Chapter 47

February 4 - March 22, 2001

Flagstaff

As it turned out, Scooter wore her Wild Wet bikini more than she expected -- she'd thought it would be only the once, to humor Michelle. It kept her covered to the point of possibly being legal if the definition -- and the suit -- were stretched a little. That was good for just lying in the sun for a little winter tanning if someone was around, for all three of them would lie out in the nude if they were alone. And yes, it did catch some attention. Over four weeks, they did more sailing than they had the year before, saw more sights, visited more islands. They also partied in bars a little less, but some of those parties were a little more intense. Both Scooter and Michelle did a little casual sportfucking too, but Crystal gave it a pass, as she had last year.

After the conversation on the beach at Grand Bahama, Scooter found herself reflecting on several things, and one of them was the fact that such fooling around was awful shallow and the rewards only momentary. She'd had only nine such incidents in the last two years, which was nine more than in the four years preceding, so maybe she'd caught up a little. In any case, toward the last part of the sailing trip she backed off and didn't push possible encounters like she had the first part.

Crystal had a point -- it would be nice to have a regular guy, maybe even marry him if things were to work out right. Whatever she did, though, would have to leave the option of staying in the Canyon open to her, that much was clear; and when she thought through Crystal's reasoning, the possibilities seemed bleak.

Scooter knew there was a possible exception: Jim Griffin. He was about Crystal's age, she didn't know for sure, a Navy veteran. He'd been in the Canyon a little longer than she had, but not a lot longer although she had vastly more rafting experience. He enjoyed skiing and snowboarding and hiking and surfing and sailing, a little climbing, being on the river, the same sort of things she liked. He wasn't what you would call good-looking, but not ugly either -- nor was she. They'd known each other casually for two summers, had a few beers the first summer, and he'd done a trip with them last summer, at her suggestion and to his benefit. Jim was no Randy, not that it was bad, and he had some nice qualities of his own. Worthy of investigation? Of course. Was Crystal thinking the same thing? Probably. Nothing much could be done until he got back to Flag from Colorado, and that probably wouldn't be until tripping season opened, so at best further investigation was on a mental to-do list.

All trip long they'd given consideration to a different cruising grounds for next winter, somewhere in Mexico, perhaps, or maybe even follow up on Randy's idea of New Zealand. But, when they got back to Abaco and got to talking with the agency owner, he offered them a nice discount on the Felicity Ann for the same period next year; what's more, he'd keep the reservation refundable until September 1. They really liked the boat; it was comfortable, easy riding, and could get up and move if they pushed it, so they put in the reservation. Both Scooter and Crystal made a mental note to ask Randy and Nicole to join them for a few days if she could possibly get off school.

If the truth be told, they'd had enough sailing to hold them for a while when they got on the small inter-island plane that took them to Nassau, and the somewhat bigger one to Orlando a couple hours later. They'd already known they weren't going to go back to Buddha's this trip and already had reservations, so a few hours later they were in Phoenix, where Jon and Tanisha picked them up at the airport.

On the way up to Flagstaff, they told some of the stories of the trip to Jon and Tanisha. The two agreed that going to the Bahamas another year was a possibility but would depend on how busy their job was; things were going well, whatever it was they were actually doing. After dark, a long way west from Marsh Town and in much colder weather, the two dropped them off at the house. Karin wasn't there, which was not unexpected; once again, they couldn't tell if she'd actually been staying there or not, not that it mattered. In any case, they knew where to call to report their return: Al's. "Why don't you come over here and tell us about your trip?" she suggested. "We've got a nice fire in the fireplace and it seems so very cozy."

Michelle allowed as how she thought she ought to be heading to Grand Canyon Village to check in with her folks. They dropped her off at her car at the office parking lot and headed on out to Al's, expecting to find the two of them curled up on the sofa cuddling and doing cute stuff like that. Instead they found the two of them on the floor in front of the fireplace, a pile of books and papers spread around haphazardly. "What's happening here? Crystal asked.

"Just trying to shuffle all the little arrangements around to pull off this wedding," Al snorted. "Last time I did this, Louise and I just snuck over to Vegas and spent a few hours playing the nickel slots and then getting married. This is damn sure going to make up for it."

"I thought you had it pretty well pinned down," Scooter observed.

"A few things, but stuff keeps changing," Al grumped. "The dates of the second party keep slipping around, and Crystal, it looks like you're going to have to run a faster than normal trip and then have to sit around for a few days. It has its good points, both Jon and Tanisha and Randy and Nicole have a limited amount of time they can get away, and so do some others. Randy and Nicole were making sounds about hiking out the Bass Trail because their time is so limited, but they're going to do the whole trip now, unless something else comes up."

"You remember him ranting at Buddha and Giselle's," Karin observed. "I think Nicole had to do some pretty serious arm twisting to manage that. Not Randy's arm -- his grandfather's."

"Which leads me to a thought," Al said. "I've only been a couple miles up the Bass from the river, and that was a hell of a long time ago. Is there any chance you two committed hikers could take an overnight down to the river and find out if it's going to be passable for not-so-committed hikers, what kind of preparations are going to be needed, and like that?"

"Don't see why not," Crystal replied. "We can do it right away or hold off until it's close, to make sure we have late information."

"With you, Scooter, and Karin leaving on the Park Service trip on March 24th, there's that deadline, too," Al told them. "And you've got your first trip starting April 8th, and the wedding trip currently the 27th, so you're going to have to have your ducks pretty seriously in a row before you go on the Park Service trip."

"We talked about it some on the sailing trip," Scooter said. "We still want to get out of here for a week or so in Hawaii in the next month or so, and maybe sneak off snowboarding locally on occasion, but there's no real reason we can't get going on preparations in the morning."

"Good, I can find stuff for you to do, and I'm sure you have your own lists," he said. "But there's some flex. Why not wait on the hike until we have good weather predicted for two or three days?"

"Yeah, we'll have to gather up our backpacking gear, too," Crystal said. "So, what else is cooking?"

"You'd think we could find a minister in this town that would be willing to do a Canyon trip," Karin snorted. "Even if it's a hike-in, hike-out. Since you've been gone, we've had three agree, then back out for some reason or another. I don't suppose you have any ideas."

Crystal looked over at the fire for a moment. "Well, I do have one," she smiled. "He might appreciate a raft trip more than some, too. He's kind of out of town, though."

"How far out of town?" Karin asked.

"Chattanooga, Tennessee," Crystal grinned. "You remember when I took you down the Ocoee that time?"

"Crystal, what happened at the end I could not forget to my dying day." She let out a sigh and continued, "Al, that's the time that those two kayakers attacked Crystal and Randy with knives."

Scooter had heard the story not long after it happened, and knew that Crystal didn't like to bring it up, even now, over five years later. "If you'll remember," Crystal said to change the subject slightly, "I wasn't the trip leader on that trip. Do you remember the trip leader?"

"I remember the face, but not the name," Karin said. "A tall young man, sandy brown hair. You said he was rather religious."

"He was and is," Crystal grinned. "He was just about my best friend down there, at least the one who worked at Ocoee Adventures; Scooter was at NOC, and I didn't see her as much. Anyway, his name's Noah Whittaker. He's youth pastor at a big church in Chattanooga."

"Oh, yeah," Al said. "He was one of those people you talked to when you got Scooter to come out here."

"Yeah, he said he was pretty wrapped up in his job. But when we were at Ocoee Adventures he was about the best raft handler we had. Maybe I can't get him to be a boatman for us, but it would be neat to show him some real water. At least he's not going to shy away from riding in a raft."

"Phone's in the kitchen," Al grinned. "Go call him. He'll have to get the plane ticket, but I'll pay for the boat ride."

"If he balks at the plane ticket, I might just be willing to pay for it," Crystal grinned. "Noah was always one of the good guys."

"I'd chip in," Scooter added as Crystal headed for the kitchen. "Some of my best memories of those days are sitting around talking with him about nothing in particular. I'd love to see him again, too." She stopped for a second and went on, "Al, I'm sure I told you how I first met Crystal and Noah, when I had that raft flip and the customer almost drowned. It wasn't until the next summer I got to know them. Ocoee Adventures had a bunkhouse for their rafters, and it was party central. Crystal and Noah and a couple other kids didn't like that too much, so they lived in their own tents up on the hillside all summer. The party crowd called them 'the hillbillies, ' but I think they had more fun than the party crowd, mostly because they were all good friends. The last couple years Crystal and Noah were there I was sort of a fringe member of their group. Two or three times a week I'd be over there with them."