Taking It Back by Joseph Talluto Page B

and finally decided. “No. As much as I would love to bring him with to keep him close, he’s safer here than anywhere. Nate will die for him if it comes to that and I can’t guarantee his safety out there. We don’t know what we’re going to run into and I have enough to worry about with you coming along.”
    Sarah cocked her head at me and I continued. “I don’t want to lose you, either.”
    Sarah’s expression softened and she stood on tiptoes to give me a quick kiss. Jake leaned over for a kiss as well and Sarah laughed as Jake tried to slobber one on her cheek.
    We all went out the door and walked over to Nate’s house. Nate and Patty lived two homes down and Nate was waiting for us when we walked up. Jake waved his arms at Nate and received a “Hey, big guy!” in return. I put Jake down and he took three steps to Nate, who scooped him up in his big arms and held him tight.
    Nate looked at me. “Good choice. Charlie just dropped off Julia, so we’ll get to play family for a few days.” Sarah handed over a bag of supplies for Jake, including food, diapers, clothes and toys. Nate brought Jake over to a blanket where Julia was playing. He crawled over and patted Julia on the head. Patty got up from her chair and came over to us.
    “Hi, I’m Patty. Nice to meet you at last. Nate has told me a lot about you.” Patty was about forty years old, with brown hair and blue eyes. She seemed nice and a good match for Nate.
    “About half of its true” I said and everyone laughed. Patty just smiled. “Thanks for watching the kids.” I said.
    “Our pleasure” Patty replied, looking back at the babies. I got the feeling there was a sadness to her, but I wasn’t going to pry. We all had stories of tragedy these days and it was a rare thing for people to survive intact.
    I walked over to Jake and picked him up for a second. I looked into his eyes and he smiled at me as I silently promised to come back to him. He seemed to understand and grabbed my nose in response. I kissed him and held him, then put him down and went back to the group.
    “Thanks again, Nate. I owe you.” I shook his hand.
    “Luck, brother. When will you be back?”
    Sarah answered “We’ll be back within five days, seven at the most.”
    I nodded. “We should have a pretty quick trip down, all things considered. Since we’re not taking the highway we don’t have to worry about cars and blockage and trapped Z’s.”
    “Good luck, then.” Nate shook my hand one more time, then Sarah and I walked down the road to the slip where the boat was waiting.
    Charlie, Tommy, and the others were waiting at the dock. We were actually going to be following the Illinois and Michigan canal until it intersected with the Des Plaines River. I figured we could be assured of having enough water to travel by, since barges used to use the waterway. I just hoped a barge wasn’t blocking the waterway.
    Sarah and I boarded the boat, and I got a good look at Tommy and Charlie’s handiwork. They had enclosed the aft section of the boat to provide shelter from the weather and keep our gear relatively dry. The two of them had rigged up a propane grill for cooking and cases of bottled water occupied a corner. I guessed we would sleep where we could and there seemed to be enough room all around.
    I put our gear next to everyone else’s and said, “Let’s go.”
    Tommy nodded and fired up the motor. We were going to use the motor sparingly, to conserve fuel for the return trip, and would drift most of the way down. We knew where we were going, but we had to be careful getting there. Charlie, Martin, and myself all had long poles which we would use to steer around debris in the river. If we needed the motor we would fire it up, but for the most part we were returning to the days of Huck Finn.
    We started downriver and moved along pretty well. The canal was slightly swollen as a result of melting snow upstream, but nothing dangerous. The good news was the extra water