Hot and muggy.

When it’s like that it’s hard to even think let alone be productive or creative. In the modern world the city-state of Singapore had intentionally air-conditioned the entire city to overcome the stifling heat. They did everything short of putting a dome over the city. It worked, productivity went through the roof if you stayed inside. That wasn’t happening here though, we could simply pray for an afternoon breeze.

The soul-sucking part was that my watch had just ticked past 9am.

Sinclaire had returned from quitting her job uptown, focusing on this place was a smart move on her part in my opinion. Resurrecting this place would keep her busy and with a good income for years; my investment was tiny but far more than enough to jump-start this joint again. Had she tried to do both she probably would have failed at both.

Here I was willing to invest a minor sum and all she had to do is invest the work. I was quite sure she’d make this into a success in relatively short order. Particularly with the Byrnes involved to help with vendor accommodations and dedicated customers from my companies. This would also do me for short term accommodations but I still wanted a place here and I wanted it to be a bit nicer than this. I wanted a place with a pool for weather like this or at least a bath to cool off in.

Well setting up a big tub was a fun idea and a fun idea was just what I needed at that moment; something I could have a good time doing. This place needed a bath, something large if we could manage it. For today anything that would hold water would do, but for Rulo I needed to talk to Peter our handy engineer; we should be able to build a public bathing house with minimal effort. Public bathing was still a common thing in the Orient and other fun areas even in the modern age, I didn’t mind it at all but my red headed buddy had some disturbing incidents. Ah the tragedy of being a red-head, I still had thing for red-headed women regardless.

I should not forget to mention that my ginger-headed pal was also picked on for having the unfortunate name “Bob Harder”, jarheads aren’t easy on anything like that and every single one of us was singled out for something in our collective, youthful boredom. Do I need to go into depth for you what sort of hilarity they could find in the name Zachariah Ebenezer Narrater? Or even having a slightly oversized penis? “Seriously guys, it’s just in proportion with the rest of me, leave off already!” Marines are not easy on one another and you either get over it or get out. To be honest, it was how we kept each other sane; if you were too busy laughing at the wort on Buggies ear to remember what happened last night you didn’t lose it. We laughed at the world to spite our hatred of ourselves.

I drank to that, best thing ever to drink to.

Then I got busy focusing on a cool bath cuz that’s what a smart guy would do.

What happened next was completely predictable for 19th century Missouri. I called for SincereClaire and introduced the topic of a cool bath in a very large and private bathing tub. It was a fun few minutes while she worked to get her head around the idea of a bathing experience like I was describing but it didn’t take very long before she started to get excited. She knew the cooper in town, he was a busy man and ran a large shop as barrels were vital to a shipping port. He might just have what I wanted.

I found one of our boatmen out in the pub and sent him to fetch Amos, free beer for the rest of the night with the promise of another paid day off had them all eager to help. We needed a carriage and we needed a large tent; we also needed buckets lots of buckets. Of course we also needed manpower and it wasn’t surprising how many were eager to help with the promise of paid time off and free beer.

I reluctantly put on my town clothes and gathered my standard gear, this included cash. Thankfully all of the St. Louis dollars had been redeemed or left there with Widow Langdon, I could have used another day or so without touching a weapon but that apparently wasn’t meant to be. Sinclaire used this time to spruce up as well but went scurrying back to her room after she saw how I was dressed. Waiting for women was apparently an timeless endeavor that probably dated back to Eve. She did look much more respectable when she reappeared in her going to town, Sunday best. At this point in time I was still simply seeing various levels of sexy attractiveness.

Amos appeared and was happy to arrange transport if it meant another day here with his girl and Rabbi showed up with group of contrite men who were willing to bend their backs a little to be back in my good graces. Things started to move quickly.

Aunty had a few of them starting to dig a roasting pit off the ‘rustic’ back porch. Two other guys, one white and one black, were examining the old well to see if it was redeemable. I had to remind myself that these people all had hidden skills and knowledge, I needed to learn how to leverage that.

The place was a beehive of activity but everyone seemed to be having a good time. There were women inside scrubbing every in of surface and someone was even discussing paint schemes. SeriousClaire had set out pitchers of watered down ale and wine and everyone was apparently having a good time.

I was saved by Amos showing up with a horse drawn buggy and a buckboard following close behind. I grabbed SillyClaire and made my exit. There would be no bathing without a tub and I wanted a very large tub.

So off to the local cooper’s we went.