The Long Dark by Billy Farmer (best book club books for discussion .txt) 📗

that I use to keep the water tanks thawed. We could use that to warm it, I think. It gobbles the kerosene, but we shouldn’t need it that long,” Jack said.

Avery combed his wild hair with his fingers before saying, “The heater will not work because it needs electricity for ignition.”

“There’s a battery in the front loader. You should be able to use that as your power source, assuming you know how to convert the twenty-four-volt battery down to the needed voltage of the heater,” Jack said, happy with himself. “You’re not the only smart one here.”

Avery clucked his tongue and gave Jack a sour look. “Easy.”

“Good. Let’s do it,” Jack said, slapping Avery on the back.

***

They called it the Shining because, well, it looked sort of like the tracked vehicle in one short shot at the beginning of the movie - not the actual vehicle that the mom and son escaped in at the end. No one for sure could remember who first started calling it that, but it stuck. It’s odd that the vehicle was named after a scary movie, because even as scary as The Shining was, the idea of driving its namesake ten-plus miles in horrible conditions was even scarier, especially since no one had ever seen it run.

I had just come from asking Tish to come along with us. I had hoped to hear the diesel engine as I neared the lean-to. No dice. Instead, I saw Avery's over-exaggerated hand movements, followed by Jack shouting at him. "Just wire it up. It doesn't have to be perfect, dammit."

“If I do this incorrectly, we destroy the battery. We do not have another,” Avery said. The electric lamp jutting out from under his hood made him look like a hairy cyborg or something.

"Stop being a drama queen, Avery," Tom said. He had exactly no patience for Avery.

I distanced myself from the fight. I didn't want to fuel the fire.

“There,” Avery said. The heater came to life.

“I told you that would work, Avery,” Jack said, not smiling. “You’re stubborn as shit. You know that.”

Ignoring Jack, Avery said, “Whoever wired this engine did a horrendous job.”

“Well, we don’t have time to fix it, so don’t touch it,” Tom said, fearing Avery’s OCD would compel him to fix what he thought was done poorly.

“When was the last time this was actually driven – started for that matter?” Jack asked.

Everyone looked at one another, hoping someone would say yesterday or two weeks ago or even a couple months ago, but no one knew.

“Not exactly confidence inspiring is it?” Jack said.

I laughed. “Freeze here, or freeze stranded on the ice. Either way, you’re frozen.”

“Very poetic, William. Wish Sam was here to regale us with some of his stuff. You know, like the dick slapper poem? Remember that one?” Jack said, letting go of a hardy laugh.

“Yeah, I remember. He had a bit too much to drink that night…”

“Sam is a Neanderthal,” Avery said.

“He hears you say that, he’ll give you the ol’ dick slapper,” Jack said, now chortling.

Avery rolled his eyes.

“Alright, let’s fire this thing up,” I said, looking at Jack and shaking my head. Dick slapper.

The good news was the battery in the Shining was charged because it turned over. The bad news was it didn’t start. We waited a few minutes and tried it again, but still nothing. Avery decided the heater needed to be closer to the engine block. I feared that it would melt the rubber tracks, but it really didn’t matter if they were melted or not if it wouldn’t start.

Thirty minutes or so had passed before we tried starting it again. It turned over, but nothing happened. The fear was the battery would die. Because of the conditions on the patch, any battery installed outside was supposed to be checked every two weeks. Being that the Shining tended to be forgotten, its preventative maintenance might’ve gotten skipped. Compounding that issue was the guy who changed the batteries tended to be, well, damn lazy.

“Can I offer a suggestion?” Avery asked.

We pretty much sighed in unison. Tom finally broke the silence. “As long as you can say it in under a minute.”

Tom stole my line.

“I will just show you rather than telling you, then.”

"Dammit, Avery," Tom said. I grabbed his arm and motioned for him to let him do it. Tom clenched his fist and jaws. He cursed loudly but conceded that Avery might’ve been their best chance at getting it started.

Avery proceeded to climb into the engine box of the Shining. I couldn’t exactly see what he was doing because Avery’s lamp hid his hands from view. All I could do at that point was hope he knew what he was doing. Part of me wanted to grab him out of there, but the other part that had seen him do wicked clever things in the past won out. Tom chimed in a few times but decided to save his sanity by walking far enough away that he couldn’t see inside the engine bay.

Avery finished whatever it was he did and quickly put his mittens back on. With a wry smile, he said, “Try it now.”

Jack climbed onto the tracks and then into the driver's seat. I climbed onto the tracks and around to the engine bay. I took one of my gloves off and gave the engine block a feel. It was warm to the touch at that point. I gave Jack the thumbs up. Time seemed to slow down for those few moments. He cranked it a couple times before it knocked and sputtered for a few seconds before dying. On the next try, however, with a huge plume of black smoke belching from the exhaust, it came to life.

Avery walked to the driver side and smugly said, "I told you that would work." He was extremely proud of himself, not to mention remembering how smug Jack was with him about the heater. He was less willing to run the victory lap around Tom. Good