Marigold by Heather Manheim (best books for 8th graders .TXT) 📕

“I’ll bring you some food. After you eat and maybe have a nap, we’ll see then. I promise you, when you’re feeling up to it, we will all sit together at a table and go over exactly what is going on. We’ll answer your questions.”

Davis replied, sounding sad, “Yes, that sounds okay.” And as Quinn had almost exited the room, Davis said, “Oh, Quinn?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you,” replied Davis with a shy smile.

Quinn left the room, but she returned shortly with some water, vegetable broth, and crackers. She brought them over on a tray and set it on the table next to Davis. “Do you think you can feed yourself? I can tell you some things while you eat if you like.”

“Yes, thank you. I think that will work fine.”

“Great…okay, let’s just start at where you are. I mentioned before that you’re in Ringo’s doomsday bunker. When President Everett started aggressively taking over—”

“Aggressively taking over?” Davis scoffed, interrupting.

Quinn paused a second before continuing. She had to remember that Davis was still coming off the last of the mind control drugs, and not only that, it would take some time. Davis had known one thing her whole life, and suddenly, a group of people unknown to her was trying to convince her that something else entirely different was the truth. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have used that language. Some of us here have had less than pleasant experiences with the government, and I let that cloud my language. Again, I apologize if I offended you.”

Quinn’s frankness surprised Davis. At the same time, something was nagging in her brain to retort in a rude and insulting way. Without really thinking of what she was saying, she answered delicately, “That’s okay, don’t worry. You can continue, please?”

“Sure. So, Ringo was a doomsday prepper. Maybe you have heard of them at some point?”

“Yes, I’ve heard some but don’t know a lot about them.”

“That’s okay. You don’t need to. Ringo and some others he was friends with built these underground bunkers. They stocked them with food, clean water, first aid kits, medical supplies, you name it, any basic human need, and Ringo stocked it. His bunker is enough for twelve people comfortably, and up to fifteen if need be. We only have eight full-time residents and between four and six part-time, depending on circumstances. Underground tunnels connect us to three other doomsday bunkers that family and friends of Ringo built. They are all set up similarly to us. We have water and some frozen food; that food will last at least another year, maybe two, if we’re careful. But we also have a hydroponic garden that grows lettuce, spinach, peppers, tomatoes; we grow potatoes too.”

“What is a hydroponic garden? And wait, what? No nutrition biscuits? How do you get all the nutrition you need?”

“To answer the question—food gives us all the nutrition we need. Once upon a time, there were no nutrition biscuits.”

“But I thought there were excess sugar and salt in all those things.”

“Yes, in some of the processed stuff we have, that is true. But in the stuff we grow, it’s natural sugar—the nutrition biscuits have sugar and salt too because you need some in your diet. They just forget to mention that part when they’re telling you about how healthy they are, but I think we’re getting off track,” said Quinn as she sensed Davis was getting frustrated with the quasi-negative talk about the government. “Let me tell you a little about hydroponic gardening since you asked. Let me go grab a pot first so I can show you what it looks like.”

A little bit later, Quinn came back into the room with a small clear pot. A green sprout was growing out of a beaker of water suspended in the middle. “So, this is one of our small pots. Most of the ones we have are a lot larger. But Ringo has these little ones for people to have in their room if they want. These small ones are flowers that bring a little color into our world. Anyhow, hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil. They work pretty much anywhere as long as you have access to clean water—we have an intricate filtering system as we have to reuse much of our water. Nutrients are added into the water, and also, you need airflow. We have a filtered air recycling system for the air we breathe and for the plants. Ringo is the expert; there are some other items I’m not as familiar with, coconut fibers and small clay rocks; he knows when and where to place them in the plants.”

“Wow, that’s quite a lot,” said Davis. “I’m still not sure about eating other things besides biscuits.”

“But you have! You are sipping broth and eating crackers right now!”

Davis looked down and realized she had indeed been eating something other than the nutrition biscuits. It was another odd feeling for her; another piece of her brain was floating up above her head and not making sense. She realized, previously, as she ate, her mind mechanically tricked her into thinking she was eating nutrition biscuits. But it had turned out that wasn’t what she was eating at all. Very odd, she thought to herself, extraordinary indeed. She was feeling overwhelmed again, and fatigue was starting to put weight on her eyelids. “Yes, you are right. I feel silly. I wasn’t even thinking about it.”

“I understand; I know confusing things are going on right now.”

“Thank you. I think if it’s okay, let’s finish talking tonight; I want to get some sleep.”

“Yes, of course. That’s perfectly fine. If you want to freshen up at all, there is a bathroom around the corner from your room. Just walk out, turn right, walk about five feet past the ‘Bathroom Supplies’ closet, then another few feet, and the bathroom will be on the left. It is a full bathroom with a shower. I brought you towels if