“All set,” Etta Moore said, peeking into the bedroom from the doorway.
The earthen platform Mandy Donovan had built was completely transformed.
A cabinet now stood on it, with three sets of bedding laid out side-by-side.
Even though he knew the answer, he still pointed at the things on the earthen bed, as if seeking confirmation from Mandy Donovan.
“Mandy, are these…
for us?”
“They’re ours.
Didn’t we already pay for them with points?
Have you forgotten?” Before Mandy Donovan could speak, Gary Moore came up beside Etta and put an arm around his shoulders.
“So, how does it feel?”
Etta Moore broke into a goofy grin.
“I think getting married is pretty great.”
“Did someone tell you getting married was a bad thing?” Mandy Donovan straightened the bedding and sat on the edge of the platform, looking amusedly at the two brothers in the doorway.
“Besides, you’re the ones who came to me, asking to marry me.”
She raised an eyebrow, deliberately asking, “Having regrets?”
“No!” Fearing his brother would give the wrong answer, Gary Moore tightened his arm around Etta’s shoulders.
“And Etta feels the same way I do.”
Etta didn’t catch his brother’s hint and blurted out, “Do you remember that woman my brother told you about?
The relative of the caretaker from the boys’ wing.”
Hearing his brother mention her, Gary Moore fell silent and turned his head away.
“You shouldn’t have brought her up.”
“The best way to forget is to face it head-on,” Mandy Donovan said.
“By the way, did that woman ever do anything to you two?”
At her words, Gary Moore grew pensive.
When Etta spoke again, Gary didn’t stop him.
“She hadn’t done anything to us yet.
We found work as helpers in the kitchen to avoid her.
But before that, she’d take two sixteen-year-old boys from the welfare center every year.
We knew those boys.
One day, we went to her house to check on the ones she had taken.
They were already dead, their bodies covered in injuries.”
“A wife beating her husband to death isn’t exactly unheard of, is it?” ‘When does a day go by in the wasteland without someone dying?
Death by domestic abuse is practically…’ Mandy Donovan decided not to comment.
The twins were genuinely naive, but she wasn’t.
Gary Moore opened his mouth, speaking with difficulty.
“Their bodies were covered in bite marks.
No normal person has a mouth that big.
Rumor has it she was keeping a mutant in her house.”
After arriving in this wasteland, Mandy Donovan had learned about contamination levels.
Under heavy contamination, genetic collapse could indeed cause mutations, but she’d never seen one herself.
The thought of one biting a person to death…
she didn’t want to imagine the scene.
She walked right over and gave both boys’ hair a firm ruffle.
“Okay, it’s out in the open now.
It’s all in the past and has nothing to do with you anymore.
Come on, come look at your new bedding.”
‘What was terrifying to these kids was really nothing to her.’
‘She’d seen far worse during the apocalypse.’
‘But kids were easy to distract.
All she had to do was change the subject.’
She patted the bedding, drawing the boy’s attention to her hand.
“This one’s mine, this one’s yours, and this one’s your brother’s,” Mandy Donovan said, pointing to each set in turn.
The bedding was all identical and brand new.
They didn’t know what it was filled with, but it looked incredibly fluffy and soft.
“It’s new,” Etta Moore said, slowly reaching out to press gently on the bedding.
The softness felt like it opened up a whole new world to him.
Forgetting his earlier caution, he began patting and squeezing it, his expression growing more and more excited.
“Gary!
Gary, you have to come feel this!
Quick!”
While yelling for Gary, his knees bent, ready to spring.
‘When a kid starts winding up like that, they’re definitely up to no good.’
With lightning-fast reflexes, Mandy Donovan snatched Etta up.
Etta, who had been about to pounce onto the bedding, found his feet lifted off the ground.
Mandy had carried him out of the bedroom with just one arm.
“Doesn’t some of that bedding belong to me and my brother?
I paid points for it.”
“It is yours, yes.
But are you sure you want to get on it when you’re this filthy?
Even if you were okay with it, I’m not.” Mandy Donovan put Etta down on the floor.
“Now, Gary, Etta.
Whatever you’re doing, whatever you were about to do, stop.
I want each of you to make a basin.
This big,” she gestured, “and this deep, with a handle on the outside of both sides.”
She stood in the doorway, hands on her hips, staring them down.
‘She had thought she was over her mild mysophobia, but that last scene made her realize she’d just been making do.
It wasn’t gone at all.’
Gary immediately raised his hands and began to gather Gold Element energy.
Although Etta also started to work, his eyes were glued to the bedroom as he muttered, “Mandy, you’re so bossy.
I can’t even touch it?”
“You already touched it.
Several times, in fact.
It’s your brother who hasn’t gotten a chance yet,” Mandy Donovan cut in bluntly.
She stood guard at the bedroom door.
“You’re only allowed in the bedroom once you’re clean.”
“Gary, Gary, look how mean Mandy’s being,” Etta pouted, though his hands didn’t stop working.
“The bedding is so soft, way softer than anything we’ve ever slept on.”
He desperately tried to find the words to describe just how soft the bedding was so his brother could imagine the feeling, but after racking his brain, all he could come up with was the word “soft.” “I called for you.
Why didn’t you come feel it?”
Gary smiled gently at his younger brother.
“Be good.
Don’t cause a scene.
Let’s make what Mandy asked for first.”
“Oh,” Etta said, and began to focus on gathering the Gold Element energy.
Gold Element energy from the air condensed toward their hands, and out of thin air, the rough shape of a basin slowly began to form.
Pretending to go back into the bedroom to get something, Mandy took a moment out of the brothers’ line of sight to pull a towel from her Space.
She ripped it in two, then found a bar of unscented laundry soap.
“Done!” Etta held up the basin he had made, showing it off to Mandy.
“Mandy, look—”
“Good boy.” Mandy patted his head.
“Do you have any superpower left?
Make me a few other things.” She asked for two metal tripods and a large expansion bolt.
Gary finished his basin as well.
“What do you need me to make?” Over the last few days, Mandy had been having them make things with their superpowers, and he found his control was getting better and better.
Even after making the basin, he felt like he had plenty of energy left.
“Make an open-topped barrel, about forty centimeters in diameter and sixty centimeters high.” Mandy Donovan sketched the barrel’s shape on the ground, then drew a circle near the bottom.
“Put a tap right here.
That way, water can flow out, and when you’re not using it, you can turn the tap to shut it off.
I remember they had them in the welfare center kitchen.”
“I think I can do that.” Although he didn’t know what Mandy planned to do with it, Gary recalled the taps he’d seen in the kitchen and started to work.
Once Etta had finished making the items, Mandy poured a basin of water from the bucket in the kitchen and carried it into the bathroom.
“Etta, come here.”
‘Gary was the calm and obedient one, so Mandy decided to deal with Etta first.
The little brat was impatient; it was better to get him cleaned up so he could roll around on the earthen bed to his heart’s content.’
“Okay, I’m coming!” Etta answered, running over.
Mandy handed him one half of the towel and the laundry soap.
“Strip naked, get in there, and wash yourself from head to toe.”
A basin of crystal-clear water.
How could they use that for a bath?
Seeing what was on the bathroom floor, Etta was shocked.
“Drinking water…
for a bath?
You want me to wash with this?”
“That’s right, a bath.
Now hurry up and strip.
If you don’t, I’ll do it for you, and I can’t guarantee your clothes will survive,” Mandy said, giving Etta a poke in the back.
Etta spread his arms to block the bathroom doorway.
“Mandy, I don’t need a bath!
I can sleep on the floor!
We can’t waste the water!”
Mandy’s brow furrowed instantly.
“Are you taking them off, or not?”