After the Event Read Free Page A

suggested he was planning on spending an afternoon gardening.
                  “I'm not going to ask you again.”
                  Grant found his voice, “Sorry, my name's Grant.” The man was rigid and Grant fully believed he was willing to pull the trigger but the man didn't look like a criminal or someone who would shoot him for no reason, and he wasn't about to give him a reason. “I have four kids, I live in the old Irving place. I was just trying to see if there were other people around here.”
                  The man lowered his gun slightly and slowly looked him up and down. “What do you know about the Irving’ss?”
                  “That they were good people. Good people who deserved a better son then the one they got.”
                  The man lowered his gun completely. “You're Pat Irving's son?”
                  “Yes sir.”
                  The man let out a breath. “Pretty damn stupid to be walking up to people's property, even without all the shit that's going on. The name's Jack by the way.”
                  Grant slowly let his arms down and let his ass un-pucker. “Nice to meet you Jack, and yes in retrospect this probably wasn't my brightest idea.”
                  For a moment the only sound was the cool breeze blowing through the trees. Finally Jack took his eyes off him and stared back towards his house. “I take it you were looking for more then just company.”             
                  “Yes sir. We have a well, so we have plenty of water that we are willing to share, but don't have a lot else. I was hoping to find other neighbors here that might help us make it through until the government gets everything back under control.”
                  Jack let out a laugh and shook his head. “Son, things aren't ever going back to the way they were. Best thing you can start doing to stop thinking you need to survive until, and just plan on trying to survive.”
                  Grant wasn't exactly sure what that meant. “Ok. We are willing to share our well water.”
                  Jack nodded. “A reliable source of water that doesn’t need to be boiled would be nice, what would you need in return?”
                  “Anything that you are willing and able, to part with.”
                  Jack gave him a long look. “Just on the other side of my house is my fishing pond. It's 9 acres, fully stocked with bass and the biggest catfish you've ever seen. If you're willing to share your water, I'll allow you and yours to fish there. But you only catch what you need, not a fish more, and don't expect me to clean and cook them, you gotta do that on your own.”
                  It felt like a couple of pounds had been lifted off his back and Grant let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you Jack, that helps more than you know.” The man nodded back. “Do you know if there are other's still around here?”
                  “There are a couple of houses a few miles west of your place, fairly new. One of them the bank foreclosed on a couple of months back. The young couple who owned the place moved about a year before that. It was still for sale last time I drove past there. The other has been empty for as long as I can remember.”
                  So they were basically all alone in the middle of nowhere. From what Grant had seen in the last couple of weeks he was relieved.
                  “So you have your family with you?” Jack asked.
                  “Yeah, three sons and a daughter.”
                  “Surprised you don’t have grey up there,” Jack pointed at Grant’s hair. “No wife?”
                  “No.”
                  Jack read his face. “I’m sorry. If you don’t mind me