Chapter 50

April 26 - 27, 2001
Lee's Ferry

In a number of ways it was the strangest Canyon Tours Grand Canyon trip that Scooter had been on yet. To begin with, there was the mad rush to be able to launch on Friday instead of Monday, to give them a chance to catch up with the Team 1 trip four days ahead. In spite of six rafts, one more than normal, it was very light on passengers. All were invited wedding guests, although some had insisted on paying the normal fee. Scooter knew that Randy and Nicole were among them -- there had been discussion of it in Florida -- but she didn't know who the others were. They were guests, passengers, and not exactly customers.

It was late in the day when they pulled into Lee's Ferry. When they pulled in, they could see that the S-rigs from Jim's company were well along in rigging -- Jim had swapped pre-trip duties with another boatman who wasn't running to cut the other boatman some schedule slack later in the month. Since they'd be busy, Scooter just reminded Jim of their date at the end of next week, and let it go at that. She still hadn't made up her mind one way or the other about offering to take him to bed, but didn't have to make her mind up until next weekend, so didn't give any hints.

Though it was late, they turned to the unloading and rigging of the rafts, most of which had come out of the water at Diamond Creek a few hours before. Darkness fell before they were finished, but they were far enough along that they decided to let finishing up go until morning. They loaded on the crew bus and went up to the bar in Marble Canyon for dinner and a couple beers; Jim and his crew were there, but Scooter didn't say anything much to them because they were in the middle of their own bull session. After Jeff hauled them back to the boat launch, the guy who had done the pre-trip stuff for Jim got on the Canyon Tours crew bus and rode back to Flagstaff, along with Crystal, who was going to spell Jeff on the driving and officially meet the guests at the Phoenix airport and elsewhere in town early the next morning.

Along in the evening, Al and Karin got Scooter off to the side. "Did Crystal tell you about the special deal we're doing with Randy and Noah?" he asked.

"Nothing much," Scooter shrugged.

"You remember Randy's rant back in Florida about not getting to go anywhere, don't you?" Al smiled.

"Jeez, yes," she shook her head. "He was pissed and trying not to show it."

"You remember when he ran Lava, and afterwards he yelled, 'The hell with construction, I'd rather be a boatman?'"

"Oh, yes," Scooter grinned. "Even with everything else that happened on that trip, it was the high point of it for him."

"I also remember how he had to submit to reality that he'd have to go back to construction," Al smirked. "Ever since Florida, we've been trying to figure out some way to make this trip a little special for him, so we're going to make him sort of an honorary boatman."

"Huh?"

"The insurance requires that someone make four trips to be a boatman, right?" Al grinned. "This will be his second. Crystal and I worked out the last piece of it on the way up here."

"Just to make him feel a little more special, right?"

"What Crystal is going to tell Randy is that if he'll make two more trips after this, we'll carry him as a reserve boatman and call on him when we need a spare hand in the early or late seasons. It'll probably never happen, but we're hoping it'll be a nice gesture to him."

"Yeah, he might appreciate it," Scooter nodded.

"It probably won't solve anything but might make him feel a little better. Crystal owes him, I owe him, and he won't even take a comped trip as a gesture of thanks. So we have to sneak it by him. Noah is in on the deal because he's a long-time rafter, and we can't really offer this setup to Randy without offering it to him. Anyway, what that means for you is that you can have them on the sticks as much as they want to be. The thing is, I want them to be with you or Crystal most of the time, maybe Duane some of the time if needed. I want to run with all the younger ones at least a little so I can be sure in my own mind they're ready."

Everyone turned in early; people were tired, some from the hustle of the long day, some from studying for finals, and Trey from driving all night. But, river habits took over, and the boatmen were stirring at first light. They threw together a pretty good breakfast, then turned to the final loading and rigging. Even considering that it was the first rig of the season for most of the crew and many of them had never worked together before, it went pretty well. Finally, they reached the point where there wasn't much left to do until the bus got in.

Usually, they knew when the customer bus from Las Vegas would get in within ten minutes or so, and that was hours later than it was now. This time no one was real certain, since it was the crew bus and coming up from Phoenix. Once they'd done about what they could do, Scooter sat back on the nose of her raft, and just let a few minutes drift by. It was a nice day, although there was a breeze coming upriver, and there was a good chance it would turn into a wind that would be tough to row into. She glanced over to where Jim was in the group working on the motor rigs, and thought about going over to talk to him, but it looked like they were holding some sort of a crew meeting so she thought she'd better butt out. Maybe she could get a minute before they got on the river. She thought about getting out her traditional pre-trip cigar and lighting it, but with no idea when the bus would be in she'd pretty much have to wait until she saw it coming down the valley. Might as well get it out, she thought, that way it'll be ready.

She was just digging in the dry box when she heard a car approaching. She looked up to see Crystal's white Dodge approaching, faster than it should have been -- in other words, normal speed for Crystal.

"Now what the hell?" Scooter said to no one in particular, knowing she was supposed to be on the bus, not driving her car here. Everyone on the trip watched as Crystal slid to a stop as close on the ramp as she could get to them. Doors popped open, and people began piling out -- Crystal, Jon, Tanisha, and a small blonde with a black eye and bruises who Scooter didn't recognize.

"My God, that's Nanci!" she heard Karin gasp.

In a few moments, mother and long-lost daughter were in a deep embrace, as Al and the rest of his pickup family watched, Scooter and the rest of the crew also watching from a distance far enough away to give them some privacy. Nanci was smaller than Scooter had imagined, smaller than her mother -- and looking very forlorn, especially with that healing black eye and other bruises. Someone had worked her over pretty well, she thought. Boy, with everything else that's going down right now, this takes the prize! Over the years, she'd heard Crystal bitching and griping a lot about Nanci and how her wildness and thoughtlessness had ended up with Crystal being driven out of the house, to Jon leaving -- and, for that matter, led to Karin leaving and getting a divorce. Now here she was. Why now, of all times?

"Scooter!" she heard Karin yell, "Would you take Nanci over to the restrooms and get her a soda or something?"

"Sure," she replied, realizing that they needed to discuss this. She swung off the raft tube and sauntered over to the little group. "Come on, Nanci." she told the little blonde. Up close, she resembled Michelle a little -- they both were relatively short, slender, with long blonde hair. Scooter knew that Nanci was younger than Michelle, although their boatman friend looked a lot younger than Nanci had to be. But Nanci looked even older than Michelle really was -- the bruises and the air of defeat added to that.

After all the stories, Scooter was prepared to instantly dislike the girl, but thought she might as well be civil. "What happened to you?" she asked as they walked over toward the restrooms where there was a soda machine.

"The guy I was living with knew I had a little money and wanted to buy drugs," she said, almost crying. "I couldn't take that shit anymore and knew I had to get out of Chicago. This was the only place I could think of to come. I've been driving for two days, and I barely made it; I was almost out of gas."

Scooter shook her head. Nanci had all but told her that she'd blown every cent she had to find her mother and Crystal. What timing! How was this going to louse things up? "If he was that kind of asshole, it's just as well you left him," she replied, not able to think of much else to say.

Usually, what little money Scooter would take with her would be deep in her night drybag, but she'd learned the first trip to have a couple bucks in change for the pop machine. Now, she let the coins tinkle into the machine, and Nanci selected a 7-Up. Scooter told her, "If you're going on this trip with us, this is your last chance to use a flush toilet for two weeks."

"I don't know if I'm going or what," Nanci admitted. "But I guess I better take the chance while I can."

She waited outside by the door watching a discussion between Karin, Al, Crystal, Jon, and Tanisha clustered around Crystal's car. Probably trying to figure out what the hell to do, she thought. Just as Nanci came out Jon waved them over. "I think we better go see what they decided," Scooter said quietly.

"God, Scooter, I'm afraid." She said, almost in a whimper. Scooter knew as well as Nanci that a lot depended on what had been discussed in the last few minutes.

"Courage, child," Scooter smiled. It wasn't a long walk across the launch ramp, but Scooter thought it must have seemed long to Nanci as they walked toward the cluster of five, and she could see that the girl was close to tears.

They walked up to the group. "Nanci, we didn't get introduced," Al said. "But I'm your mother's fiancé," he said gently, as Scooter headed back to the raft, knowing that she wasn't a part of this discussion. If they wanted her in on it, they knew where to find her.