Screw Pile Developments

Headwall Station

Morning — After Breakfast

Breakfast was just about to wrap up; the last of another enormous stack of toast and an equally high stack of pancakes had been systematically decimated.

Angus stood up with his glass and a fork. He then decided he needed some more height so he stood on the bench, almost spilling his orange juice in the process.

Grandma Bella frowned.

Angus tapped his fork on his glass importantly. Several heads turned curiously in his direction.

Fergus immediately protested.

Angus continued on before Fergus could make any further objections.

Angus was a very determined six-year old. It was not long before he had herded both the willing and the less enthusiastic in the direction of the outside door.

Lewis, who had been quietly assessing the developing situation, saw an early opportunity and had simply ghosted from the dining room. One moment he was there and the next he was not.

---

The Attic

The attic stairs creaked and the door hinges made their half-hearted protest.

Carefully, Lewis pulled back the sheet covering the telescope. He stood for a moment just looking at it; it was dusty in places, the brass dulled, and clearly in need of some care and attention.

He gently folded the legs and tilted the barrel in line with the legs so he could carry it down the stairs.

He took the telescope into the now empty dining room. Setting it on the floor, he opened the legs and tilted the barrel back up. Lewis spent a few minutes examining it, wondering where he should start.

While Lewis was still pondering the telescope, Jake entered the dining room, tea towel in hand; as usual he had been helping with the drying up.

Lewis gave a wry smile.

Jake stepped forward and examined the old telescope.

A voice sounded behind him.

Jake’s ears flattened guiltily for just a fraction of a second.

Rebecca held out her paw and Jake dutifully handed over the tea towel. As suddenly as she had appeared, Rebecca disappeared back to the kitchen.

Daan hadn’t known exactly where to find the brass cleaner, and spent several minutes looking for it before Marta staged an intervention. Marta always knew where everything was, or if not, she had a pretty good idea. Just as Lewis had left the workshop with the brass cleaner and a handful of cloths, Marta had called back to him over her shoulder.

Lewis didn’t get to inquire as to who the someone special was, as Marta had already turned back to the bench busy with her water-pump.

It wasn’t long before Lewis returned, and Jake had already laid out a cloth on the dining room table. A cloth obtained without further infractionary incidence from Rebecca. Jake supervised the dismantling of the telescope and soon all the parts were laid out on the table.

Jake showed Lewis how to dab the cloth into the cleaner and then buff in small circular strokes and bring back its shine. After watching Lewis for a few minutes, he was satisfied.

Lewis sat at the table, the parts laid out before him, working carefully, thoroughly, and methodically. He dabbed the cloth back and forth from the cleaner to the brass, as the old telescope slowly came back into its own.

---

The Tour

The tour had crossed the yard and made it as far as the slowly turning waterwheel.

He waved his paw grandly at the millrace.

Angus thought carefully for a moment.

Fergus decided that a clarification was in order.

The tour then moved on past the chicken coop where Angus and Fergus proudly informed everyone: that’s where scambled eggs come from. After that they crossed the bridge.

In the orchard Angus stopped under the peach trees.

Raven nodded in solemn agreement.

Angus beamed from ear to ear.

Finally, they reached the cow shed.

Angus disappeared inside the cowshed while all the others waited outside.

In the gloom of the shed, Angus slowly checked his way along the byres. Presently, he found himself standing directly behind a pair of back legs and a long tail that swished gently from side to side.

There was a momentary pause in the swish, and the tail lifted.

Angus re-appeared from the cow shed, looking and smelling a little less confident than when he had gone in.

The tour was over.

---

Midday — Lunch

Lunch.

Everyone had reassembled at the table, mostly intact from the tour. Angus had on a clean flannel shirt and overalls, even though Fergus loudly proclaimed to anyone and everyone that he could still smell cow poop on him.

A stern look from Grandma Bella eventually silenced his teasing.

It would not be the last time Fergus would ever mention this, and certainly not the last time today.

Lewis was already seated, his hands clean, with only a slight whiff of brass polish detectable. The telescope had been carefully reassembled with Grandpa Jake’s guidance and was now safely tucked away in the cupboard under the stairs.

---

Afternoon

The Headwall homestead settled into the quiet of a warm summer afternoon. The boys had drifted off in different directions and Lewis had set himself up in a patch of sunlight on the verandah. He was working through the reassembled telescope, touching and checking the parts, naming them out loud as he went.

Marta passed by without slowing.

She was gone before Lewis could ask her why, or how she knew that.

---

Evening — After Dinner

The homestead was settling quietly — and in some cases, not so quietly — into its evening routine. There had been a loud dispute about the need for six-year olds to take a bath. Some drifted to the living room to play the card game with the ever expanding set of rules, while others just talked, or just simply wound down.

Lewis found Jake sitting in his chair in the living room, just quietly watching everything going on around him, the chair was his special place, a place where he went to relax and think. Bella called it his — thinking chair.

Jake tilted his head and looked at him quizzically.

Jake nodded knowingly.

Grandpa was thoughtful for a moment, and slowly tilted his head to the other side, adding softly to himself:

Grandpa nodded, stood from his chair, and walked towards the cupboard under the stairs, with Lewis close behind, Dogger as usual under his arm.

---

Night — The Stone Bridge

The rings shone in a silver arc overhead and the Grey River below, chattered to itself over the stones. In the distance the Greyfalls providing the constant pulse of the valley in the darkness. The sky was otherwise clear, and the moons had not yet risen, perfect conditions for gazing at the stars.

Lewis set the telescope up on the crest of the bridge, exactly where Marta had said. Jake was nearby, sitting on the bridge’s stone wall; answering an occasional question from Lewis, and asking an occasional question of his own. Mostly though, he was just watching a boy who seemed to instinctively know what to do.

Grandpa Jake gave a huff and laughed.

He watched as Lewis easily found Orion, just rising above the valley walls, and carefully adjusting the telescope to focus on Betelgeuse, glowing bright and yellow in the sky — it was definitely still there, and definitely had not gone super-nova.

After a few minutes Lewis pulled his eye back from the eyepiece and looked at the sky himself, slowly moving his head from side to side taking in the starscape before him. He took off his glasses and polished them on his shirt and replaced them.

There was something wrong and he couldn’t quite work out what it was.

Grandpa knew perfectly well what the problem was, but he was not about to let Lewis in on the answer.

Lewis adjusted the telescope so that he could take in the whole constellation. He looked back and forth from the telescope to the sky.

Jake continued to sit on the wall and said nothing.

He pushed his glasses up his nose.

Lewis stepped back and looked again at the expanse of the sky. He quickly picked out a couple more constellations. They were the same, mirrored or at least the stars were not aligned with how he had remembered them.

He quietly announced his realisation to Grandpa Jake.

Lewis became very still as the enormity of the truth settled in his consciousness.

Lewis came over to the wall and sat next to Grandpa Jake.

Grandpa held his paws together between his legs. He did not answer for a few moments.

Lewis did not ask the obvious question. He waited for Grandpa to continue.

Lewis didn’t say anything else. He simply handed Dogger to Grandpa Jake. He tilted his head and looked at Lewis.

Grandpa Jake squished Dogger tight and for a long time, neither of them said anything else.

Above them, the rings turned silver in the dark, and Orion looked back at them from the other side of everything.