The Ghost in the Machine

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The Ghost in the Machine Page 13

by Mary Woodbury


  Ty could hear the faint putt-putting of the motor to the right of Haley. The two of them were pacing each other, so when he lifted his head he could see her blue cap rising above the waves. His goggles revealed the dense green of the water. Minnows scattered before him. He was a sea creature at home in its element. The lake water felt like silk on his skin. The steady rhythm surged around and through him: the motor, his arms and legs and his head lifting and falling, his breath coming and going, and Haley keeping pace beside him.

  This is before the fatigue that’s bound to come, he told himself. This is before the way ahead seems too far. I love it now. I love the feeling of being in control of my body, of being on my way to someplace. I love the living this particular moment so completely that all the problems on land disappear like so much drift wood on the beach.

  “How are you doing?” Ben called. “Do you need a drink?”

  Ty shook his head and kept stroking.

  Haley stopped for the water bottle. “Don’t get dehydrated.”

  Ty didn’t want to stop. How often did a guy feel this way, tied to the elements? The sky stretched above, the water splashed around, the land poised ahead. He slowed his pace ever so slightly and let the water flow over him like so much cool air. Maybe coming to terms with who he was and what he could and could not do, was what this whole summer had been about. He slipped through the water like a seal, his feet kicking, his arms reaching, his head rising and falling, his breath moving in and out. The body as a well-oiled machine. He and the Princess had a lot in common. They’d both come a long way this summer but there was still a long way to go.

  A few minutes later he waved and swam over to the boat for a drink of water.

  “How’s it going?” asked Ralph.

  “Fine.”

  “There are some swells coming up from a fast moving motor boat.” Ben pointed ahead.

  The two swimmers rested for a couple of minutes as the swells rocked the boat. They bobbed like a couple of fishing floats.

  Ralph was listening to his radio. He was a country music fan. Ty could hear the steady beat from the bass. Then the news came on. Ty couldn’t hear what the announcer was saying, but could see the outline of Ralph’s face. He was frowning.

  “We could play a game to keep from getting drowsy,” laughed Haley. “One like ‘I spy.’”

  “I’ve done enough spying,” Ty blushed.

  “You mean the trailer?”

  “No, the rock cairns. I think those are pretty private,” said Ty.

  “We’ll tell your mom, okay?”

  “Yeah.” And then Ty decided something. “That’s not the only time I spied, though.”

  “What are you talking about?” They breast stroked so they could talk for awhile.

  “I followed you home the night you came to my house and I couldn’t say anything ’cause I was so mad at the Beatons.”

  Haley reached over and tried to dunk Ty. “Aunt Robin figured it was you.”

  “What?”

  “You left two quarters in the dirt by the apple box under the tree.”

  “I what?” Ty could feel the blush travel to his ears.

  “When we went for our walk, Aunt Robin said she thought she’d heard someone out by the road.”

  “So you knew all along?”

  “Doofus.” Haley straightened her goggles. “I was a little flattered that you followed me home.”

  “I didn’t mean to be sneaky. I just felt like I couldn’t leave you thinking I was a total idiot.”

  They shared a can of cola and glanced at Ralph’s frowning face.

  “Do you think there’s a problem?” Ty asked Haley.

  “There could be,” replied Haley.

  “I’m curious.”

  “I know. You like to tie everything together. Maybe that’s why they call you Ty.”

  “That’s a pun, right.”

  The boat drew alongside and Ben handed the swimmers each a bar of chocolate. Haley nearly dropped hers in the water.

  “Tastes good!”

  “Great.” Ty could feel his shoulder muscles and his calves complaining. “We better keep moving so we don’t freeze up.”

  “Feel okay?” Haley asked. She tucked an escaping ringlet under her cap.

  Ty wanted to reach out and touch her. He grabbed her hand. “Just checking to see if you are warm enough.”

  Haley grinned. “Right, doofus.”

  Ty stroked away. Nothing was going to be the same between Haley and him after this day. Kissing her in front of Ralph had kind of sealed their relationship. He was surprised to discover that that didn’t scare him. He swam faster, reaching out each cupped hand toward the distant shore.

  Another half hour and he could feel his arms straining with each stroke. He lifted his head. He could see his cove straight ahead. He was thirsty, he needed another sip of water.

  He swam over to the boat. Haley joined him. Ralph leaned over. He offered them each a bottle. “Ben and I are worried.”

  Ben pointed. “Look ahead. Up the mountain between Bell’s Landing and the golf course.” Ben pointed.

  Haley and Ty shielded their eyes. There were billows of yellow smoke.

  “Fire,” Ben stated flatly. “Can you hear the sirens?”

  “Looks like its coming over the mountain.”

  “We have to go back,” said Haley. She grabbed the side of the boat and hauled herself in, turned and reached out an arm to Ty.

  Haley tossed Ty a towel. He wrapped it around his shoulders. “We’ll do it next year. Swim the lake, that is.”

  Haley nodded. She shook her hair out, releasing it from the cap. It sprang loose like a slinky out of a box. Water sprayed both swimmers from the prow of the boat as Ben navigated into the cove with flair and expertise. Those Beaton boys knew their machines.

  “This has been brewing all summer.” Ralph revved the motor. “The radio is predicting high winds. That could make the fire worse, send it down the valley.”

  Ahead in the cove Ty’s mom and sister were playing at the water’s edge. Ty could see Leo fetching a hunk of driftwood.

  They waved as they heard the boat and looked up.

  “Don’t scare my mom,” Ty cautioned.

  “She’s been good for ages,” said Haley. “Robin says that talking things through and taking her medication has really helped.”

  “I think it’s Robin who has really helped,” said Ty. He finally felt comfortable calling Ms. Nixon “Robin.” It wasn’t every day that a Kootenay kid had a famous writer for a friend.

  “Maybe.”

  They clambered out of the boat.

  “Mummy’s worried, Ty. She smells smoke.” Veronica hugged his wet legs. “You didn’t finish your swim.”

  “We saw the smoke,” said Haley.

  “Thought we better check everything out,” said Ralph. “See if we can help.”

  He turned up the local news station so everyone could hear the latest bulletin, and led the way up the hill.

  Ty and Haley walked hand in hand following Ralph. Ben waved as he drove Marvin’s boat away, off to their family boathouse by the Cranbrook Forest Road.

  Ty’s mom and Veronica brought up the end of the parade. They carried the lunch.

  “What happens when there’s a fire?” Veronica asked.

  Ty glanced back. His mother and little sister’s heads were bent close together as Grace explained about fires.

  He sighed and held Haley’s hand tighter.

  Chapter 21

  Ralph hurried to his van. Haley grabbed her bike and headed back to her aunt’s house. Ty and his mother and sister hung their towels in the porch and ran upstairs to change. The light was flashing on the telephone. The smell of smoke seeped in the open windows and through the cracks in the old house.

  Ty pulled on his jeans and T-shirt quickly.

  “Your dad called!” Mom hollered from the kitchen. “Left a message. There are two fires burning on our mountain. He’s with a crew coming back from C
ranbrook. They’re setting up an emergency shelter at the high school in Benton. He wants us to go. He wants us safe.”

  Ty flew down the stairs. His mother stood in the middle of the living room clutching two photo albums and Uncle Scott’s painting from behind the couch. She was wearing the sundress she’d bought in Benton when she had gone shopping with Robin Nixon.

  “Run and check on your grandparents, Ty.”

  Veronica came down the stairs with a shopping bag full of her Mickey Mouse toys and her Minnie Mouse sleeping bag.

  “You better bring pjs and your toothbrush just in case, sweetie.” Ty’s mother grabbed the suitcase she’d hauled downstairs and threw in shampoo and Dad’s shaving stuff. She ran upstairs again and came down with a nightgown and her new housecoat.

  Outdoors, Ty blinked as the acrid smell of smoke hit him and stung his eyes. He loped up the hill to his grandparents’ place. The truck was gone and the house was locked up. Even the stupid dog’s dish was gone from outside the back door.

  Leo was hiding under the back porch of Ty’s house. Ty filled his bowl with water and loaded his dishpan with kibble. “You stay here and watch the place, old boy. You’ll be fine.” If the fire got too close to their place, he’d have to come back for Leo.

  His mother was backing Princess out of the dilapidated garage. Veronica was already strapped in her booster seat with the suitcase beside her and the bag of toys, the photo albums, and Uncle Scott’s painting. Ty hopped in the passenger side. He wondered whether they needed to stop for gas. He couldn’t remember when he’d last filled her up.

  He was distracted by a water bomber flying low overhead. Sage Willow and Basil honked as they drove by. A Forestry truck passed going the other direction.

  “My eyes hurt,” said Veronica. A downdraft of wind had filled the valley with smoke.

  Princess purred down the highway. Ty glanced over at his mother. She was focussed on the road ahead. A brown cloud blocked the sun. It looked like evening instead of afternoon. His mom drove steadily. Her hair was tied back in a neat pony tail. Her sundress was fresh-washed. She had dangling summer earrings of pink glass.

  “Check my purse and see if I have my medication, Ty.”

  He reached into the back behind the seat and opened the bag. “It’s here.”

  “I hope they can control the fire. I don’t want to lose everything.” She tightened her grip on the steering wheel. “Especially now that I know how much I have.” She reached across into the back seat and patted Veronica’s tanned leg above the small sandaled foot. “You dad is coming home. We’ll be together.”

  The parking lot at the high school was filled with trucks and vans. Smokers stood in a cluster by the gym doors. Small kids played on the swings and equipment in the park beside the school. A Rent-all truck was unloading cots and folding tables. In the distance an ambulance siren wailed its way to the Benton Hospital.

  Grace Graham pulled the old Volkswagen into a skinny spot at the far side of the lot close to Robin Nixon’s van. A silver Jaguar with Alberta plates sat beside Robin’s dusty old vehicle. Ty figured it belonged to Haley’s folks. Welcome home to the Kootenays but watch out for the fire, he thought.

  “Hey, Ty, wait for me!” Ben ran across the parking lot, dodging trucks like they were bulky football players. “We’ve been evacuated. The whole east side of the lake is here. My grandparents think it’s a bunch of hogwash, said they’d rather wait and see. Said there ought to be rain by tomorrow.”

  Just then Haley appeared at the door and beckoned Ty inside. Two desks were set up by the double doors. Families were checking in. Sage and Basil were recording the names and assigning people to different corners of the large gymnasium. The noise level was something else: louder than a serious basketball final.

  Haley nattered as he signed in. “So my folks arrived and so did the fire. Dad wants to leave right away. But there’s no way. He’s rented us rooms at the Homesteader Hotel. My aunt is worried about the cats and the garden. We’ll have to go and rescue all her writing archives. She’s really attached to every word. Mom has gone over to the hospital to see if she can help with some of the seniors who have breathing difficulties because of the smoke.”

  “Hold a thought for rain, Ty,” whispered Sage. “Your mother looks like she’s handling this better than anyone would have thought. Must be the St. John’s Wort.”

  Basil smiled up at Ty. “I told you this would be the summer you sprouted. Look at you now.” The lean vegetarian stood and looked across the table into Ty’s eyes. “Look at that, Sage. Ty Graham’s nearly as tall as I am. Eat lots of beans and broccoli, boy. You need strong bones.”

  Ty nodded and turned toward the far corner of the gym near the climbing wall. He could see his grandparents, his mom and Veronica, the Nixons, Robin and her brother, and several other close neighbours. Haley pulled him toward them.

  “I want you to meet my dad.”

  An older, male version of Robin Nixon was listening to Grandpa Graham.

  “Those Environmental Edgy Edjits will be claiming this here fire’s the fault of the tree cutters. What in tarnation do they know about anything?”

  “It’s been too dry,” said Mr. Nixon.

  “We haven’t seen a fire like this since the ’30s, the Dirty ’30s, before your time. I can’t afford to lose everything, not like some people.” He stared at the Beatons on the other side of the hall. “Probably have more money tucked away than a bank.”

  Ty blushed listening to his grump of a Grandpa. How he wished old Rod would put a sock in it.

  Haley saw him shudder and interrupted. “Dad, I want you to meet…”

  Her dad finished her sentence. “Ty Graham, pleased to meet you. I’ve heard what a great mechanic you are. Gather you’re quite the athlete too. Does your dad still run?” Haley’s father had a voice like a TV announcer. Every word was pronounced clearly. “Lyle was quite a runner in his day.”

  “He’s too busy being a logger to run,” said Ty.

  Mr. Nixon blushed. “I guess it’s only us executive types have to run to stay fit.”

  Haley rescued Ty by pulling him towards the door. “Mom’s at the hospital. I want you to meet her, too.” They went outside to find the rest of the teens. Ben and a gang of kids were standing by Princess.

  “Wait until we give her another coat of paint,” said Ben. “She’s a regular little beauty queen. And Ty’s the man that fixed her.”

  “Haley did half of it,” said Ty. “Ben’s been helping too. It’s a team project.”

  He opened the doors and let the kids sit in it and opened the back and pointed out the new wiring. Haley and he grinned as some of the least mechanical of the girls oohed and aahed over the new door and repaired fender as if Princess was a fashion model instead of a rejuvenated Volkswagen Beetle.

  “Have you seen your ghost lately?” Haley asked as they locked Princess up and followed the kids out of the parking lot and down the street to the Burger Barn.

  “No.”

  “Do you think he’s gone?”

  Ty shook his head. “I still get a funny tingling sensation at the back of my neck every morning when I open the garage and let the sunshine in. No, I don’t think he’s gone yet.”

  “But is he happy?”

  “I hope so. I did what he asked. I fixed it.”

  “Are you guys coming in?” Ben called from the door. “They’re offering free French fries with every burger. It’s a fire sale.”

  Ty led the way. The smell of frying oil, beef patties, and onions competed with the smoke-filled air. He was worried about the fire but he figured there wasn’t much he could do. He might just as well hang out with the rest of the kids. His family was safe and sound in the gym. His dad was on his way home. Ty hoped he was safe. It sounded like Lyle knew how much his family needed him.

  He ordered a double burger and a giant cola. Haley had saved him a seat by the window.

  Chapter 22

  Ty sat by the window of the Burger B
arn in the midst of the kids, barely hearing the conversation that swirled around him. The old people in the next booth were crabbing about government cut-backs and worried about their places burning down. Haley was telling Ben all about Calgary; the Zoo, Calway Amusement Park, the LRT, and the Eau Claire Market. Ben kept asking questions.

  Through the smudged window, Ty watched as cars and trucks pulled into the teachers’ parking lot. A few serious motorcyclists roared past. An RCMP van and a Red Cross truck were parked by the gate. Emergency Services had set up in an RV and were handing out bottled water. Smokers nervously clustered by the school fence, close to a bucket of water for their butts. Up in the smoggy sky he could see two water bombers heading north.

  A school bus unloaded firefighters. No sign of his dad yet. Doug Beaton jumped down with his gym bag and strode across the street heading right to the Burger Barn. He paused on the sidewalk to light a cigarette. He turned and yelled at two other guys who had climbed off the bus. They followed him.

  “Here comes your big brother,” Ty said to Ben.

  “You mean my uncle?” Ben put his empty milk shake glass down gently. “Ma said he was coming home today.”

  “He’s not going to think much of your new friends, is he?” asked Haley.

  “That’s his problem. Not mine.” Ben stood up and turned to face the door as Doug entered.

  “If it isn’t Ben, my boy. What are you up to?” Doug walked down the aisle toward where Ben was standing, his feet apart, his hands hanging loose by his sides. He was a good head shorter than the older Beaton, but not as brawny.

  Conversation in the restaurant stopped. A few kids coughed, a couple said, “Hi, Dougie.”

  Someone called, “Home to fight the fire?”

  Ty wondered briefly. He didn’t think the fire was uppermost in Doug’s mind.

  “If it isn’t Tubby Tyler.”

  Ty didn’t move. He glanced up at the older kid. Doug took one more puff of his foul-smelling cigarette and ground it out on the floor.

  “Your new taste in friends sucks, brother.” Doug turned and confronted Ben. “Girls and Graham Crackers. Come on. Let’s get out of here. I’m home now.”

 

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