Balancer's Soul (25 page)

After scooping all of the unusable hay out of
the barn and putting it in the compost heap, he heard his
grandfather’s truck pulling into the property.

Now finished with the first task on the list,
Connor jogged over to take a look at the supplies that just
arrived. Pulling off the green tarp of the trailer, David spoke. “I
triple checked and made sure that I acquired everything to the
exact specifications to your list.” Now he stood right beside his
grandson. “What have you done since you left yesterday morning?”
Connor told him about the clearing and finishing the barn and
removing the hay he chuckled. “I didn’t realize it got wet. Thanks
for clearing it all out. If you didn’t my cattle probably would
have gotten sick. On another note, when are you going to start
building your cottage?”

“Looking at your list Granddaddy, I would say
that after it’s complete… about a week. That will give me three
weeks of solid working time.” He was still scanning over the
trailer as he answered his question.

“One week!” David shook his head once Connor
looked up at him. “Are you even going to sleep at night, Son? It
will take me a month to do all the chores on the list your grandma
and I made together.”

Connor smiled and tapped the paper. “I will
do everything on the list, this week.” He returned the list back
into his back pocket. “I’ll rest when I need to, but any other part
of my day will be focused on these tasks.”

He smiled proudly. “Well if you are that
determined, I won’t stop you, good luck and don’t kill yourself.”
After patting his shoulder and going inside the house, Connor
noticed a box that wasn’t on the list.

After taking out the box that was
placed into the trailer, he took the letter off the top. Opening
the letter it read ‘Connor this is my gift to you. All of these
supplies didn’t cost any more than nine hundred dollars, I got
these supplies at a great bargain. I know that you still feel
obligated to work off this debt, but you need to think about you
and Sarah. I only ask that you do only the top six assignments and
your debt is paid in full. If I hired someone they’d charge twice
what these supplies cost. In this box is a gift I bought for you…
P.S. don’t let your grandma see it or I’ll get another goose egg
added to my skull.” Setting the letter down and opening the box,
Connor laughed. Inside the box were a case of condoms and a brand
new chocolate brown silk bed sheets. On the condoms wrote “Good
luck. You’ll need it, Son. I expect great grandchildren one day,
but not just yet.”
“You sly old dog, I’ll
get you back one day.”
Connor covered the cottage
supplies back up with the green tarp and smiled upon entering their
house.

Within five days, the six assignments were
completed. On Tuesday, he repaired the cattle’s fence and feeding
troughs. Wednesday, he cut the entire sixty acre farm with the
tractor and bush hog and weeded his grandmother’s garden. Thursday,
Connor cleaned every room in their house including the ceiling and
attic. Friday, he cleaned the forge barn and all of the tools and
equipment. Finally on Saturday, he helped his grandfather load a
quarter of the cattle and take them up to the market to be
sold.

Sunday morning his grandfather sat alone with
him eating breakfast. He sighed “Looks like you are finished with
everything now aren’t you?”

“Yes sir.” Adding a smile, Connor said evenly
“By the way, thank you for your generous gift.”

“So you like them do you?” His sly smile
crept in and his blue eyes twinkled mischievously.

“It was generous and a little twisted, but
yes I liked them.”

“Good, now Connor, on to business. What else
do you need?” He became all businesslike once again.

Folding his arms over his abdomen Connor said
“I will require one last thing. Your truck for at least part of the
way.”

“Part of the way?” His bushy gray eyebrows
furrowed together.

“Yes, when I tell you to pull off the road,
I’ll do all the rest ok.” He nodded, still looking slightly
uncertain.

Rhoda packed a large cooler full of food for
his day and Connor set the cooler in the trailer. “I will see you
tomorrow and have more ready for you then.” She kissed his cheek as
he was about to leave. Before Connor left with David, he grabbed
some of his tools; a shovel, post-hole diggers, sledge hammers, a
machete, a sharpened scythe and a few other necessities.

As they drove along the road, Connor spotted
the best place to pull off. A hidden trail he knew well sat just
large enough for the trailer to fit through and Connor knew that it
came very close to the clearing he discovered. Connor eventually
pointed “Right here Granddaddy, this is far enough.” David
decelerated and pulled off the road and came to a complete stop. He
put the truck in neutral and said “Out here huh? It’s quite close.”
After he smiled he said. “If you need me, I’ll be home all day.” He
shook Connor’s hand for good luck.

Getting out of the cabin, Connor unlatched
the trailer off the ball hitch of the truck. He waived at his
grandfather in the rear view mirror saying “That’s it Granddaddy.
Goodbye.” David pulled away without another word, but he waved back
before disappearing.

Pulling out the chest harness and attaching
it to a loop in the frame, Connor pulled the slack out and felt
just how heavy all of it was. Struggling to get it moving, he used
almost all of his leg strength to get some forward momentum.
Finally gaining a firm foothold, he pulled the trailer and its
weighty contents onto the hidden trail. The resistance of the grass
along the path wasn’t cause for much concern.

Pulling nonstop for over an hour, Connor
eventually needed a moments rest and sat down on the still trailer,
he opened the cooler and took out three bananas and a granola bar.
After relieving himself and noticing the spring temperature
climbing hotter, he took off his shirt and continued to pull for
another hour and a half, up and down the winding trail.

Knowing that the first hurdle was over, he
stopped on the trail and pulled out the machete and started hacking
the foliage in one clear direction. The perfect clearing that he
found last week laid about a five minute’s walk from where he
stood. Needing to get the trailer closer to it meant that he needed
to clear a path wide enough for it to fit through. Lucky he only
needed to hack at some shrubs and saplings rather than solid and
mature trees. It took around two hours to properly clear and clean
out a new path. He finally got the trailer as far in as possible
due to the clearing being only a minute’s walk away and surrounded
by trees and streams. The trailer couldn’t go in any further
because a deep stream flowed in the trailer’s path and couldn’t be
avoided.

Finished with the pulling of the trailer, he
walk into the clearing and headed for the stream to cool off and
get a decent drink. After resting for a short while against a shady
tree, Connor stood and walked back to the trailer and grabbed the
scythe and shovel.

Returning to the clearing again and using the
scythe to cut the untamed grass, took about an hour to complete.
Using the shovel, he cut into the soil and made a shallow outline
of the entire cottage. When that was finished he made multiple
trips, carrying the post-hole diggers and all of the posts over his
shoulder, an empty five gallon bucket and three bags of concrete.
After digging the post’s holes at each of the four primary corners
and walking to fill the bucket with water, he mixed in several bags
of quick-dry concrete and poured it down the holes to set the
posts. It was getting dark as he headed back to his grandparent’s
and let the concrete harden. There wasn’t anything he could do
until tomorrow anyways.

It was a great start for the first day of
work.

Over the next week, Connor put up all of the
outside walls and hammered in the trusses for the roof.

Working late one night, during the rise
of a crescent moon, Connor suddenly felt a presence watching him
from the darkness. Working shirtless on the roof while hammering in
one of the trusses all of the fine hairs on the back of his neck
stood up.
“Someone or something is watching
me, but I didn’t hear anything make the approach. I know it’s not
my imagination.”
Knowing exactly where it was, with
Tool in his hand Connor spun around instantly and intentionally
threw it to the closest tree where the watching visitor
hid.

Slamming deeply into the tree, Tool
stuck in the trunk by its hatchet side. The creature stood from
moving from the sudden strike…
“Wait stood…
It is a person…?”
“Who’s there? You’re very good. I
didn’t hear you sneak up on me. Next time try and hide your
presence!”

“Very good Connor, you missed me on purpose.
Did you not?” A familiar voice said from the shadow.

“It couldn’t be…could
it?”
“What are you doing here, Jack?” The shadow
walked over and pulled out Tool from the tree and he threw it back
up to Connor. Catching it by the handle and sliding it into his
belt loop, Connor jumped off the roof just as Sarah’s silver haired
father entered the moonlit clearing.

“I have to admit that your reactions and
instincts are well honed to notice me in this situation.” Jack said
as he walked up to Connor. He looked at the construction work and
seemed impressed.

“I will not ask again, Jack. Why are you
here?” Connor looked at him directly, feeling trapped and at the
whims of a man he didn’t fully understand.

“Calm down, Child. I meant you no harm. I’ve
heard a strange sound all week and came to investigate tonight. I
was bored today because Jillian had to run errands in the city, so
I decided to come to take a look.” He smiled in the moonlight,
wearing a fire red t-shirt and black shorts with no shoes. “I
didn’t hear the clarity of your hammering until three minutes
before I arrived here. This is a well thought out location and
quite beautiful to look at if I might add.”

“Let’s go sit over here and talk.” He nodded
as he followed Connor over the stream, to rest on the trailer’s
rear step. Sighing in defeat, Connor grabbed two sodas out of the
cooler “Well are you going to tell Sarah or Jillian about this?”
and handed him one.

“I will not. This is your courting surprise
for my daughter is it not?” He popped the tab and took a quick
drink.

“This is only part of her surprise…. Well
what do you think about it, Jack?” he raised an arm towards the
construction.

“Luckily I am a good actor and my mate cannot
read my mind or we would both would get into trouble with our
mates.” He looked up at the moon as he spoke with a gentle
smile.

“How so, Jack?” Connor asked despite his
element of surprise being ruined.

“Remember our last conversation about how
Balancer’s and our mates cannot read the others mind?” He began
quizzing.

“Of course, but they can still read your
emotions through the bond you share and they know what direction
you are always in, and the distance separating the two of you.”
Connor proved that he paid attention to the story.

“Very good, Connor, Jillian was right about
how adept you are. Sarah will enjoy this surprise very much.” He
looked down at the boy with ageless eyes to ask “You want to know
something?”

Connor answered with “That all depends on
what you have to say.”

“And that would be the contingent?”

“I don’t want to know anything about being a
Balancer or what it entails. I would like to hear what it’s like
directly from Sarah, but anything else you want to tell me, I’m
game.”

Jack smiled pleasantly. “That is quite
understandable, Connor. I just wanted you to know that I too built
a home for my love before I became a Balancer, just as you are
doing for my daughter. Over the centuries I’ve made many, but in
England my first still stands.” He smiled, thinking back to a time
long before Connor forefathers even existed.

“That’s interesting, but I do have a question
if you don’t mind my asking?” he asked man to man.

Jack took his eyes off the moon to look at
him “What’s on your mind, Child?”

“Is it too much to ask about your past? Where
you were born, how you lived? And how you met your mate?” Connor
asked in honesty because he didn’t know anything about the man
except that he’s Sarah’s father and Jillian’s mate.

Jack chuckled quietly. “It is no problem to
ask me, but do not go asking my mate or she will never shut up
until you hear every little detail.” He leaned back to get
comfortable and gazed at the moon again to tell this story.

“I was born over seven hundred years ago to
an Icelandic fishing family. That is why my hair is silver and my
eyes are a blue-green. It was a trademark of my people. I made
fishing nets and large boats with my father and cousin until I
turned sixteen, which was the age you became a man in those days. I
joined an English military at seventeen and I fought and survived
battle after battle, with little more than a scratch from my
skirmish. On my thirtieth summer, I became a military commander and
after my promotion, I was commissioned by the church’s bishop to
raze a village suspected of witchcraft.

“As I saw helpless women and children getting
slaughtered for no reason I went berserk and killed half of my own
men, after I specifically ordered them to not kill the women and
younglings. As I fought one of my subordinates; another came up and
stabbed me in the back…literally.” He lifted the back of his shirt
to reveal a three inch scar just above his right kidney. “You
aren’t the only one with battle scars.” He pointed to Connor’s
exposed and sweaty chest. “A man, shorter and bulkier than I,
rescued me from the finishing blow and took me back to his home. He
was able to save my life and I owed him my services for a life
debt.