Getting cleaned up and dressed to go out didn't take too long and Martha did make her way out before opening the garage door to make the drive up to Moon Lake's Safeway on the west end of Main Street. Normally William drove to work, but the need to restock some of the food supplies had been something that was there earlier in the morning as well and as such they had agreed that William would walk in to let Martha have the vehicle to run those errands. It was something they often did at times, though in Minnesota because they weren't as close to the University of Minnesota campus, the arrangement was often that she would drop William off and then return home or run the errands as needed.
In theory they could and at times did have William run those errands when his day of classes were done and on the way home. However, his schedule could often vary and on days where he would have classes late into the afternoon or evening presented something where trying to work around stores that might not have those sorts of hours was different. Getting William into the men's half of Awareness had run into that very problem. Some stores, like Safeway, were open longer, but it presented something that would just make it easier to work with some alternation as to who had the car. In going with that, Martha backed the Anderson family SUV out of the garage and then parked it on the driveway to then go and shut the garage door.
"Of course... once I get my certification back and send in the formal application with the school... and potentially others in the area, depending on what is needed and who accepts my application," Martha thought to herself, "it probably wouldn't hurt to consider at least getting a second car. Even Nate and Eric could very well need one of their own eventually... assuming things don't go bad with this reveal..."
Of course that reveal still hovered in the back of her mind and went over some of the other things. To an extent, the talk the other night with Frances and Samantha had helped put her at ease with her biggest worries and to an extent she could understand the reasoning for this reveal, but as a mother and as someone very new to were society, that couldn't stop her from worrying about those issues. Things like Nate's interest in werewolves, which she and William never understood until they became weres and completed their respective transformations, but at the same time, she also knew that most of the movies that Nate had collected didn't necessarily portray weres in the most positive light. And if the reveal went wrong, the image from those movies might be overwhelming. The biggest worries were for Eric, her baby and the youngest of her children.
Unlike Nate, who'd been fairly well adjusted in Minnesota, aside from the fact that neither she nor William had noticed that he was gay, Eric had some things a bit rougher. Particularly after being bullied in the eighth grade had made him withdraw within himself. Meeting Julie Stovall had been something of a good start to help Eric open up, and seeming him come out in some ways since moving to Moon Lake had been wonderful for Martha to see. However, as he'd become a weremer to be with Julie, part of Martha's mind couldn't shake the worries on what would happen if everything went wrong and the family divided. She, William, and Nate could potentially flee into the woods and escape into the wilderness... but Eric would ultimately be confined to water, where things like fishing and pollution were big threats and things like sharks and predatory whales wouldn't be any better.
And all of those thoughts ran through the back of her head as she drove up Wood Street to one of the few intersections in Moon Lake, and where Wood Street met one of the circular roads toward the center of town crossed it. From there she turned left and came up to where Main Street ran east and west across Moon Lake. Across the street she could see the oriental walls that likely marked where Skulk's leader, Akane no Tachibana and at least parts of her extensive family lived. The intersection at Main Street was easier than the main point at the center of town. For with Moon Lake's roads laid out like a "wagon wheel," all the straight roads met at the very center of town, and Martha remembered waiting at the stoplight there when the Andersons first moved in. She'd also noted that it was the only intersection WITH a stoplight. The rest all had a simple sign, such as the one on the right corner of the intersection she was at. Checking to make sure things were clear, she then hesitantly pulled forward to then make her way toward the Safeway on the west end of town.
"May just have to hope things are settled smartly..." Martha sighed to herself as she made it to the parking lot, parked, and then made her way in.
The inside of the store was hectic and there were a surprising number of people moving around some of the aisles and often with more heavily stacked carts that would be for more than just a little standard shopping. She knew that people might always have some strategy when it came to buying groceries. Some might buy in bulk so that they'd be stocked for awhile and wouldn't have to frequently. Some might buy a little something here and there as needed and some might only buy when things were on sale. Martha and William had generally tended to buy what they needed as they needed it, often because it made sense financially and it had been something to keep Nate from gaining too much in the way of weight. Of course some of that might change, as now that all of them were weres and had found their metabolisms massively accelerated as a result, their nutritional needs for calorie intake would be different. That still didn't change the surprise Martha had as she picked out her cart and found so many of Moon Lake's residents seeming to stockpile up food as though they were prepping for doomsday. The reveal might have some negative consequences, but even Martha didn't think they would be that bad.
She didn't however try to engage. She simply went about what her mission was to get some things that could be used as snacks, including some jerky, one or two things that could be used for dinner in the coming days, and those things. She had enough trust in Samantha and Frances that eventually things would be fine that for the moment people were just panicking. Trying to ask would only stir up trouble, which she didn't want to do. It kept her on her toes as she went about going through the aisles that she needed to go through, as there were shoppers there and like what she had observed coming in, some of them had rather full carts. Some of them even seemed to be stocking up on things that could be preserved.
As she came into the first aisle for things on her list, though, she soon found herself running into someone a bit familiar and one she hadn't expected. Martha was so focused on a box of lean cuisine that she wasn't fully aware on who else was reaching for the door to the freezer that was holding them. It was only when her hand touched another soft feminine hand that Martha jumped back in surprise.
"Oh... I'm so sorry!" Martha said a bit startled and then looked over to see who she'd bumped into and found the face fairly familiar.
The facial features were a bit different, as both of them were in their human forms at that time. But Martha could pick up the scent of werecat on her and actually recognized the scent, if a bit vaguely. The name escaped her for the moment, and it appeared that other werecat was having some of the same recognition, though a part of Martha figured that this other werecat was younger than her. She was an adult, Martha knew that much, but was likely in her early to mid twenties and thus younger than Martha, being that she was in her forties and only looked like she was in her twenties thanks to becoming a were.
"It's okay," the young woman answered in a very familiar voice, "and how have you been since Halloween?"
It was the voice that jogged Martha's memory along a bit. This was Jenna, the werecat who'd been chaperoning a small group of kids along on Halloween night as they went trick-or-treating. At the time, both of them had met in their fursonas then and exchanged phone numbers, but with some of the things that came up with Eric shortly after and then what had gone on with the meeting that announced the proposal of a plan to reveal weres to the world, Martha had never gotten the time to call Jenna's number to meet some of the bi-sexual desires she'd had at the meeting.
"Fine... just a bit of shopping in terms of handling some family affairs and trying to put some other worries out of my mind, at least for a moment," Martha answered, "and how have you been... Jenna, right?"
"Yes, Jenna Freeborn... as my parents changed their family name after they married," Jenna answered.
"Martha Anderson," Martha answered as the two shook hands.
"And things have been going good... the classes have been going well," Jenna answered, "though I'd also noticed an absence of phone calls..."
"Sorry," Martha managed remembering some of the more "distracted" moments that were there on Halloween night, "I've had some things come up over the past week with my younger son... and I'll admit to have been pretty focused on that for much of the week. All the stuff going around with the reveal hasn't made things any easier."
"Younger son...?" Jenna asked.
"Yes, our family moved in before the school year started," Martha explained, "my husband was the first that that rogue werefox attacked and I became a werecat as I recognized that I had been repressing my bi side. My older son became a werewolf and my younger son fell in love with a weremer."
"I see..." Jenna said slowly, "I'm sorry... I thought you were a bit younger on Halloween..."
"Well becoming a were did renew my physical youth, as it were... both mine and my husband's," Martha admitted, "but... I will admit that the attraction was real."
Jenna flashed small smile and nodded as she picked up a few boxes of lean cuisine from the freezer, "admittedly... it was real for me too. And from what I've learned over the years, I think weres define their generations differently. Being able to live four centuries provided one isn't killed or catches some dramatic disease that can somehow overpower lycanthropic regeneration probably does that."
Martha nodded and reached in to get the small selection of boxes that she was looking for. She set them in her cart and then looked back to Jenna.
"And that's good to hear... and again, sorry for not being able to get to you... I've had some personal stuff come up that had me distracted," Martha spoke, "and then there's this whole reveal..."
"Yeah... that seems to have everyone worried," Jenna sighed, "My parents especially."
"They're worried about your brothers?" Martha asked.
"They're young... still normals," Jenna answered, "if this happens, they fear that things will go bad and they will be alone... For I became the family were when we moved here and they later joined were society as werelions when my mom wasn't nursing my brothers anymore. And with my parents being disowned... if we're all taken away... they'll have no family."
Martha nodded, a bit unsure on how to respond to that. She could say she was worried about Nate and Eric, but that really wouldn't fit the whole situation. For since her children were old enough to become weres, or were at least in the age bracket in which Moon Lake seemed to look the other way on if all sides were the same age, that would be a bit different from what Jenna's family faced. For if things went south and the Anderson family was caught, they'd at least be together and could try to argue and petition from there. Jenna's brothers as normals in a were family wouldn't have that option.
"Hopefully things will go well with it..." Martha offered, "that things won't be as bad as are feared."
"Being better than we fear isn't necessarily going to mean we're in a good place, either," Jenna answered with a sigh, "even if we're not killed or experimented on... they could isolate us in places that wouldn't be hygienic or good. And America has a history in the twentieth century of doing those sorts of things." Martha frowned at that, to which Jenna then explained, "The internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II. Fearful of greater loyalty to Japan over America, Roosevelt put them in concentration camps. They may not have been executing people, but they were still concentration camps."
"Well that would be something to fear," Martha admitted as she continued along to where the next item on her list was and with Jenna turning her cart around to follow, "but the country has moved past what it was in the forties... and at the same time, we must recognize that the world is changing and changing fast."
"So you'd support this reveal?" Jenna asked, "in spite of what it might do?"
"There are things that I fear... as before I moved here, weres were something from stories and fiction, not something I paid attention to," Martha spoke, "finding out that they aren't the monsters of movie lore was wonderful... and the freedom I've gained is something I wouldn't wish to lose... but I can also see where there could be the potential where that secret could or might be revealed whether it's planned or not. And if handling it is something that remains reactive... we'd be behind the power curve and could mean that we'd face negative consequences even if the reveal isn't deliberately made."
"And doing it deliberately might not lead to negative consequences?" Jenna asked.
"It might give weres the ability to control the story and demonstrate where the old myths are wrong," Martha answered, "and without a crime to associate with the reveal... it could be possible that weres, at least in America and Europe, would win legal protection because of that. I can't say it'd be certain, but the odds of a positive response would be higher."
"I'd hope you're right then," Jenna answered, "because the whole thing has had my parents worried and tense... it's had me worried and tense... and I..."
She paused to look directly to Martha, "I don't know what to do..."
"It's rough... I know," Martha said slowly, "but for now, all we can do is drive on and not get too caught up in any emotional pull..."