Regan Wolfrom - After The Fires Went Out - Coyote

“What should we see?” Matt asked.

“You can see it now with the heliostats,” I said, pointing at the hundreds of tiny bristles on the mirror sheets as they spun around to meet the sun. “They follow the sunlight.”

“I know that. But what about the turbine? Should we see some steam coming out somewhere?”

“Tell me, Matt,” Lisa said, “if the steam came out of the turbine, what would happen to all of the water?”

Matt looked to be thinking that over for a moment. “Shit,” he said. “Just ignore me.”

“Wish I could,” I said with a smirk.

Now that we knew the heliostats were moving into place, we went into the shed to check the displays.

“I don’t know what any of this means,” I said as I stared at the numbers on the various displays.

“It’s working,” Lisa said. “We can check the batteries for charge. That will give us numbers we’re used to.”

We continued on to the barn, where we could see from the large and friendly LCD panel that the battery bank was charging, a large three percent taking up half the screen, above more numbers and letters that I didn’t fully understand. I find there’s something a little mind-bending about kilowatt hours.

“Three percent?” Matt said. “That sucker is charging up pretty quick.”

“Up from around 2.7,” Lisa said. “Usually batteries don’t drain completely.”

“Either way,” I said, “it looks like we’ve got it working.”

I offered my hand to Lisa, who gave it a brief and over-hard shake. Matt stuck his out, too, and Lisa and I both took it in turn.

“Great work, guys,” Matt said. “I think Ant would be proud.”

“We’ll have to smoke a joint for him,” Lisa said.

I grinned. “I’ll bet ghost Ant is probably haunting his stash.”

Lisa shook her head. “Not your best joke, Baptiste.”

“Yeah…you’re just not that funny,” Matt said.

“And you’re not that smart,” I said. “But I don’t hold it against you.”

From what I could tell he thought I was kidding; that was probably for the best.

“Don’t worry, Matt,” Lisa said. “It’s your good looks I hold against you. The stupid kind of makes up for that.”

Matt flashed an insincere smile and skulked away. If I’d known it was that easy to lose him I would’ve started the day off with a few choice insults.

“I don’t know what we’ll do if something goes wrong with this thing,” I said. “Once we start relying on it…”

“Graham knows his stuff,” Lisa said. “And for everything he’s not sure about we can fake it ‘til we make it. And switch back if things go to shit.”

“I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

Lisa gave me a smile, or as close to one of those as she ever gives. “Shit comes weekly around here,” she said. She gave me a quick pat on the shoulder and left the barn.

It’s fleeting moments like that that make me think Lisa might actually think of me as a friend and not just someone she’s stuck with. That’s assuming, of course, that Lisa believes in having friends; I doubt even she knows for sure.

Tonight I stumbled onto people having sex.

I’d noticed that the door to the side veranda was open slightly even though we’d already closed it off for the winter. I walked over to close it and I saw two naked bodies on the old lounge chair with the white and yellow flowers. Fiona’s stained-glass loon dangled just above, and I’m sure she wouldn’t have been pleased by what that little bird was seeing.

I wasn’t trying to look but I’m sure I was staring. The whole world has seen Kayla naked before, but Lisa was new to me.

“What the hell?” Lisa said when she saw me, pulling a ratty quilt over her breasts. “You’re a fucking pervert!”

“Don’t you have bedrooms for this kind of thing?” I said, pretending I was annoyed and not at all turned on. “It’s a little cold in here to be naked, isn’t it?”

“There’s no privacy upstairs,” Kayla said, standing up from the lounge chair and making no attempt to cover herself. She’s one of those girls who’s athletic without being too bony, always soft despite the tone. I’d seen her dance once, before the fires and before anyone knew who I was; I almost got up the nerve to talk to her…almost.

I talk to her every day now. I still can’t help but want her.

“You should have knocked,” Lisa said. She already sounded less pissed.

“It’s called ‘sock on the door’,” I said.

Kayla laughed. “I’ll remember that. Can you give us a little privacy now, please?”

“You’re not going to tell…” Lisa said. She’d moved on to being more worried than angry, and I almost felt bad for her.

“I’m not getting involved,” I said.

“Thanks.”

I nodded and turned away, closing the door. I made sure to lock it, too, using the little hook up top just in case one of the girls remembered to bring their key.

Then I gave them their privacy.

Luckily they had most of their clothes with them, so they didn’t look all that chilled as they ran out and around to the front door of the cottage, barefoot in the December frost.

Today is Tuesday, December 11th.

Matt and I spent the afternoon in New Post helping to build a house. We call it helping but I think we sometimes get in the way, since the people we’re working with have years of experience with that kind of thing. But they seem to appreciate the help, and I want to build up our relationship; it’s not good to have neighbours you don’t feel you can trust.

I asked around about how things were going, hoping that someone would mention something about that boy we’d found on the other side of the river. But I couldn’t just ask outright, so I didn’t get an answer. All I knew was that everyone there looked worried. That doesn’t really tell me anything.

I know they’re probably running low on food these days considering how many mouths they’ve got to feed.

Matt’s like a movie star to the young women at New Post, and I’ve noticed that more of them are on the job site on the days I bring him with me. I’m pretty sure he could take his pick of the girls there if he wanted to, but for whatever reason he hasn’t made his move. I think that he’s so used to Kayla’s take-no-prisoners flirting that he doesn’t even realize when other girls like him; if a girl’s not grabbing his ass or calling him her “sexy boy toy” he thinks she’s frigid.

He’s just as clueless about Fiona, who I’m sure would claim him in a minute if she thought she could.

Fuck, that pisses me off.

To be honest, I don’t get it. I understand that he’s young and good looking, that he’s a whole lot younger and better looking than me. But it’s still hard to believe that his looks make up for how goddamn stupid he is. Every day he does something that amazes me based on the level of total idiocy.

Today his moment of stupid came as we were hammering in the joist hangers for the main floor. Both he and I were doing it, Matt because he’s a moron who can’t be trusted to do anything else, and me because it’s my full-time job to make sure Matt doesn’t accidentally nail his tongue to a 2x6.

So we were nailing the metal hangers while the rest of the crew was down in the basement doing everything else. Obviously they were wearing their hard hats and safety glasses, but I’m pretty sure they still didn’t want to have anything dropped on top of them.