Kayli Unknown

Chapter 15 - Lunch with Loggers

Morning involved lots of snuggling under the covers, and a long shower with a fair amount of wrestling under the showerhead. The women combing each other's hair. There was progress for Kat - no need for a bandage buried in her hair.

Had Lisa recovered from the shooting? No. Too much had happened. Too little time had passed. But when she looked at Kat now, her eyes didn't dart to Kat and then away, afraid of what she might see. She looked at Kat, touched Kat, stood with Kat, and knew she was accepted, maybe even loved. When she finished with Kat's hair, she stayed behind Kat, her thighs pressed against Kat's back, her fingers deep in Kat's hair, her lips lowered to kiss the top of Kat's head.

"Kat, I love you."

"Lisa..." Kat turned. She wrapped her arms around Lisa's waist and ass, her face pressed against her breasts.

"It's okay. I know you will be back with Jim soon. You are angry with him now, but you won't stay angry. You never do. But I want you to know I love you."

"You're my friend, Lisa."

"I always will be."

They held each other for a long time, then finished dressing. The moment passed. Statement made. Relationship established. Again.

They had an agenda for the day, and they began their work on it. The plan was simple enough - feed White's loggers, look around at any cabins in the general vicinity, talk to the men and see where conversations might go. If one of the six men in the bar had been the reason for Kayli's arrival, something might help Kat and Lisa pick out that man.

Lisa made a quick run to town. Hamburger buns. Potato chips. Lemonade mix. Kat worked the kitchen, first browning several pounds of ground beef, then heating up the sauce for sloppy Joes. Simple food. Hot, easy to manage in what was basically a picnic setting.

They used Kat's minibus to get where White was logging. Higher clearance if they were off some old logging road. The crew was cutting west of Goodman out Highway 8, and then north on H. Finding them was easy. They were clear cutting a huge area just off the county highway.

Kat parked her bus and checked out the site. Rolling hills, second growth timber, mostly soft woods, a mixture of pine, poplars, some birch. Most logging was done on forty acre sites. Some guy's grandfather had bought the land back when a forty went for ten grand. Every twenty years they sold the stumpage to get a few extra dollars, and to clear the land for easier hunting. Generations passed.

This site had to go a hundred and sixty acres easy. Rich grandfather, or some trust fund. Corporations were buying land. They had the patience for investments that only matured decades later.

Kat now understood why Chuck had expanded his crew. He also had some additional equipment. There was the usual flatbed truck parked out amongst the stumps, being loaded by a second truck equipped with an hydraulic claw at the back. Trees cut into hundred inch "sticks" had been stacked in several piles. The claw would gather up the piles, place them crosswise on the flatbed, and then move on to the next pile. Standard operation. But Chuck had rented, or bought, a second loader and a second flatbed. They were up another road. Chuck and one of his guys ran the loaders. Scattered around were five guys with chainsaws, dropping trees, trimming branches, and cutting the trunks to length. It was also their job to drag or carry the "sticks" they cut into neat, even piles the loader could get onto a flatbed. Not a job for the old or weak.

Where to set up for lunch? There were two fires on the hillside. Branches were burned, both to get them out of the way, and to generate some warmth. January at the northern edge of Wisconsin. It might hit fifteen degrees during the day. It might not. Today it was pushing twelve. Kat saw Chuck wave from his loader and point to the fire nearest to him.