In the Midst of Tribulation (22 page)

Piper looked intrigued. "I'd like to try that."
"Yeah, me too," agreed Cody.
"Great." Jay turned her attention back to her plate. "We can get all the stuff after we eat."
Once the plates were cleared, Martha and children went downstairs to find the target while Jay lay back down in one of the chaise lounges. She was glad she was past the period of falling asleep every ten minutes but the lingering lassitude was aggravating.
Piper pulled out her bow and restrung it. Wiping a cloth over the fine wood, she asked, "Where should we set up?"
Jay waved at one of the longer stacks of firewood. "I figure that if you center the banner over that, they'll have plenty surface area to hit."
"I don't look forward to chasing down the arrows that miss."
"It's the farthest pile from the cliff face. All the misses should land in the yard."
"From your lips to God's ears." Piper shrugged at Doris' glare. "Sorry, slip of the tongue." She stepped off fifty feet. "Is this far enough?"
"To start with. Since they're not used to pulling too much, we'll start them with the low weight bows and build up from there."
Using her heel, Piper dug a line in the ground. Walking back over to the patio, she rotated her shoulders. "Where are the bow and arrows?" she asked.
"Oh, that's right." Jay struggled to her feet and led the way inside. "Call everyone together."
She waited until the household had gathered around her before she walked over toward the bedrooms. "I should have shown you all this earlier." She looked up at Doris. "And before you get all righteous, I didn't tell you because I didn't really want to have to deal with it."
"Deal with what?" Susan asked.
"Give me a minute to get it open. I came a little too close for comfort to death and y'all need to know about the other secret room."
"You never told us there was another one," accused Cody.
"At the time, you guys were too young." Laboriously, she went down on her knees before the bookcase that was centered between the two bedrooms. She shoved the books on the bottom shelf back to reveal three screws set equidistant apart. Pushing down on them caused the fronting on the base to pop loose. Jay set that aside and wiggled her fingers around in the recess. They all could hear a sharp click.
Jay pulled herself back to her feet. She pressed on one edge of the bookcase. When nothing happened, she put more of her weight onto the edge. This time, it rotated smoothly and they all leaned forward to peer into the darkened recess.
Martha spoke for all of them when she asked, "What do you keep in here?"
Switching on a light, Jay stepped from the front of the narrow room and waved everyone closer for a look. They saw a green metal gun cabinet and several hanging bows. There were cases of ammunition along the back wall and a stack of animal traps.
"It's a secure room. I originally put it in to hide the safe." She pointed a large, old-fashioned iron safe against the back wall. "I then started storing all the guns and stuff. Harmony wasn't big on having a lot of firepower in the house. Heck, she was rabid for gun control before the bottom fell out."
"And you weren't?" asked Doris.
"No. I've always thought that gun control meant hitting what you aimed at." Jay smiled and moved further back so that the others could step into the room.
"It's been here the whole time?" asked Cody as he explored the narrow space.
"Yes, it was built with the house."
"And you never mentioned it before?"
"You know what they say? Out of sight, out of mind."
"What's so important that you had to build a separate room to hide it?"
"Well, you all should know by now that I like secret rooms. But to answer your question, I've got the deed to the land and all of the important documents of my life. Since the collapse of the stock market much of it is just worthless paper."
"But it's bigger than what you would need for the safe."
"I wanted another secure room and, frankly, since I earned the money to pay for it, I did what I wanted."
Piper stepped in and picked up one of the bows. "What does it pull?"
"Fifty." Jay showed her the boxes of arrows. Some had blunted tips and others, deadly sharp heads. "We can use the blunt ones for target practice."
Moving by them, Martha squatted down beside a metal box. "Is this what I think it is?"
Jay nodded. "Yeah. I was able to get some plastic explosives from the guys working on the highway."
"Explosives?" Doris screeched.
"It's safe enough unless it burns," soothed Piper. "I mean, you do keep the blasting charges separate, right?"
"Of course. Also, the room is entirely concrete. Floor, ceiling, walls. Even if the rest of this place burned, the room should stand." Jay directed Piper to bring out the bows and training arrows. "
"You have all these bows but I see that you favor the cross bow."
"Yeah. It's a struggle for me to pull the weight and still be able to aim."
"I hear you." Piper handed out to the teenagers five bows.
"What are the differences?" Cody asked, looking at the two in his hands.
"One is a twenty pounder, the other is a hundred pounder."
"A hundred pounds?"
"Yes."
"Why the difference?"
"Anything below fifty pounds is only good for small game like rabbits or birds. If you want to bring down larger animals, you must have more pounds of pressure."
"Wow! I want to use this one," he said, brandishing the larger bow.
"You need to get the principals down before you attempt the heavier weapons."
Piper looked at Jay. "Shall we bring the whole box of arrows out?"
"Naw, just half." She laughed. "I expect that a number might get lost or ruined. We should keep a few back for the next training session."
Jay came out of the room and secured the hidden door. She glanced up at Susan coming out of her room.
Putting her hands on her hips, she said, "I never knew that room was there. You can't tell at all from inside."
"That's why the closets are back to back. Even if you notice that the rooms aren't large enough, you're fooled into thinking the extra space is explained by the storage area."
"I always knew you had hidden depths."
"Ha, ha. Very funny, Martha," Jay responded dryly. "Are we ready to shoot things?"
"What about the hoops?" asked Piper.
"Oh, those are in the back of the closet." Jay reached in and pulled out the four, six and twelve inch rings.
"How do they work?"
"One person stands to the right or left and send them rolling in front of the shooter. They have to get the arrow through the circle for a point."
"What do we win?"
"How about the person with the most points at the end of the day doesn't have to wash dishes for a week?"
"Cool."
With everyone's agreement, Jay sat back on the lounge while Piper instructed the others on the use of the bow. Good-natured ribbing followed whenever an arrow flew past the target but over the course of the afternoon, nearly everyone eventually demonstrated some proficiency.
The hoops were another story. At first no one was able to get an arrow through the biggest hoop. They kept at the practice and were amazed when Eva was the first to graduate to the smaller size.
"I'm tired," Jay called. "How about we call it a day?"
Piper agreed. "Yeah. I think that a good start has been made." She unstrung her bow. "We can go again in a day or so."
"Why not tomorrow?" Cody asked. He was competitive enough to not want to end the day with his sister and cousin having more points than he.
"Trust me, Cody. Your arms are going to be very sore tomorrow."
With bad grace, the young man put his bow down and joined the others in gathering up the spent arrows.
The sun dipped toward the horizon as the last shaft was brought indoors. The entire group gathered for dinner in better spirits than they had been for days. Eva and Carol sat like queens while the dishes were collected and cleaned.
Chapter Nineteen - Bringing in the Sheaves
Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows,
Fearing neither clouds nor winter's chilling breeze;
By and by the harvest, and the labor ended,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Words: Knowles Shaw, 1874. Music: George A. Minor, 1880
"Jay, wake up." Susan put one knee on the bed and reached over to gently shake her arm. "Jay," she called loudly. When the brown eyes opened, she waited until they focused on her. "You awake?"
After clearing her throat, Jay muttered, "I think so."
Lowering her voice, Susan said, "There's some guy outside."
"What does he look like?"
"Big guy. He has some boxes of stuff and he won't come inside."
"Must be time to go a-bartering." She swung her legs off the edge and sat up. She was forced to sit still until the vise around her chest loosened. Jay squeezed her eyes closed and concentrated on not throwing up. She couldn't believe how weak she continued to be. It had been more than a month since she and Doris walked out of the woods but she was nowhere near even half strength.
"You all right?"
"I'm fine," she answered automatically. When Susan didn't move or say anything, she glanced up into worried eyes. "I'll be fine," she clarified.
Gently, Susan prodded, "You look a little less than fine."
"Sudden movements, like sitting up just now, make me a little short of breath."
"Your lung collapsed. You can't expect to return to running around anytime soon."
"Maybe not but I'd thought I'd be feeling at least a little better by now."
"You've never had any patience with weakness. Especially your own."
"I've never been this weak before."
Susan grinned. "Right. I'll just take your word for it." She walked over to the window and flung the curtains open. "What shall I tell the guy sitting in the front yard?"
"What time is it?"
"I don't know exactly. It's got to be a couple of hours after lunch, though. Was it bad for us to let you sleep through?"
Jay scratched her head, trying to stimulate her brain. "No, these naps are draining but I really needed it." She stood up and stretched, gingerly.
"Uh, the guy?" reminded Susan.
"Offer him a glass of wine. Open the bottle down there in front of him and keep filling his glass."
"Why?"
"We should take any edge we can get."
"What are you talking about? What's going on?"
"Negotiations." Jay took an experimental deep breath. She smiled when she was able to draw in a good deal of air into her lungs. "We want the advantage of being generous with our precious supplies and, if he's foolish enough to let it go to his head, we'll take advantage of that too."
"Whatever. While I'm getting a perfect stranger drunk in the front yard, what are you going to be doing?"
"Waking up."
"And after that?"
"I'll need a shower." Jay moved to her closet. Pulling down a shirt and a pair of pants, she said over her shoulder, "Tell the others that I'll need to see them downstairs in about fifteen minutes."
"Everyone?"
"Sure, we need to decide on a wish list." She started downstairs but looked back to see Susan still standing by the window. "Please and thank you," she offered with a wink.
Bemused, Susan waved her on. "I hear and obey, O Great and Powerful Oz."
"Now you're getting the idea." With renewed energy Jay headed to the bathroom. She had a quick shower, not entirely resulting from her getting lightheaded from too much standing but because she didn't want everyone to have to wait on her.
Cleaned and dressed, Jay dropped into her seat at the table and looked around at the expectant faces. "Okay, Josh is heading out for area harvest festival. We need to figure out what we need and what we've got to trade for it."
"Like what?" asked Piper.
"Shoot the moon. I mean, what have you realized that you're missing?"
"You've given us most everything we could ever need."
"Susan, it's been my pleasure but surely there are things you want. Maybe like different cloth for clothes or patterns that I don't have." Jay climbed to her feet. "I need to go out and speak to Josh. Anyone want to join me?"
Piper cleared her throat. "What do we do?"
"He's got some stuff that I told him I needed the last time we met that I can go ahead and finish the transaction. He's bound to have brought some other things to trade. You can look and see if he's got anything you want."
Susan pushed her chair back from the table. "Just show us what to do. We're here for you."
"Thank you. Let's go outside."
The old man was still sitting cross-legged on the blanket next to his two boxes. He watched them approach and tilted his glass at Jay. "Glad to see that you could finally join me."
"Hello, Josh. I'm sure that you appreciated the opportunity to have all the wine for yourself."
"Thank you for your consideration."
"Think nothing of it." Jay pointed at the four people with her and introduced them. She sat down across from him and indicated for the others to sit around her. Silently, they studied one another.
"You're looking a little peaked, Fountaine."
"It's nothing to worry about." She waved her hand. "I'm a little under the weather but I'm getting better every day."
"Looks like you've got a house full." He watched the others out of the corner of his eye. "Can you speak freely?"
Jay threw her head back and laughed. "They're not holding me hostage, old friend. I just zigged when I should have zagged."
"All right." The old man rolled another sip of wine around in his mouth. "Just curious. Were you trying to get me drunk?" Josh asked, waving the half full bottle of wine.
"Who me? I was merely trying to be hospitable." They both grinned at one another. "How was your summer?"
"Not bad. I've seen your folks around the area." His eyes trailed over the others.
"Of course, they never saw you." The two share a grin before Jay shrugs. "Just a few friends from down south decided to join us."
"Us?" he asked. "Harmony's back?"
"Not yet."
Josh stared at her for a long moment. "I'll keep a good thought."
"Thanks," Jay waved her hand. "Let's do this. What do you have?"
He pulled out several pintsize jars and set them on the ground next to his knee. "Blackberry jam. Trade for an equal weight of honey."
"Not a problem."
After her nod, he lifted out several bags. They were filled with a brown meal. "Acorn flour."
Piper reached across and hefted a bag. "How many acorns does it take to make this much flour?"
"Lots more than you can ever imagine. I sometimes feel that I've looked at every damn acorn on this mountain." The man scratched his scraggly beard and peered closely at Piper. "If you want to see the process, I'm willing to teach."
Before Piper could answer, Jay put her hand on her knee to silence her. "At what cost?"