Page 64 of The Midnight Bakery
Tam’s eyes narrowed. ‘We need to lower your centre of gravity then. Make something you sitinrather than siton.’ Jack was nodding. ‘I want to say a go-cart type of thing but that’s probably ridiculous. In any case, we’re rather putting said cart before the horse. What we need to do first is make areas accessible to you, as many as we can. The ones closest to the house are easiest, so…’ He caught the amused look in Jack’s eye. ‘Ah…which is exactly why you were thinking about the hen house.’ He tapped his forehead as if to say,idiot…‘Okay, no pun intended, but let’s park the transport issue for a minute. Tell me about your designs.’
Jack slid one of the pieces of paper towards him. ‘First and foremost, I need to be realistic. What I’ll be capable of achieving here is very limited. It’s not going to be as I planned or dreamedof all those years ago. In all likelihood the vast majority of work here will have to be undertaken by someone else and?—’
Tam leaned forward. ‘However…’
‘However…there are some things Icando. Extremely slowly and with modification, but I reckoned the hen house could be the place to start.’ He tapped the paper. ‘The problem with the old coop is that the door into the run isn’t wheelchair accessible, and then the house itself follows a traditional layout – meaning that the nesting boxes are raised off the ground. The chickens prefer it that way, but it makes the boxes too high for me to collect the eggs. I’d probably also struggle with the lids. So, with a bit of lateral thinking, and some internet trawling, I’ve come up with a way to potentially install the nesting boxes on theoutsideof the main house, using runners. The chickens would still access them from inside, and if I rigged up a pulley system, I could raise or lower them. What do you think?’
What Tam actually thought was how brave Jack was. How very restricted his life was to the extent that even the simplest tasks required detailed thought if he was to accomplish them. He nodded. ‘A bit like those lifts in big old houses – dumb waiters, I think they’re called. And that way you could collect any eggs, and presumably clean the boxes too. But what about food? And water? And whatever else chickens need?’
‘Ah, that’s where the trailer comes in,’ replied Jack. ‘They’ll be free-range during the day, so in summer, apart from a bit of grain, that’s pretty much it. I can take care of that, provided I can get the grain there. Same for their winter feed. There’s already a standpipe for water, and I should be able to find something to transfer that into their hoppers. What I really need is a way to reliably get from the house to the coop so I can shut them in at night and let them out after laying.’
‘And by reliable, you mean independent?’
‘I guess I do, yes.’
Jack was silent, ostensibly looking at the plans in front of him, but Tam could tell they weren’t the focus of his thoughts.
‘Can I just say something, Tam, before we go any further?’ His expression had grown suddenly serious. ‘I’m very aware how simple I’m making these things sound, when the reality would be anything but. I have to try, though. I have to do something, however small, however pointless-seeming or…’ He broke off. ‘I just have to.’
Tam held his look. ‘I know.’
‘And the other point is that none of this will ever work without my having someone with me. I’ve fucked up my life once already by doing something I shouldn’t have – doing something on my own when it was a two-person job. If I did it again, Beth would kill me. I mean, she might not have to, but you get the gist…’
Tam nodded.
‘And whoever that person is would be doing ninety-nine per cent of all the work, while I’d still consider this my farm. And I’ll still be the one having the final say on decisions and that probably doesn’t seem fair, but…’
‘It’s exactly how it should be. Maybe not the division of labour…’ He grinned. ‘But circumstances are what they are. So, it’s not a problem.’
‘No?’
Tam shook his head. ‘Nope.’ He paused a moment, looking back down at the drawings. ‘Shall we go and look at the hen house?’ He eyed the chair next to him on which a plump cushion lay. He picked it up. ‘You might want to take this,’ he added. ‘For a bit of extra padding.’
Beth’s expression was so fierce, Tam felt like a naughty schoolboy in front of the headmistress. He stared at the floor and the rapidly growing pool of water.
‘Are you two going to make a habit of getting wet?’ she asked. ‘Only there are such things as coats, hats, brollies…’
‘Um…’ Jack looked as if he was crying, rivulets of water dripping from his hair to track down his cheeks. ‘In our defence, it didn’t look like it was going to rain when we went out. And then it just sort of came down.’
Tam nodded in agreement. ‘One minute fine, and then the next…’ He mimed a cloudburst with his hands which, he conceded, might have looked more like a bomb exploding. ‘And the trouble is that we’d wandered a bit further than we thought, so getting back here quickly wasn’t really an option…’ He shifted his feet slightly, his boots squelching with mud. ‘Sorry. I’ll clear up the mess.’
Beth pursed her lips, silence lengthening as she glared at them, but then, like the wind, her expression changed and she laughed. ‘You should see the look on your faces, but honestly, what are you two like?’ And then she gave a coy smile. ‘Just as well I’m in such a good mood,’ she added, looking directly at Jack. ‘You should go and get changed, you’re absolutely soaking. Get out of those wet things before you catch your death.’ She looked at Tam. ‘I’m not sure what we do about yours, but I can dry them and, in the meantime, you’ll have to borrow some old clothes of Jack’s again.’ She stopped. ‘What?’
Tam smiled. ‘I have some other clothes in the car. I can easily get changed into those.’
Beth’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘Oh God, you have, haven’t you? Tam, I’m so sorry, I wasn’t thinking, I…’
‘It’s fine,’ he replied, shaking his head at her horrified look. ‘And you have to admit, carrying all your possessions with you comes in pretty handy sometimes.’
She gave him a look. One which acknowledged the light-heartedness of his comment, but one which also let him know how much she cared.
‘Then the very least I can do is wash and dry them for you. Unless you have a tumble dryer stashed in your car I know nothing about.’
Tam grinned. ‘Nope, so thank you. Damp clothes in a car aren’t great. They kind of stay damp, and then everything else…It’s a bit like camping holidays when you were a kid.’
‘Good. Whip those off while I help Jack get changed and I’ll get a wash on. It shouldn’t take too long.’ She glanced at the clock on the wall and then at the falling darkness outside the window. ‘What am I saying? Tam, this is crazy. Why don’t you stay here tonight? It’s filthy out there now and getting colder by the minute. Plus, it’ll be at least an hour and a half to get your things sorted. Possibly longer, you know what jeans are like for drying. And in any case, it will be gone dinnertime by then, and you’ll have had nothing to eat either. So, it makes far more sense to eat with us, and then just stay…You can have a shower too, if you like and?—’
‘Beth,’ said Tam softly. ‘I don’t need persuading. Thank you, I’d really like that.’
