Chapter 10
Jenny tuned to Claire next who was sitting hunched over her laptop, a computerized fortress that had been somehow been stuffed into a briefcase.
"Will it work." Jenny asked.
"Will what work?" Claire said not looking up.
"The ring on the roof."
"I'm pretty sure it will."
"Good. When can we start with it?" Jenny said looking around the room trying to come up with a new set of priorities.
"We should start as soon as possible. But I will have to do measurements and calculations. We have to do this right. So I'd guess." she looked up for a moment guestimating her way to an answer she could live with. "Two days. After that we can start work on the roof. Dan and Adrian are working on stabilising what is left, that will take them the rest of the day. Stu is busy laying the lifeline to the the city. That leaves you and Edmund on cleaning duty."
Jenny's eyebrow twitched, Claire had somehow assumed command over the situation and was now suddenly telling her what to do? She relaxed her hand that had somehow bunched into fists. She considered crushing Claire under her laptop for a second. She then took a moment to consider her own plan for the situation, the main difference between her plan and that of Claire was that in her plan she was a dashing leaser rallying the troops to work together to save the watermill, with everyone doing pretty much the same things Claire had said. So it was an ego problem then. She eye balled Claire who was absorbed in her work, apparently Jenny and the rest of the world had ceased existing again. As annoying as she had been there had been no malice or smugness in her voice. Jenny had worked with these kind of people before, often they were either from technical fields or the military, where everything was done in the most pragmatic way possible. Pragmatism often forgetting how important the social component could be. In the end Jenny send her ego back into its room, promising it a big juice steak in the evening to balance things out. This was not the mole-hill she was going to die on.
She had turned around to go and look for Edmund when she stopped and turned back to Claire "By the way how much is this going to cost me."
"Hmm?" asked Claire still looking at her screen. "To be perfectly honest, it is really hard to tell this early in the project."
"No, not the project," Jenny said, "I was talking about you. how much are you going to cost me?"
No Claire looked at her, her eyes appearing over the top of the laptop. "Don't worry about it." Claire said, her eyes fixed on Jenny's.
"That's easy for you to say. It's my money and look around," she said with a wide gesture, "not a single money tree in sight."
Claire rolled her eyes at that. "It won't be that much all things considered. There is something really interesting about this place and being able to work here is much more interesting than the usual boring shit I am asked to do. This is a proper challenge. This is what I was actually trained for."
"So, pro bono then." Jenny said baring her teeth with only a hit of dark humour.
Claire snorted. "Sure. The moment my rent pays itself and I have no more need to feed myself. But I'll cut you a deal. Two and a half grand for the entire project. Should you by some miracle stay below that you'll get the difference back."
"Two and a half grand? Are you serious." Jenny asked the corners of her moth moving down into normal position now leaving only teeth and no humour behind.
"Look just first inspection here would cost you around 250 pounds for a normal house with an up to date ground plan. This here is not normal and there is nothing in here that is even remotely up to date. I need to do measurements quite a lot of them, of the rooms of the materials and I have to do some proper detective work to see if the structure is sound. Based on the complexity of the project and the size of the building alone you haver at the very least another thousand right then and there. Add to that my hourly rate that even at a discount would be one hundred pounds..." she let that sink in for a moment. "I'm pretty sure that you will start making money in a weeks time. If you prefer I can of course charge you the usual rates."
The teeth disappeared now too, leaving Jenny with a probing expression. She walked back to Claire and hunched down in front of her, closing her eyes. She ignored the "er..." from Claire and tried to feel the room. The smell of damp and mildew vanished, there was again the feeling of warmth and light summer breeze. She opened her eyes again that had to adjust to the sudden darkness of a late autumn afternoon. "Deal." Jenny said. "Two and a half thousand it is." she got up and left the room. Hearing Claire say "OK. So that happened." behind her.
Jenny found Edmund outside standing next to a large piece of rock that he had hauled of the milling room, with the help of a wheelbarrow that lay beside it looking as defeated as him. Edmund was on his phone a lively gesture with his left hand dying mid air. "Yes I understand. I just need one of the big ones. I have no idea how many cubic feet that is. Big!" the hand flared up into the air again. "Well just tell me the sizes then." He listened intently, moving his lips silently trying to work of the dimensions in his head. "Yeah, maybe not the last one. The one before that? Do you know the measurements of that? Meters or feet, 'ts all the same to me. Yeah. I'll wait." he turned towards Jenny with his long black coat and his slouched shoulders he looked like the worlds most disappointed raven. He held his hand over the speaker "I'm trying to get a skip for all the rubbish." Jenny wondered for a moment if Edmund maybe was born in the wrong age, why didn't he just use the mute button? "Yeah. Skip." she said. "Maybe we should have gotten one of those earlier..."
"You think?" said Edmund eyeing the place where the might Mount Trash had been replaced a a growing pile of rubble that was starting to look like a real mountain and one that garbage disposal would not simply come and take with them.
"Yes?" Edmund said talking to the phone again. "7 meters? Times what? It doesn’t say? You know what. Never mind. We'll take it. Yes. Right, that's the address. It's not number 7 though. It's right across the street. There is no number. Because it's and old building? You can't miss it it is a giant watermill. Yes. You know? Like a windmill but with a river instead of wind? Just tell the driver. Yeah... thank you. And to you. Goodbye." Edmund exhaled. "So how are you holding up then?" he said.
"Better than you it seems." Jenny said. "I think this is going to work."
Edmund laughed, it started bitter but became good natured as it went on. He shook his head, his posture straightening. "Now it's going to work?" he said.
"Yeah." Jenny said grinning. "Now I've seen everything and I think I understand it all now."
Edmund's smile froze for a moment he waited, looking around to see if fate so tempted decided to add something else to their rich buffet of misfortune. But as no one was hit by lightning and no sink-holes opened up to swallow what was left of the mill he relaxed again. "So where does this come from?"
"Have you been to the basement yet?" Jenny asked.
"No, still need to get my wellies, I don't want to get wet feet. In this weather that would be...", he looked at Jenny's wet feet. "...suicide. But I guess something as trivial as pneumonia won't stop you..."
"There can't be a pneumonia without the bacteria, you told me so yourself." Jenny said.
"Still... that", he pointed to her soaked shoes, "is a shit idea. Never mind. What about the basement?"
"It is solid rock. It looks like a long time ago people carved the basement out of the rock."
"Why?"
"I have no idea. Maybe because they needed a safe space? And that is exactly what that is." she pointed to the mill. "A safe space. Out here all kinds of shit can happen. And they do. The universe is a scary chaotic place but in there, there is a safe space." Jenny said.
Edmund looked at the ruined roof. "You have a very strange definition of safe..."
"Nothing is just safe Edmund. You have to work for it. The people who first carved out the rock had to work for it, then the people who build on it and even the idiots who are responsible for that," nodded towards the collapsed part of the building, "worked hard to build on that. And to be fair, it only collapsed because of neglect. You are the scientist Edmund. There's something about close systems and entropy and work that explains all that."
"I'm glad to see how little you have learned from me." Edmund said.
"It's true though. You want order, you have to work for it. You want safety you need to work for it. You want to maintain it, you have to work for it."
"True." said Edmund.
"And once we have pushed all the uncertainty and chaos out of the door again, and this is the important part" Jenny said raising her index finger, "we can share it with others. We can be safe together. Like a..."
"Is this going to be another strained metaphor?" Edmund asked.
"Perhaps?"
"Maybe you should consider setting up a safe space for defenceless threatened metaphors too?"
"Right now I'm considering punching you." Jenny said feeling happy for having such a magnificently annoying friend in Edmund.
"Fair enough. But first, do something about those wet shoes and trousers of yours.
Barbara took care of the clothing situation. First she forced Jenny into a bathroom that had grown out of the dreams marble must have when it is still in a quarry thinking what it might become when it grows up. In there she was commanded to take a warm foot bath, there was an actually mini tub just for that installed in the floor, while she took care of her cloths and made her a tea. It was the first time Jenny had seen Barbara acting her age. There were a lot of "oh dears" and "don't worry Barbara will take care of this"s.
Jenny tried to relax while waiting for Barbara to return but the bidet standing next to her looked like it had a restraining order banning it from getting near any human being ever again. It looked resentful and full of appetite. Jenny shuddered.
Barbara returned with a fresh towel and a large plastic rugged plastic mug which would have gotten along just fine with Claire's armoured laptop.
"Here." she said to Jenny giving her first the towel, followed by the mug after she had dried her feet and legs. "Now we'll find you something nice to wear."
"Right..." Jenny followed her wrapping the towel around her waist as in impromptu skirt. While Barbara didn't seemed bothered about Jenny being without trousers, Jenny felt uncomfortable without them. She followed Barbara upstairs wondering what Barbara might have that she could wear. The answer was: a lot. Once upon a time Barbara had had a walk in closet until it had decided to walk out and take over most of the first floor. There were clothes everywhere. In all stylers a wild range of sizes and all colours known to mankind and others of which only a small number of artists knew the names of. What to Jenny had appeared like a simple endeavour of just getting a skirt or pair of pants and with a bit of luck a pair of shoes she could wear until her own things were dry again turned into an odyssey that took almost an hour. Much of the time the increasingly exasperated Jenny was fighting off Barbara who was constantly distracted by clothes that would be 'the perfect fit' for Jenny and sudden bursts of inspiration about where they could take her 'personal style'.
In the end she got a surprisingly comfortable pair grey flecked cargo pants. "Those," Barbara said "are from the Urban Worker Tribes collection of a friend of mine. Great designer, horrible at marketing. It has pockets, loops and stuff like that for everything. You should keep it!" she said with mounting enthusiasm.
"What?No I can't possibly accept or pay for this." Jenny said.
"Pay? Bah." Barbara dismissed, "When am I going to wear them? Also not they are finally complete. These trousers are made for work. They will never be done if they stay here catching dust, or if they are worn by some clueless Instagram model..." an idea was dawning on her. "Do you have an Instagram account?"
Jenny had to stop herself from asking how she knew about Instagram. "Not really. And no!"
"Hmmm?" Barbara asked summoning all innocence that was indebted to her wrapping it around here like a fur. "I don't know what your problem is. Nevermind you also need some shoes."
To Jenny's surprise it took Barbara only a few minutes to find a pair of heavy work boots which again, were a suspiciously good fit. "How do you know my shoe size?" she asked.
"I don't" Barbara said. "But as I help people I get tons of free stuff. And this is not simple merch. Everything you see here are prototypes, first version, all made by hand. And these come in all different kind of sizes. Those you can keep too." Before Jenny could say anything. "They don't fit my feet."
"What do you get out of this." Jenny asked.
Barbara looked at her obviously considering if she was going to be offended but in the end decided to be understanding. When she looked at Jenny she was again very close to being a grandma instead of the ageless art guerilla. "I get to see you succeed Jenny. I get the deep satisfaction to remove stones be they small or great from the path you chose to walk. And, at least that is what I hope, I get to see your project grow and bloom." she said her expression shifting towards the impish again turning her from granny back towards the fair folk.
"Thank you." Jenny said trying not to blush.
"Oh and free coffee and food for the rest of my life once the place finally opens." Barbara added. "There you go ulterior motive revealed."
Jenny laughed. "Right now you can get all the coffee you want. We'll see about the food."
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