Chapter 14
Just as Iris expected, the broad cinderblock and concrete space hadn’t changed since she worked her last shift a couple of years ago. Long silvery pipes ran from the edges of the room to a central collection area, all of it driven by a vast boiler built halfway through the back wall. Raw maple sap took the long journey through those pipes, picking up heat and shedding water as steam, coming out the other side as the prized driver of Maple Ridge’s tourist economy.
Pallets of several sizes of containers stood against the wall to the left, near a tall door that rolled up toward the ceiling. Supplies waiting for a late winter harvest Iris doubted would be coming this year. She’d spent plenty of February and March hours after school learning how the whole contraption worked.
The r
