Part 7.
We last left Guy and Lester languishing in a thing they’d
only dreamed of in the past months. A place to bath and wash their ratty
clothes.
Having been so long since any kind of bath, they were some
of the last people to wander back into the camp to start a fire and enjoy the
fish they’d caught.
Just as they were starting back, they passed what looked
like two families who might have been related in some way; by the way they
looked alike.
“Boys!” one of them spoke up as they were passing by. “Come.
Set for a piece. We’d like to talk to you for a bit ifen you don’t mind.”
After glancing toward each other with a questioning raised
eyebrow and shrugging their shoulders, Guy and Lester stepped over to stand by
the groups.
“How can we be of help?” Lester asked after a moment of
silence had passed.
“To tell you the truth boys, we heard some others talking
about you helping them with a problem they had with their car and said you were
right good at it. Ya see, one of our trucks just barely made it here a couple
days ago. We was wondering if you might be able to take a look at it when you
have time?”
“Well,” Guy started after a quick glance at Lester. “Being
born and raised on a farm, we did pick up a little about mechanican. Our Dad is
mighty handy with machinery and taught us a bit, so we could take a look but
right now, we need to get back to camp for some eats and sleep. Today was a
mighty long day.”
“Hey. No hurry boys. We’ll be here at least long enough to
put together some money afor we move on.”
“Ok.” Lester said. “Show us where your camped and we’ll stop
by when we can.”
That’s mighty fine of you boys. We thank you.”
So that’s the way the next couple of months went. Guy and
Lester being such good workers with special skills handy from a farm, quickly
moved up the ladder of responsibility until they were both made foreman. Guy
was in charge of all the tractor operators and Lester became the head mechanic.
Before they knew it, the little jingle in their trousers
turned into a heavy but welcome weight they were forced to deal with. So the
lead foreman took them both into town when there was a break in the work to
open up a savings account and deposit their hard earned cash in a safe place.
Truth was, in those times, they probably could have just
hidden the money in their tent or buried it but Daddy didn’t raise no fools, so
they did the right thing.
They not only found time in the mornings and evenings to fix
the truck for the folks they’d met beside the river but when word got out, they
started making extra money working on other peoples automobiles in the camp.
Having been raised with almost nothing the only thing they
spent money on was a can of coffee and a few vegetables to supplement their
ongoing diet of Fish, flour pancakes and of course Oranges.
That first cup of java was manna from heaven, boosting their
morning energy levels nicely. Turned out other folks had a hankering for some
coffee also, so in short order there was a new welcoming smell mixed with the
campfire smoke drifting lazily throughout the camp.
Guy and Lester weren’t sure if it was just the coffee or the
addition of food into the camp but most mornings now came with a fair amount of
the morning noises, including laughter that normal humans, especially children
make when their feeling well.
Some nights they were even hearing a lone harmonica singing
a little happy tune or a guitar and singer off in the distance lamenting about
lost love or some such.
With the Orange season coming to an end, the camp atmosphere
started slowly changing from an encampment to a place full of the activity of
folks packing up and moving on.
At the farm, things were thinning out each day. More and
more folks were receiving their last coins and bidding farewell.
Because Guy and Lester had worked themselves into the upper
ranks of employee’s there, the owners wanted to keep them on at least long
enough to finish everything up. In fact one day the owner asked them to meet
him in the main ranch house for a little talk.
The night before the meeting, they both spent extra time in
the river scrubbing their clothes and bodies extra well to present themselves
properly to the owners. With everyone’s rush to leave the camp, they’d even
found a comb someone had dropped, so they were able to use it instead just
their fingers to straighten out their normally unruly hair.
To be continued:
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