“God, that’s really scary to have to think about,” Michelle said from behind the wheel of the Mustang a few hours later as they started up to her parent’s place in Grand Canyon Village.

“Having to give up the river?” Duane asked, just for clarification, although he was pretty sure what she was talking about.

“Or cut back to almost nothing,” she shook her head, making her long blonde hair shake in sympathy. “God, it was hard enough to have to stay off the river to run the office like I did a few years ago.”

“No shit,” Duane agreed. It had been back before the two of them had been together; Dan’s brain tumor, in combination with her becoming assistant trip leader on the Gold Team, had pretty well relieved her of the office duties. There had been about three years when she’d had to fight like hell for every trip she made, and whatever she managed was not enough to suit her. “I remember how bad it must have seemed to you when I’d come into the office after a trip and see the scratch marks where you’d been climbing the walls.”

“And don’t think for a minute that I didn’t envy the living hell out of you and all the other boatmen who got to be on the river,” she snorted. Duane could tell she was pretty wrought up; she’d watched her language out of deference to Preach over lunch and through the afternoon, but now she was making up for it. “It sure as hell wasn’t anything I wanted to do; it was something I pretty well had to do. Shit, for a while there I was talking with ARA and GCR about moving over to one of them, and the hell with the unwritten agreement among the companies not to poach each others’ employees. I don’t know if I really would have done it, but I was sure tempted. I mean, I knew that Al was going through a rough patch and there was no one else available to do the job, but it still sucked pretty bad. I guess I can miss a trip or two what with this leader-training deal, but I won’t like it. Maybe I can do a trip or a half-trip on one of the other crews.”

“I’m not so sure I’d want to be on the White Team on a church trip,” Duane said in an effort to divert her a little.

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly want to do one of them, but it would beat staying topside,” she sighed. “I guess where Crystal is coming from it makes sense, but it’s not quite the same thing for me. I thought about it all afternoon, and like I said, it’s scary.”

The afternoon had gone pretty well. After they finished lunch, the four of them had gone back over to Canyon Tours, headed out to the shop, and started going over what had been done to the rafts. In general they looked pretty good. Crystal and Preach, along with Jeff Pleva, the Canyon Tours handyman, had put a lot of work into them. They’d been getting a little raggedy by the end of the season the previous year; they got hard use over the year, and even the briefest inspection revealed that both repairs and repainting had been needed.

The repainting was especially a pain in the neck. First, the rafts had to be stripped of everything, which included the frame, seats, and gear boxes, along with a lot of other items such as the life lines that ran around the gunwales and elsewhere. A special paint was required, and both a special paint room and a respirator were used, and it took some skill. Fortunately, Jeff had been doing the job for years. Then, they had to be put back together and rerigged, and it seemed like every boatman had some idiosyncrasies about how they wanted their rafts set up. It turned out that this year, Preach had instituted the idea of taking digital photos of each raft before they were dismantled, so he’d have some idea of how they had to be reassembled; he’d reported that it was a huge timesaver.

There was still a lot to do; Duane and Michelle would have to carefully inspect each raft to make sure everything was actually as good as it looked, and then the gear would have to be sorted, inspected, cleaned, and loaded. There was a lot of stuff that had to go with them each trip, but at least there were established checklists, both the standard list and a few extras that Duane and Michelle liked to have along. Everything had to go where it was supposed to go, so there would be a limited amount of looking for some item while on the river.

Along with that there was gear to be loaded each trip. Sleeping bags, for example, were laundered and repacked after every trip, mostly by Jeff; there was an extra set of them, so it was a chore that didn’t have to be done during turnarounds and take time from the crew’s break. Tents, however, stayed with the crew through the season, so they needed to be inspected, laundered, and repacked as well, and that was one of a myriad of chores that Crystal and Preach hadn’t gotten to.

All in all, it was doable, but it added up to what would be a busy couple of weeks before they could get on the river. Most of the work for the Gold Team would fall on Duane and Michelle; Barbie was expected in a few days to help out with the work, but Brett and Terry couldn’t be expected until it got close to launch day – they were college students and were still in classes.

After some discussion, Duane and Michelle decided they weren’t going to rush right off into the job. They still needed to get out to Michelle’s parents’ place in Grand Canyon Village, partly to catch up on things, but partly to trade their winter dogsledding things for summer rafting gear; there wasn’t a lot of crossover so it would require some sorting, too. Besides, after all the road travel the last few days they needed a little recuperation time, as well.

It was a long haul out to Grand Canyon Village, almost two hours if everything went well – too far to commute on a daily basis. In the days before Duane had come on the scene, when Michelle had to stay in town, she usually stayed with an elderly aunt; however, there had been some unspoken but noticeable resistance to the idea of Duane staying with her since the two of them weren’t married. So normally when they were off they made the long haul out to Grand Canyon Village and stayed there until time to come back to town to pack and load groceries for the next trip, usually early on Sunday mornings.

That wouldn’t work this time. What they decided to do was to spend the weekend with her parents, drive back to Flagstaff early Monday, and then put in some long days, just unrolling their sleeping bags in the rudimentary and little-used crew bunkhouse in the back of the Canyon Tours shop. It would be chilly in there, but after their months in Alaska they now had some idea of how to deal with chilly. They’d knock off early on Wednesday, drive back out to her parents’ place, and come back in for another long session on Thursday, probably not heading back to Grand Canyon Village again until late Saturday night. At that point they’d have to see how they were coming and whether Barbie had joined them. Working on Sunday wasn’t out of the question, but at this point the amount of work seemed manageable, even though they were clearly going to be busy. But then, they knew how to handle busy, too.

“Well, I can’t deny that Crystal and Preach’s new situation makes me wonder a little too,” Duane said, hoping that somehow he could shift Michelle off the subject. “I mean, you have to give them credit for realizing they’re going to have to grow up sooner or later.”

“But what if I don’t want to grow up?” Michelle snorted petulantly. “After all, I dressed and acted like a young teenager for years, mostly because I didn’t want to grow up then. Why should now be any different?”

“Because maybe you have grown up a little?” Duane smiled. “You don’t do all that partying jazz you used to do with Crystal and Scooter back before they got married, either.”

“Well, yeah, I guess,” she shrugged. “But that was more because I had to, not because I wanted to. I was already phasing out of that crap before we hooked up.”

“But you’re still in denial that you’re having to face up to the fact you’re not a kid anymore, right?” he pointed out. “At least Crystal and Preach seem to be coming to grips with it.”

“That might be, but I still plan on having another few good years before I let that stuff catch up with me, if it does at all. Hell, Duane, that was part of the reason I hooked up with you in the first place. You seemed committed to this kind of a life.”

“Well, I am, pretty much,” Duane agreed. “Remember, I never planned on being a Grand Canyon boatman until you and Scooter and Crystal pried me out of that Micky-D’s in Waynesville without a bit of warning. Up till that point I was trying to land a job with the Park Service and was going to keep at it until I got one. I figured that would give me the best of both worlds.”

“You’re still thinking about that?”

“Well, it’s still there in the back of my mind,” he admitted. “That’s a good place for it right now, since I’m happy with what I’m doing. It’s still something I could turn to someday, I suppose.”

“It sure wouldn’t be like being on the river.”

“No, no way,” he agreed. “In fact, I’ve lost a lot of enthusiasm about the job since I’ve seen what some of the rangers have to do. Let’s face it, Michelle, you and I and the rest of us boatmen have the fun, and the rangers get the work and the hassles. Hanging around Grand Canyon Village as much as I have has sort of opened my eyes to that.”

“Duane,” she sighed, “I can no more see you in a green suit and a Smoky Bear hat than I can see me staying topside with a regular job and some kids. I suppose there’s a danger of it happening, but I’d like to avoid it if I can.”

Their talk drifted to other things – finally – but the thoughts kept going through Duane’s mind. Much as he liked being a boatman in the Grand Canyon, he still had those dreams nurtured for several years about being a Park Service ranger. Granted, with his taste for wilderness, there were a lot of places where the job might not be all that interesting, such as being a tour guide in some cannonball park commemorating an otherwise little-known Civil War battle. But there were other places in the Park Service that had the potential to be a lot more interesting, even though they might not measure up to being a Grand Canyon raft guide. Maybe someday a more regular job like that might seem appealing, even though he wasn’t anywhere near that point right now. But who knew what would happen?

Duane had met Pat and Rachel Rawson before he’d gotten serious with Michelle, but had never really gotten to know them until he’d been living with their daughter for a while. It had been just about two years before when he and Michelle had first shown up at the house in Grand Canyon Village after living together in Josh and Tiffany Archer’s old mobile home in Spearfish Lake off and on for about three months.

To say that he was nervous about meeting them again under those circumstances was an understatement, probably brought on by the fact that Chica’s parents had all but had a fit when she announced that she and Duane were going to be living together back in Waynesville. It had definitely been a contributing factor to Chica and him losing interest in each other. So to be literally welcomed with open arms and the invitation to stay with them – in Michelle’s bed with her, at that – when they were off the river, just about knocked him senseless. It was not, to say the least, what he had expected.

The reason for their acceptance proved to be a little surprising, but logical once he thought about it: Michelle had been pretty flighty and hadn’t shown any signs of settling down since she had been a young teenager. The fact that she was living with a guy now seemed to mean that she was showing some signs of growing up, something that had seemed pretty unlikely for some time, so Duane’s appearance came as something of a relief, if an unexpected shock. From their viewpoint it seemed to be a step in the right direction. It didn’t hurt that they got along well with him right from the first.

Once he got to know them, Duane came to understand that Pat and Rachel were interesting people in their own right. Both of them had been boatmen back when Al was first on the river, over thirty years before; in fact, Rachel had been one of the first women boatmen on the river. She and Pat had known each other longer than that; clear back into childhood – they were distant relatives, both of them living in Roswell, New Mexico, a fact that had caused them to endure thousands of UFO-related jokes and teases over the years. Pat had gotten the river job first, and when Rachel indicated interest in it he used some influence to get her a job on the same crew. Things were very different on the river back then; the Park Service had been tightening up on regulations in many ways in the years since they’d been regular boatmen for Canyon Tours. Duane enjoyed hearing stories of the way things used to be, much like he heard them from Al.

Pat and Rachel had been living together on and off the river for a while before their son, Michael, came along; Michelle had followed not long after that. With two small children, there was no way Rachel was going to continue to be a boatman, but she gave it up reluctantly. Pat struggled on for a while longer but realized that he missed his wife and kids while he was on the river. When the chance came for him to purchase the Park Service concession of an existing gift store on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, they leaped at the opportunity. It was a heck of a reach for them back in those days, and it had taken some support from their families back in Roswell to make it a reality, but it proved to be a good move. The place was busy, and with good and enthusiastic management they did their best to make it busier.

There was an incredible array of items in the store, and most of it sold at a good volume and big markup. Duane knew, for instance, that the gift store went through a couple thousand copies of Myleigh Hartwell-Harris’ Canyon Tours CD annually, a fact that Myleigh herself had told him astounded her. Michelle was probably right that MacRae knives with Canyon scenes engraved on them would probably sell pretty well in spite of the high price; that was something to talk to Pat and Rachel about, just not right this minute.

Considering the hour, Duane and Michelle went right to the store, because that was where her parents were likely to be. That they were; the place was nothing like as busy as it would get in the height of summer – in fact, there rarely was a time when things were so slow as to not be worth the effort of staying open. As always, it was good to see her parents again. Both were on the small side, about Michelle’s size, but like Michelle were strong and agile, though he hadn’t noticed it on first meeting them. Much like Michelle, they looked younger than they actually were. Both of them appeared to be in perhaps their late thirties or early forties. Duane didn’t actually know how old they were, but considering that Michelle was turning twenty-nine in a little more than a month and that her brother Mike was older, Duane figured that Pat and Rachel had to be well into their fifties, at least.

“So,” Michelle’s father grinned when she and Duane walked in the door, “I see you made it back and managed to not turn into Popsicles.”

“It got a little chilly there at times, but nothing we couldn’t handle,” Michelle grinned as she fell into her father’s arms. “But damn, it’s good to be back where I belong.”

“We’ve missed you, honey,” Rachel beamed, “the both of you. Duane, I see you’ve been doing a good job of taking care of our little girl.”

“Actually, it was more a case of her taking care of me,” he laughed, turning to accept a hug from his prospective mother-in-law, “but then, it usually is.”

Business around the store more or less came to a halt for a few minutes while there was some catching up going on. Duane and Michelle, mostly her, had kept in fair touch with her folks by phone over the last few months, so there wasn’t really any new news, but the personal contact and the feeling of being home was so much better for her than a phone call.

Over the next few minutes they informed her parents of several things. They included the fact that this was going to be just a brief visit, since they still had rigging to do and little time to do it, even though Preach and Crystal had given them a head start on the project.

“After the way Preach and Crystal gave us a head start, we really thought that we ought to go up to Lee’s Ferry with them Sunday and Monday to help them get on the river,” Michelle reported. “But they told us that they had things in good shape and that we ought to have a couple days to spend with you.”

“Well, it’s going to be good to see you, even if it’s just for a short time,” Rachel said. “At least when Pat and I ran the river back in the old days, we didn’t do much of anything over the winter. You kids are so busy for so much of the year, it sort of makes me wonder if you’re ever going to settle down.”

“Doesn’t look like it anytime soon,” Michelle grinned. “But next winter might be a little better.” She went on to explain that they didn’t know if they’d be going to Alaska or not.

“It doesn’t matter,” Pat said. “If you don’t go to Alaska, you’ll probably find something else to keep you gone somewhere and busy as all get-out.”

“Well, we hope it won’t be quite as bad,” Duane said. “But I’m afraid we’ve learned that we’re both people who aren’t happy unless we’re doing something. I can take a day or two of sitting around doing nothing if there’s not anything to do, but that’s about the limit. After that I start looking. But I don’t think we’ll have any problem with finding something to do for the next year or two.”

“It looks like I may be seeing you a bit more than normal this summer,” Michelle said, and went on to explain about the trip leader teams being split up a bit. “I hope I’ll be able to run some half-trips or something, but it could be that I’ll be around to help you out with the store during the busy season, at least a little.”

“Any help would be appreciated,” Pat said. “Nothing much has changed there. The summer help we get leaves something to be desired, and we just about get them trained to the point where they know about what they’re doing when they have to head back to college or somewhere. Besides, we don’t see enough of you as it is.”

“I’d rather be out on the river, you know that,” Michelle said. “But I see the logic in what Al is trying to do, and I think he’s right, no matter how much I like it or not. But so long as there isn’t too much of it, I suppose I can survive.”

“I think we’ve figured that out by now,” Rachel grinned. “But at least we know we’re going to have you home for a couple days. What would you say if we called down to Phoenix and see if we can have Mike and Alana up for dinner or something if their schedule works out?”

“Fine with me,” Michelle said. “It’s been too long since I’ve seen him. It’s too bad he had to turn straight.”

“As opposed to being a river bum like his sister?” Rachel grinned. “Mike has always been funny that way. He sure didn’t take after his parents.”

Duane stifled a grin. While he liked the guy, he didn’t know Mike Rawson well; he was a cop down in Phoenix, with a wife, two kids, and a mortgage, which was to say that he was pretty straight as far as Duane and Michelle were concerned. He was a nice enough guy, but was quite a bit out of step with the rest of his family.

“Maybe someday he’ll come to his senses,” Michelle laughed.

“No, I’m afraid we’ve lost him like that,” Pat laughed. “I always figured he’d settle down and do it early, while I figured that you’d never settle down until you had to, sort of like happened to your mother and me. At least you’ve been able to hold out longer than we managed.”

“I’m trying to hang in there,” Michelle laughed. “Hey, maybe we’d better head over to the house, get some stuff unpacked, and get cleaned up. We should be seeing some boxes showing up from Alaska one of these days, and maybe we’ll get time to deal with them before we have to get on the river. Would you like us to get started on dinner?”

“No, don’t bother,” Rachel said. “I’m sure you’ll have stuff to do, and I feel like I ought to be the one to cook the dinner to celebrate the two of you being back home. Mark my words, someday you’ll have kids who will be gone somewhere for months on end, and you will want to welcome them home properly.”

“Maybe so, Mom,” Michelle grinned. “But I sure hope that day is a long time in coming.”

To be continued . . .

---

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

---