Coming back out of the bathroom the only thing that was different was that now there was an extra plate of food sitting on the table in the empty spot beside my dad, who was still rather absentmindedly looking towards the papers and only occasionally taking a piece of backing and eating it. I sat down looking at my plate, lots of bacon and two fried eggs with some potatoes. Much better than the bacon and porridge that I would be subjected to for most of the winter.
Looking over his glasses at me as I sat down my dad had a thoughtful look on his face. He was all business this morning, as he typically was about 10 minutes into breakfast. “Joeseph, I’m going to need you to go over to the storage and bring a couple cans of the resin we stored away earlier this summer and bring them to Nancy and Jim’s place after breakfast. Then go over to Juan’s to see how the chicken shed held up over night, be sure to check the whole building since I think it went below freezing last night.”
Just then my mother cut in as she sat down with a plate of food for herself, “Oh Mike, could you just let him eat his breakfast before you give him his tasks for the day.” She grabbed a piece then before she got to putting it in her mouth looked over at my dad, “I’m going to start work on the plans for the store house today, we really need to get that fixed up before it gets too cold.”
Putting the papers down, my dad nodded, “Probably a good idea, Nancy and Jim’s is going to take a week or so which should leave us more than enough time to finish the shed before we have to start patching up the town hall and the tunnel struts.”
They continued to talk about work while I was enjoying the bacon and eggs wondering what was in store for me after I did my two small tasks, probably helping out on Nancy and Jim’s would be my guess since Jeff one of our helping hands had to take off a bit early to help bring in the crops with his family. It would be a busy day I figured, but I would see my Em at the end of it so it would be worth it.
“Hey Mom,” I asked looking up suddenly, “How’s the water heater working? I wanted to take a shower before heading out to meet with Em today”
Looking over from the same piece of paper my father had been engrossed in she smiled, “Oh it’s working fine, the changes you made seem to be holding up quite nicely. So I guess you’ll be out late tonight at the pub?”
I couldn’t help but smile quirkily back at her, they liked Em which was a good thing since secrets are hard to keep in small communities, “Yeah probably.”
Continued from: August 7 - Part I
Story: The Longest Winter
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