Theodora's Dragon

Chapter 11 The Cannery

Theodora was startled awake by the clanging of the village bell. The fleet was sighted and every able bodied sole was being summoned to the cannery. It was a brisk rainy morning which was good news as the fish would keep a little longer. Choosing her denim pants and red shirt she dressed quickly. She put on her new cotton socks and lace up boots, then raced to the dining room and helped herself to a generous breakfast of poached eggs on toast, two sausage links, four strips of bacon and melon. Once started the cannery would not stop until all the fish were processed. Then putting on her tweed jacket and cap started for the cannery in the village's harbor. She met Rose and Joyce as they too walked to the cannery.

"Who's watching the kids?" she asked.

"Cousin Louise and Chris, they have babies to tend and we asked them to watch ours," Rose answered.

"This will be fun working together," Theodora said smiling.

The boilers had been lit and the large retorts opened and the baskets removed with the chain falls. The cutting tables cleaned and knives sharpened. Hundreds of cans and lids put on conveyors for filling. Theodora stepped into the large rubber impregnated canvas boots and hanging her jacket on a hook provided, donned her apron, stuffed her hair into her cap and began scrubbing her hands and arms. She was practiced in the routine having been working in the cannery since she was eight. It was hard work but it always excited her to be part of the community.

"Are we going to be singing this time?" one of the women asked her.

"Most definitely."

The boats were live welled boats, two of them belonging to her brother-in-laws. Her brothers were cod fishers and still at sea. These boats brought sardines and sometimes shrimp. Tonight it was sardines. A water wheel sitting just below the damn powered the cannery and ran the belts. Boats pulled up on either side of the wharf and huge dip nets brought the fish onto a loading platform and from there the belts that took them inside circulating then in and endless round table.

Women and children stood in long rows in family groups and with two swift cuts removed the fish heads and pulled out the guts placing the fish on a second belt which whisked them away. Theodora began her chant as they worked while others took up the chorus. Singing was as much a part of the work as the cutting or filling of the cans. In other songs the women sang the verses and Theodora and her sisters the descant. The work and music bound the little community in shared songs and shared goals.

As the supply of ready fish reached a sufficient amount Theodora and several others moved to the filling line and began filling the cans as they passed through steam and were filled by hot brine. Others laid a lid on the can as still others sealed the lid and stacked then in the waiting baskets.

Michael was working alongside Rose when in a careless moment he slashed through his wrist. Rose grabbed him applying pressure to the cut and moved him to the sink where Theodora joined them. The wound was spurting blood in spite of the pressure, so Theodora quickly applied a tourniquet. "We're going to lose our baby brother," Rose sobbed as Michael lost consciousness. Theodora was terrified for him when suddenly her hands glowed with a faint blue light as she held Michael's hand. An identical deep painful cut briefly appeared on her wrist, then both wounds closed disappearing.

"What happened?" Rose gasped.

"I...I don't know. Please tell no one." Rose shook her head and carried Michael to a cot in the little infirmary.

"Rest here Mikey." He nodded as Theodora covered him with a blanket and they returned to the cannery floor. Theodora renewed the singing. As one of the huge baskets was filled with cans the chain fall lifted it and it was pushed along a ceiling rail to the first retort and lowered in. The retorts were managed by another crew of women who lowered the baskets into the retort and closing the retort filled it with hot water and steam. They started a mechanical timer and maintained control of the temperature and pressure in the retort. As the work continued Theodora took her place with a retort crew. By the time sixteen hours had elapsed and another crew had begun the cleanup. By the twentieth hour they were finished, the retorts empty. Cans were all labeled and in storage. Now they would return home, clean up and return to the inn for the party. Theodora returned to the inn and discovered that a hip bath was already in her room and ready. She stripped off her work clothes and had a luxurious bath then dressing in her blue skirt, white blouse and little blue jacket entered the tavern. She left her shoes in her room.

The party and refreshments were supplied by the cannery. Ale, Ginger Beer, potato chips, hard pretzels and fried chicken strips were the provided. A small group of fiddlers were going to play some dance music and asked Theodora with her tin whistle to join them. Rose taking her flat drum joined them too as they played a number of jigs and reels. A number of people asked Theodora to sing and she sang several harmonizing with her sisters and other young women, Later she was asked if she had any new songs and she sang 'Pip's Lament' and her 'Sun Rise Song". 'Pip's Lament' proved very popular. She danced in several women's dances with her sisters and several country dances with a number of partners. She chatted with several groups as she sipped ale and nibbled pretzels. Several people approached her to congratulate her on her betrothal to which she replied she had absolutely no desire to marry Alvin. She joined in a conversation regarding the rumors of a woman kept secretly by a man while working an imperial mine. Most scoffed at the story until Theodora told them she was the woman in the story.

"It's all true, it was me," she giggled.

"Who was the man?" someone asked.

"David, he protected me and kept me safe."

"Why were you away from the village?"

"I was running away from home. I'm not ever going to marry Alvin."

"Where did you sleep? Did you have your own rooms?" another woman asked.

"Everyone slept in a huge open cavern. I slept with David and Pip. We had our own little nook, David held me when we slept. I was so terrified and cold most of the time."

"How did the other men treat you?"

"David had to fight for me. Then some men discovered I was a girl. Without David I would have died."

"Pip, the other one who slept with you, is he the man in your song Teddie?" she nodded. Others were pelting her with questions.

"I loved Pip too." Theodora had no idea how big of an audience she had. She had no idea how her words were being misconstrued. She was in her own words two sheets to the wind from the ale she drank on an empty stomach.

"What kind of work did you do?"

"Explosives mostly. When Pip died in an explosion I was hysterical, they let me work in the kitchen after that."

"How did you bathe?"

"I couldn't use the showers because everyone would see me naked, so I bathed with David and Pip. We had a secret pool. I made David scrub my back and I scrubbed his and Pip's," she giggled again.

"How did you escape?"
"A bunch of men discovered out secret pool and caught me alone there."

"Where was David?" "

"We argued, I wanted him to make love to me in the pool. I asked him to leave me so I could think."

"Then what happened Theodora?"

"The other men came in. One of them grabbed me, then the cavern collapsed. Somehow and I escaped out of a volcano, and here I am." The night wound down and Theodora kept answering questions. She answered honestly declaring her love for David. She did not notice the whispers and glances she was receiving. Theodora returned to her room, and slept the sleep of the innocent.

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Elodia received word from the coven that the new witch had emerged. Now the wait until the dragon found her began.