“Eeguls juicing cow!” he said to Jed as soon as he noticed him watching from the doorway. He had a huge smile on his face. It was evident that the salvager was very pleased with himself for recognizing the need, and for taking on the task.
Jed had never seen Eagles without a big chunk of uncured tobac in his mouth, so he was a little surprised that greenish goo didn’t fly from the man’s lips as he spoke. In fact, the man wasn’t chewing the green tobacco at all.
“Squeezing teat down. Topping to bottom. Ziiiip! Juicing!” Eagles repeated the feat again and again, and then added his other hand. “Ziiip! Ziip! Bothing hands now playing musics!”
“I’ll never figure that out,” Ducky said with a sleepy scowl.
“Little man figuring out!” Eagles shouted angrily. “Little man eating not if not juicing cow!” The big man pointed around the barn randomly and said, “Farm!” Then he pointed at the cow and said, “Cow!” Then he pointed at the teats and said, “Juice!” Then he pointed at his mouth and said, “And eating only then!” To conclude his filibuster, he pointed at Ducky. “Juicing cow no? Eating no!”
“Somebody give this man some tobacco,” Pook said, shaking his head.
“He’s a little cranky in the morning.”
“Not cranking, dummy! Shutting the Pook!” Eagles snapped. His right hand continued the milking, but his free hand began to strike out, flailing at the soldiers wildly, and he succeeded in knocking Billy off the neighboring stool. Eagles stopped milking then and stood up, glaring at Pook. “You!” He narrowed his eyes in a threatening way, pointing at the rebel leader.
Pook looked around. “Me?”
“You!”
“Me what?”
“Juicing cow.”
“Wait. I’m juicing the cow?”
Eagles nodded. “Now!”
Pook grinned. “You’re kidding me, right?”
Eagles glared at Pook, but didn’t say a word.
Pook shook his head. “I’m an officer now. I’m not milking any cow.”
The wild man snarled and then nodded again. He shrugged, and then hauled back and punched Ducky right in the face. The little man flew backward and landed on his rump, skidding up against the wall of the shed.
“Whoa!” Pook yelled, and pulled his weapon, pointing it at Eagles. “What did you do that for?”
Ducky, now propped up against the far wall, shook his head and rubbed his jaw. He tried to clear his vision, and a few of the other soldiers ran to help him up.
“Pook juicing cow!” Eagles demanded.
Pook was pointing the weapon at Eagles and trying to figure out what had just happened. He backed up slowly and then reached over to steady Ducky. “Why did you punch him and not me?”
Eagles made another fist, and then reached behind him with his other hand and snatched Billy up from the stool. “Being Pook is boss!”
Ducky looked up at Pook while still rubbing his jaw. “I think he’s saying that if you don’t get milking, he’s going to kick all of our butts.”
“What the—?” Pook said.
Eagles tightened his fist and looked at Billy.
“Okay! Okay!” Pook said. “Sheesh! Unbelievable.”
“Juicing, now!” Eagles said.
“Juicing now,” Pook said. He exhaled deeply and sat down on the stool and took the teats in his hands.
Eagles looked around and smiled. He smacked his hand together like he was done with his work, and winked at Jed. “Timing for tobac!” he said as he walked out of the shed.
Jed watched as the wild salvager skipped across the dirt drive on his way to the small house. As Eagles walked, he tossed up a piece of metal that glinted in the moonlight, commanding Jed’s attention. Eagles caught the piece of metal deftly and then tossed it up again. Just then, Ducky walked up next to Jed, still working his jaw back and forth and stretching his neck.
“Hmmm…” Ducky said to Jed. “I wonder if Eagles got that okcillium lighter back somehow. I thought he’d lost it in the firefight with Transport in No Man’s Land, when you and Dawn were first captured.”
(32
THE PEACEFUL KIND
MONDAY
A dozen Amish men arrived at Matthias’s farm just as the pink-orange glow of sunrise began to paint the eastern sky. They brought two large wagons, filled with tons of lumber and building supplies for the new barn. Heavy beams cut from ancient trees, rough-cut studs, and one inch-thick siding boards were strapped on with heavy hand-made ropes.
Pook’s team worked alongside the Amish men, unloading all of the materials. Then two of the Amish craftsmen began leveling and laying out the foundation and base of the banked barn, while another team began cutting and notching the heavy beams like puzzle pieces, according to plans they stored only in their heads. By noon, the Amish artisans were teaching Pook and his team how to lay concrete block. Although the barn would be built on Saturday, this prep team was sent to make sure that things went smoothly on barn-raising day.
Jed and Dawn took the opportunity to spend some time together, so in minutes they were walking along the tree-lined roads of the Amish Zone, stopping every once in a while to study neighboring farms and structures. As they walked, Dawn briefed Jed on what had happened to her after she’d been captured by the Yoders.
“They had been working for Transport, but Amos turned them,” Dawn said. “Or the other way around—I’m not sure. Anyway, they were double agents. And maybe we’ll never really learn where their real allegiances lay.”
Jed reached up and touched the back of Dawn’s kapp. “They removed your BICE? Is it healing up all right? Do you have any pain?”
“I’ve had a BICE removed before, remember?” Dawn said. “I’ll be all right. It is kind of hard to get used to not having Internet access, but I think I kind of like it.”
Jed just nodded. He wasn’t sure he wanted to be without the chip just yet. Certainly in the long run he wanted to be done with it all, but having the chip gave him a strange and even eerie sense of comfort. It was a very non-Amish feeling, but however paradoxical it was, the feeling was there nonetheless.
“Being here,” Dawn said, “walking these lanes and being with you… Well, it shows me that I’d like to live here when this is all over,” Dawn said.
Jed blushed and put his hands into the pockets of his broadfall pants. “I’d like for you to live here, too.”
Dawn took his elbow and pulled him to a stop, turning toward him. “So, do you think we could get married? You and I? And live with the Amish here in this community?”
Jed blushed. He didn’t know what to say. He studied Dawn’s face to see if she was serious about what she was saying. It was different to actually be talking to her face to face, without the subconscious knowledge that what he was looking at was actually just her avatar. “I don’t know,” he said. He turned and began walking again, so Dawn followed him. “The elders have made it pretty clear that they don’t want me here.”
“Once this is all over,” Dawn said, “they’ll know you didn’t participate in any violence. They’ll know you were just trying to survive in a peaceful way, Jed.”
“I don’t even know if that’s true,” Jed said. “I don’t know myself well enough to know if I’m the peaceful kind.”