by Paul Rice
Red beamed with delight and said that he did. “I have a whole heap more too, ma’am. A whole heap! They’re all hidden away tho’ as my Pappy, well he don’ likes it when I draw?” He rose to his feet and said to Jane, “Come on and see – I got hundreds o’ them. I got a lot!” Scraping her chair back, she stood, looked at the Ken and Mike and then with a disbelieving shake of her head, followed Red into the front room. Ken and Mike finished their drinks and went back out to the vehicles to organise the parking and things.
Mike said that he quite fancied sleeping in the farmhouse. “It’ll stop us getting in each other’s way in the van, plus I reckon it will be good for the big guy too, give him a bit of company maybe?” Ken agreed and between them they reversed the big vehicle into the barn. It fitted perfectly, Ken extended the slide-outs, which increased the living space, whilst Mike sat in the cab and used the controls to automatically level the beast, the onboard sensors sending hydraulic legs sliding downwards. He said that he would sort out a power lead later, but in the meantime they should keep using the on-board generator. It wasn’t long before they had everything to their liking. The brown truck was parked next to the RV – although they still had the second Spear, hidden in Mike’s case, the men decided that it would be best if the tiny thing was stowed it out of the way, only to be used if the need arose later. In the end, they slid it into one the cupboards that lay either side the bed in the back of the motorhome. Ken also sorted out his guns and once he had stowed the weapons away, he reached over and offered his friend the Beretta. Mike looked at the pistol and said, “Nah, I don’t need it, to be honest I’ve seen just about enough of those things to last me a lifetime?” Ken nodded and slipped the pistol into the driver’s door of the brown truck. Mike went for a walk around the yard, whilst Ken made himself useful and organised Jane’s painting things. He had a feeling that she might need them.
Red and Jane were soon joined by Mike and the three of them managed to engross themselves in the pictures that lay spread across the sitting room floor. Both Mike and Jane were amazed by the young man’s obvious talent; Jane said she would like to do some work with him. “Maybe you could teach me a few things, Red?” He grinned and without any self-consciousness, said that it would be his pleasure.
Mike addressed his accommodation idea with Red and once again the young man was more than eager. “You can use the room my Gran’pappy used to have – he’s been dead a long time now so’s I don’t guess he’ll mind none?”
Mike nearly said: ‘Just as long as he ain’t still in there…’ but when he saw the sad look on Red’s face, managed to stop himself. Instead, he went with a more careful: “Yeah, OK, let’s have a look shall we… if it’s suitable then I’ll get my stuff?” He followed Red into the old room, and was back out in two minutes, saying: “It’s fine for me, probably just needs airing for a bit, but otherwise it’s all good – c’mon and give me a hand with my gear will you, big guy?”
Jane watched as he walked outside with Red in tow. The boy was so excited by Mike’s planned occupation of the house that he had completely forgotten the pictures. She stooped and spent a few more minutes looking at them. Eventually she had gathered them all up and placed the pile of paper neatly onto the old table, which lay under the window. Looking out into the orchard, she smiled to herself again, and then turned to go and find the men.
Over the next few days the trio helped Red get his place in some sort of order. The young man was very neat and tidy, but the years of neglect had allowed the house to become somewhat rundown. It also was sadly lacking in the magical effects of a woman’s touch. Ken did several trips into town, coming and going as Jane decided that she needed one thing here or, perhaps, another thing over there. Between them they also gave the interior a good lick of paint, too. Spending some time, and a little money, Jane replaced all the old bed linen and went around to every window, measuring and taking notes – it wasn’t long before she had hung them all with new curtains. Her touch transformed the old place. Ken also helped as he was dab hand at carpentry and spent a lot of time fixing up all the loose shelves and cupboards that had fallen into disrepair.
The house was of a solid construction and all it needed was a bit of attention. They willingly obliged and soon the old place was looking pretty damned fine, that’s what Red kept saying, anyway – he would stand there looking up at the ceiling, which Mike had just hung with a new light, or perhaps at the gleaming white surfaces of the kitchen cupboards that Ken had finished painting. “My-oh-my, I never did see such a purtty sight; I just never knew that folk could make such a difference! Gee… it looks pretty damned fine in this old house now doesn’t it, huh?” He would smile hugely and then set off to find Jane who would be doing something in another room. The men heard him shouting her name as he loped from room to room in search of her. “Hey, Jane, Ma’am… Gee, yoo should see what the boys have done, Jane?” He had made a big effort with his speech in recent days and it was only when he became excited that some of the really twangy pronunciations returned. Red was becoming his own man as they slowly managed to show him that there was actually some goodness in this world – it wasn’t long before the old farm had been transformed. The interior was now light and airy with the fresh paint and new curtains making it a much brighter place to be. They had cleaned all the rooms and replaced the bedding, fixed up the kitchen and even installed a new cooker and a washing machine, too. Red was delighted when Jane showed him how they worked.
Ken had been fairly delighted as well, because, when he had first seen the mess of wiring and plumbing, he’d wondered if they had perhaps bitten off more than they could chew. He needn’t have worried as Mike set to the task with vigour, and in almost no time at all he had done wonders with the tangled mess of wires and pipes, his efforts allowing Ken to have an easy time with the fitting of Red’s swanky new machines. The final interior job they completed was to install a new bathroom. It took three days of solid work for them to fit an enormous shower into the corner of the biggest bedroom. Mike plumbed in all the wiring and pipes and left Ken to get on with putting it all together; between them they provided the young man with something he had never had before – hot running water and a place in which to clean himself in privacy. He spent many a long minute in that shower, humming and laughing to himself as the steam rose all around him. His reactions to the provision of such basics were to be all the motivation the trio needed. Their giving was rewarded ten fold by Red’s obvious delight.
They also carried out some work on the outside of the farm. Red had a large, wood burning hot water tank, the old boiler was in need of some attention and so they provided it. Mike replaced the pipe works and Ken cleaned out the large, blackened hearth underneath the old tank. After they had laid fresh bricks and refurbished the wood store next to the boiler, the three men had, what Jane could only laughingly describe as: “A wood chopping frenzy.”
Red took Mike around the farm, and using the pickup truck they gathered a great pile of dry wood from the far-flung corners of the property. They would bring it back to the house where Ken would be waiting with the axe. He had found it in the barn, and after getting Mike to fiddle with the machine, he’d used the previously broken grinder to give the blade of the axe a very keen edge. Jane watched as her husband stood bare-chested and attacked the ever growing pile of wood, which Red and Mike kept on fetching to the house. The sweat ran down his back and chest as he stood in the warm sunlight. Ken looked at her and smiled. “Ah, that feels good!” he said. “It’s been ages since I’ve chopped this much wood, it’s the best feeling in the world, my love – I thought that I might have been getting a bit too old for this type of thing?” He grinned at her, cheekily. She looked at the bulging muscles on his arms and shoulders, shook her head at the ridiculous idea, laughed and then fetched him a glass of cool water. Ken drank it in one long gulp and then turned back to his heap of wood to carry on chopping. In short order he had turned it into a nice neat pile of logs. Impaling the axe into the
heavily scarred stump, which he was using as a chopping block, he plonked himself down next to Jane and together they sat and waited for the next load of wood to arrive. By the evening they had cleared most of the deadwood from around the farm and Ken had managed to fill the wood store to the brim. The large pile of logs and kindling would last them a long time. All they had to do was light the fire under the boiler and there would be almost endless supply of free hot water.
The last jobs they undertook were all about the outside of the old place. Red painted the entire exterior walls of the farmhouse with a white weatherproof paint, Mike fixed up the outside lights and Ken refitted some of the old wooden tiles on the roof. Red called them ‘shingles’ and stood below as Ken passed him all the ones that were past their best. He and Red took a trip into town and found some suitable replacements in the hardware store.
It was a busy time and before they knew it another two weeks had passed. Finally, they decided they were done, so, after cleaning all the tools and packing things away, they retired onto the freshly painted porch with a drink. The four of them sitting in satisfied silence and watching the golden sunset as it splashed onto the hills in the distance. Red looked out across the yard and then glanced at the pots lining the porch. They were filled with an array of beautiful plants and flowers, which had surrendered to Jane’s womanly touch.
He looked up at Mike and said: “This is so beautiful, it’s just like a real house now, I’m so lucky! Why’ve yoo done this thing for me, yo’all don’t owe me nothing?” His voice had deepened somewhat over the last two weeks and they heard it tremble slightly as he spoke.
Mike leaned over and patted him on his shoulder. “Like we said before, Red – we’re around for a bit and besides, this is a nice place to be. As long as you’re happy to have us, then we’ll be happy to hang around for a while?” Red nodded silently and looked around the three faces of his new found friends.
He looked quite overcome and Ken, in order to stop any further embarrassment, said: “Anyway, all the hard work is done now, guys? I think that tomorrow we should all have some fun – how does a bit of shooting and fishing sound?” The men agreed wholeheartedly, but Jane said she would give it a miss.
“I have to go into town for a bit as there are a few things we need, so I’ll probably go in first thing after breakfast, if that’s OK?” They agreed and proceeded to talk happily about the adventures of the forthcoming day. After a while, Mike asked Red if he would like to watch some TV.
The young man’s eyes lit up. “Yessir… I only seen it once or twice before, have yoo got one?” Mike grinned and then took him over to the barn where they clambered up the steps into the RV.
As he reached the top of the steps, Mike looked back from the doorway and shouted across: “We won’t be long, folks – is that OK?” They laughed, waved their agreement and watched as the two ‘kids’ happily bounded into the vehicle.
As the door of the van shut behind his friend, Ken turned to Jane, and said, “Thanks for everything, babe, it’s been really good hasn’t it? I mean, we’ve done something positive here, haven’t we?”
She saw the pleasure in his eyes and agreed. “Yes, yes we have. Red seems like a different person already, doesn’t he? He seems calmer, more thoughtful, and his voice is changing, too, I don’t mean the tone, that’s just him maturing, I mean his accent, it’s less jerky, you know?”
Ken nodded. “Yeah, this whole thing is weird because it just seems to feel right. Perhaps you have got it right, perhaps this is exactly what we are supposed to be doing – maybe this change is the one that’s been missing all along?”
After discussing it for a while longer, they decided to continue as they were and wait to see what lay in store for them. In the meantime they would make the most of things and try and enjoy their new life.
Together, over a cold beer or two, they sat and watched the dusk approach, smiling softly as they listened to Mike and Red howl with laughter at some cheap TV show or another.
Chapter 24 - Tori
The following day they all gathered on the porch and tucked into the large, fried breakfast that Ken had cooked. He said, “Always make sure that you do the cooking on a Sunday morning, Red – it’ll keep the woman in your life nice and sweet, my friend!” He winked at the young man who sat opposite.
Through a mouthful of bacon and fried eggs, Red replied: “Yessir I will, it’ll be fine to cook for my woman!” Jane saw the look in his eye and realised that perhaps Red was not such a ‘boy’ after all. She nearly laughed but just managed to hide it with a fake cough into her paper napkin. Ken saw her look and raised his eyebrows. She gave him a slight shake of the head; he smiled and nodded before winking again, this time straight at her. The spark of mischievousness glinted in his eye and Jane couldn’t stop herself from laughing any longer.
“What the hell are you two bloody idiots laughing about now? Watch this pair, Red – they’re like a couple of kids!” Mike laughed and nodded at Ken and Jane who were now giggling like crazy.
Red gave them a wide grin and mopped his plate clean with a chunk of bread. “I know sir, but I like it, it makes me feel happy. I like it when people play around!” He rose from the table and helped Ken take the dishes into the kitchen and then carried their coffees back outside. It was a beautiful day without a cloud in sight. The soft wind blew in from the east and they could smell the new grasses growing in the fields around the house.
Mike sat back in his chair and raised his long legs in order to rest his feet on the wooden rail, which surrounded the porch. “Jeez, this place is beautiful isn’t it, I think that I could stay here forever?” He stretched his arms out and sat with his hands clasped behind his head. He was the picture of contentment and was soon joined by Red – the boy sat next to him and almost immediately mimicked Mike’s posture. They looked like a set of not-so-identical twins as they sat there and watched the world go by. Ken nodded at them and Jane smiled in acknowledgement. A few minutes later she asked Ken for the keys, saying that she was going into town and that she would be back later.
Red said, “Do you need some company, ma’am, I’ll gladly come and help if’n you like?”
Jane told him to stay put. “It’s OK, Red. I just fancy having a few hours of ‘girl time’, you boys go and play and I’ll come and find you later on!”
Ken laughed. “By saying ‘girl time’, Jane means that she’s going shopping. Red, if you want my advice, then you’ll stay well away from that activity, buddy!” Jane smiled sweetly at him, and then, putting on a false flounce, she headed for the truck.
The men grinned and waved as she wheel-spun out of the barn and shot off down the track. They saw her wave back through the open side window and all three of them laughed again. “They’s a strange thang ain’t they, wimmen, nice but strange?” Red said, as he looked at his new friends and then grinned at Mike’s reply.
“Yeah, and then some, Red… Strange is the word all right, very strange!” They sat and finished their drinks on the porch whilst Ken went and collected the .22 rifle and some ammunition. Seeing the rifle in Ken’s hands, Red stood up and went into the house to collect his father’s shotgun. They laid the weapons on the table whilst Ken gave the young man a quick lesson on the workings of the small rifle. Red was a natural and happily repaid the compliment with the old twelve-gauge. They had plenty of ammunition and decided upon a bit of target practice with the .22. Red had never fired a rifle but soon got the hang of it, and it wasn’t long before the old fizzy drink cans were flying through the air with every shot. Red fetched a couple of lids from the empty paint cans and the men had a great time throwing them up in the air and blasting them with the shotgun. Red was extremely skilled at the art of shooting the moving aerial targets and Mike and Ken were easily bested by him. “Bloody-hell, kid… you could take that up professionally!” Mike said, as he watched Red’s fluid actions send yet another lid home with a backside full of buckshot.
Red grinned. “My daddy only ever gav
e me two shells at a time, he said that if’n a man cain’t gets what he needs with two shells then he shouldn’t waste his time and munny?” Red didn’t know what Mike had meant by ‘professionally’ but guessed, by the look on his face, that Mike was pleased. The young man looked very proud of himself as he downed yet another wayward lid. Ken left them to it for a bit and wandered across to the barn to sort out the fishing gear. It wasn’t too long before the fun of shooting had worn off and the other two had joined him. Deciding on the rods they would need, the men then also gathered a few cold drinks and some sandwiches, which they stuffed into Ken’s old pack. Making sure they had everything, the three men took a slow walk down to the lake where they could see the early morning mist rising lazily above the surface of the shining water as it lay in the distance. The sun was starting to warm the ground and the fresh smell of the earth filled their noses as they meandered down to the lake. On the way, Red made them stop and pick some of the crunchy red apples from his favourite tree. The tree grew on the top of a large mound and he said his grandfather had planted it there when he, Red, was born. “He said the apples would be red – jus’ like me!” He smiled and threw one to each of them.
They hunkered down on the mound and sat around the tree with their backs resting against its warm trunk. It was quite a big tree and Ken had the feeling it had been there a lot longer than Red had been alive, he also supposed that it may have been as a result of the strange time differences in their new dimension. “Nothing fits, not really… it’s all a bit weird!” Smiling at his inner thoughts, he sat, crunched on the apple and listened to the banter as it flowed between his best friend and his previous arch enemy. “Weird isn’t the word!” He thought as he sat in the sun and looked out over the farm.