Friday 7 December 2018

Project Coffee Break Redux 013

    Chapter 14
   
   
    The weekend passed slowly, relaxing, gathering strength for the days ahead. Saturday was just planning while hanging around Barbara's, with Byron only pausing his musings to cook lunch and then dinner, while Jenny and Barbara spent most of the time reading, listening to music or talking about the different type of artists that exist in the world. On Sunday Jenny was alone in the mill walking into every room, trying to feel its essence and drawing red lines, literally with red chalk, on the floors to outline what could go where and then spent hours with colouring in the zones inside which the rooms may grow and shrink in white chalk.
   
    Monday started with the others being slightly bemused by Jenny's explanation of the markings on the floor. Claire who had thought she was there to have a finally look before she could return to her usual work sighed and talked with Jenny about those zones and which of them were impossible. Some new red lines later Claire decided to do some extra calculations, just to be on the secure side. Edmund more nervous than usual asked Jenny if he could start working on the flats upstairs. Jenny who had no problem with that idea in general, but she knew that something was not quite right. What Edmund was hiding from her was that he may have a friend, who might need a place to crash soon and who could not pay rent for the time being. But he protested, even though Jenny had not said anything, she, the new tenant would be able to help them set up their computer network. That was a new one for Jenny.
   
    "Computer network?" she asked casting some high grade doubt over Edmund with her expression. "Edmund, right now we have only one computer here. And that one is not even ours, it's Claire's"
   
    "Are there glasses for visionaries?" Edmund asked, expertly turning Jennies doubt into pure confusion.
   
    "What?"
   
    "Because for someone with such a great vision you are really short-sighted, may myopic, when it comes to some of the basic cornerstones of modern civilisation."
   
    "This is not going to be an Internet café." Jenny said still not knowing what Edmund's point was and trying to stop one possible idiotic idea.
   
    "Of course not. But first of all you and the other people living here might want to have access to the Internet. The patrons of your café would like some of that too."
   
    "I'm not sure if I want to have Internet in the Café.", said Jenny who hadn't really thought about this at all.
   
    "Please. Jenny. This place is only large enough for one hipster and that spot is already taken."
   
    "I thought because this is an old place and it is supposed to be something of a sanctuary, maybe it would be better that way?"
   
    "You are installing a cutting edge generator into the mill, which by the way I'm totally going to call the reactor, and we will have a bunch of German engineers here shortly who will build a greenhouse around the whole site and drill holes to heat this place by getting close to this planets eternally burning core. The only way this place could get any more Star Trek was if you got holograms to serve the food."
   
    "Now that you put it like that... We need Internet anyway. You are right. But why does your friend not have a place to stay?"
   
    "She's from Russia." Edmund said as if that explained everything.
   
    "OK." Jenny answered as if it did. "Just one more question."
   
    "Yeah?"
   
    "What's your problem with hipsters?" Jenny asked.
   
    "They lead such simple, minimalist lives, yet they put so much work into it. I... it... it's very confusing..."
   
   
    The Germans arrived on the late afternoon. Jenny could have mistaken them for three young tourists on a city adventure who, having lost their way had decided to ask the locals for help. The three got out of their battered red VW hatchback, that had seen better days but could not help itself of reminding everyone of them. At this point the tourist illusion began to break. They might still be tourists but they were tourists that asked directions while parking the car, all of them getting out and moving directly towards Jenny. She felt a slight urge to step back as the two women and a man walked towards her. Instead she stepped forward, stepping back was for Jennies who stayed at their boring job living a safe life, not her.
   
    "Hi!" said the woman in the middle of the group. "You must be Jenny." she extended her hand smiling. "I'm Susanne."
   
    "Pleased to meet you.", said Jenny shaking Susanne's hand, who had a surprisingly strong grip more used to tools than feeble human flesh.

    "And these are my friends a colleagues Bettina," she nodded towards the other woman who was more interested in the building than the pleasantries, "and Thomas." towards the man who could not quite decide which of the two things were more important at that moment. More handshakes.

    "We're the Germans." Bettina added.
   
    "Well I'm happy to see you." Jenny said. "I hope you had a good drive here?"
   
    Thomas was about to give an answer that was cut short by Susanne. "It was long and exhausting, I'll spare you the details for now. Why don't you tell us more about the Mill? Linda told us lot about it and we are very curious."
   
    "Sure, let me give you the tour, that way you'll also come to get to know everyone else. Except Claire our structural engineer who isn't here today." Jenny said leading them inside. It had by now become a routine to her. She started with the main room which was still mostly a dream in its current form, although it was now a much brighter room as Dan was busy breaking open the walls to make space for the new windows. Followed by the kitchen area which had Byron's newest design taped into the floor with him standing in the middle staring at it lost in deep thought. The the Milling room where Linda was disassembling the first generator to make room for the new one. They stayed here for a while as the three had known Linda for a while but this was the first time they had met in person since some conference that had taken place in Prague almost two years ago. After some smiling and nodding on Jenny's part who did not get most of that conversation she led them upstairs to the second floor which was the part of the watermill that had retained most of its original ruined character. The room where Jenny had fallen asleep was still there untouched. Most of the work so far had been structural reinforcement and laying the main pipes and cables. Then up to the third floor which now had a properly isolated roof to show. with a few marked sections where they had decided to put some additional skylights. Then they went down into the basement, the highlight, the bit Jenny looked forward most to. In every other instance she had to rely on people understanding what she was seeing in the place above. But down here, it was clear. By now she had gotten rid of everything that was broken, but left everything that was part of the place. Including the old posters, the layers of wallpaper and the endless graffiti. As always the reaction was almost immediate. Everyone felt it. However there was a slight deviation from the script this time around.
   
    "This is solid rock." Bettina said looking at the wall.
   
    "Yes impressive, isn't it?" Jenny said feeling pride for her titanic stone baby.
   
    Susanne turned toward Thomas. "You want to drill through this?"
   
    "Not if I can avoid it." he turned to Jenny. "Do you know how big this rock is?"
   
    "I'm not sure. what I can tell you is that it does not extend completely to the west. Who ever build this place extended to far in that direction and the last room in the north west is actually half stone and half brick work, which is also the place where the water came in. It does not reach into the river north obviously. How far it extends to the south or the east is anyone's guess though."
   
    Thomas sighed. "That means measuring. Fuck me..."
   
    Jenny wondered, Susanne answered, "He hates measuring. He thinks that it's and I quote 'work that any monkey could do', what he wants is for someone to do all the tedious work so that he can concentrate on the interesting bits." a pitying smile kept that statement company.

    "The real work happens after you have the ground mapped. I'm a designer. It's a waste of time. I could do so much more actual work if not for all this tedious shit."
   
    Bettina laughed. "The tedious work of measuring. Yeah, being a professional is sooo inconvenient..."
   
    "I am right though." Thomas said. "And once I earn proper money, I will have an assistant to do that."
   
    "Good luck with that." Bettina said still sniggering.
   
    "This makes part of our work harder." Susanne said, her crooked smile confusing Jenny.
   
    "You don't look very upset." Jenny said.
   
    "Oh, give me time and I will be upset, but the complications make this work actually more interesting as a project. If we can pull this off it will look great on our CVs. Which will mean paid work after university or even work at the the university. Also it is good for you as it will increase the chance of getting more third-party funds."

    "I thought your university and that EU grant paid for this project." Jenny said. apparently she said something incredibly funny as the three started laughing. First it was just normal laughter but it turned slightly towards the hysterical end of the spectrum as it went on. "Was it something I said." Jenny said deadpan not quite sure what to make of this development. She could not quite shake the feeling that they were laughing at her.
   
    "It's not your fault." said Susanne eventually, still gasping for air. "It tends to happen often when talking to mortals."
   
    "Mortals?" Jenny was now one step closer to being offended.
   
    "Normal people? Is that better" Susanne tried again, now much more serious than before. "People who live outside academia? There is still this picture of people at the university having endless funds, following their work where ever it may lead them. But in reality this is a total shit show. Our government back home hates to spend money on science. If you can't prove that it will be of economic value, that what you are doing will result in money made you don't get anything. Either that or prestige by publishing in the best papers. And even then you are... let's call it encouraged to go out and get other grants and funds if you want to get anything done. 'Go and ruin someone else' sums it up."
   
    "And we are the lucky ones." said Bettina who's expression was now grim. "We are engineers. We design and build the things that the industry needs to run. The humanities, the arts? Philosophers? These kind of academics are thrown to the wolves. I once talked to someone from an English department who said that their research library got their funds slashed by 50%. I asked him how much that was and it was about 6000 Euros. A year..."
   
    Thomas snorted. "We are going to spend more on drills in this week alone."
   
    "Still." Susanne said, "If we want to do this right, we need all the funds we can get. So this geologic miracle here will help us. We also have modernisation, sustainability and with a bit of luck conservation.
   
    "Good to know..." Jenny said. "So how exactly are you going to proceed, apart from applying to new grants?"
   
    "Bettina will take care of the greenhouse, she'll do the planning and oversee the construction. Thomas will do the measurements." Susanne ignored the groan. "While I will be working on the integration of their projects, with that of Linda's and yours of course. This is going to be interesting."
   
    That night the Germans joined the rest of the group for dinner. In the warm light of the provisional lighting hanged from the the ceiling by Adrian earlier that day they all ate and drank together. Afterwards when they were drinking the beer the German's had brought, Susanne commenting that they had to maintain the dignity of the German people by providing the world with first class beer, it was difficult to tell who had been there from the beginning and who had arrived just that day. Having had a bit too much social interactions that day, to many cases of facilitating the exchange of information, calming the frustrated, leading the confused to a point where they could focus again, Jenny was standing back from the group. She was leaning against a part of fresh broken wall that would soon become part of the window frame of the large glass doors leading into the garden. She felt the cold of autumn crawling into the room past the plastic sheets they had put up to keep the weather outside. But the cold was just peeking in, the people inside were sharing their warmth, keeping the chill if the night at bay. Jenny sipped her malty, unspeakably named beer and was in this moment perfectly happy. Behind her and in front of her were seas of stress, that from her point of view stretched to the horizon in each direction, but none of that mattered right at this moment. Right now she was on an island. In front of her were people from different countries, walks of life, ages and cultural faiths who were sharing food, and drink and stories with each other. The people were laughing, smiling or just content. This was, what it was all about. Outside time moved forward dragging them all along, some of them to better places others towards disasters large and small. But right now, right here if only for a moment they where all safe.
   
    The week brought a new wave of construction interrupted regularly by shouting matches between Bettina and Thomas. In German. Jenny would not have been surprised if a confused demon had appeared from hell thinking it had been summoned.  Somehow Bettina, who was trying to build the green house and Thomas who need to drill holes around the mill always wanted to work in the exact same sport at the some time. At first Jenny had tried to intercede too keep the piece only to get dragged into the maelstrom that were the 'discussions' between the two. The second time that happened she only realised that she had been part of the shouting after Susanne had carefully pulled her out of the combat zone.
   
    "If you get caught in the cross fire," Susanne said, "you'll just catch fire. Trust me I've been there."
   
    "Why can't they just relax for five minutes and just agree to work in separate corners?" Jenny said arms waving her voice still loud, tinged with an edge of murder.
   
    "If you or anyone else ever manage to find out how to do that, you'll win the Nobel price for peace. For some reason whenever these two work together..." she pointed at the two screaming berserkers, "that happens."
   
    "how can you work with them like that?"
   
    Susanne shrugged. "You get used to it. You learn the signs that show that there will be a new outbreak. That's the moment when you get your things and move somewhere else. I also think that it makes their work better..."
   
    Jenny was not convinced, to here it sounded a lot like improving a street by breaking it open and putting landmines into the holes. "How?"
   
    "I think they don't take it personal. And that somehow helps them improve their work."
   
    "You realise that you sound neither convinced nor convincing?" Jenny said.
   
    A slightly deflated Susanne said, "Yes. It's a hypothesis. It seems to help. I think. But I have no idea why it does."
   
    If it did help Jenny could not see it, as the situation kept escalating. At the end of the week Thomas and Bettina pointedly ignored each other even during dinner where the entire team came together after a long day of work to try one of Byron's newest creations. That Friday they found a new breaking point. Bettina was standing on the other end of the room facing away from Thomas only to turn around in a swift motion, pinning Thomas with wrathful eyes, screaming "Why can't you fucking stay in one fucking place?!"
   
    "Because the ground here is ridiculous!" he screamed back at her.
   
    "What is ridiculous is that you refuse to do you fucking job Thomas!"
   
    Everyone else in the room moved out of the way of the death rays that they were casting at each other. Byron looked like he was considering hiding in a bunker, Susanne didn't care one way or the other as long as she did not have to become part of the battle, while Barbara had grabbed a bowl of crisps and was watching the scene in utter fascination. Jenny found herself bewildered somewhere between Susanne and Barbara, wondering if she should get two buckets full of cold water...
   
    "I am doing my job." Thomas screamed.
   
    "Really?" Bettina shouted back.
   
    "Really!"
   
    "Why can't you then stay in one fucking place for at the very least a fucking day?" Bettina moved towards Thomas index finger pointed at him, stabbing him from afar.
   
    "Because nothing about the ground her makes sense. The rock we are standing on extends in unexpected ways." Thomas moved towards Bettina chin stretched out, his brow a storm front. "And the ground is all wrong!"

    "How can ground be wrong?" Bettina asked her face now moving close to his, "Did you have it make a quiz?" she hissed.
   
    "It's cold." Thomas hissed backed.
   
    "It's autumn." Bettina said, openly placing a 'you idiot' between the lines.
   
    "It's cold for a long way down." Thomas returned the idiot, "As you get deeper the temperature tends to increase. But it doesn't. It does not fluctuate. It just stays at exactly at 4°."
   
    "Oh really?" Bettina was back to shouting.
   
    "Really!" Thomas matched the volume and added a growl to it.
   
    "That's fascinating." Bettina said her eyes growing wide, all the aggression falling off her at once.
   
    "Right?" Thomas said now also to engrossed by the phenomenon to keep up with silly things as radiant anger.
   
    "Show me the data."
   
    "Sure."
   
    Leaving the rest, minus Susanne, utterly confused behind they moved to the milling room to pore over the data on Thomas' laptop.
   
    "What...?" Byron said, slightly shaking finger pointing towards the door where the two had left.
   
    Susanne was pouring herself an extra large glass of wine. "You'll get used to it." she said, "now they'll start producing results."
   
    "What's wrong with the ground?" Jenny said staring at the floor.
   
    "Don't know." Susanne said. "Well find out soon enough."

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