DRAUMRS - Dreamweavers Among Us

8 - Emma

Jack took a couple beers to settle down after Water's unscheduled pit stop. He couldn't resist lecturing the old man about his lack of consideration and the bad habits he was passing on to Will.

"What would you have thought if I had just pulled in somewhere and disappeared for half an hour?"

"I'd hope that you were in a motel room getting laid," replied Water, avoiding any indication that he might feel even a little remorse for his stunt. "It might put you in a better mood."

"Well, if I was getting laid, you'd at least know where I was and that I wasn't being dumped off in some ditch for coyote food," Jack said. "You're worth a lot of money and I wouldn't put it past some of your cronies to kidnap your ass for a couple grand in cigarettes and beer money."

"If they set the bar that low, I'd kick their ass around the block myself," huffed Water.

To Will in back, he said, "Duck, I'm putting you in charge of paying off ransoms. If some numbskull can't get his sights above a few grand, you be sure to pay him at least half a million on my behalf. And then kick his ass off a cliff."

"Can't have the tribe thinking that I'm not worth at least as much as a good bulldozer."

"Tribe," snorted Jack. "What tribe? You're more worried about your standing on the Order of Canada list. Which you know that you would already have, except they're afraid that you'll try to feel up the Governor General." He laughed at his own joke.

"She'd be pinning the goddamn flower on you and you'd be unpinning her bodice, on national TV." He kept adding to his joke. Two beers were working their magic.

"Just don't laugh us over a guardrail, Ep'r," countered Water, as if only now aware that they were going 130 kph, with Jack giving the road about one-quarter of his attention.

"Don't worry, I've got it on cruise control," replied Jack.

As if to emphasize the lack of risk, he then proceeded to stab the Sirius control screen looking for his standard 80's, not Funk, not British, not Disco, not Pop, Rock Classics. Amazingly, the truck stayed dead center in the fast lane and after two or three attempts, Geddy's rolling bass kicked off a Rush classic.

Will was sure that both of Jack's hands had been off the wheel for more than a few seconds. He touched his new talisman through his vest pocket and found himself speaking to an imagined deity. Please get us there in one piece...

Water had been flipping through a small notebook that looked to be filled front-to-back with his minuscule left-handed printing. He filled a lot of notebooks, observing and documenting everything he saw. He also wrote out detailed plans for construction improvements and listed questions to be answered by calling his long list of experts, movers and shakers, all of whom were glad to take his call. With Water, helping was always a two-way street and he was also happy to open a door for just about anybody who asked him.

He could fit what would be a full foolscap page for most writers neatly into the 5" by 8" pages of the little notebook. He kept several superfine, instant-dry, artist pens in his jacket pocket for note taking. He drew diagrams and illustrations as much as he wrote in the note books. Water famously once submitted only a notebook, with a cashier's cheque for $100,000, in response to a road construction tender. Once blown up on a photocopier, the bid was found to be complete and fully compliant; Green Water Construction got the job.

"The cheque was just to make sure that they took me seriously," he laughed afterwards. Across four provinces and a good part of two northern territories, both politicians and public administrators took everything Water did seriously.