Chapter 65

After supper and our nature’s show of the sunset, I rose to speak. “People of this camp, we have much to do over the next 3 to 4 weeks. Tomorrow night we have visitors from the sky spirits. So tomorrow morning we need gatherers to go out with Gerona and Harlou in the tractor and wagon to gather as much fruit, roots, nuts, and berries as you can. The rainy and cold season will be here soon. We will have to gather about as much as we already have stored in order to last through the winter. That means that for the next 3 weeks we will be hunting every third day. Before the time is near for the cold season, we may have to go much farther to find animals, as well as to gather. If we do this we can last all winter without having to go outside to hunt. We may anyway, depending on the weather. We have some deer and auroch in the canyon that we can hunt if we have to, but I want them to prosper there. I am going to see if we can find another cave bear too. Later in winter if the weather is good to us, I want to hunt the long tusk when they come south.

“Another thing we are going to have to do is cut grasses in the other canyon and on the plateau for the auroch and horses inside the fence. We will be placing it in a cave not far inside the canyon. When winter gets here and the snow covers the ground we will need to take the dried grasses and spread them out for the animals. We will also be making sure that the stream has at least a couple of openings so that the animals can drink as well. There are three caves back in the canyons where the animals can find shelter from the cold. We will try to spread the grasses near them so the animals do not have to come too far to find food. This will do two things: one, we will continue to have animals after the long winter; and two, the animals will learn to trust us. Training the horses will be easier and milking the auroch will be easier as well. Any questions; no, well then we have a lot to do tomorrow, so let’s get to bed so we are well rested for tomorrow’s work.”

I noticed that Hentor, Hathor, and Kennarf all went to their room together. I really hoped that worked out for them. I went into the bathroom and found Pauloa, Ambat, and Barbara in the shower, so I joined them. I was able to get all three bent over in the shower and gave each a healthy dose of my soothing cream. We went to bed and I finished out the night, nine for nine. Of course it was 3:30 when I finally dropped off into exhausted sleep. Thank God, no traveling this morning. I awoke groggy and sleepy, only having had about 4 hours sleep. Oh well, I’ll take a short nap after lunch. Then I need to get something fresh for the captain and his family. I’ll try for an auroch calf or a small lion cub.

I showered, dressed, and came out to the main cave. Harlou, Gerona, Kolstar, and her gatherers were just finishing breakfast and were headed out. I had Dignar set up a crew to go out and cut grass in the other canyon this morning. Pauloa would drive and Merthar would be protection. They had a bunch of people with sharp knives and I guess Fred furnished some sickles; I would have to ask about scythes. I asked Dignar to just cut the grass today and we would go out tomorrow with the wagon and the truck and pick it up and take it to the new storage cave.

‘Fred, did you furnish the sickles this morning for the grass cutting crew?’

“Yes I did Bob, shouldn’t I have?”

‘No you did right, but you might add about 4 scythes for tomorrow. Also can you get a hay rake the right size for the tractor, or how about a cutter, no, nope, strike that, I think just the hay rake would be enough. Just enough to make rows of the cut grass so we can bundle it up into the wagon and truck bed. I would ask for a bailer, but that would be way too much. Then we wouldn’t have anything for all the people to do. Idle hands you know.’

“First, a hay rake can be done, a cutter and a bailer, what are those? Second I don’t know about idle hands.”

‘Ok first a cutter is a machine that attaches to the back of a tractor and has movable blades that move back and forth that cuts the grasses. It can be either mechanically driven by the wheel on the outside of the blades or driven off the PTO (Power Take-Off) of the tractor. Once the grass dries, you rake it with the hay rake into windrows. Then another machine called a bailer picks up the grass from the windrows and feeds it into the machine where the grass is compressed and then tied with either bailing twine or bailing wire. Out the back comes a shaped bail or compressed bunch of grass, tied together usually with two wires on the long side. If we had those additional machines, then we could do everything with one person except putting the bail on a wagon or truck. Then what would all the other people have to do? Nothing is what.’

“But why can’t you pick up the grass after it has been cut?”

‘There are two reasons for that: one when the grass is green, it is thicker, heavier, and harder to move; second, green grass will mold and mildew and ferment which causes heat. That heat can built to a point that it is hot enough to burn and will start to burn at a certain temperature. By letting the grass dry out for at least a couple days, then the fire risk is lessened greatly. Also the grasses, now called hay [don’t ask me why because I don’t know, BR] is lighter and dried so does not mold, unless it gets damp again by rain or high humidity.’

“That makes much more sense. I see why you do not want those extra machines. It would leave people with no work. Now what about this idle hands?”

‘There is a saying, “Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop,” which means that someone with nothing to do will usually start trouble, or get into trouble because, he or she is idle. Got it?’

“Yes very good saying, it really makes a lot of sense now, anything else?”

‘Yes, the people that received sickles, did they also get a training course in their use, and how they have to watch them as they are very sharp and fingers, arms and legs have been known to get in their way, with disastrous results.’

“Yes Bob, I educated everyone on that part. I will also let them know of the scythes as well in the morning.”

‘Thanks Fred, you do good work. I can teach them how to hold a scythe and how to use it.’

I looked out over the cave and asked Joulnar about the hide doors and he said, “Bob we put them away in one of the empty rooms. We felt that we would need them for winter.”

“You are quite right Joulnar. We will also need some for the garage. We will also need six more hide doors. One for the garage to the practice cave; one for the garage to the main cave; one from our corridor to the main cave and one each for the three corridors to the rooms. Can you get with Bernita, Haritof, and Nonatao and see about that. Remember the hides must drag the floor to keep the cold outside. I have some rock screws we can use to put a piece of wood over the doorway and we can hang the hide from there. I can show you how to do that later. We will nail the hide to the board and then screw the board into the rock.”

“I need to work in my office for a while, so if you need me you know where I am.”

“Thank you Bob, I will get with Bernita and the men and we can at least find hides that will work.”

“Also Joulnar, we can sew the hides together to make a bigger piece if we need to.”

“Yes that is very good Bob. I will see it is ready for you to show me how to attach them. We do not need them now do we?”

“No Joulnar, we can wait if you have something else in mind.”

“No Bob I do not, I just thought it might be a little early to keep out the cold.”

“Perfect, Joulnar. I will talk to you later.”

I went into my office, shut the door and lay on my couch and said, “Fred, wake me before lunch time, I need some rest before hunting for that fresh meat for Capt. Snart. Thanks.”

I fell asleep almost right away as Fred was playing softly some of my sound effects CD’s with light rain and ocean waves.

I awoke to the sound of rain falling on leaves. I looked around and I was not on my couch, I was in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Here we go again, ok, where are we, and what mission? There were three missions that we had under these conditions, if I remember right; there might be a clearing up ahead. If so, then this is mission 14 to Laos and victim numbers 17, 18, and 19. Yep, there is the clearing straight ahead. We only have about 4 klicks to get to the kill site. We take a break here and eat some jerked water buffalo and drink some water. Now it’s time to leave, got to be quiet from here on out. We walk a short distance and then jump to the kill site. What’s going on, who is doing this, and the big question is WHY ME? I can see the target area from here as I crawl a little more forward. I am in my ghillie suit and crawl forward. I can see the little hut with about 20 gooks squatting around it. I wait until the leaders of these 3 groups come out of the hut. It appears we made it in time for the meeting. The rain stops just as suddenly as it started, I wonder how it does that? A couple of the gooks stand and I know it is time. Breathe now; hold it, sight on the door. Let it out and then back in, let out some then hold. There all three are out now, sight on the first, squeeze, ok, now reload; sight, breathe, hold, squeeze. Two gone now, third is still open, squeeze, bang, all three down for the count. Hold on, stay quiet, they can’t see you. Ok now there is chaos down there right now, move, and head back.

Fred is in my head, “BOB where are you?”

“I’m right here Fred, I’m back; how long this time?”

“Bob you were gone for 47 minutes this time. I didn’t have a camera on you, but as near as I can tell you never moved, just breathed. But this time toward the end you breathed funny. You would take a large breath and then let some out and then you held it and then a quick breath out and in and then hold again, and then another one. Then you breathed normally for about a minute and then you came back. Where did you go this time?”

I explained everything to Fred: what mission, where, when, everything I could remember. I even told him about the jump from just outside the clearing to the kill site. That I couldn’t explain. The fact is I couldn’t explain any of this. How can you explain, remembering, no that’s not right, reliving experiences that happened almost 40 years ago? That’s right I wasn’t remembering these episodes, I was reliving them again. I know the difference between a memory and being where you were. I mean, the smell, taste, touch, everything seemed very real. I remember the feel of the gun in my shoulder, the taste of the gunpowder on your lips after firing. I could feel the one rough spot on the bolt handle I could never get rid of, when I reloaded. That kind of recall isn’t possible from a dream, is it? I don’t know.

“Fred, can you ask around with your Hellslinth people and see if there is a species that can do things like this? I want to know if this is someone trying to recruit me or if they are having fun at my expense. The first time was making love to my wife, but the last two times have been about my sniping career. I don’t like this at all. I will try to consciously put my shield up when I sleep from now on. I know that doesn’t help you, but I want to see if it can help me block out whatever signal is coming in.”

“Yes Bob you can try that, but why not try to put the shield up after you are in the old life. Do you think that would work?”

“Yeah, let me try that one first. Then if doesn’t work we can try the other. I don’t like this one little bit.”

“Bob I will check around with our people and have them check with the aliens we interact with too, someone may have an answer. By the way, it is close to lunch time and you said you had some hunting to do too.”

“Thanks Fred, good luck to you on the research too.”

I left and went to the bathroom to clean up and get ready for lunch and hunting afterward.

Today, Angel, Grenna, and Bertron were eating with Dignar, Therssa, and Orangan, so each had a child to feed. I was deep in thought about what had just happened so I would not have been good company. After eating, I talked to Joulnar about the hide doors and he said they were working on getting the hides sewn together to make the doors and I could show him the door mounts later. I told him to get his radio and stay tuned as I was going out to find a small animal for Capt. Snart’s supper.