by Ron Hess
I scooted myself back onto the bed and leaned against the wall. It was time to take stock of where I was and I gazed about the one room of the cabin. I judged the room to be around 12 feet by 15 feet and every bit of it was comfortable and tastefully done. There were even frilly curtains around the windows. It had everything except electricity, but wood stoves and kerosene lamps will do just fine on a cold winter’s night. Electricity meant power lines, and power lines in this wilderness were hard to maintain.
A shelf with pictures drew my attention next. Hopefully, pictures of Jimmy’s aunt would be among them. Curious, I got up and wandered over to have a look. Of course, I should have known. One of Jimmy’s aunts was Helen. My beautiful, sexy Helen and her twin sister. There they stood, side by side. Helen in her big city sophisticated pants suit outfit and her sister in jeans and sweater. Her twin sister, who had nuzzled the old man’s ear in the Anchorage bar. My mind started racing, thinking crazy things about the two of them. Was Helen’s twin sister handling the dig’s artifacts, getting money for them from an Anchorage connection so the villagers could buy alcohol and drugs? Was Helen herself selling something besides products for the home? I didn’t want to believe what I was thinking. Maybe there was a logical reason for Helen to be out at night. Deep in my gut, though, I knew the product she sold wasn’t soap.
The automatic pilot in my brain started my feet to moving around the cabin with my eyes roving, searching, and looking for something to validate my thoughts that Helen was simply a frontier extension of suburbia. I tried to make my feet stop moving, my brain crying out that this was someone’s personal stuff, that I had no business conducting this search, but I had to know. In that small cabin, it didn’t take long. I found the home products in a large two-feet square cardboard box in a corner. My hand fell on a small tin container that said it was talcum power. I shook some of it onto a hand that had gotten steady all of a sudden and braced myself as I lifted that hand to my mouth.
It was one of the finest examples of cocaine I had ever tasted. I slowly put the tin container back into the box as if were a bomb. Why, Helen? Why did you have to get into this unholy game of bringing this evil into your community? You, who showed so much promise and were so smart. Why?
I wandered over to the bed and sat down with a thump, my head in my hands. Was she aware of what big brother Ivan had attempted to do? Maybe that tennis shoe print wasn’t Jimmy’s after all. Maybe it was Helen who had let me go—who loved me, who didn’t want me dead. Right then I wasn’t sure of anything, other than the fact I was alive. Or mostly, anyway. Part of me died when I discovered the cocaine. I hoped with all my being that perhaps someone else had put it there. I had wanted to believe in her—hoping she was the start of something new, but my inner being said she wasn’t. Just a different rendition of something old.
I got up from the edge of the bed and headed for the door. I had to get back to the village. Maybe, I was being searched for. After all, I had been gone for three full days. I couldn’t wait to see the look on Ivan’s face when I saw him and I hoped divine providence would allow me at least one good punch to his face. That’s all I wanted. One . . . good . . . punch.
Chapter 21
I shuffled down the path toward what I hoped was the village. Keep one foot in front of the other, I kept telling myself. That’s all I had to do. Sooner or later, I would get there. From time to time, I looked back behind me in the gathering gloom of darkness. No need to have a bear sneaking up from behind. Not to mention Ivan, my main tormenter. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on him. One good punch in the old kisser would do wonders for my self-esteem. In my mind’s eye, I could see him lying there, begging me not to hit him again.
Fat chance, Bronski, my little voice said, and alas, I knew it to be true. But thinking it, kept me standing. I was dead tired. The eight hours sleep had worked wonders, but another twelve hours would do still more wonders for my constitution.
I heard a dog bark in the distance. I knew then I was getting closer and I increased my walking speed. The path grew wider and dustier. That was another good sign. Then I saw a light at the edge of the trees and I knew I was almost there. I wanted to run, so glad was I to be out of the forest and back to civilization, but the old legs just didn’t have it. I checked my watch and noted it was 11:00 p.m. It was amazing it still ran, considering the number of times it had been dunked in water. Come to think of it, why hadn’t Ivan swiped it? Of course, he couldn’t have worn it in the village. Someone would have noticed he had a new watch and then questions would come, with people wondering where he had gotten it.
On the village’s main street now, I moved as fast as I could toward Charlie’s house. I couldn’t wait to tell him about my little adventure with Ivan. The village dogs knew me by now, so aside from a curious bark or two, I believed I was not seen by anyone. Come tomorrow, I wanted to be a complete surprise and I hoped a few cages would be rattled. I climbed the steps to Charlie’s door and knocked. I looked around. Still nobody on the street. I knocked again, only louder this time. Finally, I heard movement by the door.
“Who is it?”
“Charlie, it’s me, Leo,” I said in a loud whisper. “Open up!”
Without hesitation the door flung open. Charlie stood there, wrapped in a towel, eyebrows raised in amazement.
“Leo, you look like hell. Where have you been, anyway?”
“Out in the boonies hugging a tree.”
“What?” He asked, his face wrinkling.
“Invite me in, Charlie, and I’ll tell you all about it.”
“Ah . . . sure. Come on in, I guess. This can’t wait until tomorrow?”
“No, Charlie, it can’t,” I said, as I walked in the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone pull the covers over her head. Charlie and his peccadilloes. I wondered if he had trouble keeping them all straight. Any other night I would have smiled and maybe made a joke, but not tonight. I was too damn tired, but not so tired that I didn’t notice Charlie stepping away from me. One hand held his towel up and the other was holding his nose.
“Leo, you smell like a rotten salmon, only worse.”
“Sorry about that, Charlie. I’ll be as brief as I can.”
I went on to give a quick explanation of where I’d been, Ivan’s involvement, and how I thought Helen was involved in drugs.
Charlie shook his head in disbelief. “Listen Leo, Ivan was one of those searching for you.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet he was”, I said. “Which way on the river did he search? Toward the dig, right?”
Charlie nodded.
“I thought so,” I said. “I was sitting under a tree the opposite direction toward Helen’s cabin. Who led the search in that direction?”
Charlie’s eyebrows raised a notch. “Helen.”
I nodded. “Uh-huh. Do believe me, Charlie?”
Charlie sat in a chair, his hand still holding his towel on his hips and his eyes on the floor. I remained standing, as I knew my clothes were worse than dirty. After a moment and a sigh he spoke. “Yeah, I believe you, mostly anyway. I don’t want to, but I think I have to. There is a problem. How do you prove Ivan tried to kill you by leaving you tied to a tree? Do you have a witness?”
“No, dammit, I don’t have a witness,” I said.
“Well, until you come up with a witness that actually saw Ivan tie you to a tree and then left you, there’s not much I can do. As for Helen, yeah, I know all about that. She is due to be taken care of. Since you found her cache of coke, you can bet it’s already been moved. If the coke’s been moved, then that will complicate things. We wanted to catch her red-handed.”
I rocked back on my heels. The thing I didn’t want to believe was true. The coke in the cabin really did belong to her. No one else had put it there for safekeeping, which is what I had hoped. A few mysteries about her were coming together. Mysteries that I didn’t like. I had so wanted her to be real, but now with Charlie’s words coming at me, I knew I must forget about her becoming
my queen.
“Isn’t there some way you can go there tonight?” I asked. Behind my question was the thought that I wanted her to suffer as much as I had. I had an idea what Charlie’s answer would be, but I had to ask anyway.
“No, Leo, I can’t. We have rules out here too, just like the big cities. No, we’ll have to sit tight on this one. But your telling me that lets me know that the Law is on the right track—for once.” He gave me a small smile. “Tough, ain’t it, Leo. You thought she was an answer to some of your being all-alone-in-the-world problems. Instead, you find out she was using you, eh? It wasn’t very nice of her, was it?”
I felt the heat come to my face. He was right, of course. Dead on as a matter of fact. But cop or not, I was ready to hit him for reminding me how blind I had been. She had made use of her beauty and my loneliness to get to me. I thought back, realizing how fast she had come on to me. There had been little courtship, but I had accepted it as normal. I turned to leave, because right then I couldn’t say anything. I just felt empty and tired as I headed to the door.
“Good night, Leo,” Charlie said in a low voice, maybe a little sorry for being so direct.
I stopped, my hand on the doorknob and took a deep breath to steady myself.
“Yeah,” I answered.
* * *
I left Charlie’s place, not shuffling with fatigue but walking with a determination that I was not going to let the past few days get me down. I would see this thing of Helen and Ivan through to the end, bitter or not. I was tired of feeling sorry for myself, tired of giving myself excuses. I realized that’s what I’d been doing all these years, using the drinking to help me feel even sorrier on my self-generated wheel of misfortune.
I rounded the back corner of the post office and entered my room by the back door. When I left, I had been in such haste I had forgotten to lock it, not that it mattered in the village. Most doors were unlocked, mine being post office property was one of the few exceptions. As I entered, I looked around. Everything looked normal, except for the message slips lying on my bed. They were from the boss, naturally, written in the neat hand of Jeanette. No doubt, he wondered where in the hell I was, and naturally he would think I was out on a bender somewhere. Well, he would wait until tomorrow.
Right then I had one thing to do, and that was to get rid of the stink that clung to me. I shed my clothes as fast as I could. They were not going to be saved. Neither would my shoes. Nope, they were going out the door along with my former life. Hopefully, the dogs would not fight over them while I tried to sleep. I looked up to the shelf where the bottle stood and did not hesitate for an instant in taking it down. To throw it out would be just like in the movies, but this wasn’t the movies, this was real life. I would take a swig from it now and then, but only as a reminder, not a way of life. To prove to myself that I knew what I was talking about, I opened it and took a swig. Nothing had changed, it still tasted like it always did, but a swig was all I wanted, so back onto the shelf it went.
I still had to get clean so I washed at the sink. Squeaky-clean I was not, but it would do until tomorrow. I pulled back the covers on the bed and fell on it.
* * *
I awoke, not to the blissful singing of birds, but to the telephone’s angry ring. Why was it that the phone sounded different when the boss was on the line? It had to be him. Nobody else would call at precisely at 8:00 a.m. That’s when I was supposed to be on the job, and by golly that’s when the boss would call. I threw back the covers and walked in the buff through the door that divided my room from the back room of the post office. There was no one around, so what the hell. I sat in a chair, propped one foot on the desk and leisurely reached for the phone. This would be sweet.
“Bronski!”
“Yes, sir,” I dutifully said.
“Where in hell have you been! I alerted the Troopers and everybody else to be looking for you. I hope to high hell you haven’t been in Anchorage getting a snoot full, because if you have, that’s it! Out the door!”
The boss was breathing hard. I figured by now his cigar had fallen on his desk and he was leaning over to pick it up. I had a few seconds to talk.
“I was attacked out in the wilderness while I was trying to find out about the postmaster death.” There was silence, I had a couple more seconds.
“Would you like to hear what happened?” I asked.
There was a slurping noise, much like the wolf’s in the forest. It meant the boss’s cigar had found its way back into his mouth.
“Yeah, Bronski. I really would like to hear what happened to you out in the woods.”
I heard the leather creak of his chair, he was settled down. I went on to tell him of my adventure, from Jimmy’s mask to renting the boat to being shot at and then the tale of being tied to the tree. The telling of being tied to the tree was the hard part, and I stopped a number of times to compose myself. At last, it was over, even the telling about the finding of the cocaine at the cabin. I looked down at my hands and was surprised to find they weren’t shaking. They should have been as I hadn’t had much alcohol in the last few days.
The leather creaked again. The boss was probably leaning forward in his chair to lay his cigar back in its box. It looked despicable, but it was his kingdom.
“So, how are you feeling, Bronski? Want me to pull you out of there?”
“No, sir,” I said quietly.
“Oh . . . I thought you would give anything to be out of there.”
“There was a time, boss, but not now. I have some unfinished business.”
“Now, Bronski, I don’t want you making like the Lone Ranger trying to get to this Ivan character. He sounds pretty tough from your description.”
The boss as usual had hit the nail on the head, but I wasn’t going to admit it. I was out to get Ivan, the son-of-a-bitch, one way or the other. He was guilty of attempted murder. If the law didn’t get him, I would. The hackles rose on the back of my neck at that thought and I asked myself if I was up to it.
“Bronski, are you still there?”
“Yeah, boss, just thinking. You know, this post office, being out here in the boonies and all, doesn’t have a weapon. I think we ought to have one. ”
“No, Bronski, we’re not going in that direction. You know the rules about no firearms of any kind on a post office facility, and I won’t get you one. Furthermore, if I hear you have one, you’re fired. You understand?”
Good old boss. Post office all the way. “Sure boss, I hear you.”
He only grunted in return. We then turned to post office admin stuff too boring to contemplate and then hung up. My mind was made up. Post office or not, I would have a weapon. My hand was still on the phone when the side-door squeaked, and there I sat in my birthday suit. I bounded for the door to my room. I was almost through it when I heard a giggle and a questioning, “Leo?”
Back in my room and safe from inquiring eyes, I put a clean set of clothes on. It felt good to be back in my world again. Whether I liked it or not, the post office was my life. I had no other pursuits, no hobbies, nothing except rounding the bars in Anchorage. I finished buckling my belt and noticed it was now two notches back from where it normally was. Well, old boy, I told myself, that’s what happens when you don’t eat for a few days. Thinking about food almost made me faint, I was that hungry. My store of food in the room was practically zip. Well, there were ways of solving that problem. I walked to the door separating the office from my room, took a deep breath, like I was going before a large audience, and opened it.
“Leo!” The twins said exactly at the same time, only Jeanette was the one who stepped forward and gave me a long hug. When she stepped back, I could swear I saw a tear brimming in her eyes. Jean stood back, her face a little red, and wrung her hands. I had an idea whose head was underneath Charlie’s covers. The thought made me wonder how much she told Charlie about the comings and goings of the patrons and me at the post office.
“It’s good to see you, sir,” Jean said.
I gave her a wink and said, “Same here, Jean.” I looked back at Jeanette, who was slowly letting go of my hands. “But this time yesterday, I wasn’t sure I would ever walk into this post office again.”
Realizing she still had my hands in hers, Jeanette stepped back, her face pink from showing her emotions. Personally, I found it gratifying. It meant somebody cared, really cared, for old Leo. “Most favored employees,” I began, “it has come to my attention that we need to hold our monthly meeting.”
Jean’s mouth dropped. “Monthly meeting? We never . . .”
“Hold a monthly meeting.” Jeanette said, completing the sentence in perfect cadence.
“We do now,” I said, rubbing my stomach. “Besides, I’m starving to death. Do they serve breakfast over at the cafe?”
Jean gave Jeanette a side look. “Yes, they do.”
“Then, let’s lockup and go to breakfast,” I said, “and I’ll tell you what happened to me.”
We locked the front door, put up the back-in-a-few-minutes sign, and with me taking the lead we walked toward the cafe, the twins almost running as they tried to keep up.
Jeanette tugged on my arm. “Uh, Leo, maybe you should know Ivan eats his breakfast there.”
“Oh, he does, does he?” I responded and stopped walking. Jeanette stepped back, maybe a little alarmed at the manic look in my eyes. “I certainly hope so,” I went on, “because I have a little score that needs to be settled with that gentleman.”