Emma made a detour through the restaurant strip. Twenty-odd portions of jambalaya from every rice stand, plus plenty of deli meats from the night market.
And the usual barbecue. Around a hundred skewers. A few vendors recognized her. How could one young woman eat so much?
Friends coming over, she explained. A party. That put their doubts to rest. She paid and drove on.
Warehouse unlocked, she ducked inside and quickly shut the doors. Meat filled the freezer warehouse. All of it looked fresh.
Pork chops, beef steaks, lamb chops. Chicken, duck, fish. Tomahawk steaks stacked along an entire wall. She stored everything, then moved to the next warehouse.
Another refrigerated room, filled with fruit and vegetables. Up front, a partitioned area held generators, refrigerators, and the other appliances. A full range of equipment.
Dozens of kinds of vegetable seeds sat near the door, along with fruit seeds.
Into the space. She made one last sweep for anything overlooked, then left. By now, the barbecue should be done.
Jambalaya first, skewers next. She kept some food in the cab and ate as she drove home. Two and a half hours for that trip. Still time to catch up on sleep.
She put on a face mask, showered, and dried her hair. Then she ordered breakfast from the nearby places again. Smaller quantities this time.
Deliveries scheduled, she went to sleep.
At nine thirty, the doorbell woke her. She got up and looked out the window. Breakfast.
Shrimp breakfast wraps, chicken wings, custard pastries, pumpkin oatmeal. Once she'd eaten, she checked the devices on the sofa. Every download was complete. Every phone and tablet was full.
She stored them away. Two hours until the meal pickups. Time to find a nursery.
Her navigation app found three large plant markets. All fairly far out, about half an hour's drive. There were other plant and flower shops, though.
No time wasted. She took the truck keys and left.
The directions brought her to a roadside flower shop spread across three storefronts. Money trees stood out front.
"Hi, can I help—"
"Just browsing." She headed straight for the fruit trees. The employee followed anyway.
She stopped at a dragon-fruit plant. The employee launched into an explanation. When it ended, she pointed to the pots by the wall. "Twenty of those. The dragon fruit."
Worth the trip. Established plants, ready to go. With her ability, she could bring them straight into fruit.
Blueberries, grapevines, sweet cherries, cherries, bayberries. Pomegranates, bananas, plums...
Twenty of every kind. The staff loaded the truck. Over four hundred thousand dollars, with flower seedlings and ceramic planters thrown in.
Nearly pickup time. She put the plants in the time-frozen level. No time to plant them yet.
A hundred meals a day had sharpened the diner owner's pace. She arrived at the usual time. Less than two minutes later, her order was packed and heading to the truck.
Two employees did the lifting while she stood by. Once they finished, she handed the pair two hundred dollars for their trouble.
Pickups finished, she went home and stretched out on the sofa. Her awareness sank into the space. She'd tried going in bodily. No luck. Objects could enter. People couldn't.
She moved the saplings out of the lower level, cleared a patch of hillside, and planted them. No strain on her muscles, but planting them had drained a good deal of her mental power.
She fenced the orchard to keep the livestock out. On the next hill, they'd nearly finished the grass. She made it grow back.
Green sparks flowed into the saplings too. They surged upward, roots driving deep into the soil.
Dragon fruit first. Then sweet cherries and blueberries. No outside eyes here. She accelerated the trees' growth again, practicing her ability.
Stronger than before. Definitely. At first, a few shoots from a sweet potato had been her limit. Had she simply lacked mental strength?
Two lifetimes' worth of it now, after rebirth. Enough to bring out what her ability could really do.
Color hung from every branch. A harvest. She picked a banana and withdrew her awareness. It appeared in her hand. Peel back, one bite.
Her eyes brightened. More fragrant than anything from a store. Sweeter, softer, wonderfully smooth. Four bananas before she finally stopped.