All Chapters of This Time I Keep the Keys : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Disaster day thirteen June 15Jo Bell stood in the road before Nessa could turn into the yard.“Not beside that wall,” she called. “It moved last night.”Nessa stopped the van. Behind Jo, a section of roadside stonework had slumped across the space where she'd parked during the first visit. Mud striped the garage sign. The building above it still stood, but the easy approach on her map had become a narrow piece of road between debris and someone else's stranded car.Tamsin leaned forward to look.“Can we reach the side gate?”“On foot. Come where I am.”Jo showed them a dry stopping place clear of the damaged wall. Nessa checked that she could turn out again before switching off the engine. They took their own bags and left the load space empty.The room behind Jo's parts store was only a few minutes away. Nessa had imagined those minutes often: walk through the gate, use her key, reach the reserve. She hadn't imagined the broken fencing lying across the entrance to the passage.“Mine

Disaster day fourteen June 16The mirror made the storage look twice as large.Once Nessa began moving it, the illusion became expensive.The room beside the garage held sealed dry-food cartons, hygiene supplies, bedding, and a stool she'd been pretending didn't take any space. Owen stood in the doorway while Dee examined the window, ventilation, separating door, and accessible route. He had brought a folded bed that looked smaller than the clear floor it needed.“That opens toward the door,” he said when Nessa marked its position.She changed the mark.Heavy goods couldn't simply go upstairs because a person wanted to lie down. The approved lower storage positions were still the approved positions. Nessa took out the light hygiene cartons first and carried them to her own room, where she gave up the space beneath the bed.It had been pleasant having an empty patch of floor there.The first carton caught beneath her bed frame. She pulled it back out, removed the tall outer packaging,

Disaster day sixteen June 18The first jug filled while Nessa stood with both hands empty.She watched the narrow flow from the marked utility container into the waiting vessel, then closed the new outlet and looked at Dee.“Again?”“If you enjoy it that much.”Nessa emptied the measured water into its assigned cleaning bucket and tested the arrangement once more. The support stayed steady. The usable route remained open. The label said NONPOTABLE in letters nobody could reasonably mistake for an invitation to drink.Fourteen liters had actually been collected after the latest shower and the agreed checks. That was the amount they could allocate, not the capacity printed on the container or tomorrow's promised rain.Dee checked the fittings under use, made one correction, and had Leila repeat the ordinary user checks. Iona examined the work area for anything they'd left behind. Rory removed the last spare piece from the floor before Ada was allowed downstairs.The morning's work had c

Disaster day eighteen June 20“Thirty liters,” Tamsin said. “Set aside for the two of us if a clinic journey gets delayed.”Nessa looked up from the water sheet.The request had arrived plainly, without a missing container or a bag quietly carried out through the garage. She appreciated that. It didn't make thirty liters easier to find.“In addition to the household issue?”“Reserved from it.”“Then we have less available for every day.”“We have less if we get stranded without any too.”Tamsin stood at the other side of the table. Her hair was still damp from checking the laundry, and she'd been awake before Nessa finishing a message to the transport contact. She hadn't become unreasonable because she was tired. She was naming the thing that frightened her.Owen came in before Nessa answered.“Is that a figure from something I've agreed to?” he asked.“It's for both of us. Drinking, suitable meal preparation, the ordinary things that don't stop because the road does.”“Then say both

Disaster day nineteen June 21At half past eleven, the repaired gate made a noise neither of them recognized.Nessa put down her mug.Gideon waited beside the viewing position while she called Mina. They kept their own door secured and checked from the places they'd agreed. A loose length of covering was striking the outer frame when the wind caught it. Len, awake and offended by the racket, confirmed what he could see from his window.The latch remained closed.They arranged to secure the covering in daylight and returned to the kitchen.Nessa noticed her tea had gone cold. She drank it anyway. Her heart needed longer than the observation to believe there was nobody at the door.Gideon sat opposite, his left hand resting clear of the mug. The clinic had reassessed it two days earlier. He still had restrictions and was still treating them as instructions rather than a challenge, though Rory occasionally had to remind him.“You didn't go out,” she said.“I considered it.”“So did I.”H