Flight To Pandemonium

by Murray, Edward

  Four trim men emerged dressed in clothes borrowed from the Glennallen bundle. Their new street clothes hung loosely, displaying how lean all had become.

  Hours later when Judy and Onita presented themselves, their transformation was striking. Although Judy’s clothes fit rather snugly with her pregnancy, both wore their hair cut shorter and coifed in pageboy style, and with modestly fashionable makeup. They were lovely.

  The miners returned with a towering load of supplies carefully nested and roped to the buggy and its trailer. They had chased off two inexperienced bear cubs already trying their best to break into the cab. Consequently, they brought all of the remaining perishable food, so the kitchen team returned to duty and secured everything in an empty, dank walk-in cooler. Exhausted, the miners watched the procession of others parade by in newly restored condition.

  When the ladies approached them explaining the situation, they insisted the miners must first scrub, trim and comb even after such an exhausting day. Jack and Tony protested claiming they had no clothes any better than the ones they wore. Offering inducement, the ladies volunteered to find new clothes for them and allow use of their shower ‘just this once.’ Jack finally conceded he was ready ‘to get civilized.’

  Meanwhile, the other five explored the vast commercial kitchen intending to prepare a celebration dinner. Mac puzzled over how to operate the unfamiliar stainless steel appliances. Without power, he concluded nothing would work except the gas cooktop.

  In contrast, an elegant cedar and glass cabinet lined with purple pacific cloth prominently displayed the lodge’s silver and china dinner service. While a bounty of ordinary tableware was also available, the Captain and Mac set a formal dining table with china and silverware set for seven. Mac asked that the Captain be placed at the head, then stood back marveling at the stunning change from their previous coarse manner of dining.

  With lantern in hand, Pappy opened a dark corridor door seeking storage space for their Glennallen bounty of preserved food. He discovered a spacious lodge pantry, nearly full of provisions they had been unable to find in town. There were ten plastic barrels of flour and rice, two ninety pound sacks of small potatoes and onions, and bags of carrots, beans, and radishes, some past their prime. Best was a barrel of sweet Gravenstein apples.

  Surprised and pleased, Pappy hailed the others to marvel. The potatoes especially pleased Onita. She insisted that all tubers be saved to go to root for a spring garden. Sorting through stacked boxes uncovered another delight – cases of quality dinner wine. After weeks of hungry trekking, such customary food looked extraordinary.

  Jack and Tony emerged from the ladies quarters as altered men, dramatically changed. Neatly trimmed, clean shaven, and dressed in casual sport clothes, they no longer wore the rugged working man persona everyone recognized. Mac had never seen them except in utilitarian denim overalls and long sleeved cotton shirts sporting picturesque wooly beards. The ladies marveled at their new looks as much as the men had admired the women. The miners looked as conspicuously uncomfortable in their new clothes as Judy had with her prominently changed shape. Everyone grinned at the miners’ rare lack of confidence.

  Dinner wasn’t as elegant as the chef’s aspired. While they had elegant food for a banquet, finding where ingredients were stored and learning their way around the new kitchen, the chefs simplified the menu to basic meat with potatoes and vegetables. But the elegant table of china and silver was impressive and worthy of celebration.

  The bar was the one asset of the lodge which hadn’t yet been stocked for guests and contained only two dozen bottles of brandy and a stash of cigars. Jack produced two bottles of Scotch which he had transported in the buggy from Hirsh’s stock. By then, the straight whisky had become a favorite cocktail even though none had ever considered the drink a past personal choice.

  Seated at the elegant table enjoying dinner by candlelight began a celebration of new lives together. Even Hirsh emerged from his grim armor of the previous evening. Quiet in most things, he had enjoyed Manhattan night life above all else. Hirsh maintained that while Scotch was an honorable drink before dinner, cognac should be the favorite thereafter. He made the rounds pouring from his own precious snifter while rehashing an old New York ethnic bar joke.

  “An Irish newcomer walked into a New York bar, ordered three beers, sipping a little from each, one after another. When he finished them, he ordered three more. The bartender said, ‘You know, I can always draw you a cold one anytime; just say the word.’ The Irishman replied, ‘Naw. Y’see, my brothers and I have lived in this city together all our lives. We had to part company so the three of us promised to keep the tradition alive until we could be reunited.’ The bartender hadn’t heard that one before, and overcoming his usual cynicism, let it be.

  “Week after week the Irishman returns, becoming a recognized regular, drinking in the same manner. One day, he orders two beers while looking rather glum. The bartender, fearing the worst, says, ‘I’m so sorry… these are on the house.’ ‘Naw, it’s nothing like that,’ says the Irishman. “My brothers are fine. I’m just giving up one of my indulgences for Lent.’ ”

  When the derisive chuckling died, Onita added, “Better than the other one!”

  That got a hearty laugh. Onita came alive as she had in Glennallen. Her teasing and bawdy humor played well opposite Hirsh’s reserved wittiness. After imbibing awhile, her occasional lapses into Spanish were amusing and timely. She sometimes used Spanish words for the most risqué of implications and then looked up coquettishly from the corners of her eyes to see if anyone caught her meaning. Her expression always brought laughter, whether or not they had divined her meaning. Onita loved poking fun.

  Brandy encouraged cheerfulness and an early bed after a fulfilling day. The soft lounge couches allowed the men to sleep comfortably close to the double hearths. Now fluffy clean thanks to Onita, Darwin guarded only the ladies quarters.

  With firelight flickering on the towering stone chimneys and cognac still on his lips, Mac marveled at the astonishing turn of his fortunes, virtually overnight. His fading thoughts were of Judy. What were his prospects with her, he wondered? A future bound with her would be the best turn of all, especially now.

  For the first time in weeks, Mac slept soundly, no longer troubled by intimidating wilds, drenching weather, or cold rocky ground.

  Before breakfast, Mac, Tony, and Pappy set out to explore their new quarters. They climbed to the roof deck to admire the lake, but found morning fog obscuring everything but the wharf and its tilted, forlorn floatplane. Inspired by the sight of the airplane, Pappy was soon seen striding down the front stairs toward the floatplane in pursuit of his foremost joy and interest in life.

  The roof deck was arranged with dining tables beneath a timber trellis spanning the stone chimneys… all covered in snow. The rest of the vast deck was dedicated to game courts. A cluster of protruding roof vents misted a faint cloud of moisture into the cold air revealing a utility core somewhere below. Tony resolutely sought the source of the never-ending hot shower.

  They found a rear stair providing access to a small array of solar panels beside a pair of basement service doors. Tony opened them and found the mechanical workings he sought. Parked just inside the doors was a splendid surprise for Mac… two gleaming snowmobiles, his favorite winter toy. “Marvelous!” said Mac.

  Tony said, “Later for that Mac. You’re a civil engineer; let’s check out the waterworks and find what’s heating all that shower water.”

  “All right, I was curious about that myself.”

  The warm basement core held expected essentials. A concrete room housed two water tanks, one rather large. Tony palmed both tanks and found the smaller one was hot, but not the larger.

  “Hey, this is plumbed just the opposite way I expected. I wonder why?”

  “The pipe coming from the wall is hot, but I can
’t make sense of all that other plumbing coming and going,” replied Mac, “and there’s no water heater in here either.”

  “Gotta be here somewhere,” replied Tony.

  “A quick tour maybe, but we shouldn’t hold up breakfast… our first in that glorious dining room and I’m ready for some real food for a change!.”

  “I suppose we oughtta go on up,” replied Tony. “They’re probably askin’ after us anyway.”

  When Tony and Mac arrived, breakfast of bear strips and hash brown potatoes was already underway. Judy said, “Where’d you two go? No one could find you.”

  “The basement… witching for water, what else,” said Tony, grinning.

  “Well guys, we need your help for a special priority. Everything in this kitchen runs on electricity. The propane stove worked for fixing breakfast, but that’s all. And the refrigerators aren’t working either. Is there any way to get all that going? Otherwise a lot of good food will soon spoil now that the kitchen has warmed up.”

  “If there’s power, we’ll find out how,” said Tony. “Mac and I’ll handle that first thing.”

  Tony thought he’d quickly found his answer to water in a basement room enclosed within four heavily baffled walls. Two large diesel generators side by side occupied most of the space with a third smaller one behind. While Mac and Tony stood trying to decipher wiring cables, the smaller generator started automatically and hummed quietly. Groping along the wall, Tony found the light switch.

  With bright light, Mac cheered, “Voila! First lights since Nome!”

  Tony’s reaction was unlike Mac’s. “Well, blow me down,” Tony said. “There must be diesel fuel here somewhere.” He wandered among the generators until he found a wall panel with an array of instruments and controls.

  “Shows here that a diesel tank is three quarters full but there are two of them! The other says ‘wharf’ and shows full. This place is full of surprises,” Tony said with a smile. He faced the panel and paused, “Ready?”

  He depressed the designated button and a big generator thundered, rapidly accelerating, then settling to an idle. Tony listened, watching the digital instruments. Satisfied, he shut the generator down.

  “No load. Panels must be switched off.” He thought for a moment, and then added, “Still doesn’t explain the hot water and I can’t understand why they separated the water heater.”

  “Or maybe there isn’t a heater down here at all, I’m thinking,” said Mac. “Maybe those big tanks are just storage from some other source.”

  “You know, you might be right.” Searching the basement, Tony quickly found the source behind a screen wall. Rising from mounded cobbles was a collared pipe with several gauges, and a large pipe valve projecting into the wall. He gripped the valve, which was hot to the touch.

  “Will you look at this?” Tony exclaimed with awe. “Gauges say 115 degrees and 71 pounds pressure. This is an artesian geothermal well! This place has everything a body could desire! Free heat… doesn’t that beat all!”

  There was more. They discovered a craftsman’s shop where wood and metal working tools lined the walls, and a broad central workbench was spread with cabinets in progressive stages of assembly. The seasoned shop would surely become Tony’s new home.

  Meanwhile, Jack and Pappy decided to make a morning run to the cat. As they were leaving, the ladies called out priorities for Jack to haul home. He shook his head and said, “Naw, this is our trip to get loot we shouldn’t have left behind. Next time.”

  Judy called after them, “Then please leave the tent and our vermin infested sleeping bags right there. We’ll rearrange the pantry hoping you’re bringing food.”

  Judy asked Mac to move heavy boxes. Reorganizing the pantry, they found more cooking staples, a variety of gourmet spices and condiments in formal table containers, dozens of boxes of trendy table candles, silver candle holders, table napkins, table cloths, burgundy charger plates and matching flower vases. The sporting lodge was prepared to serve guests in style.

  The lodge had been stocked for future guests months in advance. In the past, Mac had stocked up for no more than a week or two. Big box stores were always around the corner. Now, stocking groceries would be forever changed. The largess provided by the lodge would allow them to make the transition to a new way of thinking.

  Perishable food had been stored in a cooler adjacent to the freezer. Judy was about to make use of the freezer when Mac suggested, “Let’s wait until Tony has the power back on and give it time to be sure everything is frozen.”

  “If anything has thawed in the meantime, that’ll be a special job for you two.”

  Jack and Pappy returned bringing the remaining weapons, ammunition, tools, books, and canned food. Piled on top were rolls of the clean clothes bundled from Glennallen. Clothes were sorted and separated by sex and size. With the limited amount of clothing, everyone drew lots in turn to choose clothes.

  Bringing a single votive candle, Mac retired to the library to catch up on his neglected journal. Hirsh was working in dim light to systematize the library collection. Books were piled everywhere as he explored and sorted.

  “If you were a fisherman, a hunter or a snowmobiler,” he said, “this room would be a bonanza, but I’m none of them. Thankfully, they have a fair collection of novels I haven’t read.

  “When Ahtna returns we should pick his brain about fishing. That map must show a hundred lakes and streams nearby. I had no idea this valley was such a fishing attraction.”

  A topographic map mounted on the far wall plotted the lakes, foot trails, and snowmobile runs around Lake Louise from Glennallen to Sheep Mountain. The map depicted the vast Talkeetna Mountains where Ahtna had gone to set his traps. Mac realized the young man would have a long walk home.

  The opposite wall was a floor to ceiling glass aquarium open to the outside veranda allowing the tank to capture natural light. As the library warmed, melting frost on the glass revealed a collection of local freshwater fish hovering under a crust of ice. He recognized rainbow trout, Dolly Varden, white fish, and lake trout together with others he couldn’t identify. Remembering Abel’s bragging contest, Mac thought catching enough fish to survive might be possible with such opportunity.

  Turning to his desk, Mac lit his candle when simultaneously the lights in the library blazed brightly and the aquarium came to life bursting with rising bubbles. Startled, Hirsh and Mac looked at one another and cheered. They could hear others in the lodge also cheering. He put his untouched work aside and joined them for a tour.

  Authentic craftsman style fixtures softly illuminated the lobby, while spotlights highlighted its timbered ceilings and towering fireplaces. A crystal starlight chandelier graced the central grand stair and each table in the dining room glowed beneath a multi-colored Tiffany style pendant. The kitchen and central restrooms blazed with LED light tubes abolishing fumbling in the dark.

  Outside, Mac admired the ornate row of gleaming fixtures which stepped down the terraces and along the stone wharf. The men walked down the lighted path and stood on the wharf looking back. The underside of every eave of the lodge was illuminated with strings of white LED lights. Covered with glowing crystalline snow, the lodge looked stunning. Mac took special delight in the sparkling night, well remembering the magical Seattle waterfront as a child.

  Gathered around the fireplace, Tony beamed amid family congratulations. “Enjoy the power for now,” he said, “but soon we need to agree on a few rules.”

  The three chefs employed the convection ovens to prepare a splendid meal of roast caribou and baked potatoes with refreshed carrots. Tony sought everyone’s attention for a discussion just as desert was served. Ignoring Tony, everyone focused on thick, flaky, sugared cheese-berry turnovers Judy served straight from the oven.

  “Alright,” he announced, “I know when I’m beat. Power will
come on at seven thirty sharp. Do whatever you need with electricity for an hour, then you’ll be cut off.”

  In the morning, Tony gathered everyone hoping for consensus on ordinary issues. He didn’t yet know how long diesel would last and urged using the generators to power only the central bathroom, stair lights, the kitchen, laundry, coolers, freezers, and the shop. The dual fireplaces in the lounge and the wood stove in the quarters would provide enough heat downstairs. Elsewhere might get a little chilly by morning, but nothing like they’d experienced on the road. Tony set a single generator to run an hour in the morning and ninety minutes in the evening after dark, long enough for cooking, dishes, laundry, and cooling perishable food. Everyone agreed to dine in the bar instead of the large dining hall and to reserve the gift shop, the warmest room in the lodge, for anyone who became ill.

  “Jack, that reminds me about our medical supplies still in the cat,” said Judy. We’ve forgotten them so far. All I have is my little kit.”

  “Alright, I can see I’m losing ya,” said Jack. “Just one or two more things and then I’ll take orders for another trip… Firewood… After a little more snow is on the ground, we’ll use the snowmobiles to cut and haul firewood. If three or four of us work together, it’ll go quickly. But not you, Hirsh. I’ve got a special request for you… if you’ll agree to it?”

  “Instead of cutting firewood?” he replied. “Can’t get any worse than that.”

  “Well, it would be for me, so that’s why I’m askin’ about your library. You said it’s got lots of sporting stuff. That’s the kind of information we need. ‘Cept for Pappy, we know nothin’ about this area. Where’s the best fishing and hunting and when… what’s hot… what’s not… the like. Would you get all that organized for us?”