Chapter Twelve
As they approached the house, they saw at least one window on the second story had lost its glass and one of the corner posts supporting the front porch had snapped, giving a strange lean to the whole porch roof. Karl looked at it carefully before walking onto the deck toward the front door.
"We'll have to get a support under that quickly." He said in assessment.
"Yeah, I'm surprised that more windows aren't broken if the quake managed to break a six-inch solid Fir post."
"From the looks of it the termites had gotten at the bottom of it. I'm surprised that post wasn't treated." Karl said quietly as he reached for the door knob. "As to the windows, they're all sitting on glass wool. I think that's what cushioned them for breaking. They have a lot of clearance from the logs so they shouldn't be under pressure."
Although the handle turned, the door wouldn't move when he tried it.
"Shit, it seems to be jammed." He growled.
"It's locked." Ely chuckled. "Didn't Dad give you a key to the deadbolt?"
"Oh, I don't even have a deadbolt lock on my door so I never thought of it." He admitted, grinning sheepishly as he dug in his pocket, looking for his key ring. "I don't think I have it with me."
"Here, I brought mine." Ely pushed him aside and unlocked the door.
As it swung open they both leaned forward to look inside. The main floor was mostly one large room, with the exception that at one end of the room George's bedroom-slash-office and a bathroom were closed off from the rest. The main living area was a shambles, broken glass and ornaments littered the floor, book shelves had fallen forward, and furniture was moved, but the worst damage appeared to have resulted from some of the plaster having fallen from the ceiling of the kitchen and dining area. Every flat surface in the room actually had a light coating of powdered plaster dust.
Ely reached around the corner and flipped on a light switch. One lone light bulb had survived and lit an area near the fireplace, actually calling to attention an area of black soot spreading outward a short distance from the open doors of the hearth. It was almost in the shape of a black hand, laid over the powdering of white from the broken plaster.
"Oh my!" She said quietly and made to step inside.
"Wait." Karl said quietly, reaching out to take her arm. "If we walk on that dust from the plaster, we're going to grind it into the flooring and the carpets."
"Well, what else can we do? Even the vacuum is in the broom closet in the kitchen."
"Can we get in the kitchen door?"
"Well, it's locked, but I think I've got a key to it too."
"Good, we'll close this and go in there, If I remember, the kitchen has a tile floor, we won't damage it as badly if we walk on it anyway."
"What do you want to do, clean our way forward slowly through the whole house?" She pushed his hand away in exasperation. "I want to see if we can make this place habitable for everyone by tonight or if we'll have to stay on the boat."
"I'd say it'll be the boat for a day or two." Karl snorted. "But you didn't even notice the most important thing, we've got power."
"Oh." She turned and stared at the lone electric light. "We do."
Her frown had turned to a smile and she hugged him momentarily.
"So, since you're the one who put all the feeder lines underground so they didn't get knocked out, as well as doing a great job of building the generator and everything else, that just means that you're a genius." She laughed proudly. "That's not a surprise, I've known that for years."
"Oh hell." He laughed. "Let's have that key to the back door."
"Oh to hell with that." She said quietly. "If we stay off the rugs and just walk on the tiles around the outside edge of the room, we can clean up later."
She pushed her way past him and began to move along the uncarpeted areas of the floor.
"I want to see how the bedrooms faired." She announced.
Karl frowned, but followed her. By moving one or two small pieces of furniture out of their way, they were finally able to get to George's bedroom. When she opened the door, Ely gave a sigh of relief.
"It looks fine." She said quietly. "We can set Dad up in here to write while we work on the rest of the place. Look, his wheelchair is fine and his radio's all seem to be okay too. Actually there's hardly any dust in here."
"That's good." Karl smiled. "Do you think you can keep your dad in here for long? He'll be out and underfoot as well as in our way if I know him."
"So what do you recommend, smart ass?"
"Well, we could leave everyone on the boat while you and I start the cleanup. Or we could leave Trudy and the kids with him while the rest of us do the job. I'm sure I could rig up a place for him to sit and write."
"He uses a word processor on his laptop, all he needs to do is sit down and set it up." She laughed. "It's not that, I mean the power on the boat lets him run the laptop, it's all his reference material that he'll want while he's working that would drive us nuts."
She gestured one arm toward a wall of books.
"He has dictionaries and thesaurus's and encyclopaedias and who knows what else that he uses all the time. Look." She pointed.
One wall of the bedroom was solid from floor to ceiling with books. Astoundingly, none of them were on the floor and Karl's curiosity was raised so he stepped over to look. Not only were all the books jammed in quite tightly, but there was lip of about half an inch on each shelf and the shelves themselves were all built of steel that angled back toward the wall slightly.
"Where did your father get these shelves?" He asked.
"Oh, war surplus. I think they came off of a boat that was being scrapped or something." Ely answered offhandedly. "Let's see what else is ruined. This room seems fine."
In the bathroom next to George's bedroom, they found that there was water pressure but no hot water and other than the fact that the floor was littered with Trudy's cosmetics, it looked fine as well.
"I imagine Dad shut off the water heater." Ely commented.
"Well, I know I did." Karl laughed. "In fact I shut off the power to the whole house."
They moved on to the rest of the house then. George's stair climber, a gadget that hung on the rail of the stairs, had suffered a hit from a falling statue which was smashed on the upper landing, but other than that the stairway had suffered no damage. Once they were upstairs though, they found that all of the bedrooms were a mess. Plaster had come off of walls, pictures and paintings littered the floor and the ceiling in two of the bedrooms and one bathroom had partially collapsed. There was water damage in two of the rooms and the roof was leaking, so it had suffered damage as well.
Ely was in tears but Karl was quite pleased. He held her in his arms and comforted her for a few minutes.
"It isn't all that bad kid." He said quietly.
"I know, but there's so much work." She sighed, as she cuddled in his arms. "I mean my bedroom and David's bedroom are ruined."
"Woman, you live with me now." Karl said quietly. "We've got to stop the leak in the roof, but it isn't all that bad. Almost everything can be salvaged or fixed."
"Oh, I forgot I was moving." She laughed through her tears.
"Let's get some buckets to catch these water drips and then head over to our place and find out how much damage we have there. After we know that, we can see if we can raise the boat on the CB and let them know how things are."
In an hour, they were back at the junction of the paths and the small shelter that stood there. Karl had brought George's wheelchair and stored it inside the shelter out of the wet, then they set off for Karl's cabin along the third pathway leading out and away from the wye.
The rain appeared to be lessening even more and since Karl knew they wouldn't have to bring George and his wheelchair through this stretch of path immediately, he ignored smaller rock falls and branches that littered the path. They still had some dead-falls that they had to take care of, but they made good time and in less than an hour they were approaching his main worry, the bridge across the gorge where the water from the small lake ran to the sea.
Although the flow of water wasn't great, the gorge was amazingly steep and quite deep, perhaps fifty feet or more at the point where the bridge crossed it. The bridge had been built by falling two large trees across the gorge and then decking it with creosoted timber that Karl had recycled from an abandoned dock that he had salvaged on another island. What worried Karl was the fact that the supports for the original tree trunks had just been native stone with very little mortar.
As they came around the corner before the bridge, they could see that it was still standing but it too had suffered, a tree had fallen part way across it and was now supported from falling into the gorge by the bridge itself.
It had dropped from the side they were on and was resting directly on the bridge, having wiped out a section of the railing on one side. Approximately a quarter of the length of the tree was hanging completely over the far side of the bridge.
The way the fallen tree sat Karl knew at a glance that if he simply cut it, there was a good chance of it falling onto the flume that carried water to the generator plant. Since the flume itself was made up of large size plastic pipe and was several years old, Karl was worried that it might be brittle. He knew that a large object falling on it might destroy it, cutting off their electric power.
"Son of a bitch." He growled.
"Can't we just cut it off?" Ely asked quietly
While Karl was explaining his concern about the flume, his mind was working rapidly.
"Look." He said quietly, after a moment's reflection. "I think I know how to handle this but I'll have to check it out."
Karl bent over to one side to see what the underpinnings of the bridge looked like before they walked out on it. It seemed to be solid enough so he walked out onto it and to Ely's surprise, he jumped up and down in the middle of the bridge, just short of the first of the branches of the fallen tree.
"You ass!" She said loudly. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Reassuring you that it's still solid." He grinned. "I took off my pack before I came out here. Would you bring me the flashlight, please? I think everything at the generator shed looks quite good but I want to check."
Ely walked slowly out onto the bridge to stop beside him and stare down the ravine. Even in the dim light she could see a spray of water farther down the gorge.
Karl held the light and focussed it on the spray. Ely could see a wheel spinning rapidly in the edge of the water flow.
"It isn't hitting the wheel straight on." She remarked. "Did the earthquake shift it off center or something?"
"No." He grinned. "It looks like it's working perfectly. There's an electro/mechanical governor in the generator shed and it adjusts the direction of the flow to make more or less water hit the blades as an adjustment for power demand. Now, if the power lines are okay, we should have electricity up at the cabin. At the worst, I may have to shut it off and string some more wire and reset some breakers. I'm happy as hell. If you look closely, you can see a light on the wall of the shed, so I know it's still working fine."
He grabbed her in a bear hug, then kissed her hard and handed her the flashlight before going back to get the chain saw and the rope. As he came back, he explained what he wanted to do.
They started by cutting off any of the smaller branches that were in their way, until all that stretched across the bridge itself was the main trunk of the tree. Now it was simply a matter of making sure that as the pieces of the log fell below, they didn't come too near the flume. Rigging the rope around the upper tree trunk that hung past the bridge, Karl had Ely tie it off to a tree on the bank behind them. Afterward he simply had to cut the trunk and the cut off section of the tree swung against the rope in an arc that easily cleared the flume. Recovering the rope became the hardest part of the whole problem. Actually it was fully half an hour after he climbed down to untie it before Karl was standing back on the end of the bridge at Ely's side.
"Okay, smart ass." She sighed softly. "You got rid of the top of the tree, now what do we do with the rest of it?"
"Well, if you look at it, it's split where the weight rested on the bridge." Karl said quietly. "The roots are still holding the damn thing on the bank though, so most of the weight is on the bridge."
"Yeah." Ely almost whispered. "About half of the roots are still in the ground, so what?"
"I'm going to tie a rope around my waist and around the bridge, so that if the bridge jumps back upward after the weight shifts off of it, I won't fall. Then . . ."
He was interrupted by a loud crack and the split they had been talking about suddenly opened. As they stared in amazement, the tree split lengthwise for at least ten feet. Then slowly, ever so slowly, the split moved down along the trunk. The main portion of the tree began to droop downward and at the same time the section they had been working on was being pulled across the deck of the bridge taking the broken section of the handrail with it. Karl and Ely both began to walk backward, moving off the bridge quite rapidly even while they stared in fascination. The movement of the tree suddenly accelerated, then, with a grinding, growling snap, the butt of the tree that Karl had cut slipped off of the bridge and dropped downward. It snapped back against the main trunk which came to rest with little more than a rustling and crackling sound. It was now suspended upside down, but braced against the bank. Luckily, it had cleared the flume on its way down.
Karl and Ely stared momentarily, then broke into laughter.
"That's what I call well done." Ely grinned after a moment.
"What do you mean?" Karl asked.
"Well, either you had that planned, or you're the luckiest son of a bitch around." She chuckled.
"I guess I'm just lucky." Karl grinned. "Now lets see if the rest of the bridge is all right."
One railing had been damaged but was unbroken, the other had been broken and had lost a section about ten feet long. Karl tied a length of rope in its place as a temporary measure.
"Texas bluff." He smiled at Ely. "It looks a lot safer than it is."
"Oh come on, the bridge is safe enough, but it will make Keri feel better." She grinned. "She never did like heights much."
Picking up all their gear, they continued on their way. Once across the bridge, they were moving on a path through tall trees. A few small branches impeded their way but nothing here seemed to be badly damaged. Unfortunately the day had passed very quickly and it was almost dusk. The rapidly dimming light wasn't helped by the falling rain.
Karl paused suddenly then turned to Ely. He grabbed her in a bear hug, then kissed her hard and handed her the flashlight before setting off along the path again, this time quite rapidly.
"Wait a minute." She called. "What's the hurry?"
"I want to see how the house fared." He called back, not slowing. "If I see a problem, I'll wait for you."
She hurried along, and wasn't really far behind him when they crested the small hill at the edge of a large clearing. In the dim light she could just make out the bulk of a small house across the clearing, but it was difficult in the dim light to even distinguish it from the trees and rock behind it. Karl knew his way though and by the time she had reached the front steps, a porch light suddenly came on.
He came around the corner of the house, grinning broadly.
"You know, this is the first time I've seen your new house. You just built it last year didn't you?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right, it is your first time. Hey, we've got power anyway, so we'll have lights to see." He crowed. "Now to see what damage the quake did inside."
Ely pointed."I see it cracked a window."
"Yeah, that one, as well as the one in the backdoor around the side of the house." Karl said, as he opened the front door. "If that's all the damage, I'll be happy as hell. Windows are nonessentials, it looks like the glass held even if it's cracked, so I hope no animals got in."
"Right now the animals would have to be damn tough to slow me down. I want a bath as soon as I can have one." She laughed.
Inside, Karl turned on a light. The living room opened off of a small entryway and the floor was strewn with fallen bits of plaster from the ceiling as well as pictures and other things that had hung on the walls.
It was a large room with varnished log walls and a huge stone fireplace at one end. The glass doors of the fireplace stood half open with the blackened hearth gaping into the room and a fall of soot staining the carpet in its vicinity. A tall book shelf had fallen over so books were spread far and wide while one cupboard in the kitchen area had a door askew with a few pieces of china laying on the floor.
"Well, this isn't bad." Karl said quietly. "A bit of a mess, but nothing that can't be cleaned up in a couple of hours."
"Lets look at the rest of the house before we start." Ely grinned as he began to pick up things on his way across the floor.
"We are." He said quietly. "I'm just picking up stuff that's in my way as we go."
"Ah. Sorry, I guess if it was my house that had been put through a blender, I'd be a bit distracted too."
"Hey, the house is still standing." Karl smiled ruefully. "There's just a lot of cleanup to do. But as you said, let's see how the rest of the place faired."
At least this kitchen didn't have any plaster on the floor, the ceilings and walls were plain wood and only the occasional piece of chinking that had fallen from between logs lay on the floor or protruded from spaces in the logs. A few pots had fallen from their hooks on one wall. The fridge gaped wide open and was running smoothly, it's light shining on bare clean shelves. As Karl closed the door, Ely turned on the water at the sink but all she got was a gurgle
"Let's hope the broken pipe for that is easily fixed." Karl sighed. "I was looking forward to that bath in the tub."
"So was I." Ely smiled. "There's no chance you just turned the water off is there?"
"Nope. There's a solar water heater on the roof that heats a mass of stone under the cabin and I leave the water on to supply the system in case of a minor leak. Maybe the supply pipe is broken but for now, let's worry about other things. I hope the larder is okay." He said, as he walked around the corner and past a set of stairs to open a thick door.
The room they entered was lined on two walls with shelves of closed containers and had another door at the far end which seemed to be let into a rock face.
"This opens into a small natural cave that was here before I built the house." He explained, checking a pipe that ran along just above the floor on one side and snapping off a switch next to a pair of water tanks. "If there's no water, I don't want to burn out an element. At least the electricity was off when I came so the elements shouldn't have overheated too much in the short time they were on."
"I thought you said the water was heated by solar panels?"
"It is, but there's an auxiliary electric tank as well. The water from the roof panels feeds one tank which preheats the water for the other. That way I had hot water all the time, even on stormy days."
"I should have expected something like that. Well everything looks good here."
"This isn't what I was worried about. You ain't seen nothing yet." He opened the door at the far end of the room and Ely felt a distinct chill.
"Ah, it's cool, that's a good sign." Karl sighed.
The walls here were solid rock and the room was huge. Shelves stood on each side and reached well above their heads. On the shelves were boxes and bags, small barrels and varying sized pails as well as several closed cupboards. One more door was set into an insulated wall that stood off to one side. The door was made of metal and looked bulky. On the wall next to it were several gauges and controls. Karl grinned as he turned from looking at them.
"Wonderful. It's still working perfectly." He chortled. "I was worried."
"What is it, A walk-in freezer?"
"That's right." He laughed, pulling open the door. "This is the only thing in the house that runs on electricity and is never turned off. I want the temperature to stay below zero."
A large room, perhaps twelve feet square, was lit by a single bulb. The shelves inside were covered with packages, wrapped tightly and covered in frost. He closed the door quickly after Ely had a brief glance around but even that short time had cooled the outer room and she shivered.
"That's my deep freeze." He grinned, closing it again. "There's probably a year's supply of food for the five of us in there and in this room, perhaps even more if we were careful. I've been hoping the electricity was still working and none of the freezing equipment had been broken. I'd have hated to have to chuck all this out because it was spoiled."
"I can see why." Ely shivered slightly. "Did you expect a disaster of some kind? You seem so prepared."
"Not really." Karl laughed, leading her back into the kitchen. "But living here in isolation you get to worrying about something going wrong with being able to get supplies and I guess I just got carried away with preparations."
"Well I'm damn glad you did." Ely laughed. "Was this a natural cave or did you excavate it?"
"It was a little bit of each." Karl explained. "It was a small cave and I opened it up since the rock was soft. I needed the broken rock for the big heat storage unit under the cabin. Like I said, the solar panels heat water that gets pumped down under the cabin into a pipe grid in a rock filled cavern. In the winter, I can pump water back through it and into the heaters in the cabin. But I've got a wood stove and some electric heat as well."
Ely broke into laughter. "I want to see everything and we came up here to check it all. How about if we keep going?"
"Right." Karl laughed. "Now that I know we're in good shape as far as food is concerned, I can worry about other damage again. But I guess we should call the boat, the radio is in my office and that's just off the living room."
As they came back into the main house, Karl pointed to a door on the left. "This is the downstairs bathroom . . ."
He paused instantly after opening the door. They could both hear the sound of gushing water.
"Oh Hell." Karl said loudly, quickly staring inside.
A hole in the floor gaped before him. Down in the hole, a small boulder lay on the crushed toilet and was constantly washed by water from a broken pipe. He glanced upward at a matching hole where the window had been in the wall and found he was looking at the rock face behind the house. Because of the roof overhang and the proximity of the rock face, hardly any rain came in. However in the vicinity of the hole in the floor, everything was wet from spraying water and littered with broken wood, shattered glass from the window and broken porcelain from the toilet.
"Shit." He growled. "Right at the main supply line to the house."
"So much for our bath." Ely laughed almost hysterically, picking up a piece of the shattered porcelain from the toilet. "And your nice indoor toilet. I hope you have an outhouse."
He didn't respond. He was leaning into the spray over the hole, trying to see exactly what was broken.
"Look at that, it snapped the handle and spindle right out the shut off valve to this bathroom. I can fix that quickly enough." He grinned up at her. "Don't despair on that bath yet, woman. I've got a spare valve for this out in the shed and I'd better fix it right now before it does any more damage. Hopefully I can use the pieces of the other valve in this valve body. If the guts aren't too damaged, it will work."
He stood and picked up the flashlight as he went out the door, leaving her standing alone. She looked after him and then smiled at the thought of him repairing the water right away.
"He would want to fix it now." She laughed softly, talking to herself. "While he's fixing that, I'll clean up a bit."
She went back to the kitchen to clean it up first, starting by trying to restore the pots and pans to order. While she was busy there he rushed past on his way back into the bathroom. In a few moments she heard him call her name and hurried to see what he wanted.
"Ah, there you are." He grinned up from down in the hole in the floor. "Try the faucet on the tub would you?"
She leaned over the tub.
"It seems to work all right."
"Hold it." He shouted then he spoke quietly as she shut off the water. "It's broken the drain. Hand me that soggy towel would you, it's gotten wet and mouldy, so I might as well see if I can use it to plug up the pipe. We don't want to have to smell the sewer gases."
He popped out of sight for a moment, then was right back "I guess we'll have to wait for tomorrow for hot water our bath. But at least we'll have cold water in the kitchen for coffee and such."
"Good." She grinned as he climbed out of the hole. "But we'll still have to go outside for a pee, right?"
"Right." He grinned, dusting himself off "Unless we use the upstairs bathroom. The pipes for it still look all right."
"You bugger, just knowing the toilet was gone and hearing that water running, I've absolutely got to go." She laughed.
"Top of the stairs and around to your left." He laughed as she scurried off. "I'll be out back when you get down and I could use a hand."
Ely heard his voice following her but she never even slowed down. She'd found the stairs and rushed upstairs to the bathroom.
When she came back down she could hear him outside and she followed her ears to find him around the back of the house. She helped as he put a tarp over the hole in the wall and then a piece of thin plywood over the hole in the bathroom floor. It was almost an hour before they got to his den and the radio since they went back to the kitchen to make a coffee first. They had to clean up more in order to use the stove and the kettle or to even sit down.
"Are you going to call Dad now that we know what's going on?" She asked as they entered Karl's den and he began to check the radios.
"The problem is that this morning we ran into the Navy boys." Karl frowned. "They'll be monitoring for anything at all. The only thing that might be safe is the CB's and even they might be too powerful. I was thinking of signalling them from the cliff."
"Karl, it's damn near dark and we left well before noon. We've been gone for hours. Dad will be worried as hell and monitoring everything. Unless we call soon, Keri is going to talk Dad into letting her swim ashore to come and find us."
"Yeah, I know." Karl sighed. "I suppose we could do that thing we did before, the trouble is we could be triangulated."
"How about those satellite cell phones you and Dad have? I know Dad's is on the boat."
"So is mine." Karl laughed sardonically. "Besides, mine hasn't worked in weeks. I fried battery I suppose."
"Shit." Ely frowned. "Look, let's turn on the CB and go to channel seven, that's where we always talk to Dad if we call locally but we almost always use walkie talkies."
Karl's face twisted into a grin as he laughed and reached into his coat pocket. He pulled out the walkie talkie he had used to blow up its mate that morning.
"Well, he's in a hole as far as radio goes, those cliffs shelter almost all radio waves and this thing is damn weak. . . ."
He turned on his CB monitor.
"What are you doing?" Ely frowned. "If you send with that on. It'll squeal like hell from feedback."
"I don't know the frequency on the walkie talkie." Karl said quietly, then he gestured at the large CB rig. "This thing carries for miles. It's too powerful to send on but we can use it to find the frequency of the walkie talkie and then get your Dad to go there."
"Oh, I think I see." Ely said quietly.
By leaving the main CB rig on receive and switching from one channel to the next, they found that the walkie talkie was on channel eleven.
"Bingo." Karl grinned. "I don't suppose your Dad monitors eleven though does he?"
"No, it's worse than seven but for this it should be okay." Ely grinned.
Karl retuned the CB to channel seven and picked up the mic.
"Hey Bear, you got the time? My watch says it's eleven." He said quickly then shut it off as he turned the walkie talkie on again.
"Oh, smart." Ely grinned.
In only seconds the walkie talkie came alive.
"Your watch is wrong but it is damn late. Where the hell have you been?" Georges voice growled. "Over."
"Shifting trees, moving rocks, fixing pipes, closing holes." Karl answered shortly. "We've been busy as hell. We haven't even taken time to eat."
"Oh." George grumped. "Well, I'm bored and so is everyone else. Update us."
"Some damage everywhere. Trees down, rock and mud slides on the paths. Broken windows, porch supports, plaster, roof, and water damage at your house. All repairable, but it'll take a while."
"What about your cabin?"
"Windows busted, shelves fallen, rocks through the wall, toilet and pipes busted." Karl responded.
"If all of us help, how long?" Keri's voice asked.
"Tomorrow, the next day, a week, who knows? Too tired to think." Karl answered.
"Oh hell! But yes, we understand." George responded. "Too late to come back now anyway. Early tomorrow?"
"Hell no, still have to eat, then clean up, make beds. Maybe sleep in three or four hours. Noon perhaps." Karl frowned.
"Don't take too long or we'll have a mutiny on our hands." Trudy's voice broke in
"Just handle it." Karl growled. "Over and out."
"Now what?" Ely said as she watched him twirling the dials on another radio.
"Now I try to monitor the military for a bit." Karl said quietly, concentrating on the radio. "They worry me."
Ely watched for a moment and then slipped out of the room quietly. Returning to the kitchen, she glanced around, then headed to Karl's huge pantry. In moments, she was back in the kitchen with a small package of frozen vegetables and a package of macaroni and cheese. Setting them on the counter, she turned and headed up the stairs to Karl's bedroom.
A few moments searching there and she found where he had put the sheets and blankets, then she quickly made up the big bed. Glancing around the room, she quickly picked up one or two fallen photos and a large painting, quickly hanging them back on the walls. She smiled as she spotted the fact that a fire had been laid in the fireplace, then she glanced around and found that the candle holders she had given Karl years before were placed around the room and that they all had candles.
Smiling again, she hurried back down to the kitchen and quickly began to cook a simple meal, pausing to run back into the cool storage and find a bottle of wine. On the way back to the kitchen, she paused at the hot water tanks because one was gurgling and making hissing noises. Checking it, she found that there was an overflow valve of some sort that was hissing madly and air was shooting out. Not wanting to make a mistake, she hurried to Karl's den.
"Karl, I was in the room where the hot water heaters are and there seems to be air blowing out of one of the valves." She said sharply, interrupting him as he concentrated on a weak radio signal.
"Oh." He looked up, somewhat startled. "I imagine that's the second stage of the heating system refilling, but I'd better check."
"I hope it's nothing more. I've just about finished cooking a meal." She said as they hurried back to see what was making the noise.
In seconds Karl had checked and he grinned as he turned to her. "Good news." He chortled. "Tomorrow the house will warm up. It's just air and nothing to worry about, Besides, we should be able to have a hot shower or a small bath in an hour or two."
"Great." She smiled, picking up the bottle of wine that she'd abandoned in her hurry. "For now though, let's eat something. It should be almost ready."
When they were back in the kitchen, she finished cooking as Karl set the table, then they sat down to a simple but filling meal.
Both of them were famished and hardly spoke as they ate but afterward, over a final glass of wine, she broke the ice by asking him what he had heard on the radio.
"Well, nothing really new." He said quietly, yawning cavernously. "The flu is still spreading. The officials are still trying to be officious and the navy appears to be chasing after any boat that tries to move."
"Oh, did you hear anything about our brush with them this morning?"
"Well, in a way." He chuckled. "It seems that there aren't that many vessels around that move quite quickly and yet almost silently. They were requesting a report from the coast guard about the supposed gunship that had a running battle with those pirates on Pig Island."
"I thought Linda said you'd made it sound like the boat sank?"
"Well, they don't appear to have been convinced that we sank then. On the other hand it does seem that they do believe that we blew up off the point of the island and they want to find out more about us. It seems they're worried about an invasion of some sort."
"Oh Christ, the paranoia of the military mind." She sighed."Invasions, after a bloody disaster like we've just been through?"
"Ah, but in their mind it couldn't be a more opportune time. In fact because of our low radar shadow they seem to think perhaps we were actually a submarine and we simply submerged, leaving a floating bomb behind. I guess that what they saw on the surface was either too far away to be seen clearly or they thought we had some sort of disguise."
"Oh man." She had to laugh. "There's a perfect example of the paranoia of a military mind."
"Well." He said quietly. "The problem is that they're going to send out planes as soon as the weather clears to check the area. If they overfly the area, the 'Skolka' will be spotted if she's moored in the middle of the bay. We've got to get her in to the dock and figure out a disguise."
"The trees around the dock are pretty damn high." Ely said quietly. "A plane would have to be almost directly overhead to see her, could we make her look different somehow?"
"My thought exactly." Karl yawned again, lifting his glass and gazing into the tiny bit of wine left. "Did you put something in this wine? I'm suddenly extremely sleepy."
"No, I didn't." She laughed softly. "You're just tired and so am I. Let's go to bed."
"I think I'll have a cold shower first or I won't have enough energy to make the beds." He mumbled getting to his feet.
"Like hell." She argued moving to his side. "A shower would just wake you up, besides the bed is already made."
"But . . ." He started to protest as they moved to the stairs.
"But nothing." She chuckled. "Do you need the can first?"
"Oh, I should at least wash my hands and face." He said as they came to the top of the stairs.
She walked with him to the door to the bathroom then when he had gone inside, she lit the fire in the fireplace and all the candles near the bed. By the time he came out of the bathroom, she was snuggled under the covers.
"Are you ready for bed already?" He asked as he approached.
"Um hm." She murmured. "I need a cuddle."
The cuddle became a fondle, the fondle became a kiss, the kiss became passionate, and before they slept, they made love gently and quietly.
After Karl had fallen into a sound sleep, Ely slipped out of bed, blew out all the candles, and wrapping herself in a blanket, sat on the rug before the fire staring into it's flickering depths until it had died to nothing but embers. Her thoughts were deep and her mind in a turmoil. She thought back over her sometimes passionate, sometimes lukewarm, sometimes distant love affair with Karl. Looking up at the wall, she caught sight of a picture that took her mind back to the time when it was taken. In the photo, she was just sixteen. She had been a romantic teenager, a child with a woman's body and a woman's desires, isolated by her father's almost pathological need for privacy and to a certain extent by her colour. As well as that only a few years earlier when she had just reached puberty and her body had begun to change, those changes in her body had brought on alopecia. All of the hair on her body seemed to stopped growing at first, then as her body became more developed, the hair that she already had began to fall out. For a teenage girl it was devastating.
Her father had taken her to doctors of all sorts. Doctors who specialized in skin disorders, doctors who specialized in hormone disorders, doctors who specialized in stress related diseases, none of them helped her. Finally she had met a woman who knew what she was going through and she had been able to open her heart, to explain to someone else what her life was like and what she felt. The woman had been both a black woman and a doctor, as well, she was not only as bald as Ely now was, but she had seemed almost proud to have no hair. Ely smiled as she remembered her words.
"The research people tell us now that what we have is brought on by our own bodies. That Alopecia is an auto-immune disease. In other words, our own bodies are killing off the hair follicles, right at the roots. They say it might come from our genes, or it might be a virus, but right now they aren't really sure. To be honest, I don't know if they're right but I have my own suspicions." She had smiled, then had run her hand across her bare pate."Child, one thing you should always remember, monkeys and apes have a lot of hair, modern man is gradually growing less and less hair, but you and I have none. My suspicion is that you and I may well be the next step in evolution."
"If we are the next step, then we shouldn't worry about the pity of the hairy apes, and we don't ever want to be envious of them, but for God's sakes don't ever brag to anyone about what I am saying. Man is a pack animal and as a pack, they all try to remain as close to identical as possible. There is some danger in being different, so try to blend in, but at the same time be fully aware that there is absolutely nothing wrong with your body in any way. Learn to be proud of your lack of hair and in your difference. Find yourself a man who accepts you the way you are and have his children. Your genes will be passed on and one day perhaps, all men and all women will pity the hairy apes who now run the world so badly."
Ely had asked questions and had been given answers that she had found radical at the time, but had come to respect in their own way as she aged. She had asked her father about her mother's hair, since she couldn't remember much about her mother, who, along with Keri's mother, had been killed by a careless driver when they had been only four years old. Her father had smiled, admitting that Ely's mother had very thin hair and hardly any body hair but that she had never seemed worried about it. Since he was nearly bald himself, having only what he called a pope's fringe, he had never been bothered by it either.
Keri, Ely's half sister, had a full head of luxuriant red curly hair. Since they were only months apart in age, Ely had confided her new found acceptance of being bald to her. To Ely's surprise she'd discovered that not only was Keri accepting but in some ways and at some times was almost envious. If Keri was caught in the rain her hair erupted into a massive bush of curls and every time she washed her hair, it took hours to restore it to what Keri considered acceptable control. She had soon learned to accept that Ely only had hair when they were out in public because Ely took to wearing wigs when they went anywhere. Still, Keri often complained about her own hair problems. Each time she had to get ready to go somewhere she bemoaned the time it took her until one day Ely lost her temper.
"If you don't want hair, Dad's got a fucking razor that will make your life a lot simpler." Ely had screamed. "With all the fucking fuss you make about your stupid fucking hair, I'm glad I'm as bald as a billiard ball."
Keri had stared at her in surprise and then broken into tears. That had brought on Ely's own tears. In the resultant reconciliation both of them had screamed, cried, laughed, and finally, become much better friends than ever before.
The photo on the wall was one that Keri had taken because she really did find Ely beautiful. Ely had posed nude, her lack of hair on display, her fingers of her left hand barely hiding the absolute minimum of her sexuality while still leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination. If anything it was an extreme artistic photo, almost verging on pornography. Actually Ely was proud of that shot and if possible, even prouder of how she looked now. She was older, more developed, and she knew that to most men she was even more desirable than she had been at sixteen.
Ely smiled and turned her head slightly so she could see the photo she had taken of Keri. It was just as provocative. Keri was just as nude and her pose was even more brazen. She remembered when she had given the photo to Karl. By then, she and Karl had been sleeping together and making love regularly but they had gone through a falling out and were not involved with each other at that time. He had stared at the photo, then at her, and finally at Keri. Ely had made a point of being aware of his body's reaction and had known that he found the photo arousing. If anyone had asked her, she couldn't possibly have explained her feelings at that moment. By then she had known about Karl's bout with the mumps and his exceptionally low sperm count and she had realised that she had a passionate desire to bear children, his children. Yet there she was, literally offering Karl another woman, and not just any woman but her own half sister who was willing to try to bear a child.
Somehow Karl had managed to do several things in the next few moments. He had managed to turn the offer of Keri as a bed partner aside, yet keep the photo. He had managed to make Keri feel complimented and not rejected. And as well, he had managed to reconcile Ely's differences with him. Both she and Keri had been left feeling almost euphoric in some way and she had returned and slept at Karl's side that night but she hadn't given up. In only a short time she had managed to have Keri sleeping at his side as well.
Slipping the blanket from her shoulders, she rose and stirred the few remaining coals in the fire. Smiling, she turned to see Karl's form on the bed and she listened for a moment to his deep breathing. Then deciding she was too wound up in her memories to sleep, she added a few small pieces of wood to the fire. Standing upright, she felt the chill of the room and she sighed as she felt her nipples tighten from the cold. As the flames suddenly burst out from under the new fuel in the fireplace, she turned slowly to regard another photo on Karl's wall.
The flickering light reflected on the glass of the one photo in the room that Karl had taken. It was a photo of Keri and herself. They were lying in front of the fireplace in Karl's old cabin, on the very rug that lay under her feet. Again they were nude but this picture had been taken years later. Keri's hair appeared thinner, but she was even more astoundingly beautiful. Her body was openly displayed, her thick red bush prominent, the bright curls peeking through Ely's darker coloured fingers while Keri's hand in turn had been resting gently on Ely's swollen lower belly. They had been glorying in Ely's success at achieving a full term pregnancy.
She studied their faces, Keri's face alive with joy and mischief, her own face almost burning with pride and fulfilment. Her breasts had been swollen and tight, the skin almost gleaming because it was stretched so tight. She sighed as her nipples swelled in sympathy with the swollen nipples she had displayed in the photo. Lifting a hand, she gently caressed one tight hard cylinder, feeling the thrill that coursed through her body. A tight warm, unfulfilled sensation settled in her groin.
"Karl." She whispered softly, hoping that he was awake, but knowing that her sudden rush of desire would remain unfulfilled.
His quiet breathing, almost a quiet snore, was all that answered her questioning voice.
"Damn." She sighed softly, then gently chided herself. "Sometimes kid. You just get yourself aroused at the wrong times."
Her hands moved of their own accord and she sighed as she slowly collapsed to slip down and sprawl back on the hearth rug. Her fingers performed an all too familiar dance of passion and she allowed herself to slip into the throes of fantasy. Her mind leaped from one moment of remembered passion to another as well as tracing a dream state of ideals that could never come true. She was a woman who relished masturbation almost as thoroughly as she appreciated sex and she allowed her mind and body full play as she brought herself to an astonishingly satisfying climax.
Afterward she lay back savouring her relief and it was several moments before she even opened her eyes. When she did, she jerked in surprise because Karl's smiling blue eyes were staring into hers.
"My goodness but you are beautiful when you get excited." He murmured softly. "One day I wish I could make you that happy."
"Oh, but you do." She breathed out the words in a gust as she smiled up at him. "Every time."
His hand lifted to fondle her breast and he smiled down at her, then to her delight his lips came down upon hers. She loved this man so much and she knew there was no way, other than making love to him, that she could possibly tell him how much. She knew he realised that she was still unsatisfied and she revelled in the slow but thorough way in which he brought her back to another even higher peak of desire.
Then in an extraordinary display of dependence, she allowed herself to react in total trust and confidence as she and Karl rode their mutual passion to unusual heights. As she interacted with his passion she found herself becoming more and more delighted. Her body became an instrument to instruct and encourage Karl, aiding him to bring further delights. Wriggling and writhing in ecstasy, suddenly her voice declared her ardour. She astounded Karl and even surprised herself as she screamed and shouted in appreciation, finally wailing in a paean of pure joy and fulfilment. Afterward she collapsed in total relief, her body fully relaxed.
While she and Karl lay side by side after their tryst, her body seemed to be more alive than it had been in years. She felt the wrinkles in the old rug underneath her buttocks, the smooth and cool varnished wood under her shoulders and against her scalp. The skin of her arm and leg that faced the fireside was almost too warm, while her back was frigidly cold, yet the part of her body that touched Karl was perfectly warm, absolutely comfortable. She looked down her body and sighed softly, relishing the rush of air as it flowed down her body from her breath. It had cooled before reaching her breasts and she felt the coolness of the perspiration as it dried in her cleavage, accelerated by the movement of air.
She didn't want to move. Everything felt too perfect. When Karl lifted upward at her side and sat looking down at her, she simply smiled up at him, still unmoving although she longed for the soft warmth of his touch. She instantly feeling the coolness of the air against her skin where his movement had left her bare flesh exposed to the cool room. Neither of them spoke a word. When Karl shifted again to reach out strong hands to pick her up, Ely neither helped nor hindered him, she simply allowed him to carry her over and place her on the bed. It wasn't until he slid into the bed at her side that she shifted and snuggled in his arms.
She fell asleep, her face pressed to his chest, relishing the gentle roughness of the soft curls of dark blond hair, peppered with grey.