Chapter 12: Summer Camp
They now approached several massive log buildings arranged in a semi circle around a huge outdoor gathering space. The charred remains of a big fire pit sat in the middle with many wooden benches surrounding. Very small children -- truly too young for school -- toddled around here, some clothed and some wearing cloth diapers, playing under the watchful eyes of a few attendant adults.
The buildings all had deep wrap-around patios and the same glass-less windows set around the outside. It reminded Ellie of summer camp. They looked uniform, but homey.
"Reset housing," explained Tad. "Divided by age group. Newborns are here," he gestured at the first building. "This is the nursery."
A good handful of men and women sat or stood on the patio, in and around the many rocking chairs that had been set out. They wore babies in slings around their midsections, or else swaddled and cradled. Some carried two at a time, bouncing and rocking, chatting amongst each other. A few of them waved at Ellie, who waved back. The women -- safely in the shade -- were almost uniformly topless to facilitate nursing. As Ellie seemed to observe everywhere else, many of them appeared to be pregnant with more. The men, for their part, fed their hungry charges with bottles. Ellie noticed that the bottles were the same brown glass that Hannah's toiletries were stored in.
"So it's not just the women doing the feeding," said Ellie.
"Nah," said Hannah. "There's too much to do to just sequester half the group into full-time baby duty. The guys are responsible for infant care too. They share the load however they can."
Ellie was oddly encouraged by this.
"We take it in shifts," said Hannah, "although -- many of the off-shift ladies are known to stop in when their breasts are full, including myself. It's more fun to feed the babies than it is to pump." She said this with a delighted smile.
"What happens to the milk you pump?" Asked Ellie. She remembered Hannah pouring it down the drain at the Holiday Inn.
"What do you think's in those bottles?" said Hannah. Ellie realized it was kind of a dumb question. "I pumped and dumped at the hotel because I was drinking."
"We will have to say hello from outside, I am afraid," interjected Tad. "I will not take you in there right now because I do not like making unnecessary noise for the sleeping ones. Moving on." He gave a farewell wave to the folks on the porch.
"This next one houses one to two year olds, then the next --three to five," he gestured down the sweeping semi-circle of buildings as he went, "then six to eight, nine to twelve, thirteen to fifteen, sixteen through eighteen, and the adult Resets at the end. We only have time to see one house, but they are all similar."
Tad led them into the three-to-five housing.
The room was cavernous, nearly the length and width of a gymnasium. A ten-foot vaulted ceiling was supported by log rafters and multiple rows of vertical pine supports. Several stone fireplaces accented the walls surrounding them, and two dozen windows prevented the space from being too dark. Clumsy artwork, perhaps done at school, nearly wallpapered the interior. They granted the space a sort of eclectic inclusivity and homeliness. Three doors were set into the nearest wall.
Ellie could see roughly ninety wooden beds, each with a knotted mosquito net dangling from above. They were made up in off-white linens and colorful quilts, and arranged in tight rows. Each bed had shelves for storage underneath. She could see toys and stacks of folded clothes in these.
"Bathroom," said Tad, indicating the wall with the row of doors, "kitchenette, and caretaker quarters. As you can see, it is overcrowded. Work on an expansion is set to begin next month."
The only two people in this house could be seen perched on a bed near the entrance -- a sniffling 4-year-old boy and a young man who looked a few years younger than Ellie -- maybe 16 or 17 -- urging him to drink water out of a ceramic cup.
"Hey," the guy said. "Sorry. This little man threw a bit of a tantrum at school right before you guys took your tour. Miss Stephanie said he needed some quiet time."
"Is Miss Stephanie his teacher?" asked Ellie, remembering the young woman with the cropped hair.
"Yeah," said the young man. "She brought him outside when I was walking by and asked me to take him." He looked at the little boy, and his voice rose with cheery enthusiasm. "And I said, 'sure, I love hanging out with my man Karim! Just until he feels a little better!'"
Karim smiled and giggled as he sipped his water. Ellie was surprised at the name choice; Karim had white skin and blonde hair.
"You about ready to go back?" asked the teenager.
Karim nodded.
"Okay, let's go."
Karim took his hand and they made to depart. Right before they left the building, the young man smiled at Ellie. "It's good to meet you, Miss Ellie, I hope you stick around."
"Preston's good with the little ones," said Hannah. "He makes me feel like we might be doing something right."
"Is he a Reset?"
"Sure is," said Hannah. "That's why he called you 'Miss' Ellie."
Ellie reflected that she'd never seen a teenage boy so good with a small child before. Her little sister Sarah was twenty and she just regarded them with disgust.
"You said, 'caretaker quarters'?" asked Ellie.
"Yes," said Tad, leading the way to the door on the far left. "Adults are assigned night shifts on a rotating basis to look after the Resets. This applies to everyone, so it will be your job at some point as well. For children this young, I must warn you, it is basically sleepless."
Ellie peered into the room and saw a spartan bedroom; four twin-sized beds (also netted) and a small dresser. That was it.
Tad opened the next door; a small kitchenette with a fridge, a hot plate, and a sink. "No real cooking is done in here. We eat all meals as a community. The freezer and fridge are stocked with bottles of breast milk just in case none of the caretakers are nursing. The four and five year olds are usually self-weened and do not need nighttime feedings, but some of the three-year-olds are still on the breast."
Hannah strolled casually to the fridge. She produced a cold, brown, corked glass bottle of breast milk, popped the cork, and took a swig.
"Aaaahhhh" she said, then saw Ellie staring at her, blinking. "What? I haven't eaten since last night."
"Well... isn't that for... the kids?" asked Ellie.
Hannah shrugged. "There's always plenty, we've never run out."
Barring this, Ellie realized she had no reason to judge. The three of them left the kitchenette. Hannah took the bottle with her.
Finally, Tad opened the bathroom door. It was quite large and contained three rustic-looking flush toilets, some simple cabinets mounted on the far wall, and a long trough. All of them looked hand-made; the trough and toilets were a dark brown, glazed ceramic. On top of the trough's backsplash, Ellie noticed several wooden bowls and multiple bars of soap matching the one from Hannah's hotel room a billion years ago.
"Bathroom," Tad explained unnecessarily.
"How do they bathe?" asked Ellie.
Tad simply gestured at the trough. "Fifteen or twenty kids can bathe at once in this room. Since it is getting crowded, they have to rotate bathing times. Three groups in the morning, three in the evening." He turned a valve on the wall, and water poured into the room-length trough via multiple punctures in the ceramic backsplash above.
Ellie noticed the floor drain in the middle of the room, and realized the bowls must be for pouring water on oneself. "Everything looks like it's made on site," she said.
"That is because it is," said Tad. "As much as we can. Self-sufficient manufacturing practices are a key skill for the Resets, so we do our best to adhere to that here at Eden."
