8. Chapter 6
Chapter 6
H e'd overslept. The window showed a blue sky beyond cream muslin curtains. It was well past dawn.
Elijah sat up abruptly. It was the fault of the bed, which was big enough for four people and way too warm and comfortable. The room was nice too, with a half stone wall and cream wainscoting on the upper half. There was even a little TV in the corner.
Which was weird. Did English really watch so much TV that they had to have it on while they slept?
But this wasn't his bed or his room. And if he didn't want to be sleeping rough again tonight, he had to pull his weight.
He found his clothes washed and dried and folded on the dresser. The care they were taking over him was embarrassing. He didn't like being treated like he was in need, and if they knew who and what he was, they wouldn't be so friendly. But still, the clothes felt awful good putting them on. They’d been pretty filthy.
He found a new toothbrush in the small bathroom next to his room. It didn't appear anyone else used this bathroom. He brushed his teeth and used the comb and brush in a drawer to make himself presentable. He'd had a bath the night before, so he was clean enough. In the mirror, his brown eyes, always bigger than most, now nearly consumed his whole face thanks to the circles under them and his drawn cheeks. He hadn't eaten good in a while. He lifted his shirt and saw his ribs. He was too small to be able to hide the weight loss.
It took him a few minutes to find his way downstairs. He paused in the upstairs hallway to study the framed photographs on the wall. He looked at them for a long moment, his heart thumping hard. But the smell of coffee and something good cooking forced him on and guided him to the kitchen.
Samuel was sitting at the kitchen island reading a book. He looked up when Elijah came in. " Gut morgan ."
" Gut morgan ," Elijah said, his face burning. He felt suddenly shy. "Sorry I slept in. You shoulda wakened me."
"You needed the rest after gettin' so cold. How you feelin' now?"
"I'm gut. I slept real gut."
Samuel smiled. "That's a relief. I was worried. Eddie too."
A deep pang ran through Elijah at the words. They were sincere, but why should these strangers worry? Elijah's grandfather, his whole family, didn't care where he was, or that he could have died.
Samuel got up and moved to the stove. "What would you like for breakfast? We've got oatmeal, toast… How do you like your eggs?"
"No, please. You don't have to cook for me."
"It's quick. And it’s my job around here."
"Whatever's already cooked up is fine."
"Oatmeal then." Samuel opened a pot and dished out a bowl. "You have to try the toast though. I make the bread myself."
Within seconds, Samuel placed a hot meal in front of him. As he set it down, Elijah looked at the wedding ring on Samuel's broad hand. It was a thick band with gold in the middle and a thinner silver part on either side. He took a deep breath and let it out. Samuel's business was Samuel's business. He was once Amish, but he might as well be a foreign prince now with how different and sophisticated and incomprehensible his life was compared to everything Elijah knew.
He was a decent cook though. Breakfast was good, though Elijah wouldn't have minded a little bacon or sausage. Still, the toast was excellent with butter and homemade raspberry jam, and the oatmeal was rich with cream and maple syrup. He was ravenous.
"Listen," Samuel said as Elijah made a pig of himself, "I need to tell you about the farm."
"It's okay if you don't have space for me," Elijah took another big spoonful. If they were going to toss him out, he better get all of this last meal he could.
"Nah," Samuel frowned. "That's not what I meant. I was just gonna fill you in on what we do here."
"Oh." Elijah looked outside. Beyond the sliding glass doors and the large kitchen windows he saw a wide lawn, a white barn, a good-sized fenced-in pasture beyond it, and a pond down below the house. Large, old trees were dotted here and there, including a pretty one with red leaves not far from the house. The morning was real frosty and cold though.
"How many acres?" he asked.
"Twenty-two, and we use every bit of it."
"Crops?"
"Corn and soy for the animals, but that's done for the year."
Elijah peered out at the pasture, but didn't see any animals. They were likely in the barn. "Beef? Dairy?"
Samuel smiled shyly. "That's the thing. Pig Bottom Farm is an animal rescue."
Elijah blinked at Samuel, confused.
"We take in animals and let them live out their natural lives here at the farm. There's no slaughter here."
Elijah considered that. "You have just a few old animals then?"
Samuel drew a deep breath. "We have thirty-five pigs, mostly potbelly, but a few big uns. We got the pigs from a breeding operation down the road that was keepin' them in awful conditions. There's also a dozen chickens, a few turkeys, two donkeys, three horses, six cows, three sheep, and a dog."
At the word dog , the old black lab, who was again sleeping on the rug in front of the wood stove, gave a few beats of his tail. But Elijah was stuck on the idea of thirty-five pigs. And none of them for eating.
"But… how do you make money to feed 'em all?" Elijah asked, entirely baffled. As soon as he said it, he wished he hadn't. "Sorry. Ain't none of my beeswax."
"No, it's a good question. We depend on supporters. We have social media accounts, and Eddie does videos pretty much every day. We have fundraisers here, usually dinners, sometimes weddings. Eddie runs most of that stuff too. We also give tours and such like. Sometimes donors come to stay for the weekend and help out, and they pay real gut for that."
Donors ? People donated money to Samuel and Eddie to… keep pigs? The English sure were crazy. But one thing was for true—if they weren't turnin' much of a profit, they didn't need more help.
Samuel seemed to mistake his silence. "I know it's different. You'll catch on sure enough. If you're done eatin', I'll show you around."
Elijah popped the last bite of toast into his mouth and nodded.
Samuel started to get up and hesitated. "Oh—one more thing. You should know that we don't eat meat here on the farm. Eddie is vegan, but he tolerates eggs and dairy in the house for me and Jon, but no meat. Still, we eat gut, I promise."
That was the first truly awful thing Elijah had heard about the place. He forced a half-hearted smile. "Okay."
Samuel gave him a sympathetic look. "Yeah. Takes some gettin' use to. Come on. Time to meet everyone."