A Very Good Man (34 page)

  “Thanks for getting the jars. Lois says they'll work really well. We could use another load of them, if there are any left and it's safe to get them. There's a lot left to put by, even with the cellar loaded to the brim. I wish we had time to get another underground room built before winter.”

  Why not? It would be green logs in a pit away from the house, but the harvest was winding down and half the people were just sitting around and waiting for winter already, they had months before the ground froze. He shrugged.

  “Carley can run a log team and have that done in four days. Burt can walk it out and measure it. Then all we need is to dig the hole. Everyone can dig. We should have it done in a week. Faster if we try hard. I want another hunting trip soon too, if we can figure out how to dry meat fast enough or anything. Um, so... I wanted to talk to you?”

  The other man sat down and dragged a dining room chair over with his foot, arranging them so that nothing was between them. An open and honest chat between friends then, rather than a “business” meeting? That was the kind of thing Nate had been good at the whole time. The touchy feely stuff that actually held people together as a group.

  “So, um, last night, when I got in, Heather was in my bed.” He said, which got raised eyebrows and a half grin from his friend.

  Jake frowned and shook his head.

  “With Randy, her new boyfriend? Not there to get all freaky with me either. They just decided it was comfier than the floor and since I wasn't at dinner, that meant it would be fair game. Probably true most times, but right now I'm not exactly feeling charitable toward them for some reason. I'm probably a jerk that way. Can't really help it right now.”

  “Oh. Crap. I see. Well, I'll talk to them about that. People need to respect others' property and place. Things are too tight not to here, especially with winter coming. We'll all be inside most of the time then and if we step on each other's toes like that, tempers will flair.”

  Jake laughed, almost too loud so he slapped a hand over his mouth. Tempers would flare then? God, he hoped not. He'd almost killed them both already, which would have gotten blood all over his mattress. Made holes too.

  “Anyway, I think we should get more mattresses and bedding from town, collect baby junk and whatever is going to be needed. Also... Um,” Now he hesitated. This part was hard, mainly because it was stupid. But he didn't want to sleep on the front porch all winter either.

  And really, he was tired. Not just from the night outside either. Life had just worn him down. This place had. The people. It was time to make other arrangements. Wasn't that how Nate had put it with the pregnant women?

  “I want an accounting. Like what we talked about before?”

  That got a slow blink, a sleepy looking thing from the other man, like he hadn't had his coffee or wasn't sleeping well lately. Jake sympathized, taking care of all these people had to be hard work. For every person coming and suggesting they go and do something useful, there were probably nine that just whined at him, sad or scared, wanting daddy Nate to make the bad things go away for them. The idea of dumping his problems onto someone else had a certain allure, Jake had to admit.

  The guy in front of him rubbed his face, a week's beard growth had collected, signaling that it wasn't happenstance but that the man was actually trying for facial hair? More blinking came.

  “An accounting? Of what? The harvest and food supplies? Lois has one going, it's not done yet, because she's trying to correct for spoilage as she goes. Ammo is low, but you pointed that out. We're fine for now, but in three months I don't know...”

  Right. Burns was trying, not very well, to distract him from his purpose, it was so clear that even Jake got it without having to think overly hard. He gave Nate a level look and raised an eyebrow.

  “My share of things. If it's enough... I was thinking last night, and maybe I can go get my own place. That way I won't be a bother to anyone here. I don't want to take it all or anything, but if I could borrow a cart to get it there, that could work. I'd have liked to make some tools and stuff first, but I think I know enough to get started now. It will be hard, but maybe, if I can get enough from here, I could make a go of it. Maybe not, but still, it's better than being here, even if I die.”

  “Um,” Nathanial huffed at him, a puffing sound that Jake took as anger, but that didn't seem to be the whole picture. There was a stiffening of the body too, fear.

  Did he think that Jake would pull a Holsom and try to take everything? He didn't need that much and a bag of gold jewelry wouldn't help him at all. His regular weapons and maybe a rifle, a bit of ammo, and food. A wood stove would be good, if wherever he found didn't have one already. An axe. He'd have to scramble to get wood and water in. He could do it. Maybe. Or he'd just die, but that would be alright too really. It was a chance and really, could anyone ask for more than that? The other man kept staring at him for about half a minute, then looked away suddenly.

  “I'll have to talk to the others. I... You said you were planning on the spring, I... guess I thought I had time to talk you around, or fix things. This... It isn't good Jake. But, let me get with some people. We can have a meeting tonight about it. Take a vote...”

  Now it was his turn to blink.

  “A vote on what? I suppose people could vote to fight against letting me have anything, which is likely to be what happens if they get the chance, but I actually put the work in, so if they do that, well, everyone else will eventually realize that they don't count either. It's a bad plan. They all really hate me, if we vote on it they'll just decide that the work I did doesn't count or something. Especially the women, they can't be trusted really. If you want to screw me over, just do it yourself. No need to show me how much the world doesn't want me around. What's the point?”

  Nate shrugged.

  “No one has left before, that's all. The only ones to try were Holsom and his harem. Part of his harem. We don't exactly have a plan in place and you've done a lot more than most people. Enough that it would actually be easier if it were someone else. Then we could just figure out their portion and call it even. I'll... Let me see?”

  They agreed to do that after dinner. In the meantime he decided to start working on the forge. He had brick for it and a rudimentary chimney, now he just needed something to hold it together. Clay? Would that work at all? He'd try it and see. It meant a trip to the stream in order to get it, but that would be fine. He borrowed a plastic tarp, shovel and some rope, put it on the wooden wagon and set out. The digging went fast. Yes, the heavy damp clay weighed a lot, but it just sat on the surface where he went. The ground on the bank above was halfway flat, a couple of rocks blocked the thick rubber wheels well enough that he was done in about an hour. As he wrapped the rich red clay in the old worn blue tarp, he saw the deer, just standing there, watching him.

  The shot came so fast and naturally he didn't even realize he'd done it at first. The second one too. A buck and a doe. As he strung them up to bleed them, he noticed the baby deer. Just watching him instead of running. Not a real fawn anymore, but little. A yearling. Great. Did he shoot that one too now? Or, just let it go and die? It certainly didn't want to close with him, which meant capturing it for later wouldn't work, so he finally killed it too. He felt bad about that.

   Like he'd shot Bambi or something.

   He field dressed them all, making the incisions like Carl had shown him and hurried back as fast as he could. It had taken four bullets in all, because the buck had moved after his first shot took the female. The pile of dead things rested on top of the clay package as he moved, the bumpy ground and grass more noticeable with the now heavy load.

  As he pulled in people came over, looked and started taking the deer away rapidly, without asking if it was for them or not, just grabbing and making them disappear. They were to share, but no one even said thanks or anything. Or good job. Not even something conversational like, “oh, hey, lucky...” Kind of rude. They still said things like that to each other, or Lois and the kids for making dinner each night. Only Jake got left out. Only he didn't count. No one else even seemed to notice that.

  Lois looked at the little deer and grimace.

  “I suppose it's another meal. We can have it tonight, people will like that. Not too much meat, not for a group our size. What's the clay for? Are you going to make dishes? If you build a kiln it might work. Pots and what not too. I hadn't thought about it because we have enough for now, but that won't last forever. Things break.”

  “Forge. I need something to hold the bricks together.” He said, not gruffly, because her idea of a kiln was probably a good one too. He'd need more brick.

  Really he needed his own cart, if he was leaving. He looked down at the one in front of him. Wheels, a metal axle and some bolts to hold it together? Maybe he could get the parts and cut some wood for it. Another trip into town, if he had the time. For now, even if he was leaving, these people would need a forge. He owed Burt that much at least, didn't he? He went to work and had the base started and stuck together with a clay and sand slurry by meal time, ran to wash and got in about the time the food came out.

  The room smelled good, the meat wasn't roasted, but boiled and tender, there were new potatoes and a small salad to go with it, almost a real meal, like what people used to eat. After they finished everyone moved into the living room, almost everyone. Sammi and Ken weren't there, or Yvonne, off doing their actual jobs he guessed instead of goofing off with the rest of them. Jake really didn't want to do this anymore. It had seemed a bad plan before, but now he wondered if he'd have to fight his way out of the room, given the covert and hostile glares he was getting. Not from everyone, but about half the room. Both his weapons were loaded and he shifted the forty-five to his lap, ostensibly for comfort. No one really seemed to buy that reasoning though.

  They'd set up a hot seat for him, in front of a table, as if he were on trial. There were seven people at the front table, which didn't make him feel any better. There had only been five when they were thinking about killing Yvonne, Justine and Tracy.

  Who sat there didn't help reassure him either.

  Burt and Nate were fine, they wouldn't cheat him. Carl probably didn't care much about him at all, so those people weren't bad. Even Lois would have just divvied up he thought and let him have his part of things. She didn't seem to hate him nearly as much as she used to. But for some reason Vickie, Tipper and Carley were up there too. What that was about he didn't get. Some trick to abuse him again probably. It also made him uneasy that most of the people were at his back. He glanced around.

  “I just asked for an accounting Nate, not a trial. Is this going to be a problem?” He forced himself to stay relaxed. If he had to move he would, even if he liked some of these people.

  He hadn't lived this long to go down in a policy dispute. Not alone at least.

  “Nothing like that Jake. Um, I asked everyone to make an accounting of your contribution over the last six months, like you asked, these are just the people that you've worked with mainly. Let's start with Carley and work this way?”

  The girl, a woman, older than he was, he realized if only by about five years, cleared her throat and started reading from a little list she had.

  “Um, well, he cleared about seven cord of wood himself, helped dig the saw pit and set that up, but the whole push for wood gathering was his idea too, at least the part that actually got it going, so how do we calculate that? If we live through the winter, it's probably thanks to that bit of initiative.” She sounded bored or maybe a little depressed. That probably came from having to say that a man might be marginally useful. She continued for a while, going over what had been done by him in greater detail.