CHAPTER 17 (Part 1)
“Consider the mighty oak,” Chief Jackson said to us after we’d broken away from the large group.
He spotted the look on my face when I started wondering if he was feeling okay and broke down laughing. “Lord Girl, you are gullible.” He settled down and said, “You looked like you were enjoying yourself back there. How much did you retain?”
“Enough to know there are things that Momma didn’t teach me. Are there books around here that I can read about this stuff?”
“Yes. In the library, but there are also articles you can download on your tablet that Staff have written based on their experiences in this area and in other parts of the country and world. Tell me what you remember about the acorn.”
That was easy as it is one of the first they covered in the group session. “A lot more can be made from acorns than just new oak trees. They can be used as a coffee substitute, ground into a kind of flour or meal, they can be used as animal feed for some domesticated livestock like pigs, they are food for a lot of wild animals not just squirrels, they are high in complex carbohydrates, can help control blood sugar, are a good source of fiber and protein, are high in Vitamin B and …”
“Okay, okay, sounds like you were listening. Now here is how you get to all of that natural goodness.”
Our lesson that day was on gathering and processing acorns so that they could be used as a food source for humans. There are different varieties of acorns, just like the trees that grow from them, and each one is different. Some are larger, some are easier to crack, some are restricted to specific geographic regions, and even when you have the same variety of acorn there can be differences in taste based on the microenvironment they grow in … like the soil pH, how much rain they get, and mineral content and stuff like that. Acorns have something in them called tannin … yep, that stuff that stains everything … and it is very bitter. First you have to harvest the acorns, pick out the ones that have worms in them or are spoiled in some other way, crack the acorns to get to the nutmeats, then you have to process them to remove the bitter stuff. You can process them a couple of different ways, but they all come down to flushing out the bitterness and making the nutmeats edible. Then you have to dry them so they can be used, or stored, for future use. While we did this we got to see the results of some acorns in the post-processed state and we fixed our own meal with them. We ground some and made muffins with them and some we left whole and made into acorn chili
[1].
Part way through learning how to collect the right kind of wood and properly build a fire Lincoln got a little annoyed at me and said, “Settle down McCormick. What’s with you?”
“This is amazing! With this kind of stuff Bam-Bam and I will never go hungry. Like ever. Why don’t more people know about all this? Even in the cities we had oak trees that would drop acorns like crazy. At the half-way house where I lived for a while the acorns carpeted the ground so much it made walking outside barefooted almost impossible and no one thought anything about raking them up and doing this food stuff with them. I mean I learned a few things from the Street People – like dandelions and dollar weed being edible … but … this … this is …”
I had unintentionally made some of them uncomfortable, but I was clueless until Quiet Guy patted my hand like he thought I needed it. It took me a moment of looking around before I got it. “Oh … uh … not looking for pity or … or whatever you are thinking. Sorry.”
“’S ok. Been … hungry … too. This … good.” I noticed he was talking more but sounding even more like glass on gravel. I looked at his water bottle and saw it was empty. I don’t know why but I picked it up and walked over to the water truck and refilled it. When I got back I asked him, “Have you tried honey?”
Dallas and Cooper were looking at me like I’d lost my mind … again … but Quiet Guy only looked at me expectantly like he wasn’t taking offense but didn’t know what I meant. “For your throat so it won’t hurt when you talk more than usual. The feeding tubes used to irritate my throat and sometimes I’d get infections that would cause cankers in my throat and mouth. This old Army nurse that my Dad met on one of his investigations told him to give me honey. It has antiseptic properties and would soothe my throat. Bonus was that they didn’t have to bribe me to take it like some of that crap I was prescribed. So … honey, have you tried it?”
He shook his head and I told him, “Give it a go. It can’t hurt and it might help. Did you guys eat this kind of stuff when you were in the military?”
Everyone was willing to humor me when they started to realize I was blunt and plain spoken, but not to be mean, so Dallas answered, “Only on training maneuvers that covered survival tactics. And it wasn’t acorns but things that didn’t take a lot of processing like these acorns do … more like grasshoppers and stuff like that.”
Horrified at the very idea I said, “Oh no. Definitely not. Bam-Bam will not be eating bugs if I can help it. John the Baptist may have done it in the wilderness, but no locust, grasshopper, or any other kind of bug will pass my lips so long as there is anything else in the world to eat. Uh uh, not happening.”
Chief Jackson gave an evil grin and said, “Wanna bet?”
Well my bubble was burst. I sighed in resignation. “Any way out of that particular taste test?”
Everyone got a laugh at my expense and we continued with the acorn lesson through to when there was a bell announcing it was time to head to the dinning hall for the evening meal. We’d already cleaned up and were given permission to gather our gear and head back after Chief Jackson said, “Remember, no activities tonight. Everyone is expected to stay in their rooms and make good use of their time. I know you lot weren’t part of what happened at the bonfire, that’s on record, but that doesn’t change the decision that was made.” We all nodded our understanding. We’d been told at breakfast that the bonfire mess had caused loss of night time activities for at least a week. Additionally, there would be extra assignments to take up the time people would have otherwise had to enjoy. Depending on how things went the restriction could either continue – potentially the rest of the semester – or could be lifted. There was a lot of irritation and those that had caused it were silently put on notice by a lot of other trainees that paybacks were coming, and they wouldn’t be pleasant. I had no intention of getting involved so stayed as far out of it as I could when I heard the subject being muttered about during large group training.
To add insult to injury dinner turned out to be little more than watered down soup. I think the hostile environment and food was somehow triggering Quiet Guy’s bad memories as he was jittery. Cooper and Dallas hustled him out towards their rooms pretty quick. I hoped he’d be able to work his way through it with some quiet as I headed off to my own room. I had homework that I needed to finish before the next day plus I wanted to work on the clothes.
I edited the resume project and finished it up and submitted it electronically. Made notes and wrote an essay on what I’d learned about the acorn and copied that over to the Ubernet Cube so I could keep it for myself. Took care of Bam-Bam who got a better meal than the one that I’d had and had just started to work on one of the tops when there was a knock and Chief Delray and Chief Madison walked in without an invitation. I winced as I thought about the noise they were going to cause Bam-Bam to make but apparently Chief Delray knew enough about babies that they kept the noise to a minimum.
“Inspection time,” she said quietly. That warranted another wince as I was in the floor making a mess with the sewing.
Chief Madison must have read my mind because she said, “Homework projects don’t count as long as you are working on them during the inspection. Just show us your closet space this time. We can see the bed is made and tidy.”
I did and they made some notations then asked me, “What are you working on?”
“Chief Larkin sent some stuff over and wanted me to refashion it for some thrift store or other.” I showed them the skirt from the previous night and then how I was deconstructing two of the oversized, damaged tops and how I was going to sew the two of them together to make a dress with a swingy skirt with enough material left over to add some detailing to the jean skirt I’d finished and maybe some other accessories.
Chief Delray was fingering the skirt and asked, “Where did you learn to do this?”
“My mom, online tutorials, necessity, and trial and error. A girl at the halfway house taught me some crochet stitches in exchange for babysitting services. You just pick stuff up if you pay attention enough and are willing to practice. It started out as a way to make over some of my Mom’s clothes for her when the cancer treatments … anyway I was trying to find a job to escape after high school, but no one was hiring kids. Then it was making my own maternity clothes and finding a way to pay the bills at the half-way house. Then Bam-Bam needed stuff so I learned those kinds of patterns.”
“Yes, your records show you sold things online. Do you still have your accounts?”
“Yes, but not a business license. End of the year ends the one I have … had … in Florida and I don’t know what the requirements are here in Georgia, or the sales tax laws and stuff.” I stopped when I had another thought.
“What?” Chief Madison asked.
“Income tax for this past year. My guardian ad litem took care of it last year but … but …”
Chief Delray typed something into her tablet. “I’ll make note to contact the law firm that recommended you for The Farm. Since they are nominally still in charge of your Florida legal situation there may already be something planned. I’ll let you know.”
“Er … thank you. But shouldn’t I be responsible for that?”
“You don’t trust me to do the job?”
“It’s not that. It’s just … my responsibility. I mean you already have a lot of work, and we aren’t supposed to expect to get our hands held all the way through and … well … it's just my responsibility. Isn’t it?”
For the first time I saw some spark of something in Chief Delray’s expression. “Under normal circumstances yes but this is important enough that it needs to get put into play sooner rather than later and a law office may be more inclined to speak to me than they are to you since you are still technically under age.”
“Oh. Just don’t … I mean … I don’t want to make more work.”
Again there was something there and she shook her head and said, “You aren’t. But remember that lights are out in 45.”
“Yes ma’am.” When she turned Chief Madison gave me a very abbreviated wink. I wasn’t sure what it meant but I figured she approved of my behavior for some reason and then went back to work when they went on to the next room inspection.
By the time the lights flickered their five-minute warning, I had the dress pieced and basted together and had sketches for the remaining items. Boy was I ready to call it a day.
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