I feel better now. I am not worried that Husband does not love or want me. I can wait for him to tell me his secret later.

I told Husband I wanted to go to the Stillwater wall mart, so he picked a place for our tent a few malms north of town. We had slept in, so he thought we should walk to the wall mart before we did any mapping or harvesting.

We walked for more than an hour. I saw many more cars than I have seen in Wyatt. Most of them were going to or coming from what I thought was a city ahead of us.

We got close enough that I could see a sign that said "Walmart". Husband led us to the gate of the city. We went inside and I saw stacks of ingredients of different colors. "This is the exchange district?"

"Exchange district?"

"Of this city."

Husband smiled. "No, my love. This is a store."

"Do you mean all these tables belong to one merchant?"

"Kinda, yeah. All of it."

"So what is in the rest of the city?"

"No, my love. All of this, this building, is a store."

I looked around. There was a street stretching off with smaller streets off of it. "This whole building is one store?"

"Yes, my love."

"One could put all of Idyllshire in here! Including the farming areas!"

"Yes, my love."

I could not stop looking around. "What does it sell?"

"Bits of everything. They do that with the smaller towns...they come in and build one big store that's sort of the store for the town."

"They?"

"Walmart is a corporation. They have lots of stores like this scattered around the country. The ones closer to major cities tend to be a bit smaller."

I could not believe this store had everything. I walked down the street and explored side streets. It had everything. There were cold glass cases which Husband said held frozen food. "What does one do with frozen food?"

"Heat it up and eat it."

There was what looked like a malm of clothing hanging from racks. The signs said there were districts for men, women, children and babies. There was another district with televisions all showing different things. One district had pots and pans and other things for the kitchen. One district had paper of different colors, sizes and textures. One district had tools, many of which I had never seen before. One district was labeled "sports". It had different size and shape balls and things that looked like weapons and armor.

Husband went to a place with a number of metal frames with two wheels. He pulled one into the street and waved at me. "Here, my love, try sitting on this."

"What is it?"

"A bicycle. Used for transportation."

We tried three "bicycles" until one did not pinch my tail. Husband thought it was the right size when only my toes were touching the floor. "Yeah, this should work, but I think it's too soon to go nuts again. I'll check Amazon when we get back ho...to Wyatt."

Perhaps Wyatt is not home, or not yet home. But then, home is where my husband is.

"So what did you want to find here?"

"The merchant at the thrift shop said there would be pillows here."

"Bedding. Gotcha. Looks like it's over there..."

So many things the same. So many things different. "How are there so many recipes, Husband?"

"Most people in this world don't use recipes. A lot of this stuff is made by machine. They just set it up with the right sizes and colors and patterns and the machine just grinds them out."

I looked at stacks of folded towels and stacks of folded sheets and heaps of pillows in bins. Much of everything was wrapped in "plastic", which Husband says is made from oil. He picked some towels and sheets to buy, since we have been invited to stay in the Hartman house.

Past shelves of blankets was what looked like a fur. It was as soft as a snurble. I could not help rubbing my face in it. "Husband, what kind of fur is this?"

"Artificial, I think." He felt the edge of the blanket until he found a bit of cloth sticking out. "Yeah, polyester. A kind of plastic."

"Can we have it for our bed?"

He looked at me holding it. His eyes moved up and down. Perhaps he was thinking of me lying on it. Perhaps he would think of us lying on it.

He tossed the towels and sheets onto a shelf. "Sure."

We explored more of the store before leaving. Many things I did not know the words for. I recognized the cleaning products in one street. Another was full of soap. Three streets had boxes and bottles of things Husband said were medicine. One street had small things of many colors.

"Cosmetics. Um...face paints, 'makeup'. These are for lips, those are for eyelids, that's for cheeks..."

"Do you not have aestheticians here?"

"We do, but mostly for hair. A lot of women apply their own makeup."

I looked at the tubes and boxes. "Would I be prettier with makeup, Husband?"

"Why mess with perfection?"

"Your test subject can experiment. You can observe the pattern."

"Makeup or blanket? Up to you, my love."

We paid for the blanket and left. Husband spent some time around the cooking ingredients, then led us out of the store. We walked another hour to what looked more like a market with a sign that read, "McIvers Farm Fresh Produce". "This is better than Walmart?"

"Yeah, Walmart ships stuff in from anywhere, but this place gets produce from farms in the area. If we find out where, we can maybe do our own gathering."

I looked at the bins of things while he talked with people. Most bins had signs with the names. Some were familiar. Many times I saw many of something but they were all different. Usually when we harvest the things we find all look the same.

Husband waved me over and handed me a basket of what looked like faerie apples, but more round. He took another basket and we paid the merchant. "What are these for?"

"Apple pie. New menu item."

"Did you find where they are grown?"

"Orchard southeast of here. I'm thinking of these as our fee for the information."

We got out of sight of the market and added the apples to our inventory, then got further away and Returned. We walked to the Hartman house. I spread the blanket out over the bed. It fit well. "We are home, Husband."

"Eh. Home is where my wife is."

The blanket was very soft to lie on.