With an annoyed voice, the Captain asked, “Pappy is flying really necessary? If they’re coming anyway, why take the risk? You just want a reason to go flying.”
“Dammit! This isn’t a junket.” Pappy’s eyes blazed. “I promised I’d do it and, by God, I’m going to keep that promise. They’re worried for good reason. When I last flew over the pass, you couldn’t make out the road through all the avalanches.”
Following the angry retort, silence ensued until Lazlo spoke up. “You know… I don’t think that’s such a bad idea. There’s another thing Pappy could do for us and a valuable one. We could use so many things that Glennallen can’t provide. Valdez is an industrial town. We need materials and furniture, especially new beds for the third floor. We’ve used all we had to furnish the second floor.... and we’ll need window glass to replace what we borrowed for the greenhouse.”
“The Fowlers hadn’t purchased anything for the third floor,” said Ahtna. We’ll also need plumbing fixtures… and lights, doors, and carpet.”
“And food staples, ammunition for the rifles, and gasoline for the snowmobiles next winter,” added Mac… “and fishing tackle and nets for the salmon run.”
“Lots of seed, and especially more glass for the greenhouse,” said Onita, “and wire or string… and grape stakes… and all the potting material and fertilizer their Chief can find.”
“And clothing for the women,” said Judy, “… and a sewing machine, and material for making baby clothes, and diapers. We need detergent, and especially more toilet tissue.”
“And a backhoe or farm tractor,” said Larry.
“If the mariners could bring needed supplies with them, our lives would be much easier accommodating additional people,” said Lazlo. “Pappy should give them a list or they’d just be guessing. They’ve never seen this lodge.”
Pappy smirked as the Captain said with resignation, “Okay, okay, I get the picture.”
“I’m staying here this time,” said Hirsh, “but if there’s a library, we could use books on plant propagation, composting… and books on metalworking, crafting tools and especially making biodiesel. Without Tony, we don’t know much about any of those things.”
“Everyone, give me a list,” said Pappy. “I’ll be off tomorrow morning as soon as it warms up. And don’t worry about me; I’ll be back one way or another. I may just wait and escort them. Who knows how long that might be?”
As Pappy emerged in the morning, Mac noticed that he had trimmed his hair and wore his white airline flight uniform now clean and pressed… for old time’s sake as a pilot, he supposed.
Mac approached him with a drawing he had been preparing all week… a detailed pencil and ink perspective of the sportsman’s lodge.
One look and Pappy beamed. “Perfect! This is exactly what I need! There’s still doubt among some of the mariners about what they’ll find so far out here in the sticks. This should settle any misgiving. Thanks.”
Mac’s Perspective of Fowler’s Paradise Lodge
Late in the afternoon of summer solstice, Pappy returned. This time he didn’t perform a fly around to announce his arrival but flew straight to the helipad. The deafening clapping of rotor blades and billowing cloud of debris made his return unmistakable.
When Mac arrived on the top deck, Pappy was standing under the still gyrating blades of the helicopter assisting a beautiful, petite woman immaculately dressed in the formal white uniform of a naval petty officer. Posing together in perfectly pressed white uniforms, the couple made a dramatic impression. Pappy introduced Andrea and asked that she be escorted on a tour of the lodge, and ignoring everyone, announced, “and there’s fresh fish for dinner.”
Unwilling to be ignored, the Captain asked the obvious question for everyone, “Alright, Pappy, spill it, will you?”
“She’s with me,” was all he would say.
The ladies took Andrea touring and then to the kitchen for ‘girl talk’. The men deposited the couple’s voluminous belongings in the bar and then poured Pappy a tall brandy and waited for his tongue to loosen.
Impatient, the Captain pushed again, asking, “Is that group still planning to come or what? Why are you so reluctant to tell us the news?” Mac was also surprised by Andrea’s arrival… or had it been the plan all along?
“Sorry… had a few things on my mind. This brandy really hits the spot. Sure they’re coming! In fact, three more have been added to their contingent. Let me tell you, that is one organized bunch. The Chief of the Boat was married by the Skipper and the couple remained behind in Valdez. Everyone who knows him says he’s the new man in charge. Full of enthusiasm, he has his group scouring town for everything on our list… doesn’t want to let us down. And he has a coupla of surprises of his own coming… but I won’t spoil that ahead of time. They’re getting everything ready and taking our requests seriously. I think you’ll be impressed with them. Getting off that crippled submarine and introduced to us gave them all new hope.
“But it’ll probably be the first week of July before they’ll be here. There are two serious rock slides on the pass. Getting through that mess in the future is going to be a challenge. But the Chief didn’t seem a bit intimidated about clearing the way.”
“Pappy,” interrupted the Captain, “you’re beating around the bush. Tell us about Andrea. All you’ve said is that she’s with you. Is that what she thinks? She must be fifteen years younger than you are at least.”
“Dammit… yes! And I’m not robbing the cradle. You’ll meet her at dinner and believe me, she can speak for herself. If you dare, you can ask her directly. But you usually have more patience and aren’t so bloody rude. I’m not going to put words in her mouth.”
After that exchange, Lazlo thought it best to change the subject, “Guys, why don’t you finish your story about what happened to you? Mac, you’d just left your bucket list fishing trip for Nome when dinner was called.”
For the first time since the death of Jack and Tony, they could discuss them without summoning tearful emotion. Even Ahtna could relate what happened to his own family without apparent reluctance.
As Ahtna’s story of the lodge concluded, Pappy said, “Unless someone objects, Andrea and I are going to move into the spare bedroom.” Another silence followed. The ‘spare’ bedroom belonged to the miners and remained undisturbed. It was unequivocally clear that the couple would not be welcome sharing a bedroom near the Captain.
The dinner table had been set in grand fashion. Judy and Christie announced that dinner was to celebrate both Andrea’s arrival and summer solstice. Fresh halibut was served with rice and the season’s first fresh asparagus cut from a garden in Valdez.
Andrea became the center of attention and revealed herself to be a gracious and loquacious woman. When asked about her duties aboard the submarine, she would say only that she was involved with the boat’s nuclear reactor. Judy encouraged her to talk about daily life on the boat.
With evident pleasure, she recited poignant details of the boat’s characters especially the keen competition among fellow crew members. She described the early efforts of senior officers to keep them ignorant of the unfolding calamity by maintaining a regimen of toil and training.
“But as our patrol extended well beyond its scheduled two month rotation, we all aggressively pushed for realistic answers,” Andrea explained. “Early on, most of us feared war had broken out. The rush of intensive training and unusual maneuvers reinforced the gossip.
“Bit by bit, rumor of tragedy and death circulated through the boat. The scope of the plague was difficult to believe but our anxiety over forsaken families worked everyone into despair. Finally, the Skipper addressed everyone’s resentment over concealing the truth and explained the grim reality of what happened. Thereafter our activities focused on finding food and surviving.
“If I ever see a
nother piece of whale meat on my plate, I’ll be ill. But this is the first time I’ve been brave enough to tempt fate by saying such a thing. We were all hungry and exhausted. We’d been trained to accept hard duty and bad news occasionally, but when we fully understood what had happened, our future was beyond imagining.
“In the end, our failing boat saved us. We had no choice but to find a port, otherwise there would have been a deadly accident at sea. In fact, it nearly happened. I know because the trouble was in my department.
“But appealing as landfall sounded to us all, arriving at Valdez was thoroughly depressing. We’d survived… but for what? That smoke-tinged, oil-smudged port wasn’t inspiring or welcome, to say the least. That’s why most of the crew opted for a warmer climate anywhere else. Some hands with foolish visions wanted to go on to the Hawaiian Islands. One needn’t be clever to guess what was on the minds of so many young men after such a long voyage. But our group wasn’t naive and we’d had enough of sea duty.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to be among you. We’ve been hoping for a new life. I can’t imagine what the others are going to find when they go south. Pappy and I are excited and joyful to be together.” She squeezed his forearm fondly to reinforce her intended meaning.
A pragmatic and lovely woman, Mac thought. “Andrea, did you hear any news during your ordeal?” he asked.
“You mean independent news from the outside?” she asked.
“From anywhere.”
“News wasn’t permitted except for family grams, but distribution was halted early on. Much later, the Skipper passed on anything heard on the open airwaves, but not from ship to ship. Real information was sporadic and sparse… just a few isolated survivors using shortwave radios. They didn’t understand what happened either, except most realized they were on their own. We were thankful to learn that anyone had survived. From what little we learned, nothing but bad news came from the other submarine crews… failing patrols just like our own. Given what happened and with nowhere to go, our future looked gloomy. We were overjoyed when we heard about all of you.”
“Have the other mariners left yet?” asked Judy.
“Oh yes, two weeks ago… and a good thing the Chief decided to remain with us. Otherwise, the ferry crew would have taken everything for themselves. Once he was released, the Chief’s authority meant nothing so the crew ignored him. We were having trouble keeping a share for ourselves. But he knew what to do… said he wasn’t born yesterday. After that we had no problem obtaining supplies.”
“Please don’t leave it there… tell us!” said Judy.
“Well, I hope I’m not smirching his reputation before you all have a chance to meet him. The Chief is a fine upstanding man.
“Soon after he joined us, he asked us to look for all the liquor we could find. He wanted cases of it. We were horrified, but he asked us to trust him and not tell anyone bound for the ferry. We found a huge stash in one of the big supertankers moored at the Alyeska terminal that hadn’t been raided. It’s amazing what favors a little brandy will buy. I liked his style.”
“Is that where this halibut came from?”
“No, no… that was fresh from just yesterday afternoon. Pappy, why don’t you tell them that story. I wasn’t there.”
“Oh wow, I forgot to tell you what happened,” said Pappy. “You’ll never guess who I ran into…”
“Please don’t tell me it was that horrible nun,” interrupted Judy. “She’s a survivor. I keep dreaming she’ll come after me yet.”
“Close, but wasn’t her. It was Tlingit… with two of his relatives in a fishing boat. He was as obnoxious and sharp tongued as ever… maybe even worse. But he’s changed again. He still wore his fancy duds, but he got into the brandy. Three of ‘em caught halibut and traded some for brandy. When the Kennecott left with everyone else, they sold fish to us. They weren’t a bit happy with the one bottle we gave ‘em. Yesterday, they came back with more halibut but we told him we were fresh out of booze just to get rid of him. And we wouldn’t trade for ammunition, either. So listen to this… he said he’d trade his whole boatload of fish if one of our women would go with them for awhile!”
“Good God!” said Hirsh who was well into his cups himself.
“Well… we all just laughed at the notion… and he flew into a rage. He threw his hatchet at me, but missed, thank God. He got four rifles pointed in his direction in return. I kept the hatchet… Say, let me get it.”
Pappy quickly returned and laid the heavy hatchet on the table. “Isn’t this yours, Mac? I remember Tlingit said he took it to pay some debt you owed him.”
It was the Cossack copper hatchet with its Cyrillic inscription that Able had given him so long ago.
“Will you look at how beautiful this is? I’d completely forgotten. Without Abel’s gift, I wouldn’t be here today. I wouldn’t want to deal with that man again, but here I am, eating fish he caught in Valdez… and thankful to have my gift back. It’s a smaller world for sure but still subject to the vagaries of fate.”
“You’re right. Tlingit’s relatives came back without him and we traded a full bag of rice for more halibut. Strange as all this went down, trading with them was a good thing. Let’s remember trading next summer. If we can grow more than we need and find a way to preserve food, maybe we can begin an old fashioned barter system with coastal people… or anyone else.”
“Finally!” bellowed Hirsh. “Someone else is thinking about the future besides Onita and me. We’ve nearly cleaned out the hardware stores in Glennallen and won’t be much longer before Valdez is stripped bare. One day very soon, those machines you all run around in with abandon won’t run anymore. When we lost Tony and Jack, many of our abilities and knowledge went with them. How long do you think you can keep that sophisticated helicopter flying, Pappy? We need to learn to produce the things we need. Back to fundamentals. Why don’t you put that old copper hatchet up high behind the bar so we’ll be reminded every day? Our symbol for the future!
“Sorry, Andrea… I’m getting too carried away for a celebration in your honor.”
“Not in the least, Hirsh,” she replied. “Thinking about the future is exactly why joining this group is so exciting for me. All of you are thinking about a new life… and that’s just what I needed to hear.”
That was gracious of Andrea, thought Mac; Hirsh was definitely getting too carried away.
That night over pillow talk, Mac said, “Nice welcome you made for Andrea. Now we know why Pappy dressed in his formal uniform and was anxious to get back to Valdez.”
“Oh, the reality is way more than you know. She told Pappy on the flight over that she thinks she is pregnant with his baby… and she is!”
“Well that explains a lot. Pappy’s head was far away when he got here. But, he’s always been the man among us with the bold moves.”
“And a lady’s man in another life.”
“Yea and the Captain knows him better than any of us. He wasn’t at all happy about the latest conquest.”
“Well, there he might be wrong. Who knows who made the first move? I think Andrea knew exactly where she was going.”
“I guess we’re back to the old school of romance.”
“Mac, that hasn’t changed in thousands of years.”
“With us?”
“That took a little longer.”
“Oh funny lady… so how do you explain this very moment?”
“The eyes you were making on Andrea’s body, no doubt.”
“You don’t miss much, do you, dear lady?”
“Less talk… more action, dear man.”
Days later when the little band completed transplanting every sprouted vegetable intended for the island, they discovered nearly a third of the tilled ground remained fallow. They had failed to sprout enough seedlings. Either they had
underestimated the size of the island or had miscalculated spacing the stock. Reluctantly they planted the few remaining seeds Onita had been saving in the greenhouse, hopefully to mature all summer before the onset of cold weather and then go to seed.
Ahtna’s prediction for day and night vigilance on the island was on the mark. Every critter that could swim, fly, or slither lurked among the carefully tended vegetables. Huge slugs consumed enormous growth each night, but many perished with the rising sun when grouse and ravens visited the island each morning to scratch and probe the soft vegetation for delectable slugs.
Early one morning, a young cow moose managed to sneak onto the island. She wasn’t given a moment to munch, but her startled flight back and forth across the island trampled more than she could have eaten all night. The island needed more protection than just the offshore barge. They built a new hut centered in the garden posted with someone on guard around the clock.
Early cultivation required daily hand watering, while the onset of summer rain squalls brought substantial relief only to be physically outdone by stoop labor weeding and ridding the garden of voracious pests.
Mac enjoyed gardening in warm weather and found cultivating the island invigorating. Evenings presented quiet inspiration to write in his journal. With long hours of leisure, Mac began rewriting a narrative blending everyone’s odd and challenging experiences. The island environment was particularly conducive to reflection. Mac found remaining attentive to his guard duty difficult during those hours. Away from the lodge, sequestered in the hut with Darwin, he welcomed the quiet peacefulness to write.
Distinct wilderness sounds carried a great distance. Darwin, now accustomed to the huffy breathing sound of an approaching moose, was trained to discourage animals from the island. He also learned to chase off feasting birds and warn the gardeners of larger threats. However, Darwin missed Judy’s company. Whenever one of the boats left to return to the lodge, he barked a storm of protest and scampered along the shoreline objecting to being left behind. A reluctant swimmer, he seldom ventured far into the water and was effectively penned on the island. Darwin’s only relief was Akela but the band wanted one of the dogs to remain guarding the lodge.
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