by Eric Flint
"I said no. Because you're grounded," Maxine Rose said. "That's what happens when you stay out all night and don't call."
"But I was working," Gary said. "And if you let me go to the library after school, I'll be working on some ideas that I have for Jost's farm." He could tell he wasn't making any headway, and really didn't want to try the last resort—groveling. "Mom, please? This is important."
"Fine," she said. "But don't think you're getting off easy. You've just added another month to your punishment, and you need to be home by five every night. And you'll have more chores around the house."
***
Mina didn't find the dog-eared paperback that interesting, but it was one of the few romances that she hadn't read yet. She was starting to wonder if she'd have to start reading something else, like science fiction.
Like anyone wants to read any of that, she thought. How can you make a story out of space and technology?
She began to read the first couple pages of the novel. How could someone waste paper on this? I can probably write a better novel!
Mina didn't bother to pay attention as she walked. She had been in the library enough that she knew the layout almost as well as the back of her hand, and she could read while walking without running into anyone.
Except today. As she rounded the corner at the end of one of the stacks, she didn't see the large stack of books with legs walking right toward her. The stack couldn't see her either. The next thing Mina knew was that she was on the ground, covered in books.
"Sorry, Mina," she heard the other person say. "I didn't see you there."
"It's okay," she said. She brushed a lock of blonde hair from in front of her face, then checked to make sure her ponytail had stayed in place. "It is my fault for trying to read while I was walking." She shook a couple of cobwebs out of her head and looked up at the person she ran into. Oh! It just had to be Gary! As if this couldn't get more embarrassing.
"Are you alright, Mina?" Gary asked. He extended his hand to help her up, and within a few seconds, she was back on her feet.
"Yeah," she mumbled. "I think I will be okay. I heard about the trouble you're in because you were working for my uncle. I'm sorry about that."
"It's okay," Gary said as he bent down to stack up his books. "Mr. Neubert gave me a good idea to work on while I'm being punished." As he stacked his books, he found her paperback. "This must be yours. You really should find something better to read. This stuff will rot your brain."
Mina sent Gary a look that would have killed. "Well, what would you suggest I read?"
"I dunno," he said. "Whatever you feel like, I guess. So what have you been up to lately?"
"Don't change the subject on me, Gary Rose," Mina said. God, what a stupid boy. He can be so cute sometimes, but then he opens his mouth.
Gary sighed. "I usually read regular fiction and science fiction."
"I don't know what you find so appealing about spaceships and laser swords and little green guys who talk in funny sentences."
"Star Wars you have seen, mmm?" he said in his best Yoda voice.
Mina tried to stifle her laugh, but she couldn't hold it in. "Gary, cut it out. I guess I just like these books better. Who knows, maybe someday, I'll start writing my own novel."
"That would be really cool," he said. "I have to be home in about twenty minutes. Can I walk you to the bus stop?"
"I would love that," Mina said.
***
They made idle conversation as they waited. Gary vaguely talked about his project and the time he was putting in at the library. Mina talked about how her cousin had made her come to the library to get a new book a couple of times a week.
When the bus pulled up to the stop, Mina stepped forward. Then she stopped and turned back toward Gary. "If I wrote a book, would you read it?"
Gary smiled. "That depends. You wouldn't be writing a romance, would you?"
"Of course," she said. "A very sappy one that's worse than the book I'm reading now."
"In that case," he said, "I'll definitely read it."
"See you tomorrow." Mina couldn't keep from smiling. She looked out the window and watched Gary walking away.
***
She's something else, Gary thought. But she's not Sunshine.
"No one is quite like Sunshine," he reassured himself. But he had trouble thinking about anything but the shy German girl.
November 1633
Lights were burning in Uncle Huddy's study when Gary got home He swore silently. There was no way he could sneak by, and since he was supposed to be home before dark, he figured he'd be in for another week of being grounded.
"You're late," Huddy said. "You're lucky your mom's not back from the office yet."
"Sorry, Uncle Huddy," Gary replied. "There aren't many clocks in the library."
"You've been spending a lot of time there lately. You're not hiding your girlfriend there, are you?" A broad smile spread across Huddy's face.
How did he know I was spending time with Mina? "What girlfriend? I'm grounded, remember?"
Gary turned to walk up to his room, but Huddy stopped him. "Jost stopped by today to drop off this year's rent payment. He mentioned that you were looking into building some farm equipment for him."
"Oh!" Gary said. "Well, I wasn't going to build it for him. He just said that it would be nice to have some newer equipment, and I decided to look into that a little."
"That sounds like it would be a good business opportunity," Huddy said.
Gary swallowed hard. He hadn't really thought about the business part yet, just about the millions he could be making. "I don't know, Uncle Huddy. I was trying to do a little research on farm equipment, but I'm not really an expert on it. And you're always so busy with your other projects, I figured you wouldn't have the time to help me out."
"You're my nephew," Huddy pointed out. "This will be a huge project and you're going to need some help getting organized."
"But what about your other businesses and projects?" Gary asked. "And what's your cut going to be on this one?"
Huddy laughed. "Not as much as the other businesses I organized. I promise. They pretty much run themselves now. I just cash the checks they send me."
Gary knew that was only half true. Huddy spent a few hours every night after dinner reading reports and making phone calls to his business partners. Most of those businesses had become successful, mostly because Huddy was either there to help organize them or brought in later to make them successful.
"Why don't you show me what you've come up with?"
Gary reached into his backpack and pulled out the old notebook. He flipped to the page where he started taking his notes. "It's all there . . . if you can read my handwriting."
"How about you go and wash up while I read it? We'll be eating as soon as your mom gets home from the office, which should be any minute now. Larry insisted on cooking tonight since Melissa is coming over."
Larry's cooking never ceased to amaze Gary. Larry could barely be bothered with it, and most of his meals were barely on the right side of edible. Unless Larry was inviting a girl over, then he came up with some great meals that left everyone wanting seconds. Sure, he wasn't an Emeril Lagassi or a Bobby Flay, or even a Mr. Food for that matter, but he could be a decent cook when he put his mind to it.
The Rose household had always sat down for dinner together, and Mom didn't let the Ring of Fire change that tradition. Uncle Huddy tried to resist, but Gary's mother eventually forced him to come eat and talk about his day with the rest of the family.
Gary started to walk away, but a thought popped into his head. "If I do decide to start a business building farming equipment, where will I get the money to do it?"
Huddy looked up from the notebook and smiled. "We'll talk about that later. A good business opportunity isn't something I'm going to pass up. And there's always your college fund, if you're willing to take a risk."
"You bet I am," Gary said.
January 1634
"I wonder where Gary's been," Mina said. "He hasn't been here all week." She flipped through the pages of her journal, where she had kept her story and character ideas, trying to take her mind off of her missing companion. It's not like we're dating or anything. We're just friends. Who spend time together at the library. He's not courting me. He likes that conceited bag of antlers, Sunshine. Who has never shown any interest in him.
Mina tried to push it out of her head so she could focus, but the more she tried, the more she seemed to dwell on it. Almost an hour had passed, and if she didn't leave soon, she would miss the bus and have to walk home.
She packed up her things and put on her coat. "I can't wait for him any longer. Aunt Franziska will kill me if I'm not there to help with dinner."
***
Gary fell into the overstuffed chair, stretched out and closed his eyes. He wanted to fall asleep where he sat, but he still had homework from his drafting class to complete. "That machine shop is going to kill me. And I'm too young to die." Huddy had insisted he take a job at Nat Davis' machine shop, since he lacked any kind of manufacturing experience.
"Rough day?" Huddy asked. "You look like you could use a nap."
Gary yawned. "Yeah. Do I really need to take all these classes at the tech center? Isn't working at Nat's enough? "
Huddy sighed. "There really isn't any other way you can learn if you want to follow through with your ideas. You need both."
"But I never get to see my friends anymore," Gary said. "Not even on the weekends because you have me working at Nat's on Saturdays. I'm still a kid."
Let's be honest, Gary thought. I haven't spent any time with Mina. I kinda just stopped showing hanging out with her all the sudden, and I miss spending time with her. He stopped for a second, wondering why he had just thought about Mina. Why hadn't he thought about Sunshine?.
"If you don't learn this stuff quickly, someone else will start building them," Huddy said. "You'll have a harder time if they get to the market before you."
"Someone will probably be building and selling these plows by the time I get done with these classes anyway," Gary responded. "The market for agricultural tools is growing. Remember that guy who was making mini-threshing machines out of lawnmowers after the Ring of Fire?"
Huddy nodded.
"Will I be able to bring my ideas to market if you keep making me sit on them while I learn?" Gary asked. "At least let me use the next couple of weekends to start building the plow. I think I have my production process mapped out. With some machine tools and some labor, I think I can get a couple of these ready for testing by the spring planting season.
Huddy pondered for a second. "You win. What do you need?"
March 1634
Mina slammed the phone down for what seemed like the hundredth time. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't bring herself to dial Gary's number. The guy is supposed to call you. That's what the girls say.
But she picked up the phone again, and this time, she managed to dial the first three numbers before slamming it back down. "How can you ever write a romance if you can't get it right yourself?"
A million thoughts began to run through her head. Marie Moritz told her to just call Gary. Other girls at school had told her to wait for him, or worse, use another guy to make him jealous. Mina wasn't that way, and she didn't want to play with his head like some of her uptime friends liked to do to their boyfriends.
She picked up the phone for the one hundred and second time and dialed the whole number. The phone rang twice, but her nerves started to get the best of her and she slammed it down again.
She sat there by the phone, trying to build up her courage to call again when the phone started to ring. She nervously picked it up. "Hello?"
"Mina, it's Huddy Colburn. Did your uncle just try to call here?"
Mina's jaw dropped to the floor. How did he know that someone had called from her house? She didn't know much about the phones, and as far as she knew, there was no magic box that could tell which numbers were calling. Part of her wanted to just hang up the home, but she couldn't do it. This is your chance.
"Hello?" Huddy asked. "Are you still there?"
"Yeah," Mina replied. "Uncle Jost didn't call your house. I did."
"Oh," he said. "Which one of my nephews did you want to talk to?"
Her heart began to race. Beads of sweat started to form in her palms. "Gary," she said. It was barely audible, almost like a squeak.
"He's over in Ted's equipment shed if you wanted to talk with him today," Huddy said. "He's probably going to be there all day. But I'll let him know you called."
Please don't! She wanted to scream that at the top of her lungs. Would Gary think she was being too aggressive by calling him? Did he even like her? Why does this have to be so complicated?
"Mr. Colburn," she said. "How did you know someone called you from this house?"
"Caller ID," he replied.
***
"Careful with that!" Gary shouted. Larry and Freddy were removing the cupola from the furnace. Molten metal bubbled, waiting to be poured into a few molds that Gary had crafted over the last two weeks. "I don't need you melting your foot off because you were careless."
"Relax, Gary," Larry said. "Freddy and I both did this when we were working at Nat's. I think we know how to handle ourselves."
But Gary couldn't relax. His brother was working with some dangerous materials, and he couldn't help but think of Larry, in the hospital in Fairmont, recovering from an accident that left him with some scaring on his back and a healthy, but short-lived, fear of his chemistry set. Larry might have gotten over it, but Gary knew he would never be able to forget it.
He watched intently as his brother and Freddy poured the molten steel into the first two molds. He took careful notes, and when they had finished, asked a few questions. He needed to know everything they knew as both Larry and Freddy would be leaving for the military in a couple of months.
"I think you should pour the last two," Larry said. "I'm not going to be here forever to do this for you."
"All right," Gary said. "Let's do this. Hey Ernst! Why don't you take Larry's spot?"
***
When Mina reached the shed, she could see Gary and her brother Ernst pouring something into a wooden box. Not far from where they were working, she could see some glowing red coals.
It looks kind of dangerous, she thought. I probably shouldn't go in there. She waited by the edge of the shed, half hidden behind the wall, until they were finished. The last thing she wanted to was to get injured by whatever they were working on.
As soon as Gary, Ernst, and the rest of the guys working with them had set their equipment down and started to walk out, Mina moved from behind the shed wall.
"Hey, Gary," Freddy Genucci said. "Looks like Sailor Venus is here to see you."
Mina felt the blush start. How does Freddy know? she wondered. What can I say back to him, and what is a Sailor Venus? She said nothing. Gary didn't say anything either, and an awkward pause fell over the group.
Larry finally broke the silence. "When was the last time Marie came to see you, let alone said something to you, Freddy?"
"You got me there," Freddy said.
"So why don't you leave Gary and Mina alone? You're my friend and all, but sometimes, you say some pretty stupid stuff." Larry started to walk towards the Moritz house. "Let's give them a few minutes. That means you too, Ernst. I know she's your sister, but I can vouch for my brother. He's not like me."
As soon as everyone was out of earshot, Mina asked "Why didn't you call me? We were spending so much time together at the library, and you could have let me know that you weren't going to be coming one day."
"But I . . ." Gary started to say.
Mina laughed. "Marie said I should give you a little crap. You could have called, you know."
"Yes, I probably should have," Gary said. "I'm sorry."
"You're not going to get off that easy, mister," she said. "We'r
e having a family movie night tonight, and we're watching some movie about a lion who is king. Would you like to join us?"
"Sure," Gary said. "That's a pretty good movie."
Mina tried to hide her shock. Did I just ask Gary out? And did he just say yes?
April 1634
The fog forming from her breath should have told Sunshine Moritz that it was too cold to go for her morning run, but she didn't mind the temperature. The cold was invigorating, and the quiet roads gave her a few precious minutes to be alone with her thoughts. The view was spectacular as well, and she loved the deep reds, purples, and oranges of the early morning sunrise.
