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Wes Boyd’s Spearfish Lake Tales Contemporary Mainstream Books and Serials Online |
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Wes Boyd’s Spearfish Lake Tales Contemporary Mainstream Books and Serials Online |
On Monday a couple of weeks later Nanci and Amber were in the Camry, out on the Interstate, heading toward Flagstaff.
This would be a quick trip for them. Nanci’s stepfather Al had been nosing and bargaining around Flagstaff, and he had found a Jeep Cherokee in good condition at a price Nanci thought she could afford. While she didn’t intend to give up the Camry, she’d been grudgingly forced to admit that the amount of time she was spending on the back roads out around the Conestoga church meant that she needed something a little more appropriate than her beloved Toyota.
Al understood that she didn’t want to give it up and knew the reason why. When he’d called with the news that he had a good car for her, he’d also reported that he’d been able to arrange storage space for the Camry with the owner of another rafting company, a guy who was also a car collector and had space to spare. He hadn’t said anything about a price, but she suspected that there had been a little inter-company horse-trading going on. Somewhere in the hazy future, Nanci hoped to have her faithful friend restored to something approaching mint condition, but that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.
So this was going to be the last run for the Camry, at least for the foreseeable future. Nanci had put a lot of miles on it over the years, none more important than her exhausting, agonizing, and ravenously hungry trip from Chicago to Flagstaff years before. There had been other trips, too – Phoenix to Flagstaff and back, sometimes on a weekly basis, when she had been going to school at Black Mesa and servicing a pulpit in Flagstaff on a fill-in basis, and the long trips to Hickory Run Seminary in Kentucky and back. The car had been good to her, very good indeed, and it was an important part of her history.
Amber was willing to make the trip with her if for no more reason than to see new places outside of Colorado. They didn’t have a lot of time to spare on this trip – Nanci felt she needed to be back in Tyler on Thursday – but there would be plenty of new country for Amber to see. Almost as an afterthought, Nanci suggested that they take the long way back so they could swing by Lee’s Ferry, where the rafting trips started down the Colorado River; it would at least give Amber a chance to see the river that Nanci had so many stories about.
It was a long drive, over seven hundred miles, but it was quicker to go out of their way on the Interstates than it was to take a long, slow, but scenic route over the mountains. They even skipped their morning exercise routine to get on the road early in hopes of getting to Flagstaff at a reasonable hour that day.
While Amber spent much of the trip staring at the mountains in the distance out of her side of the car, they also spent a lot of the long, dull hours talking. Oh, they’d talked about the Bible quite a bit, especially after Amber began developing an intense interest in what Nanci was teaching her, but they’d talked about other things, too. Before they left there had been a couple of trips out to the Westbrook ranch to ride horses and, of course, to build more friendship with the family. Nanci wasn’t very comfortable on horseback yet, but Amber took to it easily, if for no more reason than she was a Walke County girl, after all.
They talked about their trips out to work on the paint job at the Conestoga church. It wasn’t done yet, but a large part of the congregation had shown up for half days on the previous two Saturdays, Gerald and Leah included. Amber had spent several days a week with the little girl while her father worked for Trent or Art, or a couple times at the Pepper ranch house without her underfoot. Once Nanci had taken Amber out to the ranch to look after Leah there, and Nanci wound up talking with Gerald for half the morning.
“Face it, Nanci,” Amber teased at one point on the long trip. “You like him, and you know you do.”
“I do like him,” Nanci admitted. “But for a number of reasons, first and foremost because he’s still technically married to that woman who walked away from him and Leah, we can’t be more than ‘just friends’ for a long time to come. Besides, even if I was head over heels crazy about him, which I’m not just yet, I want to take my time. You and I have talked about this before. I had a hard-enough time with men before I became a Christian that I want to be very sure of what I’m doing.”
“Well, OK, just supposing,” Amber teased. “If you married him, Leah would be the flower girl, but would I be the maid of honor?”
“You’d have a good claim on it,” Nanci laughed, recognizing the tease for what it was. “But there are other candidates, and they include Sarah. That would only be if she wasn’t performing the wedding in the first place. I did hers, and she deserves to return the favor.”
“I can’t wait to meet her and some of the other people you’ve told me about.”
“That’s part of why we’re taking this trip when we are. The White Team, the team I was on for six years, got off the river yesterday and will put in again on Wednesday. I haven’t seen most of those people since Christmas, but there aren’t many times over the summer when their schedule and mine fit together. A lot has happened since then, Amber.”
“Including me.”
“Including you. That was one I never saw coming, but I’m real glad it did.”
It was late in the afternoon and they were tired when they finally pulled into Flagstaff. Nanci drove straight to Al and Karin’s house, a long, low ranch house located among tall pines. There were a lot of people in the back yard on this warm summer day, and Amber was sure she’d be a long time even remembering their names. Except for her own mother, she’d never had any family, and now there was a whole collection of relatives. They included Nanci’s sister Crystal Whittaker and her husband Noah, and their two kids. Everyone called Noah “Preach,” mostly because he was a former Baptist minister who now led rafting trips. Nanci’s brother Jon was also there, along with his wife Tanisha – who was indeed about as black as a person could be – and their two kids, as well. Nanci’s good friend and fellow minister Sarah Haynes was there along with her husband Kevin, and they were rafters as well.
On top of that, there was Karin, Nanci’s mother, and Nanci’s stepfather, Al Buck. It all added up to quite a yard full of people – everybody welcomed Amber warmly. “Welcome to the clan,” Al told her. “There are people who consider all of us to be a little crazy, but we usually don’t bite. From what Nanci has told us, you’re a welcome addition. You’re now family to us, and I hope you’ll consider us all to be family right back.”
“I never dreamed I could have this much family,” Amber replied, a little awed at the crowd. “But it’s nice to know I have all of you.”
It turned out that the gathering was a barbecue to greet her and welcome her to the family, and Amber was almost overwhelmed by it. These people didn’t know her, hadn’t known about her mother, at least personally, and they all seemed willing to take her at face value, rather than by the reputation she’d had around Tyler. She really wanted to get to know these people, to stand on her own merits rather than the stories that had gone around about her mother, and these people were making it easy for her.
Amber tried to talk with everyone – she’d watched Nanci do the same thing at the churches, circulate around so she could spend a few minutes with each person there. The party didn’t go very late since everyone there was “early to bed, early to rise” like Nanci, but Amber was very tired when her head hit the pillow that evening.
The next day Al took Nanci and Amber to see the Jeep. It looked to Nanci like it would be just what she needed, rugged enough to put up with the back roads of Walke County, but comfortable enough to drive on the highway. Al had put together a good deal for her, and they ended up at a bank in Flagstaff to do the paperwork. Something like this always takes longer than expected, but Nanci walked out of the bank the owner of a three-year-old Cherokee and a payment book.
With that done they followed Al back to the Canyon Tours office, where Nanci and Amber went through the Camry carefully, moving everything over into the Cherokee. Then Nanci got in the Camry and drove to where Al’s friend lived and where the car would be stored. They spent a few minutes getting it ready for storage, then covered it with a tarp. It was hard for Nanci to leave her faithful friend, but it was getting to the point where it had to be done. She could only hope that the Jeep would do as well for her as the Camry had.
That afternoon Nanci took Amber out to the South Rim Overlook of the Grand Canyon on a shakedown run for the Jeep. It was a magnificent sight, a famous view, something Amber had only known existed through stories and descriptions. They spent some time checking the place out and going into a gift shop owned by a friend of Nanci’s. When they got back to Canyon Tours late that afternoon, Amber’s new-found family was loading equipment for another trip down the Grand Canyon that would start in the morning. “If you’re willing to get up real early,” Nanci told Amber, “We could go down to Lee’s Ferry and watch them launch.”
“Sure, I’d like to do that. It’d give me a better idea of what you talk about.”
“Good, that’ll make a nice first stop on our way back. We won’t get to Tyler tomorrow, so we’ll stop somewhere for the night.”
They did have to get up early the next morning and drove to the Canyon Tours office again. They found Crystal busy frying sausage and egg sandwiches while the rest of the crew, including some people Amber hadn’t met yet, stood around sipping at very strong coffee and trying to wake up a little. Before long Nanci and Amber were following a big brown former school bus towing a trailer loaded with rafts toward the Colorado River.
It was still well before dawn when they left, but the sun came up on the way to the river, revealing a desert country with occasional steep hills, with small Navajo settlements here and there. They crossed over the river on a high bridge and turned toward the launch site. The river was wider than Amber had expected, and when they got down to the boat ramp, it was the biggest river she had ever seen.
Launching the rafts and loading them was a complicated procedure. Nanci knew what she was doing, of course, and Amber tried to help where she could, moving bags and metal cans. Soon the well-practiced crew had the job more or less complete, and all that remained was waiting for the customer bus to arrive.
One cup of White Team coffee had been enough for Amber; she liked it strong, but not that strong. She got a can of soft drink from a machine located near the rest rooms, and stood around just taking in the scene, staring at the river with several other members of the White Team nearby. Nanci could tell she had something on her mind, but she didn’t want to ask what it was.
“Nanci,” Amber said finally. “You’ve told me the story about how you were saved and baptized. Was that here?”
“No, it was about a hundred and fifty miles downstream,” Nanci replied, getting an inkling of what was on Amber’s mind. “It was a very special place for me. It still is, for that matter.”
“I know it is. I could hear it in your voice when you talked about it. Nanci, I have to admit, I’m standing here looking at the river and I’m thinking about that story from Acts. You know, ‘Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?’”
Nanci was tempted to make a wisecrack about that being a dangerous statement to make when there were three ministers standing within ten feet, one of them a Baptist at that, but she recognized that Amber was being as serious as could be. “I have to answer you from the next verse in Acts,” she replied. “‘If you believe with all your heart, you may.’”
“I believe it with all my heart, Nanci.”
“Amber, don’t just tell me. Tell God. Tell Him that you believe with all your heart that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He died on the Cross for your sins that you may be saved.”
That statement got the attention of several of the members of the White Team, all of whom were serious about their religion – the team took two Christian trips a summer down the river, so most of the serious Christians in the company were concentrated on it. Without any prompting, most of the team surrounded Amber, and most of them laid a hand on her as she bowed her head and prayed. “Dear God, I believe with all my heart that Jesus is Your son, and that He died on the Cross for my sins, that I may be saved. Help me to turn away from sin and follow Your leading, and thank You for sending such a good teacher to help me find the way. All this I ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.”
“Now,” Nanci said, “If you want to be baptized, here is water. It’s very cold but it is clean, and it will symbolically wash away your sins.”
“I’m ready,” Amber said. “And I can’t think of a better group to be with.”
“Then let’s do it,” she replied, turning toward the river. Nanci stayed back just long enough to pull her wallet out of her pocket and hand it to one of the team members, then followed Amber into the river, with Preach and Sarah by her side.
There is a long liturgy that is often used by Methodists for baptism, but Nanci couldn’t remember all of it, and besides, the water was as cold as she had said it would be. But as always, she felt that the meaning was more important than the bare words, so she kept it short. “Amber,” she said, “Do you believe in God the Father, in Jesus Christ our Savior, and in the Holy Spirit?”
“I do.”
“Then I baptize you in the name of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.” With that, she put her arm around her ward, as her brother-in-law, the Baptist minister, did from the other side, and Nanci’s best friend Sarah, herself a minister, supported her from behind. Among them, they laid her back into the water and held her there for an instant before standing her up again.
“Amber,” Nanci went on, “May the Holy Spirit work within you, that having been born through water and the Spirit, you may live as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.”
At this point, Nanci’s minister friend Sarah spoke up. “Now it is our joy to welcome our new sister in Christ. Through baptism you are incorporated by the Holy Spirit into God’s new creation and made to share in Christ’s royal priesthood. We are all one in Christ Jesus. With joy and thanksgiving we welcome you as a member of the family of Christ.”
“Thank you,” Amber said.
“No, thank you for turning your life away from sin and joining us,” Sarah smiled. “Now let’s get back on shore and warm up and dry out.”
The four of them were back in dry clothes, though there were wet ones hanging on various parts of rafts when the bus pulled up with the customers for the trip. There was plenty of confusion as the team began to get everyone organized, but Nanci and Amber stood back out of the way. “I wasn’t expecting that quite so soon,” Nanci told her young ward, “but God does things in His own time. There are a few things about Methodist beliefs I have to tell you, but later would be better.”
“We’ll have plenty of time on the way back,” Amber agreed. “But I want to watch this, too.”
“In a few minutes Preach will be giving the orientation, and that will be interesting to you.”
“How many times did you make this trip, anyway?”
“Adding a few half-trips together, it comes to a total of forty-two,” Nanci told her.
“Do you wish you were going again?”
“I wouldn’t mind it, but I’d rather be doing what I think I’m supposed to be doing, which is pastor to our churches. I enjoyed my time on the river, but I’ve moved past that.”
“I wish I knew what it was like down the river,” Amber said. “You’ve told me it’s pretty spectacular.”
“Look around you for a hint, and it gets better downstream. You could see it someday,” Nanci smiled. “The way most people start out for Canyon Tours is to make a tryout trip as a swamper, a helper, but you’re still just little too young for it. I could probably arrange for you to take one next summer, though. If it works out, you could work for Canyon Tours in the summer while you’re going to college. It’s part of how I got through college.”
“Nanci, do you think I really could go to college? I never even dared to dream of it.”
“You could. It’s an option for you now, so you might want to think about it.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure, but it’s something you have to make up your own mind about, and then you have to work hard to follow through. I was not ready for college when I first started it, and it hindered me terribly, and I then found also hurt me deeply later. But you have some time to think about it, and I’ll help you out with your decision where I can.”
“Nanci, I never believed any of this could happen. I’m so happy that God put you together with me.”
“Don’t ever doubt that I’m not happy about it too. It looks like Preach is getting started with the orientation, so let’s listen in.”
Preach had climbed up onto the nose of one of the rafts pulled up on shore. “All right, now that we have the check-in complete,” he said. “Welcome to Canyon Tours, the Grand Canyon, and one of the two special Christian trips Canyon Tours runs each year. Before we get into the orientation, though, I want to announce that we got this trip off on a high note, since half an hour ago we heard a profession of faith and held a baptism. I’d like it if we could all give a round of applause to a new member of our family of Christ, Amber Wallace, who’s standing over there under those trees.”
There was a round of applause, and a couple calls of “Praise Jesus.”
Amber just gave a little wave, and said, “Thank you,” loud enough to be heard.
“Unfortunately, Amber won’t be going with us on this trip,” Preach went on, “but if I had to bet, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her down here again. Anyway, we’d better get down to business. I’m going to be your trip leader on this little journey. My name is Noah Whittaker, but since I’m a Baptist minister everyone on the river has called me ‘Preach’ for years, including my wife, so if you call me Noah, don’t be surprised if I don’t answer you. To introduce the rest of the crew …”
Preach went on with the orientation, while Nanci and Amber just stood back and watched. It seemed strange to Nanci to be standing here watching, rather than getting ready to go down the river herself, but while she had done it for years, it wasn’t her life anymore – and she was content with where her life had taken her.
Eventually the party was ready to go. Nanci showed Amber how to help get them going by pushing each raft out onto the water in turn, and they then stood back as the boats drifted downstream to the adventures and the superlative scenery Nanci knew they would find. “Well,” she said to Amber as the rafts drifted out of sight, “it’s time to start heading back.”
“Back to Flagstaff?”
Nanci smiled, “No, back home. That’s where we have things to do.”
The End
Note to readers: The Reverend Nanci story is complicated and spread over parts of the Dawnwalker series as well as this one. I consider Down By the Riverside to be book one of this series, as well as a part of the Dawnwalker series, because it involves a lot of Canyon Tours characters in the Grand Canyon. Hickory Run is the second book of the series. Although much of it is set in the Grand Canyon, the Canyon and Canyon Tours are a small part of the book, and it is even less in this book, Circuit Rider.
However, there are two books in the Dawnwalker series that tell a significant part of Nanci’s story, and probably could be referred to as “prequels.”
The first is Dawnwalker itself. In that book, Nanci is a self-centered teenage playgirl without much sense of responsibility, and whose only objective is to have fun, not realizing that she’s on a serious slide downhill. While she’s only a small part of the book, the reaction of others to her actions plays a big part of the whole story.
The second prequel is Canyon Fires. While Nanci’s recovery, redemption and conversion is a part of the book, it is only one of several story lines, although in my opinion Nanci’s is the most powerful.
Nanci also has cameo appearances in several other Dawnwalker stories, most notably River Rat, but most of what happens in those cameos is recapitulated in Down By the Riverside.
For a character who was first cast as a semi-villain and was something of a throwaway, Nanci and I have come a long, long way.
-- WB
Note to editors and beta readers:
This story got a little more religious in spots than I intended, but when you’re writing about a minister who takes her calling seriously, I don’t think it can be avoided. So be it.
I realize that this story has left several threads hanging, especially the relationship between Nanci and Gerald. But I couldn’t go much farther than I did considering the short period this story covers. I had originally meant to get that into this story, but struggled with it, which held me down on finishing the book for almost a year until I realized I was dealing with two different stories, one short-term (this one) and another one, which could cover a year or more. I’m in the early planning stages of the follow-up book, which I have tentatively titled Under Prairie Skies.
While the Nanci-Gerald story will be a part of Under Prairie Skies, and to a lesser extent the Amber-Keith story will be there too, I find myself facing a problem and don’t know at this point which way to go. I can’t put my finger on why, but I’m not sure Gerald is a real good match for Nanci. He probably would prove adequate, but Nanci is definitely on a different plane.
I have the option of letting them get moderately serious while Nanci is wondering just how good a fit Gerald is, and then having him killed off in a blizzard, or tornado, or something, leaving Leah as Nanci’s ward along with Amber. Or, I can let the romance proceed, or just wilt. I do like the idea of having Nanci face her life as a minister as a single woman, with a young woman as a ward and an adopted child. That ought to make for some interesting and unusual problems. On the other hand, her being married to Gerald has story potential too. What I want to know is, what’s your opinion?
I’m not planning on starting work on Under Prairie Skies anytime soon, but perhaps this year. I’ve struggled with this book enough that I don’t want to dive right off into a sequel. I know that there will have to be at least one and probably more brand-new subplots in the new book, but I don’t know what they are yet.
One thing I do know, and it is that Amber will be with Nanci all the way through her college years, and she might or might not spend her summers with Canyon Tours. That’s still in the future. I’m not sure what she will do after that. Perhaps she will marry Keith and become a good ranch wife – or maybe not. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it, and I’m sure I won’t get to it in Under Prairie Skies.
-- WB
Editors’ Note: Wes’s note to editors above is “as is” from Wes’s original draft of Circuit Rider, mostly to explain why there are plot lines in the story left hanging. It was not meant to be seen by the regular readers, but with Wes’s death, we are leaving it in to explain some of the future of the series. It is extremely likely that no more Reverend Nanci books will be forthcoming. We have found no evidence so far that Wes has written much, if any, of Under Prairie Skies. Circuit Rider above is likely the last of Wes’s Reverend Nanci book to appear. If we find anything – even just snippets – in searching Wes’s files, we’ll try to make them presentable and publishable and get them posted.
Circuit Rider was written at much the same time or shortly after others in the Reverend Nanci series, as well as some other interrelated books, though the editing phases of this book didn’t begin until after Wes died. Without Wes to guide us, we editors may have not caught all the inconsistencies between this book and some others of his, like Hearts of Gold or other Dawnwalker series books.
