Lola's Lurching Life Ch. 02

"Perhaps not, perhaps yes. As I said, it's something to think about."

"I could take you tomorrow to meet the Hill's and open discussions.:

"Hey, 'Bolter' Adams, tighten your reins. The idea is not yet an hour old."

"How long does it take vines to fruit to fruit in commercial quantities."

Lola sighed and said, "Some yield is available in three years from the initial spring planting but it takes five years for the vines to reach full production of fruit."

"Then talk to the Hill's tomorrow."

"No, I need to think about it first, there is so much to consider. Three days from now my thinking should be clear and I've made inquiries. For instance, water supply."

"Water storage tanks on the hill-top catching rain water and artesian supply is readily available in this district."

"But precisely where do we tap into that water supply, Ned?"

"Dunno. Ah, I see what you mean."

"Um, Lola, do you want me to sleep in the shed."

"No, I want you sleeping beside me. Stop being a pussy, Ned."

"Is that word appropriate?"

"Yes, if it's the word I believe that has caught your attention. Its use was very appropriate in that context, though perhaps the word choice was rather crass."

He grinned and said, "You certainly have a way with you, Lola. By the way, thanks for bullying me into going out for dinner. I really enjoyed the company, conversations and especially the food. That was great Aussie chow."

"Thanks for that comment, Ned, with one reason being it perhaps indicates one more step in you 'coming out' in the social sense. I judge that from my own experience of living in isolation and then slowly realizing that I was coming out of it for two reasons. I first was I was largely over my despair and loss confidence and secondly, because I was becoming focused on a new goal, and that was doing my best to assist my landlord who was emerging from huge mental trauma resulting from severe head injuries in a vehicle road crash."

"And now you are working on me?" Ned said stiffly.

"Yes and no. It's yes because no, I'm not doing that knowingly for the simple reason you already have deep focus on the major refit of Wave Tosser. God, fancy giving a boat the foul name of tosser."

Ned said, "She was named by the previous owner at her launching who possibly was aware that wave rider was a term used commonly by beach surfers. I kept the name, half-believing stories from sailing ship days that it was unlucky to change the name of a ship."

"Well, I guess Wave Tosser is better than naming a schooner Wave Masturbator," Lola sighed, and enjoyed hearing Ned's fulsome laughter and thinking he was becoming more outgoing.

"Wow, that's the second time today I've laughed like that so deeply," he said, as if becoming aware of something new about himself.

But then the overly cautious version of Ned returned.

"I don't quite know how to say this, but there's not a lot left for you to assist me in final restoration work as you won't have the skills. I feel terrible having to say that to you."

"Yeah, well perhaps you should have tip-toed into raising you concern. You could have asked did I believe I could cope well as your assistant on working on your schooner where SOME of the work required little working finesse and no technically advanced skills."

"Ah, you mean I should have pussy-footed?"

"Well, in respect of some would-be assistants, yes. In my case, I'm aware that you have been armed to the teeth fighting the enemy in warfare skirmishes and now you a faced with a pushy female who appears to act like a wild and unbroken mare and intends working alongside. In contrast, you have been Army-trained alongside side mostly aggressive males who appear to believe a female is good for only one thing, and that lies between her legs."

"Lola!" Ned gasped and she grabbed the steering wheel to steady the direction of momentum.

"Well, that's pretty much the truth, isn't. I'm willing to sand wood day and night for you and not be taught new skills."

"I've acted like an Ape, Lola. I apologize"

"Thanks. When we get home jack off in the shower, thinking of me, and you could dry off feeling like a man with a great chick who tonight will sleep beside you."

"Does that comment carry a hidden message?"

"Not that I'm aware off, Ned. We have passed the track down to your cottage."

"Fuck," he yelled, slamming on the brakes.

He backed the Land Rover to the entrance-way, both of them laughing like teenagers.

"Do you whack off?" Ned said lightly, as the vehicle bumped along the rough descent.

Lola burst into near hysterical laughter.

As they parked, she finishing wiping her eyes, Ned said, "I take that laughter as a yes."

She nodded and said they'd had a thoroughly enjoyable outing.

"Go and shower Ned, I'll make supper."

Next morning just after 7.00, Ned and Lola entered the hull of Wave Tosser to start work.

Before Ned could think of what Lola should do, she said, "I'll clean this mess on the floor of our working area.

"Err right, good thinking. Hand me the 10-inch adjustable spokeshave, please. It's..."

It was handed to Ned before he could start describing it.

Ned blinked, thoughtfully and he said, "What experience have you had in working wood, Lola?"

"Oh, I've done a bit of this and that."

"Specifically."

"Oh, on the farm from the age of about eleven, I began assisting to repair wooden swing gates bought into the workshop and I progressed on to building an entire staircase off the 11-year old plans produced to replace a ladder to the extensive loft but never built. As you may know, it's difficult catching up to every job waiting for attention on a farm."

"When I was fourteen, I designed and built a six-room dolls' house for my twin nieces, finished in time for their fifth birthday. It was complete with lockable wheels and had a two-way opening roof so that they could reach into the rooms below to play."

"And that acquisition of versatility went on until I left high school. Oh, throughout high school I was among a number of girls who took woodwork as an optional study but the only female to take the tech drawing option. I passed both with high marks in exams each year."

Pausing his work with the spokeshave, Ned said, "Christ, Lola. Is there anything you can't do?"

"A great deal," she replied, her face screwing up as if in pain. "I can't keep rooms tidy, I'm hopeless at cooking apart from doing bacon and eggs, chips, baking scones and pikelets and producing simple meals like roast dinners. I often forget to check for emails or phone text messages or missed phone calls and I forget to pay bills until the second or third reminder and I often miss appointments."

"My mother called me a real tomboy as I used to climb trees with the boys and fought in the dust and mud with them and I still forget to wash my hair and attend to my nails, often for weeks on end. At the mention of home preserving of fruit or home spring cleaning, I would disappear from the house to find where the men were working so I could assist them."

"I still recall the day when I returned to the house and entered the kitchen where mum and her two sisters were having afternoon tea and mum asked what had I been doing and she and my aunts gave a good impression that they were about to faint when I held up my arms and said, "Look at the goo on my arms, that tells you I was called to help with a difficult calf birthing. My hands are small enough to get both arms in around the calf's head to pull its front feet forward to be partly under its chin, allowing dad to pull it out head and feet first in the normal birthing position using a chain."

"Those women were shocked that a 7-year-old should be placed in that position and said so, and I said couldn't they understand it was part of normal farm work."

"Later dad came it and mum said to him that I was banned from working on the farm. He used the f-word and old her to keep out of it, that I was better in some cases as his assistant that any of our three other farmhands. Mum yelled dad was talking bullshit."

"From then on, he worked me into exhaustion whenever I came to him asking for work and I believe that was the making of me. He would say, 'Almost nothing is impossible if you work on a problem focused on solving it and if you can't solve it, I'll get an older kid who can do it'."

"I'm wasting your time Ned, chatting to you like this. But I must tell you this one. Mum called us to dinner and I wasn't there. Mum said to dad, "Where's Lola?"

"Oh, I sent her across to the back paddock where the bulls are to replace the ball cock on their water trough."

"Dad told me she hit the roof yelling that I was only nine years old amid a paddock of horny bulls and demanded he fetch me home immediately. Dad insisted in mum accompanying him and they drove to where I was. Dad said they could see the bulls grouped around the trough and mum yelled, "They tossed and trampled Lola and killed her and are now looking at her body."

"Apparently mom yelling gibberish ran at the bulls, spooking them to run off and that's when she saw me, kneeing on the grass packing my tool kit after finishing the job. I honestly thought mum had gone loco and was out to kill me, that scary thought making me pee my pants."

"She hugged me, slobbering over me, and I calmed her and said there was no need to be alarmed, that Angus bulls were much more docile that some of breeds of bulls, such as Jerseys and Ayrshires."

Mum sobbed and asked, "How is it that you know so bloody much?"

"Dad rose to the occasion and delivered a real beauty. He said it was because I'd inherited mum's brain power. She hugged both of us together and said she was so lucky to have us as part of the family."

"I took the opportunity to say if I was allowed to drive the pickup, I would have that for nearby protection when working amongst stock that would include when shifting them with dogs. Up to them, mum had insisted no driving for me until I was fifteen. The next day, however, she began giving me lessons for on-farm driving only. As one could say, that's how I started out in life and I've got where I am today because from about the age of nine, I became driven."

Ned said, "That's a remarkable story to tell, Lola. You should write a book."

"Nah, who'd read it?"

"I would."

"Thanks for your loyalty. Now get on with it while I clean the clutter from this floor."

"Sex tonight."

"Yes please, Ned. But only if you feel up to it. There's no sense rushing it."

[Final Part Coming]