“Tess, Vlad, and Jester opened up the summer room. Nathan brought over sawhorses and planks to use as a serving table. There’s not much furniture to sit on, but there are a couple of benches.”
She closed her eyes. She frowned a little, but the smile still curved her lips.
“I have training images of sawhorses and benches, but I can’t put them together to make an image of the summer room.”
“I can bring you food. You could eat on your porch, or inside.”
She looked at him, and her smile warmed. “No, I’m all right. I’d like to see the summer room. I’d like to see how the food is put out for a picnic that’s not quite a picnic.”
“Okay.”
Meg looked at the water trough. “But I’m going to wash up in my own bathroom.”
Simon stepped aside.
As soon as Meg went inside her apartment, Montgomery approached him.
“Is Meg all right?” Montgomery asked.
“She’s fine.”
“No problems with yesterday’s cut?”
“No. She was careful today.” And he’d stayed close enough that he would have caught the slightest whiff of blood if the cut had reopened.
Montgomery looked around. “This is something new, isn’t it? You and us.”
Simon shrugged. “Don’t know if it’s new, but I don’t think it’s been tried for a long time. Not with your kind of human.”
Montgomery hesitated, as if he wanted to say something else. Instead he smiled. “Guess I’d better get washed up.”
Simon watched the humans. Cautious but not afraid. Even the newest humans, the Denbys, weren’t afraid. Not like they would have been a year ago.
He hoped they stayed cautious, especially if the Courtyard started having guests.
<The food’s in here,> Vlad said.
<I’m waiting for Meg.> He heard the toilet flush. Hard not to hear water whooshing through the pipes with the summer room open. Since humans pretended they didn’t know about each other’s pee and poop, he’d let her figure that out on her own. He had something else on his mind. <Why is having a share in this garden so important to the human pack?>
<They like to eat same as us?>
<It’s more than that. They’re too relieved about having another source of food besides what they can buy in human stores.>
<Then it will be interesting to find out.>
Simon said nothing more because Meg returned. He followed her into the summer room to see what kind of food he was eating instead of a deer.
* * *
Now that he’d eaten, all Monty wanted was a hot shower and sleep. He had at least a decade on every member of his team, and today he felt those years.
Were they going to work this hard every Earthday until harvest?
On the other hand, the terra indigene expected to work hard for every meal, so today was just a different kind of work.
“Fresh corn on the cob is great,” Kowalski said as talk flowed about what everyone wanted to plant.
“Why?” Simon asked, puzzled.
“Corn is good,” Jenni Crowgard said.
Kowalski grinned. “Oh, yeah. Steamed until it’s tender and then brushed with melted butter. Only way to eat it.”