Chapter 21

As expected, Jack wound up getting a car at graduation; it wasn’t exactly a surprise since he’d been along on several car shopping trips. With a budget to work with, he’d settled on an older but sound Jeep Cherokee that would be the college car, and was intended to provide service for years. The fallout of that was that Howie more or less inherited the older Jeep, although there was some negotiation about Jack and Vixen using it if they went bird watching someplace where the roads were otherwise impassible. Howie insisted that if they did get it muddy – and in the past Jack had gotten it incredibly muddy in some of the places he went to look for birds – he’d expect it to be cleaned up when he got it back.

Although Bree and Jared would be getting their driver’s licenses within the month, Bree wasn’t expecting to get the main use of the car Becca had been driving until her older sister left for college. It wouldn’t matter a great deal to her; with her friends driving, and occasional use of Becca’s car or Aunt Jackie’s pickup, getting around was the least of her worries. Jared expected he’d soon be getting wheels, too, but didn’t know any details.

The second Tuesday after graduation was Bree’s birthday, a date she’d been waiting on for a long time – the day she could get her glider license, and solo Rocinante. Spearfish Signs was closed for the day, and Mark wasn’t planning on going in to work at the plywood plant. Early in the morning, Jackie, Becca, Jared, and Autumn loaded up into Jackie’s car and started the long trek toward Mt. Vernon. An hour or so later Mark and Bree got into the Cessna and headed south themselves, still beating everyone else to the glider port.

While Mark and Bree were waiting for the others to show up, Fred Hammerstrom took Bree for a refresher flight in Rocinante. He’d been serving as Bree’s official flight instructor, although he’d actually done rather little flying with her in the Cessna. But he had to do some for the sake of propriety, if nothing else. They were done by the time Jackie and Bree’s friends arrived, and they were able to witness Bree’s first solo flight in the little Cessna. It was a milestone Bree had been working toward for years.

A few minutes later, with the paperwork for her power student license signed off, Bree and Fred got into the 2-33 again. Mark, flying Fred’s Super Cub tow plane, towed the two up to three thousand feet twice for her glider private license check ride. She passed easily, with Fred’s only comment being that she should get more practice with aero tows when the opportunity arose; her technique was adequate to get her license, but more practice would be useful. Of course, there was more paperwork to be filled out, but Bree could now carry non-pilot passengers in a glider.

“All right,” she said to her friends, “I said I’d take you all for a ride when I got the chance, and here we are. Jared, you’re first.”

Jared had known this was coming – it was why he’d come along on this trip, after all – but now the reality struck him. After all, he’d seen Bree flying a lot, especially in the 1-26, but riding with her was a little different prospect – to depend on her flying ability, not just observe it from the ground.

But there was no backing out now. Bree helped him get into the back seat of the 2-33, and showed him how to strap in, closed the door, then climbed into the front seat, strapped in, and closed the canopy. Autumn hooked the tow line onto the tow hook, then went out to one wingtip to hold the glider level. Ahead of then he could see Mark pull the Super Cub ahead until the towline was tight. “You set?” Bree asked.

“About as ready as I’ll ever be,” Jared said with resignation. He still wasn’t sure about this but knew there would be no backing out now.

“OK, here we go,” Bree said, not excited at all. Jared couldn’t tell if Bree was aware of his nervousness, but she seemed to be all business as she nodded to Autumn, who made a big circle with her arm. Ahead of them Jared could see the dust start to fly as Mark gunned the tow plane’s engine, and the glider started to move. It was in the air before the tow plane was off the ground, and soon the far fence of the little airfield was below them.

“Hey,” Jared said. “This is pretty cool!”

“Yeah, it is,” Bree replied. “This isn’t as exciting as an auto tow, but wait till we get off tow. That’s when it gets really cool.”

There wasn’t much Jared could do but sit in the back seat and look around as the ground got farther below. It was the first time he’d been flying since he and his mother had flown from California to Spearfish Lake six years before. A lot had changed in that time, and this was about as different from an airliner as he could imagine.

A few minutes later they were well above the airfield. “OK,” he heard Bree say from in front of him, “I’m going to release now. You’ll hear a ‘bang’ when the towline releases, but that’s normal. I’ll be turning to the right as soon as I release.”

“OK.” He could see Bree reach up to the instrument panel, and pull a red knob. As predicted, there was a BANG! It was a little louder than he’d been expecting, and he noticed as Bree started a turn to the right. He was able to see the Super Cub turning to the left, the towline being dragged along behind it. Quite quickly, the sound in the cockpit died off; the distant roar of the tow plane faded, and even the wind noise in the cockpit of the 2-33 died off as the speed fell off.

“This is gliding,” Bree told him from the front seat. “What we’re doing almost all the time is gliding, even when I’m getting lift in a thermal. It’s just that then the air is carrying us up faster than the glider is going down. When that happens, we call it soaring. I don’t expect we’ll be doing much of it this trip. It seems like it’s about as smooth as a baby’s butt up here right now.”

“Jeez, I can see why you like it. It is kind of like being a bird, isn’t it?”

“Oh, yeah,” Bree laughed. “I hope I can get Jack and Vixen to go with me some time so they can see what it’s like.”

“It’d be nice if you could find a bird to circle with when you take them,” he said. “They’d really like that.”

“It would be nice to be able to show you a little soaring,” Bree told him. “But this will be a short trip as I still want to give the others a ride, too.”

It was clear that the glider was steadily losing altitude; Bree was just turning this way and that to stay close to the runway. The glider rolled slowly and sluggishly with its big wingspan and slow speed. Finally, they were getting low; below them they could see the tow plane parked beside the runway, with some people standing around. “Guess I’d better get started setting this up for a landing,” Bree said, turning the sailplane again, flying across the runway and turning parallel to it.

Jared didn’t have much idea what she was doing, but saw the runway out the right side of the glider. They flew well past the end of the runway before Bree turned right, then right again. The runway was in front of them now, getting larger as they approached it. Soon they were over the fence at the end of the field, drifting low over the ground until they were approaching the watching group of people. He saw Bree pull on the handle to open the spoilers, slats on the top and bottom of the wing that would help kill the lift. The sailplane touched down on its single wheel, and Bree yanked on the spoiler handle again to set the brake, while pushing the stick forward to let the skid on the nose bring the sailplane to a stop. “And that is gliding,” she said. “It’s really pretty simple, but it’s a lot of fun.”

“I’ll bet flying a jet fighter would be a little more complicated,” Jared commented as she opened the canopy and began to climb out.

“Oh, yeah, a lot more complicated, but a lot of the principles stay the same. You like that?”

“That was fun!” Jared beamed, more amazed than ever at his girlfriend. She made it look simple, but it was something he would never have considered before he’d seen her make the low pass of Mark and Jackie’s airstrip last fall.

“Yeah, it is,” she grinned as she opened the back door of the 2-33 and helped him get the seat belt off. “And it’s going to get even better.”

What with everything, it was getting late in the day before Autumn and the others made it back to Spearfish Lake. Autumn was happy for Bree – the day was a big milestone her friend had been looking forward to for a long time. It had been really exciting to get into the back seat of the 2-33 behind her friend, to get towed into the sky the tow plane. It still seemed incredible that her friend could do such a thing.

When Autumn got home she was a little surprised to only find her mother home. “Where is everybody?” she asked. For the most part Autumn got along pretty well with her mother. Her mother was always worried about the possibility that Autumn might let something of the of Old Way secret slip.

“Oh, Summer is out with Alan again,” Rowan told her daughter. “Your father is out fishing with a friend of his. How was your day?”

“Pretty good,” Autumn said. “It was a really big day for Bree. It really went well.”

“Did you actually go flying with her?”

“Well, yeah,” Autumn admitted. “Just one short flight, but it was pretty cool. I don’t think it’s something I would want to do, but it sure is neat for her.”

“Well, I was a little worried about it,” Rowan admitted. “But then, I worry about you kids driving, too. At least Bree’s flying is a little bit supervised.”

Autumn decided not to say that the whole point of the exercise today had been to give Bree the opportunity to fly with less supervision; her mother was not likely to understand. “Well, it’s not likely that I’m going to be flying with Bree very much,” Autumn said. “I mean, it was a big deal today just to get down there to get to a two-seat glider, anyway. There just aren’t going to be that many opportunities.”

“I suppose,” Rowan sighed. “But still, I can’t help but worry about it. It doesn’t seem like something a girl that age should be doing.”

“It bothers me,” Autumn said. “I mean, not that Bree is flying. I think it’s pretty cool. But she has a real good idea of what she wants to do with herself and how she wants to get there. My problem is that I don’t have any big dreams like that, and I don’t have any idea of what I want to do at all.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” Rowan told her. “You’ve still got plenty of time to work out what you want to do.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Autumn said. “But when I look at how focused Bree is on what she wants to do, well, I don’t feel like I measure up very well. Howie and Jared and I talked about it a lot on the way back, and they sort of feel the same way.”

“There’s no doubt Bree is the exception to the rule,” Autumn’s mother told her. “I mean, it’s good to have some direction to your life at your age, but it’s not critical. The Goddess will open the door for you when it’s time.”

Oh, good grief, Autumn thought. That was one of the downsides of her father being gone; it was going to mean another dose of her mother’s ranting about the Old Way. While Spring and Summer may have bought into it full force, she didn’t and her mother knew it. That didn’t keep her mother from trying to ram it down her throat at every opportunity.

“I need to work out something,” Autumn replied, ignoring the comment about the Goddess. “It’s like I said, Bree shows me something I wish I had. It’s a little scary that she’s got things so well worked out.”

“Like I said, it’ll come in time. The Goddess has plans for you, I’m sure. Maybe you shouldn’t be hanging around with Howie and Bree and Jared so much. They’re just giving you ideas you probably shouldn’t have. I worry all the time that you’re going to let something about our beliefs slip to them and the next thing you know we’re going to be in trouble.”

“I haven’t said anything about them to any of them,” Autumn protested. “You know what I think about that, and we don’t need to argue about it again. But I respect your beliefs and your desire to keep them secret. I’m not about to say anything about them.”

“Yes, Autumn, but still I worry about it. All it would take would be some little slip-up . . .”

“Mom, I said I’m not going to say anything and I won’t. I’ve done pretty well about keeping your secret, mostly because my friends wouldn’t really care if I did say something. None of them are rabid Christians. They just don’t care, one way or another. If you want to worry about someone slipping up, you need to worry about Summer and Alan hanging around with Jack and Vixen. Hell, they’re all going to be living together in one apartment in only another couple months or so, and I’ll bet you money that if Jack and Vixen don’t know anything about the Old Way now it’s not going to be long before they do.”

“That’s a possibility,” her mother conceded. “I know Jack had at least a little hint of it some time ago, but as far as I know he hasn’t said anything. In any case, Summer is going to be gone soon and I doubt if she’ll spend much more time in Spearfish Lake. You, on the other hand, are going to be around for a while, and well, I worry.”

“Mom, how long ago was it you were bugging me about finding any kind of friends at all?” Autumn protested. “I think I did pretty good in finding some friends who wouldn’t make an issue out of it. Maybe I ought to just dump them and go find some good right-wing Christians to make friends with instead. Then you’d really have a reason to worry.”

“No, you shouldn’t do that,” Rowan said. “It’s just, well, I worry about you falling away from the Old Way. Spring still believes some, and Summer, well she believes but she’s fallen away to pair with Alan. I mean it’s a path, but I’m not sure it’s the true path. And now you – and I don’t think you believe at all.”

“Mom, I’m sorry, but I don’t believe, at least very much.”

“Yes, and that means you don’t have any reason to keep from letting the secret out.”

The discussion went on for a while, with neither of them gaining any ground. It wasn’t the first time the question had come up, and Autumn was sure it wouldn’t be the last time. She’d long since come to the conclusion that she was just going to have to stick it out till she graduated and went away to college. In between, about all she could do was to hang around with her friends or only be home when her father was there. It was what she had been doing for a while, but it couldn’t be done all the time.

Finally, Autumn decided she’d had enough of the discussion for the evening. “I’m tired,” she said, “and this isn’t getting anywhere, as usual. I’m going to go up, take a shower, dry my hair, and try to read for a few minutes in hopes I can get to sleep without too much hassle.”

“It is getting late,” her mother agreed. “But Autumn, I hope I’ve given you something to think about.”

Well, no doubt about that, Autumn thought as she headed for the stairs. It was a pain in the neck, but she knew kids who had it worse. She knew one girl in her class, Sarah McEachen whose parents were very religious, they both did a major job of cramming their religion down their daughter’s throat. Sarah was not a happy camper and it was pretty well known around her class. Autumn didn’t have that problem anywhere nearly as bad.

Still, it made Autumn wish there were some way she could show her contempt for her mother’s beliefs without revealing the secret. There ought to be some way, she thought, some way of making fun out of the blind belief that wouldn’t reveal where she got the secret. Maybe she could write a fantasy story, she thought, about a group of witches that were total believers in their witchcraft, but had little or no actual powers. Whenever they cast a spell, it might backfire on them, or at least not come out right.

God knew she’d read enough fantasy. Maybe she could write some of it . . .

It was something to think about, if she could figure out where to start. And who knew – maybe an idea would lead to other ideas . . .

Matt was gassing up the truck at the Holiday station when Rusty’s mother found him – well, at least found the truck. “What are you doing with Rusty’s truck?” she asked him in a very threatening manner.

“It was his truck,” Matt told her, determined to not give an inch. The lecture Rusty had given him had stuck with him pretty well. “He sold it to me a couple days ago. We got the paper signed and everything, and I’ve got new plates on it.”

“Sold you his truck?” she said suspiciously. “What made him think he could sell his truck to you?”

“I don’t know,” Matt replied, digging in. “He said he was getting out of town and didn’t want to take the truck with him, so he gave me a pretty good price.”

“He couldn’t sell the truck unless I said he could,” she protested.

“All I can say is that the woman down at the Secretary of State office didn’t have any problems with it,” Matt replied. “The paperwork is all signed off and all. It’s my truck now.”

“You said he said he was leaving town,” she persisted. “Do you have any idea where he was going?”

“No idea,” Matt replied. After all he’d heard about the queen – er, Rusty’s mother – he didn’t feel like being helpful. “All I know is he said he was leaving town. He didn’t say where or anything, except that he couldn’t take the truck with him. That was several days ago.”

“I haven’t seen him since Monday,” she said. “You’re sure you don’t know where he is?”

“Like I said, no idea. We finished off the paperwork on the truck on Friday, but he said he wanted to use it for the weekend. He gave me enough of a price on it I decided he could. He dropped it off Monday morning early, and I haven’t seen him since.”

“Something’s fishy,” she shook her head. “You stay here, and don’t go away.”

Matt finished fueling the truck, then went inside to pay. By the time he came back out, there was a police car sitting there, and Spearfish Lake Police Chief Charlie Wexler was looking the truck over. “Matt,” he said, “can I see your registration and proof of insurance on this truck?”

“Yeah,” Matt said, glad that he had the paperwork. “What’s the problem?”

“Mrs. Frankovich here says you stole this truck from Rusty.”

“I didn’t steal it, I bought it,” Matt said. “I have a bill of sale and the title transfer papers.”

“Can I see them?”

They were in the glove compartment, and not hard to find. Wexler glanced them over and said, “Looks like a legal transfer to me.”

“How could it be legal?” Rusty’s mother complained loudly. “I didn’t say he could sell the truck!”

“Well, looking at the title transfer, your name wasn’t on it anyway,” Wexler said. “Your husband’s was, and he signed off on the sale.”

“He what?”

“Signed off on the sale,” Wexler told her. “It looks like a legal transfer, so I don’t think you have a complaint.”

“Well, we’ll see about this!” she shouted, then turned to stomp off.

Wexler turned to Matt. “Everything’s above board, right?” he smiled.

“Yeah, Rusty said we had to do everything legal since she was bound to get her panties in a wad,” Matt grinned.

“Well, he sure got that right,” Wexler grinned. “Do you have any idea where he went?”

“All I know is he said he wanted to get out of town and couldn’t take the truck with him.”

“I’ll bet I can guess why,” Wexler smiled. “And if my guess is right it probably wasn’t a bad idea.”

“I’m not in any trouble with this, am I? I have to get to work.”

“Not with me,” the chief said. “Now, I can’t say about her, but you’re probably out of the woods there. Now, if you were Bob or Rusty Frankovich, I’d say there was trouble brewing.”

“You know, you could be right on that. Thanks for getting her off my ass on that, Chief.”

“If I were you I’d keep my head down for a bit,” Wexler said. “Other than that, drive safe and don’t get into trouble. And Matt?”

“Yeah?”

“Congratulations. Not a bad truck for the price. I wouldn’t trust it too far, but it ought to get you around town all right. I’d be real, real careful about driving it over to Lame Badger’s on the Three Pines Reservation, though. You get caught, and it’d turn out a lot worse than what Linda Frankovich would do to you.”

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