D I V O R C E by cmsix

Chapter 14

I headed for the camper shell again, but when I reached it I remembered that what I wanted was in the trailer. I put the tackle box and other crap I'd had to take out back in the bed and then went back to the group. I managed to make Louise and George understand that they should get into the truck.

Well, actually I made Louise understand and she clued George in the old fashioned way, by telling him. At first I intended to just go back to the trailer and get the net and the things I'd need to set it out, but when I noticed the expectant look on George's face as I started the engine I changed my mind.

After turning around, I took a right when I came to my grassy * road * and we headed north. I was tempted to try going a little faster than I had on my other trip but decided that this was clearly amazing enough for George at this point in time. He was looking in every direction he could think of anyway, and I saw that he was shocked when he found the rearview mirror on his side.

I don't know what the others were thinking as we went over the hilltop and kept going, but it must have been worrisome. I kept on until I came to the left that would take me across toward where Woodville wasn't.

George was nearly in shock until I turned around and headed back. I don't know if he thought I was taking him to the happy hunting ground or not, but he had been getting a little antsy. Louise hadn't been, since this wasn't her first truck ride. She'd just kept smiling and stroking my nearest thigh.

George calmed down when we headed back and by the time we met the first of the ones that had tried to follow us, nearly two miles north of where they'd been when we took off, he was back in form.

I could tell they had been beating feet big time since they were all winded, so I stopped, let down the tailgate, and made them understand that they could sit on it. When we left again I stayed in low gear, just crawling along. I didn't want them to be hurt if they decided to bail off. We only had one more to get, he'd been coming too but must have given out sooner.

When we got back to the starting point most of the ones standing around were giving me suspicious looks, as if I'd tried to steal their George. He got out giving them a piece of his mind and in a minute or two we were all friends again. Finally, I drove over to the trailer and took out my new net and the floats and weights I'd need to set it out.

In less than half an hour we had it in the river and at least the Indians seemed to understand it's purpose. Back on dry land I was glad to see that a fire had been started and that some of the fresh alligator was already being readied for ingestion. Hell, I could use a snack.

By the time we'd all had a nice meal of alligator tail and then sat on our asses for about an hour it was time to deal with the net. Sky seemed happy when I asked him to go with Louise and I to take care of things. I was happy as soon as we pulled up one end of the net, and then I was worried that we wouldn't be able to get through before dark.

It almost looked like the fish had needed to draw straws for a place in the net. Sky and Louise worked their asses off untangling the catch and pulling in the net. Sky finally started throwing the smaller fish back because we just had too damned many. I already knew that the larger boat would have to be used next time.

Sunset was fast approaching when we got done with the net. When we were back on the bank, the women took over the catch while Sky and another brave helped me straighten out the net. We walked it over toward my camper and hung it up to dry on a couple of pines.

It was clear that the women would not be done with the fish cleaning before dark. I was going to turn the truck so the lights would help them but in the mean time I thought of getting them some trash bags to put their fish in. I fetched a box of them from the camper and then went over and made my pickup * let there be light *.

They were very surprised when I turned the headlights on, and happy after I showed them how to work trash bags. I was surprised that they were done within an hour and a half. Of course there were several of them cleaning and cutting up.

It was probably ten PM by the time they were ready to travel, and I was worried about them trying to find their way home after dark. They weren't worried in the least though, since they didn't intend to go home tonight. I finally noticed them trying to decide where they were going to spread the sleeping furs I hadn't paid any attention to yet.

After a quick hand waving session with Louise, she talked with Rega, and then Rega spread the word and the others began moving over toward my camper to set up for the night. That's what I had intended but I did worry about the fish. I didn't know how they were going to preserve it, and in fact I didn't know about the alligator either. I just had to assume they knew what they were doing with it.

I knew that fish could be smoked but I didn't have any idea how it was done and I didn't know if they did it at all. Surely they knew what to do without my worrying over it.

George had made his exit sometime while we had been dealing with the net. I guess he went back to his camp. Good enough, because my camper only had one bedroom.

Even with all the work cleaning the fish someone had still made time to cook some of them. I hadn't paid any attention to how it had been done but I did pay attention to eating all I could hold after Louise brought me my share. After eating, most of the group retired to their furs for the night. Good, I hoped I'd have enough energy to fuck Louise to sleep.

Even though Louise and I were up and about within an hour of sunrise the next morning, the others were already gone. Louise didn't seem to think it was anything strange so I didn't either. She was also the one who found the alligator meat and fish they'd left for us. I was sure it was more than we'd be able to eat, but what the hell.

Right at the moment though I had to do something with it to make sure we'd get a chance to eat any of it. I decided to try cleaning out my small freezer. The results were better than I'd expected, but I'll admit that most of the free space came from frozen beef and such that I removed to thaw.

I managed to get all of my fish and alligator in the freezer by removing most everything else. When we had things sorted out I knew that we would spend most of the day cooking as soon as what I'd removed thawed enough to start.

At first I was resigned to cooking one thing and then the next but an idea came to me by and by. I dug out a couple of the big cast iron pots I'd bought at the charity sale and after a cursory rinsing I took them back outside and began gathering wood for a fire.

As far as Louise was concerned I could not be trusted to make a cooking fire and she had realized that the cast iron pots were definitely for cooking. She rooted me out of the way and got started. I could live with that.

When she had the fire going pretty good, I put a little water in the pots and put them on, then I began opening the frozen delicacies and putting them in the pots, not paying much attention to what went into which pot. There was beef, pork, corn, peas, and beans and other assorted things. Louise couldn't take much of that either and soon enough I was drinking a long neck and watching her cook.

She finally got things going to suit her and noticed what I was drinking. In for a penny as they say; I gave her a sip. One was all I could get her to take and she gave me a suspicious look or two as I finished the bottle. Fine, if she didn't like it that left more for me.

I guess she knew more about what I was drinking than I thought. In a few minutes she came out of the trailer with the coffee pot and the rest of the makings. I got up off my ass and led her back inside to show her the delights of Mr Coffee.

Louise was amazed again and then thrilled when the little white machine made a pot of the wonderful coffee. She wasn't even offended when I showed her how to dispose of the grounds and used filter. The whole process was fascinating to her for some reason.

Soon we were outside, squatting on the ground and sipping what Louise felt was a much more respectable beverage. I got tired of the squatting part and finally dug out a couple of lawn chairs. They met with even more approval from Louise. Ah, life can be good, even after being shanghaied by God only knew who, or what.

Sitting on my ass turned out to be good for me. It let my mind wander and soon enough it wandered back to the adobe brick I'd been thinking of yesterday. There couldn't be much to making adobe brick. I knew it wasn't as simple as just making some mud and pouring it into moulds but it couldn't be a hell of a lot harder either.

First things first, I had to make some molds. I thought I had just the thing for them. At the very bottom of my pickup's bed, with every other fucking thing stacked on top of it, was a four by eight sheet of plywood with two by fours attached edgewise to give it strength if I needed a ramp to help get something into the bed.

Another mental cussing of myself was triggered then, because I remembered I'd built it when I owned a three-wheeler once. Of course I'd sold the three-wheeler intending to go to a four-wheeler and then I'd never bought one. Enough of that, I could take my ramp apart and use the two by fours for brick molds.

With molds I could get started making brick. About all I knew about adobe brick was that they were made of a sand and clay mixture with dried straw or dung mixed in, for something. I wasn't sure why it was mixed in but I knew there was a reason. What the hell, Louise had come up with some dried grass pretty quick when we were caulking the log smoke house so she must know a little about it.

I decided that the best thing to do was build some molds and start trying. At least I knew that if there was too much clay they would crack when they dried. I didn't know but assumed if there was too much sand they would just fall apart.

Getting to my tiny stock of lumber was no small task. It required removing everything from the pickup. There was nothing else for it though and so I backed it up near the back of the U-Haul and opened the tailgate. Things looked manageable so far.

Things didn't looks so manageable after I opened the back of the U-Haul. There was that gasoline smell again and damned if it wasn't strong enough to make my eyes burn. I propped the doors open and left it alone for a while. Those damned tanks had to come out of there.

I knew how to accomplish that trick too, but hated thinking about it. I went back to sit with Louise some more and to drink another cup of coffee.

About an hour later I figured the U-Haul was as aired out as it was gonna get so I went back to it. It didn't take as long as I'd feared to get the back cleared out so I could move the tanks. After hooking it to my truck again, I backed it farther away from the camper and onto a fairly level spot.

I found enough chain to go around one of the tanks and around a stout looking pine. After I had it good to go, I started the truck, put it in its lowest gear, and pulled forward. It was a bitch moving a foot or so, getting out to go look things over and then repeating, but it was the only way. It took over two hours to get all four of them out of the trailer and onto the ground.

Yes, they were scattered around from hell to breakfast after this step was complete, so I pulled the U-Haul back nearly where it had been and unhooked. With another hour and a half of fucking around with the winch, a snatch block, the chain, and several trees I had them pulled up close together in a more or less group. I called myself finished with that.

Louise hadn't been able to help with much of this but she was great when I backed the pickup up to the U-Hauls doors and we started moving things from the truck to the trailer. We were almost done before I made my momentous find.

It was the business part of a round point shovel. As soon as I saw it I remembered the time I'd been using it and broke the handle. I'd thrown it into the truck and gone off to buy another shovel.

Yes, I could have replaced the handle but at the time I wanted another shovel * right now * to finish what I'd been doing. At this late date I didn't even remember what I'd been up to or what I'd done with the new shovel when I finished, but I was happy now that I'd been in a hurry then.

We finished moving all the crap and I had the plywood and two by four panel out in no time. It only took a few more minutes to scrounge up a claw hammer and a wonder bar and then disassembly began. It took me over an hour to get it apart because I was being careful not to fuck any of the pieces up.

With everything taken apart and all the nails removed I decided that I'd done enough work today. I went back to the lawn chair and watched Louise fuss with the two big cook pots for a few minutes before she came over to sit in her chair too. I think most of the rest of the day, until sunset, was spent in what is sometimes called companionable silence.

Louise decided that it was soup just before sunset. Now she was at a loss about what to do with it. No way in hell could we eat it all in one meal and I think she doubted it would stay edible if we just left it where it was. I'd never considered that anyway.

Back in the trailer I dug out all the normal pots and pans that I had lids for and we carried them outside and dipped our stew out of the big pots and into the smaller ones. There was just enough room in the small freezer for the two biggest saucepans, and I made room in the fridge portion for the rest, except what we ate tonight. It was delicious.

After cleaning up the dishes that weren't still full of stew we made our way to the bedroom. Since we were both stuffed full we didn't get up to anything of an athletically exciting nature, we just cuddled up and went to sleep.

I woke around three AM and had to take a leak. Louise woke too after I moved to get out of bed and being the gentleman that I am I let her have the first chance at the pisser. She turned it over to me in plenty of time, but when I got back to bed Louise wasn't that sleepy, so the games began. Twenty minutes later we were both getting mighty sleepy, mighty fast.