Chapter 99: Sorting Sonya

I had to sort all of these women out and I’d start with Sonya. It was time to put her back to work again. She was getting a promotion to Executive Assistant and would work for both Michelle and myself. First, though, was dinner. It was time for the midday meal and I was hungry. I hoped Matilda had something fresh on the fire.

I asked Holder, Amos, and Sonya to sit with me during dinner. Michelle joined us. This was the simple part. I wanted Sonya there, to get it on the record. Everything would need to be recorded, just for our own sanity. We had some sort of curried fish over rice for lunch; it was pretty damn good. Mouse had joined us and was paying rapt attention as I gave my instructions. I had the feeling my leadership council was about to expand to three.

After the food was finished, I addressed both Amos and Holder.

“I need to you start working with the oldest of the children on the daily chores. There’s going to be a lot to do and I still rely on you two, but you need to use and train these extra hands. Otherwise, you two will never have time for anything else, which isn’t what we need. So you’ll have those three oldest kids for now to help you. Once a boy turns eight, he starts to work for you.” Damn, I talk too much, sometimes.

Amos looked pleased and proud; Holder looked a little concerned. I didn’t blame him.

Time for reassurances, “You two will still be working with the men while the kids get their schooling, but this will be your first priority. Consider yourself leaders and teachers. On the plus side, you’ll be carrying a lot less firewood in the future.”

Well that brought smirks, and I turned to Sonya, “We need to Org Chart this somehow. I trust you to figure it out. We’re going to have a lot of moving parts and we need to be able to see them.”

You could see the professional in her click back in. THERE was the Sonya I knew and trusted.

“Obviously, you’re back on the job - with a promotion. You are now the Senior Executive Assistant and Village Clerk. You report to and support myself and Michelle for now. Is that OK with you?”

She had a pure smile on for the first time in months, since before the incident with her sister and her now- ex-boyfriend. It was good to see.

“You also get your own tent. You can have mine. I’ll be taking my camper back over and we’ll use that for our office, as well, until we get some building done. Can you put together a roster of everyone we have in the campsite, by the end of the day? You’ll need to get with Captain Timmons to get a roster of his boatmen.”

I turned to Michelle, “You got anything for her right now?”

Michelle thought for a minute and then said, “We need to refresh our inventories again before the new supplies arrive. We may need to recruit some help for that.”