Scavenger

by Jerry D. Young

  “None really. Not yet. I always just figured I’d have to use some suitable abandoned property when I found it.”

  “How about timber lodge style?” he showed her three ads in the yellow pages for log home and building companies.”

  “I never thought about it. I don’t know. New construction?” Lucy looked up at Jimmy. “Lot of work.”

  “I’m sure we could get people to help. We’re both in a position to pay for laborers. A lot of it depends on what they might have already prepared.”

  “Only way to find out is to go look.”

  A little reluctantly Jimmy left the tractor, partially loaded trailers, and forklift behind the next morning when they headed for the first of the locations outside the city. It was a big disappointment. They didn’t have much there, and what was there had been burned almost to the ground.

  They went to the second place, which was nearby. They were pleased with what they saw. There were a couple of display homes up, a couple with the parts bundled and ready for shipment, two more partially assembled in their test run, and both the processed and raw log yards were nearly full. So was the warehouse where things like trim, windows, and doors were stored. The place looked to have been abandoned right after the war.

  Despite how good it looked, they decided to check the other place out as well. They couldn’t even get close. There was an armed guard at the turn off up to the company site. They weren’t threatened, but they were told in no uncertain terms that the place was off limits to them unless they were related to the owners.

  Jimmy turned the Suburban around and headed back to the second place. They took their time going through the offices, matching the brochures to the display homes, the ones packed for shipping, and the ones under construction. None of them were really suitable for either Jimmy’s or Lucy’s plans. But there were hundreds of logs ready to be cut to length for use in the building process. Each building was designed, cut, and assembled prior to the pieces being numbered, and then dismantled and packed for shipment.

  The place must have been booming before the war shut it down. They found a dozen orders for homes and buildings in the offices, besides the two being cut, and the two ready for shipment.

  “We take it all,” Jimmy said, “except for the standing units. There is more than enough for both of us to build much larger places than we were wanting.”

  “It seems overwhelming. How are we going to get it back to the farm, much less to the final destination? The Farm doesn’t even really want us bringing back more stuff.”

  “Where there is a will, there is a way. Personally, I am feeling somewhat unwelcome at the Farm at the moment. I’m ready to start moving lock, stock, and barrel to here, until we decide where each one of us wants to go permanently.”

  “I can’t say I disagree,” Lucy said slowly. “But what about security? We are safe at the Farm.”

  “I think we can get a few people from the area surrounding the farm to come along and set up a compound…” After a pause, Jimmy added, “but it sure would be better if we just went ahead and took everything to the final destinations.”

  “I just simply don’t know,” Lucy said.

  “Well,” Jimmy said, looking off to the west, “I’m seriously considering the Mississippi River. From some of the radio traffic, it’s clear that it is a major transportation route, just like it always has been. People are on the river constantly. And you’ve got I-55 going north and south along it. I’m thinking a place where the river and the interstate are close, would be ideal, especially if there is an existing landing, or I could manage to get one put in, somehow.”

  “Sounds like you’ve given this a lot more thought than I have,” Lucy replied.

  “Actually, it’s only come to me recently, when we were listening to the shortwave radio. You know… If it would be good for my business, it would probably be good for yours. We could actually be partners. Simplify a lot of things.”

  Jimmy was astounded when Lucy looked forlorn and started to cry.

  “Lucy? What is it, Lucy? Why are you crying?”

  “Don’t you get it, Jimmy? I’ve fallen in love with you. I don’t want a business partner. I want a lover and a helpmeet. A husband.”

  “Holy cow!” Jimmy said. He took her into his arms, without a protest from her and let her cry on his shoulder for a while. When the sobs stopped, Jimmy stepped back, took her chin in his hand and lifted it so he could look into her eyes.

  “You’ve been driving me crazy almost since the day I met you. You don’t know how hard it’s been to keep my feelings to myself. You had made it clear you didn’t want children. To me that goes with not having a husband.”

  “Oh, Jimmy, I am afraid to have children, because of my first failure. And I know you like children. I’ve never allowed myself to think you’d want to be with someone that couldn’t bear you children.”

  “Oh, I’d like to have children, but it isn’t the highest priority. Having someone intelligent and capable by my side is what I want. Being beautiful would be a plus. You are definitely that, even in silk long johns or a man’s tee-shirt and boxers.’

  “Oh, Jimmy, I…”

  Jimmy cut Lucy’s words off when he hugged her to him and kissed her for a very long time. It was already late in the day. The two silently set up the tent and entered. They shared a sleeping bag that night, and it wasn’t because it was cold.

  With new perspectives, the two got up the next morning to approach the day. They had a quick breakfast and then got ready to leave the property, rather reluctantly. When they got into the Suburban to leave, Jimmy opened the special electrical switch panel and took out what was obviously a ring case.

  “This is the first thing I saw when we started scavenging for the good stuff. I thought of you when I saw it. Will you marry me?”

  With shaking hands Lucy opened the ring box. It was an exquisite two carat marquise diamond in a simple platinum setting, with a half carat brilliant cut diamond on each side. Jimmy reached over, took the ring out of the case and slipped it on Lucy’s left hand ring finger.

  “Well?” Jimmy said softly.

  “Yes,” replied Lucy, just as softly. She leaned over and Jimmy kissed her again. Then he put the Suburban in gear and they headed back to the scavenged items that they’d left behind.

  Rather on pins and needles the entire time, hoping no one else would discover the treasure trove of building materials they had, Jimmy and Lucy continued to scavenge in the second city until the weather turned on them.

  One of the semi tractors they had available had an automatic transmission. Jimmy worked with Lucy for a couple of days while it was raining. When they hooked up the trailers, Jimmy and Lucy were both confident that she could get the rig back to the Farm, if they went slowly. And that was with a whopping four trailers each. The Suburban and trailer were loaded onto the equipment trailer behind the forklift.

  Lucy was pulling three flatbeds and the equipment trailer, since they would catch the least wind. Jimmy had four 53’ reefers, though they weren’t running the cooling units. They wanted the trailers for future use.

  When they got to the road up to the Farm, they unhooked down to two trailers each, and went up to drop them, before going back down to get the other four. There were some sour faces on the Farm’s council when they saw the eight final trailers.

  Jimmy went up to them and said, “We both intend leave in the spring, with all our gear. Hopefully, we can stay the winter. We’re willing to pay for it if you want us to. And Lucy and I plan to be married at the upcoming Christmas wedding feast.”

  Most of the council were shaking their heads and saying that they didn’t need to leave if they were getting married. That they had a lot to offer the community. That they didn’t need to pay. Frank’s wife was the only one that still had a sour look.

  Jimmy and Lucy fell into the same winter routine they’d developed, except Lucy was now sharing Jimmy’s motorhome and his bed. During that winter they talked to on
e of the family members that had architectural training and worked up a set of plans for a small hotel and tavern, to be built of double T&G logs curved on the outside face and square on the inside face.

  Though he was unlicensed, Jimmy fired up his own Yaesu Amateur Radio rig and went on a fact finding mission via the airwaves. He talked to people up and down the Mississippi from St. Louis to Memphis.

  Though many people tried to talk the pair out of leaving, now that they were married, Jimmy and Lucy were adamant about leaving. They headed toward southern Illinois after having considered many recommendations and requests for them to come to specific places on the river.

  Despite no longer being active when the war started, Whiteman Air Force Base on the western side of Missouri had taken many nuclear hits on the empty missile silos located there. Fallout had been heavy all across mid- and southern Missouri. Targets in Arkansas had added additional fallout.

  But there were many farms and a few ranches on both sides of the Mississippi near Cairo, Illinois area that had been able to protect much of their livestock, and had decontaminated many of the tillable fields for crops. There was a resource base available to support the area, including the businesses Jimmy and Lucy planned.

  Another resource was the River traffic going up and down the Missouri, the Mississippi, and the Ohio. The Missouri joined the Mississippi, and the Ohio joined at Cairo, Illinois. Cairo had several River traffic businesses so there would be plenty of River users with whom to do business, plus the local population.

  I-55 was suffering the ravages of nature, including those of one large earthquake not long after the war. There were some efforts to keep it useable, since it was the primary land link from the Gulf of Mexico to north of St. Louis. Not much was done north of St. Louis. It was the point where year round snow was accumulating into the makings of future glaciers.

  As soon as they got there, Jimmy and Lucy fell in love with the place. One of the first things they did upon arriving was to contact the local security people, which turned out to be relatively intact State Patrol and County Sheriff’s Deputies in the area. With their help, Jimmy and Lucy got a small security force together to make sure nothing they brought to the area was taken from them on the way, or when it got there.

  Jimmy also had to make arrangements to have a proxy collect the rent from his properties, convert it to gold, and send it to him.

  All those arrangements made, and a piece of abandoned property selected, Jimmy and Lucy began supervising the daunting task of transporting all their belongings from the Farm to just south of Cairo. They had ten long haul semi tractors, plus one trip with the yard ruck to move the dozens of semi-trailers Jimmy and Lucy had accumulated, plus the many loads of timbers and other building materials from the log home builder. They decided to take the un-worked timbers, too. If nothing else they could be used for firewood.

  Besides gold and silver coins, there was a brisk trade in quality jewelry. They’d been prepared to pay in gold and silver coins, but since people were willing to take jewelry, they were more than happy to oblige. The move cost most of the contents of one large jewelry store, but Jimmy and Lucy had that and more, due to their foresight.

  They even picked up some things along the way on the first two trips, stopping and checking the semis abandoned on the roads between the Farm and Cairo. Most of the small towns either had been picked clean, or the locals warned them off trying to scavenge there.

  Jimmy and Lucy decided to buy fuel from the Farm for the move, since the farm had it to spare, and they wanted to keep what they’d accumulated for a rainy day. Someone was supposed to be making biodiesel around Cairo, but they had yet to find whoever it was.

  The move was completed before fall. That included using stock trailers to move the small herd of Angus cattle and bison Jimmy had been trading for over the years. There was plenty of beef around Cairo, but Jimmy had the herd and knew it was prime quality so moved it instead of trading it off at the Farm. Bison was unheard of in the area and would be a specialty at the hotel dining room. Jimmy’s small herd of horses was also moved.

  A local farmer eagerly accepted management of the herds for stud services from the Angus bulls, plus a couple of cows out of the first birthing the next spring, with the understanding that the beef and bison would be only for the hotel’s use. Jimmy and Lucy wouldn’t go into direct competition with him.

  The farmer had a small Angus herd himself, but only had one bull. His herd needed new blood desperately. He would also provide pork and chicken for the hotel kitchen, as well as dairy items.

  Another farmer took possession of two of the large greenhouses and a generator for the grow lights, in return for the pick of the crop for the hotel. The farmer could sell the remainder of the crop.

  One of the things they’d been uncertain about was the matter of a good foundation for their new building, but there had been quite a bit of barge traffic of Portland cement on the river and they were able to get all they needed to put a full basement under the structure. Plenty of aggregate was available, too. The basement for the hotel and several other buildings on the property were made with very good concrete, after Jimmy paid a local contractor with a working excavator to dig them and run the concrete mixer they traded for locally.

  The basement and foundation walls were extra wide, for Jimmy and Lucy had learned that the winters in the area were even more severe than what they were experienced with, though with slightly less snow, but much more wind.

  Since they had plenty of the machined logs, the exterior walls of the building would be doubled, with a space between, protected by plastic sheeting. The foam board they had originally, reluctantly, planned to put on the inside of the log wall and finish conventionally, would go on the inside of the outer wall, and the space between the walls filled with eighteen inches of earth for a heat sink. They would be able to have the machined log interior.

  The roof was of enameled metal, on a 12/12 pitch. It allowed plenty of room for two feet of insulation on the ceiling, assuring a warm building with minimal use of firewood for heating. It would also keep the building cooler in the summer time.

  Jimmy and Lucy had thoroughly discussed the amounts they would pay for various services in and around Cairo, on the trip from the Farm to Cairo with the first trailer loads of material.

  They would be demanding a very high standard of work, which would naturally cost more than standard wages in the area. But they didn’t want to artificially inflate Cairo’s local economy, and raise the cost to themselves needlessly. They asked around when they got back to Cairo on that trip and got a general feel for what things went for in the area. Then they set up wage scales and equivalencies for those that still didn’t trust gold and silver, much less jewelry.

  With law enforcement active in the area, and with their being on site full time, Jimmy and Lucy let the security team go. They wound up hiring most of them back as laborers for the construction work that would be done before winter set in.

  The construction that was done, besides the basements and foundations, was to get two more of the greenhouses set up. One would provide flowers and specialty foods for the hotel and tavern. The other would be a solarium and winter heat source for the hotel. It was situated so it could always be used for growing things if it became necessary. Actually, until the hotel was finished, it would be used to get plants started in pots, which would eventually adorn the solarium and some of the lobby areas of the hotel itself.

  They had brought pipe and well points with them. There was no trouble getting one of the former well drillers in the area to get their rig going long enough to drill a new deep well for the hotel. Ditto the sewer system, except for the septic tank, which was cast in place in with more concrete.

  The support structures for solar panels were installed, and a few panels put up, to provide electrical power for the motor home they would be living in that winter. More would be added during the construction of the hotel.

  Jimmy and Lucy settled in
for the winter. And indeed it was a bad one. They were further south than they had been, further from the line just north of St. Louis that marked the limit of continual snow accumulation.

  Word began to spread of the proposed new business, both up and down the river, and all around the area on both sides of it.

  When spring rolled around, the few people that were traveling made stops to find out if the rumors were true, and if so, when the establishment would open. Neither Jimmy nor Lucy would give definitive answer, but suggested that people check the coming fall.

  Construction started as soon as it was warm enough to be sure the weather would not adversely affect the process. There was no shortage of workers, many who negotiated with Jimmy and Lucy to get food during the winter for their families, with a reduced rate of pay during the summer.

  Jimmy and Lucy were eager to agree. Food should not be a problem for them. They had all the labor they needed, allowing several sets of laborers to be working at the same time on different sections of the structure.

  Lucy had read up on hotel design and operations in several of the huge number of books that Jimmy had. Since the bulk of the business would be the hotel, Lucy took charge of supervising its construction, with Jimmy only concerning himself with the tavern that would be part of the hotel, and overall supervision of the building processes.

  People came to watch the process, with observers there almost every day construction went on. Many of them seemed fascinated with what would come out of the fleet of semi-trailers belonging to Jimmy and Lucy. There was even a running gamblers’ pool on it.

  Jimmy also took care of several new businesses that they developed due to circumstances. They leased many of the trailers out as they were emptied, to the river boat operations. Since Jimmy had always taken a reefer trailer if it was available, over a regular box trailer, he and Lucy had plenty of the diesel powered cooling unit reefers to go around. It opened up the transport of some perishable cargo that previously had been very small scale operations.