Tunnel in the Sky (24 page)

   
“Rod, I told you I want you here. But are you and Caroline planning to marry?”

   
“Huh? What gave you that notion?”

   
“Then you can't team with her in any case. We are trying to re-introduce amenities around here.”

   
“Now see here, Cowper!”

   
“Forget it.”

   
“Unh . . . all right. But the first thing- the very first- is to finish that wall. I want to put everybody to work nght away.”

   
“Mmm . . .” Cowper said. “I'm sorry. You can't.”

   
“Why not?”

   
“Because we are going to build a house today. Bill Kennedy and Sue Briggs are getting married tonight.”

   
“Huh? I hadn't heard.”

   
“I guess you are the first to hear. They told me about it privately, at breakfast.”

   
Rod was not surprised, as Bill and Sue preferred each other's company. “Look, do they have to get married to-night? That wall is urgent, Grant; I'm telling you.”

   
“Don't be so intense, Rod. You can get along a night or two with bigger fires. Remember, there are human values more important than material values.”

   
“July 29- Bill and Sue got married tonight. Hizzoner never looked lovelier. He made a mighty pretty service out of it- I cried and so did the other girls. If that boy could do the way he can talk! I played Mendelssohn's Wedding March on my harmonica with tears running down my nose and gumming up the reeds- that's a touch I wanted to put into darling Carmen's wedding but I couldn't resist being bridesmaid. The groom got stuck carrying his lady fair over the threshold of their 'house'- if I may call it that- and had to put her down and shove her in ahead of him. The ceiling is lower than it ought to be which is why he got stuck, because we ran out of rock and Roddie raised Cain when we started to use part of the wall. Hizzoner was leading the assault on the wall and both of them got red in the face and shouted at each other. But Hizzoner backed down after Roddie got him aside and said something- Bill was pretty sore at Roddie but Bob sweet-talked him and offered to swap houses and Roddie promised Bill that we would take the roof off and bring the walls up higher as soon as the wall is finished. That might not be as soon as he thinks, though- usable rock is getting hard to find. I've broken all my nails trying to pry out pieces we could use. But I agree with Roddie that we ought to finish that wall and I sleep a lot sounder now that he is running the watch and I'll sleep sounder yet when that wall is tight and the pincushion back of it finished. Of course we girls sleep down at the safe end but who wants to wake up and find a couple of our boys missing? It is not as if we had them to spare, bless their silly little hearts. Nothing like a man around the house, Mother always said, to give a home that lived-in look.

   
“July 30- I'm not going to write in this unless something happens. Hizzoner talks about making papyrus like the Egyptians but I'll believe it when I see it.

   
“Aug 5- I was sergeant of the guard last night and Roddie was awake practically all night. I turned in after breakfast and slept until late afternoon- when I woke up there was Roddie, red-eyed and cross, yelling for more rocks and more firewood. Sometimes Roddie is a little hard to take.

   
“Aug 9- the salt lick Alice found is closer than the one Shorty found last week, but not as good.

   
“Aug 14- Jackie finally made up her mind to marry Jim and I think Roddie is flabbergasted- but I could have told him a month ago. Roddie is stupid about such things. I see another house & wall crisis coming and Roddie will get a split personality because he will want Jimmy and Jacqueline to have a house right away and the only decent stone within reach is built into the wall.

   
“Aug 15- Jimmy and Jackie, Agnes and Curt, were married today in a beautiful double ceremony. The Throxtons have the Baxter house temporarily and the Pulvermachers have the Kennedy's doll house while we partition the cave into two sets of married quarters and a storeroom.

   
“Sep 1- the roots I dug up didn't poison me, so I served a mess of them tonight. The shield from power pack of that Thunderbolt gun we salvaged- Johann's, it must have been- made a big enough boiler to cook a little helping for everybody. The taste was odd, maybe because Agnes had been making soap in it- it wasn't very good soap, either. I'm going to call these things yams because they look like yams although they taste more like parsnips. There are a lot of them around. Tomorrow I m going to try boiling them with greens, a strip of side ineat, and plenty of salt. Yum, yum! I'm going to bake them in ashes, too.

   
“Sep 16- Chad Ames and Dick Burke showed up with their tails tucked in; Hizzoner got soft-hearted and let em stay. They say Jock McGowan is crazy. I can believe it.

   
“Sep 28- Philip Schneider died today, hunting. Roy carried him in, but he was badly clawed and lost a lot of blood and was D.O.A. Roy resigned as boss hunter and Hizzoner appointed Cliff. Roy is broken up about it but nobody blames him. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

   
“Oct 7- I've decided to marry M.

   
“Oct 10- seems I was mistaken- M. is going to marry Margery Chung. Well, they are nice kids and if we ever get out of this I'll be glad I'm single since I want to buck for a commission in the Amazons. Note: be a little more standoffish, Caroline. Well, try!

   
“Oct 20- Carmen????

   
“Oct 21- Yes.

   
“Nov 1- well Glory be! I'm the new City Manager. Little Carol, the girl with two left feet Just a couple of weeks, temporary and acting while Roddie is away, but say 'sir' when you speak to me. Hizzoner finally let Roddie make the down-river survey he has been yipping about, accompanying it with a slough of advice and injunctions that Roddie will pay no attention to once he is out of sight-if I know Roddie. It's a two-man team and Roddie picked Roy as his teamer. They left this morning.

   
“Nov 5- being City Manager is not all marshmallow sundae. I wish Roddie would get back.

   
“Nov 11 - Hizzoner wants me to copy off in here the 'report of the artifacts committee'! Mick Mahmud has been keeping it in his head which strikes me as a good place. But Hizzoner has been very jumpy since Roddie and Roy left, so I guess I will humor him- here it is:

   
“12 spare knives (besides one each for everybody)

  
 
“53 firearms and guns of other sorts- but only about half of them with even one charge left.

   
“6 Testaments

   
“2 Peace of the Flame

   
“1 Koran

   
“1 Book of Mormon

   
“1 Oxford Book of English Verse, Centennial Edition

   
“1 steel bow and 3 hunting arrows

   
“1 boiler made from a wave shield and quite a bit of metal and plastic junk (worth its weight in uranium, I admit) from the Thunderbolt Jackie salvaged.

   
“1 stew pan (Carmen's)

   
“1 pack playing cards with the nine of hearts missing

  
 
“13 matches, any number of pocket flamers no longer working, and 27 burning glasses

   
“1 small hand ax

   
“565 meters climbing line, some of it chopped up for other uses

   
“91 fishhooks (and no fish fit to eat!)

   
“61 pocket compasses, some of them broken

   
“19 watches that still run (4 of them adjusted to our day)

   
“2 bars of scented soap that Theo has been hoarding

   
“2 boxes Kwik-Kure and part of a box of Tan-Fast

   
“Several kilos of oddments that I suppose we will find a use for but I won't list. Mick has a mind like a pack rat.

   
“Lots of things we have made and can make more of- pots, bows and arrows, hide scrapers, a stone-age mortar & pestle we can grind seeds on if you don't mind grit in your teeth, etc. Hizzoner says the Oxford Verse is the most valuable thing we have and I agree, but not for his reasons. He wants me to cover all the margins with shorthand, recording all special knowledge that any of us have- everything from math to pig-raising. Cliff says go ahead as long as we don't deface the verses. I don't see when I'm going to find time. I've hardly been out of the settlement since Roddie left and sleep is something I just hear about.

   
“Nov 13- only two more days. 'For this relief, much thanks. . .'

   
“Nov 16- I didn't think they would be on time.

   
“Nov 21- We finally adopted our constitution and basic code today, the first town meeting we've had in weeks. It covers the flyleaves of two Testaments, Bob's and Georgia's. If anybody wants to refer to it, which I doubt, that's where to look.

   
“Nov 29- Jimmy says old Rod is too tough to kill. I hope he's right. Why, oh, why didn't I twist Hizzoner's arm and make him let me go?

   
“Dec 15- there's no use kidding ourselves any longer.

  
 
“Dec 21- The Throxtons and Baxters and myself and Grant gathered privately in the Baxter house tonight and Grant recited the service for the dead. Bob said a prayer for both of them and then we sat quietly for a long time, Quaker fashion. Roddie always reminded me of my brother Rickie, so I privately asked Mother to take care of him, and Roy, too- Mother had a lap big enough for three, any time.

   
“Grant hasn't made a public announcement; officially they are just 'overdue.'

   
“Dec 25- Christmas”

   
Rod and Roy traveled light and fast downstream, taking turns leading and covering. Each carried a few kilos of salt meat but they expected to eat off the land. In addition to game they now knew of many edible fruits and berries and nuts; the forest was a free cafeteria to those who knew it. They carried no water since they expected to follow the stream. But they continued to treat the water with respect; in addition to ichthyosaurs that sometimes pulled down a drinking buck there were bloodthirsty little fish that took very small bites- but they traveled in schools and could strip an animal to bones in minutes.”

   
Rod carried both Lady Macbeth and Colonel Bowie; Roy Kilroy carried his Occam's Razor and a knife borrowed from Carmen Baxter. Roy had a climbing rope wrapped around his waist. Each had a hand gun strapped to his hip but these were for extremity; one gun had only three charges. But Roy carried Jacqueline Throxton's air pistol, with freshly envenomed darts; they expected it to save hours of hunting, save time for travel.

   
Three days downstream they found a small cave, found living in it a forlorn colony of five girls. They powwowed, then headed on down as the girls started upstream to find the settlement. The girls had told them of a place farther down where the creek could be crossed. They found it, a wide rocky shallows with natural stepping stones . . . then wasted two days on the far side before crossing back.

   
By the seventh morning they had found no cave other than one the girls had occupied. Rod said to Roy, “Today makes a week. Grant said to be back in two weeks.”

   
“That's what the man said. Yes, sir!”

   
“No results.”

   
“Nope. None.”

   
“We ought to start back.”

   
Roy did not answer. Rod said querulously, “Well, what do you think?”