Chapter 10 An Inventive Mind
As the sun was setting SJ and Jason sat down at the kitchen table eagerly waiting for the meal that Samuel said he would cook for them that evening, Pooh and Moo sat eagerly in their beds by the back door waiting for any scraps that might come there way, they knew that once the meal got under way they could silently take up positions by the table, ever hopeful. The kitchen door opened and Samuel walked in from the hallway, he was still unshaven, his hair was poking up all over the place looking like he had just walked in from a storm and his eyes were still dark and distant. The two ‘boys’ wagged their tales as he joined SJ and Jason in the kitchen.
When Jason had arrived home from College earlier that afternoon Samuel had prepared their evening meal while SJ changed out of her uniform, freshened up and poured herself a large cool gin and tonic. Jason had gone up to his room, put his music on full blast and, as he would say, ‘chilled for a while’. Once he had prepared the meal Samuel had shuffled back up to bed for an hour or so until it was time to eat, setting his alarm clock to wake him.
Samuel was a good cook and he and SJ shared out the cooking duties quite evenly between themselves. Tonight it was trout and crawfish salad with potatoes and butter, Jason would have a home made burger though because he wasn’t overly keen on fish. The trout had been seared on the hotplate and the crawfish steamed with a spicy Cajun sauce that was homemade and based on one of his neighbors own recipes. Samuel had also prepared a side dish of Creole tomato salad that they all liked, even Pooh and Moo who were not overly keen on the contents of the salad bowl would lick the bowl clean if put down for them. The salad had mainly come from their garden, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, onion and squash, and Samuel had caught the trout and crawfish a few weeks ago and had retrieved them from the freezer a couple of hours earlier. Everything that needed cooking was done in about twenty minutes so once ready Samule served up their evening meal.
Samuel scanned the table and then cursed lightly, his eyes were rapidly loosing their near focus and glasses had become an everyday requirement. Samuel was forever misplacing them, they were a definite necessity when he sat down at his old steam driven computer, so to put an end to a frantic fifteen minutes of searching he kept a pair in his pick up, a pair by his bed, a pair by his computer and had a spare pair just in case but couldn’t remember where he had put these. SJ flinched momentarily at his mild outburst, hoping it was not going to build in intensity and ferociousness into an outpouring of expletives, spittle and anger. It was nothing of the sort. Samuel got quietly up from the table, left the room and came back with one of his four pairs of glasses on, they were held together with sticky tape over the edge of one lens and rubber bands kept the hinges tight so they didn’t fall off of his head. SJ and Jason had repeatedly said he should buy some new ones but Samuel could not see the point, they were still perfectly functional.
“That’s better.., I can see what I am eating now.”
He said as he took his place back at the table. SJ relaxed and inwardly sighed.
“This is one really fine tasty looking salad you have prepared for us Samuel, it looks lovely.”
SJ said as she helped herself to a gently steaming trout fillet and then loaded up her plate with juicy sweet crawfish and fresh crisp salad.
“Don’t know how you eat that stuff.”
Said Jason looking disapprovingly at the fish laid out on two dishes in front of him. He cut his white bun in half, placed his overlarge burger on the bottom half of the bun, laid a slice of processed cheese on top, leant over and grabbed a handful of salad, placed that on top then finished his creation off with a large squirt of mayonnaise. Finally he placed the other half of the bun on top, scrunched it firmly between his two hands lifted it up to his mouth and started munching away.
“Mmm, yum…..this is deeeelicious.”
Came his voice again, muffled by the mass of burger, bun, cheese and mayonnaise that stood between his vocal chords and his parents. Samuel did not react, he just continued to slowly work his way through the pile of food he had placed on his plate. Almost robot like he continued to eat, his mind battling to be there in the kitchen with his family, he paused and took a sip from the cold beer SJ had poured him. ‘Oh that is lovely, a nice cool beer and good food’, he thought, but nothing came out of his mouth, he continued in silence.
“Well Jason how was your day at college?……, What did you get up to?”
SJ enquired but got no response. Jason was busy eating his way through his burger and washing down those huge mouthfuls with gulps of cold Coke.
“Uugh…., what was that mom.”
He eventually replied.
“How was college, I asked.”
Replied SJ in a short irritated manner, it was bad enough having Samuel silent and moody but at least Jason could talk to her about his day at college and lighten the mood in the kitchen, but no, what did she expect, getting anything more than a grunt from her teenage son was an achievement these days.
“Oh it was ok I suppose.”
Finishing off his last mouthful of burger, Jason then gulped down the last of his Coke and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Oh lovely manners.”
SJ said sarcastically.
“We didn’t bring you up like to behave like that.”
Jason ignored her.
“You working tomorrow dad, or you staying in bed?”
Samuel turned his head slowly to look at his son.
”Work…, um…work…, yes…., I’ll be working tomorrow; I’ve got a busy day.”
Samuel worked as a ditch digger; he had built up his little business from scratch over the last eight years, eight years since the psychiatrist had delivered his diagnosis to Samuel. He dug and cleaned out the ditches for the majority of land owners within a 20 mile radius of his home. Those were the ditches that were awkward to access, ditches that needed his special hand digging attention. All the larger ditches and drainages channels were routinely cleared out by contractors using large tracked machinery. Samuel had found himself a niche, built up a good client base and it provided him with an income, not a brilliant income but a good steady income to help SJ support their small family, and he was able to work all year round.
It was hard going for Samuel, being in his late forties the strength and stamina of his youth had waned but it was regular and it allowed him to be ill at times, it allowed him to disappear into the dark recesses of his mind and emerge at a later date and still have employment. If asked and being in a talkative frame of mind Samuel would not hesitate to describe the sheer and utter boredom of his job, the mind numbing tedium of yard after yard of ditch and mud, day after day, week after week, month after month, now for eight years solid. However if Samuel was inwardly battling he would make a quiet excuse that it was ok, it’s was a living and then turn away back to his work. The summers were the worst with the heat and dust which made the digging hard, although that was run a close second during the weeks just before the rains came and the humidity was up at almost 100 percent or at least that is what it felt like to Samuel. During these weeks the stifling, oppressive pressure cooker haze that he worked in daily sapped every ounce of his strength, soaked him in sweat and cooked his mind turning him into an exhausted shuffling zombie.
Even in the wet season when there would be flooding Samuel could always find somewhere where the land was slightly higher, it only needed to be three or four feet higher and not flooded and he could get a few days of yardage dug.
His first year had been extremely difficult, he reached the conclusion at the end of that first year that maybe he could not earn enough doing all of the digging by hand, it was slow going and his takings were not as high as he had hoped. He kept this too himself though because he didn’t want to worry SJ, but it did play on his mind. A few months into the second year of his business he disappeared into his mind for a couple of weeks, the usual unwanted intrusion into his life took his mind away on a voyage of despair and loneliness, his pickup stayed parked on the driveway and his tools unused as he lay in his bed with curtains drawn. The world continued around him while he lay motionless, unwashed and unshaven, his mind blank, his stomach cramping with hunger, his two companions throughout were Pooh and Moo who lay resolutely on each side of their master guarding his motionless body. Samuel had felt it coming on, in a similar way that a person in summer can feel the onset of a thunderstorm. He had briefly fought it before submitting to the shroud of black nothing that drifted down across his mind, sapping it of energy and thoughts leaving it blank and unthinking.
All of his clients knew of his condition, and if he didn’t turn up when expected they knew that sooner or later his old pick-up would appear, he would pull up, get out and get his shovel out of the back, step down into their ditch and set to work. There he would remain for the day, clearing out the dark silt and rotting vegetation that had been deposited since his last visit. He would rarely stop, maybe for a short guzzle of water from his plastic bottle he carried with him, or maybe he would roll a quick roll up cigarette and smoke it while he worked, but nobody ever saw him stop at midday to eat and rest a bit. In his mind he knew how many yards he had to clear out and how much that meant in dollars. So on he would work until he had reached his target for the day. Exhausted he would climb out of the ditch, walk back to his pick-up, and put his shovel in the back, open his door and climb in, slumping down on his driver’s seat behind the wheel he would let out a big sigh. He would pick up his work book and write down the day’s yardage and calculate the payment due and write it besides the client’s name. A roll up would be rolled and lit, the engine started and he would drive off home to see his lovely SJ, Jason and of course the ‘boys’. Samuel would drive down the narrow track and into his drive, Pooh and Moo hearing their master’s return would bark at the door announcing his return and stand inside the cool shade of the house tails wagging in anticipation or they would peer tails wagging through the fence at the side of the house, sniffing the air. It was the air sniffing that would confirm their masters return because after a day in the ditches he would smell to high heaven, something Jason would comment on regularly upon his fathers return.
“Have you had your medication tonight?”
SJ gently asked Samuel.
“Yes I have!”
He snapped back, jumping up from his seat sending his chair flying behind him with a clatter. Pooh and Moo who had been waiting eagerly at their masters side in the hope of the odd tidbit coming their way scurried off, tails between their legs and curled up in their beds. They pulled their ears back in anticipation of the explosion of rage that would follow, but nothing did. Samuel picked his chair up put it carefully back under the table and said in a soft happy voice with a smile on his face.
”That was a lovely dinner I hope you all enjoyed it, Jason can you clear up for your mom please, I’m off to bed, good night all, sleep well, see you all in the morning.”
SJ who had momentarily tensed again, then relaxed and carried on eating, Jason chatted about his day and what he had been up to and the two dogs rearranged themselves next to the table with their best , well practiced food begging faces on.
Samuel made his way slowly upstairs, walked across the landing to his room and walked in, turning to close the door behind him.
The bedroom was dark with the shutters closed, the ceiling fan whirling eerily in the gloom. He made his way over to his bed, stripped off his stinking work clothes and threw them on the floor in a pile. He sat on the side of the bed and turned on the side lamp, set his alarm clock for 7am and lay back on his bed. He reached across and picked up the TV remote from the side table turned the TV on and channel surfed while he stared blankly, his mind wandering through a dark remote mist.
Lately SJ had taken to sleeping in their guests bedroom when Samuel was not well, she had set herself up with a new TV and DVD, laptop and made it all comfy, and clean, a refuge from the stresses, pain and heartache of being constantly in Samuels’ orbit. Here in her own room she could relax, it was clean, pretty, didn’t smell and was comfortable. Samuel did not like this arrangement but he understood that it was his family and the people around him that suffered most from his illness. He had been this way since his teens and had learned to live with the dark crushing, despair or the frantic, energetic high phases when his mind would crackle with life, hundreds of thoughts and ideas all vying for his attention, cascading through his mind at the same time. A body overflowing with energy, a mind brimming full of thoughts, connections, creative impulses and happiness that made him a nightmare to live with. He was either running around at a hundred miles and hour or he stopped. The in between phases saw Samuel outwardly functioning as a normal balanced person and he was reasonably happy although he always looked out on the world through a sort of permanent gloom. SJ had endured twelve years of this rollercoaster and was feeling broken herself, she worked hard, was tied to the house with her work and had to put up with a moody teenage son and an erratic Samuel.
“Goodnight dad.”
Jason called as he opened his dad’s bedroom door to let the dogs in to sleep with their master for the night.
Samuel stirred on his bed and his mind returned momentarily.
“Good night Jason, have a good nights sleep, don’t stay up to late please… oh…, ummm……oh.. uh…, did……you…, did you get your course work finished tonight?”
“Yeah, night.”
Jason replied slowly closing his dad’s door.
SJ Passed Jason on the landing.
“Night Jason, sleep tight.”
With that SJ entered her sanctuary, closed the door, slipped her clothes off and got into bed, it was so hot that night and the fan did nothing but move hot air around, nothing cooling but at least it was a breeze of sorts.
Samuel flicked through the channels for some ten more minutes taking nothing in just staring blankly, he turned off the TV and side lamp, Pooh took a run up and jumped up onto the bed, taking t up his usual place at his masters feet and Moo rolled over onto his back in his bed on the floor. Within minutes the dogs were sleeping, over the wiring fan Samuel could hear the all too familiar sobbing coming from SJ’s room, he grimaced as the guilt flooded his mind and soon he drifted off to asleep.
One morning after more than a few days battling against his dark despair his eyes opened and he sat up, scratched his stubbly chin and squinted at the alarm clock, six thirty it said in bright red blurred figures, was it morning or evening he thought. Pooh stirred and looked up towards Samuel with his head tilted to one side, ears pricked, he studied his master intently before standing up from where he lay on the bed and gently stepping across Samuel’s legs to first stare deep into his eyes, he then sniffed his face and gave it a slow measured lick. Samuel responded by scratching Pooh behind his ear and stroked his velvety soft head. As Samuel’s eyes stated to adjust to the dim light in the bedroom his mind whirred into action, his thoughts were filled with an idea that unfolded before him as his mind ticked over and sparked into life.
There it was, a solution to his problem, a tool, he could visualize it, his thoughts described how to make it, dimensions, weights, accessories, how to use it, everything exploded in front of his mind’s eye at once, thoughts vied for prominence in his mind as one by one they settled into place and formulated the complete design. It even had a name The Ditchboard, like a Skateboard, Surfboard or Snowboard, just a lot heavier and used to ride the ditches and drainage channels of Evangeline.
The complete Ditchboard system had three main parts; the Ditchboard itself, a winch with a remote control and a mechanism to control the depth that it would run at along the bottom of a ditch.
The Ditchboard was to be made from aone hundred and seventy pound, fourteen point five inch diameter round propane cylinder, cut lengthways along its center line and welded together end on end to form a ninety six inch or eight feet long body. Its weight empty was sixty eight pounds so some type of ballast would probably be needed.
At the front end would be a set of cutting blades, left and right, similar to those used on a plough, with each plough blade being extended up and to the side with risers or as appeared momentarily in Samuels mind wings. These would allow the spoil that was cut by the blades to be transported up and away from the cutting surfaces by the forward motion of the Ditchboard which would exert a rearward force on the spoil. The dark freshly cut spoil would move its way along the risers to be deposited on both banks of the ditch. The risers needed to be adjustable to cope with obstacles and differing ditch and bank widths and heights. Above the cutting blades was a securing point to attach a winch cable. Going rearwards from the front, twelve inches past the center point was a foot plate to stand on with a set of horse drawn plough handles to hold on to and control the Ditchboard’s forward motion, they were also detachable.
There was storage for a hand axe, a machete, a shovel, a simple tool kit and Samuel’s snake pole. To each side of the Ditchboard were outriggers for stability that ran on simple beveled metal skids and these were to be adjustable.
The winch needed to be a hydraulic, a twelve hundred pound winch with a pull speed of about three to six feet per minute and would need an enlarged drum so that two hundred and fifty yards of quarter inch steel cable could be wound out from it. It would be mounted on the front of Samuel Pickup on a one hundred and eighty degree pivot. Attached to the front of the winch drum where the cable fed out was a very thick steel pole that could slide up and down through its mounting with a T bar at the bottom, and a pulley wheel located mid-way along the bar to feed the winch cable along the ditch bottom at the selected depth.. The purpose of this attachment was to set the depth at which the cable was fed out and hence the depth at which the Ditchboard would be pulled along the ditch. By using this mechanism it would stop the cutting blades from diving down or rearing up as they were pulled along.
The Ditchboard needed to be about two hundred pounds in total weight and for ease of maneuvering on land had a detachable wheel that fitted on the front just below the cutting blades. The wheel was a pneumatic wheelbarrow wheel mounted on a back angled leg that provided both ground clearance and also moved the center of gravity backward to make it easier to pickup and push. To aid maneuvering before and after use the mid-mounted handlebars would be detached and moved to the rear where they could be re-engaged in two slots to enable it to be pushed just like a fully loaded wheelbarrow.
To aid loading and unloading of this heavy piece of equipment from Samuel pickup the winch had a second attachment that when slotted into place fed the winch cable backwards over the hood of the pickup and via a roof mounted pulley wheel out through the tailgate where it could be attached to the front of the Ditchboard at its winch securing point. It would simply be a case of lowering the Ditchboard carefully down a thick wide plank out of the back of the pickup or pulling it back up to load it, all under the control and power of the winch.
Samuel Scrabbled around in his bedside drawer for a piece of paper and a pen and frantically jotted down his ideas, dimensions and drew three sketches front side and rear. It was important to get it all down before the thoughts faded and the idea merged back into his mind, like the waves on a beach sinking down into the depths of the sand below. While the thoughts and ideas were bright and vibrant he had to capture them.
He jumped out of bed threw some clothes on and ran down the stairs closely pursued by Pooh and Moo. He glance in the mirror, ‘what a mess’, he thought as he ran into the kitchen to find his pickup keys, ‘not there’ he thought so he retraced his footsteps into his study and looked in his desk drawers, as hoped they were there in his work drawer with his cell phone and wallet, he grabbed all three and walked through the house to the kitchen where SJ was making herself breakfast.
”Just off out SJ I’ll be a couple of hours.”
‘He’s up and about and going out’, SJ thought to herself as she finished pouring herself a coffee.
‘Mmm, very strange, I hope he’s ok, he sounded quite up’, she continued to think while she waited for the toaster to pop up.
Samuel jumped into the cab of his pickup, turned the key, selected reverse and backed carefully out of his driveway. In no time at all he was five miles north of Spicebridge and not far from his destination. He pulled up outside of an open set of steel gates and parked on the side of the dirt track, jumped out and walked through the open gates. Over the gates in large wrought iron letters where the names Maurice and Marc with further lettering that announced that it was a scrap yard that bought scrap and provided used motor parts for sale. Samuel walked into the open door of an old rusty shipping container that had been converted into an office. Inside sat Maurice Aucoin partner in the scrap yard with his brother, the older and by around one hundred pounds the larger of the two men. He looked up from his desk and said.
“Quoi…. Whad’s ub.”
Samuel smiled and produced from his back pocket his scribbled notes and three sketches; he introduced himself and took the seat that was offered. Over the course of the next twenty minutes Samuel described his invention, showed Maurice his sketches and asked for his help. Maurice was fascinated by Samuel’s idea and quickly grasped what was needed and how it could be done. After a bit of chin scratching and umming and aahing Maurice agreed to fabricate the Ditchboard, he could lay his hands easily on all the parts that would be needed and was a skilled fabricator and welder. As for the winch he had just the thing on the front of an old Dodge pickup that was stood up at the back of the yard, the winch was old but serviceable and the pivot would be easy for Maurice to make. Samuel was surprised by the offer Maurice made when Samuel asked how much it would all cost, Maurice asked for two hundred and fifty dollars for the Winch, a very fair price and two cases of beer for constructing the Ditchboard, and fabricating its accessories and attaching the winch to the front of Samuel’s Pickup. One case at the start and one on delivery. Maurice explained that he liked tinkering around and making stuff and Samuel’s contraption was something he had never heard the like of before and it would be a sure challenge to construct. It would also be interesting getting Samuel’s idea built to see if when finished it actually worked.
Maurice had been so intrigued by Samuel’s idea and design that immediately Samuel had left his yard that day five weeks earlier he had started scouring the heaps of junked cars and twisted metal for all of the parts he would need.
As agreed Samuel popped in the next day with a case of Boucanèe beer, a locally brewed cherry-wood smoked wheat beer from the Bayou Teche brewery. The Knott brothers produced some really fine beers from their brewery which is located in Arnaudville on the Bayou Teche where the Teche crosses from St. Landry Parish into St Martins Parish. This four point five percent beer with its distinctive sweet cherry taste had become a favourite around Evangeline, St Landry and St Martin.
Along with the much appreciated case of Boucanèe beer that Samuel placed on Maurice’s workshop bench was another set of drawings and some more dimensions that he had spent the last evening working on to perfect his initial idea. During quiet periods at the yard over the course of the five weeks Maurice worked on fabricating the Ditchboard, he tweaked things here and there to improve on the design, changes that only a man that knew metal and worked with it would think of, the end result being a well designed and robust piece of welded steel. On the third week of fabrication Samuel had left his pickup at the yard for the weekend to have its front chassis strengthened and the pivoted winch with its required accessories fitted.
In its completed form the Ditchboard sat on the workshop floor like a streamlined horseless chariot with fresh welds and darkened scorch marks showing how the metal had been cut, crafted and fabricated together into what lay before Maurice’s eyes.
“C’est finit.”
He exclaimed out aloud, ‘but would it work?’ he thought to himself, only time would tell, only time would tell. He turned out the workshop lights for the evening, closed its heavy metal door behind him with a resounding clang! And walked off across his yard towards his trailer. The evening air was hot, thick and heavy, an eerie greenish purple light fell over him as a darkening sky to the west ushered in a storm front. He pulled his cell phone from his baggy denim pants and called Samuel.
“I’l est complet.”
He proudly announced to an excited Samuel who arranged to be there first thing in the morning.
As Maurice stepped up into his trailer he shouted across to Marc’s trailer,
“Je ne suis pas s’il est fou ou brilliant.”
Out of Marc’s trailer window came his reply
“Merde qui sait.”
Maurice chuckled to himself and cocked his head as a distant rumble rolled out across Evagnaline from the ever darkening skies.
The morning after completion of the Ditchboard Samuel had arrived at Maurice’s scrap yard early as arranged.
Five weeks after the first connection was made in his synapses that initiated the cascade of thoughts and ideas that quickly evolved and formed themselves into a vision of the Ditchboard, the real, measured, cut and welded solid steel Ditchboard was born in the workshop of Maurice and Marc’s scrap yard, and Maurice was rewarded with his second case of beer and the agreed two hundred and fifty dollars.
The air was crisp, cool and damp after the storm the night before. A bit of a blessing Samuel had thought to himself as it would have softened up the earth in the dirt dry ditch that was to be used that morning for testing the Ditchboard. Maurice assisted Samuel in loading the Ditchboard. On its land transportation wheel it was surprisingly well balanced and easy to handle. With a run up Samuel had discovered that he could load the Ditchboard up the two doubled wooden planks into the back of his pickup with relative ease and didn’t need to winch it in. His first run up petered out three quarters of the way up and he had skillfully backtracked until he stood firmly back in the dirt of the yard without wobbling off of the planks sideways,. This was a skill he had learned as a construction worker and like most skills once learned never forgotten. On his second attempt he breached the threshold of the open tailgate with ease and laid the rear of The Ditchboard down to rest. All it required were four very thick and strong elastic hooked stretch cords that Samuel had brought from home to secure the Ditchboard firmly in place. Maurice was pleased and proud to have been asked by Samuel to accompany him on the inaugural voyage of the Ditchboard and as they drove out of the yard towards the Anderson farm Marc was opening up their shipping container office for the day.
“Bonne chance.”
He shouted as they passed, Samuel raised his hand and shouted back,
“Thanks.”
As they swept off down the track towards the highway. SJ and Jason were already at the Anderson farm as Samuel pulled up. In no time at all he had unloaded it down the planks and onto the blacktopped road.
SJ and Jason looked on at it as it emerged, it looked exactly as Samuel had described it, they both just hoped it worked as well as Samuel obviously thought it would. With ease Samuel pushed the Ditchboard some thirty yards back along the road and across a narrow strip of grass to the edge of a ditch. It was extremely well balanced and its backwards pointing wheel at the front gave it adequate ground clearance and it handled just as he thought it would on land like a fully laden wheelbarrow. SJ and Jason sat on the hood of her car as Samuel maneuvered the Ditchboard down into the bottom of the ditch in no time. He repositioned its handle bars, taking them out of their rear mounting points and repositioned them mid way along in front of the footplate. Next he set out its outriggers on their skids and adjusted them to the width of the banks on either side. He then did the same with the risers or wings, adjusting them so that the spoil would be deposited along either side of the ditch. While Samuel was getting everything set up Maurice drove Samuel’s pickup two hundred yards along the ditch to a corner where he parked, positioning the winch in line with the middle of the ditch facing Samuel. He got out and lowered the depth guide into position, securing it so that it was just off of the muddy bottom. He then fed the winch cable down and around the lower pulley wheel.
With SJ and Jason chatting quietly together Samuel took up his snake pole and proceeded to walk towards Maurice swinging his pole back and forth, whooping and hollering and tapping the shaft of his pole with the flat side of his machete blade. As he was just coming level with where SJ’s car was parked, the grass on the right bank of the ditch parted and swayed as something made its escape away from the noise and slashing motion of the snake pole. Samuel stopped and watched as the grass moved in a line that meandered its way up the bank.
Just look over there.”
He called up to SJ and Jason pointing to the top of the bank some ten yards ways from them. They both looked down from the hood and saw a huge five foot long snake appear and slither its way towards SJ’s car.
“What’s that Samuel?”
SJ screamed.
“It’s a western Cottonmouth and a very big one at that and it is quite happy to get away from me.” He replied as he continued swinging his pole and hollering as he made his way towards Maurice.
The snake sensed the shockwaves in the air from SJ’s scream and stopped, it lifted its head and shot its tongue out several times, tasting the air, before changing course slightly and sliding right past SJ’s car, across the blacktopped road to disappear into the long grass on the far side.
SJ watched it as it went by.
“I’m glad that I don’t spend my days down in those ditches with all those horrible things.”
She said to Jason with a shudder.
Once Samuel reached Maurice they walked back along the ditch pulling out the winch cable as they went.Samuel attached the winch cable to the front of the Ditchboard at its towing point and relocated his snake pole safely on board. He turned to see both SJ and Jason grinning down at him. Samuel nervously fiddled around with the Ditchboard while Maurice returned along the roadside to Samuel pickup.
“Good luck dad.”
Jason shouted.
“Well here’s hoping.”
Shouted SJ.
“I do hope it works.”
She whispered to Jason as she waved to Samuel in the ditch.
“So do I……, Dad’ll explode if it doesn’t.”
Jason replied as he crossed his fingers and for good measure his legs, he focused all of his positive thoughts onto the strange metal contraption that his dad was still fiddling with. Samuel was not really doing anything at all, he was just checking and re-checking the angle of the cutting blades, the settings of the outriggers and risers. He stood on the footplate and grasped its handlebars and rocked gently from one side to the other testing its stability. He was just about to check everything for the third time when Maurice sounded Samuel’s pickup horn twice to signal that he was ready.
Samuel looked up and over to SJ and Jason and shouted
”Here we go.”
With an ear piecing whistle he let Maurice know that he was all ready to go and the winch could be started. They had to do this because in their haste they had left the radio remote control for the winch in Maurice’s office, only a small mishap, and anyway Maurice had already tested the operation of the winch and remote control and they worked perfectly.
Maurice started the winch with a press of a button and the main spindle slowly started to rotate winding the cable in. Samuel felt the cable tighten and with a slight jolt he was off. Moving at its slowest speed of two feet per minute for the initial run Samuel cruised along the bottom of the ditch. The blades cut through the dark soil with ease and as was envisioned, moved away from the cutting blades, up along the risers to be deposited in two neat rows, one on either side of the ditch near to the top of the bank.
SJ and Jason watched intently in silence as Samuel moved slowly past them.
Samuel checked the cut, how the spoil was being deposited along the banks of the ditch and looking backwards saw a clean fourteen point five inch wide and twelve inch deep fresh cut left in his wake.
“Its working…., its working!!”
He shouted.”
In unison both SJ and Jason expelled a lungful of breath that they had been holding, uncrossed crossed fingers and legs and jumped to the ground cheering. Samuel raised his thumb to Maurice who leant back into Samuel’s pickup cab and accompanied the cheering with four long blasts on the airhorn.
‘Je ne l’aurais pas cru si je ne l’avais pas vu avec mes propres yeux ……God Dam it’, he thought to himself as foot by foot Samuel moved slowly towards him with the broadest grin that ran from ear to ear lighting up his face.
Samuel tried dismounting the Ditchboard and walked along in its wake, to his joy and amazement it moved slowly on infront of him maintaining a good cut.
The moment of insight or the spark of inspiration that had fizzed and popped inside his drowsy blank mind five and a half weeks before was now a reality and it saved his fledgling business. Overnight Samuel was able to quadruple his average daily yardage cleared and with that his income increased from something that was unsustainable to quite a reasonable income. It was a fact of life however that the Ditchboard only worked on straight or almost straight runs, so Samuel still did a significant amount of hand digging, in inaccessible places, on corners or bends but his new tool was worth its weight in gold to him.
I hope you enjoy your reading. It is available on Kindle and a free copy can be borrowed for download at https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Blue-Heron-Howard-Moore-ebook/dp/B00KK6BWLK..
Howard Moore
