Winter Fall

by Byron Tucker

  Just as Sam brought in the last of the picnic supplies to the motorhome, and Irene had gone to the river to fetch the kids, his phone rang. Stepping over to the console where he kept it, he checked the screen as it rang again, and saw Ryan's name. He thought about letting it go to voice mail, but decided to answer the call.

  “What's up, Ryan?”

  “I just wanted to see where you guys are and whether you've seen anything unusual.”

  Realizing his brother was just showing genuine concern for his family, Sam kept his annoyance in check. “Oh, we're having a great day. The drive though the Bighorns was absolutely stunning. And the weather out here is perfect, clear and in the seventies. Eliza's breathing hasn't been this clear in months. She's out there running around like crazy.”

  “Oh good, glad to hear that. So I assume you're going to the campground this afternoon as planned?”

  “Oh yes, I called them last night, and the lady there says everything's open over there, and everything is fine, except for a few mild earthquakes.”

  “But have you seen anything unusual in your drive so far? Military vehicles and such?”

  Sam glanced at a small string of cars zooming past him on Alt Highway 14. “Nope, nothing of that nature. Not much traffic at all, really, just vacationers like us.”

  “So you don't see a big stream of people going the other way?”

  “It's about the same, I guess. The traffic coming and going, I mean. Yeah, if there's any sign that something's about to happen, I honestly haven't seen it yet. I'm sorry if this –”

  Ryan cut him off by saying, “Oh, that's okay, Sam. I'm really sorry to be pestering you like this. It's just that I need to make sure everything's okay for you guys.”

  “Well, we sure are having a wonderful time. I couldn't ask for a better vacation, if you want me to be honest with you.”

  “Well, I hope you understand that I really am happy for your family. Just keep one thing in your mind for me, okay? I'll promise to leave you alone if you'll do this for me.”

  “And what's that, Ryan?”

  “If at any time you feel funny about something, or it doesn't seem like a good time for you and the family, or things start going haywire, promise me you'll haul butt out of there.”

  “Yes, I can promise that, since it's just common sense. Until then, however, I'm taking my family to see Yellowstone. I hope I've made myself clear about that by now.”

  “Yes, I understand, Sam. It's your decision to make, and I respect that. I'm not asking you to listen to me, I'm asking to listen to yourself. If you hear that little voice inside you telling it's not safe, pay attention to it. That's all I ask.”

  The slug of anger he'd felt a moment before shifted to an atmosphere of reconciliation. It meant a lot to hear Ryan tell him that he respected the decision he had made about Yellowstone. That's all he really ever wanted from his brother, a modicum of consideration for the decisions he chose to make. “Yes, thank you, Ryan. I will most certainly keep that in mind, never you fear. And if it makes you feel any better, how about I give you a shout tomorrow, when we're at the Old Faithful site? Just so I can rub it in that we've made it to Yellowstone and lived to tell about it.”

  Ryan let out a chuckle on the other end. “You do that, brother. You can rub it in all you like. I'll be looking forward to hearing from you. Say hi to Irene and the kids for me, okay?”

  “I sure will. Bye.”

  Jimmy came running up to the motorhome just after he closed the call. “Who was it?” He asked, shifting out of the way to make room for Eliza to slip past him.

  “Oh, just your Uncle Ryan, playing mommy.”

  “So he's still worried about us going into the lion's den, huh?”

  He chuckled, noticing Irene looking around where they'd had their picnic. “Yeah, a bit. But he respects our decision for going, so that makes me feel better.” He leaned toward the doorway and shouted, “Hey, I've got everything else. Hop on in, so we can get going.”

  Irene kissed him on the forehead in the process of boarding the motorhome. “So we're going to Yellowstone now, huh?”

  “Yeppers, there's no stopping this family from seeing Old Faithful.”

  Irene pointed to Jimmy sitting next to his sister at the dinette table. “Why don't you play co-pilot with your Dad for a while, so I can play games with Eliza?”

  Jimmy sported a delighted expression as he hopped over to the front passenger seat and pulled the seatbelt around him. “Come on Dad, let's get going. I wanna see Yellowstone.”

  Sam clambered into the comfy driver's seat and snapped his belt into place before firing up the engine. “Me too, son. Me too.”

  * * *

  They arrived at the East Entrance of the sprawling park around three in the afternoon and had to deal with a twenty-minute wait in a line of traffic before reaching the ticket booth.

  Easing to a stop, Sam leaned out the side window to greet the attendant, a young male in a crisp-looking uniform. Taking the entrance fee from him, the Park employee said, “The park is currently in a yellow alert, which means possible geologic activity.”

  Suddenly concerned, Sam asked, “Does that mean it's still safe to be inside the park boundaries?”

  “Oh yes, it just means that you need to keep alert and obey the instructions of Park employees should the need arise. There's been a number of earthquakes recently and some unusual ground movement, so be aware of that.”

  Sam glanced at Jimmy and back to the attendant with a quick swivel of his head. “But no super-volcanic eruption, right?”

  The young man laughed. “If that was the case, we'd not be here. Please let me assure you that all public access areas are safe to visit, and if anything does change, we'll be getting the word out immediately. Enjoy your stay here at Yellowstone.”

  Sam pulled away, wishing not to hold up the line any longer than necessary. Turning to look at his son, he said, “Well, we can officially say that we've made it to Yellowstone, earthquakes, hydrothermal eruptions and all.”

  Eliza piped up from the dinette area. “Yay, we're in Yellowstone!”

  “So, where's the campground?” Jimmy queried.

  Sam handed him the park map he had been given. “Look it up. We have to go around the north side of Yellowstone Lake and then cut north to the Canyon Village and Campground. I'm sure it'll take at least a half hour, probably longer.”

  Jimmy took a moment to unfold the park map and studied it for a few moments. “Wow, this really is a huge place. I can't imagine all of this going up as part of a volcano.”

  “Me neither, Jimmy. I think the area's just in a really active phase right now, as it's been for countless thousands of years.”

  Jimmy gazed out the windshield as the motorhome rumbled up to speed on the mildly twisting roadway, holding his hand up to block the sun blazing down from the nearly cloudless sky. “Well, it sure does look sedate to me. I just see a bunch of forest and some mountains.”

  “I agree. I don't know about you, but I couldn't be happier to be in Yellowstone. Just look at how beautiful this place is.”

  Although he wanted to do some sightseeing, Sam made a beeline for the campground, just so they could get checked in and settle into their campsite. He planned on driving the motorhome on a comprehensive tour of the park the next day, so there was little point in touring stuff they'd be seeing again anyhow. They did get to see a bit of Yellowstone Lake as they drove past it, which dazzled blue under the afternoon sunlight, and then stopped at a couple of places to take photos, but they saw little else until they got to the check-in area of the campground.

  Telling his family to sit tight while he checked in, Sam went inside the admin building, surprised at the large number people milling about. However, checking in was a snap, and they were on their way again in a handful of minutes.

  Easing the vehicle down the access road leading to the RV campsites, he heard Jimmy ask, “Is it okay I go exploring a bit once we've parked?”

  Sam s
hook his head. “I'd rather for you to stick by the motorhome until we've gotten more familiar with the place. I know you want to see the waterfalls and all that good stuff, but let's save it for tomorrow and the next day. There's no need to rush around like a headless chicken, is there?”

  Jimmy let out a small chuckle. “I suppose not. I guess I can do another journal entry, since I haven't done one since Iowa.”

  “Good idea, since Mom wants you to keep up with that.” He glanced at the numbered sign posted at a turnoff ahead. “Looks like this is our street.” After turning right and proceeding for a hundred yards or so, he pointed toward their assigned campsite. “5805, that's our slot. Whew. I've had enough driving for one day.”

  Jimmy's Journal Entry – July 30 th, 2019

  Well, we made it. Yellowstone. Yay! Well, we haven't seen much yet, since we came straight to the campground where we'll stay for three nights. So, I can't write much about Yellowstone yet. But we've made it anyways. As for Mt Rushmore, that was okay, I mean, it was neat and everything, but there just wasn't that much to do there. But the drive across Nebraska was pretty cool, since we got to go through some thunderstorms with the most awesome lightning I've ever seen. I love how we could see all the way to the horizon there, with no trees or anything.

  Our best day of the trip so far is today, as we finally made it to the Rockies, and it was an awesome ride through Wyoming, and we did a picnic next to a bunch of rapids. You know the cool thing is, Dad is in the best mood ever. He's happy, feeling all relaxed, he hasn't yelled at anybody at all, he's like a whole different person. I guess Mom's right about his job stressing him out, coming home from the office being all grumpy and everything. So hopefully this vacation will give him the break he needs and he'll be able to handle things better when he goes back to work after vacation.

  About Uncle Ryan, we're still sending e-mails back and forth. He's starting to act pretty kosher about us making it to Yellowstone, so maybe he thinks it's not going to go ka-boom quite yet. But seriously, they'd have the park shut if that was really getting ready to happen. In spite of what he's telling me, I have to side with Dad on this one. He's asking me to write him if we see a bunch of military vehicles and stuff, but so far, we've seen nothing of the sort. Lots of nature, though, this place is just huge. Dad says it's going to take all day just to tour the main areas of the park. So what we'll do is to drive the "grand loop" tomorrow and make note of any cool places we'd like to explore in greater detail, and we can come back and do those on Thursday. I'm hoping we can find a place where Dad and I can hike up a mountain someplace while Mom hangs with Eliza or something.

  Speaking of Mom, we had a bit of a spat yesterday. I told her how Uncle Ryan had asked me if I wanted to do some shooting with him and me writing back to say yes, she got all upset at me because I said yes without asking her first. And of course, she made me send him another e-mail telling him that I was Not Allowed To Shoot Guns (seriously, that's what she typed in the subject line before making me send it.) I just don't see what the big deal is, though. Dad thinks it's cool that Uncle Ryan likes to shoot, but Mom, man, she's on a warpath with this anti-gun thing. I went and told Dad about it, and he says to just drop it and he'll see what he can do once we get to his place, like us doing it in a way so Mom doesn't know about it. So that's cool, Mom's all happy now thinking I'll not be shooting guns, and I can just sit back and chill. When it comes to the art of dealing with the parental units, trust me, I've got this down pat.

  Well, I've got to cut this short, as Mom is getting ready to dish out supper, and I'm totally ready to eat. I'll try to do another entry tomorrow after we've seen some sights.

  Chapter 6

  Sam woke up with a start, taking a few seconds to figure out why the bed was shaking.

  Irene wrapped her arm around him tightly and said, “We're having an earthquake, aren't we?”

  “Yes, but it'll be over in a moment.”

  Sure enough, the shaking stopped and silence enveloped them like a heavy blanket. “See, it's stopped.”

  Irene hugged him even tighter. “You don't really think your brother could be right about this, do you? About the volcano, I mean.”

  Sam caressed her face in a gesture of reassurance. “Of course not, Irene. Yellowstone is just in an active phase right now.”

  “But that earthquake felt pretty strong.”

  Before he had a chance to reply, the door of the bedroom opened and Eliza's silhouetted figure slipped into the cramped space. “Mommy, I'm scared.”

  “Come here, sweetie, you can get into bed with us,” Irene said, nudging Sam aside to make room for their daughter.

  Sam rolled over on his side, closing his eyes. “I'm going back to sleep guys. Trust me, there's nothing to worry about. It's just a small earthquake.”

  He fell asleep almost instantly and when he woke up again, the pale light of dawn seeped through the curtained windows. Sam glanced at Irene and Eliza next to him, still soundly asleep. Careful not to wake them up, he slipped out of the bedroom and spotted his shirtless son seated at the dinette table, listening to a radio with earbuds. He looked up and said, “That was a six point one last night, but I didn't even feel it.”

  Sam laughed, sitting down at the table across from his son. “I barely felt it myself. By the time I woke up, the shaking was almost finished. Trust me, it was nothing to write home about.”

  Jimmy pointed to the radio. “But they had a guy on there talking about how the ground is rising all over the park, like twenty feet in some places. Maybe we should call Uncle Ryan and see what he thinks.”

  Sam shook his head. “Good lord, don't tell me you're thinking like him now. We're here, the park is still open and we're going to see what this wonderful place has to offer.”

  Jimmy shrugged his shoulders. “At least they're saying that the roads are still open, except for a couple of places where they're doing emergency repairs.”

  He stood up and patted his son on the back, amazed at how big and broad his shoulders had become. “There we go. It's open for sightseeing, and we're going to take advantage of that. Come on, let's put that away and get dressed. We've got a big day ahead.”

  Less than two hours later, with the breakfast dishes put away and their showers taken, Sam eased the motorhome out of its camping spot, the bright morning sun angling through the tips of the ubiquitous conifers. Jimmy sat in the front passenger seat, fiddling with his video camera, while Irene and Eliza resumed the board game they had started the night before. Turning south on the main road, he said, “Okay, Jimmy, what's first on the list of things to see today?”

  Jimmy set the camera down and retrieved the map. “Hayden Valley. That's where all the wildlife is supposed to be. The bison, elk and moose.”

  Sam frowned. “It's odd that we haven't seen any critters yet. We should have seen at least a few moose on the way in yesterday.”

  “Well, Uncle Ryan did say that the wildlife has been fleeing the area for weeks now.”

  “But he's not here, so how does he know that? People on that website he runs have been saying that for years. The animals move to where there is food, so perhaps the land's been overgrazed here and they've been forced to go elsewhere. But hopefully we'll see some bison in this valley at least.”

  Jimmy brought the video camera to his face and peered through the viewfinder. “Yeah, even if they're far away, I can zoom in pretty close with this thing.”

  The ride to the Hayden Valley only took a few minutes, since it was located just a few miles from the campground they'd just left. On the cusp of going down into the valley, Sam spotted an empty overlook with plenty of room to park the RV. He pulled into it to give his family a chance to enjoy the magnificent vista of the valley that spread out before them. Jimmy rushed outside, the cool morning air seeping into the interior of the vehicle through the open doorway. Sam looked at his wife and daughter with a bemused smile, getting out of his seat. “Aren't you guys going to have a look?”

  Eliza lo
oked up and said, “It's a bit cold, Daddy, and I wanna finish this game. I'm about to win.”

  Sam laughed as he eased down the steps to the outside. “That's fine, we're just going to see if we can spot some bison.”

  Spotting Jimmy standing a short distance away, he walked over to him.

  Jimmy waved his arm at the panorama of the nearly treeless valley, the clear air affording an unobstructed view clear to the horizon. “I can't see a dammed creature out there, Dad. Even with the cam at full zoom, I don't see anything.”

  Sam pointed to the ribbon of blue snaking across the wide bowl of the valley. “How about along the river? Animals tend to gather wherever there's water.”

  “That's the first place I looked. I don't even see any birds, do you?”

  Sam looked around him for a few moments, getting a chill down his spine when he realized the true depth of the silence enveloping them. “Yes, you are right. There's not a single bird that I can see or hear. That is strange.”

  Jimmy pointed to the RV. “Well, we're not going to let that stop us from seeing the geysers, are we?”

  He patted his son on the back. “Heck no. That's the whole point of seeing Yellowstone, the geysers.”

  Sam didn't bother mentioning the lack of wildlife to Irene and Eliza when they hopped back on board and headed to their seats, as he didn't see any point in giving them something to fret about. He started the engine and eased the lumbering motorhome back onto the roadway, amazed at the lack of traffic.

  Late July was supposed to be peak tourist season in Yellowstone, but it sure didn't seem that way, at least not yet. But then again, the day was still young, and most people tended not to get going until mid-morning or so. In the meantime, Sam planned to enjoy the open road and the ability to drive the speed limit. With luck, they would get to the Old Faithful area before nine, giving themselves plenty of time to explore. He knew the trails around there would be easy ones, posing no problem for Eliza.