She leaned over to Janelle and they both started giggling again. When we reached the edge of town the sun was already headed down. We passed a sign that said we were in Reddi so long since we had been around anyone. She seemed very exotic with the natural light brown skin instead of the tanned skin of my sisters.
I shook my head. You need to stop this or you are never going to go down. We quickly packed everything away and got back on the road. I had Mikey and Janelle sit up front so I could ride in the back. That way I could avoid most of their knowing glances and smiles at me plus give them experience with the team. We were now passing houses along the road.
Everything was so overgrown. Roofs were falling down. Occasionally we would encounter cars stopped right in the middle of the road, their tires flat. Usually we could work our way around them. A couple of times we had to tie a rope to the car and the wagon and use our horses to pull it to the side. We passed one house that had a tattered flag atop a flagpole out by a circular driveway.
What do we want a flag for? I looked over at the flag. It did not look very impressive all ripped like that, but why not. I did not know what good it could do. I looked up to see Mikey smiling back over her shoulder at me. She leaned over to Janelle and they both started giggling again. When we reached the edge of town the sun was already headed down. We passed a sign that said we were in Redding, population 61,101 That really brought it home to me, all dead.
Towns like this all across the USA, empty, and other countries too. It was pretty depressing. I could tell from the others faces that they felt pretty much the same. We did little talking. Mikey and Janelle were not joking any longer. But then they had seen all this before. We just kept passing houses and then businesses with no one around.
Small trees were growing up in the cracks in the sidewalk making even bigger cracks. It had taken all day to get here and it was starting to get dark. After another half hour we came to a small creek that ran through the middle of the town. We found a grassy area alongside of it and unhitched the horses and let them graze.
Sharon and I set about putting the big tent up; there would be room for all of us in it, while the girls began getting some dinner ready. Across the creek we could see some really nice houses. I wondered what happened to those people. They had to have had a lot of money to afford those houses in this nice area and it did not make a difference. We made a small fire for the chill and had some dinner.
We were all just a bit spooked with the tall buildings around us and the silence so once dinner was finished we quickly got in the tent and got ready for bed. Once again I was in the middle. We had piled our sleeping bags together so the bed would be softer but it had the effect of our huddling together to be under the blanket. Sharon was once again lying on her side with her back to me.
I could feel Mikey and Sharon snuggled up against my back. It did keep us quite warm. The girls went to sleep pretty quickly. Mikey had turned over and was now sleeping on her back. I was having trouble falling asleep. All the empty buildings weighed on my mind; the huge loss. I had been idly moving my hand around, giving her breast soft squeezes, running my fingers around her nipple, pushing it one way and then another. I realized what I was doing when Sharon pushed her butt back against me.