Chapter 6

"Are you okay?" Ryan asked and I just nodded. Taryn had woken up again, and she was suckling on one of my fingers since I let her, and wanted her to be quiet.
"You seemed to be in a hurry before," Ryan said looking me in the eye, or trying to. I was avoiding looking at him by looking Taryn.
"Did I do something wrong?" Ryan asked concerned.
"No. It's just—Marriage?!, Ryan," I said and he looked up at me. He just smiled like a goof and held out the ring to me. It was a piece of copper wire that had been wrapped around so it looked like it was three lines.
"Yes, I love you, and I want us to be married," he said as he handed me the ring. I held it in my hand, and gave it back.
"Why? It's not like anyone can marry us," I said and looked down at Taryn again.
"It's a new world, we can be what we want," Ryan said still wanting to give me the ring. "Trudy, I love you, and I want to marry you. Please accept the ring." Ryan said looking me in the eye. I was looking him in the face. I was thinking over what to tell him.
"I love you Ryan, and yes, I want to marry you," I said and reached out with my left hand to let him put the ring on my finger. I was smiling as he put the ring on my finger. We were still on the stairway to the roof. "Let's go down, it's late, and we need a good night's sleep," I said as I struggled with getting up; I had to hand Taryn to Ryan to be able to get up.
"Yes, we should sleep," Ryan said smiling as he looked down at his daughter. We walked down and entered the café. The only one sitting there was Zandra.
"You go ahead. I'm gonna speak with Zandra. Can you put Taryn to bed?" I said and Ryan nodded and entered our room. I could see him from the café.
"You okay?" I asked Zandra and she just nodded.
"No, you are not. What's wrong?" I asked her as I studied her face.
"Nothing, it's just Lex is being an ass," Zandra said as she took a sip of whatever it was she had in her cup.
"When is he not an ass?" I asked Zandra and she just shrugged. I was trying to think of a way to bring up the proposal.
"Nice ring you got there," Zandra said as she spotted it on my finger as I cradled a cup of hot chocolate I'd made while talking to Zandra.
"Ryan gave it to me," I said smiling as I looked at it. It really was beautiful, even if it was simple.
"Did he propose?" Zandra asked and I just nodded. It made Zandra light up like the sun. Zandra was my best friend and therefore the first person to learn about the proposal.
"What did you say?" Zandra asked and I just smiled as I flashed her the ring.
"I said yes, silly!" I said smiling.
"That means a wedding!" Zandra said as her smile grew. I didn't think she could smile any wider than she was before, but obviously she could.
"Yes. And I want you to help me," I said as I went into the kitchen. Zandra followed and sat down on the counter and fixed her make-up, while I fixed something to eat for me.
We ended up talking for most of the night. So when I entered my room, Ryan was asleep and Taryn had just woken up. She was hungry, so I settled down on the bed and fed her—I'd pulled the curtain screen closed first. Zandra and I had been talking about how my dress should look like, and what we could use from the stores. We had the lingerie store, the boutique, the shoe store, the boarded up jewelry store, the antique store, the store where they had hats only, and we also had the leather store on the second floor, and the fabrics store. So we had a lot of stores where I could find things for the wedding. Zandra and I had spoken about if for quite a while and came to the conclusion that my dress shouldn't be white, but a more beige-like color.
"Hi!" I heard Ryan say as I put Taryn down in the stroller; she had fallen asleep in my arms.
"Hey you!" I said as I crawled down next to Ryan. I kissed his cheek as I snuggled up close to him. He pulled me closer to him.
"Sorry if I woke you," I said smiling slightly as I yawned. Ryan just grunted something that I couldn't make out. It didn't take long until I was asleep.
"Breakfast is ready" were the words I woke up to that morning. I rubbed my eyes and looked around for Taryn. The stroller wasn't in the room, neither was Ryan. I pulled on my dress and went out to search for him. I saw him standing in the kitchen, with his foot on the stroller to keep Taryn from fussing too much.
"Ryan, let me take her—she's hungry," I said as I walked up to Ryan.
"Okay," Ryan said and stopped the stroller. I picked up Taryn and headed back to our room. I first fed her, then I changed her, because that needed to be done too. I then went back to the café. To enjoy breakfast with everyone, I'd put Taryn back in the stroller, and I was sitting next to Ryan, pushing the stroller back and forth with my foot.
We were all talking about different things when Jack came running up the stairs.
"I know how we can secure the sewer entrance. I just looked at him, I thought they'd managed to do that already. Apparently not.
"How is that, Jack?" Lex asked him, and I shifted to look at Lex. He was looking mischievously at the nerd.
"A trip wire connected to an alarm," Jack said smiling brightly. I just rolled my eyes and went back to eating my breakfast. I glanced up at Ryan and realized that he wanted to tell everyone at the same time of our plans. I nodded slightly.
"I have an announcement, or rather me and Trudy have one," Ryan said as he stood up. I just smiled.
"What?" several of the others asked at the same time. They were curious, it was easy to tell. I looked up at Zandra and she was grinning like a fool, just like Ryan. She knew already.
"Well, we are getting married, and we'll need all the help we can get," Ryan said smiling as he placed his hand on my shoulder. I knew that I probably should tell the others about the fact that he was Taryn's father, but I didn't want to. The rest of breakfast-time went on quietly, which suited me fine. It meant I had some time to think.
Later that day I asked Salene to baby-sit Taryn while Ryan and I was speaking about what would be needed for the wedding. We decided that we wanted Amber to marry us. We both knew her, and so did Zandra, and she seemed to be the best choice since she was the leader of the tribe. Well, not appointed leader, because we hadn't voted for it. But she was the one we went to with our troubles.
"Hey Salene!" I said as I left Ryan to go and speak to Lex about something while I went to get Taryn back.
"Hi!" Salene said smiling as she handed me my daughter.
"Was she good?" I asked as I looked down at my little girl.
"She was an angel," Salene said smiling as she handed me a stuffed animal she had let Taryn play with.
"That's good," I said as I took the stuffed animal—a little monkey—and gave it to Taryn, who was actually asleep.
"She looks a lot like Ryan, doesn't she?" Salene asked me and I just nodded without thinking. "So— Ryan is her father?" Salene asked, and I looked up at her. I had no choice, and I knew I would have to tell them sooner or later.
"Yes, but please, I don't want anyone to know. It's hard enough as it is with everyone gawking at us—and Lex being an ass," I said pleadingly as I looked Salene in the eye; I knew that I looked somber. Salene smiled and nodded.
"Of course I won't say anything, take your time. So have you decided who will marry you?" Salene asked me, and I smiled and nodded as I headed up the stairs to the café.
"Won't you tell me?" Salene asked, and I shook my head. I wanted it to be a surprise. And it reminded me that I needed to speak with Zandra. I wanted her to be my bridesmaid. "Oh, okay. Let me know if you need help with Taryn again." Salene said and went to the furniture store where Paul and Patsy were playing—I could hear them. I went into the room I shared with Ryan: he wasn't there. I put Taryn in the stroller and then went out again with the stroller to find Zandra. It didn't take me long: she was in her room, doing her make up.
"Hey!" I said as I sat down on the bed next to Zandra.
"Hi!" she said not taking her eye off the mirror she was holding in her left hand while she plucked her eyebrows.
"You do know that I want you to be my bridesmaid, right?" I asked Zandra as I kept my foot on the stroller and pushed it back and forth to make sure that Taryn stayed asleep.
"Yes, and yes I will be. So what we need to decide is what we should wear." I nodded smiling.
"Let's go to the boutique," I said and Zandra nodded. We headed down the stairs—with the stroller, which was quite hard. When we reached the boutique we looked through the clothes we found there.
We found the perfect top for me. It was a beige halter top with rhinestones on the collar. It looked wonderful. We also found a really pretty pink furry top for Zandra to wear. Now all we needed was skirts, and some other things.
"I think I saw some skirts that might work in Penny's fabrics," Zandra said as we headed there.
"Let's go," I said and soon enough we entered. We actually found two skirts that were finished that worked with our tops. It was like someone had asked for them to match the tops. The beige skirt was trimmed with rhinestones in white and black, like the top.
"Shoes?" I asked and we headed for the next store. It didn't take us long to find a pair of nice flats that I would be able to walk in. I'd never been comfortable in high heels and most often went barefoot in the mall. Zandra on the other hand found a pair of high heels that were off-white, more to the pink color than white.
"I want you to help me decide on what to do with my hair," I said and Zandra nodded. She headed for the store filled with hats. She grabbed a few items but didn't show me.
"I will fix it for you, but that will be a surprise. Now come with me. We'll have to stash the clothes in my room, because Ryan mustn't see them—it means bad luck," Zandra told me, and when she turned her back to me I just rolled my eyes: I thought it was ridiculous. But I planned on doing as Zandra wanted: I thought it would be more fun to have it be a bit more like a traditional wedding.
"You know, I bet Lex is talking Ryan in to having a stag night," I said as I sighed. We were sitting in Zandra's room; I was sitting on the floor, actually half lying, and pushing the stroller with my foot as I usually did.
"Yeah, Lex would love having a Stag night, and I think we should have a Hen party. It would be fun, don't you think?" Zandra asked me and I shrugged my shoulders. I wasn't too keen on having a party at all. And I didn't want the wedding to happen just yet. I wanted us to have proper food and such. Which meant we needed to trade.
"Zandra, can you look after Taryn for a while?" I asked and she looked at me and said yes. "Thanks. I am going to go ask Jack if he can think of a way for us to be able to trade," I said and headed out from Zandra's room. It didn't take me long to locate Jack. He and Dal had worked on fixing a water supply for us, apparently; and they had managed to make a filtration system for it too.
"Hey! I need your help," I said as I stood in the doorway looking at the two kids.
"Aha—with what?" Jack asked me in a skeptical tone of voice. I glared at him.
"Well, I want proper food for the wedding. And I was hoping you could help me think of something I could trade with," I said looking at the two. It looked like Dal had something on his mind.
"Well we were talking about how to make a generator to recharge batteries. And if we manage that, we could trade batteries for fresh food. I bet Bray knows somewhere," Jack said smiling as he showed me the book they'd been reading.
"Thanks guys. Let me know when it's done. And there's no rush!" I said smiling as I left.
A month or two later and it was time for lunch. And according to the roster Amber had drawn up, it was my job to make lunch that day. The others didn't like the roster too much, but it was good, it kept us out of trouble, and helped us. Lex was trying to get to become leader, I'd overheard him a few times speaking to Ryan, or someone else. But Amber stood firm, and she was our leader and would continue to be, because none of us wanted Lex as leader, and Amber was the best at it. Lex however had been told to act as the security chief. And he did, which kept us all safer than you'd think. Bray was co-leader with Amber but he was only in charge of food supplies. Amber was in charge of everything else. It was marvelous.
"Okay, we got it working," Jack came in to the café and announced as I was serving the food.
"Got what working?" I asked looking up at him.
"The windmill. It is now recharging batteries. Which means we can trade batteries for food at the farm Bray mentioned," Jack said as he took his plate and sat down. I nodded. I'd almost forgotten about the wedding we were planning. Now we could get all we needed.
"That's amazing. Now you can trade for fresh food at that farm Bray spoke about," I said smiling brightly. I was happy, I was getting my dream wedding, well sort off. It was like the one me and my mother had talked about when I was little, but it would have fresh food and not disgusting tinned food. And there would be music. I was excited now, for the first time in a while. Sure I was in love and happy, but every day was the same, and it was becoming tedious.