World Wright Incorporated (World Wright Inc. Book 1)

by Vlad ben Avorham

  “Ok everyone, our home isn’t going to get built like this. This wagon is full. It needs to go be emptied.” She said pointedly. Only barely hiding their smiles, the girls got on with work.

  Ignoring their pleas for the return of their clothes, the larger fair-haired girl simply said, “Pull the cart animal.”

  Leaving the forge to get ready for dinner, John headed down and saw the predicament of the young men and raised an eyebrow. Knowing Elena had the best command of English, he sought her out. “Any idea what’s going on there?” he asked in an even tone, mostly just curious.

  Elena looked nervous. She recounted the story of the crude behavior of the boys ending with his finally getting handsy with the taller one, “Hellena” John supplied. Elena nodded and continued, telling him that the smaller one, “Syria” John said with a grin, then decided that this was the best manner to handle things. Elena’s relief was visible as John let out a low chuckle, she had been afraid that because of his undeveloped body that he would worry that his girls had been taking an opportunity to explore, but it seemed he understood the situation and maybe even that he approved. She was glad. John was nice and deserved to be happy.

  John nodded once, couldn’t hold back his grin, “Thank you, Elena. Your English has gotten very good.” he complimented her. “Much better than my Greek.”

  She smiled shyly, “Will be better now”.

  John actually blushed. “Yeah, I bet it will at that.” He couldn’t help but chuckle.

  Finding the girls still driving their team of very miserable-looking jackasses, John suppressed a grin and just raised an eyebrow. Both girls looked down, not sure how to explain. John took Hellena’s face in his hands. Looking up to meet her eyes, he smiled a reassuring smile and was greeted with a look of relief. He moved over to the two, still in their harness. He just shook his head, laughing softly. “You two are a miserable-looking lot. Ended up sad, sorry, and sore, didn’t you?” he asked in English. He noticed the cut on Eeyore’s chest and noticed it hadn’t fully closed, was red and upon closer inspection was warm to the touch. “Gonna have to see to that after dinner, and no, you’re probably not going to enjoy it.” he shook his head and moved on to little Syria. She was only a little taller than he, he met her eye and couldn’t hold back the grin, “Act like animals, live like animals.” he said in Greek chuckling. She couldn’t hold back she bounced forward and kissed him. John was a bit surprised. While both girls had accepted his advances, even had obviously enjoyed his touch, this was the first that either of them had initiated any display of affection toward him. As he came up for air, he couldn’t help feeling just a little smug. “Eat?” he said in English and mimed putting food in his mouth. Both girls’ eyes got wide and nodded vigorously.

  After dinner, the three of them went to check on the Jackasses. As expected, the cuts of both were dirty and while not badly infected they needed treated. He bound the boys tightly. Cleaning these would not be pretty, and the last thing he needed was to have to fight them while doing it. The girls both watched him intently. He washed the wounds, and there was much screaming. It would probably have been less painful with alcohol because even with the burn, it would have loosened the tar that had been used to seal it much easier. He decided that was a conversation to have with the Roth’s in the morning. The girls seemed fascinated as he ground the sulphur and charcoal into a fine powder. They wrinkled their noses but were curious. Then as he removed the stitches, dusted the entire area with the powder and applied a fresh tar sealant, they seemed to understand what had happened if not the why. In the end, when he released the boys from their restraints they were so weak from the experience they just dropped into a deep sleep. John rubbed his face as he realized it had been a long day for him as well. He looked up as he heard the girls whispering something to each other and giggling. “Ok, what is it? What are you two up to?” he asked with a smile.

  The girls just replied with one of the few English words that they had picked up “Bath?”

  John couldn’t help it, he just laughed... “All right, you talked me in to it. Let’s go.” He let them drag him off to the bathhouse.

  Growing Pains

  Been on this road before

  Eli washed in the cold rain catchment pond up by the forge. It wasn’t as relaxing as a proper bath, but it got rid of the grime before he went home. He had spent the last three days hammering out blades and fasteners for his harvester. He got home late, and the girls were usually asleep already. Except for Elena and Phoebe, who seemed to enjoy using the quiet later hour or so in the evening to plan for the next day. Eli was looking forward to the sabbath this week. All the girls were looking worn and tired.

  John had put his team on light duty for a day, said they were fighting an infection from their wounds, and had taken them to boil sea water for salt. So he had sent Godfreed down to operate the giant see-saw lift that the Roths had rigged up to lift rocks up for adding rock to the second floor. Sounded like progress was good but everyone seemed worn down. There was some kind of quarrel between Dr. Stone and Dr. Young. Eli wasn’t clear on the details and Godfreed seemed to think it would blow over, but the friction was causing unneeded tension.

  Privacy was also more rare than gold. He sighed. Everyone had someone now, then he thought of Dr. Young and amended that, almost everyone, that they wanted to be alone with, and even though the Hall was big enough for them all, even when the walls were done and the roof was on, the interior would be mostly open. Putting up interior walls in a world without sawmills or cheap nails, wasn’t likely to be quick or horribly sound proof. They really didn’t have time to be making individual houses, either. Between finishing the Hall, and the barns, the various necessary shop spaces... he sighed. Time for individual houses, even very simple ones, was a very long way off. At least, the girls assured him, training the goats to pull had been progressing well. Though when he was going to have the time to make more wagons, he hadn’t the faintest idea.

  John opened the door to the Hall and blinked. He had been so wrapped up in his thoughts; he didn’t even consciously remember walking home. John shook his head. It had been a long week and there were still two days left. He made his way in past the mud room/gate room entrance, the term he used depended on if he was discussing security with Godfreed, St. Claire, and the Roths, or if he were explaining the ease and convenience of his design choices to Doctors Stone and Young. No reason to worry them after all, he thought. Either way, he came into the main room and could feel the tension in the air. On one side of the room were his ladies all seemingly very upset and seemingly pointedly NOT talking to each other, and on the other side of the room was everyone else, seemingly very interested in whatever they were doing and NOT noticing. Eli suppressed the forlorn sigh he very much wanted to express and went over, giving each of them a light kiss of greeting.

  They returned his kiss but remained sullen. “Ah shit,” he thought to himself. “This is never good. They don’t seem to be mad at me... still... no peace until it’s handled...” again he suppressed the sigh. Out loud he said, “So I can tell everyone is excited. Who wants to be the first to tell me about their day?”

  The silence was deafening. The other side of the room exchanged incredulous looks with each other. The silence was only broken when little Syria spoke up. She looked at John, “Bath?” The entire room erupted in laughter. Even Eli noticed with relief that his girls were fighting back smiles. Especially when John just grinned, took her hand and then grabbed Helena’s and headed for the door.

  Georgia looked over to Godfreed, “Should we...” she began.

  “Check on that, think?” he offered with a sardonic smile.

  Giggling, she just said, “Yeah, something like that.”

  The others didn’t bother with lame excuses. They just smiled and nodded and all found somewhere else to be for a little bit. Even Dr. Young walked out, just shaking her head. When the room was empty Eli let out a long tired sigh, “Ok, lets have it! What’s wrong.” At
first, no one said anything. Then everyone was trying to talk at once. When he finally established some order to the situation, it all seemed to come down to they were worried, they were tired, they each had their own projects and their own troubles because of that, and that made them feel alone in dealing with it, they missed him, and instead of turning to each other for help, they kinda felt like the others only cared about their own problems. As a husband, father of a daughter, especially through those stormy teenage years, he shied away from that thought, not wanting to dwell too much on ages considering, and grandfather to very precocious granddaughters, these were all issues he had heard before. While on the surface, he looked very serious as he listened to them. He already knew what he needed to do. Oh, the solution would anger the likes of Dr. Young, and probably Dr. Stone as well, though she might grudgingly admit that it would work, not likely reality, doesn’t invalidate it. Prescription for what ails them? Orgasm for tension relief. Reassurance for confidence boost. Little bit of intimate time spent to reaffirm personal commitment and strengthen a sense of security. Lastly bit of team building effort, so that they reach out for help from each other. After all, there’s a lot more of them than there are of me, he thought with a chuckle. Probably smarter too if I’m honest, I’ve just been down this road before, and I’m better at being decisive. Even a shaky plan decisively executed can win out over a perfect plan hesitated over.

  In that spirit, he laughed and told them all that he loved them. That he knew how hard that they had all been working. That he was sorry he had been away, but that he had been working on a surprise that would solve a lot of what they were worried about. Eli could see them visibly relax. He said that of course they all cared about the others; it was just hard to focus on somebody else’s belly ache when a bumble bee just flew down your shirt. He made a buzzing sound and playfully nipped at Melina’s left breast. This brought giggles all around as she playfully dodged out of the way. Over acting just a bit, he put on a thoughtful expression, then as if the idea just came to him he lowered his voice conspiratorially, “Tonight, when everyone goes to sleep,” he made eye contact with each one of them bringing them in on the ‘plot’, he almost laughed as he watched them lean forward intently, “Each of us will, um, ENJOY ourselves,” he waggled his eyebrows as he put extra emphasis on the word, again giggles erupting all around, “but since we can’t wake the others, we each not only have to help enjoy, but we have to help them be quiet too.” He left that challenge hang in the air. He couldn’t help but smile. Ok, no corporate trainer back on Earth could have ever gotten by with it, but as team building went, you couldn’t beat it.

  The others slowly drifted back in over the next hour. It surprised them to see the Davidson clan as close as ever. In the end, though everyone was just happy to have a little peace and quiet. Quarters really were too close for overt strife. It quickly became unhealthy.

  In the morning, John noticed Davidson looked like death warmed over. He said nothing but when the boss told him he needed four dozen tipi poles cut and stripped before next week he just figured that the boss had been laying awake all night hatching some new scheme.

  It Must be Magic

  Josh watched the last of the embers die. He was so tired of making concrete. They had been gathering firewood and hauling seashells for two weeks now, but with this last batch they should finally have enough to finish off the second floor, and once the timbers were all in place, pour the roof. Three inch thick wooden planks, with two inches of reed thatching over it, coated with tar for waterproofing and a coating of sand to affix the tar, then a three inch thick concrete slab over that. As long as it didn’t crack, it should be waterproof, and fire resistant, and last for fifty years.

  He wanted to think that meant he wouldn’t have to burn a new batch of concrete for a long time, but he knew better. Damn Davidson was already drawing up designs for projects... hell, he didn’t know where they would get that many seashells. He was just about to become truly depressed as Sam came bounding through the door. “Ha, ha! First batch, success!” He was all but dancing. “Here. Have a taste.” He passed over the small clay cup to Josh. “But only a sip, mind you. Careful it’s potent!”

  Josh started to take a drink, but the fumes burned his nose! This smelled like paint thinner. He took a sip. Ugh! He wished it tasted like paint thinner. “Sam! This stuff is awful!”

  Sam grinned at him. “Test batch. Proof of concept. Raw. Only one distillation. And definitely not aged. With a little work, the actual product will be much better. With the material Davidson authorized and say ten men, I estimate production at ten thousand gallons a year.” He thought for a moment, “That’s at Eighty Proof, so multiply that amount if we dilute it with local flavors once it has reached its destination.” Sam shrugged. “Don’t know what that means in terms of real money but now that Agatha and Chloe aren’t scared of us anymore and are actually talking to us, it can’t hurt for them to know we’ve got another way to make money, eh?”

  Josh nodded. Sam had a point there. He still didn’t understand how the other guys found these women who were throwing themselves at them, but he and Sam still ended up in this mess. Life just wasn’t fair sometimes. Even St. Claire, who looked like a runt now, ended up with TWO! How did a thing like that happen? Josh shook his head. “Well, good that it’s done. Boss is planning to test his contraption today. If it works, they should be able to harvest a lot more grain and the only way it makes sense to do that is if we can squeeze it down into booze to make it cheaper to ship to the mainland.”

  Sam grinned, “Maybe I’ll go to the big city open me a speak easy, be a regular Al Capone” Josh just snorted at him and turned back to empty the freshly made cement into a box and seal it up with tar so it wouldn’t get wet until they needed it. Letting a bit of damp waste all that work might make him cry.

  Up in the meadow, St. Caire was teaching the shepherd boys how to set up the tipi poles so that once they had completed the sail cloth covers, they could finish being set up. Once the boys had the hang of it, he left them to it and jogged down to collect his pack. Helena and Syria were packing the last of his supplies as he hustled in. He gave them a smile, and they returned it weakly. “Hey, don’t be like that.” he said softly kissing first Syria’s hand, then Helena’s. “It’s only two, maybe three days at most. I’ll be back before you can miss me.” he smiled reassuringly. He knew the girl’s grasp of English was tenuous at best, but he had also had Elena explain all of this to them earlier. He turned and shouldered his pack when Helena reached out and pulled him back, holding him tight to her. She really was just that much bigger than him that if he didn’t see it coming, there was no resisting, still as his face smashed into her soft chest, resisting wasn’t what he had in mind. He felt Syria’s arms wrap around him too and heard her whisper, “miss now” and he couldn’t help but give a chuckle. Reluctantly, he pulled himself away after a minute. One last kiss for each of them and he was jogging away wondering to himself in a half amused frame of mind, if he’d lost his mind to be willingly leaving.

  Melina had watched this scene unfold with a slight smile. It was good that they were happy. The two girls who were still watching the ever shrinking figure jogging away jumped as she said “They do that a lot.” Seeing their look of confusion, she continued, “Our men, they are always busy, always running here and there doing this and doing that,” she sighed showing she too wished for more time with Eli, but then she grinned, “Maybe that is why they are so rich!” The three girls shared a giggle, but Melina continued, “Come on, let us show them we did not just sit idle while they worked so hard for us.” The two young women just smiled, nodded and followed Melina to find the next of a million tasks that always needed doing.

  By late afternoon, everyone had gathered up in the meadow high on the hillside. There was plenty of chatter. What was it that Eli wanted to show them? Of course Godfreed knew as he’d been helping with it at least the first day or so, but the others were curious. Once they saw him pu
shing it into place, those from Earth all had a pretty good idea, but the locals were even more confused. He motioned for Sapphira to bring over the pair of goats she had been working with and after a little fiddling with the harnesses he was able to attach the goats more or less comfortably to the proper tow points. Calling over one of the little shepherd boys, he mimed for him to lead the goats to the other end of the little meadow, then turn them around and bring them back. Confused, the boy did as he was told and the blades on the enormous wheels behind the pair turned and the locals watching gasped as the grass started flying.

  Eli frowned. The angles were wrong; it was really only getting about a third of what it should. When the boy came back, eyes wide and a big grin on his face, he couldn’t understand why Eli looked less than thrilled. Everyone watched as Eli took a long-handled fork looking tool and with a grunt and a couple of muttered curses wrenched on the device. He wiped his forearm across his forehead and nodded to the boy, "Ok try ‘er again." This time the grass really was flying everywhere. The girls were all clapping and jumping excitedly up and down. The other shepherds were babbling between each other in amazement. Yet when they looked at Eli, he still didn’t look completely satisfied. This time there was more wrenching of the machine and a bit of kicking it. Even a little louder cursing this time, but on the third time, Eli was smiling with everyone else. As the boy came to a stop before him, Eli just shook his head, “Keep going son, this field isn’t going to mow itself” but he said it with a laugh. Two hours later and a seven-year-old boy leading a team of two goats had done the work of a week for a grown man. Eli just sighed. It had worked. Soon John would be back with some observers from the villages and they could have a real talk about next year’s planting. Also about access to some excess labour. He only wished he could think of a way to do an automatic baler, but that was beyond him at the moment.