Tag: Bosley’s Builders

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: 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.

Lego: Bosley’s Builders 9

Jackie’s Grief

Jed, Dan and Tim loaded cover-plates onto the trailer, from wherever they were stored.

Wendy drove the tractor and trailer to and fro the places where the plates were to be installed.

Dan pushed the plates across the trailer to clatter to the ground. From where Tim and Jed dragged them into place and then tamped the plates to fix them to the foundations.

When she was done with the fetching, Wendy went to hide in her hut, to try not to hear the clattering and Jed’s constant commands. Who said we need him to order us around? Before we had him, we’ve always worked well together. Bosley had no complaints.
 
This was her last day before needing to go off-site to her paying job, and she had to listen to Jed harrying them all so he could make a good impression? What is it with the guy? I really don’t enjoy being here when Bosley isn’t here too. Wonder if Bos even knows how I feel?
 
Oh no. She heard Jed decide they might as well start building the store’s rear wall. She heard Dan and Tim drag a white beam over the studs. Rattle-rattle. Are they fools, she thought. Bos as good as said the foundations had to settle before the walls were begun.
 
Even Dan was taken in, and that after his upset over Jed’s selfish attitude. I can’t stand it. I’m going to have word with Dan. Find out what he really thinks. I’ll be very disappointed if … she opened her door and beckoned Dan.
 
Trish drew Jackie away with her. “What say we build a bridge from the roof of your cabin to my garden?”

Jackie smiled tremulously. “Will we be able to fence my roof too?”
 
“I don’t know,” Trish said. “We’ll have a look at the materials situation.”
 
After they did that, and found not enough panels to fence Jackie’s roof, Jackie seemed to fade and Trish couldn’t think of anything more to say. She did a lot of thinking, however, while they moved planks from the ground floor to the upper walkway, and from there to the roof, and then lay the planks across.

She reflected on Jackie’s moods as they showed in Jackie’s demeanor since Jed and Jackie arrived. Jackie happy and smiling while building and installing the cabin. Like she had an expectation. Jackie glum and sad since the night that had Jed marauding around for half of it getting his crane safe.
 
OK, so maybe they quarreled. It’s not my job to convince them to kiss and make up. Wonder what Nin Wiz heard? He’s totally taken against Jed. Enough to make anyone suspicious. Is there time for a coffee break with Tim, and possibly Nin before I ask Jackie? Should I?
 
“You know,” Trish said at the end of the job. “I haven’t even seen how you’ve fixed the inside of your cabin.”
 
Jackie burst into tears.
 
 As if you didn’t know that was on the cards, Trish roused at herself. “Changed my mind. Come into my cabin for a break? Tim fixed our coffee machine.”
 
When she saw Wendy crossing from where she’d had a word with Dan, Trish beckoned her over too.
 
“Smells like you fixed the coffee machine?” Wendy said as she followed Trish into Trish’s cabin.
 
“I thought Jackie might like to tell us her problem over a coffee,” Trish said, passing them a steaming mug each. “Maybe we can help?”
 
Jackie suddenly sobbed. “I miss our baby so much!”
 
Trish and Wendy exchanged glances and Wendy squashed in on Jackie’s other side on the bed. She hugged her arm over Jackie’s shoulder. “You and Jed have a baby? Boy or girl? How old?”
 
“B-b-boy,” Jackie said. “Joey. He’s six months old and Jed said to leave him at Jed’s mother’s, and she said a building site is never going to be place for a kiddie. And Jed said that you-all just wanted workers. That you wouldn’t want us if you knew we had a baby!” She cried aloud now. “Hu-hu-hu!”
 
“What’s up?” Tim said from the door. “I came because I smelled the coffee?” He sidled in and shut the door.
 
Trish and Wendy filled him in. Wendy fierce. “I knew there’s something off about that man!”
 
“Jed is half-right,” Tim said reasonably. “Bosley’s does want workers. Don’t we?”
 
“Nobody has ever said anything about us not liking babies,” Trish said. “Or wanting to have kids around,” she said with a dark look that had Tim blushing.
 
“It’s never come up yet. Or has it?” he said, asking Wendy.
 
“Has not come up,” she said grudgingly. “Although mothers and babies are my bread and butter, the subject has not come up. In fact, I think sometimes people here ignore what life is really about …”
 
Tim interrupted. “Dan told me just now that tomorrow he’ll be driving you to your paying job?”
 
“Yes. He is,” Wendy said. “Don’t mind me getting onto my hobby horse,” she said tartly. “I’ll be doing a three-months mid-wife locum stint at the Town Clinic. Why don’t you come with me, Jackie? You and Joey can bunk with me in my accommodation. I have a large room.”
 
“That’s a great idea,” Trish said. “By the time you come back we’re bound to have progressed quite a lot. I’ll make sure that you have a fenced yard. Tim, can you bunk with Nin tonight?”
 
“Hardly,” Tim said. “Not enough room at Nin’s to swing a cat.”
 
“Nope,” Wendy said. “I’ll bunk with Jackie. Jed can sleep in his beloved truck. You want to let Jed know or will I?”
 
“You should, Wendy,” Trish said. “Time Jed discovered who is in charge when Bos or Drew aren’t here. You and me,” she said at Tim. She pointed at the ceiling. “Upstairs. Bring our coffees?”