicycle as an alternate way to travel from home to stable. Or just to get around for shopping if I don’t want to take Rowan out. You can choose a car—people are mostly keeping whatever was parked in their driveway, but almost every parking lot around the square is stuffed with unclaimed vehicles. The catch is that residents are limited to one tank of gas each month to make sure the government vehicles, medical vehicles, and public transportation have enough fuel. That’s why most people use the buses or walk or ride a bicycle.”
A different way of life. An active way of life.
“Oh, and go easy the first couple of days,” Barb added. “A few people felt a bit sick because of the difference in altitude and drier air. Don’t push too hard and drink lots of water.”
The water she could do. Pushing too hard? That would depend on her boss.
For the rest of the day, Jana viewed her new home and made a sketch of her bedroom, as well as the third bedroom she and Barb wanted to turn into a shared office. They went to one of the buildings that was stuffed with furniture and selected everything they wanted for her bedroom and the office. From there, they went to household storage and packed a box with linens, hangers, curtains, and everything else they could think of needing to set up their house.
“Do you like dogs?” Barb asked suddenly when she turned a corner made by a wall of boxes and stopped.
“Sure, I like dogs,” Jana replied. “Haven’t had one since I was a kid, but I like them.”
“Want one?”
Jana blinked. “They have dogs back there?”
Barb