Page 23 of Jake

“I’m not sure. I’ll ask around. I’m sure we’ll find someone who can at least check things out,” Lurch said, then turned to Jake. “How long do we have until the trailer gets here?”

“Not until tomorrow. Even if she leaves early, she likely won’t be here until at least noon.

“She’s already coming for sure?” Lurch asked, one brow lifted.

Jake shook his head. “She’s waiting to hear from me tonight before it’s a sure thing.”

Lurch nodded. “Go ahead and have her come down. We’ll get the hook up situation figured out. If worse comes to worse, hopefully we can at least get her power, even if she has to use the bathroom and shower in the bunkhouse.”

Jake pulled out his phone and started typing out messages to both Heather and Iceman letting them know everything was a go on his end.

Heather:Great. Can’t wait to see you tomorrow.

While he was reading her message, his phone buzzed in his hand with a message from Iceman. He flipped to read that.

Iceman:I’ll make sure she’s ready. You keep her safe once she gets there or you’ll answer to me.

Jake replied to Iceman first since that would be a short message.

Jake to Iceman:10-4

Jake to Heather:Me either, but don’t rush. Take your time and drive safe.

He looked up to find both Lurch and Tuck watching him.

“What?” he asked, looking back and forth between them.

Tuck shook his head. “Just wondering how long until you noticed us watching you.” He went back to brushing the horse.

“How long was it?”

“Not long,” Lurch said.

“Well, we’re done here, I think. Unless you have something else for me to do, I’ll go check out the trailer site, see if it needs cleaning up. Maybe I can find the sewer hookup.”

“At least we’ll know where to find you,” Lurch said before turning back to Tuck.

Jake nodded, waved one hand at them over his shoulder and left them behind as he headed to the bunkhouse. He went through the building instead of around, then stood outside the back door for a moment, scanning the area. He took in possible cover and escape routes just in case they were needed. Then once he had a mental picture of the space, he made his way over to the pole, picking his way through the scattered weeds, until beside the pole, he spotted the metal box that had to contain the power hookup.

From there he scanned the ground, trying to spot the septic hookup. He didn’t see anything obvious, but there were a lot of low weeds covering the ground. Getting rid of those would probably help.

His gaze played over the area as he considered the best way to do it. A hoe would be fastest, but it would leave roots that would only grow back in a week or two. No, he would be better off doing it right from the beginning.

After retrieving a pair of gloves he got busy, and managed to pull all the weeds in a little more than an hour. Another twenty minutes and he had them gathered and tossed in the compost heap to breakdown. He was standing next to the pole with the hookup, stretching his aching back and wondering if maybe he shouldn’t clear a bigger area when Steele approached.

“Hey, I hear there’s some electrical box that needs to be checked out?” Steele asked once he was close enough not to need to yell.

“Yeah. You know much about electrical?” Jake asked.

Steele nodded. “Three years as an apprentice, I’m not certified, but I can do simple jobs. Is this the box?” He motioned to the box mounted three feet from the ground on the pole by where Jake stood.

“This is it. The plan is to plug an RV in if it can handle it.”

“And if it can’t?”

“I haven’t thought that far ahead. I guess I’ll have to figure something else out.”

“Let me take a look before we worry about it too much.” Steele went down on one knee, and lifted the lid on the box, doing something Jake didn’t see to get the box to stay open. He pulled some boxy looking tool with wires and sharp points on the end out of his back pocket and started poking the ends into the outlet.

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