To the Ends of the Earth

Chapter 5

*

Gabriel

"That's Bertie's place." Maggie waved her hand ahead of us, indicating a rather large hut with an open-air work area in the back. There were stacks of wood littered about the hut in neat piles, somehow exuding a sense of precision despite the lack of a discernible pattern and the variety of shapes and sizes. The smell of freshly cut wood was as inescapable as it was pleasant, positively saturating the air the closer Maggie and I got to the flap that served as the hut's front door.

In deep contrast to my first moments outside of Danny's hut the day before, everything in Bertie's hut was eerily silent.

"Hello? Bertie?" Maggie called loudly. There was no answer.

Maggie walked up to the flap that covered the carpenter's door and peeked her head in.

"It's empty." She said with a shrug and she pulled her head back out. "Let's check in back. Sometimes Bertie wears ear plugs when working on a big project. Something about distractions effecting one's ability to 'read the wood'." She said with a disbelieving cock of her brow. I tried to mimic the action behind Maggie's back. I couldn't be sure since I wasn't looking in a mirror but I was feeling pretty confident I had copied the expression to perfection. Take that eyebrows! I have finally mastered you...

"Yo Bertie!" Maggie called from around the back of the house ahead of me. When I rounded the corner I saw her approaching someone who was sitting back on their haunches and surveying a giant tree stump as if it held the secrets of the universe within it's grain pattern. It was impossible to tell how tall the person was given their position near the ground and they wore a giant knitted hat and sweater that swallowed any indication of body shape. The hideous and lumpy garments were the same exact shade of brown as the dirt underneath my feet.

Maggie approached the lumpy person and tapped them on the shoulder. I was thoroughly surprised when the side of a youthful female face came into view. Bertie reached one slender hand from beneath the sleeve of her clearly oversized sweater to pull out a giant ball of cotton that had been shoved into her ear.

"Oh, hello Maggie." Bertie had a low and clear voice.

"Hey Bertie. I brought you a present." Maggie smirked and jerked her thumb in my direction.

Bertie slowly rose from her crouch and smoothed her hands down her body as if she were brushing herself off, though there wasn't anything on her that I could see. She turned to face me fully and I studied her as she studied me. She wasn't particularly tall or particularly short, just an average height similar to Maggie. She had thin blonde hair that was chopped off at the shoulder and mostly covered by the frumpy hat. While her face was symmetrical and her mossy-brown eyes were pretty enough, I couldn't help the true but unkind thought that she was utterly plain. She didn't smile at me but she held her hand out for me to take and I shook it briefly. Her hands were very calloused.

"You must be Gabriel." She said in her low, calm way. "Jude told me you would be by today. He said you may have an interest in carpentry?"

I shrugged.

A ghost of a smile graced her lips before she went back to her neutral expression. "Well let's give you a bit of an introduction and see how you feel, hmm?"

"Ok."

"Fantastic. I can take it from here Maggie. Unless you wanted to give it another chance?"

Maggie's face reddened for a brief moment before she scowled. "I think I learned my lesson the first time. Manual labor and I don't really mix." She turned to me and continued, "You aren't the only one who goes through the village life crash corse." She sniffed and sauntered towards the front of the house, calling over her shoulder, "See you at dinner!"