D I V O R C E by cmsix

Chapter 15

After we had some oatmeal the next morning, I went outside with a new handle for my shovel in mind. It took some walking to find an oak sapling small enough and I never would have on my own. After a half hour I took the time to help Louise understand what I wanted and she walked about a quarter mile to a group of saplings. I found a good one right away.

No, it wasn't that easy, but at least I skinned the bark off the part I wanted to use before I cut it down. I wouldn't be able to let it dry like I should since I wanted to use it right away but I cut another one to use later after it dried. The shovel was ready to go before noon.

We had more of the stew for lunch and it was just as good today, but I didn't tarry. I built a mould that would make six - eight by twelve by four inch - bricks at a time - it looked like a ladder made by somebody that wasn't going to have to climb it.

I used the shovel with its new handle to increase the size of my mixing hole and then Louise and I headed out looking for suitable dirt. I was on my own finding this, because I just couldn't figure a way to explain to Louise that I wanted some soil that contained clay and sand. I dug probably twenty small holes before I came up with some I thought would work.

Luckily it was on the side of a small hill that I could drive the pickup close to. I did that and loaded probably half a yard of my new building material into the bed the hard way. When we got back to the hole I had to unload it the hard way too.

Water was the next problem. Sooner or later I'd be using a lot and I didn't have a good way to get it where I wanted it. I had a big tank in the trailer, but I was sure we were getting low by now and I didn't want to put river water in without doing a hell of a lot of filtering.

The water for brick making didn't need to be filtered, but I wasn't going to use my tank to transport nasty water. I had two five gallon plastic buckets and they were just going to have to do. It would be a pain in the ass dipping water out of the Neches, carrying it three hundred yards and repeating as needed but I couldn't think of another way to do it.

An hour later I had a batch of mud going. I found out early that I needed to put in a little of the soil, then some water, then mix it before adding more. Mud is not that easy to stir. I finally gave up on stirring with the long handled shovel and went back to the entrenching tool for that part. Louise didn't know what I was going to make but it didn't take much hand waving to let her know I needed some more straw. She could gather straw a lot faster than I could mix mud.

Finally I got things like I thought they should be, cleared off a place on mostly level ground, placed the mold, put in straw, and poured in the mud. I used a short length of two by four to level my potential bricks across the top of the mould and then we waited.

I knew I didn't have to leave them in the two by four ladder looking mould until they were done, but I also knew I had to let them dry at least partially before I removed it. There'd be no point in taking it off just so the mud could do what mud usually did, as in sag.

I had enough two by fours for two more molds so I built them while my first batch was firming up. I was done long before I thought my first bricks were ready to stand up on their own, so I made two more batches in the new molds and decided it was time for Louise to feed me.

She'd watched me almost constantly during the day while I was fucking with this project. I'm sure she would have been a little impatient with me if she hadn't already seen that the smoke house had turned out very well. She was giving me a chance to prove myself with the mud pies I guess, but she held her piece. Wouldn't have done her any good to bitch anyway because I wouldn't be able to understand it.

We gave the warmed up stew a good eating for our supper and I decided that it would be tomorrow before I should try removing my moulds. I was muddy and dirty and wanted a bath, but I wasn't sure there was enough water left in the tank for a shower. I was thinking about one anyway when Louise made my day.

She'd cleaned up the dishes and now she came out of the bathroom with our two biggest towels and a bar of soap. I didn't know what she had on her mind but I was pretty sure she thought I was a little nasty to be in the house too. She walked out the door, turning around to make sure I was coming with her. I was.

She led the way off to the west, nearly due west. I didn't know where we were going but it was apparent she did. At first I'd figured she was going to the river, and I'd brought the Marlin to make sure we could deal with any alligators. I was glad I had because we were just passing the place I'd shot the bear.

Since we were headed exactly away from the river I figured Louise must know where there was a stream. I spent most of the trip hoping it was cleaner water than the river, and when we got there my wishes were granted.

I didn't have any idea where the stream she took me to started but it was fairly fast moving and the water looked completely clear. It was only about six feet wide and fairly shallow, but it would be nice enough to bathe in, even if it was a little cold. As soon as we got there Louise shucked her buckskins and so I started off with my clothes.

Louise did damned near everything. She helped me off with my clothes and then stood me in the shallow water. She wet me down with double handfuls of water, lathered me up, and then rinsed me the same way. Even in the warm late afternoon it was pretty damned cold a time or two, but it beat the hell out of being as muddy as I had been.

Of course I was kind enough to return the favor, and why not. Any excuse to get my hands on Louise was a good one and afterwards it was even more fun to dry each other off.

I even got a bonus, since Louise got wet again when she rinsed my clothes in the stream. I had to dry her again after she had them clean enough to suit her. Since I didn't want to put the wet clothes back on I wrapped one of the towels around my waist and we were on our way home in no time.

We made it back to the trailer without incident and just before sunset. We were early to bed that night and I felt I just had to show Louise a good time in the sack since she'd taken such good care of me. She was no slouch about returning the favor with this either and we settle down to sleep about an hour later.

The next morning we started with oatmeal again and then I was out to check on my bricks. They seemed firm enough to me by now and I managed to talk Louise into helping me remove the molds. The bricks were unharmed during and after the maneuver. I left them where they were, mixed another batch, and poured eighteen more. This time I tried to keep most of the mud off me.

I had them dealt with and they were drying within and hour so I moved on to other things. The small creek Louise had showed me would be perfect for filling the trailer's water tank if I could clear a way to get the truck and trailer back there. I figured it just might be possible with the chainsaw and using the truck and winch to drag things out of the way.

Using my head this time, I tried explaining things to Louise. First it was a trip to the kitchen to show water coming out of the faucet and then one to the filler connection to show where water went in. I even fished out the short hose and pantomimed stretching it toward the creek. I'm not sure she understood completely, but I think she was getting a hint.

She'd been picking up words from me talking to her, but I knew she still couldn't understand most of what I said. She knew that the camper was home and that the U-Haul was trailer and of course that the truck was truck. Thank God I'd also let her know that I thought we were bathing in a creek yesterday.

Finally I think she understood that I wanted to take our home to the creek to get some water with the hose. We got in the truck then and started out toward the creek. It took one hell of a lot of tree dodging and it was the proverbial long and winding road but I was able to get the truck to the creek, and I didn't have to cut a single tree to do it. Trouble was, I didn't think we could get the trailer there too.

Strangely there was plenty of room at the creek to get the camper close enough and even to turn it around and head back. We'd just have to look harder for a path that would let us get it here. We spent most of the day looking but never found a route that I thought would work, even by cutting down trees.

The trees that ended up being in the way were always giants. I knew enough about felling timber to get them down but that wasn't really the point. The stumps they would leave would still be in the way and if I tried cutting the stumps down low enough to keep them from bending up the trailer as it went by I'd surely end up ruining the tires. Anyone that's hauled even one load of pulpwood knows that stumps can be death to tires before quick can get ready.

I gave up on this idea. It would just be too much trouble and for a solution that wasn't nearly good enough for all that work. I'd be better off trying to dig a damned well. The water table was most likely not far from the surface where we were parked anyway. It would be a hell of a job digging one, but all I'd have to risk would be my newly found shovel and a lot of labor.

No matter that we'd looked so hard for a trail we hadn't found one and it ended up being almost all we'd done today. I had taken time to make a new set of bricks this morning but that was all I'd done for the good of our situation. Hell, I didn't even have anything specific in mind to build with them when I got a bunch made. I knew I'd think of something though.

We were back at the ranch by about four PM and Louise started working on the groceries since we'd skipped lunch. We had stew again but it was still as good as ever and we needed to eat it while it was. I was going to have to show her how to make corn bread pretty soon. I should have done it a few days ago.

We happened to use the last of the water in the camper's tank that night, in fact, I did it. The last bit went to flushing the pisser after I took a leak. What the hell, I'd figure something out.

For breakfast the next morning we had enough water in the gallon jug of drinking water in the fridge to make a pot of coffee and two bowls of oatmeal, and that was it. Getting some water was the next thing on the agenda, as soon as I made a new set of bricks.

At least the brick production was better than I could have hoped. I must have stumbled onto a good mixture, since I'd even tested a couple of the first ones I made by dropping them from about waist high. They had survived without any breakage. I headed outside as soon as I was done with breakfast to get another batch going.

Whoever or whatever had put me here had done a good deed during the night. I saw the new stream almost as soon as I was outside. I know it isn't impossible for an artesian spring to just get itself started but I was pretty damned sure that wasn't the case here. This had been done by whoever.

It wasn't surprising to me that they could. Hell, they could move me and mine back and forth in time, a new spring here or there didn't seem significant beside that little trick. I was happy about it though.

It was coming up and forming a little pool about eight feet around, and it just happened to have a sandy bottom now too. It ran off down a gentle slope and I idly wondered if there was another one of those magic culvert arrangements where it crossed one of my grassy roads. I'd check that out later. For now, I filled the two five gallon buckets for my mud making from my new well.

Louise was completely floored when she came out and saw me doing it but then she spotted another late night change while I was busy with the buckets. She let me know about it using a few of the words I'd been teaching her.

"Bill! See Bill. Road," she said, and she sounded excited.

Hell, I was too when I came to see Bill. It was just as straight and smooth as any of the other roads that had been left for me and it headed off from the edge of our clearing toward the creek we'd been trying to find a route to yesterday. Hell, we didn't really need it now since the spring had been kick started. It wouldn't hurt anything though.

Louise spotted another one as she headed a few yards down the road to the creek. This one took off from a different spot near the edge of our clearing and it looked like it was a freeway to George's camp. Both the new trails looked just like the others had. It was as if the trees had never grown up in them, and I knew for a damned fact there were plenty of trees in them yesterday. I wasn't bitching though 'cause I could see where this last one would come in damned handy.

I went back to filling my buckets so I could get the brick production line going. It was just too damned bad I didn't have a few more two bys for more molds. What the fuck, I was lucky as hell I'd had the few I found.

The new bricks were on the way in less than thirty minutes and I decided that Louise and I should take a little ride. I grabbed the Marlin, put on my web belt, and then told Louise we needed to take a ride in the truck. She knew ride and truck now too.

She knew at once where I was heading, even before she got in the truck and I could tell that she was happy to be going visiting. Just before I started the truck I remembered that some coffee would probably be well received and I went back into the camper to get the pot and the makings, stopping at the U-Haul as we were leaving to get the box of cups we'd taken last time. Someone might have broken or lost theirs, or they might even have some new arrivals.

Louise seemed to get more and more excited as we went, and she was almost beside herself at the end of the fifteen minutes it took us to get to her former camp. She wasn't the last to get excited though.

Everyone there was out and gawking when we pulled up. No doubt they heard the truck coming before it got there, but they seemed not to have noticed the new road until we drove up. Even if they weren't British in any form or fashion they were still gobsmacked.