| Wes Boyd's Spearfish Lake Tales Contemporary Mainstream Books and Serials Online |
|
| Wes Boyd's Spearfish Lake Tales Contemporary Mainstream Books and Serials Online |
Chapter 5
The meeting lasted the rest of the morning, going over a lot of different things, and finally broke up around noon. As things died out, Crystal suggested, “Why don’t the two of you come to lunch with Preach and me? Then we can come back and go over what we did to get you ready.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Duane said. “I really appreciate you two doing that for us. I don’t know how we’d be able to do the spring rigging in two weeks if you hadn’t given us a head start.”
“Well, you can pay us back sometime, maybe,” Crystal said. “That’s something we need to talk about, anyway.”
“I’d really rather not go too late today,” Michelle said. “We haven’t even been up to Grand Canyon Village yet, and we need to see my folks before we get too wrapped up in rigging.”
“Right,” Duane agreed. “If nothing else, we need to get some different work clothes. If you can get us going good this afternoon, we can put in a serious day on it tomorrow. Where do you want to go for lunch? The Burro?” For some reason lost in the mists of time, but possibly because of the existence of a coin laundry next door, the Burro was the boatman’s bar in Flagstaff. It was a home away from home for many boatmen, and even total non-drinkers like Preach, Kevin, and Nanci made it in there from time to time. It was far and away the best place in town for the latest in boatman gossip.
“Works for me,” Crystal said. “It’s not like we have to have a beer or two. We haven’t been in there much since we got back from the show circuit, but we need to stick our noses in once in a while to keep up on what’s happening.”
After a little bit of discussion, the four of them piled into Preach’s Buick for the short ride downtown to the Burro. It was dark inside, and not terribly busy in spite of it being the lunch hour. They found a seat in a booth; when the waitress came by, there was mostly diet Pepsi and 7-Up ordered, in spite of it being a bar. Michelle was tempted to have a beer since beer didn’t hit her very hard, but decided not to under the circumstances.
“Like I said,” Duane began as the waitress headed for the bar with their drink orders, “I really appreciate you doing that rigging work for us.”
“We figured that we’d better get things set for you,” Preach shrugged. “It was no big deal. We had to be here anyway. There really wasn’t much else to do, so it kept us busy. We knew you were going to be coming back late and would be really tight on time.”
“Yeah, it wouldn’t have been so bad if it had just been the normal dog training,” Duane agreed. “But then we had to stick around Nome for the Musher’s Banquet, and that got us more behind schedule. It was pretty neat, though. I got an Iditarod Finisher’s belt buckle out of it, and there’s something less than a thousand of those ever awarded in over thirty years.”
“As far as I know, you’re going to be the only boatman on the river with one,” Crystal nodded. “But like I said earlier, maybe you can pay us back some time, like maybe next year.”
“We heard something about that,” Michelle piped up as the waitress came back with their drink orders. It took a minute for her to get their meal orders, simple though they were – Burroburgers and fries all around. It had been a long time since Duane and Michelle had enjoyed them, and there had been comments over the past few months about their wishing they had one of the fat, tasty burgers.
After the waitress left, Michelle picked up where she left off. “We heard something about you two planning a big trip somewhere. What’s that going to be?”
“We don’t know yet,” Crystal admitted. “We’ve got several ideas, we’ve got a few prices, and if nothing goofy happens maybe we’ll have the time to do it. Dad wanted us to do a big schedule of outdoor shows in the winter again, but was willing to do some trading off about it. That’s part of the reason I’m going to be spending some time topside this summer. We had to give up something to get something, after all. Now it looks like we’ll have two and a half, maybe three months clear, but it’ll be in the dead of winter here, so whatever we do it’ll have to be something tropical or in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s a little iffy, since March gets to be a little late in the season for a couple of the things we’ve been kicking around.”
“Like what?” Duane asked.
“Right at the moment it looks like a sea kayaking trip, but we’re still not sure about the details,” Crystal said. “I’d say paddling around Tasmania looks like the leader, but we haven’t given up on something around the south end of South America. We thought real hard about going to the Falklands, since nobody goes there much, but when we got to looking into it we found out that there’s a reason nobody goes there – it’s too damn hard and expensive to get to. Besides, from what we can find out the permit process will drive you about half nuts. So that’s probably out. Southern Chile is probably the next best choice, but well, there are ups and downs there, too.”
“It’s wilder than Tasmania,” Preach added. “But the weather is wilder too, and colder to boot. On the surface I kind of like the idea of paddling to Cape Horn, but when I stop and think about it I think we’d be nuts to do it. It would eat up the whole three-month hole, that’s for sure. Tasmania is a little more expensive, we think, but time-wise it’s a better fit.”
“Either one sounds like a pretty good adventure to me,” Duane opined.
“Well, none of it’s a done deal,” Preach told them. “It’s probably going to be mid-summer before we can tack it down. That’s going to mean that this business of Crystal staying topside for a couple trips probably will work in our favor, since she’ll be able to do a lot of the tacking.”
“However it works out,” Crystal noted. “If the trip slides into March very far, it means that someone else is going to have to get started on rigging for us. We can probably get a head start on it right after we get off the river in the fall, but there’s only so much that can be done then.”
“Well, if it works out that we’re not in Alaska then, I guess we’re up for it,” Duane said. “However, like I said before the meeting, that’s not worked out all the way, either. The odds are that we’ll be in Spearfish Lake until early February sometime. Then, if we get a little time, we want to spend some of it with my folks, and maybe a week or two in Costa Rica if Scooter and the rest of the gang head down there again.”
“They probably will,” Crystal smiled. “They’ve got a pretty good deal going for them down there, although Preach and I have never been able to spend much time with them. Too much time at shows and doing office chores.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s going to happen if you’re eventually going to be the boss,” Michelle nodded. “I get the idea you’re not real crazy about the idea.”
“I’m not,” Crystal shook her head. “I like things just fine the way they are, but I’ve known for years now that they’re not going to stay that way forever. I’ve just been trying to hold the evil day off as long as I can, but it’s pretty clear it’s starting to catch up with me. That’s part of the reason Preach and I want to do this big trip next winter, because it could be the last year we’re able to get away for a long time.”
“Is Al going to give up the business?” Duane wanted to know.
“Probably not, at least not soon,” she said. “There’s some kind of a tax issue involved, though I’m not real clear on what it is. But he’s going to want me to be more-or-less managing it in the next two or three years. He probably will still look over my shoulder and also likely go along on two or three raft trips a year, and when that happens I’ll be lucky to get that many. I’ll tell you that I’m not looking forward to the day that I stand up at Lee’s Ferry and wave goodbye to Preach when he starts off on a trip without me.”
“I’m not looking forward to doing the same thing with Duane,” Michelle agreed. “But it looks like it’s going to happen, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, it does,” Crystal nodded. “And the heck of it is, Dad is right. We need to be building a little more leader and assistant depth, and maybe a whole new leader team, most likely this year, next year for sure. I’m not looking forward to Preach doing six or eight trips a season without me.”
“Me either,” Preach added. “I mean, when you get right down to it, the reason I stayed in the Canyon was to be in it with Crystal, not without her.”
“Right,” Crystal said. “That’s the real reason we’re going to need a whole new leader team in the next couple years, and there probably will be some switching around.”
“Well, it makes sense,” Michelle commented. “But it sure looks like all this came out of the woodwork.”
Crystal glanced around to see if there was anyone nearby, then dropped her voice. “Well, it sort of did,” she said quietly. “I mean, it’s something Dad has talked about for a while, but all of a sudden Dad got into a situation that he’s never really had before. He was sort of surprised to discover that he’s got more boatmen than he’s got raft seats.”
“You’re right, I’ve never heard of that happening,” Duane agreed. “What happened?”
“Well, oh, a month or so ago, Dad thought he was set. He’d promised rafts to some new boatmen like Terry, and for once he thought he had all he needed. Then it turned out that Andy Roney wanted to come back.”
“Andy?” Duane frowned. Andy was an adequate boatman, no more than that, but was reliable, and had always had a good rapport with the customers. He may not have been the best boatman on the river, but of all the guides he always seemed to get the most tips on any trip he was on. “I thought he went to GCR in that big trade-around that came down when we took over the GCR trips two years ago.”
“He did,” Crystal said. “He wasn’t real happy about it, and Dad told him that if he wanted to come back there’d be a spot for him. He ran motor rigs for GCR for two years, and I don’t know what happened, some kind of a difference of opinion, and I get the feeling that Marty didn’t back him up on the deal like Andy thought he should have. So after the season was over with he decided he wasn’t going back.”
“He would have graduated from college, wouldn’t he?” Duane asked. “I figured he wouldn’t have been coming back, anyway.”
“That was then,” Crystal said. “Now he’s going to grad school, and when Andy came to Dad, well, Dad felt like he had to make good on his promise. So there’s a good chance that he’s going to be a summer boatman for the next four to six years, and he doesn’t want to go back to GCR under any circumstances. Having a summer rafter with that kind of experience is something Dad doesn’t want to turn his back on. It’s not a done deal yet, and Dad would be just as happy if Marty didn’t know about Andy coming back to us, instead of them. That’s why nothing was said about it at the staff meeting. Anyway, when it started to look like Andy was really coming back, which still isn’t all the way a done deal, all of a sudden there was some flex in the boatman schedule to be able to do something like what Dad is talking about. If Marty pitches too much of a bitch then Dad may not be able to keep Andy, not that Andy would go back to GCR. That’s why nothing is pinned down about the boatman schedules and switching people around.”
“I think Marty will be all right with it,” Michelle opined. “He is really a pretty decent guy, but the companies have sort of an unwritten agreement to not poach each other’s boatmen.”
“Right, and that figures into it,” Crystal agreed. “After all, Andy did quit GCR last fall and didn’t figure on coming back, so maybe that will affect it.”
“I’ll tell you what,” Preach smiled. “Don’t be real surprised to see Andy as a trip leader sometime, at least in the summer months. Probably not this year, but maybe in a year or two. Al didn’t say it, but he’ll probably get a tryout as an assistant sometime this summer, too.”
“You mean, have him as a trip leader sort of like we used to do with Bill a few years ago, while he was in law school?” Michelle asked.
“Yeah, pretty much,” Crystal agreed. “The difference was that Bill was a hell of a rafter. Andy is OK so long as things are going smoothly, but I’m not sure how he’ll work out when things go to cobs. But then, he’s had two years of running motor rigs, so there’s no telling how that’ll figure into it, too.”
“Well, I have to say that if Al is looking for a trip leader, I wouldn’t have any problems with Barbie being moved up right away. I think she has Scooter’s kind of leadership skills, and she’s not quite as coarse about it.”
“I don’t disagree,” Crystal said. “And when we talk about Scooter we’re talking about my best buddy, after all. But I’m of the opinion that we need to work people up to it. After all, I only had two and a half trips as an assistant when I got the leader job dumped in my lap. Scooter only had two and a half trips on the river total before she became an assistant trip leader, even though she had all that paddle-raft experience back east. We managed to make it work, but I’d have been a lot happier if I’d had a full season before it happened. That was the plan, and it didn’t work out.”
“It worked out in the long run,” Michelle protested.
“Yeah, it did, but it was an emergency, and there’s a good chance it might not with someone else if something like that came up again. Realistically, I can look back and say that Scooter should have been made trip leader instead of me, but she was real new to the Canyon, and Dad didn’t know her very well at the time. We made it work between us. So I have to admit that Dad has a point about training some new leaders.”
“I think it would work if Barbie was dumped into something like that,” Duane observed, and decided it was a good place to venture out onto shaky ground. “I have my doubts about how well it would work with Andy, or maybe Kevin. I’m not sure how well they could rise to the occasion.”
“Well, you’re probably right about that, especially with Kevin,” Crystal agreed. “Which is all the more reason Dad and I need to find out beforehand if they can manage it. The only way we can deal with it is to split the leader teams up for a bit temporarily, just so we don’t get caught out and have to split one or more of them up for a whole season or more.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Duane agreed, realizing that he wasn’t the only one with reservations about Kevin. “He might be all right with the right group, but it could be bad news all around to find out the hard way that he’s not.”
“He’d be good on the White team on the church trips,” Preach pointed out. “I’ll probably keep doing those even if I’m not doing anything else, though. Like I said, I don’t want to do a lot of trips if Crystal is topside. At least it’s not like Dave and Mary, who are close to ruling out splitting up entirely but are willing to do it short term in a real emergency.”
“Yeah,” Michelle sighed. “It’s not like I want to be a trip leader, but I guess I could fake it in an emergency. I don’t want to do it, and you know why. I like to think of myself as a pretty good boatman, but I don’t think of myself as a leader.”
“You could get away with it, now that you look ten years older than you did when I first met you. I’m glad you grew out of that teeny-bopper-looking phase and gave up the bubble gum.”
“Well, it was kind of a case of having to,” Michelle shrugged. “But to hear you talk, it sounds like you’re not planning on being on the river much.”
“Probably not, at least in a few years,” Crystal admitted. “I’m hoping that we can phase it down slowly and I can at least keep my foot in it for a few trips a year. I don’t like the idea, but it’s clear that I’m going to have to spend more time topside, and a trip down in the Canyon will be a special treat, not a regular thing. In the long run, that’s why we need to develop a new leader team. Then, when Preach and I get started on a family, there’ll probably be a few years there when my doing a trip is going to involve a real emergency.”
“Starting a family?” Michelle frowned. “Are you really thinking about that?”
“Yeah, pretty much. Did you guys see Randy and Nicole when you got back from Alaska?”
“Yeah, we did. We didn’t see them for long, maybe a half an hour, since we had to get on the road. She’s due to have the baby any day now. Have you heard anything about that?”
“Not yet, and I’m sure that Randy will let us know, at least let Mom know if Preach and I are on the river. How was she doing?”
“I’ll tell you what,” Michelle shook her head. “She was getting to the point where she was really ready to have it, if you know what I mean. I mean, she really looked it. But she was looking forward to it, too.”
“You could tell she was pregnant when we saw them back in January,” Crystal explained. “But she wasn’t huge or anything. She was really looking forward to starting that adventure in her life. We sat around with Randy and Nicole and some other people, Trey and Myleigh, Danny and Debbie. The talk was all about baby names and how they were going to handle child care and such things, I never felt more like an outsider around them in my life. I mean, it was like they’re all grown up and getting on with their adult lives while Preach and I were still doing kid stuff.”
“I don’t know,” Michelle replied, realizing that Crystal’s sweeping statement took her in, too. “I didn’t think you were all that hot on having kids and the homebody life.”
“Well, a few years ago I wasn’t,” Crystal sighed. “I mean, I always knew I wanted to have a family eventually, but I think it was that evening, more than any other, that reminded me that ‘eventually’ is sneaking up on me real fast. Then, after we got on the road again, Preach and I talked about it a lot.”
“I don’t want to say I’m anxious to have kids,” Preach explained. “But I do want to have them sometime. I really feel the need to have a family of just more than Crystal and me. It’s how I’m made, I guess, and losing my folks at the age of fourteen probably has a lot to do with it.”
“We’re still young enough that we’ve got a few years,” Crystal went on. “And, well, if I’m stuck topside anyway, the timing will work out right.”
“Gee zow,” Michelle shook her head. “Crystal, I don’t know how to say this, but I’ve been a boatman longer than you have, and I’ve known a lot of boatman, both from Canyon Tours and from other companies. I have to tell you that there are not a lot of women boatmen who left the river to have kids and have ever made it back to the river full time, and often it winds up taking their husbands away from the river too. Your dad has always said that spouses have cost him more boatmen than booze ever could. He’s right, and kids are often the reason behind it.”
“I know that,” Crystal sighed. “And I know it’s a risk we’re going to have to take. The fact that I’ll still be with the company whatever happens means that at least I’ll make it back to the river sooner or later, not often, maybe, but sometimes. There’ll probably be some periods in there where I wouldn’t be available to do a trip, even in an emergency. After a while I’ll probably be able to sneak one in once in a while if it’s planned halfway carefully, like with Preach staying topside, or Mom or Jon and Tanisha watching the kid. I’m afraid I’m going to have to handle it like Dad does, and only do a few trips a year, and then only if I really need to. In a year or two, that’s probably how I’m going to have to do it, anyway.”
“Well, yeah, I guess,” Michelle replied uncertainly, struggling to comprehend the reality. “I mean, after we saw Randy and Nicole we talked about having kids a little, while we were on the road. It’s kind of a someday, maybe thing. We’re both afraid it would change our lives a lot more than we want, right now, anyway.”
“Don’t think it won’t change our lives more than we want it to,” Crystal shook her head. “But they’re being changed anyway, with this stuff of having to take over the company and stay topside a lot. Dad still gets in four or five trips a year most years, and that beats the heck out of no trips. Fortunately we’ve still got a little time to think about it and make plans, so maybe it won’t be quite so bad.”
