by Ashna Graves
“Didn’t you tell me one time that your former wives would like to see your skin nailed up on the wall? Looks like they’d do a lot better to sell it.”
Skipper chuckled, but his amusement turned to indignation as he went on, “And think of the bucks they made on coffins, selling them over and over again. What a shitty thing to do to people. Think of the families, visiting graves and putting flowers on and so forth, and there weren’t even any remains. And those poor folks that ended up getting eyes and what have you that might have been contaminated with AIDS or syphilis. What kind of person would do that? I heard there was hardly anything left of Roy. He went for $18,000 total because he was so young—sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up, but it makes me sick and there isn’t much in this old world that really bothers me any more.”
They watched the stream in silence until Neva said, “Did Darla tell you about her cousin who died a few years back? She said they tried to talk her out of viewing and graveside services but she insisted, so they buried him in the old part of the cemetery.”
“You know, I thought you were more than a little nuts carrying your mother’s ashes around, but it looks like you were on the right track.”
“If the Portland funeral home actually gave me her ashes. There’s no way to know. The only thing I can be certain about is my uncle’s bones.”
“Well, my bones tell me those are your mother’s ashes we just put in the ground and you should know by now that my bones are about as smart as your nose. No, what I’m wondering about is how they thought they were going to get away with putting you and Gene in the tunnel. It’s not like an old miner disappearing. This canyon would have been torn apart.”
“They wouldn’t have found us, not under a ton of rock. The tunnel was almost ready to blow up when he put us in there. Darrell had been working on it, to make it look natural, which is why he was out here during the day a couple of times. He watched me through binoculars, you know.”
Skipper’s look of disgust made her laugh. Unfazed, he said, “One good thing, you’ll be a lot more careful from now on.”
“What do you mean? The bad guys are all gone.”
“I didn’t hear that. You may think everything’s hunky-dory, W.T., but I’m still more than a little griped about a couple of things. Take Gene, for instance. Why didn’t he tell us he owns Billie Creek Mine? He could have told Sylvester you were working for him and saved everybody a lot of trouble.”
“That was just it, he didn’t want any trouble. He’s already pushing the rules by never actually mining up here, and he was afraid Sylvester would get tougher with him if he made an issue out of me. You know what the rascal said? ‘Anyway, it looked to me like you were enjoying the whole situation.’”
Skipper nodded, though his look remained serious despite her teasing tone. “Sounds about right. You know, I’ve been trying to feel sorry for Lance but it isn’t easy. What I don’t figure is how he sneaked out without Reese knowing about it.”
“Reese told me he sleeps like road-kill, but Roy noticed. Lance told the sheriff that’s why they got into a fight by the water trough. He tried to convince Roy that he was working a night job to earn extra money so he and Reese could mine for themselves, and it was a surprise for Reese. He offered to pay, but Roy said he didn’t want any money, and he wasn’t going to tell anyway. Lance didn’t believe him. He got scared and ran off to the line shack.”
“Why didn’t Roy say something about that when everybody was looking for Lance?”
“McCarty thinks the poor kid believed Lance’s story and didn’t want to ruin the surprise.”
Skipper only grunted but his meaning was clear: So the poor sucker died for being nice. See what I mean about this world?
“Lance didn’t want to do it, you know. The old man came up with the bulldozer scheme.”
“The world has two kinds of people, W.T. The kind that you put a gun in their hand and they stick it in a drawer and forget it’s there, and the kind that shoots somebody. If you ask me, that kid was looking for trouble to get into all his life long. And by the sounds of it, doing something that was a secret from Reese would have been reason enough.”
The frog had climbed out on the branch again. They watched it for a bit, and then Neva said wistfully, “It may sound ridiculous but I keep thinking how sad it is that Orson missed it all by only a few weeks. He probably wouldn’t have understood that we’d found Uncle Matthew, but after all those years it seems colossally unfair.”
“Sometimes life is about as fair as a rigged cockfight. It just can’t be helped so I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. Anyway, I can’t help thinking he knew something about the truck. I mean, there was your uncle’s note, and anyway, it looks like he’d had to be deaf and stupid to miss it.”
“Enid says he was nearly deaf, from the blasting they did in the early days.” Neva felt a sudden urge to tell Skipper about Enid’s revelations, but hesitated. She had not fully absorbed them yet herself. The two women had spent many hours together since Enid arrived two days ago to help with preparations and, as she put it, “Just be here for you and dear Burtie. And your mother, too, since I failed her once already.”
“You failed my mother?”
“Now that we know what happened to Burtie, I feel free to let go of his secrets. I just wish I’d done it in time to give your mother some comfort. Your uncle had a child.”
“Uncle Matthew! A child? I thought you said he was injured, he couldn’t have children.”
“It happened before the injury.”
“Are you saying I have a cousin?”
“Had a cousin. She died years ago.”
Enid had told the tale quickly and simply. The child, Su-wan, had been conceived with his local sweetheart during Burtie’s service in Korea. Burtie married her as soon as they learned about the pregnancy, but she refused to leave her Korean family.
“The picture on the cabin wall?”
“Yes. I’m afraid I don’t remember her name, only the child’s. She was born breech and suffered brain damage. That’s where Burtie’s money went for years, to pay for medical treatments and care, whatever was needed. I think he really loved them both, and I’m sure he would have stayed in Korea if it hadn’t been for the injury. He was in hospital here for months, you know.”
“Do you know what came between him and my mother?”
“Your mother needed money for something, some emergency, and asked him for help. But he didn’t have the money because of Su-wan. He should have told her why he couldn’t help, but that would have been hurtful in itself because she would have found out that he had kept his marriage secret for all those years. I never did understand the secrecy, but there were areas in your uncle’s life that were off limits, even to me. There was a long period after he got out of the hospital when he saw hardly anyone. He shut himself up at the mine. That was before Orson came into his life. I don’t know if he told Orson everything.”
“You don’t know why my mother needed money so badly?”
“I hope this doesn’t upset you,” Enid had said gently, “but I’ve always assumed it had something to do with you. I don’t have children, but it’s the only thing I can think of that would hurt enough to cause such a break between people who clearly loved each other. Thinking someone is slighting your child could stick inside you and keep hurting for years. And it would have been all the harder for your mother to accept since as far as she knew, you were the only child. She must have thought Burtie wanted to keep his gold for himself, which is just plain sad. He never really cared about gold. It was a way to make a living quietly, out where he wasn’t bothered by the world. I’m truly sorry to be the bearer of so much difficult news.”
“Oh, no, Enid,” she had said. “It’s a relief, really. It’s so much better to know. I’m just trying to think what it was that happened. It was probably when I almost died of a bacterial infection I picked up from crawling around under a rabbit coop. Dad was between jobs and we didn’t have health
insurance. I was in the hospital for a long time.”
“We’ll never know that part,” Enid had said, putting an arm around Neva’s shoulder. “But they’re together now.”
Recalling the gentle hug, Neva smiled fondly. She had gained and lost a cousin in the space of minutes, but she would have Enid Gale in her life for a long time to come. And Skipper as well, she hoped.
“So you’ll be back next year?” he said, suddenly gruff and businesslike.
“Not on Billie Creek. I’ll be over in Gran’s cabin. You could get the camper in as far as the trail.”
“Well, I don’t know, I’m pretty fond of this creek, and I expect you’ll be over here to pay respects to your relations often enough.”
“I expect I will. And now it’s time to settle a more immediate question. When are you going to give me back my gold from the tobacco can?”
Skipper bent, picked up a stone, and examined it with an air of deep concentration.
“Well?”
He dropped the stone, put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a familiar jewelry-grade nugget. “I thought I’d make a little puzzle to liven up your stay at Billie Creek. Looks a bit stupid now, considering. Did Enid tell you?”
“Of course. She said you confessed when you two were setting up the lunch table yesterday.”
A slow flush deepened the color in Skipper’s weathered face. “Well, I should have known the ladies would stick together. She’s some kind of gal.”
As they turned back to the party, Neva said, “I swam all the way across the pond this morning.”
“I thought you did that every morning.”
“Not across, just around the edges. I’ve always been afraid of murky water where you can’t see what’s down there. But this morning I went early and swam right across. I may never do it again now that I’m just about ready to rejoin the world, but once felt good.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear you’re afraid of something, Walkie-Talkie. Even a drunk chicken shows more sense than you do sometimes. Maybe now you’ll believe me that it’s not a nice world.”
“What do you mean? Darrell could have killed me straight out but he didn’t. That’s rather nice.”
“I give up. But if you promise to do me a nice party like this when I get my ticket to eternity I’ll leave you my camper. Then you can stay wherever you want.”
“Any particular burial instructions?”
“You know, W.T., I’ve been thinking about that. Like I said before, I’ve had three wives, and any one of them would be happy to see me skinned, dead or alive, especially if they could sell the hide. But I’d just as soon pass. When you come right down to it, a body means something. Since we’ve got us such a nice little cemetery right here, I wouldn’t mind joining the company. Who knows, maybe you’ll be one of the party someday. You wouldn’t be a boring neighbor anyway. And you could make me another cake.”
“Angel food?”
“Don’t I wish, but I’m afraid it’s way too late for that, W.T.”
“Devil’s food it is then.”
The old artifact hunter chuckled, shook his head, started to speak, and instead bent to scratch Cayuse behind the ears.
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