‘I hope this idea of yours works,’ Lola said, her face scarlet from heat and the effort she had exerted as they finally reached the top and wheeled it easily indoors.
‘Believe me, so do I,’ Georgia gasped.
‘It will,’ Josh and Jamie said together.
They all stood around the trailer, trying to catch their breath. The interior of the workshop was swelteringly hot. The smell of oil, sawdust and their body sweat, making it seem even more stifling.
‘I have to open the window,’ Georgia said, ‘it’s far too hot in here.’ She walked over to the back window and pushed it open but it barely made a difference.
‘Okay,’ Georgia began, ‘we should start by clearing a space to work in and then….’
‘Now?’ Deedee interrupted.
‘It’s way too hot,’ Lola said.
Georgia looked over at the others, at their sweaty flushed faces.
‘Can’t we go cool down first?’ Rebecca asked, her voice as plaintive as a hungry kittens meow.
Georgia wanted to get started on the job, get it finished and get the hell out of this place. But she also knew that even if they started right now they would not get it finished today, probably not even tomorrow or even the day after that.
‘You’re pushing us too hard,’ Lola said, ‘don’t forget we have barely had any sleep, and…,’ she hesitated, ‘and besides which, it is so hot in here, we can scarcely breathe.’
She was right, it was too hot. She didn’t need anyone collapsing from heat exhaustion. ‘Oh what the hell, we all stink to high heaven, we can wash and…, let’s go swimming then.
The water was bliss after the heat on the hill. Ruby and Josh sat together on the dock, dangling their bare feet in the water. The others splashed in the shallows. Badger and Millie in the water with them, as Ant stood at the edge barking furiously, determined that everyone should get back to the safety of the shore.
Georgia dived from the dock, swimming to the bottom, eyes open, feeling the coolness caress her skin and the gentle tug of the water as her hair trailed out behind her. She reached down and grasped a handful of pebbles, something she had loved to do as a child. Diving down as deep as she could, grabbing a handful of the perfect white sand nestled amongst the colorful coral outcrops; proof that she had reached the bottom. Then she would swim, legs kicking out, back up to the surface, lungs demanding to be filled. There would be that little momentary panic, the sense of urgently needing to draw in a breath of air as the glassiness of the surface, splitting the sunlight, grew ever nearer. Then breaking through, giggling, and holding up her prize to her younger brother. Finally, game over, watching the fine sand slip between her fingers; shimmering, on its way to settle once more on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
As she broke through the surface, clutching her handful of pebbles, she felt like that child again. Free from worry, and responsibility, just the pure joy of being, without the complications of adulthood.
Later she and Lola sat under a willow tree, at the edge of the river. The children still swimming. Lola looking like a child herself in her oversized t-shirt, her hair in pigtails. They watched as they engaged in a splash water battle. Josh, had joined in the game, staying in fairly close to shore. It was good to hear them laughing. Lovely to see them playing. She considered warning them to keep the noise down, for fear of being heard, but she decided to let them be themselves.
Ant gave up trying to ‘rescue’ those still in the water and came and flopped down next to Georgia, sighing deeply as though to say, ‘I tried.’
‘It’s so peaceful here,’ Lola said as she stretched her legs out before her. Georgia nodded feeling almost too lazy to talk, the sun warming her shoulders, as water dripped down her back from her wet hair. They sat quietly for a while, continuing to watch the children.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ Georgia began after a while, ‘it might be best if while I am working on the bikes and stuff that you guys split up into two teams. Now that we have the rifle as well, I thought you and Rebecca could take it, and go out searching for water containers, preserving jars, and any canned foods, while Jamie and Deedee go hunting. If the Apaches get enough game, and you find preserving jars, then we can get Ruby to make up stews, and preserve as much as possible.’
‘Sounds like a plan, should we start with that place?’ She asked jerking a thumb towards the Jenkins house.
‘Yes, I did see some food in the pantry, so start there. The back door is unlocked, but I am warning you, it’s pretty bad in there.’
‘Do we need to bury them?’ Lola asked.
Georgia did not reply immediately. Near where they sat, the roots of the willow tree, snaked into the water, forming a tiny water break, the surface still and undisturbed, allowing her a clear view of the bottom. She noticed tiny fish darting back and forth. Their delicate translucent fins blending in with the pebbles, and the rippling sunbeams that filter down through the overhead branches again.
She sighed. ‘I thought about it, but the bodies are pretty far gone, and um, to be honest, it would take a hell of a lot of time to dig two graves. With this hot weather, the ground will be pretty hard, like trying to dig through rock.’
Lola dipped her feet in the water, stirring up the gravel and silt, sending the fish scattering in every direction. ‘I reckon you’re right there.’
‘Plus, with the way things are around here, I would rather the scene speak for itself.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well if we bury them, then the so called committee could take it upon themselves to decide that we murdered those good people. At least if we leave things as they are, it is pretty obvious what really happened, and that they have been dead for a long time.’
‘The committee? What committee?’
Georgia realized that she had not as yet told the others what she had found out. She repeated everything she had learned from the pregnant woman, Lola’s face losing its carefree expression as she took in the seriousness of the situation.
‘Damn, no wonder you have been as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. You should have said something before. We need to get out of here as soon as possible. If I had known, I would never have suggested this break.’
‘No, you were right, everyone is exhausted, and we will get more done if we are feeling somewhat refreshed, but from here on in, we will need to be giving it our all.’
‘Too right, I tend to agree with you, if we register, I reckon we will be virtual prisoners.’
‘Yes, well we are going to have to make sure that does not happen.’
‘So what about Josh?’ Lola asked
‘What do you mean?’
Well if Rebecca and I are…,’
‘Oh, I see, I thought he could help me, I will need an extra pair of hands, plus he seems to know a bit about bikes and stuff.’
‘Yeah, he does. He told me his dad was a mechanic, working for a trucking company, keeping the big rigs on the road. Apparently Josh used to bike over after school to help him.’
‘Huh, I did not know that.’
‘So what do you think of Josh,’ Lola asked, lowering her voice.
‘I like him, he’s well mannered, hardworking, and funny too, but I think he jokes a lot to hide his real feelings.’
‘Yeah that’s what I reckon,’ Lola said, ‘he’s so grown up.’
‘Wonder if that is because he has been fending for himself for the last six weeks or if he was already like that,’
‘Hard to tell,’ Lola said, reaching down to slap at her ankle. ‘Dam bugs! But one thing I know for sure and that he is going to be one hell of a good looking guy when he grows up, going to be breaking a lot of women’s hearts.’
Georgia looked over at Josh, he and Rebecca were now sitting in the shallows next to each other, their heads bent together deep in discussion.
‘Just as long as he doesn’t break Rebecca’s heart.’
Lola Laughed. ‘I don’t think Josh sees Rebecc
a that way and anyway, she’s way too young for you to even be thinking in that direction.’
Georgia turned to look at Lola, her eyebrows raised slightly. ‘You think so? I am not so certain. Didn’t you have a crush when you were her age? I know I did. I was head over heels in love with a boy called Chris, half American, and half Japanese.’
Lola looked thoughtful. ‘True, I think I was twelve and my neighbors had their cousin come over to stay. He was French and a year older than me and uh, yeah, you’re right. He so broke my heart.’
‘What did he do?’ Georgia asked.
‘Went back to France,’ Lola laughed. ‘He promised to write to me, but of course, he never did.’
‘What happened to Chris?’ Lola asked after a moment.
‘He uh, his parents went back to America, taking him with them. He promised to write to me, but…,’
‘You’re kidding right? The same thing happened to both of us?’
‘Nope, dead serious,’ Georgia said.
Then they both burst out laughing. ‘That’s too funny,’ Lola exclaimed.
Georgia raised her eyebrows. ‘So you still think she’s too young for me to be thinking that way.’
‘Maybe not.’
Georgia stood up, tucking her damp hair behind her ears. ‘Well I guess we better make a move.’ She held out her hand, helping Lola to her feet, then called out to the others. ‘Okay guys, playtime is over, time to get to work.’
Chapter Sixty Seven
August 28th, Day 49
The next day, Georgia and Josh began work on the Spyder in earnest, closely supervised by Millie, Badger and Ant who needed to investigate everything, sniffing and digging in boxes looking for interesting smells.
Eventually Georgia emptied out one of the larger boxes and made a safe place for Ant, who was determined to have her nose in the way at all times. Millie and Badger had more sense, after watching for a while they flopped themselves down in the sun just outside the open doorway and went to sleep.
She had decided that the Apaches would hunt in the afternoons, as they seemed to have much more luck with rabbits later in the day and instead Jamie would help in the workshop. Leaving Deedee to go off foraging with Lola and Rebecca or spend time with Ruby. Of course she had kicked up a huge fuss about it, so she had left it to Jamie to make her see reason.
The previous afternoon, after their swim, she and Josh had practically reorganized the workshop in their hunt for all the necessary tools and parts. But the time spent had paid off. Their search uncovered more than enough piping suitable for the struts.
This morning she had practiced welding piping together, working at getting the flame and the heat right. At first she couldn’t get the brazing rod to melt. She was unfamiliar with using anything pre-coated with flux, and had only ever used a tiny flame. So to start with she had been overly cautious. Then not so cautious, finally in her frustration to make something happen she made the flame so intense that she melted a whopping great hole into the practice piece of metal, almost before she realized it.
‘Great!’ she thought, ‘one extreme to the other.’
Exasperated she tried again, and again and eventually, miraculously, she got it right. Finally feeling confident that she could actually start work on the bikes without doing any irreparable damage she sat back on her heels, studying the joins of her practice pieces carefully. It all looked good to her. Even so, she called Josh over, ‘What do you think?’
He examined her efforts closely. ‘The joins look solid, but…,’
‘But what?’
‘Are you sure that will be strong enough? Tee-welded like that? I’m just thinking that if we roll or have an accident, it might snap right off. Is there any way to clamp it as well, like this?’ As he spoke he wrapped his thumb and forefinger round the seat post of one of the bikes to demonstrate what he meant.
‘It would take a lot to break this apart,’ Georgia said, ‘but I like your idea, just not sure how to do that.’
‘You made rings, rolled out the metal and then made them round.’ Jamie said, as he came up behind them.
They both looked up at him. ‘Yes, but I had a ring bender.’
‘Yeah you did, but before you bought that, you told me you used to hammer the gold into shape, round that ring stick. I even remember you showing me how.’
‘It’s not that simple Jamie, I need…,’
‘You hammered gold?’ Josh interrupted.
‘Yeah, she’s a jeweler you know,’ Jamie said, ‘she makes beautiful rings and stuff.’ There was a very definite streak of pride in his voice when he said that.
‘You are?’ Josh said, ‘that’s really something.’
‘Yes, before all this, I was a goldsmith.’
‘Not was,’ Jamie said, ‘you still are.’
Josh leaned the bike back against the workbench. ‘Now I understand how you know how to do this stuff, I was kind of wondering, usually its men who…,’ his voice faltered as Georgia raised an eyebrow quizzically. ‘Anyway,’ he continued hurriedly, ‘what do you need to make it happen?’
‘Okay, we need to find something solid, like a solid steel rod, roughly the size of the bike posts, so I can shape the metal round it and a hammer.’
While they were off searching for something suitable, she found some rough sandpaper and began removing the paintwork on the bikes in the areas she planned to attach the rods to.
In the other barn Josh found a crankshaft, to serve as an anvil of sorts, and Jamie found a selection of hammers. Georgia began by hammering the end of the pipe flat, much to the annoyance of Ant, who barked incessantly, furious at having her repose disturbed. She did her best to ignore her and began beating the flattened metal round the crankshaft, forming a curl, then once it was a tight fit, she started on the other end, leaving a two and half foot length between them.
Then with several pairs of heavy duty pliers and a lot of pinched fingers and very necessary cursing, she and Josh managed to hold the loop open just enough to force it over the seat post. Finally, using a huge and somewhat cumbersome pipe wrench she clamped it closed.
‘Wish me luck,’ she said, as she flipped down the lens shade of her welding glasses and began applying the flame, biting her lip as the rod finally began to flow where she wanted it.
It wasn’t pretty and it was lumpy but it was absolutely solid. She waited for the metal to cool and then began work on the other side. One down, one to go.
Josh and Jamie worked well together, telling jokes and chuckling as they took turns to use the blunt hacksaw to cut the pipe to the correct length. She was more than a little relieved that Josh had been fully accepted by the group. For a little while there, she had worried that Jamie and Josh were going to be at loggerheads with each other, but that earlier antagonism had completely dissipated.
Georgia was hammering away at one of the pipes when suddenly she noticed the metal was cracking. Stress cracks! She discarded the piping and picked up another one. The same thing happened.
What on earth? She hadn’t had that problem with the first one, and she wasn’t doing anything different. She went over to the bikes, where Josh and Jamie were sanding the next welding positions.
‘What’s up?’ Jamie asked as she compared the cracked pipe with the one already in place.
‘Not sure’ she said, half to herself. Then she noticed that the metal was a slightly different color. A different alloy maybe?
‘Uh guys’ she said, looking up at Josh and Jamie, noticing that their faces and hair were covered in fine metal dust. ‘Um, I’m sorry, but I need you to cut me another couple of pipes, like this one, she held it up as she spoke. These lighter colored ones don’t seem to be holding up so well.’
For a moment they said nothing.
‘I can do it,’ she said.
‘No its fine,’ Jamie said, as Josh moved over to the rack of piping. ‘Just hoped you were kidding.’
‘So how many more do you need?’ Josh asked as he dumped the piping
on the bench, with possibly a bit more noise than was necessary.
She made an apologetic face. ‘Just the two, I hope.’
‘So do I,’ Jamie said, ‘that hacksaw is brutal.’
‘Plan for more,’ Josh said, turning to Jamie and speaking in a confidential tone.
Georgia pulled out another length of brazing rod and set it on the floor, ready to use. ‘Hey guys, have a little faith please. It was my first mess up.’
‘We do have faith,’ Josh said, ‘faith in you continuing to mess up. Don’t we Jamie?’
‘Yep, totally,’ Jamie agreed.
‘What? That’s harsh!’ Georgia exclaimed. She looked over at them feeling somewhat disheartened, only to find them both grinning at her.
‘Oh you…,’ her words tailed away as she started laughing as well.
‘You are way too serious,’ Josh said.
By late morning she was beginning to feel excited. The Spyder was taking shape, and she could see now, for the first time, that this could actually work. The two bikes were very firmly ‘boxed’ together. She and Josh had taken it outside and ridden it along the road running along the top of the hill.
At first they had ridden cautiously, both of them expecting the bikes to suddenly separate and head off in different directions. But no, it stayed intact and there was no pulling to one side. The bikes were perfectly parallel.
‘Man, it’s really steady,’ Josh said, as they rounded a bend. ‘Shall we try for a bit more speed?’
‘I’m game if you are,’ Georgia said. ‘As long as we don’t go too far.’ Her heart was in her mouth, pedals flying round and round as they tore down the road, the landscape flashing past them.
Survivors of the Sun Page 63
