Lego: Bosley & Co, 15

15. The Bunkhouse

Finally the day arrived when Bosley felt ready to put together the bunkhouse. He now had all the necessary elements stored here and there, and there was no reason, not even inclement weather, to hold off any longer.

He, Drew and Dan and Dan’s trusty four-wheel drive moved the components of the shadoof to the garage. While Drew helped Bosley put the shadoof together, Dan fetched the front beam to tie the side walls together and support the roof over the garage.

Drew and Dan between them managed that hiccup without Bosley’s input, though none were happy with the lack of control over the vertical movement. “Which is the bit that does the lifting, after all,” Drew said.

“Hmm,” Bosley said. “Think I’m going to need a lever. Have a holiday, Dan. It’s back to the drawing board.”

Dan went away and a little while later returned with Nin Wiz and the most northerly wall balanced on the truck. They stood it ready. Went back to fetch the south wall. Bosley and Drew took the shadoof arm off the upright frame and threaded a lever handle onto it. Stood the contraption back up.

With Nin Wizard supporting the walls as they were raised, the work proceeded so smoothly that Drew quite forgot to take the snapshots they’d decided on. He only remembered when Bosley said, “Stop. Wait.”

“What?” Drew said.

“I’m not happy about that window hole,” Bosley said. He pointed.

“We only have windscreens and French doors in our window store,” Dan said.

“Fine,” Bosley said. “In making do, we’ll invent something better.”

“We’ll sling a tarp and sleep up here,” Dan said. “I like what you did in the corner.”

Next morning, while Dan, Drew and Nin raised a further two courses of bricks on the walls so that people wouldn’t hit their heads on the ceiling, Bosley invented his preferred front window using a glass door on its side and a few modified blocks.

After re-installing the shadoof, the front wall was lifted into place.

Then the furniture, with Drew back on the drag-line.

“Let’s celebrate!” Trish called. She brought a stack of cups and mugs while Tim followed with the bubbly. They admired the bunkhouse, Bosley & Co’s first permanent dwelling, and partied into the night.

And after they went to bed, nobody got any sleep, Nin Wizard so busy with his build.

Clatter bang rattle! Something fell a long way down.

“What was that?” Dan grumbled.

“You’re all right,” Drew said. “Sleeping in the bunkhouse. I’m just lucky it missed me!”

Next morning, they one by one climbed the two and a half ladders to compliment Nin on his new abode, and exclaim politely over the corner-post that had clattered all the way to ground-level.

Nin shrugged. Ran out of magic, he indicated. Only Trish stayed to plan the new bathroom annex and her and Nin’s share-garden, and have a cup of celebratory tea.

Lego: Bosley’s Builders, 14

14. The Stairs Go-to Crew

Bosley studied the staircase Tim put together to get people to their accommodation after the complaints about the ready-made he conveniently installed at the end of the block right by his and Trish’s quarters, with no access by anyone else.

He shook his head. Nice staircase but a heavy use of materials. And bulky. And not used now that that half of the crew were absent. Wendy and Jackie were at the hospital, Wendy at her midwifing. Dan was away somewhere salvaging. And Jed … Who knew if he’d even turn up again.

Think we scared him off. Not a happy young man. Just the six of us here, counting Nin Wiz who is a silent fella, Ruff who is not a noisy type either, Trish, Tim, Drew and me.

He looked around. Drew stood on the hardware store’s front terrace, gesticulating. Hard at work discussing the hardware store’s fire-stair with Ms Bee and Ms Sander that looked like. All three engrossed in the discussion.

Bosley listened for the rest of the crew. He heard Tim and Trish discussing the next stage on their cabin with a throw-away comment every so often at Nin. Sounded like they were all quite busy too.

He chuckled at the offending staircase. So I’m safe disappearing this object of despair? Object despite that it couldn’t be shifted without breaking it down. Despair because of the heartache the building of it caused the builder. Disappear because it’s in the wrong place, takes up too much space and I need it gone.

With each thought he jimmied off a tread. Stacked them back in Tim’s container. Then he fetched a brick separator and levered off bricks starting from the top. The clattering of the blocks on the ground brought only Ruff.

What idea haven’t I used yet to get a good stair go-to crew? Bosley ruminated. Well, I know we already have him, it’s just that he’s hiding his talents under a constant stream of denials. So. Idea?

“Before we begin on the bunkhouse,” Bosley said next morning. “I’d like for us to put together a semi-permanent stair or ladder to get to the top of the walls. Who’s going to give that a go? Drew?”

“Drew?” Drew said. “Drew gets to build the stairs?”

“What?” Boz said in an injured tone. “I thought you said that way back. That you wouldn’t mind being the stair-go-to guy?”

“I really really don’t remember that,” Drew said. “What about Tim?” he said at Tim, who just arrived at their little confab.

“What about Tim?” Tim said.

“Nope,” Bosley said. “Tim put his hand up for the freshwater supply.”

Tim spluttered. Changed tack. “This is about stairs? I saw you pointing. Shouldn’t be too hard to install a ready-made since we already have the scramble stair. But …”

“With Ruff the only user?” Bosley interrupted.

They all looked at Ruff scrambling up the uneven bricks, plates and tiles rising to roof-level.

“I don’t know how he doesn’t fall,” Drew said.

“I think Nin helps him to not fall,” Tim said.

“I want to see that, that ‘shouldn’t-be-too-hard’,” Drew said.

“Fine,” Tim said. “I’ll do the ready-made, you do a …whatever. A thing with which we can with our best foot forward rise from a floor to the floor above.”

“May the fastest man win the go-to-stairs moniker,” Bosley said. “The other one can be the freshwater supply guy.”

Drew and Tim went away together to think through their options. “Because,” Drew said, “The water supply is at least as big, if not bigger, than a handful of stairs.”

“Well, keep it under your hat,” Tim said. “But I’m better at walls and roofs than either of the other two.”

Drew laughed. “Me? I’m better at numbers and figures.”

Tim laughed too. “So let’s stay friendly. We’ll work at night. Keep the rest in the dark. I help you, you help me. Nin Wiz will help us both. Let’s do a kind of scramble-stair up to the half-floor …”

“With a brown three-rung ladder to the bunk house?” Drew said. “That way we’ll save the yellow ladder for us mortals to get up to Nin Wiz’s abode.”

“Nice,” Tim said. “Let’s now go locate the components without remarking on them and then knock off for the day.” He chortled. “Should keep everybody guessing.”

“See you at midnight?” Drew said.

“Make that 3 AM, when everybody is in their deepest sleep, and I’ll see you here.”

They separated, prowled around and fixed the different components on their internal maps. Met at 3 AM. Worked. Installed the stairs with Nin’s help.

Drew’s stair to the half floor.

Tim, caught by daylight, and needing all kinds of help.

Bosley studied the ready-made stair on its pedestal with him. “Why?” he said.

“The windows?” Tim said. “Umm.”

“Why the pedestal?” Bosley said. “And how do we get up onto the bottom step?”

“Mmm, I don’t know yet,” Tim said. “I was thinking that we’d need stairs something like this to get to our cabin, which will probably end up being on the same level as bunkhouse and so …”

“Tim, relax,” Bosley said. “I fully expect Drew to solve that problem. He’s probably already puzzling on it. I need you to start thinking about the freshwater supply.”

“We’ll need to get the power on first,” Tim said.

Lego: Bosley’s Builders 13

13. Plans & Plants

Trish harvested lavender cabbages from her vegetable patch beside where Tim built a mysterious something. “I’d like to get on with planting the garage and bunkhouse walls,” she said. “And I’m pretty sure Nin Wizard would like to get going with his garden.”

“So what’s stopping you?” Tim said. He hammered a couple of steely runners on the underside of the thing he was working on. Whatever it was.

“I have no plants other than these and I’m not sacrificing them,” she said, gesturing over the vegetable garden on pallets that they’d planned to serve as their roof.

“And you shouldn’t have to,” Tim said. “We all enjoy the vegetables you grow.”

“How long till we can move into our real place?” Trish grumbled. “And what is that thing?”

“It’s tricky. Canteen needs to be on the ground floor. Our cabin on that. I’m waiting for Bosley’s say-so to get going on the first.”

“Something I can do?” Trish said.

“Yeah. Take this sled for a run.”

“Sled? What for?”

“Hear Dan mention his cousin is coming back over today with a load of plants despite Ms Sander telling him they’re nowhere near ready for plants.”

“Oh, yeeesss!” Trish jumped for joy. She laughed nastily and made like she was Ms Sander. “Oh no, what’ll we do with these plants? We’re not ready. Take them away.”

She hugged Tim round his head and smacked a kiss on his face. “I’m gone.” She picked up the sled handles and danced away, pulling the empty sled behind.

She could smell the heavenly scent of flowers when she wasn’t even halfway over the ‘brudge’¹— what they had christened the dam and sluice structure across the gap between their swamp and the deep channel. The word was a mix between bridge and trudge they all agreed on.

She parked the sled beside Gaz’s boat, hampering anyone else from approaching the cargo by design, and joined the altercation on the Hardware Store’s fore-deck.

As expected, Ms Sander was in full flight about Gaz’s stupidity thinking that she—Ms Sander—would take the plants when she had nowhere to put them. “As you can see, young man,” she gestured at the place reserved for the plant shop. “My builders are slow and they are never short of an excuse.”

Even Ms Bee rolled her eyes.

“I’ll take them,” Trish said. “Though I can’t pay, of course.”

“She’ll be doing you a favor,” Dan said at Gaz’s open mouth.

“Hang on, Cuz!” Gaz said, spluttering. “I need to eat!”

“We’ll pay you in-kind,” Dan said. “The minute we get the canteen up and running, you’ll eat at ours for free to the value of a boat-load of plants.”

“Have a chat with Drew,” Trish said. “He’ll work you a good deal.”

“You’re not taking our first customer, are you?” Bee said, half-joking. “Tradies always stay for a cuppa and sausage roll?”

“Never mind, Bee,” Ms Sander said. “Our real customers will have class.”

Even Trish rolled her eyes that time.

Dan helped Trish get the sled up and over the sluice. They discussed getting the rest of plants now or later. Trish said now. Dan said, have we got anywhere to put them?

“Let’s just get Gaz’s boat and tie it next to the garage,” Trish said. “Have you got somewhere he can stay overnight?” she said innocently. It wasn’t anywhere near even lunchtime.

“He won’t,” Dan predicted. “We’ll get all the plants out before he goes.”

Trish grinned.

The word “brudge” and maybe concept too, comes from “The Trokeville Way” by Russell Hoban (1996) A truly mysterious read that after 28 years has not yet give up all its secrets. Read the book and let me know what you think it says?

Lego: Bosley’s Builders 12

12. Where’s My Workforce?

First person in Bosley’s face today was Dan, telling him he had a date. Huh? What was that about? Boz shifted materials around, clattering and clacking bricks together for over half an hour and no one else showed up?

Counting Wizard Nin, but not the two hardware store reps, there are six of us on site, he thought. Where are they all? He started to feel abandoned, and cranky. It’d be good if Dan was around to take his truck out of my face?

Speak of the devil, is that him I’m hearing joking and laughing? Boz looked up. Huh? It is. Who is he with? He put a couple of fingers in his mouth and blew a blast of air past them. Phee-eee-eew!

Dan had the grace to look up from his conversation with the man in a boat. But then he just waved? He didn’t look like he was coming.

First person arriving was Trish. “Hey Boss? What’s up?”

“I wondered where everybody is?” Bosley said.

Trish looked around. “Guess we’re all doing our own thing. Since it’s Sunday?”

“Hmph,” Bosley said. “Guess I forgot.”

Trish laughed. “When we all worked for the other fella, you insisted Sundays were for ourselves. What’s changed?”

Bosley laid another row of bricks. He so didn’t want to get into an argument. The more they all worked, the sooner they’d all have their own places. And he was totally sick of standing room only in his hut apart for the bunk.

Trish watched him. “Why don’t you take a break and come and check out the vegetable garden I’ve got going?”

“Might as well, I guess. Need Dan to move his truck and he’s busy.” Bosley indicated Dan and the man in the boat.

“His cousin,” Trish said. “They’re just catching up. What do you think? Can your shadoof-thingie haul this up to our cabin roof when we get that up?”

“Might need to go up in parts,” Bosley said. “I’ll let you know after we’ve built the bunkhouse.” He left Trish hoeing weeds, went back to his garage build.

Next, Nin Wizard came leaping and gesticulating over the walls. What is he trying to tell me? Bosley thought. Probably need Tim to interpret.

But, no. Nin beckoned him. Bosley followed Nin out to the back where a pile of driftwood and wrack lay foundered at the edge of the shore. Tim was out there too … very conveniently … with a hammer and jemmy bar tidying the various bits and pieces.

“This’ll be Nin’s cabin,” Tim said. “Got any ideas where to put it?”

“On the bunkhouse?” Boz said.

Tim looked where Bosley looked. “On the as yet unbuilt bunkhouse?”

“On the as yet unbuilt bunkhouse on the garage in progress,” Bosley expanded.

“Why not on my place, when I get that built?” Tim said.

“And where will you have Trish’s vege garden that she just showed me?”

Nin leapt over them both, one at the time. Boing. Boing. Then he leapt to the highest point of the garage-build. Waved his wand.

Tim laughed. “Ha. Well. He’s decided. Guess he’ll help you. I warn you though, his magic is tied to his energy, which is patchy.”

Lego: Bosley’s Builders

11. The Stand Off

Jed was pretty happy with the floor they’d laid yesterday. At this rate they’d get the walls complete and happy faces when the hardware shop’s reps arrived later. And all it had needed was him jollying everyone else along.

Bosley is back today, he thought. Here’s hoping he thinks having a foreman—yours truly—a good addition to his crew. It’ll set me up. He made his way toward where Boz beckoned him for his site report.

“Hey, Boss,” Jed said. “We’ve made quite a bit of progress as you can see.” He waved at the hardware store’s floor and walls. “I was thinking we could start on the heavy vehicle garage next. Then by the end of the week, lift Jackie’s and my cabin on top of it.”

“I should be having this discussion with you and Ms Sander,” Bosley said.

Uh oh, Boz has quite the long face, Jed had time to think. “I’ve got nothing in common with her,” he said.

“Sez you,” Bosley said. “What do you see around yourself?”

Jed looked round. He didn’t see anything different, he said with a hand gesture and a shrug.

“What does he see beyond himself?” Tim said. He was repairing Wizard Nin’s shack right there where Bosley organized Jed for a chin-wag. Two against one, was that fair?

“What does he see other than himself,” Drew said, stepping into Jed’s face from the other direction.

Would’ve been funny except Jed started to feel like they were ganging up on him.

“Go at it, brother,” Bosley said cryptically.

“It’s a done deal in my mind,” Drew stated. “Jackie owns the crane and she’s given us the go-ahead. Jed owns the truck and he can leave when he wants.”

“You’ll take Jackie’s crane off my truck? No! No way!” Jed cried, suddenly seeing the plot. “What’s a truck by itself?”

“Jed! Cheer up,” Dan said. “You’ll have a ton of options.”

Jed groaned. “Not you too? You’re supposed to be my friend.”

“I am your friend,” Dan said. “You and me with a truck each? Salvaging. You and the hardware store? Power storage when we get you fitted with a power module and they have a windmill operating in the channel. You and the community? Say we need a performance stage? You and the herders? They need their cabin took to their pylons? No mid-size crane is going to manage that. It’ll need incremental lifting with … “

“No!” Jed said again. “I’m leaving! I knew it would come to this. We should never have come. You’re chasing me away!”

He stomped to his and Jackie’s cabin, and threw his things together. I don’t believe it! I’m back to camping?

The rest of them listened further and heard the truck door slam, and the truck engine tick over. Then Jed drove toward the track out.

“Okay. That’s the crane gone,” Bosley said. “Have we still got that shadoof thing?”

“I’m blank on what you’re talking about,” Tim said.

“That’ll be a ditto for me,” Dan agreed.

“I saw it yesterday,” Drew said. “We’ve got that and the conveyor belt still. We’ll manage.”

“You hear something?” Tim said to Dan.

“Yes. The hardware store’s runabout. Is it both of them?” Dan said.

“It is, but Ms Bee is tying up the boat.”

“I’m gone,” Dan said.

“Ditto,” Tim said. “I’m meeting Trish for a cuppa. You should come along. She said we should start planning the canteen, since this hillock,” he stamped his boot. “Will likely take two slabs. And the canteen will probably take at least two cabins.”

“Cowards,” Drew said. “Don’t plan too far ahead of the stair building. Or the materials for that matter.”

“I bet Trish will want more arches,” Dan said. “Do you recall where you got them?”

“What’s this about me and him?” Ms Sander said, pointing her chin at Jed ploughing across the mudflats. She looked thunderous.

Bosley didn’t wilt. “Both you and Jed have unrealistic expectations,” he said. “Had a look around recently?”

“Like lift your gaze to the world in general,” Drew said helpfully.

“My supply lines are intact,” flashed Ms Sander. “My customer base is growing. My second- floor hasn’t even been begun yet, but we all know the hold-up there!”

“I’ll say it again,” Drew said. “Had a look around recently?” He didn’t let her get a word in. He felt like something in him had snapped during the long lay-up. “Parts are what are missing! Our spreadsheet is like a mosaic of blanks!”

Bosley frowned Ms Sander into silence.

Drew continued. “Supply chains other than apparently yours are fragmented! These floods,” he indicated the swamp now surrounding them, “Are playing havoc with deliveries.”

“Making do with what we have is the name of the new game,” Bosley said at Ms Bee arriving belatedly. “In other words, when I come to do your stairs, you will gracefully accept whatever color scheme I can manage!”

Bee smiled winningly at him. “We will, Bosley,” she said. She arm-in-armed Ms Sander away with her. “Let’s think about our interiors, Sandy. We could book Julie & Juliette. I’m sure they’ll be able to come up with a scheme to complement Bosley’s.”

Drew laughed. “You were supposed to melt just then.”

Bosley flushed. “Yeah, right. Me and everybody else!”

Lego: Stairs

Trish modelling the new stairs to her rooftop vege patch

Stairs became an ongoing experiment the minute Bosley discovered how ridiculously out of scale the ‘proper’ one is.

He had Drew illustrate the problem with the regular one …

Drew, trialling a regular tread height stair mock-up with treads three plates high. Since he couldn’t get his leg up far enough to reach the next step …

… the crew decided on treads two plates high rather than three

Bosley’s Builders, 10

10. Drew is Blue

Dan decided Wendy should drive, Jackie next to her in the cab. He’d ride in the back, ready to jump out should a bit of shovel work be needed.

“I don’t mind,” Wendy said. “All this rain we’ve been having probably livened up the mud a bit.”

“Hey there! That’s Drew’s van in the track!” Dan said. “Wait here, ladies. I’ll go warn him that we’re coming by!”

“That van looks like it’s stuck in the mud,” Jackie said. “I know the feeling well.”

Wendy slid from the driver’s seat. “He’s going to need help.” She rounded the front of the truck. “We don’t have your winch do we, Dan?”

“Does look like a winch job, Drew,” Dan said, agreeing with her.

“What?! You’ll pull me all the way to the site?” Drew said aggrieved. “I’m doing just fine. I got this far!”

“You need a four-wheel drive,” Dan said.

“We churned the track up plenty coming this far,” Jackie said.

“You need friends,” Wendy said. “I don’t agree that you should get pulled all the way to the site.”

“Then what?” Drew said. “You’ll recall I’m still sleeping on a swag in a dinghy?”

“Yep. My plan will get you up off the ground,” Wendy said.

All three looked at her.

“Okay no, let’s take a step back. Dan, you fetch the winch. With Jackie out of his face, Jed will probably help you install. Jackie, you make us all a cuppa.” She looked at Drew. “You still got the fixings?”

“Yeah. Sure. Go ahead.” He set his shovel aside. “Much as I’d like to toss it.”

Wendy laughed. “Be my guest. Only be prepared to fetch it back. In my experience, winching will need a ton of shovel-work as well, only faster.”

“Why I never asked. I like the slow way, you know? So what will I be doing?” Drew said suspiciously.

“You mean what will we be doing?” Wendy said. “You and me? Having a chat without the usual interruptions?”

“A serious life changing chat?” Drew said lightly.

“Yes,” Wendy said. “You probably can call it that.”

“Go weed the island?” he pointed.

She chuckled. “Here. Have some seedlings. We’ll start planting the island while we talk.”

At the end of their ‘little’ talk, Drew smiled and laughed while Wendy and Jackie and he drank their coffee, waiting for Dan.

“I hear him,” Jackie said. “Quick. I can just rinse these mugs.”

Dan arrived without the winch. “Boss said they couldn’t miss it. I’ve got a tow rope. It’ll be good, don’t worry.” He started knotting it at the front of the van.

“Not here!” Drew said. “We need it at the back. Need you to drag this thing out backwards.” He smacked the back of the van like he smacked a beast on its rump. “It’s goodbye and good times had while we were together.”

Dan shook his head. “What’s got into him?”

“I don’t know,” Jackie said.

Wendy just grinned.

Right. Bit of Wendy magic. Don’t break the spell! Dan concentrated on towing Drew’s van back to the roadside lay-over where Drew had camped for so long.