Keeping the Homefires Burning

Posted on Fri Oct 11th, 2013 @ 3:39am by Senior Chief Petty Officer Helga (Hel) Lowe & Gaia
Edited on on Fri Oct 11th, 2013 @ 3:42am

918 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Tabula Rasa
Location: Planetside

ON

Helga found a building in a central location and began to clean out the room. It looked like it had once housed a large number of people, as there were the remnants of beds around the perimeter, but right now it was a mess. So she gathered some volunteers and began to clean up, adding the pile of broken pieces to the wood pike in the center of the compound.

Gaia continued to keep clean her small kitchen that now had to feed many many people each day. It was a tiring task but she seemed to enjoy it today. She was teaching a dozen people how to grind the grain they had to collect each day to create the flat bread or porridge that they ate. She needed certain things and yet she had not found any one who could acquire said items for her.

Helga walked into Gaia's once she'd cleaned up her building. "Hello. Is there anything I can do to help you?"

"Do you know how to cook at all?" Gaia asked with a warm smile.

"I'm not sure," Helga replied, scrutinizing what Gaia was doing. "All I know is that my name is Helga and I like to help people."

"Would you like to learn?" Gaia asked

"It looks interesting," she said. "I cannot see why I would not wish to learn."

"Great, Helga I am Gaia. I love to cook." Gaia handed the woman a hardened wooden made type bowl and a rounded end stone. She then put some grain in the bottom of the bowl and showed Helga how to grind the grain to a powder by applying pressure to the stone and pressing down and twisting the stone against the grain.

Helga watched her for several moments, then she tried herself, carefully imitating Gaia's actions. It took some time and she wasn't as practiced at it, but slowly Helga got the hang of grinding the wheat.

"You are doing very good job." Gaia said with a critical look as she watched Helga and then smiled.

"Thank you." she said, smiling warmly.

Gaia picked up her rough hewn knife and started to cut some of the tops off the vegetables that they had found when the dull knife slipped and she cut a huge gash into the palm of her hand.

"Oh, dear!" Helga dropped the stone into the grain and rushed to her aid. She grabbed a cloth and adroitly wrapped it around Gaia's hand to hep stench the bleeding. "Come, we must wash it in cold water as soon as the bleeding slows, then wrap it again in a clean cloth. You must be more careful, dear. Knives are dangerous."

She led Gaia to a seat and pushed her gently but firmly down until she sat. Then she went to a pot of hot water and ladled some into a bucket to wash Gaia's hand.

When she returned, the bleeding had slowed. Helga carefully removed the bandage, washed out the wound until it was clean and then tore strips of a clean cloth to use as a bandage and wrap another around Gaia's hand to hold the bandage in place. "There. Don't use it for several hours. When I'm sure the bleeding has stopped, I'll clean the wound again and see if it needs stitches."

Gaia looked at the woman oddly "I don't have time to stop for a couple of hours but I will comply the best I am able."

Helga quickly cleaned up the area and sterilized it as best she could with boiling water. Then, with everything back in its proper place, she again approached Gaia. "If you're all set here, I need to go back to the medicine tent. I was brought a pile of herbs and I need to see if I can figure out what they're good for."

Gaia nodded and felt a strange urge for a person named Maia to talk to.

Helga gave Gaia a smile. "See you later."

Gaia nodded and watched the woman leave. She looked around and found that she was alone. Gaia hated that feeling and she narrowed her eyes. She had the feeling that this was often the case, she seemed the type to stand on the outskirts and look in at things that occurred around her. She wondered if she could change that, would others accept that.

Helga made her way back to the room she called hers. The main room would soon be set up with a dozen cots that would arrive later that day. She could imagine them standing around the walls so she could have the center space for moving around as needed and so there was plenty of room to move people in and out as needed.

Beyond that was the room she herself slept in. It, too, was serviceable. A cot with several clean blankets, a table and chair made for her by one of the men she treated for a broken arm. On the table stood a stack of more clean blankets and a box of boiled cloth cut into strips for sterile bandages. They would move into the main room once it was set up properly. It was clean and neat and she was happy.

Now that she was sure no one needed her help, she went back outside to meet more people and to go look for some herbs for tea.

OFF

Gaia
Owner, Bazinga's, lounge manager

Senior Chief Petty Officer Helga Lowe
Nurse

 

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