| 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 19
Duane’s internal alarm clock woke him on river time the next morning, which is to say before the birds woke up. He rolled over and tried to get back to sleep but gave it up after a while. Though he totally enjoyed lying in bed next to a warm and nude and sleeping Michelle, there was something that told him he ought to get up and get moving.
He was a little at a loss on what to do, but finally pulled on some clothes, went out to the kitchen, and got the coffeepot going. He made it extra strong, so it would at least resemble river coffee a little, then sat down at the kitchen table to let the elixir work its magic.
So far, he thought, things had gone much better than he had expected, which was a huge relief. There were some obvious problems lying out there, but they would have to be dealt with in the future, some still during river season, and some afterward, but at least he and Michelle knew they existed. As he reflected on it, he realized that he now wasn’t as happy with the idea of being a boatman for a long-range future, but then, somehow he had always felt that way. It was something great to do when he didn’t have other responsibilities, but now he could see those responsibilities coming, and real life was now giving him second thoughts.
Still, it was a job and it would work for a while. It wasn’t like he had to run right down to Al and hang the job up; there was no reason he couldn’t at least stick out the season, at least not after having discussed it with Michelle. That still didn’t answer questions about next spring, but there was a winter between now and then when he could explore his options a lot better than was possible right now.
Somewhere in there he glanced at the clock and realized it was a little after seven. Pat and Rachel would be getting up soon, he realized, but since Arizona didn’t go on Daylight Savings Time it was ten o’clock in Michigan; his father would probably be at the shop and Vicky would most likely be. This was about the best chance he was going to get to call them and pass on the news with some modicum of privacy.
He went over to the phone on the wall and dialed the 800 number for his dad’s store. It rang a couple times, and his father answered, “MacRae Knives. How can we help ye?” in a pronounced Scottish burr.
“Well, you can start by shipping some more knives out to Pat and Rachel’s gift shop,” he replied. “He says he’s almost out.”
“I can do that,” his father answered, dropping the fake Scottish accent. “How many does he want?”
“He didn’t say, just said ‘some more,’” Duane answered. “I’d guess about the same order as last time, whatever it was.”
“I can probably have them on the way by the first of the week,” his father replied. “Vicky would have to finish up engraving a couple, but she’s been looking for something to do.”
“So how are things going back there?”
“Oh, about the same as always. Sales have actually been pretty good, so we’re making ends meet. What’s happening with you?”
“Quite a bit,” Duane replied, deciding there was no way to soften what he had to say – or at least if there was, he’d already done it. “Michelle is pregnant, and we’re getting married.”
“You don’t say,” his father replied, his smile audible through the phone.
Duane heard his father call to Vicky in the background to pick up another phone. In a second she joined him. “What’s up, Duane?” she said.
“Like I just told Dad, Michelle is pregnant and we’re getting married. We haven’t set a date or a place yet. We were talking about it last night and I basically told her and her folks to work out the details since I’m going to mostly be on the river between now and whenever it is. I doubt it’s going to be before the first part of August, though.”
“This is a surprise,” Vicky said. “But then I guess it’s a surprise to you, too.”
“No fooling,” Duane said. “She dropped it on me down at Phantom Ranch, hell, almost two weeks ago now, but I’ve mostly been away from a phone between then and now. You know how that works.”
“Aye,” his father replied. “We often wonder what you’re doing, but we know there’s no way to call you up to find out. You are very good at surprising us with these things, Duane.”
“Like I said, you’re not the only one surprised. The joker in the deck is that she’s going to be off the river the rest of the season.” He went on to explain about the fears of her having a miscarriage a long way from medical help, and that he understood, even though he didn’t like being away from her very much.
“Not a bad idea,” Vicky said. “Is she there?”
“No, she’s still asleep; it’s still real early here.”
“Well, tell her to give us as much notice as she can, because we want to be there for the wedding.”
“We talked about it last night, and we want you here,” Duane said. “It’s not going to be anything big or fancy. Her folks are looking forward to meeting you. I’m afraid Michelle and I have told a few stories on you two.”
“Not surprising,” his father said. “I seem to recall you and her telling one or two on them. I guess the best thing would for her to let us know the details as soon as she can. We’re easy to get hold of.”
“Something like that,” Duane agreed. “Like I said, I’m going to be on the river. It’s been a good season so far, no big disaster stories to tell or anything like that.”
They talked for a while longer. Duane didn’t often get to talk to his father – it was one of the downsides of being so busy and being so far away – but he really liked his father and thought he was pretty cool. Their doing outdoor stuff together, especially when he had been a young teenager, had been a big chunk of the inspiration that had led him down the trail to being a boatman. Sometime, maybe this winter, he was going to have to find a way to spend some more time with his father and Vicky.
By the time he wrapped up his phone call, Pat, Rachel, and Michelle were all up and running, and breakfast was under way. “So,” Michelle asked, “did he take it all right?”
“I doubted he’d take it any other way,” Duane smiled. “He says to give them as much warning as you can about when the wedding is going to be, work out the details with them, and they’ll be here. I mean, I’m assuming it’s going to be around here somewhere.”
“Well, yeah, with all the Canyon Tours people involved it can’t be back in Bradford,” she replied. “Have they ever been to the Canyon?”
“I don’t know,” Duane shrugged. “Dad, I know he hasn’t. Vicky may have, I know she was out in this general vicinity for a while, but she may not have gotten closer than I-40.”
“Wonderful,” Pat smiled. “I think we’re going to enjoy letting the place knock their eyes out.”
The rest of the day may have been easier on the crew, but it really wasn’t on Duane. After breakfast they got in the Mustang and drove back down to the Canyon Tours shop in Flagstaff, where Michelle had a fair amount left to do with packing groceries and other crew-turnaround chores. Duane realized there was nothing with it that he was actually supposed to do, but he was incapable of sitting on his butt and watching high school kids do something about one eighth as efficiently as he could have done it. He tried to teach them some of the tricks and ways that things should be done, and checked their work, but it was not much less work than normal.
However, since he was with Michelle, he didn’t mind.
They didn’t get a lot of personal talking done in those hours, but at least they spent the time together. They had everything packed for the trip except for one food box of fresh produce that she would pick up at the all-night grocery store early in the morning, but there wasn’t much else left to keep the crew from leaving early the next day.
Along in the afternoon, Jeff, Jimmie, and Al rolled in with the truck, trailer, and bus bearing the White Team. It was the first time since the season started that Duane had met another Canyon Tours team. Of course, Duane pitched in with the unloading and what maintenance and cleaning had to be done.
Since Preach wasn’t much of a drinker and Crystal had cut way back, Michelle and Duane offered to take them to a fairly good steak house for dinner. They got their orders made, then sat back to swap some river stories, but that didn’t last long.
“Duane,” Preach said once things had died down a little, “I know when we started this trip Michelle was a little troubled about her pregnancy, and she said she thought you would be, too. Do you think you have things worked out now?”
“A lot of things,” Duane said. “We obviously haven’t had the time to work everything out.”
“Is there anything you’d like to talk about?”
“Not really, other than the fact that we want you to do the wedding, of course. But you’ll have to work out the details with her since I’ll be on the river in the morning.”
“I think I can manage that,” Preach smiled, then went on, “I realize that we won’t have much time with you leaving in the morning, but if you want to talk with me one-on-one I’m sure we can work something out.”
“A few days ago it would have been a blessing,” Duane admitted. “But to tell you the truth, Barbie did a pretty good job of filling your shoes on that. We had several long discussions that helped me figure things out, and I appreciate your help with Michelle.”
“It’s what friends are for,” Preach said. “I realize this came at you out of nowhere, but I like to think of both of you as friends. What’s more, I think you are both mostly reacting to this in the way you should. I can tell you this: you’re going to be facing some hard times, but then, everyone faces them in some way or another in their lives. When those times come, you have to remember that you have to support each other, rather than antagonize each other. That just makes it worse. There have been times that Crystal and I have had to learn that as well.”
“To tell you the truth,” Duane said slowly. “In a way I’m glad we had the chance to be apart for a few days in order to get our thoughts straight. I think we would have been all right otherwise, but I can’t help but think either or both of us might have said something that would have been misinterpreted by the other one, and that could have made things worse.”
“That could be true,” Preach nodded. “Perhaps it worked out for the best. Like I said, we don’t have much time to get together on this turnaround, but if at any time you need someone to talk to and I’m available, feel free to ask.”
“You know, Preach,” Duane said thoughtfully. “That’s one of the things I’ve come to depend on about you. I know we haven’t run together a whole lot, but you seem to have the knack of being a good friend in times of trouble.”
“Like I said, there will undoubtedly be other times of trouble, but feel free to depend on me. It looks like Crystal’s and my lives are going to change in ways similar to yours, and there may be times I have to ask you for advice.”
“In ways similar to ours?” Michelle frowned. “Crystal, are you pregnant too?”
“Not yet,” she sighed. “But probably not more than a couple years in the future, either.”
The break went by all too quickly. Except for being with Michelle, it didn’t even add up to a good day off. About all he could say about it that was any good was the fact that they’d only have one more short break this year – and none in the future after that. Next year, at least the breaks would be long enough that he’d have some time to kick back, spend some quality time with Michelle and the kid, and do things besides get ready for the next trip.
At least he could say that since the break was short they made good use of their time, even though it would have been better if they could have spent more down time just being with each other. There had once been a time that Duane had thought the three-day breaks between three-week trips had been about right, but was when he didn’t have someone waiting for him topside or anything better to do. The time for a little bit of shopping, a few beers with his friends, a visit to a flush toilet once or twice, and a couple good showers, followed by a night’s sleep without having to get up before the roosters was about all he’d needed to charge himself back up for more time on the river.
That was then; no more.
Even the business of going up to Lee’s Ferry on launch morning instead of the day before proved to have its downside. They had to meet at the Canyon Tours office at five on Saturday morning, when it was just getting light. Since Duane and Michelle were staying out at Grand Canyon Village, it meant that they had to get up at 2:30 in the morning to have time to get up, have some breakfast, then drive down to Flagstaff. Five in the morning wasn’t far out of line for boatmen who were used to getting up to wake the roosters, but 2:30 was certainly getting a little beyond the fringe. Duane could remember any number of days in college when he hadn’t even gone to bed that early.
They made the drive down to Flagstaff running on pure caffeine. Well, Duane was, anyway; they’d agreed that he’d drive that leg while she slept in the other seat. He could get his nap on the way up to Lee’s.
Barbie, Brett, and Andy were all at the shop when Duane and Michelle arrived; they’d stayed in the bunkhouse over the break. Terry and Erika showed up a few minutes later; they’d stayed with her folks down in Sedona. They didn’t look all that cuddly to Duane, though it was clear they weren’t exactly pissed off with each other either, so there was no telling what had happened. He figured that he’d find out about it on the river if it was anything important. There was a new swamper, too – a high school kid named Eddie who was on his first trip as a tryout, an apprentice swamper being considered for a full-season job for next year. How well he did on this trip would go a long way toward whether he would be hired in a future year. Everyone seemed half-awake, busy yawning, scratching, and farting; on the river they’d be bright and bushy-tailed at this hour.
They stood around talking about nothing in particular for a few minutes, until Al showed up with a big box of doughnuts and big foam cups of coffee for everyone. “Well, I see everyone made it in, which is good,” he said. “Duane, are you satisfied with the way this new system has worked out?”
“So far, I guess,” Duane shrugged. “I mean, I was here for most of the packing and stuff, but I tried to stay out of the way. There are still a few bugs in the system, but experience and practice should clear them up.”
“It went better than I figured, too,” Al admitted. “I mean, the jury is still out, but it seems to work so far. Anything else before we get started loading?”
“Yeah, one thing,” Duane said. He’d talked about this with Al the day before. “Part of the point of Barbie being assistant trip leader is to train her to be a trip leader, right?”
“You know my thinking about that,” Al nodded.
“We’ve talked about it enough.” He turned to Barbie and asked, “You’ve been on trips when Al goes along for the ride, haven’t you? How does he handle that?”
“You mean he just goes along as a boatman, not any kind of a leader, right?”
“Right,” Duane said. “He makes the trip leader make the decisions and run the trip. The trip leader knows that Al is there in the background if he needs to be consulted about something, but Al tries to stay out of things unless he has to step in and do something. Ninety-nine percent of the time he’s just another boatman. Well, older than the rest of us,” he grinned, and people laughed at the wisecrack, “but for the most part just another boatman. Well, Al and I talked it over yesterday, and we’re going to try something like that this trip. You’re going to be about eighty percent the trip leader, and I’m mostly going to sit back and be like Al, there in the background letting you make the decisions. I’ll be there as a backup if you need me, and you can consult with me if you need to, but I may let you make some mistakes just so you’ll learn by getting your fingers burned a little. Al did the same thing with me a few years ago.”
“I guess I can do it,” Barbie said. “But isn’t this kind of quick?”
“Yes, it is,” Al broke in. “But Duane has convinced me that you’re ready for it. Now you get to show us that you are. There’s a good chance that we’re going to need at least one new trip leader next year, maybe more, and I’d rather have someone waiting in the wings than have to scramble at the last minute and have to put someone I’m not sure about out with a team.”
“How are we going to handle it with the customers?” Barbie asked.
“The same way Al does when he takes a trip,” Duane said. “Right at the introductions I’ll get up and say that I’m the trip leader but that you’re in training to be one, so I’m going to let you run the trip, and I’m only going to step in if I need to. Otherwise I’m just going to be a boatman.”
“Not even assistant trip leader?” she asked.
“Nope,” Duane grinned. “That’s Andy’s new job.”
This came as a little bit of a surprise, even to Al. Andy had been on the river as long as Duane, but mostly in shorter sessions. He even had more trips than Duane, but a lot of them had been motor-rig trips with GCR the last two years. Duane remembered the discussion from earlier in the year that Andy could still be around as a summer boatman for several years and that he might make a summer trip leader in the future.
“Wow, Al,” Barbie said. “You’re really turning us loose, aren’t you?”
“Actually, I think it’s a good idea,” Al smiled. “Duane has got a lot he can teach you, but you both need some time in the saddle just so you can find out what it feels like.”
“If you say so,” Barbie shook her head, then smiled and continued. “Let’s get this crap on the truck and the bus so we can get up to Lee’s.”
For the most part the rigging at Lee’s Ferry later that Saturday morning went without problems, though it was clear that a better system was needed for noting what food was in what box. Michelle was quick to see the problem and promised to work on it. They finished the rigging in plenty of time and were mostly lolling around waiting for time to pass when the customer bus showed up right around the normal time.
The check-ins and introductions went about like they had planned; Barbie handled everything well. It didn’t take any longer than normal, and all too soon Duane and Michelle were having their final kiss before he was pushed out on the water again.
It was actually somewhat relaxing to just sit back and let Barbie handle the downriver orientations. There was a lot that had to be done, especially the first day out, and Duane realized that it was possible to get stale at it. After they stopped at Badger – on the shady, river right side – Duane was content to just stand back, set up the rocket box and get started in the kitchen while Barbie went through the various drills needed.
Eventually the orientations were over with and the customers were busy setting up their own camps. Duane was sitting back on a rock, looking at the river and wishing that Michelle was with them, or he was with Michelle or something, when Barbie came over to him, bearing beer. “You like one?” she asked.
“Yeah, sure,” he smiled.
She handed him one, then took a seat on another nearby rock. “That wasn’t nice to surprise me with something like that, you know.”
“I know,” he nodded. “But as short as this goddamn weekend was, when did I have the chance to warn you?
“Well, yeah,” she shrugged. “You got a point there. So how did your weekend go, besides too goddamn short?”
“Not too bad,” he admitted. “Michelle and I got a few things worked out.”
“So is everything cool with you guys?”
“Pretty much,” he said, “at least for the short run. I won’t say we have all the details worked out, but we should be able to get through the rest of the season.” He sat back for a moment, took a swallow of the beer, and slowly went on. “Long run, I’m not sure. There are some problems lying out there in the future that have to be solved, and I need to be thinking about some of them even though there’s not much that can be done on them until the season is over, or maybe even later than that.”
“Like what?” she asked.
“Well, I have to think more pro-actively about the future,” he said. “Now that’s a word I’ve always hated, pro-actively, but it really does mean something in this case. Look, Barbie, you mean you haven’t figured out what this deal of you being acting trip leader is all about?”
“You mean, beyond me, and I guess Andy, getting ready to be trip leaders?”
“Yeah, right,” he said. “Look, nothing is worked out yet and it may not be worked out till next spring, but you realize there’s a good chance I’m not going to be back next year, don’t you?”
“Duane?” she replied quizzically.
“Like I said, I don’t know. My being a boatman since I started working for Al is all right, but I have to work out in my own mind if it’s the right way to treat a family. The longer breaks next year will help, but I can’t help but wonder if I shouldn’t be doing something else that will allow me to do a better and more responsible job of providing for my family. If and when the time comes, I don’t want to be in a position of having to let Al down or guilt trip myself because I’d be leaving him short a trip leader if I do leave Canyon Tours. So I want you ready.”
“Jesus, I’m not sure I want to be a trip leader if it comes at me like that.”
“You may not get any choice. Besides, I get the feeling from Al that you’re the leading candidate, anyway. At the beginning of the season I figured that Kevin might be because of the Nanci connection, and that still might be the case, but it might not be, too. At least that’s the impression I get. One way or another, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re leading trips next year.”
“I figured it would be Kevin,” she observed.
“I did, too,” Duane conceded. “And it might still be him, I don’t know. I haven’t run a trip with him since I became a trip leader, so he might have changed some, but based on what I remember about him from the few we were on together, he seems to lack a, well, sort of dynamism, I guess, that it takes to make a good trip leader. But that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong, and things could have changed. From what I know for sure, I still think you’re a better candidate, and I’ll try to make that point with Al.”
