They drove the several hundred meters to the Banks home in Mary’s car. Johnny might not be bothered by cold clothing or vehicles, but Mary preferred them warm.
When they sat at the table, Johnny was surprised when Melissa asked Chet to say grace, which he did without eye-rolling or a cynical comment. Dinner was a delicious cut of moose roasted with potatoes, carrots, onions, celery and much to Johnny’s delight, turnips. Turnips had been a staple when Johnny was a child, and the familiar taste brought back memories on which Johnny mused.
During the meal, Chet’s phone continually received calls and text messages. He ignored it, but was distracted from the conversation whenever it rang, and though he seemed to be enjoying the food and company, it was obvious he wanted to deal with whatever communication was coming in. Melissa relayed details of the visit to the hospital with Pete, mentioning the young guy who was impressed with the Harley Davidson story. When Johnny heard, he reacted much like the young man.
“You weren’t even mad?” He looked at Chet incredulously.
“Nope. Usually I would have been, but there I stood, looking at the couple acres of ground, a lawnmower, wheelbarrow, my outboard motor – all crushed accidentally, because my wife wanted our kids to be safe. I realized I really didn’t want a Harley, especially one so valuable I didn’t like to ride it on gravel roads. And it was really funny! She had never been on a big loader, and here she took that old 966 on a rampage, just like a movie!”
Melissa shook her head with a small smile.
“Plus, she loaded trucks for the next two summers. We were running gravel trucks then, and more than paid for the Harley in saved wages, she didn’t dare ask to be paid. It was perfect!” He grinned. “But when our gravel truck drivers heard what happened, and some of them saw the mess, they were really scared, both of her driving, and just Melissa herself. Ever since, if she asks someone to do something, well, they up and do it! And the new guys see the older guys snap to it and follow their lead. I figure Melissa’s rampage was just her way of buying a lifetime reputation, and you know what’s the kicker? She wasn’t even mad; she was just taking care of business!”
“Chet, stop!”
Johnny grinned at Mary, knowing something good was coming next.
“For the next couple seasons our boys played hockey, every time that song was played, friends would point at Melissa, it was hilarious!”
When Melissa derailed the subject matter by serving up seconds, Chet folded his napkin and got down to business.
“Okay, Johnny, we have a problem. Pete is out for at least six weeks. I’m too busy to work in the shop until he’s back, my phone is ringing constantly, and I can’t answer all the questions efficiently enough, and we have a whole bunch of meetings coming up with the mill and the Forest Service. And of course, we only have a few months before breakup.
“Melissa figures I need to quit taking on more new things if I keep doing everything I’m doing now, and she’s right.”
Chet paused for coffee, and Johnny let out his breath. He tried to relax.
“Johnny, I would like if you would jump in and help me do my job. I would like you to be free to do whatever needs to be done; help Isaac in the shop for the next month or so while Pete’s out, run the low-bed, coordinate schedules, and go to meetings with me whenever possible.”
He drank another quick sip of coffee.
“I need a good man like you, Johnny, to just jump in and make things happen. The guys in the bush respect you, and so do the truckers. You get along well with Isaac, and not everyone does. What do you think?”
Johnny analyzed quickly, weighing pros and cons.
“And Johnny, this is not because we are unhappy with what you’re doing now. You are doing a great job, and your positive attitude has affected the whole crew,” Melissa added.
Johnny cleared his throat, sliding his chair back a few inches. “Chet, I appreciate your offer. It sounds like a good job. And I have an idea; one that might make even more sense.”
All three looked at him in surprise, his tone even, exuding confidence.
“Since we sat down for this delicious meal,” he nodded toward Melissa, “your phone has rang or beeped fourteen times.” He nodded his head. “I know because it bugs me, not the sound or interruption, but because I know that some evenings it’s me who is dialing that number and disturbing you. I usually feel bad about bugging you, but I need to know what’s going on the next day and can’t really plan unless I find out.”
Johnny went on smoothly.
“There is a lot of frustration out there, especially on Sunday afternoons, when we don’t know for sure what we are doing the next day, when to go to bed, all that. Mary is pretty good about it, but for the guys with families, well, I have heard some complaining.”
Chet nodded. “You’re right. I’m not always on the ball about letting everyone know my plans.” Melissa did a dramatic eye-roll.
Johnny continued. “So, I have some ideas, but I am not the right person to make all of it happen.”He smiled, the three were listening carefully. He pointed at Chet’s phone. “That beep makes fifteen. I am good at getting things done. Working in the shop and getting the machines in the right places will be something I’m good at. But I have an idea for how the scheduling could work even better. What I think you are saying you need is someone to collect information from you and Melissa, such as; where we are hauling, when the first trucks go out, any info from the mill or scale, etc., and then make a schedule and communicate it to everyone.”
Melissa nodded. “Exactly. Right now, Chet will be out on Saturday or Sunday moving machines. This is right when people want information about the week. On one hand we have the guys, or their wives, who want to know their schedule weeks in advance. Then we have the guys who get home from snowmobiling at 10 pm on a Sunday night and they get a message that we want them to go to work at midnight.”
Johnny nodded. He had seen the extremes, had even been the guy who slept an hour after a long day snowmobiling before getting up for a full day of hauling logs. It wasn’t responsible but happened more often than it should.
Chet wanted to hear The Big Guy’s plan.
Chapter 28
Johnny’s plan was simple. Neither the dessert Melissa served, nor the continued demands of Chet’s phone distracted him as he laid it out.
“We have some catching up to do. Pete is gone for a while, so I will need to spend a lot of time in the shop. I’m pretty handy, but not a mechanic, not nearly as experienced as Pete. If Isaac does the specialty stuff, I can for sure get a lot of the grunt work done. But between that and hauling equipment around, my schedule will be full. Why don’t you hire Mary here to work weekends and a few hours in the evening? She’s really good at scheduling, making plans, and contacting people. Many times, when I’m busy, she takes extra overtime at the store – no reason she couldn’t put that time into working for us.”
Mary was surprised. She hadn’t seen this coming and appreciated the compliments from her husband.
Johnny continued. “She is going to be quitting her job in the next year or so anyway, because we want to have kids.”
Mary’s eyes widened, and she stared at Johnny. It was so sudden she wasn’t even embarrassed, at first, that is.
“Well, we’ll start with one baby I guess.” Johnny grinned. He liked a good reaction and had been thinking for hours in the truck. He had been hoping an opportunity like this would come along.
Chet took the news in his matter-of-fact way. Starting a family was just what people did, no surprise there. But Melissa reacted properly, jumping up and hugging Mary, who was beaming, happy tears now brimming, momentary embarrassment forgotten.
“So, Mary should be available to help us get started, giving us time to get Pete back in the shop, and then if she is coordinating the schedule, she can show me what she has done, and teach me how to do it too, or just keep coordinating herself. She can email the stuff to the four of us, and you can make any tweaks needed b
efore she sends it out to everybody. If anyone has questions, they call Mary. She is used to this. She’s coordinated the staff at the grocery store for what, five years?”
Johnny sat back, looking satisfied with his quick presentation of ideas.
While Melissa was congratulating Mary, she was seeing Johnny in a new way. He looked like the big quarterback on the poster in Lance’s room, what was his name?
Yes, Johnny might make a pretty good quarterback for their team, calling plays, directing traffic, calming people down. And he was big and confident enough to direct a team, and with Mary helping coordinate…
Melissa looked at Chet, nodding her head. “I like it, Chet, what do you think?”
He looked at Mary. “Well, young lady, does this sound like a possibility?” Without waiting for her reply, he nodded, answering for himself.
“Yes, sir, I like it. It’s a good plan.”
And that was how a new and rewarding chapter in the history of the Amund family began, a familiar pattern in the human story of supply and demand. The Banks’ extension of trust gained a little brother, a rather large little brother, and the talented woman who was his wife.
The Amunds were given that wonderful commodity, opportunity. A place to exercise their skills, talents, and experience; a place to be pushed into new trials, stretched in their thinking, taxed to the very core as they began to deeply care for the interests of their benefactors.
And Johnny was not so young as to have no experience. The story of Melissa and the loader impressed Johnny deeply, and he inwardly vowed never to begin big changes without getting advice from the boss. And as Johnny had planned, involving Mary was pure genius, She proved to be a gem, especially over the winter season when nerves were stretched, and workers were known to throw in the towel and quit on a whim.
On Christmas Eve, Chet and Melissa took a drive. It was a clear night, and the boys had driven to Prince George for some last-minute shopping. They dropped off cookies at the homes of several elderly couples, visiting for a few minutes in each place, spreading Christmas cheer and receiving some of their own.
Mary had called Melissa earlier and asked if she and Chet could stop in later, if they were not busy. Melissa was looking forward to the visit and said so to Chet, chatting as he drove.
“I am so glad we offered Johnny this new job. What a difference in our schedule, especially weekends.” She laughed. “He’s a lot sharper than I would have expected a year ago.”
Chet nodded, watching the moon as it seemed to flit through the trees, remembering the same view when he was a kid.
“He’s made a couple mistakes, but nothing compared to the load he has taken off your shoulders.”
Chet cleared his throat. “You know what the best thing is? He hardly ever says no, always willing to get right in it. But he won’t push safety limits. If he’s too tired to do a good job, he will say no and mean it. The man has judgment, good judgment.”
Chet was right. Johnny seemed to always be working, keeping them in the loop with concise texts, and earning respect as a capable foreman in the eyes of the other employees almost overnight. At the Christmas party Johnny had been commended. The occasion had been held in the Banks Mountain shop as an encore to the success of the November party.
Melissa had set up a speaker and microphone, squelching the festive din of the children playing with their gifts in the lunch room. A few men had thanked Johnny at the open mic, for kind things he had done in his several weeks of being foreman. One thanked him for driving his last load so that he could attend his daughter’s Christmas play. Another recalled how Johnny had brought a shop truck and pulled him out of the ditch and quickly replaced several blown tires several days earlier, allowing the man to finish his day, the implication clear: no money lost on a paycheck at Christmastime.
Jason took the mic nervously and thanked Johnny for working with him in the shop, and clumsily explained how Johnny even made sure to find him a ride to work when his truck broke down.
Mary had also been thanked, and though all were gracious to Chet, the message was unmistakable, the new attention to communication was well received and greatly appreciated.
Johnny had thanked them for their kind words and went on to mention some of the highlights of the year. He had taken the time to express appreciation to the guys he worked with, and especially to Frank, for being a good example of a man he wanted to be like, surprising the quiet man, who gave him a thumbs-up, sleeping toddler in his arms.
A delighted buzz went through the forty or fifty people present when Johnny and Mary called up the Banks and presented them with two wrapped presents. They opened their gifts together and held them up for all to see. Each had received a beautiful die-cast model: a 1945 Harley Davidson Knucklehead for Chet and a Caterpillar 966 loader for Melissa. Chet grinned, hunching down, twisting an imaginary throttle and making the appropriate sounds. Melissa shook her fist at Johnny, and then gave Mary a big hug.
Now turning into the Amunds’ driveway, they were surprised to see at least a dozen snowmobiles on the snow-covered lawn and a similar number of vehicles in the parking area. Some small children were tobogganing on the gentle slope along the driveway, but the yard was empty of adults. Walking up the steps to the house, Melissa stopped to read the sign.
“Look, Chet.” She read the sign aloud, and then the translation Mary had typed on thick paper and tacked below the glowing wood. A few small spotlights had been carefully placed, flooding the thick plank with warm light so the sign seemed to be alive, separate from the wall on which it hung.
A little girl tugged her sleeve. “Hi, Mrs. Banks!”
She knew this nice lady. She was the one who had parties that kids could come to and always had fun games and treats. Her gift at the Christmas party had been a Banks Mountain toque, which was on her head at the moment, pink tassel caked with snow.
“All the grownups are around back at the fire. I had marthmallowth!”
She darted away, message delivered, tassel bouncing.
Chet stood stock-still, staring at the sign. “Well, I’ll be! Wonder how long that’s been up. Sure does explain some things.”
Melissa took his arm, but he held still for a moment, captured by memories. “You know, I’m positive that was up on Lars’ house, out on the farm. Johnny must have brought it down, probably years ago.” He shook his head. “But I’ve never seen it here before.”
They circled the house and followed the packed trail toward the glow behind some outbuildings where they soon could see a giant bonfire and heard laughter and happy voices.
Chet hefted the package of jerky he had smoked himself several days before, yep, should be enough.
He said it aloud again. “Bare is the back of the brotherless man.” He reached out a warm, ungloved hand. “Come on, Melissa, let’s give this jerky to our little brother.”
Chapter 29
After conferring with Johnny, the Banks decided to shut down the whole operation for the week of Christmas. Several of the employees wanted to work through the holiday and Johnny coordinated a plan that would ensure a neat and tidy restart on January 2.
Mary had anticipated this and arranged vacation time for herself. This would be the first time in years they would have nine days free to spend together at Christmas, and they decided to make the best of it. Late on the 23rd they set off to visit her dad and Joanne.
Jason was house-sitting for them. He had no family west of the Rockies and wanted to spend Christmas in Vanderhoof with new friends and put in some extra hours of work. The horses would be fed, the antisocial cat would have company, and Jason would have a place to entertain, although Mary didn’t want to think too much about that.
Mary had booked a hotel in Prince George. “We can keep our own special tradition, Johnny, and we will be an hour closer to Vernon!”
Johnny agreed and was happy to spend the extra time with Mary and to have a break from the daily stress of directing the logging operations.
Th
ey were in Johnny’s Silverado, back seat crammed full of presents, luggage, and their snowmobiling gear. Their machines were locked down, covers strapped on for the long trip.
When Al invited them for Christmas, he had suggested the four of them do some snowmobiling, and Johnny was excited to explore new country. Al arranged to use a friend’s private cabin, and as he and Joanne had already enjoyed several trips in the area that season, was delighted his daughter and son-in-law were able to join them.
They would be riding an area suitable for the women’s experience level, and for one day the men planned to take their more powerful machines to do some more serious riding and hill climbing and watch the professionals.
Johnny and Mary had chosen new snow gear for their Christmas presents to each other, and the smell of new winter clothing was an exciting aroma in the crowded cab. After talking with her dad, Mary had ordered Johnny an avalanche airbag to go with his new gear.
Each year there were stories of backcountry snowboarders or snowmobilers getting caught in unstable snow conditions in the mountains. Many were rescued, but sometimes the costly searches went on for weeks before the unfortunate individuals were dug from the snow. While many avalanches happened in the spring, when the snow was heavy, unstable from its own weight and repeated warmings from the sun, Mary was taking no chances. Though she didn’t plan to be near avalanche areas, she wanted to know Johnny would be as safe as possible.
To keep things fair, she had ordered a heated vest and boots for herself and was looking forward to being warm this year while riding.
While Johnny checked and locked his workshop, Mary emptied the contents of the center console into a plastic container which she wedged into the pile in the rear seat and folded the console into the upright position. When Johnny arrived, she was perched in the center of the seat, ready for an hour of snuggling.
Always a Brother Page 15