Chapter 63. Skills to Pay the Bills

  As was his usual habit, Will woke early. He crept quietly to the galley, past all the cabins, and made a quick pot of tea. Then on deck to get a sense of how things were going to go today. Was it raincoats and hats, shorts and light shirts, winter jackets and boots, hopefully not the last one. Sure enough it was a sparkling day, warm for the time of year, very light high clouds and just a bit of wind. Going to be an easy day to collect coal. As he sat and drank his tea, he could hear the Rose coming to life below him. The light smoke coming from the galley chimneys got a little heavier as more wood was added. Sounds of running feet, laughter, Minnie’s voice calling out to someone, saying something about bacon. He patted the handrail “Busy days coming sweetie, better get to it.”.

  Below decks was a bit more chaotic than the tranquil main, but he was well used to this and made his way to the mess hall where he found everyone. Minnie, Naomi and the boys were at the crew table having a good nosh on bacon, eggs and toast. “Hey pop, morning father, hi dad,”, everyone greeted him, a wave and pat on the arm from Ron. He had been doing better with talking, poultices of float weed soaked in lake water relieved the symptoms in his neck, and to Minnie’s horror, tea really helped too. Will poured a fresh mug from the waiting teapot and thanked Bree when she put a plate with fresh eggs in front of him. “Everything okay today, no sea monsters throwing logs, or giant sharps, floating weeds?”, Minnie asked. “Couple of whales stopped by, asking if I knew someone named Minnie, seems she was searching for crabs in all the wrong places.”, he replied, “They’re going to stop by later so they can take her bobbing along, bobbing along on the bottom of the beautiful briney sea.”. “Arrgghh, why did you do it, that will be stuck in my head all day now.”, Naomi glared at him. “You mean that song, the bobbing along, bobbing!”, Minnie was eyeing him evilly as well and had clapped her hand over his mouth. “Yes, that one.”, she thanked him.

  It seemed everyone had finished eating, so Will knocked on the table to get everyones attention, joined by Minnie and Naomi. All the teens were looking over at the crew table with varying degrees of nerves, anticipation, and when Will called out “All hands on deck!”, there were whoops and cheers and everyone scattered, Minnie yelled over the noise “Don’t forget your lifebelts.”. Thanking the galley mates for breakfast Will headed on deck too, and yes, he had on his red life vest. So did Percy and Ron, trailing along in his wake. “Going to shore now?”, Percy asked, “We’re coming right?”, “and Naomi’s coming too?” Ron said in his small voice. To these questions, and a dozen more they asked on the way up Will answered patiently. After all, you don’t learn if no one helps you.

  On deck Minnie was in her element, bossing people around. To be fair, she wasn’t really being mean or unfair about things, she was however very firm. She took her job as deck boss very seriously, especially when the youngsters were involved. Keeping them safe and sound, keeping the ship safe, getting the job done, those were her priorities. The fun loving prankster, the lazy sleeper, the cuddly friendly buddy, all of those had been replaced by a razor sharp focused sailor. Any tomfoolery was clamped down on pretty quickly and the ones to blame were told off in no uncertain terms. Dropping all three boats and bringing them to the stairs took a few minutes, then loading nervous teens a few more. Naomi had several crates of foodstuffs for todays on shore meals and loaded those into the skiff she usually rowed. “Hey dad, can we name the little boats?”, Minnie asked, “Make it easy to say which one to go in.”. What a good idea, he thought, “Yup, let’s do it, give me some names, no wait, I can’t write them down now, keep thinking and we’ll do this ashore.” Will laughed. When all three boats were loaded and bobbing beside the Rose, Will took a moment and checked the anchors, all tight, he hopped back into the dory and started for shore.

  Getting set up into crews took a few minutes, Minnie’s ‘Happy Face’ crew, and Wills ‘No Name’. Naomi had started her aides, Percy and Ron too, getting ready for lunch, mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks, and of course dinner. Easier to bring the fixings with rather than go back and forth. Wills vague plan of building a permanent camp was still swirling around in his mind, but there was not much to build with here. But that was for a later time, it was gathering time. The shiny black rocks were everywhere and easy to pick up, again Minnie and Will spent time smashing larger nodules into smaller for the teens to pick up, they filled bags too mind you. As they walked and smashed and picked and filled, names for the boats were discussed. “Happy, or Cheeseburger, or what about Pie, they’re all good names dad.”. “They are but not very boaty, Petal, or Thorn, maybe Leaf.”.

  “Bleargh, sounds revolting. Daisy? Or Pansy and Lily?.”

  “Nah, shrimp, crab and lobster?”.

  “Or lightning, thunder and rain?”.

  “Just call them big, medium and little?”.

  “Dark brown, medium brown and light brown?”.

  “Aha, got it…Oak, Ash and Cedar?”

  “I kinda like that dad, let’s check with Naomi, and the little guys, see what they came up with.”. Before that was done there were quite a few canvas bags of coal ready to dump into the barge. To the teen’s disbelief Will carried all the bags his crew had filled in the last hour and dropped them in the dory in two trips, while Minnie did the same for the ones her crew had filled. “Might want to make it look hard next time dad, I heard a grumble that if it’s so easy for them, why do we do it.”, Minnie said to Will as they rowed out. “Well I can address that later, over dinner, to be honest they weren’t that heavy.”, Will replied.

  The first lumps of coal were dumped into the vast empty hold. The clean wood would never be the same, but this is what it’s purpose was. Looking around at the solid oak, massive beams held in place with iron bolts, it was hard to think this wouldn’t last too long. The waters would take it. “Let’s go, tea time I think.”, Minnie said as he hopped back on the dory. She started rowing for shore and the boat had quite a bit of speed and had to slow way down to avoid tearing the bottom out on the tough rocks. Hopping out, they pulled the dory out of the water and checked on their crews. A few more bags had been dumped in the loading area, but as Will bent to fill a few he heard the peal of the dinner bell, signalling a break. Wandering back to the tents with his crew, Minnie and her crew raced by with a “Nyah Nyah.”. Of course this could not be tolerated and the race was on. The teens took off at top speed and were neck and neck with the others. Minnie was a few feet ahead and nearly at camp. Will gave a mighty leap and flew and landed beside Minnie as she was running. She gave a squawk of surprise as he took off and made it to camp before her. “Not fair, not supposed to show off remember?” She squeaked indignantly., waving a tiny finger.

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  “True, but if I hadn’t I wouldn’t have won, so Nyah Nyah yourself.”, and sat on his chair at the end of the table. The children made it back and quickly washed up with the buckets and towels. This was just a quick break, twenty minutes or so, and there were plates of biscuits, cakes and carrots. And of course, Laketowns finest apple juice. Will could smell lunch being prepared in the cook tent, and could see Percy and Ron toiling away peeking and chopping. Looked like stew was back on the menu. Naomi and the boys joined them for a break and had some names to try out. “What do you think of titan, giant and monster”, or “Salt, pepper and onion.”. “I like one, two and three.”. And to be honest Will was leaning towards just numbering them. Easiest of all, but still describes them perfectly. “Maybe go with colours, yellow, red, blue.” Percy said beside Will. Ron nodded, he liked that idea too. “We’ll see, we won’t make a decision yet, maybe when we’re done with coal and we’re heading for lumber.”. Standing up, he gave a piercing whistle and the two crews got back to work. “See you all at lunch.”, and he was on his way back to the shoals.

  He and Minnie got two more loads dumped in the barge before lunch and four more after. The amount seemed small, but they were experienced enough to realize it couldn’t be done in a day, maybe not even a week. Many hundreds of tons would be in here eventually, each piece picked up by hand. Supper was being prepared ashore, the cookstoves drifting smoke, lantern poles had been set up to light the area up. When the sun dipped down it was full dark right after so the goal was to back on board by then. “Might not happen tonight though, nice night for a ride in the dark hmm?”, Will asked Minnie. He was drinking a before dinner tea, while the finishing touches were put on dinner. The teens, tired from a busy day were in small groups, just chatting away. “I wonder if we took a crew from here, when we go build the dock for the burrows, and another crew from Newton, if they’d get along.”, Naomi said as she sat beside Will after she and the gang had brought out baked hams, camp taters and fresh baked bread. “Good question, you know, we should do that. But that’s in a while, after this trip it’s southbound for us, right?”, he answered.

  Percy had sat down when Naomi had, looking fairly tired. “Long day huh?”, Minnie asked him. He just nodded while filling his plate, Ron much the same. It had been a tiring time, but soon they would board the boats for a good nights rest aboard the Rose. But first, Will stood and addressed the teens. “A good first day, lots of coal for Laketown already. We’ll be full before you know it and homeward bound. It’s a good feeling to be working for your town, and you can be sure that all the hard work you’re doing is appreciated by your families.”. He heard Minnie snort softly beside him as he went on. “Remember, it’s better to earn something than just being given something, you will value it more. Yes, the crew could do the gathering for Laketown, maybe easier and maybe quicker. This is the way it has always been done, I’m not about to change things.”. He sat and started eating. Naomi looked down at the quiet teens, “Did something happen today, you don’t usually come on so…strong.”. Minnie helpfully started “A couple of the kids started yapping about that if we’re so strong and tough, and it’s so easy for us to lift and carry that we should do all the work.”. Naomi looked indignant “That’s not how things are done, never have been. I’ll let the two gossips know about this, they’ll put an end to any more talk.”. “Are you talking about Bree and Rosie, they seem like such quiet girls.”, Will said. Percy stifled a laugh, Ron didn’t even try to hide his and motioned his brother to explain. “They talked about everyone and everything in Laketown. I know what colour socks the baker has, how his wife takes her tea.”, he said. Naomi joined in “I thought Minnie talked a lot”, she ignored the indignant “hey” from her sister and went on. “They didn’t stop talking all day, not being mean or nasty but just going off on every subject you can imagine and then some. So if I ask them to put the word out, they will.”.

  Dinner over, Will organized a dish washing and camp cleanup crew and things were done in a short time. Packing the stoves, tables and chairs back into the tents for the night, loading the boats and back to the Rose. Rowing over the still waters to the dark bulk of the boat, the lanterns on the smaller boats the only light for hundreds of miles around. Minnie hopped up on deck and quickly lighted the midships lantern. The warm light always gave a cosy homey feeling to the ship. One by one the crew climbed out of the boats and headed below, guided by Wilbur and Grace. Washing up and changing clothes for the night. Will and the boys clipped the boats to the davits and cranked them aboard, raised the steps and locked them in place. He then showed them how to check the anchors and do a good tour of the upper deck for the night. “You do this every night, don’t you father?”, Percy asked as the walked along the railing. “Yup, let’s me sleep better knowing everything is safe and secure, and helps me get a feel for the weather too.”, he replied. And speaking of that, a bit of a cold wind had come up from the north, they hadn’t noticed on land because of tents, trees, natural blocks. But now on the open water there was a different feeling in the air.

  Belowdecks it was quiet, the teens were relaxing in the mess or crew rooms. Some had braved the deck, finding a quiet area blocked from the cool north wind. “As long as your being safe it’s fine, just no horseplay please.”, Will admonished them. Minnie came up, brrred and went back down, “Nope, no cold for me thanks, had enough of that for now.”. Will was standing at the bow, looking north. He sighed and went to sit at the bow, Percy came with him but Ron went below. “Bad weather coming?”, Percy asked. Will nodded “I think so, feels like change. The smell, wind, lots of different things. Might not hit for a while, I hope we can get the coal before.”. As they sat, talked of this and then that, Will was idly scribbling in his notebook. He looked beside him and saw that Perce had fallen asleep and had snuggled up to him. Looking fondly at his tiny friend, he took off his jacket and covered him. Will had his woolly sweater on as well and it was remarkable at keeping him warm. He sat for a while longer, keeping an eye on the deck but then, after checking his watch, saw it was getting quite late for a work day. He woke Percy up and sent him down to bed, rounded up the few teens left on deck then went below himself. Walking down the stairs he felt the Rose suddenly rock a bit, as if from a rogue wave. But when he quickly ran on deck, followed by Minnie who had also felt the sudden movement, there was nothing. Just the usual gentle rocking, a bit of animal noise from the shore, nothing else. “That’s happened a few times lately, what do you think dad.”, Minnie asked. She could see he looked a bit worried. “Dunno Min, I just don’t know.” Will replied.

  Far, far, very far to the north.

  The mountains were at it again. The relative peace of the last couple of weeks was gone. Shakings and rumblings were knocking boulders down the slopes, trees had no chance as done of the rocks were the size of wagons, even the size of the Rose. The trail of destruction was incredible, but as no one was there to witness, did it even happen. The far camp of the burrowers had survived, no collapses or casualties. But the shaking had terrified the young people there, so much so that the caves had been abandoned and above ground dwellings had been constructed.

  The trail of earthquakes and shakes had followed the mountain range as far south as Newton and then Laketown. The farms near the mountains in both communities had been shaken, the residents had never had anything like this happen. It brought up unpleasant thoughts, of the past. No one was still alive from those days, it was hundreds of years ago. But some signs remained for those that looked, most preferring not to. It wasn’t a head in the sand thing, more like a hoping it never happens again thing. As the farms and small towns dug out and cleaned up after the latest it was clear something had changed. It was also clear that no one knew what.