Living Off the Grid

There was a good two-acre clearing on the five-acre plot of land which was far more than they needed for a house, a small shed, and everything else that went with living off the grid.

"The bugs aren't too bad," Jessica said as they walked through the clover and the grass to get to the river.

But once they reached the bank of the river and stopped walking, that all changed. They were both using their balls caps and hands to swat the various kinds of Kamikaze-killer bugs that smelled blood and wanted theirs.

"Maybe we should get the tent up so we can have a place to get away from these guys," Lock suggested.

It only took about thirty minutes to get everything set up, but it would have been half that were they not constantly swatting and cursing the 'killer hordes'.

Even inside the tent, there was no escape unless they got under the netting and killed everything that got in with them first. They ended up back in the Jeep where they ate a kind of late lunch or early dinner out of cans with plastic sporks.

"So much for skinny dipping, eh?" Lock said as they ate cold beans and franks.

"Skinny dipping? Oh, no. I am not taking my clothes off for any reason," Jessica said.

She saw the look her boyfriend gave her then told him, "Uh-uh. Not even for that."

They got out the lanterns around nine o'clock with at least another half hour until the sun went down. They also set out the bug lights and within three seconds the first 'zap' was heard followed by hundreds more before they went inside and lay down under the netting. The noise continued off and all night making it even more difficult to sleep.

They draped the nets so that they could lay side by side, but the cots were too small to accommodate a second person so hand holding was the only intimacy they could share.

Jessica willed herself not to complain, but she was already at her breaking point with the 'bugs' and wondered how she'd make through another day out in the open let alone build a house there during the summer. What she didn't know was that Lock was having similar thoughts although most of his centered around the beautiful woman he loved and whether or not she was doing okay.

When they woke up in the morning, he knew. Her face and hands were a series of red splotches where she'd been bitten numerous times in spite of the netting.

She started to scratch her face and Lock said, "Try not to do that, honey."

"But everything itches so bad!" Jessica said.

She looked over at him for the first time and gasped, "Oh, my God! Lock, your face..."

He didn't need to see it to know it looked like hers as all of their exposed skin had been open season for the mosquitos.

Both of them had to pee, but Jessica was rightly very concerned about pulling her pants down for fear of being bitten...down there. But nature won out and she peed as fast as humanly possible and pulled her pants back up before any critters got to her first.

They went straight back to the Jeep where Jessica turned the mirror toward her face and gasped again.

"It isn't permanent, honey," Lock said hoping to help.

"I...I know," she said as she kept looking.

Lock grabbed a bag of beef jerky and a bottle of water and offered some to Jessica.

"No, thanks," she said. "I'm not very hungry."

She did take the water and down a few sips but didn't say a word.

Lock chewed in silence for a while then said, "You know the old saying about 'your eyes being bigger than your stomach'?"

"Sure," Jessica replied.

"It isn't a perfect fit, but I'm thinking it applies to where living off the grid is concerned."

She tried to smile and said, "I was thinking of the one that says 'we bit off more than we could chew'."

Lock held up his splotched hands and laughed.

"No, that would be the mosquitos."

Jessica tried to laugh and said, "Uh-uh. They're the easy ones. Those damn deer flies are unbearable!"

"And bugs are just the tip of the iceberg," Lock said. "How's that for mixing metaphors?"

"It's accurate, that's for sure," Jessica replied. "If we bought this land, we'd have to build during the summer, and that means putting up with this for weeks. I mean, there's nowhere to hide while you build."

"And then there's the rain and after that the snow, and then getting from here into town and back at least once a month."

"How did I ever romanticize this to the point of dismissing the hardships as minor little inconveniences?" she said without looking at Lock.

"And God forbid you need a doctor," Lock added.

"Do they sell places already set up for off-the-grid living?" she asked.

"I suppose they exist, but it seems rather unlikely," Lock told her.

She looked over at him then said, "I'll do this if you want to, honey. You know that, right?"

He knew he looked like he'd taken a shotgun blast in the face and didn't care, but he couldn't stand seeing the woman he loved like that.

He set the pack of jerky down then looked right at Jessica and said, "When I said I didn't care what we did as long as we were together, I meant that."

"I know, but this has been your dream, honey. I won't be the one to stand in the way of you being able to live it. I love you and I'll support you whatever you want in life," she told him.

Lock knew she meant it, too, but he also knew he could never bring her out her and subject her to this unless she wanted so badly it didn't matter to her. It was now painfully obvious his eyes had indeed been bigger than his stomach. Well, his stomach for adversity anyway.

"Jessica? I've never quit anything in my life, but I don't think I can do this," he told her point blank.

"Is it really quitting if you don't ever start it?" she asked. She was trying to smile but her lips were puffy and sore and it hurt to smile so she gave up and just looked at him.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked.

"If you're thinking we should tear down the tent and get out of here, then yes."

It only took ten minutes to get everything back inside the Jeep and in two more they were on the trail back to civilization.

The owner of the store managed not to laugh when he saw them and didn't say a word other than 'thank you' as they returned everything in perfect condition.

There was a small motel a mile down the road and they pulled in and asked for a room where they spent the next 24 hours in calamine lotion or the bathtub. Lovemaking or even kissing was out of the question until the swelling went down and the itching stopped.

By the next morning, they were both feeling nearly a hundred percent better and the red blotches were little more than tiny spots. They even managed to eat an actual breakfast of real food without any pain.

"Are you okay?" Jessica asked as they got ready to check out of the motel. "With abandoning your dream, that is."

He stopped packing his bag, turned and put his arms around her and said, "Dream? No, that wasn't a dream. It was a fairytale."

Jessica laughed and said, "I was thinking 'nightmare' but fairytale works."

"So do you still love me?" he asked.

"Are you kidding? I love you even more for not trying to be a macho man and do this anyway."

She smiled then told him, "I will always love you, Lachlan James. Always."

"And I will always love you, Jessica Quinlan. Always."

She smiled before he kissed her for several seconds.

"I can think of at least three other people who are going to be very happy with our decision," she said.

Lock laughed.

"Oh, right. Yeah, I'm glad I won't have to feel like I'm eating crow or listen to 'we told you so' from my parents."

"My mom is going to be so relieved," she said.

"Honestly? I am, too," Lock told her.

Jessica couldn't help laughing along with him as they held each other and breathed a sigh of relief.

On the flight back to Seattle, Jessica had her head on Lock's shoulder while they also held hands.

"So now what?" she asked.

"How do you feel about Seattle?" he asked.

"Well, if I'm there with you, I feel very good about it," she told him.

"I'd be willing to move to Eugene," he told her.

"I'd like that, too," Jessica said. "Or we could split the difference and move to Portland."

"Not bad," Lock said. "Of course, I already have a really good job in Seattle."

"Well, I'm willing to live with you anywhere you like," she told him.

"Except for rural Montana, right?" he teased.

She laughed then said, "No, I'd even live there with you. I might not like it as much, but I wouldn't let you go for anything."

"Even if we're just living together?" he asked.

She squeezed his hand and said, "Yes."

"But it would be better if we were...married, right?"

"That's up to you, sweetheart," she told him truthfully although she very much wanted to be married again but not to just anyone.

"I uh, I need to use the restroom. Can you excuse me for a minute?" he asked.

She let go of his hand and smiled as he got up and went to the front of the plane. Jessica saw him talking to a flight attendant who was listening and then started smiling and nodding. She then picked up a white phone and spoke into it, still smiling the whole time.

She nodded again, then said into the phone, "Ladies and gentleman, the captain has given me permission to let one of our passengers make a brief announcement."

Still smiling, she handed him the phone. Jessica sat up straight as Lock took the phone then smiled at her.

"Hi, folks," Lock said. "I won't take up much of your time. I just wanted to make this a memorable moment. I'm here with my beautiful girlfriend, Jessica, the cute girl with the short hair in 22B."

Jessica saw every head turn her way as she realized what was going on. Her heart began racing as Lock continued to speak.

"We recently met at an exposition on 'living off the grid' where you build a house out in the boonies and generate your electricity, etc. That was our shared dream until we spent a day on a five-acre plot of land up north in Montana this weekend. Just the mosquitos and deer flies were enough to convince us our dream was really a nightmare."

There was some polite laughter before Lock continued.

"We agreed living off the grid isn't what we want, but we agreed that we do want to spend the rest of our lives together wherever we live. So because I'm so crazy in love with this beautiful woman, I want her to know that I really do want that with all my heart. But not as my girlfriend."

She watched him hand the white phone back to the flight attendant then walk toward her as everyone else watched him head back toward her.

He knelt down next to her and said, "Jessica, I don't have a ring with me right now, but I do have all the love I can give you right here in my heart."

He saw her tearing up and her hands begin to tremble as she covered her mouth while he spoke.

"And if that's enough, then I would be the happiest man on earth if you would agree to be my wife. Jessica Quinlan, I love you with all my heart. Will you marry me?"

Jessica was unaware that everyone on board was standing up and looking at her when she began nodding and blurted out, "Yes! Yes, of course I will marry you!"

The cabin erupted in spontaneous applause and the flight attendant said she'd be bringing around a glass of champagne to everyone on board old enough to drink—courtesy of the flight crew.

Lock helped her stand up then held her close and said, "My whole life changed the day I met you, honey. And I can't wait to spend the rest of it with you by my side."

"And I'd given up on ever finding love or being happy like that again...until I met you," she told him, her voice choked with emotion. "I can't wait to spend the rest of my life by your side, either."

In spite of her tears, Lock kissed her as everyone cheered again and wished them well.

They decided to take a taxi from the airport to avoid telling Kevin and then Janet and then Cathy.

Once they got home, they got Jessica's mom on a call using FaceTime then explained what happened.

"So we not only gave up on living off the grid, I proposed to Jessica on the return flight," Lock explained to Cathy as his parents stood behind the computer monitor.

Janet and Kevin embraced and danced around in a circle as Cathy said, "Oh, my heavens! I am so happy for you both! And so relieved!"

When the noise died down Cathy said, "So where will you be living?"

"We're not sure yet, Mom. Except that it won't be in Montana."

She, and everyone else laughed as they all congratulated the happy couple.

The following day was the 4th of July, which was Monday, and Lock's last day off before starting his big project. He was out shopping for rings as soon as the stores opened and formally asked Jessica again to marry him that evening as the fireworks went off downtown starting at 10pm.

They married just before Thanksgiving in a small church in Eugene as a way of making their decision to stay in the Seattle area a little less difficult for Cathy who told them she'd be visiting as often as she could.

Lock stayed with Stewart Engineering and eventually rose to become a partner in the firm. But his success at work paled when compared to the love he found with the woman of his dreams and the son she gave him a year later.

Jessica was beyond touched when Lock agreed to name their son Connor as she proposed, but insisted his middle name be Norman in honor of the only other man she'd ever loved. Between Connor and his handsome father, Jessica found the love she thought she'd never again know and then some.

Anytime the subject of living off the grid came up, the happy couple had a story to tell, knowing their former dream was the reason for their current happiness. Well, that and their good sense to buy a turnkey-ready house with all the amenities of modern life—and no mosquitos or deer flies!