Depression by cmsix

Chapter 15

Meka, Tutsie, and I had a nice ride down to the new barn. This would be the first time the horses and mules had used it but we didn't have any extra work to do, except for filling up their hayracks.

We were finished in no time and then the three of us headed to the house. Meka put Tutsie down for a bathroom break before we entered and when he was done we all walked in the back door on our own legs. Tutsie seemed to know that this was home and he sniffed around, getting familiar with his new digs I guess.

After a few minutes Meka came back with Tutsie slow trailing her and she asked me about the cartoons Janice had given her. I picked up Tutsie and we all went to the big truck to find them. I thought I knew right where they were.

Ten minutes later we were in my new office and I had Bob on the phone, asking him how to make them play.

"Just put the CD in the top drive and then click on My Computer, on the desk top," he said.

I didn't understand a bit of that so he went over it again, step by step this time. Doing it was easier than listening to him tell me how, and before you know it, the show was on. I even watched with her for a few minutes before I went to the kitchen to get her a Coke.

I could see that the movie held her attention completely, so I wandered out and explored around the house some more. Mostly to get familiar with where everything was.

Soon enough Ethel called and told me we should head her way since supper was about ready. Meka and I had a little contest of wills when we got to the garage. It wasn't much of one and we ended up with a negotiated settlement.

She wanted to go to George's house in the big truck and I wanted to go in my old pickup. She couldn't understand why we had to take that since she couldn't see out of it very well, and besides, it didn't have an airseat. She couldn't tell me that in so many words, but she has a way of getting her point across.

The motions she was making, imitating raising and lowering the airseat, reminded me that the Hum-V pickup had one too. It didn't rise as high as the Western Star's seat, of course, but I got her to try it and she liked it fine.

No doubt about it, Ethel was going to tempt hell out of Doctor Jorge at every meal, and if he lost any weight he was going to earn it. We had roast beef and cream potatoes tonight with apple pie and homemade ice cream for desert. Poor Jorge, he'd probably gain five pounds before morning.

Meka loved it all of course and apparently she thought that Tutsie needed a big meal to help him sleep, like she did. In the end I was afraid that we'd end up with a fuzzy stomach-with-legs instead of a dog. He really did seem to like the ice cream though.

I had a hell of a time getting Meka and Tutsie down to my house and in bed. At least Tutsie stayed awake long enough to do his business, but only just. I didn't bother with his box; I put them both into Meka's big new old bed. I hoped he could wake her if he needed to go out.

About two AM I learned that he was able to wake her, since she woke me too, to take them outside. Meka even made sure Tutsie was far from the front door before doing his job.

When we went back to bed Meka was awake enough to realize that she'd been sleeping in her own room, in her bed. This wouldn't fly for the rest of the night. She and Tutsie joined me for the duration.

I had a little trouble going back to sleep, but it wasn't because of my two companions. Something that I couldn't grasp was bothering me. I had a feeling that I'd left something undone and wracked my brain trying to figure out what it was.

Sure, there were plenty of things still to be done around the house. Hell, I hadn't even given my new operating room more than a glance. If I needed to help out someone that was injured, or wounded, I'd be opening every cabinet and drawer looking for what I needed.

But that wasn't it; I needed to get familiar with the medical stuff, sure. That wasn't what was keeping me up though. I kept getting fleeting glimpses of the weapons room and the firing range, but they didn't seem to be the point either. Finally I decided to spend time there tomorrow, making sure that I knew at least a little about everything I had. That must have been close enough because I dropped right off after that.

Meka was watching my face when I woke the next morning. Her smile was the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes and the next thing I knew, a wet pink Tutsie tongue licked me right on the mouth. I couldn't help it, I laughed.

No matter what Meka and I needed to do in the bathroom, Tutsie came first. We took him out the front door again, Meka in her T-shirt that nearly reached her knees and me in my boxers. As soon as we walked out the door, a robe jumped right to the top of my buy one soon list. It was cold out this morning.

Visions of house-shoes came to my head too, since there was plenty of dew and my feet were wet within three steps. Meka gave me a little look and then glanced down at her moccasins. Apparently that was a poor slow in the head Daddy look.

Tutsie was thrilled for some reason and he was tearing all around, sniffing and running and then stopping to sniff again. I finally realized that this must be his first encounter with dew. He adored it.

Soon enough the urge hit him though and he was fertilizing the lawn that Ethel was determined to have out of this cow pasture. He gave it a good watering too and then did that stiff legged scratching around dogs sometimes do. Kind of an I'm acting like I'm covering up my mess thing.

We didn't really cut his parade short, but Meka and I both had some business of our own to tend to, soon. She picked him up and we went back in the house. I was glad that I now had my own bathroom.

Broken arm and all, Meka managed to dress herself and head for the kitchen before I could get myself dressed. I decided that she was just too smart for words when I found her waiting for the coffee maker to finish doing it things. She had my mug and hers ready for the day's first manna from the almighty Mr Coffee.

With Tutsie under one arm and my coffee mug in the other hand, Meka and I took off for the garage. I guess she was paying more attention to the differences between vehicles now, since she stopped at the Model A to give it a good looking at.

What the hell, I put her inside, handed her Tutsie, and got in myself. Now we'd see what They knew about cantankerous four cylinder engines. I pushed the spark advance lever all the way up to retard the timing, put it in neutral, and stepped on the starter's foot switch. At least it turned over smartly.

Turning the switch to give the coil some juice, I hit the starter button again and it fired right up. After a couple of minutes to let it get warm, I gave the timing a little advance and damned if it didn't start Cadillacing. I could hear every cylinder hit individually and I knew as well as anyone that it was hard as hell to get a Model A's engine to do it.

I put it in gear, eased off the clutch, and we headed for the vacant big truck space, because its door was already on the way up. As soon as we were outside I hit the foot switch for the Klaxon and Meka screamed in delight as the Model A sounded off with its Ah-ooh-ga wail. Even Tutsie perked up and seemed to be grinning.

Meka wanted me to do it again, but I pointed toward George's house and I think she got the idea. When we pulled up near Ethel's back door, I gave them a good dose of it too. People were scrambling to get outside for a look in seconds.

"Where did that come from?" Ethel asked, since she was the first to reach us.

"It came back with the house, I just hadn't tried it yet," I said.

"I'm sure there's a story with it," she said, grinning.

"There are hundreds, but let's do the important part first," I said.

"The important part?" Wanda asked.

"Breakfast," Meka said, and everyone howled.

At the table it was apparent that Tutsie didn't know from the cooks, but he did have a firm grasp on who brought his food. Again he waited patiently while Meka broke up his sausage patty, crumbled up his bacon, and then slid the sunny-side-ups onto the top. Then he dug in with abandon. For a second I thought his wagging tail might throw him completely off his perch.

Meka laughed at him, said 'Ch'uht'uh dìitsi?' and turned to her own plate. I kept a straight face somehow and wondered what made twelve country people watch patiently while a poodle's breakfast was prepared.

After we were all stuffed, Meka and I took Tutsie outside, just in case the spirit moved him, and we had a pretty good audience for this event too. I was about to find Doctor Jorge and ask him for a few more words to work on, but I saw him disappearing down the road, in obvious exercising garb.

"I guess the Doc was serious about trimming off a few pounds," I said.

"Was he ever? Did you see what he had for breakfast?" Ethel asked.

"I didn't pay it any attention."

"All he ate was a big bowl of spoon size shredded wheat, in skim milk, and one hard boiled egg," Ethel said, clearly she'd been surprised.

"Ouch, it must have been torture to watch the rest of us pig out and have to settle for that," I said.

"That's what I thought too, but he didn't seem down about it," George said.

"I wish him well, but we can't change our ways just so's he can get a little weight off. He's a guest in my house, and a welcome one at that. I'll get him anything he wants to eat, but that don't mean everyone else has to eat it too," Ethel said, and as usual she made perfect sense.

Wanda and Ethel took over entertaining Meka and Tutsie until Doctor Jorge got done with his walk. I drove the Model A back down to the house and parked it. I wanted to head right for the armory but made myself take a look in my ad hoc hospital.

Aside from being considerably more capable, it was pretty much what I expected. It did have a few things that would make my first aid role easier; the first one I noticed was the autoclave. I was glad to have it, since sterilizing in a pot of boiling water wasn't nearly as effective. Personally, I hoped none of it was needed.

I made myself spend two hours going through my new health care facility, but when they were over I headed for the armory. When it came down to it, I just liked guns and weapons better than doctoring.

Inside it, I started looking around to see what I had besides weapons. Oddly enough, my first find was more related to the coyote and wolf hunting I'd been doing than to anything that had come up with my home's unusual trips. Or that was my first thought anyway.

They looked like a pair of old time motorcycle goggles to me, and I wondered what the hell they were for, especially after I saw there were over thirty pairs of them. Closer examination let me know they were more than just some type of safety glasses.

They had a type of soft padding to fit comfortably, but the frame around the lenses was bigger than it needed to be. It was almost like there had to be some sort of works in there next to the glass, or plastic of the lens.

I tried a pair on anyway and they were comfortable to wear. The elastic strap was already adjusted perfectly for my head somehow. It pulled the goggle's padding to a snug fit around my eyes without the annoying pressure those things can have when they're too tight.

I was disappointed at first since it seemed there was something wrong with the lenses. They were almost perfect, but looking through them gave me a feeling that they were off somehow. I can't explain it, the view through them just wasn't what you'd expect from clear glass.

All was explained, or most was, when I took them off. The big room was completely dark, and I do mean completely. There was no light in here anywhere. Not even the slightest glow from anything. It was the kind of dark you could only find if you were inside a deep hole in the ground or a cave, and of course that was just where I was.

Not really believing what I saw, I put the goggles back on anyway and could see perfectly. These weren't the night vision goggles I'd been looking for; they were magic see perfectly in total darkness goggles. Hell, they hadn't even been black and white like all night vision equipment I'd ever seen. I could see the normal color of everything just fine.

I took them off to total darkness again, setting them on the cabinet by feel, and the room's lights came back up when I did. I felt weak in the knees for a second and had to put my hand out to steady myself on the cabinet.

It was finally hitting home that I was interacting with someone or something that was otherworldly. It's a little strange that the other things hadn't given me this feeling so dramatically. Maybe it had all been so blatantly impossible that it didn't register.

It did now though, and the goggles had brought the point home. They were something that I knew was not within the reach of my world's technology.

Sure, we had night vision equipment, but not like this. Current night vision technology was good enough, usually, to get the job done. It let you see where you were going, or shooting, in the dark, but it was nothing like being able to see during daylight. These goggles were to my others night vision things as the sun was to a flashlight.

The real shocker came when I realized that I didn't have a desperate need for anything this good. Normal earthly night vision would have served me nearly as well. It made me wonder about the other things I'd been given.

The Model A should have tipped me off, when it warmed up and idled like that. It wasn't just good enough to do the job either, it was perfect. Come to think of it the house and barn were perfect too. Doors that opened themselves when you needed to get through them. Garage doors that rolled up on their own.

I started wondering about the new rifles then. I hadn't fired any of them yet and now I had to give one a try.

Soon enough I was at a station on the range with one of the 270s in hand. I sat down to shoot from the bench and sent the target frame out to about fifty yards, firing three shots to start sighting it in.

The group was much tighter than it should have been for a first one through a rifle, but it was still at least possible. I adjusted the scope to move point of impact closer to the point of aim, nearer the target's center and fired another group, being more careful this time.

Astonishment came along often for me now. I hadn't tried my hardest, by waiting for my heart rate to settle and firing after a beat. I wasn't using a machine rest, just a couple of the handy sandbags that came with everything else, but the group wasn't really a group, it was one hole a little larger than from one shot.

I sent the target frame out to a hundred yards and then waited to try letting my heart rate settle a little. I knew it was futile though; I was just too excited to shoot my best. Finally I fired another group doing as well as I could under the circumstances.

I had to bring the target back to examine it since the sixty power spotting scope wasn't enough to let me see the detail I needed. And no wonder, when I had the target off the frame and in my hands I still couldn't make out where the centers of the three different shots were. All I could tell was that the hole was a little bigger than the one I shot from fifty yards.

No rifle previously on earth could do that and this one had no right to. It wasn't even a target shooting type rifle, and the ammunition I'd been using was just taken casually from the thousands of rounds that had been provided.

I'd been to plenty of benchrest contest, where guys reloaded their favorite brass right at the firing line, shooting it from rifles that weighed three or four times as much as this one, and I'd never seen performance like this.

I put the stuff away and went back to poking around. There was no sense in spending the day amazed, or wondering how it was possible, or a dozen other ways that meant I couldn't believe it. These were the facts on the ground now, and I couldn't change them. Hell, I didn't want to.

It was getting close to one of my three favorite times of day now, lunch. I headed for my new pickup, of the Hum-V persuasion.

Meka, Tutsie in her good arm, came out the back door as soon as I pulled up. By the expression on her face I knew she has something planned. When I bent to her level she gave me a peck on the cheek and Tutsie gave me a lick.

"Welcome back, Daddy. Are you hungry?" she asked.

"Yes, I am. Are you and Tutsie hungry?"

"Of course, we are always hungry," she said, and then giggled.

I scooped her up into my arms and headed for the door. I know it was a canned conversation that Doctor Jorge had armed her with for my arrival. It didn't matter though, I was so happy I could barely contain myself.

I was even happier when we got to the table, but not nearly as happy as Tutsie was. We were having Bar-B-Que again, and the smell was everywhere. Tutsie was trembling with excitement.

He still had his manners though, and he stared intently at Meka's hands as she tore his share of the brisket into small pieces. He looked almost like a tiny version of the RCA dog, staring at the Victrola, as he watched her. He wasn't pondering his master's voice though, he was anticipating his feast.

I know that lunch must have been torture for Doctor Jorge, but he took it like a man and even raved about the sauceless brisket that someone had trimmed every speck of fat off of. He was a man on a mission if there ever was one.

After we'd eaten all we could nobody wanted to move, not even Meka. We were just settling in for a leisurely cup of coffee when Wanda started giggling and then Ethel did too. When I looked directly at Wanda she pointed to Tutsie, and I didn't have time to giggle, I burst out laughing.

Tutsie had been diligent with his doggie feast. So diligent that he had Bar-B-Que sauce all over his muzzle and face, he'd even managed to get some up on his ears. He looked so comical, sitting there on his haunches, panting, with his little pink tongue hanging out. He was a happy little white poodle with a Bar-B-Que sauce blood red face. In a minute though, his happiness segued into lazy satisfaction and he lay down on his little platform.

Meka tried to interest him in some coffee; she poured some from her mug into the now empty food side of his double dish. He regained his feet, gave the coffee a single sniff, and then gave Meka such a look. He settled right back down on his perch without giving the coffee the benefit of a single lick.

"Tutsie no want coffee," Meka said, and giggled.

"I think it shows he's really very smart," Wanda said, but I'm sure Meka didn't understand it.

"Tutsie no want Coca-Cola either," Meka said then, letting us all know for certain that she'd offered him some at sometime.

"Good," she said then, "More for Meka."

She laughed at her own joke then and so did the rest of us. Even Doctor Jorge, who was saving more for the rest of us himself. I'd watched and he was now even drinking his coffee black too. Doing away with the two spoons of sugar and half a cup of cream he had been taking.

After a few minutes Doctor Jorge left the table and went to his room to dress for his walk. He came back later and just as he reached for the doorknob someone knocked. With a quick change of gears Doctor Jorge changed from a leaver to a doorman.

It was Jerry Charlton, the welder, and it was apparent by the way Ethel invited him to the table for coffee and cake that he'd been expected. Most of the ranch hands made their excuses and left to go back to work while Ethel was busily ruining any diet that Jerry might have been on. Of course, from the look of his belly I figured he hadn't been contemplating any diet of any kind, unless it was the see food diet.

Jerry made the mistake of trying to start finding out what type of fence he was going to be putting up, but Ethel cut him off short.

"We got all the time in the world to talk about work later. I want to see you workin' on making that cake go away, right now," she said.

He gave her a sheepish grin and then did as he was told. He did it again later when she brought his second slice and refilled his cup. Finally he had her satisfied that she couldn't get him to eat any more.

"Dang, Mrs Ethel. Now I'm too full to work," he said.

"All you're full of is it," she said.

He blushed a little but grinned again.

He and George left then and those of us still skipping work went to sit on a couch or two. Meka and Tutsie, who'd finally licked most of the sauce off his face, came over to sit in my lap and then Ethel, Wanda, Carolyn, and Geneva did a little gossiping while Meka, Tutsie, and I tried to pretend we weren't going to fall asleep while they did it.

George came back about twenty minutes later but Jerry didn't come back inside.

"Have ya got him lined out?" Ethel asked.

"Think so. He said he'd need to hire a couple more welders and trucks to make any decent progress and I said go ahead and do it. If John ain't too busy right now though, we need to take the truck and reefer trailer over to Jerry shop," George said.

"I'm just being lazy, we can do that. What's he got to do to the truck?" I asked.

"He's already got the loadin' bumper and headache rack on our other tractor and he wants the trailer to make sure there won't be no problem with the headache rack and the reefer unit. He don't think there'll be, but he wants to make sure," George said.

That sounded like a damned good plan to me, so Meka, Tutsie, and I got up to go with George. I knew better than to even ask if Meka had lessons coming up this afternoon. When she heard truck, she knew she was going with me, no matter what I thought about it.

She was polite enough, but when George tried to get her to ride to the house with him, all she did was look at the Model A and then look at his truck. I'm sure he got the hint, and he didn't look too upset. He followed us to the house in his fifty-six.

I didn't park in the garage, but we stopped there to let George get out of his truck and get in with us, then we headed for the elevator behind the barn. It was already on the way up when we got there and after we drove inside it started back down.

I realized another benefit of the way the house's loading dock worked when we got there. When you were done with it, it sank back into the floor. I didn't even have to pull forward to close the trailer's doors.

Meka insisted that George get in first, since there was no doubt he'd be sitting on the bunk instead of the other airseat. She and Tutsie were next and she was adjusting her seat already when I got into mine.

As we were heading out to the county road, near the end of my driveway, Meka spoke.

"Need stop, Daddy. Tutsie walk," she said.

It took me a second to figure out what she meant, but when I did I knew she was right. We all piled out to watch the show and Tutsie didn't waste much time. He made a nice puddle in the grass, sniffed a little, and then humped up his back to fertilize. Since there wasn't much of an audience this time, he cut his stiff legged scratching short and we were on our way.

When we arrived, Jerry was outside his shop and I think he'd been waiting for us. He had been, but wasn't put out over the delay. He showed me where to drop the trailer while George looked over the other tractor.

Meka had me hold Tutsie while she took her turn at the dolly bar crank and then she took him while I finished up. I parked this tractor out of the way and we went to the other one.

One look at the headache rack and the trailer ride reminded me that Jerry was a first class welder and fabricator. Everything was done neatly and there were little extras that you wouldn't normally find on something like this.

The tire rest on the ends of the ride weren't just thrown on as if they were after thoughts; they were finished nicely and rounded to make sure they didn't damage the tires' sidewalls. The running lights were put into the big rectangular tubing bumper instead of being tack welded on the outside and there was a slanted floor-plate covering the frame ends and the space between. It would be handy as hell if we needed to drop a pole trailer where we couldn't hang it.

It was probably the most well thought out ride bumper I'd ever seen. The headache rack was more of the same. It had a nice strong toolbox in the middle, up against the cab, and between the rails there was expanded metal flooring so a poor dumb log truck driver didn't slip through and end up straddling the truck's drive shaft. He'd also put on hardware to hang an axe, pinch bar, cheater pipe, and even a slot for the trim saw to ride in.

"Only thing I'm worried about is makin' sure that the winch don't crash the reefer unit when you turn," he said.

I hadn't even thought about that, but a look let me know that the unit didn't extend low enough for it to be a bother. I put Meka and Tutsie inside though and hooked the trailer.

Jerry nearly got a talking to over taking care of the dollies without letting Meka have her turn, but she didn't squawk. He hooked the lines and the pigtail too, and then I released the brakes and started a sharp turn while he and George watched.

We finally decided that everything would work fine. George and Jerry were all set to have me leave in the new tractor and let Jerry keep the first one so he could start on it.

"Fine with me, but you're the one that has to explain to Ethel why Meka doesn't have any sheets on her bunk if we go somewhere soon," I said, and then laughed at him.

"I'll let him take the first one back and then bring him over for the one you've finished, Jerry. If I piss Ethel off she might put me on a diet like Doctor Jorge is on," George said, and laughed himself.