Jorge had had enough. He was hungry, dirty, and defeated. He couldn't wait to get home and cleaned up. Some good food and a good woman to satisfy him was all he wanted right now. He hoped that little snot-nosed brat was gone. His woman gives much too much attention to him. Maybe he will kick him out of the house when he returns. Teresa will be upset for a while, but he can handle her. He should be there within a few days if they find an alternate means of transportation.
Early the next morning just before the sun rose, Teresa was busy making breakfast. She knew that they were all going to be busy today. Just after breakfast, as the sun was peeking through the window, Victor got up to go outside and start work. "Wait just a minute, Victor," said Teresa. He turned to look at her. She continued, "I don't want you collapsing because your wounds are infected and you get sick again. Sit. I want to check you over first."
He obediently sat on a stool nearby. He removed his shirt and she started to unwrap the bandages. The smaller cuts on his front were healing nicely. She was still concerned about the grotesquely colored bruise over his ribs. As she leaned in low and close to study the cuts and bruises, he got a whiff of her freshly cleaned hair. The sun was catching it just right. The waves in her true-black hair shone with a blue tint to it. It was thick and beautiful and draped tantalizingly around her shoulders. He hadn't noticed before that she was an attractive woman but he was starting to now. She was older than he was he thought, but that didn't decrease her attractiveness.
She slowly peeled away the large cloth on his back. It still stuck to some of the larger wounds and he winced as each one got unstuck. "They look good Victor. I will just clean the bandage and put it back on. You can work without a shirt on for a while. Now, take your pants off." He sat straight up with that command. He was still not comfortable doing that especially since he was feeling just a bit aroused.
"Come on. Just stand up and pull them down so that I can check the wounds to your seat and legs." He stood slowly, procrastinating at undoing the tie that held up his pants. "Victor, we have been through this already. Please, let me check your wounds and get this over with." He obediently dropped his pants, his back already to her. She knelt down to examine the wounds on the lower part of his body in the back. He was grateful that he did not have any severe wounds on the front below the belt. He was enjoying, but at the same time, not enjoying her touch on his backside. Since she needed to examine more closely that one bad wound on his upper leg, when she squatted down she grabbed his good leg very high up and in between, for balance. His eyes flew wide open and he just about fell over. "Victor, I want to put more alcohol on these two wounds, would you please go lay down on the bed over there?" she said pointing to her bed. He hopped over to the bed, pants around his ankles and just fell forward onto it. His makeshift crutch was still by the table, and he was not able to put weight on his knee yet. She placed her hand softly on his back, bent over and whispered, "I'm sorry Victor, this will hurt, but I am afraid that if I don't, it will become infected like your arm did." He enjoyed the soft touch of her hand, but in order to keep his body from reacting he had to focus on what was just about to happen… pain. "Go ahead. Let's get this over with so that I can get started with my work." As she poured the alcohol, he grabbed the bed linen with his good hand, but said nothing.
After the ordeal, he quickly pulled his pants back on and hobbled outside. Teresa, smiling at his shyness, went to clean the cloth that would cover the wounds on his back.
Victor shivered slightly at the chill still in the air. It was going to be a warm day eventually. And once he started physical labor, he would warm up. But for now, his naked top rebelled at the cold. He met up with Miguel behind the barn. He had the ax in hand already. "Where do you want me to put the hole and how big?" he asked. Victor answered, "How about here" he said pointing to a spot not quite centered and along the ground. "And about this big" he said as he gestured a size about twice that of a basketball. "Can you fit quickly through a hole that big?" he asked Miguel.
"I will test it. If not, we can make it bigger or we could dig a bit of the ground away if we don't want too much of the hole to show." Miguel offered.
As Miguel was creating a 'back door' to the barn, Victor took a length of rope around to the front and tied it around the corner support beam at the base and covered it with dirt. He then wrapped it around the middle support once and placed the excess rope near the area where Miguel was chopping from the other side. He covered that with dirt as well. He then went looking for the extra buckets that no longer could hold water. He found one, but then when he tried to pick it up and carry it back to behind the barn, he found that his sore arm couldn't carry the weight, and his good arm was too busy supporting the rest of him. "Oh heck," he said aloud to no one, and he stuck the worn wood and wire handle in his mouth and hobbled back to behind the barn.
On his hobble back to the barn he noticed a child's beaten up old red wagon. He decided that would be handier than his mouth, so he went looking for the leather that he had used as a harness when he rescued Miguel. When he found it he fashioned it around his waist with a long enough piece left to tie onto the handle of the wagon. Thus, where ever he went the wagon did too. He could accomplish a lot more work this way considering his condition. His first chore was to go to the firepit where he was first brought to thaw out and fill it up with the excess rocks he found, the rocks used to warm him up when he was so severely chilled. With the wagon filled sufficiently enough for his purpose he hobbled back to where he left the bucket behind the barn. By the time he reached that spot, Miguel had chopped a good size hole in the back wall and was testing out the size.
Miguel found he could quickly slither through the hole he made. When he showed Victor, Victor told him to grab the rope that he left just inside, "BUT GENTLY!" so that they could set up the trap. He motioned for Miguel to climb the tree located behind the barn. When he was up on the sturdy branch about 12 feet off the ground, Victor handed him the end of the rope. Then he handed him the bucket with just a few rocks in it so that it wasn't too heavy, then one by one, added a few more rocks. Miguel tied the rope to the handle with a little extra length for 'someone' to pull it from the ground. Both Miguel and Victor noticed that it would cause the bucket to tip over, spilling the rocks. That was not what they wanted. They needed to have the bucket fall bottom first so that it held all of the rocks. Victor went into the house and grabbed a utility knife and came back out to the barn. He gave Miguel the knife and told him to punch a hole in the bottom of the bucket large enough for the rope to fit through. He then had Miguel tie a knot in the rope at the precise location so that when the rope was fed through the hole, the knot would hit the hole with no slack left to the handle. Now when the person below pulled on the rope, the bottom of the bucket would take the lead off the branch fork.
With the trap set up, Miguel jumped out of the tree. Victor looked around. He turned to Miguel, "do you know where we could find a boulder to block that hole you made?" Miguel, looking at the size of the hole said, "Down by the stream but that is a long way to bring such a big boulder." Victor smiled, "Not if we used this handy-dandy little red wagon and the burro." Miguel gave Victor an adoring smile. Victor was so smart, he hoped that he would stay with them forever. He grabbed the burro and headed towards the stream. Victor before following along, grabbed the burro's blanket, rope, and a short plank that was lying around and plunked it into the wagon before he hobbled on. The path to the river was very rough and Virgil had a difficult time with his still bad leg and arm. When Miguel got to the river, he turned to look for Victor and saw him struggling a ways up the path. He left the burro and quickly reached the struggling man. He untied the wagon and bullied the rest of the way to the water's edge.
At the stream they didn't need to go far to find what they were looking for. Miguel brought the wagon over and Victor positioned the plank on the wagon leading down to the boulder. Victor and Miguel got down next to the boulder and with both of them pushing, rolled the boulder up into the wagon. Victor threw the plank into the wagon next to the boulder while Miguel set up the burro to pull the now loaded wagon. Although balking at first, the burro put his weight into the rigged harness and pulled the wagon back to the barn.
Victor set up a makeshift table from some rocks and logs topped with a flat piece of wood on top for the boulder to sit on. He maneuvered the boulder so that it was precariously balanced on edge of the wood so that the whole piece of wood would tip over at the least bit of pressure sending the boulder over. He placed the plank in front of the boulder where the slope faced the newly made opening of the barn. He asked Miguel to place a small stone behind the boulder so that it remained delicately balanced. Miguel took note that the 'rock table' was strategically placed under the bucket of rocks and smiled at Victor's cleverness.
The next chore had Miguel shoveling all the pig and goat manure into the middle of the pasture and spreading it about evenly. While he was doing that, Victor eyeballed the length of the feed trough in the pasture and the distance between the well and the pasture. He could see the trough was too short. He needed at least two of them. He went to Miguel and asked if there was another trough. Miguel just shook his head no. Oh well, that just meant that they would have to carry the water a little further. Victor knocked off the two ends of the trough, stuck the one end in the center of the paddock where Miguel was working and propped the other end up on the fence. Remembering that the pump inside the house was recently fixed, Victor asked if they had a hose or tube or something similar. Again, Miguel shook his head no. So it will be water from the well that will have to do.
If Victor was going to haul water up from the well he was going to need to put a crank handle on the log he fashioned earlier in the week. He quickly got some scrap wood and nails and created a handle. Wrapping the end of the rope around the log and nailing the end, he was able to use the handle to draw up water from the well. He would place the bucket in the wagon and hobble over to the trough. He would pour the bucket of water down the trough so that it soaked the manure, then hobble back to the well. It was going to take better part of the day to get this part done.
When Miguel had finished working the manure and dirt in the pasture he got out to help Victor. He said, "Why don't we put the rain barrel on the wagon. Fill it up with water, then pull that over to the paddock and scoop it out?" Victor thought for a second and gave Miguel a pat on the shoulder, "That is an excellent idea."
After pouring several rain barrels full of water into the pasture, Miguel took some old straw and hay and lightly layered it over the thick muck to conceal it and prevent it from drying too fast. It should take a couple of days to dry up too much to be worth much good. So if Jorge stays away too long they will have to rewet the trap. Looking up into the sky Victor thought to himself that it must be early afternoon already. Both he and Miguel had worked very hard all morning. When they had stopped to take a breather from their work, Teresa came outside with food and drink. She also had the clean dry cloth ready to put back on Victor.
They both sat down, Miguel on the ground and Victor in a chair. Since he had been working hard, he was sweaty and dirty, so Teresa started to gently clean off his back. As she dabbed gingerly around his back with the warm water laden sponge, he could feel trickles of it run down his back. It was not an unpleasant feeling.
Miguel was not oblivious when it came to the two adults. Without them knowing, he was watching them carefully. He smiled to himself as he saw what was taking shape between them. He knew what was happening long before they would. What was obvious to him was not to the participants. He smiled to himself because it was looking better and better that Victor would probably be staying.
"Teresa, in this heat the bandage will be too hot for my back. Why don't we leave it off until we finish our work." Victor said.
Worried, Teresa complained, "But your back will get dirty and sweaty again."
Looking at the sponge she was holding in her hand he said softly, "would that be a bad thing?"
For the first time in a long time, longer than she could remember, she blushed deeply. She felt a warmth build inside her and flow up the back of her neck. She put the sponge back into the pan of water, picked it up and just before she turned and left, she said, "I can always clean your back off this evening when you are finished your work."
Victor and Miguel nibbled on bean and vegetable burritos and rested. They still had a lot to do.