Foundations 1/6

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Foundations
By T. L. Odell

Part 1/6
See Part 0 for Disclaimers


Tuesday afternoon, Seacouver

Duncan MacLeod walked up the back stairs to his loft above the
dojo, reading a note from Anne Lindsey.  Seeing her
handwriting still caused a tightening in his chest.  She sounded
happy with her new job in Indianapolis, and Jared, her lover,
was busy with the Earth Reborn Foundation.  The crayoned
picture from Mary brought a smile; like a doting godparent, he
attached it to the refrigerator with the pink "M" magnet she had
given him before they left.

He re-read Anne's last lines.  "I'm so pleased you'll be helping
the Camp Wilderness project.  It means a lot to us.  Fixing up
the old church camp in the mountains so inner city kids will
have a chance to escape their gang fights and drive-bys is going
to a big difference in so many lives."

*How did I let myself be talked into this one?*  Duncan thought.
Jared had asked him to be the site foreman and oversee the
work, but he'd accepted the job out of his affection for Anne--
kind of a going away present, showing he could accept her life
with Jared.  *Maybe it'll snow and I can get out of going.*
Although there had been a stint of bad autumn rainstorms
recently, the weather reports projected the remainder of the fall
would be mild, and he knew that since he'd made the
commitment, he'd do the job no matter what.

Duncan confirmed that he would arrive on Friday, his first work
crew early Saturday morning.  He looked over his temporary
identification papers from the Foundation as well as the copies
of the insurance forms he'd been required to fill out.  He smiled
as he looked at his signature promising not to sue if he suffered
any injuries...no need to explain that chances of that were
highly unlikely.  At least, no injury that would last very long.

He verified that he should find a Kelly Carpenter at the camp
building, and packed all the papers and forms into a canvas
briefcase.  He checked to see if he had enough clean clothes to
last the ten days he'd be at the project site.  The nearest town lay
fifteen miles away over winding mountain roads, not convenient
for clean underwear.  *Better to err on the side of caution,* he
thought as he gathered clothes from the hamper and started a
load of wash.

***

That same afternoon, Wilderness Camp Headquarters

"Damn it, Uncle Phil, you know I need to work alone.  Why
can't you just postpone the work crews for a couple more weeks
until I'm gone?"  Kelly Carpenter paused to listen to the voice at
the other end explain the circumstances.  "Have to beat the
winter weather," she repeated.  I understand, but--"  She sighed
deeply.  "Okay, his name is Duncan MacLeod.  He's 'safe--a
perfect gentleman.'  He'd just better stay out of my way.  But
fax me his ID so I can be sure the right guy shows up."  She
hung up the phone, grumbling at the turn of events.

Bad weather had delayed her surveys, and now she would not
only have to put up with the Saturday and Sunday volunteer
crews, which she could easily avoid, but also with this
MacLeod person.  He'd oversee the volunteers on the weekends
and work by himself during the week.  He'd be a little harder to
duck.  Until the work crews finished repairing and restoring the
guest cabins, the main house provided the only place to stay.

She had already commandeered the spare bedroom as her
office, with a desk, her computer system, reference books and
fax machine.  He'd have to stay in the old infirmary.  At least it
lay at the opposite end of the house from her rooms.  Some
contact would be unavoidable, but she'd be out in the field most
of the time anyway.  She went to find sheets, blankets and some
clean towels.  She hoped this MacLeod fellow had been told to
bring his own food.  *Safe,* Phil had said--a perfect gentleman.
*What is he, a priest, a monk?  I haven't met a 'perfect
gentleman' since David*--she broke the thought off there.  No
need to re-open that wound.

Kelly entered the infirmary, a stark room designed to keep
campers from wanting to be there unless it was absolutely
necessary.  A small window high on one wall provided the only
relief to the expanse of white.  She forced it open to air out the
room.  Nobody could say she wasn't doing her part to be the
gracious host.  She dumped the sheets down on one of the cots,
and then thought, *What the heck.  Might as well go whole hog
and make the bed while I'm at it.*  She unwrapped a bar of soap
and put it on the sink, and hung a clean white towel on the bar
next to the tiny stall shower.

Working in the kitchen, she heard the fax machine ring.  *That's
probably MacLeod's ID,* she thought as she went to retrieve the
document.  The ID picture was dark but recognizable.  *So that's
what Phil meant by "perfect gentleman."  Anyone this gorgeous
has to be gay.*  She smiled to herself as some of the anxiety left
her gut, and went back to her computer, reviewing the notes she
had taken earlier that week.

***
Friday afternoon

Kelly heard the crunch of tires coming up the winding gravel
driveway.  That must be Duncan MacLeod.  She started to rise,
then changed her mind and turned her attention back to her
monitor.  She didn't need to be waiting on the porch for him.  A
few moments later,  a car door closed.  Someone knocked on
the front door.  She tried to quell the butterflies in her stomach
as she got up and headed out to the living area to greet her
houseguest.  His ID didn't do him justice.  He was the epitome
of "tall, dark, and handsome."

"I'm looking for Kelly Carpenter.  I'm Duncan MacLeod."  He
held a small duffel bag and wore a long tan coat.

"You found her.  Come inside, Mr. MacLeod.  I'll show you
where you can put your things."

"You can call me Mac."  He smiled and extended his hand.

Kelly nodded and said, "Right.  If you'll follow me," and she
started walking down the hall to the infirmary.  She turned and
saw MacLeod still standing in the doorway.  She raised her
eyebrows at him, and he picked up his bag, shook his head, and
followed.

"I hope you'll be comfortable in here.  Bathroom's through
there; there are clean towels."  She waited for him to put his bag
and coat down and then started back toward the kitchen.  She
heard his footsteps striding after her.

"I trust they told you you'd be responsible for your own food.
I've cleared out this cabinet and there's an empty shelf in the
fridge, some room in the freezer, and one compartment in the
door you can have."

"I'm sure it will be fine.  I have some groceries in the car.  I'll
just go get them."

"I'll be back in my office if you need anything else."  Kelly
walked briskly back into her office space, closed the door
behind her, and took a calming breath.  *That wasn't so bad, was
it?  You'll manage.  Only ten days, and this one is half over
already.*  She picked up her notes on the native wildlife and
began entering data into her computer.

***

As Duncan put away his food, he thought about Kelly's abrupt
behavior.  He had a job to do, but the time would pass more
easily if they could talk to each other.  He closed the door to the
refrigerator and took stock of his surroundings.  The building
had a large central room with an open kitchen.  A small oak
dining table and four chairs sat to one side of the counter.  The
rest of the space served as a living room, with a green and
brown plaid couch and two worn brown overstuffed chairs in
front of a fireplace.  A coffee table sat in front of the couch,
with a narrow sofa table bearing a lamp and a small stack of
books behind it.  The front door opened to a wide covered porch
with two weathered wooden chairs.  At the back of the room,
French doors overlooked a meadow, and the reflected glint of
sunlight indicated a body of water of some sort not too far
away.

He went out the glass doors and walked around the outside of
the house.  On the far end, near his room, a large concrete deck
extended.  He walked around the deck and tried a side door to
the house.  It opened, and he found himself in a large
commercial kitchen.  This must be where the campers' meals
had been prepared.  Finishing his circuit, he passed by Kelly's
room.  Green curtains obscured the windows, but he could see
her silhouette cast by the light of her computer terminal.  She
appeared to be hard at work.  Maybe I just caught her at a bad
time, interrupted her at a critical point,  he thought.

He walked down the drive to where he had seen the skeletal
remains of camp cabins.  There were eight of them; most
needed new roofs and major repairs to the exterior walls.  This
would definitely keep work crews busy for the four full days,
and he'd have plenty to do during the week in between.  He
decided that he would be clear the campfire circle tomorrow; it
wasn't too overgrown and would give him the satisfaction of
completing something.  The plans called for a circle fifteen feet
in diameter, ringed by logs for seating with a fire pit in the
center.  The recent storms had felled a good number of trees that
could be cut to shorter lengths and dragged to the site.

He found the donated lumber off to the side of the cabins,
secured under canvas tarps.  Large plastic storage containers
held hammers, nails, hand saws, planes and other assorted tools-
-but he found no power tools.  Given that there wasn't any
electricity in this part of the compound, he understood why.
What he had first envisioned as a project in the Habitat for
Humanity vein took on the look of an Amish barn raising.

Duncan stopped at his car and pulled out the briefcase with the
Earth Reborn paperwork and went back into the house.  He
hoped he wouldn't upsetting Kelly too badly by spreading his
papers out on the dining table, but he found nowhere else to
work.  His first work crew would be showing up early the next
morning.  He had lists of names with job skills and preferences
for each; he set about organizing tasks and making the
assignments.

He heard the bedroom door open and looked up as Kelly
entered the room.  He studied her more closely; her baggy
sweats made it almost impossible to tell what her body looked
like.  He figured her age to be somewhere in her mid-thirties.
Her close-cropped brown hair looked as if she cut it herself,
with more concern for ease and comfort than style.  Tessa
would have called it a "hair don't."  Kelly wore no make-up, no
jewelry other than small gold studs in her ears.  She reached for
some keys on the hook by the front door and went outside.  He
heard the jeep start up and drive off.

He tried to ignore her personality quirks and started fixing
himself something to eat.  He finished his meal, washed his
dishes, put them away, and still saw no sign of the woman.  He
picked up his papers from the table and returned them to the
briefcase.  Deciding that he hadn't been confined to his room,
he brought his Grisham novel out to the living room.

End of Part 1

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