“What did I ever do without you?”
“Not your hair or clothing, certainly.”
“Stop. Let’s eat.”
Julian took Garak’s hand and led him to the back of the narrow house. Garak had added rooms to the repurposed shed in a straight line–with the doors open at the front and back the breeze came through in the evenings and cooled them nicely. There was no power to be spared for individual houses, not yet. Julian didn’t mind the lack of cooling as much as the lack of replicators. He was generations past the eating of animal products on Earth, and it was not something he could wrap his mind around. A patient had given him a goat as payment once and it became a pet. Fortunately it was able to meet its caloric needs from the scrubby weeds in their yard. Choosing not to eat him was a choice others found strange but acceptable, but he could never justify, even to himself, feeding Zinyane. Although he sometimes scrimped on his own portions to sneak him a bite.
Garak closed his eyes and inhaled. “It smells wonderful.”
“It’s the usual stewed root veg, but I added some spices from the care package my mum sent. There was some cocoa and dried fruits in there too, so there’s pudding tonight.”
Garak’s eyes lit up and Julian was gratified. He had been so thin when Julian first arrived. He’d brushed off his concern with his usual glibness about having it to spare, but it still made Julian happy whenever he could manage to indulge him. He hated to think of how Garak had suffered here before he’d finally gotten over his moping and gotten himself to Cardassia.
I am loving this PCC stuff. It’s sweet, and yet not sugar coated. Things are rough, but they are happy.
