This Town Called Nowhere

Chapter 19: Truth Be Untold

19

On the mountain slope, a log cabin is built, facing the west autumn sky. The cabin rises about one and a half stories from the earth, with a chimney protruding from its roof. Artemis says it's already been here before the human population ceased to exist in this part of the state. She doesn't know who lives here, but says that it has everything someone needs to live. The furnitures are covered when she first got in, electricity's good, as for the water, there's a stream nearby.

"The fridge is empty. That's why these are here," she lays a hand on the boxes on the table. I am looking around the kitchen. Unlike the house I woke up in, this place looks too livable to think that the original owner of this cabin left this for good. There's a kitchen, a tiny living room that sports a deer head, and surely, there's a bedroom upstairs. It has everything, except for a TV set.

Artemis walks around the house as she gives me a tour. It's not a small cabin, it's not too big either. There's a staircase leading up to the second story, but we don't climb up. She tells me where the stream is and the spring where she usually takes a bath every time she comes here. When we go back to the kitchen, she takes 2 bottles of water from a box and gives one to me. She replenishes her thirst and I thank her. "Oh right, before I forget, the connection here ain't that good." I nod. It's not that I don't want anyone to know my whereabouts, but I'm glad of the poor network connection. That also means I won't have to worry about not taking their calls. I won't even get them. They'll go straight to the operator.

I help Artemis arranged all the goods she brought in the cupboards and into the fridge. In the last box, there isn't any supplies inside, instead it's a can. When I hold it up, she glances at me, and says, "That's for Mama Chicken and her chicks," then takes the can off my hands.

"You're growing livestocks?" I ask her when I pull a small sack of feeds from the box, then some medicines for animals. In a clear voice, I mutter, "I'll think the owner left you the housekeeper of this cabin and his animals."

She grins at me and shrugs, neither agreeing nor denying my statement. From the box on her front, she takes out a sack one after another until she flattens the box and throws it to the pile of flatten boxes on the floor.

"Livestocks?" I ask her again, pointing to the feeds.

She chuckles. "I like to think it's a zoo, but sure, livestocks. Come on, I'll show you. They're at the back." Artemis leads the way through the low back door. Ten feet away, cows and horses's heads are coming out of the pen. Along the cobbled pathway, the cocks and hens along with their chicks are gathering around the ground and start pecking when Artemis thrashes the chicken feeds to them. She hands me the can, and moves on to the pen. When the feeds run out, I thrash another batch on the ground. Artemis calls out from the side. "Don't give'em too much!"

When I realize I've already given them enough, I seal the container and keep it in hand. I turn around to Artemis, sorting out hay to feed the cows and horses. As she brings them to the pen, the leaves start to rattle, and a monkey jumps out of the branches and lands on Artemis's shoulder. She smiles when she sees the animal. The monkey looks as much as delighted to see her.

I look up to the trees, and see more monkeys jumping from branches to branches, all ecstatic in seeing Artemis. They all come down at once and gather around her. Artemis pulls a packet from her khakis and empties the pouch on her palm. The monkeys look over her hand and compete with each other for the snacks. Artemis scolds them and they stop. She divides the rations equally and all of them run around the yard, eating, stealing, and hiding their shares. When she's done with them, she glances at me and grins, then returns to feeding the livestocks.

The stream is only about a hundred yards away from the cabin. The spring, a hundred feet north of the stream. We go there to gather some water for the animals and for ourselves. The fresh, running stream tempts me to take a swim. I check the temperature. Cool. Not too cold. Perfect.