Free The Call of Distant Shores by David Niall Wilson, Bob Eggleton Page B

makeshift office and stacked the rest in the back of his own truck.   He didn't have far to go.   Two back-roads turns and he'd be on his own road, tucked back up in close to the swamp.
    Just before he left, he hefted his cooler onto the tailgate of the truck and slid it in, closing up behind it.   He glanced at the road, thought about it for about ten seconds, then grabbed a last beer "for the road" and hopped in behind the wheel.   He wasn't likely to meet one of North Carolina's finest between the stand and his home, but by his way of thinking, he was drunk enough already to get the ticket, no reason to deny himself a pleasant drive by leaving all the beer in back.
    Leaving a white tail of dust and gravel spitting out behind him, Jasper gunned the truck into the growing twilight.
     
      When Jasper pulled up in front of his stand the next morning, he saw Bobby Lee's truck already parked over to one side.   There was no sign of his buddy, but around back of the shack dust was rising, like there was a herd of something rushing past.   Jasper parked, hopped down from his truck, and started around the side of the building to see what was what.
    He stopped at the corner and stared.   Bobby Lee was going to town on the ground behind the stand with a rake, clearing away brambles and bushes like there was no tomorrow.   He'd already cleared a space about twice as big as the metal building in the back of Jasper's truck would need, and that ground was bare, scraped even and squared off with perfect edges like Jasper had never seen.
    "Bobby!" he called out.   "Bobby Lee what in HELL are you doin '?"
    At first, Bobby didn't seem to hear him, just kept right on raking' and shuffling around that rectangular patch of cleared ground.   Jasper leaned down, picked up a rock and whipped it through the air to collide with the seat of Bobby Lee's pants. That got his attention.
    " Wha ..." Bobby Lee whirled, his rake held high in a comical parody of a martial arts stance.   Then he saw Jasper.
    "I said," Jasper repeated, "what in HELL are you doin '?"
    "Just wanted to get me an early start, that's all," Bobby Lee said, grinning sheepishly.   "I stayed up kinda late last night.   Guess I talked a bit too much about her," he cocked his head in the direction of the wooden behemoth still tarp-covered in the back of his pickup truck.   "Irma got tired of it and chased me out.   I slept in the truck until the sun came up, then I came here and got started."
    Jasper blinked, glanced down at the ground, and at the rake in his friend's hand, then back up to Bobby Lee's eyes.   "Just how much coffee you had, Bobby?" he asked at last.   "I ain't seen that much work out of you in the last year, and you don't even look like you broke a sweat yet."
    Bobby Lee glanced down at the ground as if noticing the cleared patch for the first time.   He leaned on the rake, reached to his back pocket for the bandanna tucked into his hip pocket and brushed it across his face.   It was more out of habit than necessity.   Jasper could see the man was as cool and fresh as if he'd just gotten up after a long night's sleep.
    "Hell of a job," Jasper commented.   "Gonna make settin ' up a durn site easier."
    Bobby Lee nodded.   Now that he'd stopped working and started seeing what he'd been doing, he'd taken on a sort of glazed expression.   He heard   Jasper fine, but didn't seem to really be paying any attention to him.   He was looking at the earth he'd cleared, and glancing up now and then at the truck, as if there was something he couldn't quite make sense of.
    "We have to put her here first," Bobby Lee said at last, tossing his rake aside.   "I ain't seen the door of that shed, but I'm betting it's not big enough to take her in through.   I brought us some pallets I had out back 'a my place to keep her out of the dirt."
    Jasper blinked.   He hadn't thought about it, but damned if Bobby Lee wasn't right.   They'd have to build the shed around