house where she
had been born. As she entered she saw the devastation left by those
searching for valuables but to her it was the work of those she now
wished ill. As she surveyed the broken objects that her mother had
left her she notice a large glass jar on its side hidden amongst
the other things her mother had lovingly looked after now smashed.
Only the jar seemed to have survived. Outside her cow was gone as
was the garden plundered of its produce.
C hapter 7
“ How long do you think it will take for you
and …? Andy isn’t it?” Sandra
said looking at the taller man on searching her memory for his
name. Sandra was a short stout woman with shoulder length mousey
hair; her most prominent feature was a large hairy mole on her top
lip which earned her the nickname of Cocopops.
“ Only an hour
or two at most,” answered Micky.
His boss
looked at him nodding as if trying to look all knowing. “Then
you’ll sweep up the road from the main gate to the walled garden?”
She questioned the men yet knew this was her plan but wanting them
to think it was somehow their idea.
“ Yes,” Micky
agreed. He waited for her to reveal what else she might have for
them to do, knowing she always did.
“ Do you think,” she bega n as if to suggest something, “that you’d have time to
brush out the walled garden?”
“ Yeah, cause we’ll not be finishing till late as we open
tomorrow,” Micky pretended to
remind the middle aged woman.
“ Well if you
do that then you can come and see me if you need something else to
do,” she said as if pleased by their decision, “that
alright?”
“ Okay, will
do,” Micky agreed as both he and Andy lifted the paint tins, with
the brushes then made for the canteen door to head out to start the
long days work followed closely by their boss, on her way to the
main office.
The sky seemed
brighter as they exited the cabin as the sun tried to burn its way
through the cloud cover. They
headed left out the gate on their way to the top end of the park
and the log flume fence that awaited a new coat of
paint.
“ Once you’re finished with the paint ing could you drop it off at the office?” Sandra asked
before the two men could escape.
“ No problem,”
both answered in unison as they went one way and the woman headed
the other.
“ Why does she
want us to take the paint to the office?” Andy looked to his
co-worker as one of the parks Manitou’s drove past and in through
the double gates, stopping in front of the cabin.
“ No idea,” Micky shrugged his shoulders, “maybe she’s going
to decorate the office with it
or maybe her house.”
“ You really
think,” Andy answered naively.
Micky laughed aloud as his
friend looked at him, bemused. “Oh yeah, I can just see her house
now a nice shade of Timberland brown,” he said between
guffaws.
“ Well you never know,” Andy said as he realized he was making a fool of himself, a
little redness coming to his cheeks.
“ Yeah , I can just see
it,” Micky continued to tease.
“ What ever,” Andy murmured as Micky slowly stopped laughing. “So where are we going to
start?”
“ Where we
left off yesterday,” Micky said casually as they walked along the
tree lined boulevard that took them to the awaiting new fence in
need of a coating of paint. They past the newer coaster, one of the
main attractions, standing taller than the trees by the road; even
though its entrance was below the road.
“ When do you
think we’ll finish the night by the way?” Andy hoped it wouldn’t be
too late as he didn’t fancy going through the woods at night which
he now could see as they approached the log flume.
“ Hopefully not
to late,” Micky paused to think it over for a moment, “maybe about
half seven or eight.”
A man walking
his dog nodded at the pair as they turned into the picnic area
before the flume. . “Looks like it might brighten up later,” the
gentleman said as he passed by on the other side of