Cinch Knot
Page 25
Dan was still looking through the papers when Mr. Carson closed his brief case and stood. “Are you leaving town right away or will you be staying until we sign the release?”
“I will be here as long as you want me to stay. You can have your lawyer contact me at this number,” he said, giving Dan the business card of the local Best Western Motel. “Congratulations on your good fortune. I’ll be seeing you next week. In the mean time I am going to try to catch a fish. I’ve dreamed, for years, of fishing the Kenai River. I plan to take advantage of this trip.”
The couple was escorting the young man to the door when a car pulled into the drive. It was Roger and Gwen. Roger nodded a greeting to the lawyer as he passed the man.
“Hello, you two,” they greeted as they climbed the steps to the porch. “We have news for you.”
“Come in and tell us all about it,” Beth said, smiling at her friends.
Inside the house, Roger turned to Gwen. “Go ahead and tell them, since this is all your idea.”
“You are such a liar,” Gwen laughed. “Pay no attention to him,” she said. “He is just nervous because he’ll soon have a wife to support.”
“He finally asked you, did he?” Beth teased. “When’s the day?”
“That depends on you two. We were sort of hoping we could be married here.”
The friends talked and made plans for the wedding. They relived old times. Beth told Gwen about the man she was going to marry. After moving to Alaska, she relied a great deal on her friendship with Roger to help her and Dan through some tough times. They were reminded about the time Roger was the last one on an elevator. As a joke, he just stood and faced the other passengers. It had the effect of backing them to the rear of the car. He just smiled and stared over their heads. Roger liked to think he was sophisticated, but his impish humor betrayed him. He liked good wine, but preferred an ice cream cone to a beer. This kind of talk continued and it was several hours before Dan got around to mentioning that he and Beth were about to become wealthy. Beth and Gwen stayed in the kitchen while Dan and Roger went into the living room to look at the papers the lawyer had left.
Dan was reading the ledger sheet when Roger exclaimed, “Holy smoke, I almost forgot. I got a message on the Fax today, from Washington; it was about you. You will be getting an official letter from the White House in a few days. It seems the President wants you and Gwen to come to Washington, so he can present you with the President’s Freedom Medal. That’s the highest civilian award in this country. The last person to receive it was Ex-President Ronald Reagan.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No, I’m not kidding. It looks like you will become rich and famous all the same day. Congratulations, Dan, you deserve it.”
The rest of the evening was spent making plans and speculating about the future. The boys came home and became caught up in the excitement. Finally, after all the danger, the friends were relaxed.
The telephone rang and young son Tim went to answer it. When he returned he told his father, “That was Sam DeGrosso. He is coming down tomorrow to go fishing and wanted to know if you were going to be home. He’ll be here sometime in the afternoon.”
Everyone had gone to bed when Dan opened the refrigerator and poured milk into his favorite cup. He couldn’t sleep for thinking about the events of the day. A lot had happened. He reflected on the past several months and on the early days of his career in California. He felt good about his life. He’d never done the things he was being honored for out of greed or a need for medals. He did them because they were right. Or at least he thought they were right at the time. Dan knew he couldn’t change everything that was wrong in this country, but, he thought, if he could make his own little corner of the world a better place—then he had done his part. Life seemed simple to Dan.
If each individual would just do his part to stay within the rules of society, help his neighbor when he was down and keep his own family strong, then the social ills plaguing America would all but disappear. Before the government can be strong, the individual must be strong. There will always be someone attempting to take unfair advantage, using the system. But if the public, John Q. Average, voices his objections, the lawless cannot survive for long. When the individual surrenders to corruption, when he says, “That’s just the way it is,” then he loses his country and his life to the lawless.
Freedom is a precious commodity. But as long as the individual is strong, the lawless, the manipulators cannot take it from us. So far, most Americans are winning.
It was going to be difficult to erase the hate for Nels Bergstrom, which he had nurtured for so long. Bergstrom had cheated him of revenge. John Sutter, one of the finest men Dan had ever known, died because of Nels Bergstrom. Dan had lived, the past 20 years, for the day Bergstrom would face justice for the crimes he had committed. But, justice would now have to come from Divine Retribution. Dan would have to change this hate to something positive. “I’ll use Bergstrom’s money to help John’s family. The least I can do is see to it his family never wants for anything. Brother, it hurts to lose a friend.”
He looked at the cup in his hand. He could still see the picture of the giant Redwood tree and could still read the faded lettering which read, “The Enchanted Forest.” He rinsed the milk from the cup and went back bed.