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At the very much one and only bed.
“Put your pillow at one end, I’ll put mine at the other,” I said like it was no big deal. Because it wasn’t a big deal. And if he was that opposed to sharing a double bed with a guy, he could damn well sleep on the floor.
“Here, help me lift this,” I said, not giving him time to dwell on the bed situation. I took one end of the table, he took the other, and we moved it out under the new roof. “Rain tends to come from the north,” I said. “So we can move our stuff to the lee side.”
“And this stuff just gets left here?” he asked, looking around. “Unlocked?”
It really wasn’t all that great. “Uh, sure. It’s a shelter in case of emergencies.” I shoved the bed with my boot. “I brought this mattress with me about three years ago. You should have seen the old one.” I made a face. “There’s a few carcinologists who stay here on the regular, but only after the wet season.”
“Carcinologists? What crustaceans live here?”
I was surprised he knew what that was. Then, given he had a doctorate in somethin’, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised at all. “Not here, exactly. But in the mangroves north of here. They trek in, into the real swamps. The crabs in the mangroves do something special, I dunno what it is though. Something about carbon emissions and the cycle of life and helping with global warming.” I shrugged. “They stop here on their way out. And then there’s the dry-season folks. It’s busier then, but I tend to avoid people so I don’t know much about the folks who stay here in the dry season.”
I moved the chairs out to the table, giving us some more room. “But the rule is you leave it as you find it. Don’t break shit, and keep it clean.”
“That works,” he said, looking around. “It’s actually a lot cleaner than I was expecting. Nothing a good dusting can’t fix.”
I handed him the broom. “Don’t let me stop ya.”
He made himself busy sweeping and brushing spiderwebs down, dusting, and then he decided to wash everything in the small kitchen with soapy water before we unpacked the Jeep. He didn’t seem opposed to hard work, and I liked that about him. He just got stuck in and got shit done.
While he was doing all that, I checked the bathroom and the pit toilet, made sure the water tanks were all in good order and free of creepy crawlies and unwanted critters. I boiled some water on the gas stovetop for cooking and brushing our teeth. By mid-afternoon, we had our camp set up.
Exhausted, I flopped down on the bed, but Jeremiah pulled his equipment crate over and started pulling everything out, takin’ inventory and checking it all over. He picked up one piece, a box of some type, then another. He laid it all out on the table, neat and methodical.
“Hey, Jeremiah,” I said. “How’d you get into all this? I mean, why lightning?”
He stopped, sitting still for a long few seconds. “I’ve always been fascinated by it,” he said quietly; a frown marred his brow, a flinch almost, and his demeanour changed. “For as long as I can remember.”
What an odd reaction.
There was no way that was the whole truth. There was definitely more to the Jeremiah Overton story than he was letting on.
Hmm.
Interesting.
CHAPTER FOUR
JEREMIAH
I liked Tully.Probably more than I liked most people. He was a ‘what you see is what you get’ kind of guy, and I appreciated that. He had a wild sense of humour that I still didn’t entirely understand, but he was bright and always smiling. Completely carefree.
If sunshine was a person, it would be Tully Larson.
Well, if sunshine with a side of unpredictable was a person.
But I didn’t know him well enough, or at all, really, to be telling him the ins and outs of my life.
When he’d asked why I studied lightning, I told him the truth. It had fascinated me. My entire life. That wasn’t a lie.
Thankfully he hadn’t askedwhyit fascinated me.
He just took my answer as gospel and moved on. Maybe he didn’t care either way. Maybe he was just making polite conversation. We were stuck out here alone together, in the middle of freaking nowhere, for a long time, after all.
“What’s that thing for?” Tully asked, getting up off the bed and taking a seat at the table.
Oh dear.
