Chapter 11 Nomad
The fog was still shrouding the city hiding it away from the open sky. Jenny left Barbara's place returning to the mill. Edmund was coming out of the mill moving another load of rubbish onto the new mountain. He did not stop when he saw Jenny but his gaze was caught be the new trousers and boots. "Stylish." he said. "Maybe you should go back into the basement again."
"I'm not sure if I'm offended right now or not." Jenny said. "Are you having a dig at my style?"
"Not really," Edmund said, tipping the debris out of the wheel barrow reuniting it with its family. "It's still your style. It suits you. I has just evolved. Like a Pokémon."
"Still not sure if I need to be angry or not...", Jenny said. When she got no response she first thought that Edmund was considering the error of his ways. She should have known better. He was now staring right past her at the street. She turned around to look at what was so captivating. As she turned around she hoped for the continued health of Edmund that there actually was something behind her. And indeed there was. Lights. Lights in the fog. Two bright lights close to the ground and two dim orange ones high above it. Moving towards them.
"What the..." Jenny said.
"My thoughts exactly." said Edmund. "Maybe the skip?"
It wasn't the skip. Instead what appeared was a tiny car some brand neither of them recognized except for it looking like what was made in the factory after the people there had swept up all the things left over after building the budget line and throwing it together. Behind it a large construction trailer came into view. An old massive thing that appeared to be the force pushing the carlet.
"Now that I see it, it somehow makes even less sense." Jenny said somewhat impressed.
"I agree... no wait..." Edmund laughed. "It's him! He's come."
Jenny turned to Edmund. "What?"
"It's the hipster!" Edmund said his eyes shining.
"What hipster?"
"You know, the one I told you about from the party?" Edmund said his gestures blossoming out in enthusiasm. "The cook!" he added when he was confronted by Jenny's stubborn lack of comprehension.
"Oh. All right." Jenny said. "You made it sound like the people of Rohan had come to save the day at Helms Deep."
Edmund's eyes grew wide. "It is a big deal. It means we now have a cook, that's a central part of the plan. And it was Minas Tirith, you idiot."
"It's been a long time since I last watched the films." Jenny said.
"Please stop making suicide words come out of your mouth."
"Never mind that, how is a cook going to help us now." Jenny asked.
The large trailer had come to a halt in front of the mill it's pet car idling in front of it. A young man immaculately sculpted to look messy climbed out of the car and waved. "Hi Edmund. Is there a place I can park my house?"
"House?" Edmund said staring blankly at the man.
Jenny who was as surprised as Edmund had decided not to let that affect her and pointed to the feral lawn next to the watermill. "You can park over there."
"'K. Thank you." the hipster nodded to Jenny. He climbed back into his tiny car-a-like gently coaxing the engine back into life cheering it on, very gently, to move itself and the majestic trailer it was fettered to forward again. To everyone's surprise including car and trailer it worked. The unequal pair started moving again, with only the man behind the wheel not wondering how all of this was possible. He made the carlet climb up onto the side-walk over it, into the damp turf and pulling its master behind it. The engine began to make pitiful mewling noises when the tires of the construction trailer reached the kerb. Feeling obviously embarrassed about the whole affair it lifted itself onto the side-walk following its pet into the green. Once there it was positioned in a way that it stood near the mill in parallel to the street. Only then could the little car finally get some rest.
The man climbed out of the car again and went to Jenny and Edmund who had watched the entire spectacle n silent amazement.
"Hi Edmund." the young man said. "And you must be Jenny" he said extending his hand to her.
"Hi." Jenny said shaking the man's hand. While it was pleasingly soft, the skin almost like silk, the shake was good and firm. "Edmund told me about you. You're..." she didn't want to say the hipster.
"Byron. Pleased to meet you." he said. "I heard you need a cook."
"Hi Byron. You heard right, although you might have arrived a bit early." Jenny said nodding towards the mill.
"Oh." said Byron who only now seemed to actually notice the old watermill, heap of rubble and broken roof standing in the middle of the sea of fog. "Ooooh."
Jenny tried a few expressions that might fit the situation, apologetic, pragmatic, encouraging, sheepish; all at the same time. Edmund decided to go for strictly deadpan reinforced by no eye contact at all.
"Wow..." Byron added who was still drinking in the details, the reality of what he was seeing still unfolding in his mind. "When Edmund had told me about the place... this was not what I had imagined."
Edmund followed his strictly no eye contact policy, he even moved his face further away from the two other just to be extra sure.
"Well..." Jenny said. "It's a special place." she exhaled.
"This place is fantastic." Byron said his eyes still wide. Filled, as Jenny now realised to her great surprise, with wonder.
""Can I go inside?"
"Sure." said Jenny who felt a warm wave of relief and happiness wash through her. She looked at Edmund who was trying some core of the eye contact to see if it there was a world where he still had friends out there. "I'll give you the tour. At least everywhere it's safe to go right now."
She started showing Byron the basement, worked her way up cautiously to the top floor where they looked upon the great opening, from a safe distance away. Jenny introduced Byron to the others as they met them. Adrian, Stu and Dan where still working on stabilizing the building. They found Claire on the second floor measuring out things with a small laser device, taking notes, while interrogating the walls. When they returned to the big room at the entrance Jenny pointed towards the right wall and said, "Once it is safe we will take away at leas the top half of that wall and behind there will be the kitchen and counter area. If you have the time to return when we are planning the kitchen, you can help us design it."
"When I return?" Byron asked.
"Yes?" jenny said. "As you can see there is still a lot to do just to get this building into a state that is even remotely inhabitable. Let alone ready to have a functioning kitchen."
"Oh. OK." Byron sounded disappointed. "It's just, that Edmund told me that you were right now just starting out working on opening this new place."
"Yes." said Jenny not sure about what it was that she was obviously missing.
"While I'm no professional I am passable with tools. I thought I could help you out with rebuilding the place."
Jenny blinked. "You could do that."
"Also," said Byron now more animated again, "you people need to eat."
"Right."
"Well, I'm a cook and at the very least I can make you food. We could even work on the menu while you're still rebuilding."
"He's got a point." Edmund said. "And he could help with rebuilding."
"Well we can use every helping hand right now." Jenny said. "And I assume that you brought your own kitchen."
Byron nodded a rougeish smile flashing across his lips. "I never leave without it."
Jenny and Edmund helped Byron set up his construction trailer home, which turned out to be surprisingly comfortable.
"You build this yourself?" Jenny asked looking around inside. Outside it was old metal with a failing paint job, inside it was all simple polished wood.
"With help of friends. I learned a lot building it. It was also the best way to own a tiny house of my own. And if I don't like a place I can take it an just leave. I don't lie to be stuck in a place. The world is large and there are some many interesting places that I want to visit. And this way I can do so without ever leaving home. Last winter I decided that the weather her was pushing me towards dark, sad thoughts, so I decided to go to the south of France. Took me a while to get there and then it took me three more weeks until I found a place where I could work in a restaurant kitchen but it was really worth it. I learned so much in those months..."
"I'm impressed." Jenny said. Edmund nodded.
"No need. Moving around, learning, growing. It's the most natural thing to do." Byron said.
"But now you want to do this?" Jenny asked, "If you decide us to join us you'll be stuck her for a while."
"I know." said Byron. "This is a big project. Which is why I'd love to be part of it. You are still starting out. Being able to be here from its inception, it's not often that one gets a chance like this. If you'll have me, I'd be honoured."
"You've got your self a deal." Jenny said. Byron smiled and nodded to himself. "Almost." Jenny added.
Byron's smile faded.
"First of all we need to actually sample your cooking. And if we like that we'll have to talk about money." she said.
The smile recovered. "Challenge accepted." said Byron.
Jenny joined the others working on the watermill. Once all floors where finally stabilised they put a tarp on the gaping hole on the roof. Thanks to the rains constant distaste for the dirty earth below, the inside of the mill was damp but not terribly so. All things considered they had been lucky in their misfortune as the rubble and dust that the collapsed roof had left behind had soaked up most of the water making it easier to sweep up. When Edmund mentioned this tiny ray of light Claire ruined it by pointing out that they had to find a way to heat up the mill sharpish or it would be eaten away by mould. Jenny pointed out that the mill had been free of mould all on its own for since pretty much forever, which led to a strange discussion where Claire maintained that it might be true for the moment there was no way of knowing that that had always been that way or that the roof situation had not ruined the micro climate inside the building in a way that opened up the proverbial doors to their fungal overlords. It took all of Edmund's diplomatic skills to keep Jenny calm thus preventing an unfortunate event of passionate murder. He persuaded Claire to work out what exactly they needed to build the roof ring and asked Jenny if she maybe could find out if there was a company that could provide them with the skylight.
A few hours later Jenny was still in a foul mood as she had not managed to get anyone on the phone who could help her that very instant and now had a list filled with dates from a few days to weeks from now until someone would come to even have a look at the blasted roof. She left the watermill to get some fresh air. Outside night had fallen over the city painting everything in darkness, while the fog had stayed where it was as it had taken a fancy to this part of the country. There was something peaceful about this scene. A little light spilling out into the the street from the mill behind Jenny, everything else just the fog muted sounds of work inside and the soft sleepy murmur of the river which was gently rolling towards the distant sea.
Jenny was slowly drifting into this feeling of calm when she was pushed out of it by a dissonant clanging noise. The sound of a broken cow bell being beaten again and again for the sins it had committed during its life.
It was Byron. Dinner was ready.
He had made enormous amounts of stew in a giant pot that had serious cauldron ambitions. It was too big, too heavy and too hot to carry alone so they used a broom handle to carry the pot by its handle. Jenny feeling the weight of the food on her shoulder as they marched towards the mill wondered if this was how the early hunter gatherers had felt when they had successfully hunted a cave bear or something. She found that thought funny, as she considered them pre-cooking the meat where they had killed it and letting it simmer down while they brought it home so they could start eating with their tribe the moment they arrived home. Maybe stopping on the way if they came across some nice herbs or tasty mushrooms.
Inside everyone had gathered in the main room. Stun and Dan had put a folding table against the wall facing the main entrance where they had put a crate of beer. Barbara had added strange decanters full of water and wine as well as paper plates and plastic glasses, all of them obviously from her extensive collection of art and design objects.
The people themselves had gathered around the centre of the room where they had placed several portable lamps on the floor creating a contemporary campfire that would have delighted Barbara's friends from the world of art.
There were loud cheers when they saw Jenny and Byron carrying the food inside. soon every one was sitting on the ground sharing, food drink and stories. The stew was delicious, the perfect food after a day full of hard labour and damp cold weather. Byron had not taken any chances and made more then enough. The result was that in the end everyone, apart from Byron himself who knew his food and Adrian who knew a trap when he saw one, was too full to move for quite a while. In this state they started to talk about the watermill again. What it would become one day. What it could be. What it needed to be.
"How much of the land around us belongs to the mill anyway?" asked Byron.
"It extends to the bushes upstream, and all of it down to the path to the little bridge." said Edmund waving his hands in general directions. "Then the river and the pavement." he nodded to emphasise his point.
"Do you have a plan?" Jenny asked.
Byron nodded standing up walking to a window overlooking the western side of the mill, where the little bridge stood. It was dark outside so he mostly just saw his own reflection. "It would be nice to have an herb garden." he said. "There enough sapace for that, you could also add some vegetables to it."
"I like that idea." Jenny said unfolding her legs and arms trying to get up. "So people can see where their food comes from." once she stood she moved towards the table to get some more wine. She held the decanter in one hand ready to pour herself another helping when she said, "The people coming here can actually choose their ingredients!"
"Like Subway's?" asked Edmund.
"No, not like that." Jenny said waving her glass dismissively at Edmund, "They can walk through the garden and actually point at the things they want to have in their food. It doesn't get much fresher than that." she said turning towards the group holding her glass and decanter up in triumph."
"I like that idea." said Byron
"As long as there is still anything to harvest." said Claire.
Jenny turned to Claire, she was feeling protective of her idea and would fight everyone for it, but she saw in Claire only the cold clear eyes of someone used to work with real numbers. "Of course only as long as there is a harvest." said Jenny, thinking that she really need to get used to the way of Claire's thinking, or strangling her what ever came first. "As long as there are crops left over, you can go and chose what you want. A summer bonus. It's not like you can adopt a plant in advance..." her eyes grew wide, "or can you? Imagine, you can have tomato plant, watch it grow, maybe even take care of it!"
"Oh good idea!" said Edmund. "We could offer bundles where you can adopt an entire salad."
"Now you are just getting carried away." said Claire
"Isn't that great?" Jenny said and in the end everyone got carried away even Claire.
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