I passed him a shopping bag. He placed three beers into it, a ziplock gallon-bag of flour and one of salt. I said, “Grab the salt and pepper too.”
He put ketchup in the bag. I flipped through my recipe box. He said, “What is that?”
I pulled out a few cards. “My recipes for pies. Maybe I will make you one for our wedding day.”
“That might be the greatest dream I ever had, dost ye think ye could?”
“Why not, we have sugar and flour, we just need fruit. Wait!”
I reached in the fridge and pulled out a bag with a dozen peaches in it. And two pie pans.
I put it all in the bag.
I zipped up the suitcase and he carried it.
As we went to the door I said, “Nothing happened, the whole time, we were cautious over nothing.”
Lochie said, “I hae always learned, ye must be overly cautious, Ash, ye never ken when someone will time-travel at ye.”
I laughed. “‘Time travel at ye’ I like that, it’s funny.”
“Aye, tis funny, but we ought tae go.”
I nodded. “I’m ready, let’s do this thing.”
When we got downstairs I hid my keys, and then we got in the truck to drive back to the safe house.
I said, “Do we have time to stop at Target for the other things on the list?”
He pulled the notebook pages from his sporran, they were covered in Quentin’s list. He read, “Tis more diapers, toilet paper, toothpaste, treats for the kids, and a?—”
The burner phone vibrated.
Lochinvar read it, “Tis a text from Don. It says: Ye left yet? Ye see that storm?”
He turned the phone to show me. I took the phone, called Don, and put it on speaker.
“Where was the storm?”
“Centered directly east, near Egan’s Creek.”
“So, it wasn’t just a thunderstorm, it was one of the strange ones, right? Big, sudden, brief? That’s what you saw?”
“Yeah, that’s what I saw. Where are you guys?”
I said, “We’re off the Island, we were going to stop at Target, but I think we gotta get out of here.”
“Alright, see you on Wednesday.”
“See you then.”
I hung up.
Lochinvar put the lists back in his sporran, shaking his head. “We will stop tae gas up the truck, but we canna shop for supplies.” He looked over his shoulder out east.
I said, “Were they coming or going?”
“I daena ken.”
