I worked from that point past lunch on the first hole, and by the time the sun was setting the second hole was almost halfway done, but no where close to being done.
“Well, it looks like you did more then I thought you would.” I heard Timothy say.
“Not enough though,” I said.
“I did not expect you to finish both today”
“Then why did you-”
“I told you that to see if you had the dedication for the training, if you want my help come back tomorrow, you will finish the second hole tomorrow.”
He took the shovel and went back inside from over his shoulder “an hour left after sunrise, be back here tomorrow.”
I went back to Mr. Soper’s house. He was waiting for me. “I see that you were out today, have you decided something?”
“I went to the witch for help…” I started, “She told me I could be her apprentice; she would help me.”
“I see,” Scott said.
“I told her no.”
Eyebrow raised Scott asked, “What did you do then”
“She directed me to the Drun-Umm Timothy Evans,” I started, “He told me to dig a hole, two of them actually, I dug one, and part of the second, I don’t know why though.”
“Graves,” Scott Said, “He is having you dig graves.”
“What?!” I said, “am I safe?”
“There is an old saying if you seek revenge dig two graves… Do you know why?”
“N-no, why?” I asked.
“Think about while you dig tomorrow, I am going to miss you.”
“What do you mean? I will be back tomorrow, I am sure.”
“I do not think you will, I think you will be living with Timothy Evans, he was some kind of soldier,” Scott said, getting up from his seat, “Give me a minute I have something for you.”
A few minutes later Scott came back with a leather wrapped bundle and a small sack, a coin pouch.
“What is this,” I asked.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“The pouch is the coins that you earned as my apprentice, the other are my knives I was in the army for a few years, I have done my time, I do not need them anymore they are yours now.
That next morning, I got up and packed my few clothes, the money I had made, a long with the money from Scott, my former master, and feeling brazen hugged him briefly and left, wanting to be as helpful as I could be left his house with my face exposed, and I headed out of town towards the capital, which happened to be in the same direction of what I hoped to be my new master’s house. What he going to be my master? Trainer? I did not know.
I got to the house just before the hour after sunrise, seeing as I had a few minutes I walked around the back of the house, to look at how much more of a hole that I needed to dig, but the hole was gone!
I just stood there looking at the filled-in hole, I do not know how long I stood there looking at the hole when I heard, the tramping of boots and the setting of a shovel in the ground, “You’re late”
“I am not I have been here since before the time.”
“Are you arguing with me?
Feeling that if I said yes, I would be dismissed, I said, “No, I am just surprised the hole is gone.”
“That?” Timothy-no Mr. Evans said, “That was left unfinished, anything left unfinished needs to be done again, this is your only warning, I left you one-hole, next time everything will be returned to normal, make sure to finish all your tasks from now on. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I said meekly.
“WHAT?” he yelled
“Yes,” I said a little bit louder.
“Yes, Sir,” he said, “now what did you say?”
“Yes, Sir”
“Good, now that I have been generous with leaving you the one hole, we need to work on your strength start digging”
I started working on the hole again it was only a few minutes later when I heard, “Stop”
Stopping I turned to look at back at Mr. Evans he tossed a heavy vest at me. “Put it on.”
“It has to weigh 30 lbs.?!”
“You are right pass that back,” he took the vest and added a couple of large rocks in the vest and passed it back
“Put it on.”
Biting back a complaint about the vest. I put the vest on.
“Good dig, you have until lunch.”
Time went by infinitely fast and infinitely slowly.
With just another few inches to go two maybe three shovelfuls of work I heard his voice.
“Put the shovel down its lunch time.”
“Just give me a couple of minutes I am almost done.”
“You can put the shovel down now, and have lunch or you can skip lunch and move on to your next tasks.”
I put the shovel down and dragged myself out of the hole, unaided. Once I got out of the hole, I started to take the vest off.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking my vest off?” I asked.
“Did I tell you take the vest off?”
“No, I just assumed.”
“During this time, you will do what you are told, without question, after the task is done, you may ask about the task only after it is done, though. Now keep the vest on is it lunch time or time for your next task?”
“Lunch time”
“Good”
Lunch was not what she was expecting, not at all, she was expecting cheese, fresh bread, and fruit, while she did have fruit, and bread, it was not at all in a form that it had been made into.
“Sir, what is this?”
“It’s Lunch,” Mr. Evans said, “Ah you don’t know what this is, it is called an iron ration.”
“It is meat and fruit pounded together into a brick and often soaked with a bit of lard to preserve the meat. The bread is called hard tack. I saw you have some knives go ahead and get them now, you will wear them all the time from now, on.”
“Good, since you have never seen this before use your knife to shave off thin pieces and put those pieces in to your mouth let them soften us in your mouth then chew, the hard tack dip into a liquid to soften hot liquid is best if you do not have any let it moisten in your mouth you do not want to chew on a hardtack without softening it first.