Chapter 50. A Very Busy Day

After the excitement of the previous day you would think a break was deserved.But Will knew many people were relying on the ore and coal they were bringing.He put it to the kids if they wanted to work or not.They all voted to go on, they knew their work was important and that they were the only ones who could do it.So they began the day.

“Minnie, you take that boat and I’ll take this one, okay?”, said Will pointing.Min nodded and began winching down the boat.The kids assigned to her were milling around the stairs, raring to go.They clutched tools and ore bags, all wearing life belts.Naomi and her aides were standing by with loaded picnic baskets, folding tables and chairs, everything needed for a peaceful lunch on the shoals.

Minnie was taking a fold boat but Will had lowered the dory down to be loaded and had the other folder in tow.It could carry much more, in cargo and people so it made sense to use it instead.The other folder could just be loaded and towed.

Will had slept poorly that night, worried about the rogue wave, if it happened again, why it did in the first place, where it came from, so many questions. He realized they had been very lucky in so many ways. No one was really hurt, no catastrophic damage, no sinking, he thanked the powers they were all safe.

“All aboard the good ship Minnie”, rang out the cry from the first mate. She rowed the fold boat over to the stairs and loaded her group on. The dory was sitting at the other side of the stairs and as soon as Min had cast off Will loaded her up. Plenty of room for all. He flipped the Roses stairs up again and rowed off in pursuit.

He could see Minnie and her crew whooping it up as his boat neared.The race was on.His larger boat took more to propel it, much larger and heavier.Wills strength could easily snap the tough oars so he had to take it easy.Besides, Minnie’s strength was very high, her small boat literally flew across the water, beaching much sooner than Wills.Shouts of “Hooray, the winners, go us!”, rang out along with boos and hisses from his boat.

It was about a minute and Will beached beside Minnie, leapt out and pulled the dory onto the beach. The teens scrambled out and he grabbed the tow rope and pulled the other folder ashore. The teens were organized into two crews and started looking for the required supplies. They needed coal, of course, and copper this time. So far it was only iron ores and some lower quality coal. From what Will knew the copper ore was usually found under water. They could move a few miles either direction to search for better coal but the copper was here, just wet.

Wading through the shallows Will would pull up a bucket of ore every 20 yards or so to check for copper, nothing yet.But he had hope.He could see Minnie was doing the same, with a bit more enthusiasm and noise.Naomi had stayed back at the landing site, preparing the eating area, and the mid-day meal.

Rocks, more rocks, granite, shale, sand and .. “Here crabby, come to Minnie “, came the shout. “Got some little ones here Minnie”, shouted Larry, pointing at his feet. “Nope”, she called back “We need the biiiig ones.”. Laughing Will led his team on, sloshing through the cool water.

On his fifth check on what was under his feet he found it, beautiful chalcopyrite, a copper bearing ore.

“Hey you guys, found what we”re looking for.”, he called out.Not knowing how far out it went yet, but they could start here .Minnie came scampering over, followed by her work crew.“Good one dad, we found nothing but tiny crabs and those were yucky, I still want the big ones, are they like shrimps?Cause yum right?I hope the big ones aren’t yucky or scary.”.

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“Ummm yes, oh yeah, nope.”, said Will, quite used to her. “I think we are gonna move the Rose over here to cut down on trip time.”. He waved at Naomi’s group, but she didn’t notice, which wasn’t odd considering she was nearly a half a mile away. Just in view down the beach. He tasked one of his crew to run down and let her know to start heading to his location. “Hold on,”, he said, “let’s all head back, tow the boats here and start loading then.”.

They headed back. Naomi was surprised to see them all but was happy to move up with them. He ran Minnie out to the Rose and they started up and moved to where he found ore. The water deepened very quickly off shore so they could anchor fairly close. Then they rowed back to the group and they started up the beach.

It was a good thing that Naomi hadn’t got too far with her setup or she would have been annoyed at having to change spots. But the day was a fine one, warm and sunny, the beach was easy to walk on and it was a very pleasant walk.She began setting up again, a fair way back from the beach, on a strip of scrub.They had put up chairs, tables and umbrellas for cover.Portable wood stoves were set up and loaded, firewood had been brought and the first thing set going was the captains kettle.

As the ore they needed was underwater at this location it was going to go much slower to load. Everyone was equipped with gloves and boots for safety and they began to load the heavy canvas bags with ore. It was a heavy mineral and the bags quickly became heavy for the children to lift. Will and Minnie passed along the work crews and dumped their small bags into larger ones that they had no problem carrying.

As their bags were filled they were stacked by the dory and fold boats for transport to the Rose. Because of the loss of nearly half their bags they would be taking a break when a load was taken out.But that was okay, it was a warm day and hard work made it hotter.

With ten active strong kids working hard the bags were filled in about three hours, by pure coincidence it was lunch time.Will and Min filled the boats and rowed them out, winched them aboardand dumped them into the hold.It still looked empty.By Wills eye it looked like they would be here for quite a few days loading ore.The kids would love that news as this was kind of a working holiday for them.

Heading back to shore Minnie won again as her boat was lighter, and she did the old…1,2,3 go trick.Will sighed, maybe next trip he would win.But as they beached he saw how happy his little friend was, he wouldn’t do anything to spoil that grin.

Boy had these teens ever worked up an appetite.Thick beef sandwiches and fried potatoes, fresh fruit, juice and water.Naomi was working up a sweat keeping up, along with her two hard working helpers.As the three sat down to eat finally, Will led the others in a cheer, thanking them for the meal.

One thing that Will always noticed about this world was how quiet it was.He walked down the beach, sipping his tea and the noise of the teens faded.No aircraft, no highway noise, no boats booming music…nothing like that.Just the water lapping against the shore, an occasional gull , maybe a fish splash, but that was it.All in all a very peaceful world. He remembered what Elaith had told him.About worlds that were pure conflict.

Still sounded awful to him, but each their own.He supposed to some that his rather bucolic life here would’ve bored them to an early grave.“Hey you guy.”, the call made him turn around.“Where you wandering off to dad?”, asked Minnie as she scampered up to him.Laughing he replied “Just thinking sweety, just thinking.”.He turned to meet her and they headed back to the group.

Loading proceeded slowly but surely and they had taken four loaded boats back to the Rose when they called it quits. The hold was a little fuller now but it was still going to be a few days to get a full load. Then the sharp hunt on the way back, a nice long trip.

It took a while but the kids were cleaned up, wet clothes were hanging to dry as were gloves and boots. Boats hanging on the davits safely, kids lounging around, playing games or singing. Bbq burgers tonight, using brined ham ground up, a bit salty even after soaking but still very good. Will sure missed the iced box from Newton, made life much easier. Maybe this winter they would be able to store ice like they did, in Laketown.

Dinner was noisy, raucous and fun.The teens were all starving and the fell on the food like wolves.They were eating on deck as it was a beautiful evening, no bugs this far out too. But eventually the day caught up with them and in ones and twos they stumbled off to bed.

“Lot of work done today captain,” Naomi said, sitting at the bow with Will and Minnie. Will nodded “ A good start, we’ll get in stride tomorrow and the next and really get to it.”. Minnie was still working on a final burger and it was not clear who was going to win out. “Excellent job today you two, well done, it’s not easy wrangling kids.”, said Will. Naomi hesitated a bit then asked “Did you have children in your other world Will?”.

Will sighed “We did. A boy and a girl, they had children too. My grandkids. When I passed from there a couple of them were close to having kids too, my great grand children, lots of us now I guess.”. Minnie asked “Do you miss them a lot.”. Will thought for a moment, “I do, I try not to dwell on the things from my past, thing’s I lost coming here. There are many things that changed for me, us, when we were brought here. It’s like another life, separate from the one there. Hard to explain. There was us there, a grumpy lonely old man and his doggo, and now there’s us now.”.

“I like the us now dad, we have fun and work hard yeah”, added Minnie. Will reached out and held her small hand in his “I like us too.”.