Into the Canyon

by Michael Neale

  Samuel responded with a smile. “I think he puts some kind of potion on his flies to put a spell on the trout.”

  The five rafters entered the center of the current and the boat picked up a gentle speed, floating through the canyon like a magic carpet. Feeling the cool morning air awaken his senses, Gabriel loved the feeling of the water patting the bottom of his feet in the occasional gentle bubbling rapids. He was a million miles from his fear of the water as a child back in Kansas. He felt truly free.

  Straight ahead downstream, The River seemed to dead-end as it made a sharp turn to the right. The gradient steepened a bit and the white water churned.

  “Nothing too crazy here, guys, but we need to enter over to the left beyond that big rock.” Samuel’s tone was firm as he motioned with his left hand. “Right forward.”

  The boat spun left.

  “All forward.”

  Everyone paddled in unison. The raft picked up speed as they descended with the water. Up and down they splashed.

  “Forward hard!”

  Samuel could see they needed a little more power to make the turn and reach around the left side of the boulder. The right side poured into a suckhole that didn’t need to be traversed. Everyone dug in. The back right side, where Samuel sat, just clipped the boulder and slung the back of the boat around as they cascaded around the rock. They careened through the next couple of rapids backward and spun back around downstream.

  “Come on, guys. That was pathetic,” Samuel barked. His brow furrowed. “If we are going to ride the really big stuff at the end of the day, we have to be sharp on the little stuff.”

  Sadie tightened her ponytail and looked off in the distance.

  “How are you feeling?” Tabitha seemed concerned.

  “Fine.”

  “Something’s on your mind.”

  “Later.”

  “How’s the leg?”

  “It still hurts pretty bad.”

  Gabriel noticed Ezra first and pointed at him. “No way!”

  Standing about ten feet from the shore, Ezra stood in The River knee-deep in his waders. He had his tan-colored fishing hat on with a smile the size of Texas. Cradled in both hands was a fish.

  “Woo-hoo!”

  Tabitha slapped Gabriel on the arm. “I told you!”

  “How’d he get here?”

  “Ezra knows all the forgotten trails of the canyon.”

  “I guess he does.” Gabriel investigated the canyon with his eyes to see which way was plausible for the old man.

  The River forked here. To the left, The River was deep, wide, and smooth. To the right, the waters cascaded gently through some spectacular rock formations. The sun bounced off the shiny rocks and sparkled in the waving waters. There were small babbling rapids and pour-overs that fed pristine swirling eddies, a perfect spot for fly-fishing.

  “What did you get?” Samuel asked as they pulled the boat closer.

  “A tailwater rainbow!” Ezra held it up. His grin didn’t fade a bit.

  The beautiful fish wiggled in his hands. It was silver-green with black spots and bright fuchsia painted down each side.

  Jacob was on the bank putting on his waders.

  “I’m still tying my fly on and Ezra already has one bagged!”

  Ezra lowered the foot-long trout back in the stream gently. They all watched it wriggle free and disappear into the stream.

  Ezra shook his hands to get the excess water off of them.

  “Look at that little guy. He’s a living work of art. Endless treasures in these waters . . . endless treasures.”

  “I’m fishing with Ezra,” Gabriel declared as he jumped out to pull the raft up on the shore.

  “You can if you want, but I’m telling you, if a fish has a choice between your fly and Ezra’s, he will pick Ezra’s every time,” Samuel said.

  Ezra smiled at Samuel as he pulled a piece of jerky out of his vest pocket and tossed it in his mouth.

  They all disembarked. Freddie started passing out the waders.

  “I think I’m just going to read today,” Tabitha said. “I’ll leave some of the fish for you boys.”

  “I’m fishing,” Sadie said emphatically as she took the smallest pair of waders from Freddie. “It’ll take my mind off of my leg maybe.”

  Samuel pulled the rods out of the boat and handed one to Gabriel. “Here, this is yours. Be careful with it. It’s a vintage Fenwick.”

  “He’s pretty precious about his fishing stuff,” Sadie quipped.

  Samuel paid no attention as he was sliding on his waders.

  “I’m going downstream. I’ll catch all of the ones you guys miss.” Freddie headed out.

  Rio bounded all over the beach, sniffing every rock.

  Tabitha settled in with her book on the beach. Samuel and Sadie each found spots downstream a bit where they could cast. Jacob came over and joined Gabriel and Ezra.

  “I’ve never fly-fished, so I’m going to need some help, guys,” Gabriel said.

  “You’re a natural at everything. You’ll do great,” Tabitha mentioned, looking over her book.

  “Watch Ezra. He is an artist.” Jacob motioned his head toward Ezra as he waded over next to Gabriel.

  Ezra paid no attention as he began to cast his line.

  “He doesn’t force it. He has a rhythm to his cast. You see he doesn’t break his wrist very much. It’s all one fluid motion. He takes the tip of the rod to ten o’clock and two o’clock every time.”

  Jacob showed Gabriel the basics of holding the rod, loading the line, and the trajectory of the fly. Gabriel hung on every word. It brought back memories of his very first catch, a huge catfish in a river at the southern border of Kansas. It was the trip with Mr. Earl, the old man who owned the farm in Cairo, Kansas, where he and his mom rented a room.

  “You want to set that fly down on the water just like a real river fly. Those trout are finicky, so how you land them is important. It takes time to learn, so be patient. Once you get it, you’ll love it,” Jacob instructed.

  Ezra’s rod bent into a rainbow shape.

  “Here we go! Come to Uncle E, fishy. Come to Uncle E!”

  Jacob waded to shore quickly to grab the small fishing net and threw it to Gabriel.

  “Scoop him up!”

  Ezra dragged the fish in closer and guided the rod over toward Gabriel.

  “Wow!”

  Gabriel reached to get the net under what looked to be a huge multicolored trout. “Look at that whale! Only you, Ezra!”

  “Uh-huh. Yep, she’s a few pounds, that one is.” Ezra grunted as he struggled with the fish, trying to get it close enough so Gabriel could capture it.

  “Reach and get him! That fly isn’t going to hold!” Jacob waded back into the water to join them.

  “Al-most . . .” Ezra strained.

  Just then Ezra’s rod snapped straight up in the air and the line whipped in the wind.

  “No! Gabriel, you’ve gotta move quicker, man!” Jacob said.

  They all just looked at each other, stunned that they lost the giant trout.

  “I’m so sorry, Ezra. Dang it!” Gabriel slapped the water.

  Ezra shrugged and smiled. “Oh, that’s alright. I’ll catch her again.”

  Before they could sulk too long, Rio captured their attention. His aggressive barking echoed through the canyon. They turned to see the wolf-like dog about twenty feet up the mountainside. All that was showing was his hindquarters jutting out from behind a rock. He was scratching and digging in the reddish dirt violently. He sprayed the pebbles and dirt between his back legs.

  Tabitha put her book down.

  “What did you find, Rio?” Tabitha started to climb up the uneven terrain, placing her palms on the rocks to secure each step.

  “Be careful,” Gabriel said protectively.

  “She’s a climber. She knows what she’s doing,” Jacob remarked.

  While the men were focused on getting their lines in the water, Gabriel turned and noticed
Tabitha’s reaction. Her hands went up, cupped over her mouth and nose.

  “What is it, Tabitha?”

  “Oh my God. Come up here!” She motioned to him frantically. “Oh my God!” She said it again through her hands.

  Rio was still barking and digging frantically.

  Everyone got out of the water quickly. Jacob and Gabriel made it up the hill first. They approached the girl and the dog. Tabitha turned away.

  A dirty white skull, now half covered, lay faceup in the clay, only a few teeth left in the small jaw. Another small six-inch bone and some smaller ones lay uncovered as well.

  “Rio, get back.” Gabriel pulled the dog back by the collar as he licked his chops and stomped nervously.

  Gabriel’s heart was in his throat. Jacob leaned down to get a closer look.

  “That’s a child . . . a very small child.”

  A glorious morning of fishing and frivolity turned quickly into a morbid discovery. Rio had uncovered some kind of tragedy. Gabriel felt nauseous as they stared silently.

  6

  The Agents and the Scene

  9:30 p.m.—Big Water Adventure Camp

  Thunder rattled the frame walls of the camp lodge and lightning sparked all through the canyon. It lit up the dining room like a shorting strobe light.

  “It’s comin’ down now,” Ezra said as the white noise of the rain pelting the tin roof of the old building grew louder. He stood at the large copper sink drying the last of the dishes. He never stopped working until he found his rocking chair at the end of the day. The team returned from their three-day trip, which had the most bizarre of endings. Recovering from unpacking all the gear, they relaxed into the evening.

  “Hot cider?” Ezra offered mugs to Gabriel and Tabitha who were seated at the long rough-hewn spruce dining table.

  “Sure,” Tabitha answered as she laid the quilt over Sadie’s legs.

  “How’s your leg?” Tabitha asked her younger sister.

  “Hurts.”

  “Sadie, do we need to take you to the doctor?”

  “No, no, I’m fine, really. Just need to rest, I’m sure.”

  Tabitha smiled and patted her sister’s shoulder.

  “Gabriel?” Ezra motioned to him with a mug.

  “No, thank you.”

  “You sure? It’ll warm you up,” Ezra said.

  Gabriel broke his distant furrowed stare, shaking his head to acknowledge him. He’d lost his appetite for anything. He couldn’t help but think about the last scene of the trip . . . the bones.

  Jacob, hands in the pockets of his faded jeans, gazed out of the large sixteen-pane window watching the rain blow sideways. The old rotary phone rang out at the front desk. He looked toward the phone before he spoke. “I’ll bet that’s the sherriff’s office.”

  He took a sip of his cider and walked out briskly, his boots rumbling the plank wood flooring with every step.

  “Big Water,” Jacob answered shortly.

  Ezra stopped putting away the dishes so everyone could hear Jacob’s conversation.

  “Yeah . . . Yeah, Steve. We were fishing at the fork just below the Cathedral and our dog went exploring up the hillside . . . Yeah, and he started barkin’ and diggin’ like crazy. We went up to see what he’d found and it just took us all off guard.”

  Jacob glanced back into the dining area as he continued in a somber tone. “Yeah . . . Uh-huh. I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure it was a small child. We saw the storm was coming in, so we threw a tarp over the bones and secured them with some tent pegs.”

  Jacob lowered his voice. The others couldn’t make out what he was saying. They all looked at each other. Then Jacob signed off. “Okay, Steve. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Jacob hung up the phone and walked back to the dining room with his cider, shaking his head.

  “What are they going to do?” Sadie asked.

  “The storm is too bad to head out there tonight so he wants me to show them the site in the morning.”

  “I want to go.” Gabriel surprised even himself with his quick response.

  Jacob nodded. “Meet me at the Jeep at six thirty sharp.”

  Ezra put the last dish away, draped his towel on the sink, and walked toward the door slowly. He grabbed an old trash bag out of the cupboard and draped it over his head.

  “Ezra, you’re going to get soaked,” Tabatha said. “You don’t have to go home tonight. We have room for you here.”

  The old man looked over at her, his countenance weighed down.

  “Sometimes things aren’t as they seem. You just never know what you’ll see when you come to The River. Good night, kids.”

  He walked out into the torrential rain.

  After a few seconds of silence, Gabriel looked at the girls, puzzled. “What did that mean?”

  Tabatha shrugged her shoulders, but Sadie spoke up.

  “I’m not always sure with Ezra. When he speaks, it always seems like there’s more than one thing he’s actually saying.”

  Gabriel looked over at Jacob, hoping for some more explanation.

  The lightning flashed relentlessly.

  “How are reservations looking for opening week?” Jacob asked as he rinsed out his mug.

  “It’s actually filling up quite nicely,” Sadie piped in.

  It wasn’t lost on Gabriel that Jacob changed the subject.

  “It’s hard to believe the season is on us already. Seems like just yesterday you joined us.” The veteran guide looked over at Gabriel as he continued. “The rest of the guides come in next week, and we’ll do your final swift-water rescue certification. Then the week after that we are all in.”

  Gabriel sat staring at the table, tracing the knots in the wood with his finger. Earlier today he’d been looking forward to this season. But now . . . he wasn’t sure why, but he felt a shadow hanging over him.

  “I wonder if it was a boy or a girl,” he said almost to himself.

  “Ugh . . . I’d rather not think about it . . . It’s just so sad.” Sadie shivered.

  “I guess we’ll find all that out soon enough,” Gabriel said.

  “Glad I put the top on before it started to pour yesterday. I can’t believe it’s still coming down,” Jacob said as he and Gabriel got in the old Jeep and rambled out the gravel drive of the camp. The jerky windshield wipers squeaked with each swipe of the glass, and the headlights were so dim that Gabriel could only see about twenty feet ahead of them. They were supposed to meet the police at the site where they found the bones in one hour. It would take them every bit of that to get there.

  “Hey, did you happen to grab any tools from the gear shed in the recent past?” Jacob asked.

  “No, why?” Gabriel replied.

  “Just curious.” Jacob had a puzzled look. “I’m missing some of my best tools. I can’t remember when we had any theft problems around here. It’s just odd.”

  “I haven’t seen anything.”

  Gabriel sipped some coffee from his thermos.

  “Do you still love it?”

  “What’s that?”

  “The River. Being at The River.”

  “Absolutely.” Jacob paused and then glanced over at Gabriel. “You’re not having second thoughts on me, are you?”

  Gabriel didn’t answer right away. He stared out his window.

  “I don’t think so. No.”

  “A bad day on The River is still better than the best day anywhere else.”

  “You sure about that?” Gabriel raised his bushy blond eyebrows. “Being at The River seems to carry its share of pain.”

  The Jeep chugged as Jacob downshifted through another set of switchbacks.

  “You’re right. Pain comes to all of us . . . there’s no escaping it.”

  Gabriel shook his head, lost in his thoughts. “Whoever lost that little baby probably wants to escape it.”

  Jacob looked a little surprised. “I know. But you can’t escape it. You have to go through it. That’s the only way.”
/>   “I’d prefer to escape it, thank you very much.”

  “Wouldn’t we all,” Jacob replied.

  Something triggered in Gabriel and he exploded. “Do you even know what it’s like to walk through that kind of loss?”

  Jacob furrowed his brow and cocked his head.

  “Well . . . uh . . . I’m not sure what to say. Are you okay? What’s going on?” Jacob asked.

  “I’m just not interested in hearing how to deal with something from you.” Gabriel looked out his window.

  “Um. Okay.” Jacob backed off, and for a while they rode in silence.

  “Okay, I think we’re getting close.” Jacob wiped the condensation from the inside of the windshield with the back of his hand.

  “Why?” Gabriel resurrected the previous conversation.

  “Why what?”

  “Why do we have to go through it?”

  “Here we are.” Jacob hit the brakes and made a right turn off the main road onto a path that led through the dense area of forest. “It’s part of this life, I guess.”

  The Jeep bounced through the rough terrain for about fifteen minutes, hitting muddy holes and crunching over dead branches.

  “A lot of pain we experience seems to be caused by other people’s choices.” Gabriel looked straight ahead.

  There was no time for Jacob to respond. They pulled up to the clearing to see another Jeep Wrangler, this one was black with a sheriff’s emblem on the side. Parked next to it was a mud-covered white Jeep Wagoneer with a government seal painted on the door.

  “Looks like the Feds are here too,” Jacob said as he shut the engine off and secured the parking break. The steady rain pelted the canvas roof of the Jeep.

  Jacob and Gabriel flipped up the hoods of their rain jackets and exited the vehicle. Jacob waved at the two men seated in the local sheriff’s Jeep.

  “The tall guy with the crew cut, built like a lineman, is the sheriff, Steve Carrington,” Jacob said. “Jack Ballard is a plainclothes detective who has been on the job for nearly thirty-five years. I’ve known both of them for a while.”

  Gabriel nodded, but his mind couldn’t focus on the two men. He felt nervous to see the bones again, yet compelled to do it at the same time.