Up North
“At least with the change in who’s coming, that lets us put shelves and hooks back in the other room for storage.” Benji said as he moved things around on the table.
“No more building!” Barbara said as she sat at the table.
“It won’t take long to knock out some shelves along the walls and a hanging bar or two.” Randy said as he set some books down on the end of the table.
“Is that before or after the workbenches and cabinets in the addition? Oh, wait! I know, it’s after the parquet floor in the ballroom.” Barbara said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Oh, come on! It wasn’t that bad.” Randy tried to defend himself.
“I agree with Barbara. No more building for now. We have to let the shit in the addition dry, or cure, or harden, or whatever that shit we put on the wood is supposed to do. While we wait for that to happen, we take a break from construction.” Benji said.
“That could be a few days.” Was Randy’s reply.
“Sounds good to me. We could even wait for our long lost ringleader to get back and lend a hand.” Barbara said quickly.
“That could be a week or two still.” Randy replied.
“You said the stuff in the addition needed a couple coats to be done right. This will give it a chance. I’d rather do it right once than keep redoing it” Benji countered.
“OK, fine. You convinced me. So what are we going to do while we wait?” Randy conceded. Barbara had the answer.
“Spring cleaning. We air out the cabin, do laundry, sweep, mop, and make this place presentable again.”
All three looked around the main room. The place wasn’t trashed, but as they looked, they could see where the cabin needed some work. The fireplace had splinters of wood over by the kindling box where they had been splitting small logs. There was ash escaping the firebox. Books were stacked haphazardly around the chairs in the living room. Kerfuffle’s blanket nest next to the hearth had a visible layer of fur accumulated.
“I guess it’s time.” Benji said.
“Yeah.” Randy agreed.
“Tomorrow, we split the place up and work on a good deep clean.”
“And the next day we get the next coat in the addition if the first one’s dry. I’d like to get three coats done before they get here and we start using it.” Randy added as he set up the cardboard divider on his end of the table.
“While the second layer cures, we can see if we can scare up some more meat for the smoker.” Barbara added as she emptied a small bag of dice onto the table next to her notebook.
“We have plenty of scraps in the barrel to feed the smoker.” Randy said as he flipped through some pages in his own notebook.
“I saw some pig tracks over towards the shale ledge. Barb and I should be able to bag one.” Benji offered.
“Shoot! Would be nice to have some fresh bacon on hand for Stephen and crew when they get here.” Barbara offered.
“I was thinking jaeger schnitzel.” Benji said. The breaded and fried cubed pork with mushrooms and hunter gravy over a bed of noodles was one of Benji’s favorites, and he had made it a few times for them. At the very mention of it, Randy and Barbara’s mouths began to water.
“Of course you were, and it sounds like a great idea. We just have to find the pigs that made those tracks.” Barbara said before she added “but that’s after we clean this place up.”
“Works for me.” Benji replied.
“Everybody ready?” Randy asked as he looked over the divider in front of him.
“Sure.” Barbara said, followed by Benji’s “Yup.”
“You guys were in the secret tunnel leading away from the cavern where you fought the Kobalts…”
Deep in the winter, after most of the radio stations they could pick up on the shortwave faded away, they were stuck for some entertainment to keep them busy during the long winter nights. Barbara remembered Stephen’s stash of old roll-playing books and supplies. When she mentioned them, Randy perked right up. Turns out he was a gamer in his youth. Benji had done plenty of online gaming but this was something new to him and Barbara.
Barbara knew they needed some sort of escape, a release from all the seriousness their situation was demanding of them. She was the one to convince Randy to teach them how to play. This led to their ongoing gamming session in the evenings a couple nights of the week. It was something they could do with their minds while their hands did other things. This escapism seemed childish on it’s surface, but she was sure it helped them.
The antics of the half-orc / half-dwarf bumbling his way through encounters with his trusty elf and halfling sidekicks was just the distraction to vent off stress and worry they needed. The hours of entertainment provided helped them stave off cabin fever, offset fear of the unknown, reduce frustration at being unable to solve problems well beyond their control and influence, and helped provide a structure to their weeks and months of winter isolation.
Tomorrow, they had a lot of cleaning to do. Tonight, they would continue their quest for the Orb of Davros, the key to defeating the invading queen’s army.