Chapter 4

Jeff's stomach did a flip-flop as he stared, bug-eyed, at Julie. "Are ... Are you sure?" he stammered, having to work to form the words and force them through his nearly paralyzed lips.

"Yes, I am. Or, at least, as as much as I can be at this early date. I hope that you are pleased. After, all, I couldn't have done it without you." Julie self consciously giggled at this last statement.

"Honey, I don't know what to say. I am as pleased and proud as it is possible for a prospective father to be, but I am scared for you. I know absolutely nothing about birthing a baby, except what little was glossed over in Sex Ed classes." Jeff finally woke up and realized that Julie was expecting a little more physical reaction out of him, so he grasped her in a tight embrace and began to kiss her all over her face and neck.

She was greatly mollified by this reaction, and hugged him back. "I know enough about it to get us through the experience, short of a medical emergency. There are things that we will have to do to get ready, but we have plenty of time, so there is no need to panic. Right now, we can relax and enjoy the situation."

Jeff was not the least bit reassured by Julie's comments, though he did have the good sense not to rain on her parade. She was happy, so he vowed to himself that he would be happy, though he was going to have to work at it! Down deep, Jeff was scared shitless because he really knew nothing about what to do. All he knew was what he had seen on commercial TV, and that was always played for maximum drama—to hell with realism. He wished that he had payed more attention to Discovery Health and their programs on giving birth. But the mechanics of bearing a child were pretty boring to a teenaged boy, so he had never really looked after he found out that he wasn't going to be able to see any pussy during the births.

Jeff was still pretty shook up the next day, but he was outwardly as cheerful as he usually was, so Julie was reassured by his demeanor. Jeff could see that there were a lot of things that he was going to have to do to get ready for the "blessed event," he just hoped that he wouldn't screw up too badly.

For one thing, they were going to need a lot more space for storing food, since Julie was not going to be able to hunt with him from just before the baby arrived until months afterward. That meant that they needed to lay in a hoard of food to tide them through the time when they would lose one of the hunters. He needed to discuss this with Julie, but his idea was to construct a large box from logs which would be strong enough to withstand the attack from a large insect. He particularly feared roaches, but there were others which could make a mess of their food supply. Well, he was going to have to start construction pretty damned soon, no matter what the final choice was for storage.

Jeff brought the subject up that afternoon, and they discussed alternative caches. Julie couldn't think of anything better than his idea of a log box, so that was what he planned on starting as soon as possible. Between the two of them, he thought that they could build a storage container large enough with a few weeks of work around the other things that they had to do.

Julie gave the matter a lot of thought and decided that a cube six feet on an edge would be large enough to carry them through, so that was what they set out to build. Only having the hatchet and the machete was going to make the work harder than it would have been with a better range of tools, but Julie pointed out that they would really be in trouble without those two tools. Jeff conceded her point and quit worrying about it.

The next day, they found a stand of trees close enough at hand to be workable and easy enough to drag to their home, as they were now calling the car. The trees selected were all straight and tall, which was a big help. The trunk diameter ran close to six inches. This was a compromise they had to make between resistance to penetration by a marauder and light enough weight that they could get them into position. This meant that each wall would need to be 12 logs high. They could get four logs from each trunk, so they were talking of 12 trees to be cut down and moved to the construction site just for the four walls. The roof would take another four to six trees.

Jeff counted on felling four trees a day and moving them to the site. Julie would be using the machete to cut vines to replace the rope they didn't have, so both would have a busy few days ahead of them.

Jeff was not able to fell four trees a day when he also had to trim away branches so that the trees could be dragged. He did get lucky and manage an average of three and a half per day, so he needed five days to get the job done. With them working together to drag one tree at a time by pulling it with the vines, they were able to get all of the trees moved in one day. They both wondered if they would have been able to accomplish so much if it was not for the extra oxygen that they had available to breathe. They had on the order of 65% extra oxygen in the air, and they appreciated it.

They decided to put a door into one wall for access to the contents of the storage room. Construction could be simplified if the door was at the corner of the structure. Jeff suggested that the door should open outward, as that would be a counter to the natural tendency of an invader to try to push it in, instead of pull it out. They had not yet worked out how they were going to hinge the door, but they would worry about that when installation time came.

Construction was done on a "cut and fit" basis. That way they were able to compensate for natural variations among the logs, and the structure was easier to build this way. Each log was notched as it was set in place, so they were able to even out the irregularities that kept showing up. They did not worry about laying each log tightly against its fellows, as they planned to chink the walls with mud and branches after the entire structure was built.

To their surprise, it only took two weeks to get the main structure built. Now, all they had to do was put on the roof and install the door. They decided to do the roof first. Seven logs were laid across the opening on 12-inch centers and fastened down. This was done by notching and tying them securely with vines. A layer of tanned dragon fly skin was next laid down, bridging the openings between the log rafters. On top of this was laid at right angles another course of logs pushed together and tied down. These were not notched. Wedges were driven in to help hold the logs in place. Mud was packed on top of these logs to fill all of the cracks and make a relatively smooth surface. The trimmed off branches were salvaged and used to cover the mud. It was felt that the roof would be weather proof when the mud dried.

Now came the hard part. The door opening was two and a half feet wide, so the door had to cover this opening, but be light weight enough for Julie to open and close it. Therefore, they decided to make the door from logs only two to three inches thick. Two days were spent cutting the logs and dragging them to the building site. A frame was built and it was covered with the selected logs. When pushed into place over the opening, it did a good job of covering the hole with a minimum of gaps.

Now for the hinge. It was obvious that the car was not going to be moved from its current location, so Jeff salvaged the tie rod holding the two front wheels so that they moved together (remember that this car was a rear-wheel drive). This rod was round and a bit over five feet long, so that it would make a good hinge pin. They secured four projecting pieces of sturdy wood, two to the wall and two to the door, and propped the door into the position they wanted it to have when it was closed.

They heated the tie rod in the fire to make it red hot and used the hot end to burn pivot holes through the four projecting wooden pieces. This took one whole day, since they did not want to chance setting the wood on fire beyond burning the pivot holes. Once the hinge pin was in place, they fastened it in place with vines. Now they had a door which pivoted relatively easily on its hinge. The other edge of the door was secured with a suitable wooden latch. FINISHED!