Chapter 15

August 22, 1999

Flagstaff - Lee's Ferry

Crystal and Scooter showed up at the office early on Sunday morning -- without some of the regular crew it was going to be more confusion than normal to get loaded. Michelle and Jeff showed up a few minutes later, then Norma and Barbie, making good on their promise to help with the loading, and a few minutes behind them came Dan and Jerry, not surprisingly exhibiting some hangover. There was no sign of Al, but Crystal and Michelle decided to get the loading pretty well under way before she and Jeff went over to get him, so when they got him there, they could load him up and head for Lee's without a chance for a second thought.

Jeff and Jerry were helping wrestle with the winch on the trailer when Scooter happened to look up and see a red pickup truck pull in. She didn't think much about it, other than it might be the drive-in customer. She looked back at the troublesome winch, and all of a sudden heard Crystal's voice yell out, "By God, it is you! I saw the name Randy Clark on the manifest, and thought, 'Naw, it couldn't be.'"

Scooter looked up to see Randy walking over to meet Crystal. She'd only met him on three occasions, each briefly; he was a little guy, much smaller than Crystal, but well muscled, a little dark, with a neatly-trimmed Van Dyke. "Afraid it is," he grinned.

"I didn't think you were going to be able to make it," Crystal smiled, throwing a big hug around him.

"Well, I didn't either, till noon Wednesday. Then everything happened at once. I figured I'd better get out of there before Brent changed his mind."

"How's Nicole? Did she get up Katahdin OK?"

"She's just as pretty as ever. She and Jackpine finished last Friday. I picked 'em up Saturday, and we raced back to Spearfish Lake so she could start teaching Monday."

"Full time? In Spearfish Lake? Randy, that's wonderful!"

"I think so," he said. "They start on the house tomorrow, and we've been talking furniture."

"Hey, look," she said excitedly. "I want to hear all about this, but I've got a shit load to do in the next hour or so. But, we'll have plenty of time for the dirty details."

"Anything I can do to help?"

"Sure, we're a little short on hands this trip. Not even one swamper. Throw your stuff on the crew bus there, and I'll get you going."

Scooter thought about walking over to say hello, but she heard Jeff say, "Fuck, I'm going to have to tear this thing down. Scooter, you better go tell Michelle that you and her are gonna have to pick up Al."

Reasoning that there would be two and a half weeks to say hello to Randy, Scooter didn't argue. They hopped in Michelle's little car and drove over to his house. Apparently the reality of him going hadn't sunk in, since his gear seemed about half packed. "Al, you gotta get ready to go," Michelle told him. "Let's get you packed up."

When they finally got back to Canyon Tours, the loading seemed pretty well complete. "Al," Michelle told him, "You can ride on the bus, or with Jimmie in the pickup. It might be a little quieter to ride in the pickup." And, she didn't say, the view of the rafts on tow might seem a little more real to him.

"Fine with me," he said. They got out of the car, and in only a couple minutes they had his gear in the pickup and him sitting in the right seat.

Scooter and Michelle hustled over to the bus, where Crystal was waiting. "I don't know about this, Crystal," Scooter told her, "He seems more out of it than yesterday."

"Warn your dad," Crystal told Michelle. "But we might as well take him to Lee's; maybe the river will snap him out of it a little."

"That's about the only hope," Michelle nodded. "Crystal, good luck and hang in there. Give me a call from Phantom to tell me how it's going."

"You take it easy with that shoulder," Crystal grinned as Scooter got on the bus and found a seat toward the back. Crystal was right behind her, and walked back with her, but sat down with Randy. "I'm always glad to have packing morning over with," Scooter heard her explain. "It's really a hassle, and you can't leave anything behind, or else you're going to have to do without it. Every trip, I think about the story Mike told about Josh leaving the dogsleds behind." She stood up and looked around, obviously counting noses. "OK, I think we got everybody," she said loud enough for the whole bus to hear. "Everybody got everything?" There was a moment of silence, and she continued, "OK, Jeff, head 'em up and move 'em out."

As she sat back down, and the bus started to move, Randy sounded a little puzzled. "Crystal, you act like you're running this show," he observed.

"I am," she grinned. "I'm the trip leader."

"Trip leader? This is news!"

Scooter heard her let out a big sigh. "Randy, a hell of a lot has happened this summer. I know I haven't told you much in my cards, but I didn't want it getting back to Mom. I didn't want her to slip up around Dad and get in trouble, and I figured it was the safest way.

I know you and Myleigh and her talk back and forth a lot. I've been trip leader since the middle of June. This is the third one I've led. Well, actually, two and a half."

"What happened?" he asked casually.

"Oh, shit, long story," she told him. "You remember me telling you about Louise, Al's wife, back last winter?"

"The gal you were named after, has run the Canyon for years?"

Over the next couple minutes, Scooter heard Crystal give a quick summary of that trip back in June, finding out about Louise, then Al hiking up to the rim, watching his wife die in the hospital, and being wiped out ever since. "He's the guy in the photo you sent me, right?" Randy asked.

"Yeah," she admitted. "That was taken early on that trip when Louise died."

"Hope it's OK, but I sent those photos on to your mom."

"It's OK," Crystal replied. "She deserves to know something. Anyway, Al hasn't run since. He was on this trip and off it for weeks, Michelle told me, but he's back in the truck and he better go or else we're going to be short a boatman."

"And you're still leading?"

"Yeah, he doesn't want to put up with the hassles," she said. "I think we've convinced him that he needs to get back down into the Canyon, maybe it'll heal him a little. God, I hope so. He's the neatest guy, Randy. What a bitch of a thing to have to happen to him."

"Yeah," he said, hunting for words. "I'd have liked to have met her."

"It's a damn shame," she said. "It's a little goofy how I wound up assistant trip leader." She gave a brief summary of the team getting shuffled around back before the first trip. Crystal told him that he was the first person on her mind to call for extra crewmen, but, as she said, "I knew I'd never get you out of your damn construction company." Scooter knew Randy had a lot of kayaking experience but didn't think he knew much about rafts, so figured Crystal was just being nice -- or had subconsciously been considering it as a last attempt at driving Nicole off. She only half listened as Crystal explained that she'd thought about Noah Whittaker, her long-time friend back in Ocoee days, but he was now a youth pastor at a big church and didn't think he should try to break away. Crystal had tried but failed to find Gary, another former Ocoee boatman she'd worked with -- it was something that Scooter hadn't heard before, although she knew both of the Ocoee boatmen.

"That left one possibility, but the best one of the bunch," Crystal continued. "I called her up, told her to get her ass out from behind that counter at NOC and get on some real water." She raised her voice. "Hey, Scoot!"

She got up and turned around in her seat, and watched Randy's face light up with recognition. "Scooter!" he smiled. "What a sight for sore eyes! I didn't recognize you since you've cut your hair and turned into a blonde!"

"Randy, you're looking good," she replied. "I guess I haven't seen you since you took Crystal and me to Amicola Falls to start her AT hike."