Chapter 16

August 23, 1999

Flagstaff - Lee's Ferry

Al was noticeably brighter, if far from back to normal while they waited for the customer bus to pull in. As the time grew close, Scooter sat back on the nose of her raft, and, as had become traditional, lit a cigar. Crystal came over to join her for a moment, and whispered that she'd sneaked up to the phone and called Michelle, telling her briefly what had happened and that she thought Al was going to make it. "I think so, too," Scooter whispered back. "I think he's finally accepting it. He doesn't like it, but at least accepts it."

"Hell, I don't like it, either," Crystal said softly. "Damn it, Scooter! There was still so damn much that Louise could have taught us. But, yeah, I've come to accept it."

Scooter leaned back a little and took a drag on her cigar. "Yeah, I can think of lots, too," she said finally. "But I count myself lucky for what she did get a chance to teach me."

"There is that," Crystal said quietly. "I guess I'm just going to have to carry on."

"I'm sure you will, Crystal Louise," Scooter smiled. "And I plan on being right there with you."

"Thanks, Scooter," she sighed. "I don't know if you heard me, but back on the bus yesterday I told Randy I'd never have been able to make it through this summer without your help. I meant it."

"I heard you say that, and I figured you meant it," Scooter nodded. "Thank you, Crystal. There've been some hard times, but there have been some good ones, too. Getting my ass out of NOC and down here was the best thing you could have done for me, and I figure I owe you."

"Thanks for saying it," she replied. She looked up for a moment, and added. "And I guess it's time to get our game faces on, because here come da bus. I'm like Al, I'm tired of waiting, I just want to head 'em up and move 'em out."

"Where'd you get that phrase, anyway?" Scooter smirked in a normal tone of voice as she got up and started to walk up the ramp beside her friend, who grabbed a clipboard from the nose of her raft. "I'll bet I hear you say that a dozen times a day on the river."

"Louise," Crystal sighed. "She used it several times last fall. I asked her about it once, and she said it came from some TV show when she was a kid."

"Yeah," Scooter smiled. "You're carrying on all right."

The bus sighed to a stop, and the door opened. "Here we are," Scooter heard the bus driver say over the P.A. "There'll be someone outside the door to take your names. I'm going to set the baggage out. Pick it up when I unload it, and head over around the rafts."

The bus driver got off and opened the doors on the luggage compartment, and Scooter went to help him as Crystal stood at the door looking down at her clipboard, checking off names. Scooter happened to be looking up as a shortish, slender, brown-haired woman got down to the bottom step. "Name, please," Crystal said.

"Karin Chladek," Scooter heard the woman say.

Crystal snapped her head up, jaw agape, eyes wide, and gave a little cry of shock. "Mom!" she cried, "What are you doing here?"

"Getting set to run the Grand Canyon," Karin smirked. "Isn't that what we're supposed to be doing?"

"Mom, your name isn't on the list..." she looked down, and thumbed through a couple of pages. "That frickin' Michelle," she grumbled. "K-a-r-e-n S-l-a-d-i-k. Crap, I never noticed. I hope she got your credit card number right."

"Oh, yes," Karin smiled ruefully. "She made a point of reading it back to me."

"That bubble-gum-chomping brat," Crystal grumped. "Darn it! I know 'Chladek' isn't the easiest name to spell phonetically, but she writes my frickin' paycheck; she ought to have known better. Look, I got a ton to do. Grab your bags while I get everybody else checked in, and stand off to the side, and we can talk for a minute."

"Here, Crystal," Scooter spoke up. "I'll finish the check-in for you."

"Thanks, Scoot," Crystal said and handed her the clipboard, still obviously stunned at this turn of events. She turned to her mother and asked. "Mom, look, what's Dad going to say when he finds out you're here?"

"Pete doesn't know," Karin smiled. "He's in Japan."

"Japan?" Crystal said, amazed. "What in sin is he doing in Japan?"

"Company business. Look, Crystal. It's very simple. He's going to have to accept that I'm here with you. If he doesn't I refuse to be concerned about it anymore."

"You mean... ?"

"Very likely," Karin said flatly. "I've about had it with his unnecessary anger and the way he's treated you. This is put-up or shut-up time for him."

Scooter could hear the conversation well, even though she was still busy with the check-in. "Oh, Mom," Crystal shook her head. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Karin counseled. "It's been that way for some time. It's just coming to a head, and now it gets settled, one way or the other."

"Look, Mom, I got a lot to do... " She raised her head and looked around. There was an older couple with several small bags, and they were having trouble with them. She raised her voice. "Randy!" she shouted. "Help these folks with their bags."

"Randy's here?" Karin asked, showing a little shock herself.

"Yeah, Mom," her daughter said. "He's a customer, signed up at the last minute, just like you, I guess. We're a little shorthanded this trip, and he's been helping out."

"Crystal, is there something going on with you two?"

"No, Mom," Crystal said, sounding a little exasperated. "I asked him to come last winter, and he got a chance that he didn't think he'd get till it happened. He's getting set to get married, but not to me. Nicole, a girl I walked with on the AT for a while. I think I told you about her. He came up with us from Flagstaff, and he bent my ear half the way about the house they're building and the furniture they're buying. I'm just a little jealous of her, but I don't want him to know."

"I'm sorry," Karin shook her head. "I guess I thought maybe there was something."

"Once, there was," she said, sounding angry now. "But you and Dad loused it up. We'd been planning on living together in Marquette my last semester. It was my one chance to see if I could live like that with him, or maybe with anyone. Myleigh and I had talked about it lots. Then, you had to go and jam Nanci down my throat!"

"Crystal, I had no idea." Karin said. "I thought perhaps you were living with him in Spearfish Lake last winter."

"Wouldn't have worked," she said, sounding even more angry. "It was too late then, he was hooked up with Nicole. We couldn't have done it anyway. It's a small town, and the Clarks are important people. He can't have the gossip going around. He and I would have been pretty anonymous in Marquette, and we'd have been leaving soon, anyway. So, I lost my chance to find out if I could live like a normal person. No, I spent last winter living in a pickup camper surrounded by a hundred and twenty howling huskies."

"Crystal, I, we had no idea..."

"I know, Mom. I was trying to keep from hurting you. But if you think I sound bitter about it, it's because I am. Randy's a hell of a guy, and we were pretty close before you and Dad and Nanci wrecked it. Now, we're just friends."

"Crystal, I'm sorry," Karin said. "I wish I could make it better, but I can't. I am trying to heal some of the damage."

"I know, Mom," she said exasperatedly. "Look, we gotta talk some time, but not now. I got too much to do. Here, I'll grab your bags; we gotta get down to the group."

Scooter tagged along behind as Crystal grabbed both of her mother's duffle bags in one hand, and walked down to the group clustered around the rafts, nuzzled up on the river bank. She set the bags down, hopped up onto a raft, and climbed up on top of the boatman's box. "Yo, folks, listen up," she yelled.

The crowd became silent and turned their attention toward her. "My name is Crystal Chladek," she said in a clear voice that carried to the edge of the crowd. "I'm your trip leader on this little expedition." Scooter caught the look of surprise on Karin's face at that announcement, and could see from the grin on her face that Crystal had seen it too.

"I'll warn you right now, if you call me 'Chris, ' I'll look over my shoulder to see who you're talking to," Crystal continued, sounding bright and chipper, with no hint of the anger and bitterness in her voice of a few seconds ago. She went through the introduction that the crew had become familiar with, but this time with a few variations. "Now, we're going to be together for over two weeks, and I'm sure we're all going to get to know each other a lot better by the time we get to Diamond Wash, but let's get started with some introductions. First, I have to say I had a heck of a surprise when one of you got off the bus, so I'm going to start off with the person most responsible for me being here in the first place. She ran this river twenty-five years ago, and gave me the bug and the love for it. My mother, Karin Chladek. Stick up your hand, Mom. It was twenty-five years, wasn't it?"