Dr. Grey's Arc

Chapter 7 of 11

Dr. Grey woke before light and packed for the road. She had no horse and no cart that would hold against snow. The road two towns over climbed through a pass that closed by the first hard storm. She stood at the door of her small cabin and looked at the sky. The clouds sat low and gray. She tied her bag, pulled on her coat, and stepped out to start walking. She did not know how she would carry tin back if she got it. She reached the lot and stopped. A truck sat in front of the frame, idling, larger than any wagon in town. Its bed rose high with stacked tin sheets strapped down under a thick insulated cover. Boards leaned against the cab. A sack of nails sat on the running board. The driver climbed down and pulled off his gloves. He said the roofer had sent him. He said the roofer's wife had died two weeks ago, quietly, in her sleep, and the man wanted Dr. Grey to have the tin anyway, for trying. Dr. Grey did not speak for a long moment. She walked to the bed of the truck and put her hand on the cover. The tin underneath was cold and solid. She counted the edges of the sheets. Enough for the whole roof. Enough for the gaps over the boards and the seams she had measured a hundred times. The driver said he could not stay long. The pass was already closing behind him. He had driven through the night to beat it. He pulled the cover back and showed her the load. Tin, boards, two boxes of nails, a roll of tar paper. He said the roofer had asked him to unload at the site and turn back the same hour. The builder came out from the supply tent and stared. Together they walked the driver to a flat patch of ground beside the frame, where a concrete pad had been poured the week before for a small insulated supply shed. The driver backed the truck against the pad. The three of them worked fast. They stacked the tin under the shed's eave and covered it. They piled the boards along the wall. They set the nails inside the door. A large white-headed bird watched from the ridge of the frame and did not move. The driver climbed back into the cab and lifted a hand. Dr. Grey asked him to carry her thanks to the roofer. He nodded and pulled away. She stood beside the stacked tin and felt the cold come down through her coat. The builder said they could start the roof in the morning. She wrote the roofer's name on her list and put a check beside it. She had not earned this. She would have to.