"I think you've got a good one there," Mr Thompson said, nudging his head towards me. "She's probably better at putting up a fence than Alec, and he's been doing it all his life."

"The hammer slipped! It's not my fault." Alec pouted. He had smacked his own thumb with a hammer whilst trying to attach a beam to a post. Mrs Goodwin had given him a cloth full of ice and a bandage, meaning he had to sit out the fence construction.

"'Course it did, son." Mr Thompson laughed.

Mr Thompson lifted one of the beams and held it against the post so Mr Goodwin could hammer the nails in place. After almost two hours, we had reached the final stretch of the fence and with Alec out of action, I had been instructed to pass nails to them. We had split the fence in half with Alec and I going one way, and Mr Thompson and Mr Goodwin going the other so we could meet in the middle. By the time we made it that far, Alec had managed to his own thumb with the hammer and was out of action.

Not that he had been that much help to begin with. He couldn't hold the beam steady for me to put my nails in and complained every few minutes about a splinter that had embedded itself in his finger. For someone who had grown up on a farm and had spent his entire life building and working with a hammer, he wasn't all that good at it.

I watched them hammer the last few nails in place, completing the fence and taking a step back to look at it. With any luck, it wouldn't need to be repaired for a year, maybe even two.

"That should do it. One fence down, a million more to go," Mr Goodwin said.

"What should we do with the old wood?" I asked, dropping the extra nails back into the tool bag.

"It can be used for firewood, I think. It'll need chopping up, mind."

"I'll do it!" Alec exclaimed, jumping from the back of the wagon.

"You're not going anywhere near an axe, my boy. Your mum will kill me if you lose a hand."

Alec huffed and leant back against the wagon in defeat. Mr Thompson laughed at his son and started to gather up the old wood. Between the three of us, we managed to lug the wood out of the field and place it under a small, flat roof around the side of the house. With any luck, it would dry before winter and would make some great firewood without having to go to much effort, other than the chopping, of course.

I lifted several of the beams over my shoulder and dropped them onto the pile, ignoring the slithers of wood that showered me when I lifted them. My fingertips were now mainly splinters, but it didn't bother me and I was happy to be of some assistance when it came to not only putting up the fence but helping clean up afterwards. Even Alec managed to lift some of the wood down to the cover, although it was a broken piece and he only carried one half.

"We might be able to get a good chunk of the farm ready before Winter hits," Mr Goodwin said.

"Well, if you need any more hands, I can send Alec over." He paused. "I should say if you need an extra hand."

Mr Thompson lifted the last plank of wood onto the pile and looked at Alec who pulled a face and started picking at the loose threads on his bandage. The bandage looked a little dramatic since he would probably just have a bruise on his thumb that would fade in a few days. Maybe it was just Mrs Goodwin being a little over-cautious since Alec was a gust, but it did look stupid; he reminded me of a cartoon character I had seen in the pictures once.

Once the wood had been stacked, we walked back up to the hill to the field where the wagon and tractor were parked. Mr Thompson lifted his toolbox onto the back of the wagon and leant up against it. Alec copied his actions and even went as far as to push his sleeves up his arms and pretend to be straightening a cap he wasn't even wearing. I smirked but quickly rearranged my face when I caught Mrs Goodwin staring at me. Not even putting up a fence could melt the ice-queen.

"Well, thanks for the help, Ron, and you Alec," Mr Goodwin said.

"I don't think you really needed our help. I would put money on this one being able to put up an entire fence all on her own."

"My friend Mark would probably make that bet with you. He likes to make bets he knows he can win. He made two just on the way here," I said.

"I love the certainty."

Mr Thompson laughed and turned to Mr Goodwin. I turned away and made the short walk to Alec who was still leaning against the wagon. He scuffed the toe of his boot against the dirt and nodded his head as though listening to music that wasn't even playing. I walked up and stood beside him, pressing my back into the edge of the wagon and watching the adults. Alec stopped kicking his boot along the ground and turned to look at me, running a hand through his hair so it stuck up in different directions.

"I'm sorry for what I said earlier, you know, about you going back to the farmhouse? It was stupid. Mum says I need to start thinking before I speak," Alec said.

"You're not the first one to assume I'm not much help because I'm a girl, and you won't be the last. I appreciate the apology, though."

"Dad's right. You're better at this than me. At least you didn't hit your thumb with a hammer." He laughed and pulled a thread off the bandage.

"Maybe not. I did hit my own hand with a wooden mallet when I was seven, though."

"Accidently?"

I shook my head. "For fun. I saw my dad hit his thumb once and thought he was overreacting about how much it hurt. He wasn't. I broke several of the small bones in my hand."

Alec looked at me and bit his lip to keep from laughing. "I don't want to laugh, but at the same time, that's so stupid."

"You can laugh. It was a terrible idea, as my dad keeps reminding me."

Alec turned away from me, his shoulders shaking as he laughed but no sound came out. I shook my head at him and worked on trying to pull some of the splinters out of my fingers whilst I waited for the adults to stop talking. My mum used to meet a friend in the middle of the street and they could talk for hours with me just standing there, desperate to go home. Adults could talk for hours when they got going.

After a few minutes, Alec turned back around to face me. He had tear tracks running down his face and couldn't even look me in the eye. I couldn't blame him, it was a really stupid thing to do, even I was only seven, but I learnt my lesson. Since doing it on purpose, I've always been a little more cautious when it came to using a hammer, just in case. No way did I want a repeat of that incident if I could help it.

It took another few minutes before the adults stopped talking. They had somehow managed to walk across to the fence in the time they had been talking and had to make the slow walk back to the wagon and the tractor. Mrs Goodwin looked at Alec and raised an eyebrow, Alec, in all his infinite wisdom, looked away before he started laughing again. She no doubt would have taken it in a negative way rather than a little fun between the two of us.

"What have you two been doing? You look like you've been crying, Alec," Mr Thompson said.

"It's nothing, I'm fine." Alec struggled to maintain a straight face.

"Right." Mr Thompson glanced at Alec but said nothing else about it. "We should be off, Peggy will be wondering where we are."

"Thank you again for your help, Ron."

"It was our pleasure. Come on you." He motioned to Alec who jumped up onto the back of the wagon. Mr Thompson closed the back and secured the latch. "It was good to see you Barb, and you Sybil."

"You too, Sir," I said.

"I'll see you around? Right?" Alec asked, pressing his arms against the back of the wagon.

I shrugged. "Maybe."

Alec smiled and turned so his back was pressing against the side of the wagon, most likely to try and stop himself from falling over. Mr Thompson climbed onto the back of the tractor and started the engine, after offering a small wave to Mr and Mrs Goodwin, the tractor peeled off down the track. I watched both the tractor and the wagon move down the hill until it disappeared from view completely with only the sound of the tractor engine being a reminder that they had been there.

With the Thompson's gone, Mr Goodwin and his wife walked the short distance from the track and up to the newly built fence. Mrs Goodwin seemed in awe that the entire thing had been put up so quickly, like the others she had believed that it would take all afternoon to get it up. Just like everyone else, she probably thought that I wouldn't be of much use when it came to building the thing and that it would have been up to the men. Little did she know that it was Alec who would have to bow out earlier than planned.

Mrs Goodwin examined the fence for the second time, running her fingers over the nails and even shaking the posts to make sure they were sturdy. I stood there and picked at my fingers, trying to remove the small splinters that had become embedded in my fingertips and the palm of my hand. With each one I removed, I spat it onto the ground. I tried to be subtle about it so I wouldn't get in trouble for doing some disgusting, but Mrs Goodwin was too absorbed in the fence to look at what I was doing.

"I thought you were just going to replace the broken posts. Why did you re-do half the fence?" Mrs Goodwin asked, taking a step back and looking at Mr Goodwin.

"A little birdy pointed out that half the fence was starting to rot away. At least now we can get the sheep in here without having to worry about whether they're going to escape or not. Less work to do over the next year at least," Mr Goodwin said.

"What about the cost of the additional wood from Ron? We can't afford to be doing anything before it needs doing! Not until we can get back on our feet with the chickens and the crops."

"It was the right thing to do. This way I can focus on the other work and not have to come running back to repair the fence or play catch the sheep."

"You need to think things through." She dropped her voice. "We have another mouth to feed now, we cannot make any excessive expenditures."

I turned away and tried to focus on picking splinters out of my fingers then the conversation that was happening right in front of me. Mrs Goodwin must have known that taking in any one of us evacuees would have led to her having to spend more money. Although it isn't like I've ever needed much, just food a couple of times a day and I'd be fine. I didn't need anything beyond that but Mrs Goodwin made it seem like she would be spending pounds on food for me.

Part of me hoped that by helping to put up the fence, I would be proving my worth a little more, but it didn't go that way. Instead, she saw something that would save them both time as nothing more than a waste even though it would stop them from chasing sheep around the farm for several hours. Still, it would only be for a few more days and by the end of the week, she wouldn't have to worry about me. Just a few more days.

"What are you doing over there?" Mr Goodwin asked. I turned and realised I had walked a good distance away from the fence.

"I'm trying to pick splinters out of my hand and I didn't think that was a conversation I should be listening to," I said.

"You shouldn't take them out like that, it could get infected. At least use a pair of tweezers."

"This is easier. Besides, I didn't want to interrupt whatever that conversation may have been about just to ask for a pair of tweezers. That, and I've never had an infection from picking out a splinter."

"Well, I don't want you getting one now. God only knows how we would pay for a hospital bill. Come with me and we'll get those out and hopefully prevent a trip to the hospital."

Mrs Goodwin raised an eyebrow at me and nodded her head towards the house. Although I didn't want to go with her or have her come anywhere near me with a pair of tweezers, I didn't have much of a choice in the matter. I followed her down the hill and back towards the farmhouse, hoping she wouldn't take this opportunity to stab me with the tweezers. 

~~~

A/N - We are back! I have around sixteen chapters now ready to go with plans to start the Seventeenth one over the next few days! I'm so excited for this story and what's to come!

Questions! What do you guys think of Alec? Do you think he's going to be an interesting character?

Let me know!

First Published - April 27th, 2021