The House

By Dawn Natelle

Chapter 34 – Carrying on

Grey spent nearly 18 hours a day working on Belle during the first three days she was in the house, and then on the fourth day he surprised the other residents by appearing for dinner.

“My internal mentor said I need to give her some time between treatments. I will only give a 4-hour session in the morning and another in the afternoon,” he said as he sat down. Billy slipped out of his chair next to Dary and climbed up on Grey’s lap. Dary carried his dinner plate over so Grey could help the boy eat.

“I’ve nearly got her eye repaired,” Grey said. “She won’t be able to see out of it for a few more weeks, but all the damage is healed. I am working on her nose next. She is quite upset that she is so badly disfigured. I think the nose will take a week, and then I need to work on her left ear. All the hair on left side was burned away, and the nurses in London shaved the right side. After all that, in a month or two, she will be able to come to dinner, if she can be convinced too. At the very least she needs to be able to start walking around before her joints seize up.”

“She can do that,” Daisy said. “No one will pay any attention to her looks as she walks about.

“In our sewing lessons, you said we should make a dress or something,” Dary said to Daisy. “I want to make a robe for Belle so she can be covered as she walks. She turned back to Grey. “Ask if she would like a big hood that will cover her face?”

“That would be great,” he said. “She needs something light and airy. She can’t wear much underwear and heavy material would chafe the burns.”

“I will make one too,” Tanya said. “Then she will be able to change off.”

“I will do the same,” Sun said.

«You are already loved,» Grey told Belle in their next treatments. «Three of the girls in the house want to make you robes to go through the halls when you start to walk.»

«I don’t want them,» Belle complained. «I don’t want to have anyone see me like this. Just you, Billy and that nice girl that brings me soup. I look like a monster, and I won’t ever leave the bed.»

«Yes you will,» Grey ordered. «If you don’t get up and exercise you won’t be able to eventually. Don’t you want to be able to walk with Billy? I know I love walking with him. He is such a smart little guy, coming in every morning to sing to you and help me treat you.»

«Maybe for Billy, but I don’t want anyone else to see me.»

«A lot of them have already seen you. Five of us went to London to get you. And you looked much worse then. Plus Dary, the girl who brings you soup for lunch. Almost as many have seen you than for the ones who haven’t. When I say you are ready, you will start exercising by walking the halls, with Billy or me.”

«Okay,» she relented.

A routine started to develop. Grey spent four hours before lunch with Belle. Since he woke up at 4 or 5 a.m., it left him some time free to work in the mill. Sun took to getting up early to join him. At 8 he would start his treatments on the girl, with Billy usually coming in to ‘help’ at the start of the sessions. His three-year-old attention span was only 15 or 20 minutes before he ran off to play with Dary and the babies, but Grey noticed that the healing went better while he was there, with Belle encouraged by her son’s presence. Billy even learned some of the lines from Grey’s song, and would sing it along with his hero.

It was another week later when John made announcement. “The correctional office wants to send us two boys for the next year. They are both natives from Brantford area and have developed a habit of stealing cars, joyriding, and then setting the cars on fire on the reserve, usually within walking distance of their homes. They were tried as juveniles, but it was determined that they come and join us, due to the success we have had with Red.”

“Are they cute?” Theresa said. She and Hawk’s sister Feather had come up from the reserve at Belleville to work in the store, and were rooming at the House.

“I don’t know, never having seen them,” but they are eighteen and nearly eighteen, if that helps,” John said.

“Will we create a fund for each of them like we were going to do with Red?” Sun asked.

“I don’t think we can. At least not all the money,” John said. “The House needs some of the income. And they will only be here for a year. We are paid $900 a week to care for them, so if we put away $500 of that in a fund it would come to $26,000 each at their release. They could attend a college program on that, or get a good start on university.”

“The adults around the table discussed it, and came to agreement to take in the boys and put away $500 a week for them.

“I know you have put money away for me,” Tanya said. “But I don’t think I should get all of Red’s money. He will need something when he gets out.”

“We have about $5000 in Red’s account so far,” John said. “We spent quite a lot of money for you so far: your rent and tuition. I suspect we can give you $100 or $150 a week spending money once you move back to Peterborough, as well as all your bills for cable, utilities, and phone. He will still be getting $1500 a month into his fund until you move back here in January, and then $2500. He will have quite a nice little fund built up by his release date.”

“Do I have to leave when the five years is up?” Red asked, almost tearfully.

“No. At that time you will be free to go if you want, or stay here,” Daisy said. “We all love you dearly, my son.”

“And I love you all too,” Red replied, fighting off tears, which he considered unmanly.

The new boys came a week later, and were amazed at their luck. Red was assigned to show them around. They would share a room with bunk beds.

“Wood. Nice,” Don said as he ran his hands along the bunk bed. “Most places just have metal. And those look like real mattresses too. But where is the toilet?”

“The toilets are in the bathrooms, down the hall,” Red said. “I’ll take you there in a minute.”

“What?” Ron said. “A guard comes and lets us out and takes us there?”

“There are no guards here, and your rooms are never locked,” Red explained.

“Wow, so what stops us from leaving in the middle of the night?” Don asked.

Red tapped the boy’s head. “Is there anything up there? Why would you want to run when you are in the best place in the world for you? I’ve lived on the streets before, and it is no fun. That is assuming you could get to a city from here. People don’t pick up hitchhikers in this area, with all the prisons around.”

Later they were in the stables, and Red was showing the boys the horses, which really impressed them with their size. Rabbit came over and sniffed each of the boys, and then went back to his chicken-watching duties. George came out and showed the boys his forge, and promised to teach basic smithery to them. Both were big enough, and just needed more muscle to become good at the art, he said.

Dary came in a little later holding a tray. “My new chicks are in,” she told Red as she went back. John had built a new-better brooding tray for them. “Look forward to eating a lot of chicken in the next month or so, once these little guys start laying. Some of the older hens just aren’t producing any more.”

“Cute chick,” Ron said as Dary flounced back to the house.

“She is only 13,” Red said possessively. “Not for you. There are other cute girls in the House. Feather and Theresa are closer to your age, and want to meet you. They are working at the store right now.”

“What are they in for?” Don asked.

“Nothing. They just live here. We three are the only ones who were sent here by the courts. You really don’t get it, do you? The judge is not punishing you by sending you here. She gave you the greatest gift you could get. This place is great,” Red explained again.

The two new boys came into the dining area and were surprised to find that they were expected to set the table. They did so, and soon the entire household arrived and they had a hearty lunch. They then cleared the table and washed the dishes along with Red, while Dary dried and put the plates away.

Grey came along soon after. “Come,” he told the boys. “We are going to a little camp we have in the back of the property. It is pretty sacred to the people, and hopefully you will see that being one of the people is an honor that is not shown by burning cars.”

They got backpacks on and walked to the Grove, where Grey did his normal teaching about the kinds of tree in the Grove. He sang their spirit animals forth: coyote for Don and crow for Ron. Then they worked for a few hours on the canoes, with Grey trying to let them see into the wood as they worked it. Ron was just starting to get it, although Don seemed to have a barrier up against it.

That night the boys slept in the boys’ wigwam, after a long campfire where Grey told many stories and tales of the people. Both boys found themselves tired from the work on the canoes, but slept well and were surprised when Grey woke them in the early morning. Don was sure that the elder hadn’t slept all night. He had woken twice during the night, and each time saw Grey at the fire, chanting softly.

The boys went to latrine and had a small breakfast of porridge that Grey had cooked as they slept. Just as the dawn started lightening the eastern sky the three walked in single file to the river, where the boys saw the various animals watering.

“You could shoot one of those deer so easily,” Don noted, holding his arms up as if he had a rifle.

“It is not so easy,” Grey said. “First, there is no honor in hunting at a watering place unless your people are starving. And a warrior of the people never hunts with a rifle. We only use bow. You will learn how to make and use a bow in the future. Sun is the best teacher, or her husband Hawk. You will spend a lot of time back here with him working on the canoes.”

“So we are free labor,” Don sneered.

“No. You will be allocated money for the work you do: a share of the profits we get selling the canoe. Plus you learn a valuable skill. In a year you will be able to go to college, or buy equipment to start a canoe-making business back at your homes.”

After a while, less than he spent with most visitors to the river at dawn, Grey led the boys back to the camp to clean up, and then to the house.

“I want to be there before eight,” Grey said. “I skipped an important appointment yesterday afternoon to bring you two out here. I don’t want to miss another one.”

As they walked, they could see people starting to move around near the House. First there was Dary getting her eggs, then Sun walking to the mill. Then two cute girls they had not met were heading to the store, although they were not close enough to see them clearly. Finally Grey stopped them at the gate.

He turned to Don: “There you go. That is the road off the property. You still seem to want to leave this place. Go if you want. I will walk to the house and call the OPP, who will have a cruiser here in about 10 or 15 minutes. So you might get a 20 minute head start.” He turned to Ron: “I assume you don’t want to leave.”

“No way,” the taller boy said. “Red was right. You’d have to be crazy to leave here. What will happen if they catch Don?”

“It is not if, but when they catch him,” Grey said. “He will be assigned to a more secure prison, with gates and guards and no family atmosphere.”

“I don’t want to run,” Don said. “I did last night, and I thank you for staying up all night so I didn’t. I do dumb things sometimes, like burning cars. I don’t want to do anything dumb here. After your stories about the People, and then watching all the different kinds of animals: I want to learn more.”

“Good. There is Red. I think George is going to spend the morning with you on the anvil, and in the afternoon Cooper will want the three of you in class for your four hours of schooling.” Both boys groaned at the idea of school.

School didn’t turn out so bad. Today Cooper had five students: Red, the new boys, as well as the two girls from the store. Dary came down, but acted more as a teacher’s aide.

The girls were prepping for their high school exams and were worried about their Chemistry course, so Cooper set up a chemistry lab in the basement, and was reviewing chemical reactions by showing some explosions and other actions when chemicals were mixed. It was high school chemistry, so it was a bit over Dary and Red’s level. But the girls and the new boys seemed to get it after the sessions.

The girls had to run to the store after two hours: they were reluctant to go because it was so interesting. For the last two hours of the class Dary had Red working on his math and the two older boys were doing geometry. At the end of the session Don came up to Cooper and said: “You are a great teacher. I hate school, or at least I did back home. But you make things interesting, and don’t jump ahead when I don’t get something. You keep at it until it is going through my thick head. How much will we learn over the next year?

I hope to get you a Grade 12 level in English, Math and French. Those are the basics that you need to get into a college program. We might also be able to get you Chemistry and Biology. Then with a sixth subject: probably Ojibwe, you can get a high school diploma by distance learning. Your term will end next June, so you can think about a career. Luckily you will get a touch of auto-mechanics, body work, and carpentry while you are here, as well as animal management and forestry. Hopefully you will have a career in mind when you get out of here.”

The septic tank system had been installed, and the new boys got a chance to learn how to use the backhoe over the next few days, covering the trenches and tank pit. The sand from the woods had been brought over to the House for filling trenches. The gravel was not of proper quality, so several truck loads of crushed stone was brought in to go around the plastic piping of the weeping bed. Once the pipes were covered, then the piles of dirt were pushed back into the trenches.

When the trenches had been dug up, John had insisted that the top foot of soil be carted off into a pile. This worked out, since the sand, stone, and pipes used about a foot of space. The tailings from the rest of the trench were just piled next to the trench, much easier than putting it on the wagon and having the horses cart it to the side. That top foot of topsoil was not needed in the trenches, so it was scrapped back over the front half of the bed, forming a level of rich top soil several inches thick.

“That will make a great garden for us next year,” John said to Dary. “Can you work out what you would like to plant? A little sketch. We can order seed catalogues in, and in January or February we will order seed and start seedlings in the south facing windows. Next fall we will have a wonderful crop of tomatoes, onions, potatoes and whatever else we need.”

“Great,” Dary said. “Too bad we couldn’t grow fruit trees here too. Apples and oranges would be nice.”

“I doubt you will get oranges unless we can build a greenhouse,” John said. “There just isn’t enough sun here for them to mature. But apples do well in this climate. They need a well-drained soil, so the area by the house isn’t good, but the gravel ridge near the back will work, if we can clear other trees away to plant an orchard. Pears and peaches can also grow there.”

Dary ran off to start working on sketches, and used the Internet to look up which vegetables could grow in the eastern Ontario climate.