Chapter 21

Sunday came into existence in Bryan's consciousness with the ringing of a telephone and quickly turned into organized chaos.

The new arrivals had all been waiting since well before dawn. They had waited patiently as the sun had risen, and then tried contacting the house with the intercom. Since no one was in the kitchen at the time, they had gotten no response and waited for perhaps another hour before phoning the house.

Jake had been the one to answer the phone so there was additional confusion following that. Bryan finally caught hold of a phone which hadn't been left off the charger all week and agreed to meet Rob at the gate.

Twenty minutes later Bryan had opened the gate and was standing waiting to meet with Rob. Andrew stood by him, smoking a cigarette that he had come up with somewhere and eyed the man suspiciously as he came walking toward them. Rob walked down the driveway alone. He had his hands in sight, though the bulge of his windbreaker made it clear that he was carrying something tucked inside his belt.

Bryan didn't blame him for his caution. Where his family could be endangered, he would be overly cautious as well. In fact both Bryan and Andrew had pistols tucked into their jeans in much the same way.

Bryan stepped forward, careful not to put himself between Andrew and Rob, in case something went awry. He held out his hand.

"Glad you could join us," Bryan said, shaking Robs hand firmly.

"Glad we had somewhere to go," Rob replied. His expression was weary, showing just a hint of nervousness behind a mostly impassive face. It was a nervousness that might have gone unnoticed had Bryan not been assessing his every move and mannerism.

Rob appeared to be about forty years old. He had jet black hair cut into what Bryan figured was a military flat-top. There was a hint of gray at the temples, denoting his age. He was a solid man of Germanic stock, just a bit taller than Bryan with solid square features that could easily be associated with his parentage. His hands were large, his knuckles thick and his handshake was like a vice.

There were bags under his eyes that had not been there on Wednesday afternoon when Bryan had last seen him. His eyes were also bloodshot, announcing that Rob probably hadn't gotten a great deal of sleep, at least lately.

Bryan turned to Andrew, who stepped forward and shook the man's hand as well. "Andrew Dennison," he said simply.

"Rob Henkel."

"Nice to meet you Rob," Andrew said. He took one last puff off of his cigarette and tossed it down one of the tubes which was still sticking up from the construction of the previous day. Rob looked at the protruding tubes doubtfully.

"I don't think we can get over those with at least two of the cars," he said frowning.

Bryan and Andrew looked at each other and smiled. "Well," Bryan began. "This is actually a project we thought we would have done before you got here. I actually didn't expect to see you all before noon."

"We're gonna torch these off flush and grind them down smooth so they don't stick up," Andrew added. "Will probably take an hour, maybe less if we can get some help."

Rob nodded. "Of course."

Rob looked up at the canopy of tree branches overhead and chewed his lower lip in thought for a moment. "I need to measure the trailer height," he said. "Any idea how high those branches are for sure?"

Bryan shook his head. "Not exactly. Something like thirteen or fourteen feet maybe?"

"Is there another way in?"

"Not easily."

Rob looked again at the overhead growth. "I'll get my tape measure and see what we're dealing with here.

While Rob disappeared around the bend in the drive, Bryan left Andrew and drove the ATV back to the shed and collected the necessary tools to cut off the tubing. As an afterthought, he threw on his chainsaw and strapped down a short extension ladder on the front cargo pack.

When he returned, Bryan had the ATV loaded down between the oxy-acetylene torch and ladder. He pulled up to the gate and found that Rod had pulled the first vehicle nearly down to the gate. It was a hunter green Ford truck and it had an immense gooseneck travel trailer hooked on behind. The trailer had been squeezing through so far but Bryan could see that there was a branch coming up just before the gate that would effectively snag it, possibly causing some damage. As it was, even as slowly as Rob was advancing, the screeching of tree branches upon the aluminum siding was plainly audible.

Andrew was standing to the left side of the drive, guiding Rob as he advances slowly. On the opposite side was a short man, slightly portly with a gray goatee, directing as well. In the back of the truck was a boy, or rather young man Bryan corrected himself, overseeing the top side to make sure that nothing major snagged the roof of the trailer.

"Stop," he called presently and the two men on the ground waved to signal Rob to stop. The truck stopped, there was a change in timbre of the engine as Rob put the transmission into park, and then it went silent.

Bryan stepped up to introduce himself to the other man while Rob and the young man surveyed the situation above. Murmurs or "I think so" and "It's tight" wafted down but the rest of the conversation remained muffled and obscured. The man turned toward Bryan and stuck his hand out to shake. He smiled.

"Jack Baker," the man said. "I assume you're Bryan?"

"That's what they say," Bryan agreed dryly. "Welcome."

"Thanks for taking us in," Jack said smartly, still gripping Bryan's hand. Bryan had noticed that the hand was smooth, uncalloused and unscarred. The grip was firm, but it was apparent that those well manicured hands were not used to any kind of manual labor. He tucked that away in his mind.

"You've met Rob and that up there is my son Matthew." The now identified young man, hearing his name waved in their general direction with a smile.

On the opposite side of the trailer there was a rustling of branches as Amanda, another woman who had to be Jamie, Andy, and a young woman who bore a strong resemblance to Amanda pushed through the protruding limbs into the open.

Seeing Bryan speaking with Jack Amanda made a beeline for him and gave him a brief but awkward hug of thanks before beginning the introductions.