“I know, Earnon’s already got friends,” Herzer nodded.
“Oh, not that,” Courtney said. “I suppose a few of them don’t like it because of him. But most of us are pissed off that you got caught up in it. Earnon’s the problem, not you.”
“Oh,” Herzer said. “Uh. Thanks.”
“We need to go eat,” Mike said, taking Courtney by the arm. “Herzer, we can hold a little by…”
“If Jody finds out, he’s likely to dock you two, too,” Herzer said, shaking his head. “You go eat.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
By the middle of the afternoon Herzer was swaying from fatigue and hunger. He was still clearing branches and doing it at a pretty good pace, but he didn’t know how much longer he could go on. His arms felt like lead and he was light-headed. Every now and again he started to sway and his axe blows no longer hit where he wanted them to.
He didn’t even notice Jody when he came up behind him and started when the man cleared his throat, the axe glancing off the branch and flying out of his hands.
“I thought so,” Jody said. “Mike told me you didn’t get the full three days rest.”
“Courtney or Mike?” Herzer asked, blinking his eyes as it seemed the edges of his vision were going gray.
“Mike, but I suspect Courtney put him up to it,” Jody said. “Do you realize you’ve cleared about twice as many branches as anyone else?”
“No, I wasn’t paying attention,” Herzer said with the honesty of the punch drunk.
“You need to take a break and get some water. The ones that are working hard are just about worn out and the ones that are slacking are getting better and better at acting that way, so I’m moving dinner up and we’ll break before sunset. But we’re starting tomorrow at dawn.”
“Okay,” Herzer said, stepping back and sitting down on a cleared log. “Works for me.”
“Take a break, Herzer, that’s an order,” Jody said, waving at one of the water carriers.
“Here,” Nergui said, shoving a cup at him and slopping half of it on the ground.
“Thank you,” Herzer said tiredly and drained it. “Now could I have some more.”
“Only one,” the girl said angrily. “It’s a long walk to the spring. You need to slow down, you’re making the rest of them look bad.”
“Not all of them,” Herzer said, draining the second half filled cup. “Just some.”
“Hmmph,” the girl snorted, snatching the cup back and walking away with a flounce.
“Well, are you happy you son-of-a-bitch?” Mike said, sitting down next to him.
“Not you too!” Herzer said.
“I’m joking,” Mike replied, stone faced. “Really. But I wouldn’t have worked as hard as I did if it hadn’t been trying to keep up with you. You made out of damned iron or something?”
“Not right now,” Herzer said. “I feel like rubber. What’s with Nergui, anyway?”
“She and Earnon hit it off right away,” Mike said. “You didn’t notice?”
“Nope.”
“Two peas in a pod. Anyway, she’s mad cause Earnon didn’t get any lunch and she nearly got caught passing him some food. And then you’re working like a damned machine and that made him look twice as bad. You know Jody’s had to change partners on him twice and that tree still isn’t half sawed through?”
“Hmmm…” Herzer replied, really taking a look around for the first time since early morning. Several trees had been downed and mostly cleared and topped, their logs now lying on the muddy ground in preparation for hauling off. The branches, leaves and other detritus had been collected in large piles and he suddenly realized, identifying trees, how much of those piles had been his work.
But the giant spreading tree that had been the source of contention was still standing, the trunk not even half sawed through as Mike had said.
“Well, I guess that proves who was working and who wasn’t,” Herzer chuckled then guffawed. “And Jody’s had him on that tree all day?”
“Yeah, I complained, lightly in the middle of the afternoon. I’ve been on the other saw all damned day and we’ve downed three trees. They’ve not even gone through one.”
Herzer looked at the other trees and had to admit that, while the others were smaller, that was much more work than that single tree.
“I think Jody’s just trying to make a point,” Herzer said. “I’m not sure what the point is, but I’m pretty sure there is one.”
“Oh, I know what the point is,” Mike growled. “Earnon is a useless slacker.”
“Have you had other partners?” Herzer asked.
“Yeah, he’s run just about everybody by my saw. Some of ’em are okay. Guy and Cruz and Emory pull their own weight, I guess so do Tempie and Glayds but they don’t really work at it, they just do what they have to do. Frederic, Cleo and Earnon are fisking useless.”
Herzer chuckled and gestured with his chin at Karlyn who was lifting a branch the size of a small tree onto her shoulder to drag it off.
“Yeah, Karlyn, too. Mostly. She doesn’t have the mass sometimes, I guess. And neither does Deann but she just makes up for it with anger.”
The latter was topping one of the trees that had been mostly cleared of branches. Once the trunk narrowed to a certain point it wasn’t worth clearing the rest and the top was cut off, “topping”, and dragged into the brush pile. Deann had one of the battle-axe type axes and was attacking the tree as if it were the neck of a hostile dragon, an expression of absolute fury on her face.
“Trees! She hates trees!” Herzer whispered with a chuckle.
“Well, if you think that’s bad, you should have seen you when you started out,” Courtney said, coming over and sitting down by Mike. “I was afraid you were going to take that axe to Jody’s neck!”
“Not Jody,” Herzer said. “But if Earnon had come over to continue the discussion, I’m not making any bets.”
“I was thinking about what you said earlier,” Courtney said. “And you’re right. But there’s more.”
“Oh?”
“It’s what you just said. There’s no PPFs. If you took it in your head to go kill Earnon with that axe, there wouldn’t have been much anyone could do about it.”
“So Jody comes down with both feet on fighting,” Mike added. “I started to tell off Frederic when he was on the saw and then I just walked over and talked to Jody. Frederic tried to interrupt but Jody just shut him up and put him to topping. I didn’t cuss him out or anything, just told Jody he was riding the saw and I wanted him off.”
“I guess that’s what I should have done,” Herzer said with a shake of his head.
“Well, if I hadn’t seen the example, I would have done what you did,” Mike admitted. “And I probably would have cracked that useless fisker’s head on top of it. So I’m not exactly glad you screwed up first but…” he grinned and picked up a twig to chew on, using it to pick at his teeth.
“FOOD’S ON!”
Herzer joined the others in line for food and took his bowl of beans and cornbread. That was it again and after getting it he sat down on one of the logs and contemplated the food for just a moment.
“You going to eat it or just look at it?” Mike asked, spooning up his beans between bites of bread.
“I get such pleasure from the anticipation,” Herzer said lightly. “But soon it will be all gone!” He picked up his spoon then set it back down and lifted the bowl to his lips, sucking down the mixture. There was a small, very small, piece of pork in the bowl and he worried that for a few moments then wiped out the bowl with his cornbread. When that was gone he was done.