Neighbors (part II)

We were definitely not prepared to go without water for a long time. Sure, we had plenty of almond milk but where were our prescribed stores of water? Shouldn't we have had jugs in the garage waiting for this inevitable emergency? We'd read books, calculated the amount, and even knew to periodically replace it.

Not even a month in, and we'd already experienced our first official Homestead Fail?

Immediately my mind rushed to J&E. They had water stores. Of course, they knew to have water during this storm.


Mr. Bee went outside to shovel more snow. I stayed inside to stew over our failure and hoped I wouldn't get tired of almond milk over the next week or smell too badly by the time I went back to work.

And then I heard Mr. Bee shouting across the field to our neighbor E. Humiliation washed over me.

A few minutes later Mr Bee came back. My thoughts were frantic; I couldn't control the ensuing inquisition.

Was that E out there? Did you talk to her?

Yeah. Yeah I did.

Do they have water?

Yeah, they do.

I told you they did. They know everything. Did she ask if we had water?

Yeah. Yeah she did.

Did you tell her we didn't? And let her know that we had plenty of fluids to be healthy and that we were dumb and didn't buy water ahead of time?

Yeah. Yeah I did.

She probably feels bad for us. Uh, I can't believe we let that happen. Did she offer us water?

Yeah. Yeah she did.

What did you say?

I told her that we would probably be fine but let her know if we got tired of almond milk.

 And what did she say?

She laughed and said they didn't have any water stores either. J went to town this  morning and bought the last at the store.