World Wright Incorporated (World Wright Inc. Book 1)

by Vlad ben Avorham

  John had untied the two problem children earlier that morning. He had been walking them around the clearing on long lead ropes like leashes. With few exceptions for necessities, they had been very closely tied to a wagon wheel for the last thirty-six hours. And since he fully intended to harness them to the handcart, John wanted to give them a chance to walk off any cramps. Melina approached John with a smile. John felt his anxiety dial up to eleven. He looked over and saw Dr. Godfreed standing nearby. He raised his voice for a moment. “Uh, normally I wouldn’t ask...”

  Godfreed grinned at him, “Afraid I disapprove of the whole slavery thing?” John just sort of shrugged. Godfreed’s grin widened. “Yeah, kinda. These boys though, They’ve earned what they’ve got coming. Besides, if you actually harbored any real ill intent toward them, you could have just watched them swing with a smile. I’ll see to it they have a thoroughly miserable time until they’re back in your tender care.”

  John couldn’t help but grin back. It was good when people had a sense of humor. “Thanks Doc. I owe you one.”

  Melina led him off a little way. “I talk to you first. You lot liked.” She smiled at him. “Two like you. I tell no.” John’s face fell. Melina shook her head, “Bad treat like baby like you want mommy” John sighed and nodded his understanding. “Six still like” she scrunched up her face “much many?” she asked.

  John thought about it. Like any guy, his ego wanted to say the more the merrier, but he knew that there were going to be problems at least early on. Six was just asking for trouble. Even Davidson wouldn’t have started with eight if they hadn’t just kinda been sprung on him, John was pretty sure. So he nodded, “It might be a bit much all at once.”

  Melina smiled and nodded. She pointed to two, one on each end. A blonde knockout, and the other a tiny little brunette who looked like she might be a lot younger than the rest, which made John a bit nervous. Those two were already wearing the coin collars he had made. “Them yes much good.” Melina said, nodding. “Others?” she shrugged. “like you much. Like rich. Tell chief and chief do. Famous.”

  John grinned, “Like me for all the wrong reasons, you mean.” Damn, women always knew these things about each other. Every time one of his female friends had tried to warn him he was making a mistake, and he hadn’t listened, he’d gotten burned badly. No time like the present to learn from your mistakes, boy, he thought to himself. “Just the two. Tell the others no.” he hesitated for a moment. “Melina, give each of the girls a ring too, then keep the other two for yourself for helping me. Thank you so much.”

  Melina turned that brilliant smile on him again. She leaned down and gave him a kiss on the top of his head. “John good. Melina find good, For John” and with that she was off. He went back to the wagon. There would be time to get to know the girls on the long walk home.

  Not far away, the Roth brothers were pacing back and forth. Sapphira had told them she would meet them here. She wasn’t exactly late, but could someone just let them know and stop this interminable waiting already. They were both facing the wrong direction when she showed up, so when she said something they both jumped like frightened children. Their faces turned seven shades of red as they turned and saw two young women with dark hair and dark eyes looking at them with concern. While not mirror images of each other, they looked very much alike. The guys figured it out at almost the same moment; they were sisters. Sapphira smiled proud of herself. Their father was a fisherman and had died in a recent storm. Their mother had financial troubles. Not having to maintain the two eldest daughters, plus what selling the two rings brought in, would allow her to keep the rest of the family together. Everyone wins!

  Sapphira was very proud of herself. The Roths felt a little sick. They didn’t want two scared semi orphans who were sold off to feed their younger siblings! What kind of horror story was this? What kind of monsters did Sapphira think that they were? Both girls, not understanding what was being said, only seeing that the brothers were unhappy, thought that they were being rejected. This would bring shame upon them and ruin upon their family. They broke into tears. Sapphira was likewise confused. This had seemed like the perfect solution, keeping the sisters together because they were so close with brothers who were inseparable.

  Hearing all the commotion, Evita came over, saw the girls crying, yelled at the Roth brothers and took the girls over and put them on the wagon. She was softly comforting them still as the wagon finally pulled out back to their home. Leading this time a whole host of new people and even more new animals. A large part of the payment was in sheep, goats, and even chickens. John even had the two miscreants harnessed in tandem, each one between two nanny goats pulling the handcart. Through Phoebe as a translator, John had explained to them, since they acted like animals, they would be treated like animals. Marcus Godfreed just hid his grin behind a hand. Georgia shook her head at him. Their views of child discipline were something they would have to work on if this thing between them continued, she thought.

  Rain

  Of course, between Festival and home, the heavens opened, and the deluge began. The long trek became a long, miserable trek. Dusk was deepening toward total darkness as they finally pulled in to the open yard before the half completed great hall. Everyone was doing the minimum required effort to secure the animals and equipment before seeking shelter for the night.

  John tied his two problem children below the hand cart for the limited shelter it provided. The misery would prove instructive for them, he decided. He then led his two young ladies not inside with everyone else but instead down by the creek, to the small but weather tight bath house he had built. With firewood already stacked inside and dry, he quickly got a fire going. The girls looked at this little room with confusion. Then when he turned the wooden valve and water flowed through the pipe and filled the tub beneath, their eyes boggled. The fire warmed the room, and John spoke to them in a soothing voice as he took their clothes. They stiffened, but knowing this was the bargain they had made, they grudgingly gave them to him. He smiled at them and tried not to ogle too much. He was happy to see that the one he had thought young was, in fact, only very petite. Still, he decide until he was sure that she was at her maximum body size he wouldn’t risk her becoming pregnant. He took all three of their clothes and hung them out in the rain. Running his fingers through the water in the tub, he knew it would be a bit longer. Singing softly, more to have the soft rhythm than anything else. He lay the girls down one by one. John had never been professional level at massage or anything, and his new smaller weaker hands were unlikely to win him any prizes in that department, but having had no one focus attention just on them before it wasn’t long before first one and then the other had breathing that was deep and regular. Soon soft coos of delight as his hands kneaded muscles abused a long road trip, and soft, truly pitiful whimpers of abandonment when he switched from one to the other. He couldn’t help laugh when they both cried out as he walked back across the room to test the water. It was finally warm. Playfully resisting getting up, they let him slowly drag them over, but as they sank deep into the relaxing warm water, the guttural moan of pleasure was a sound John St. Claire hadn’t heard in a very long time. Restricting himself to only “heavy petting” tonight. He still had earned a whole new level of interest from his young women by the time the water was cold, and they had to climb out and drain the tub. Watching how smoothly it had filled, been heated, and then was emptied, both women were quite impressed with their new home. John brought back in their clothes and stoked back up the fire. They fell asleep entangled together on the massage bench.

  The light streaming through the open door with bright and the morning breeze was sharp and crisp on his skin. The women recoiled, trying to cover themselves. From outside the door, he could hear the slightly embarrassed sounding voice Dr. Young. “Sorry John. Didn’t realize you were in here yet.”

  He called through the closed door, “We can be out of your way in just a second.”

  “Just hel
ping the poor dears that the Roth brothers were terrorizing.” She called back.

  He didn’t have the patience to argue with her. The Roths don’t cause people problems on purpose, their social skills are just not all there when there isn’t a language barrier. When they couldn’t even talk it out, forget about it.

  Soon enough dressed they are out and blinking in the dazzling light. Realizing that it was already midmorning, they had slept through breakfast. Arriving at the summer kitchen he smiled at the ladies panic stricken faces. They had no idea how to cook on the stoves that were here. John put some oil in the wok, built up the fire, added some chopped garlic, a few chunks of dried meat from the clay canister on the counter, then whisked in two dozen eggs. The heaping mound of scrambled eggs which resulted was a big hit with the ladies. John had eaten his fill and the leftovers he fed to the idiots still tied to the bottom of the handcart. He wished he had time to settle things in more slowly here, but their house wouldn’t build itself. So stripping a pair of small switches from a tree. He harnessed the idiots up and started them pulling the cart, hauling the rocks loaded by Davidson’s young women. Putting his ladies in charge of the cart, he handed each one of them a switch and smiled. Swatting the taller of the two playfully on the backside as he wandered off whistling, he went hunting for Davidson. With all of these new people, there had to have been changes to the plans.

  Winter is Coming

  The Forge

  John found Davidson working with Godfreed in the forge. Both men stripped to the waist despite the cooler weather, with sweat dripping off of them. The two men were working together on what appeared to be a very long blade. John chose not to interrupt them for the moment. They were obviously both busy shaping the metal before it cooled too much. Godfreed struck one last blow, then with a squint at the blade and a nod of his head he set the heavy hammer aside. Davidson sighed and used the long tongs to swing the heavy blade back into the fire. As he reached for the bellows pull, John waved him off. “Rest. I can get this much at least.”

  Davidson gave a weary nod and didn’t argue. He took a moment to look to Godfreed before both men turned a knowing grin on John. “Long night?” Godfreed asked dryly.

  John shook his head with an exasperated chuckle. “Not like you think. I’m trying to slowly introduce them to their new home.” He couldn’t resist a grin after a moment, though. “They do seem to enjoy some of its advantages.” He shook his head to clear his thoughts. No time to be focused on that at the moment. “I hooked up Baba Looey and Eeyore to the handcart, cut the girls some willow switches, put them in charge and sent them off to haul more rocks up from the creek. Then figured I’d better come find you.” He nodded at the fire. He wasn’t sure how long it took to heat up, but it had been in there a minute.

  “Baba Looey and Eeyore?” Davidson asked as he checked the steel’s color.

  “Yeah, from Winni the Poo and Quick Draw McGraw, because those two are both a couple of jackasses... anyway, it seemed funny at the time. Kinda like the names they gave us in boot. Figure this is kinda like that, six weeks up to maybe ten if they’re slow on the uptake, then we can get them back to being human again and who knows maybe they can even be useful one day. In the meantime, we can get some work out of them. No shortage of work that needs doing before the weather gets bad. Speaking of... any idea what ‘bad’ means around these parts?” John couldn’t help asking with a bit of a nervous twitter to his voice.

  Davidson looked at the metal again and gave a nod. “Ok, enough with the air. Think you can work the tongs enough just to hold it steady for us, if I get it on the anvil for you?”

  John took a deep breath. It was a sizeable chunk of steel... He shrugged. “All we can do is try, boss. What is this thing anyway?”

  Davidson nodded, “Here goes then.” He looked over to Godfreed, “You ready?” Getting a firm nod back, he swung the glowing yellow, red bar of steel out and shifted so that John to take the long handles of the tongs in his hands. Then, with impressive speed and incredible rhythm for no longer than they had been working together, they set about shaping to John what looked a bit like a long draw knife. As the piece cooled too much to work properly, Godfreed set down his hammer, Davidson took back over the tongs and started toward the forge again. “From what they say, winter means snow is possible but light and short-lived, never lasting more than a couple days at most. So everyone, including the animals, will need shelter of at least a light degree. Shelter means not being able to graze so we have to put up hay. This,” he nodded at at the piece of steel they were heating again, “is the third of six blades of an automatic goat drawn hay mower.” He shrugged. “Once I have the prototype to fine tune, it’ll be harvesting wheat and barley by next fall. I hope. Unless I miss my guess, or this turns out to be a lot harder than it looks on the surface”, he gave them both a cautious grin, every one of them there knew that Murphy was an optimist, “We should be able to free up some people from farming, so we can hire them to work on the water wheels and cement factories, and mine the guano, and the oil from the tar pits, and,” he grinned as he waved John to stop with the bellows and get ready to handle the tongs again.

  Godfreed sighed picking up his hammer, “And Georgia is talking about olive oil and lanolin soaps, and I overheard her with Elena discussing essentially taking over the whole island’s spinning with the new spinning wheel,” he shook his head with a smile, “To hear them talk, tycoons in the making. The list really is endless.” he said as he struck the first blow setting into the rhythm with Davidson. Talking kinda went on hold while the work progressed. Strike while the iron is hot took on a whole different flavor when actually smithing, John thought. His hands were killing him. They really were too small to control this enormous piece of steel with both men hammering on it, but he could see how much more work they were getting done with someone doing just this little thing. He wasn’t about to quit, but he knew he would pay for it later.

  The steel goes into the fire one last time. Davidson stretched his back. “I’d say we’re almost ready for quenching and tempering, but that’s pretty useless. This is only mild steel. Though speaking of all the endless industries, Dr. Gupta said that he would stay back only two weeks with his new wife’s family, right?”

  Godfreed nodded. “Yeah, long enough to have a small honeymoon and teach his new brother-in-law how to build the clay stoves. Never thought a man could turn mud into a small fortune like that.” Marcus couldn’t help but smile with admiration.

  John panted out between bellows pulls, it really was harder work than it looked once you were at it for a while, “Yeah, but I remember now reading in the back before that something like seventy percent of people in developing nations had breathing problems from smoke inhalation because of cooking over open flames in doors. So MIT and some other big engineering firms all figured out ways to use local materials to make high-tech stoves to make their lives better. With all his work in the third world, it’s no wonder Dr. Gupta knew about the stoves.”

  Davidson waved for St. Claire to back off on the bellows, “Well hopefully he can put some of that know how into arranging a heating system for the hall when he gets back. Besides, before this grows much bigger, we really should have a meeting to decide how we want to manage and coordinate it all. Everyman for himself is fine if that’s what everyone wants, but it’s a big world out there and with what we know, if we stick together we could carve it up nicely rather than have it swallow us.” the hammering then started leaving each man to consider that thought.

  Proper Care and Training of Animals

  Elena was stressed. Since she had traded for all the livestock, she felt responsible for making sure that it did well. She knew little about keeping animals, her family had been fishermen, but Sapphire wanted to use the new spinning wheel to make a lot of yarn to trade at the next Festival so she had been talking with the four shepherd boys that Elena had contracted to care for the flocks and they said that they would need hay for the winter. She knew tha
t making hay took a lot of work, but they hadn’t even started, and whenever she asked Eli about it, he told her not to worry. She didn’t think that Eli knew much about animals, either. His family must be metal workers after all. He is so rich he probably just thinks that he can trade a knife for some hay, but trade with whom? Everyone who has hay will need it for their own animals. She couldn’t just not worry. She put another rock on the wagon and frowned. The two boys pulling the wagon were lazy and said mean things to John’s girls. She didn’t like it. Elena wished she could remember their names. Maybe she should talk to them. The thought no sooner passed through her mind than the larger of the two boys pinched the larger of the two girls on the bottom as she put her rock on the cart. Elena saw red. Before she could react, she heard the boy cry out in pain.

  The smaller of the two had lashed out with her switch, catching the bigger boy on the side of his face. Elena was in a bit of shock. The smaller girl was not backing down, she was yelling at the boy and he said something nasty back to her. She hit him again and then yelled at him to take off his clothes. Elena was shocked. When he refused, she hit him over and over until he agreed. When she had both boys standing there naked and shaking with embarrassment, striped red with a dozen welts she hissed through her teeth in a loud voice, “Act like an animal, live like an animal!” then she went over to check on the taller girl. Through her shock, Elena fought to hold back a giggle. Several of the other girls weren’t so reserved but were pointing at the unfortunate boy and openly laughing. Elena couldn’t help but think that it served him right, but she didn’t think Eli would approve of them getting involved.