Chapter 9

June 21 - 28, 1999
Grand Canyon, Trip 4, 1999

By the start of her fourth trip down the Grand Canyon three and a half weeks later, it had become a tradition, a good luck charm, for Scooter to be smoking a cigar when the customer bus pulled in. She might only go through two or three on the whole trip, but it seemed important to get the trip off on a good start.

This time it seemed even more important than ever to get off on a good start. The last trip, with Al leading, had gone well. They'd been caught by thunderstorms three times, which made life a little more exciting, and had watched a side canyon stream running heavy with mud as the rain quickly ran off. Al had been a little more picky about not getting into camp sites at the mouths of side canyons than he had on the last trip, and pointed out to Crystal and Scooter several places to avoid for their flash flood dangers.

This was one trip that Scooter was going to be a little happier to have at an end; when it was over, she'd have her insurance qualifications in to be a boatman. Al had explained that when she actually got a raft was a little up in the air; a boatman could leave at any time and she would be the first replacement called, especially if the change was on Team 3. The team had been stable for the last two trips and would be for this one; the same group was back. But that wouldn't last forever; Glenn would be leaving to go back to school after two more trips, and there were several boatmen on the other two teams who would be leaving, as well. Toward the end of August, the three teams broke down into two for the fall season, and Al expected to have trouble filling them out. He'd told Scooter that whatever happened, she'd be making at least the last four trips of the year as a boatman, which would make a significant increase in her income -- not quite up to what she'd made at NOC last year, but living expenses were a lot less, and she'd have time to do something else over the slow winter season.

As Scooter sat on the nose of a raft with her cigar going, she had a feeling that wasn't good. One of the important characteristics a good boatman has is the ability to smell trouble brewing, and Scooter smelled it strongly right now. Louise had been supposed to lead this trip; it was her turn, but she hadn't even come up to Lee's for the rigging, and Al was going to lead it again. Both Scooter and Crystal asked him if it was something to do with her health, but mostly they'd gotten brushed off. That was so unlike Al that it was troubling.

She took a drag on her cigar and let the heavy, bitter smoke drift upriver in a strong morning breeze. Most of the crew was back in the tammies -- at least partly to stay out of the sun, and Scooter, the only smoker on the crew, was respecting enough of them to stay a ways away, although Crystal sat on the next raft upwind. Neither of them were saying much of anything; across the way, they could see Al standing at a pay phone, presumably talking with Louise. Eventually, he hung up the phone and started for the rafts. Even at a distance, they could see that he really wasn't a happy camper. "Are you about ready to go?" he asked as he came close.

"Just waiting for the customer bus," Crystal told him. "Al, you look like something's the matter."

"I don't know," he said, the frustration evident. "I sure wish I could sit this one out."

"Louise isn't feeling any better, is she?" Scooter asked quietly.

Al shook his head. "She says she isn't feeling any better, but she's not feeling any worse, either. She's going in for more tests in the next few days, but doesn't seem too concerned. But damn it, I know her well enough to know that she's feeling worse than she says and is trying to not let on."

"Probably nothing much," Crystal said hopefully.

"I hope to Christ not," he sighed. "Damn, I should have done it, but it's too late now."

"Done what?" Scooter asked.

"I thought real hard about having you hike down the Bright Angel and replace Michelle on Team 2," he said. "There's a damn good reason why Michelle isn't a trip leader, you know about that, but I thought real hard about letting Crystal lead this trip and have Michelle back her up so I could stay back with Louise. But we'd have had to set it up Saturday, and Louise talked me out of it; she says she doesn't feel that bad, and I might as well take this trip. Now I wish I'd gone ahead and done it."

"Wouldn't have worked anyway," Scooter shrugged. "I'm still not qualified as a boatman with the insurance company."

"You are now, I bent the rules," Al said. "I set that up last week when I was thinking of swapping you and Michelle. Damn it, if I knew something was wrong there's things I could do, but the options are running out pretty quick, and I'm going to be stuck on the river."

"Al, I wish I knew what to tell you," Crystal said. "I wish I could say that Scooter and I can handle it, and I think we could do it if we had to, but this is your company and it's a decision you have to make."

"I know," he sighed. "I'll tell you this much. If Louise isn't better when we get off the river, you're going to be leading the next one unless I can get a guy that led for us a couple years ago to take a trip. I doubt it like hell, he's got a real job now, and his wife would blow a fuse if he took off for something like that. Scooter, we might try the trick of swapping you with Michelle, but I'll have to make up my mind damn quick when we get back, and it'll be a burnaround for both of you if we do it."

"With any kind of luck, she'll be all better and raring to get back between the walls again," Scooter said hopefully, with more optimism than she felt.

"I sure hope you're right," he sighed. "Look, I'd just as soon we kept this among ourselves and didn't let the rest of the crew or the customers know."

"Sure, Al," Crystal said, "Look, let's try to think positive."

"Yeah, you're right," Al nodded. "I'm probably down enough that I better not do the check-in and briefing. You want to handle that?"

"Sure, no problem," she nodded. "And here comes the bus now. Look, Al, we know you're worried, but maybe you'll feel better when you get out on the water."

"I sure hope so," Al nodded glumly. "I'll go over and wake up the rest of the crew."

Crystal and Scooter walked up toward the approaching bus as Al walked off. "There is a man who's not a happy camper," Crystal said softly. "And I don't know if there's a goddamn thing we can do about it."

"Not now, anyway," Scooter sighed. "We're just plain out of time."

As always, the customers had come in from Las Vegas on a charter bus that sighed to a stop not far from the rafts. As the customers got off the bus, Crystal checked them off the passenger manifest, while Scooter helped the bus driver unload their gear from the baggage compartment. By now, Scooter and the rest of the crew had become used to this part of the routine -- getting the customers' gear packed in dry bags, getting life jackets fit to everyone, going through introductions, and the first safety briefing. It still took most of an hour before they were out on the water.

Like the last trip, Scooter figured on rowing most of the trip and all of the hard stuff, although Norma and Barbie were getting more time at the sticks and in somewhat harder conditions, although nothing dangerous. The normal progression at Canyon Tours was that swampers would row the rafts increasing amounts over their first two to three seasons, depending on the talent of the swamper and whether they were around to run spring and fall seasons. Though rank beginners now, with luck they'd be boatmen for their last couple college summers. Some might stay on another few years to provide a part of the more experienced boatmen that Canyon Tours needed -- like Dan and Jerry, who had graduated from college in the spring and who planned on getting in a few more years on the river.

Al didn't seem quite so glum once they were out on the water. "Didn't see you hanging around town much on break," he grinned to Scooter once they'd gotten a couple bends below Lee's Ferry.

"Well, we weren't," Scooter told him. "Crystal and I drove down to Phoenix to see a couple gals who were on the trip before last."

"The photographers?" Al smiled. "Louise told me about that." The grin on his face indicated that Louise had told him quite a bit about it, but it wasn't something he was going to comment on before new customers.

"Yeah," Scooter admitted, "Real neat gals, and they got some gorgeous shots." They had indeed; the majority of the photography was of Andrea and Debby, of course, but Scooter had been real impressed with the photos that the two had taken of Crystal and her. There was one shot of her rowing hard in a rapids that had been taken from a low angle with a waterproof camera. There was something about the timing and the light that had made her look both awesomely powerful and in control, and everyone had been impressed with it. It was enough so that both Crystal and Scooter had signed model releases and told the two to have fun trying to sell their photos, and if they did get into print to let them know.

"Louise seemed pretty impressed with them two," Al said, almost with a tease on his voice. "It's not a big rush item, but sometime we need to build some new brochures. Might be they have something we could use."

"They might," Scooter smiled back. Most of the nude shots had been tasteful and artistic, not dirty -- well, there were a few that were a little dirty, but those were unintentional, mostly timing errors. "Some of them might make for a really memorable brochure."