by Mary Griggs
"Something like that." Jay used her ax to chop off the branches from a large limb Cody had dragged back to the camp. "If you want to explore, there is an old mill upstream a ways. It was still abandoned the last time I was through here but you should always be careful of squatters."
Susan looked at the eager faces and nodded. "We might give it a try."
"Keep as many of the fish you're not smoking alive as long as you can. We can freeze what isn't smoked."
"Great. Are you going to head back now?"
"No, I'll gather some more wood while the first shift fishes."
"You're going to steal our product?"
"You betcha. I plan on taking up enough for dinner tonight."
The camp ate a cold breakfast and started work with Cody helping Jay find wood for the smoke house. The sun was climbing in the sky when she called out to Susan that she was ready to go.
"You have enough fish?"
"Yeah, Martha's been on fire. She got five without breaking a sweat."
"Considering the temperature of the water, I'm not sure that means anything."
Jay smiled affectionately at her. "I'll be heading up now."
"Okay, we'll be here."
"I'll start looking for you in five days. Either Piper or I will come looking for you at seven." Jay lifted the string of fish. "Thanks for these. I'm sure we'll enjoy them tonight."
"Bye, Jay," Cody, Carol and Eva chorused.
"Hey! Eyes on your lines," yelled Martha. She winked at Jay as the teenagers focused their attention back on fishing.
Chapter Nine - Higher Ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith, on Heaven's table land,
A higher plane than I have found;
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground
Words: Johnson Oatman, Jr., 1898. Music: Charles H. Gabriel
Jay came back from the fishing camp with four fillets on a string. She came up the old hunting trial and surprised Doris and Piper who were sitting on the porch. She tried to hide her grin at the dirty look Doris shot her and said, "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."
"Maybe we should tie a bell around your neck."
Piper shook her head at Doris' testy remark. "Good to see you back. I was just thinking how good it would be to see someone."
Laughing, Jay held up the fish. "Well, I'm back and I brought dinner."
"I guess I can take it that the fishing trip is going well?"
"You certainly can. The kids have taken to it like, well, a fish to water."
"That's just awful." Piper couldn't believe how easily she fell into a joking mood. After years of terrible tension, less than a week at the cabin made much of that time just a memory.
"How are you going to cook them?"
"I haven't decided yet. What would y'all like?"
"What are our choices?"
"Fried, poached, or grilled."
Piper smacked her lips. "I'd like grilled."
"Excellent. Let me put these in the fridge until dinner."
"What shall we do until then?"
"Oh, I'm sure that we can find something to do."
"I'm enjoying sitting here in the quiet." Doris stated.
"I know," Jay said, clapping her hands. "Let's go bring down a tree."
Piper grinned at her. "I'm game."
"Excuse me? A tree?" Doris looked concerned.
"Yep."
"What do you expect us to do?"
"I cut a couple of trees that were dying this spring. I was planning on letting them dry in place until the end of winter but needs must. They're up the hill a couple hundred yards."
"What do we need?"
"You mean, other than brute force? Come on downstairs and help me gather what we need." Jay led the other women down into the basement. She handed out a saw and an axe before grabbing a pair of wheels and a couple of straps.
"What are those for?"
"Well, we can roll the log part of the way but there are a lot of other trees up there. It's a pain to be constantly forcing it around the obstacles. It'll be easier if drag it."
"Drag it? You expect us to drag a log?"
"Duh. How else did you think we'd get wood for the fireplaces?"
"There are only three of us. We should wait until the other's come back." Doris tried to hand the saw back.
"We don't need them. Hell, I've brought logs down with just me and dogs." Jay fondled the ears of the two black mutts.
"Then use them. Don't bring us into it."
"No." Piper's tone was sharp. "We're in this together. We'll go and work together." She glared at Doris until the taller woman nodded.
Jay smiled in thanks. "Let me get a basket."
"What for?"
"You never know what you may find that you'll want to carry back home. I take a basket anytime I go wandering. It keeps my pockets from getting too dirty." She glanced at her companions. "Ready? Okay, follow me." She flipped the straps over her shoulder and whistled to the pack of dogs. She tossed a ball out before her and laughed at the melee that ensued.
Amazed that the dogs could chase the ball and run uphill, Piper spoke quietly, "You've had the dogs for a while."
"They're a family group. My neighbor from the other side of the mountain has a male lab. I've kept a female from each litter and sold the rest to other neighbors."
"They are well-trained."
"Well enough."
"Do you plan on getting more?"
"Replacement only. They're starting to eat me out of house and home."
"What have you been feeding them?"
"They're natural scavengers. I feed them leftovers with supplements from the animals I've killed. I don't eat the intestines or bones and the dogs love them."
"So, I should make sure I bring the offal back?"
"Yeah. I've found a way to use most everything. If possible, bring the whole animal back and we can bleed it on the rack near the house and dress it there."
"No problem."
"You say that when you don't have close to 200 pounds of deer over your shoulder."
"Now I know the real reason you keep stressing the buddy system. Free labor."
"A burden shared is a burdened lightened."
Doris caught up with them. She was panting. "How much further?"
"Not much." Jay pointed up. "See the patch of sunlight over there? That's the space that was created when it came down."
Stepping into the clearing, the three women walked around the fallen tree. Piper spoke for all of them, when she said, "That's awfully big."
"Indeed it is. Just think of all the dinners and cozy nights it'll supply." Indicating the branches, Jay asked Doris, "You start sawing off everything on this side and Piper will chop off on her side."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to see if I can find any other deadfall trees. No reason to waste energy chopping trees down when some are already on the ground." Jay whistled to the dogs and began hiking farther up the side of the mountain.
"I don't know who she thinks she is, leaving us with all the work."
"I'm sure that she'll be doing her fair share." Piper reassured her between strikes of her ax. She quickly developed a rhythm and dropped into a trance state. When she finally looked up toward the sky, she noticed that at least a couple of hours had passed. Glancing over to her workmate, she saw that Jay had replaced Doris at the saw.
"Didn't see you come back."
"You were working awfully hard."
"Find anything?"
"Yeah, there is a dead tree about five hundred yards east. I think it's been six months or so. We can come back up and take it down in the next couple of days after we've dealt with this one." Stopping to wipe her brow, Jay added, "I also got a basket of mushrooms."
"How do you know they're safe to eat?" Doris' voice interrupted.
Her lips tightening in annoyance, Piper looked around for the other woman and saw her sitting on the stump. "Why don't you make yours
elf useful and collect the branches?" she asked. "I'm sure that we can use them for kindling."
"Right you are. After we get the log down, we'll need to return to gather what's left."
With ill concealed reluctance, Doris stood up and brushed off the seat of her pants. She moved very slowly and tossed the branches into a haphazard pile.
"Should we tell her that it would be easier if she stacked them properly?" asked Jay in a soft voice.
"Doris has never struck me as being particular open to new ideas or to long term planning."
"How did she make it this far?"
"Basically, Martha and Susan took the two of them in and made sure that they always had something to eat and a safe place to stay."
Jay turned and watched Doris for a moment. Shrugging it off, she put her back into sawing off the rest of the limbs. When that task was done, Jay measured the width of the tree.
"What's the plan?"
"We've got these straps that go over our shoulders. We need to pick up the top end and slowly pull it forward over the wheelbase here. Once I secure that to the log, we head down hill at our best pace and let gravity to the real work."
"It can't be that simple."
"Trust me, it is."
The three women were able to work well enough together to get the log in motion. Despite Doris' tendency to drop her section at the most inconvenient times, they made great progress.
After they had wrestled the log through the trees and down the hill, Jay went into the house and brought out a chainsaw from the basement. On her way back out, she grabbed one of the already split logs. Brandishing the split, she said, "The wood has to be no longer than this if it is to able to fit in the stove."
Piper hefted the chainsaw. "This works?"
"Yeah. I've got a little gas left."
"You have gasoline?"
"Yep," answered Jay.
"Why didn't you have that up there when we were having to saw off the limbs."
"Because the limbs aren't that much work." Jay shook her head at the look on Doris' face. "I use the saw to bring down trees and to cut it into manageable pieces once we get it down here. If I used it on every task, I'd of run out of fuel years ago."
Not having seen enough gasoline to fill a measuring cup in a couple of years, Piper unscrewed the cap and sniffed appreciatively. "Boy, the smell of that takes me back."
Jay laughed. "Do you miss the smog, too?"
"No, just the conveniences that used to run on it."
"I hate the smell." Doris crossed her arms over her chest.
"Did you hate being able to drive where you wanted to go, when you wanted to go there?"
"Not really." Doris glared at each of them before spitting out angrily. "One of the best things to happen was the end of all those horrible, gas guzzling cars."
Piper nearly dropped the saw at that outrageous comment. "Are you nuts?"
"You think the death toll was worth getting cleaner air?"
"All that pollution was damaging the environment."
"And you don't think those bombs or the rotting corpses or the release of toxic waste constitutes a bigger environmental tragedy than the exhaust from vehicles?" Piper was outraged. "You're insane."
"No, I'm not."
"I don't know where to begin to disagree with you."
"I just know that things couldn't go on like they were." Doris turned to walk back inside. Suddenly, she whirled back. "If you were honest with yourselves, you'd realize that the best thing to happen to this country was the Confederacy."
"How can you say that?" Jay asked, aghast.
"Didn't your husband die, along with those other millions?" asked Piper.
"This country needed a cleaning."
"Cleaning or cleansing?" asked Jay, dryly.
"Call it what you will, there is something to be said for people willing to die for their faith."
Piper spat on the ground. "I guess that's where my problem is. They weren't the ones doing the dying. They were doing the killing."
"That doesn't matter. Those who accepted Jesus into their lives were taken into heaven."
"Even the brown ones?" At Jay's question, Doris shrugged. "It wasn't just nonbelievers who were targeted. The Confederacy attempted to eliminate anyone who wasn't straight or white."
"And I think that they had the right idea to returning a sense of decency to this country." Nodding in satisfaction, she whirled and stomped into the house.
Piper and Jay stared at one another. Jay drawled, "Why do I get the feeling that she did not go in to fix us a nice cup of tea?"
"I bet she won't be around to bother us for a while."
They both spoke at the same time. "Thank god."
Jay laughed. "Jinx. You owe me a coke."
"Put it on my tab. When I get one, I'll pay you back."
"I get the feeling that you aren't entirely serious about your debt." Jay shook her head sadly. "Back to the chain saw. It should only be used during the middle of the day."
"Why?"
"Sounds don't travel as far. There are few enough around to hear but we shouldn't borrow trouble."
"No, there's enough of that to go around."
Jay primed the chainsaw and pulled the cord. Indicating for Piper to hold the split, she made a quick cut. Together, they worked their way down the entire log, cross cutting it to size.
Finished, she turned the saw off and set it next to the house. "Now, we have to split these."
"What about the limbs?"
"Let me go inside and get Doris to go and fetch them down." Jay went into empty house and found Doris sunbathing on the patio. "Hey."
"What do you want now?"
"I need you to head back up the hill and get the limbs." She held out a folded cloth. "You can use this."
"What is it?"
"It's a tarp. Just put it down and fill it with branches. Fold it over and you should able to drag the whole thing down hill."
"Aren't you going to help?"
"No. Piper and I will be chopping the tree." Jay stared down at her. "Of course, if you would rather chop…"
"That's all right." Doris stood up and snatched the tarp from Jay's hand. "I'll go."
"I expect it will take at least two trips. Don't expect dinner until you've brought them all down."
"Whatever."
Doris followed her back outside and huffed her way back up the hillside. Piper and Jay set their backs to reducing the split log into manageable pieces. The two of them worked together until dusk, with only the thunk of ax meeting wood to be heard.
"What now?"
"We need to stack it over there." Jay pointed to an area about twenty yards from the house.
"Why so far," asked Doris.
"In case of wildfire." Jay waved at the cleared area. "I've made sure that there is a fire break around the house. We don't want to undo all my good work by putting fuel too close to the structure."
"Is that really a danger?"
"You bet. Give this area a really dry summer and anything can happen." She pulled around a two-wheeled cart. "Using this will help."
They were all tired and sweaty when the last piece of firewood went on the stack. They grinned at one another as they silently admired their accomplishment.
"Are we done yet?" Doris asked from her seat on the patio.
"Yeah. Why don't we all head in and take showers."
"What about dinner?"
"I'll start the potatoes baking and you can start the outside grill." Jay wiped her hands on her pants. "Once we're all clean, I'll do something with the fish."
Doris smiled, tightly. "Sounds good to me."
Both of their eyes rolling, Jay and Piper did their final chores before heading into the house to take their shower. In no time at all, they had rinsed off the soil from the day's work and were ready to complete dinner preparations.
Jay brushed off the mushrooms she collected and set them aside. She quickly took the cleaned fish and lightly peppered the meat.
"Are you sure these are safe?"