THE GIGAS

pg 4

Every day felt like an endless loop of the same things, over and over again.

Shoveling, transporting, and dumping snow into the hole in the ground, from morning to noon.

Doing chores, cleaning, cooking, and my daily nursing from the healing drones, from noon to dusk.

A steady repeat of the day before.

Man, deja vu hit me hard every time I kept entering into the library.

The only thing different was during that time I had discovered a new function in the bunker.

A thing I like to call the flower.

A descriptive name for the machine that I like very much.

It's funny. We had been utilizing only the emergency power. Which only used a fifth of its outer power cells.

But with this thing we could generate more energy faster, we only had to unfurl it.

Just like its namesake says it has a stem and a bud curled inside of it.

The long thin poles that jutted out of the ground outside were not for flags or nets. 

It was for the generating machine.

At first I couldn't make it work . I spent the few hours left in the day looking over the users' manual of the flower.

Did my speech get any more complete?

No, I think that it's a good enough start  and it's better if  I  speak from my heart. I just scribbled down bulletin points of important information just in case so I wouldn't forget.

I feel that we are going to need to be flexible and understanding with both Junior and Ruth. It's going to be a shock to accept at first.

I'll let them marinate with what I am telling them and let them decide later on how they feel about it.

I had spent so many nights just meditating on it while laying in bed.

And.....

This is the best solution I could come up with so far.

Anything else would be nothing more than guilt tripping or bullying, which doesn't jive with me.

Especially since I already lived through that with my own mom, it just gives me the crawling icks.

sigh.

I worry what Junior and Ruth are doing, as I start to slowly falling asleep every night they aren't here. I hope they are ok.

*******

(Off the coast of a large southern strait)

The smooth asphalt shined with the heat of the mid-day sun.

Logan gently swayed in her seat. Her hands relaxed over the steering wheel.

The radio blaring a catchy Ranchero tune.

Skylar, Junior, and Ruth played in the background over the small folding table.

"Ha!! Beat this" a royal flush slamming down onto the table.

" Dude, that is the fourth win in a row. Are you sure you're  not cheating Skylar?" Junior  grumbled loudly in disappointment.

Skylar grinned" I would never" She said with a mischievous flair.

Junior lost the last of his snacks and could only look on as Skylar ripped open a candy wrapper of what use to be his.

Bored and unwilling to watch the ravenous consumption of his favorite snacks. Junior quickly looked outside.