章 403: PACKHOUSE LIFE IN STORMY WEATHER
THURSDAY, 11 FEBRUARY, DINNER
Savy, Lizzy, and I spent the rest of the afternoon packing care boxes in one corner of the training hall while the rest of the hall was being set up, training mats doubling as space markers for each family, with allocated blankets and sleeping bags, torchlights, bottled waters, biscuits. Meals could be taken upstairs in the dining hall.
Meanwhile we packed supplies to be delivered to the elderly wolves in our pack as well as the destitute house at morning light. Essentially, it was just a recycled cardboard box, with bottled water, canned beans, soups, sardines, and spam. Plus bags of pastas, toilet paper... Toilet paper was important whenever there was trouble in the packlands.
We also had baby supplies like milk powder, varying sizes diapers, wet wipes, and bottled baby food. These were all packed in a few boxes and marked "BABY", and available on request. Like if whoever was delivering was supposed to offer if they saw/smelled a baby in the house.
There was also a miscellaneous box which included adult diapers, batteries, torchlights, standard energy saving bulb. And a tool box containing stuff like screwdrivers and duct tape... Pretty much the delivery guys were also supposed to help out with necessary works for these families too.
Mum said old wolves sometimes found it hard to do basic things around the house, like climb a ladder to change a bulb and it would be really helpful for their fading wolf eyes to have working lights in their home.
Anyway, Ben and Jonah were down for delivery services. Not in the Lambo. I heard something about the Lambo not handling well on snow while the two were talking.
"It doesn't have boot space either, bozos." Lizzy inserted testily.
Maybe it's because they were her brother and his best friend, but Lizzy had very little patience with these two. She liked to call them various nicknames over the years. Most recently, due to the underwear flashing episode, they were SpongeBob and Patrick.
I'm not sure whose bright idea was it to assign them this task, but this year, SpongeBob and Patrick would undertake their most grown up mission ever, thanks to Ben's early driver's license. They would be driving one of the standard warrior trucks for the deliveries once we were done packing.
Meanwhile they had to decide what to include in their tool box while waiting for the first boxes to go.
Jonah was adamant about bringing a toilet plunger, just in case. It wouldn't fit in the tool box though. And it was a used toilet plunger so Lizzy flat out disallowed them to put it into the miscellaneous box.
"Please! Try to be considerate for people who are actually hygienic." She scolded.
Hahahaha.
I offered them one of the garbage bags in the misc box, "You could keep it in this."
"Okay. Yeah. Great." Jonah accepted it gratefully.
"Just make sure you don't end up throwing it away." Lizzy warned.
Hahahaha again. They were sure to lose it like that!
Lizzy who seemed all too familiar with their mishaps, used some masking tape and a marker to label the bag, "Toilet plunger."
Ben wasn't impressed, "We probably won't even use it anyway."
"Unstuck toilets are very important when you are stuck in a storm." Jonah informed us.
Ben rolled his eyes, "You can do the honours then."
"What? Why me?" Jonah protested.
"Cos it was your idea, gamma." Ben was not one to shy from pulling his rank over his best friend.
Jonah chuffed, "Yeah okay. But only because I'm such a good boy."
We all laughed at that. WTH had that got to do with anything?
But Jonah was really a good boy. I've never heard him complain about hard work before in my life. Actually, I've never heard him complain or whine about anything. Ever.
I guess Jonah was well on his way to becoming a darn good gamma after all.
And then Jonah suddenly started flipping through all his pockets, "Ben, I think I lost the delivery list."
"You're joking right?" Ben asked.
"Don't you have a soft copy somewhere?" Jonah asked hopefully.
"No. My dad gave me the print out. I told you not to lose it!" Ben growled.
We had to help them look. We even had to search through all the packed boxes until I noticed a white folded piece of paper in Ben's back pocket.
I plucked it out, "Is this it?"
"Oh, I guess it was with you all along." Jonah said.
Ben took it out of my grasp with a groan, "Don't f***ing do that, Jonah!"
"Hurry and go already!" Lizzy told them, "We need the space to pack the next batch."
I helped the guys carry the boxes up to the garage on the ground floor to the standard silver pick up truck our warriors used.
Jonah had always been the strongest, he was built like a bulldozer, and while we were growing up, he was the only guy stronger than me.
I once challenged him to a Singlestick fight. He refused, but I forced him, and won. The next week, I happened to chance across him training with Ben and the other guys and noticed that, like Ben, his dominant hand was actually his left hand.
He had used his right hand to fight me.
I felt so cheated. I had to work so hard to win too - and he was using his weaker hand. Grrr...
Anyway, based on the boxes we were carrying, I'd say Ben had caught up now that he was shifted. They were both carrying at least three boxes each time. I was only carrying two at a time, and it was an effort... And I was cheating. I was using wolf strength to supplement my own after the second round, just a little, because I hated to lose.
I watched Ben transfer all three boxes to one hand so that he could open the back of the pick up with the other. Unfair.
Meanwhile, my arms were probably going to be sore for a bit and my back definitely wasn't made for this!
How did it become like this? I used to be stronger than Ben. I used to be able to carry him on my back as kids. I used to run the fastest in our gang - even faster than Jonah.
I'm quite sure I wasn't going to be the fastest if we all ran purely on our human abilities now. And even my wolf ability was staunted by my body. I could push it, especially now that I had Mate's healing power to repair the broken tissues when I go into Wolfie power overdrive.
But using Mate's healing also made me dehydrate really quickly too, so I needed to use Wolfie very moderately. Control was key.
Which meant a maximum of two boxes.
Stupid cute girly body.
When I was on my third round, Ben and Jonah just came back for their fouth. Ben took the boxes off me when I neared the stairs, "Let's make a chain and get this done faster."
"I'll cover the top of the stairs to the truck!" Jonah immediately volunteered and zipped back up the stairs empty handed.
Ben growled, and then followed his friend up the stairs with MY two boxes, "Hurry and get more, Sam!"
Grrr...
But because my pride didn't allow me to be the bottleneck, I went and got more boxes. I did it as quickly as I could so that the bottle neck would be Ben. Stupid Ben.
After the guys had loaded up their truck and left, I went back to helping Savy and Lizzy. Now, in comparison, I felt strong again. I was like Hercules! I could help them carry over all the 12 pack bottled waters to be distributed among the boxes.
I'm sure Ben or Jonah could have lifted two or three times the amount, but they weren't here. So I was the strongest again.
This second batch would go to the destitute house. Lately, the women there were saying that the tap water could not be drunk. Beta Gerald had not been able to isolate the problem with the water supply. He suspected the pipes in the building were just too old, but an overhaul would have to wait till warmer weather.
So I guess bottled water was a necessity.
Lizzy double checked her list. We added cookies and M&Ms for the kids there, so she had to add them to the list too. This way we can report the stock usage later, and we can make sure that all the boxes had everything.
Lizzy was very organized that way. Stereotypically, this was often credited to her Beta Dad, BUT her dad was Beta Lucas - and he wasn't a list type of man. His organizing style was more of a "instinctively feeling" type of organization.
This way, he would always be "ready for anything". I supposed that was somewhat true. I mean, he was definitely as ready as he could ever be at any point of time.
Anyway, time flew by and when Beta Gerald came over before dinner to drive the boxes over to Morning Light, they were ready. I offered to help him load his truck but he politely but firmly refused, "It is very kind of you, Alpha, but please allow the men to do it."
I almost thought he was doing a Bert on me with the "Let the men do the fighting, gal." kind of talk, and then I realised he could just have meant to let the warriors do it, because when two warriors were summoned, he said, "Men, please help me load these boxes onto my, truck."
"Yes, beta." The men bowed and got to work.
So he didn't want me to do this because I was the alpha, and not because I was a girl? Maybe like Gamma Harry, he still held on the the tradition of not using the head to throw rubbish, pull weeds, or carry boxes either.
Mum and Mrs Beta and Laura had been busy all day too. They were helping with the organizing and cleaning out some of the rooms for the staff to stay in during the storm duration. From cooks, to cleaners, administration, and medical staff. It would be better if they could live in the packhouse in case we really get snowed in. At least then, our packhouse would still be able to continue running and providing essential services and assistance to the rest of the pack.
Next door to us, Delta Simon and his medical team was setting up the makeshift hospital. All the very pregnant wolves and their mates (we had a total of two of them, both new mums) were invited to stay in the packhouse too, just in case. Delta Simon said he didn't want them to suddenly give birth while trapped alone in the snowstorm.
I guess the two couples didn't want that either. They had come over while we were packing, to the wrong hall, looking for Delta Simon who wanted to give each mum a quick check up.
I kinda knew one of the pregnant wolves. Her name was Sheryl and she was friends with Esther and Macey. The other lady, I only knew by sight though.
"The medical centre is in the next door hall." I told them, "And mum's arranged for you to have rooms upstairs."
"Oh, good..." Sheryl sighed looking around the hall we were in, "I don't think I can sleep on the floor with sleeping bags in my condition."
I grinned and walked them to the next hall.
"Where's Delta Simon? He's got customers!" I jokingly called to one of medical staff there.
While we waited, Sheryl told me, "I wanted to name her Valarie because she was supposed to be born on Valentine's Day. But Tom here says if she comes in the storm, he's going to name her Blizzard!"
I laughed at that.
Tom, whom I've never spoken to directly before looked sheepish, "I think it'll be a good story. Like one day we can tell her, 'Do you know why you're named Blizzard?' and then we can tell her this amazing story about the day she was born."
That was a nice thought.
"How can you name a little girl, Blizzard?" Sheryl asked, "Can we at least give her a real girl's name?"
She had a point there too. Blizzard made me think of soft serve ice cream.
"What about Elsa?" I asked. Because that was the only real girl's name I knew that was related to snow, "You know, let it go, let it go~"
"Oh." Said Tom, "Elsa."
"The one who can do ice and snow magic." I tried to explain.
"Elsa." Sheryl nodded as she stroked her bump, "I actually did shortlist that name too, but I didn't link it to the cartoon."
"I like it." Tom said.
"You said you hated it!" Sheryl accused.
"Yes, but I didn't know about the snowstorm then." Tom said.
Hahaha. Okay...
I excused myself at that point. I mean Elsa Valarie Whatever-their-family-name-was would be a perfectly good name as any other.
I wondered if a certain Maria Valentino Kosan was also born on Valentine's Day. Not that I would see her in time to find out with this snow storm going on though. Did vampires even celebrate their birthdays?
Anyway, it was a long afternoon, everyone had worked really hard. We had only those few hours to do our best for everyone. By dinner time, the snow was falling again, like the sky was having a chronic case of dandruff. Hahaha.
Okay, that just amused me because normally we liked to talk about snow being pretty... Which it was. If we looked out of the window now, it would be like looking through the glass of a big snow globe... That someone was shaking very hard.
The Alpha, Beta, and Gamma families, plus all three of my betas were in the second floor conference room of the pack house. We had our dinner sent up and the News playing from the new wide screen TV. Our conference table had been replaced too. I'm not sure how long this one would last, but I wasn't going to test it.
Dinner was served on these standard three part tray dishes thing. Baked chicken, potato salad, and canned beetroot, but I wouldn't complain. I think it's what everyone was having. And I meant EVERYONE, from the families sheltering in the basement, to the working staff and warriors. The dining hall was full like Sunday Breakfast. And the packhouse kitchen was working double time.
I tried a piece of beetroot and decided that I didn't like the earthy taste, so I ate the other stuff. The chicken was okay. The potato salad had hard boiled egg pieces in it and was quite good. Plus we had a choice of a bottled water, a packet of juice, or a packet of chocolate milk.
It had been a long time since I've eaten stuff like this... That didn't have fancy names or sauces or less than twenty five different ingredients.
I looked at Ki. He was eating with a fork and a knife like one would do at the Langston. He even ate his beets.
"I don't like eggs." Lizzy picked out the hard boiled eggs. Jonah pushed over his plate to collect them. She also gave him her beets. Savy silently scrapped her beets into Jonah's plate too.
I decided to donate my beets to the bulldozer too, give him more fuel to run on. Harvey and Ben followed suit.
"What? Nobody likes beets?" Jonah looked incredibly surprised.
"Yes, because we have taste buds on our tongues." Lizzy told him.
"I have taste buds too." Jonah told her, "Wanna check them out?"
"Eww, no." Lizzy answered quite decisively.
But Ben and Jonah were enjoying themselves, sharing a good chuckle just between the two of them like they said something actually funny.
クリエイターの想い 
katisnow
katisnow If you think something's up with Lizzy and Jonah... you can check out their future in THE CLUES OF LOVE (short story). If you didn't notice, then nevermind.
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