Chapter 25

Thursday, December 27, 2001

Going through Chicago once was enough for Duane and Michelle, so even before they got to Bradford they had decided to take the longer, if more scenic route back to Spearfish Lake by going through northern Michigan and crossing the Straits of Mackinac. They'd stayed up late on Christmas night telling stories and having fun with Duane's friends and relatives. They told a lot of river stories, embellished enough to where some of them were even believed. It went late enough that they slept in on the day after Christmas to recover. What with other delays, it was after noon before they got on the road.

With that late a start, it was clear that they were not going to be back in Spearfish Lake until the wee small hours. "The heck of it is," Duane commented somewhere along the way, "Josh will come pounding on our door about an hour after we get in and want to do a hundred miles behind dog teams."

That observation was enough to make them stop in Mackinaw City about the time it got dark. They got a motel room for the night, had a decent dinner, then went back to the room to spend some time enjoying each other.

That was enough to get their clocks back somewhere near to being on schedule, so they were up before sunrise, had breakfast, and were headed across the Mackinac Bridge as the sun rose. Once they were across the bridge, it was two-lane roads all the way to Spearfish Lake, and they faced several more hours in the car. They each had a couple of large cups of coffee and were settled in for the ride once they were a few miles west along the Lake Michigan shore. "Boy, that lake looks awful cold," Michelle said as they drove along a sandy beach that would have been appealing if the weather were quite a bit warmer. "I wonder if people surf that?"

"Oh, yeah," Duane replied. "I've even surfed it. The surf usually isn't much since the wind usually isn't right to get it going good. It was a little warmer when I tried it, though."

They rode along silently for a mile or more before Michelle spoke up. "Duane," she said so quietly that he could hardly hear her over the road noise, "Would you like it if I were to skip going to Florida with the gang, and stayed here with you?"

"I'd love to have you," he replied immediately. All through the trip to Bradford, he'd been thinking that his time with Michelle was coming to an end, and he didn't want it to. He liked Michelle and they got along really well together, but given her flighty reputation, the possibility of anything working out in the long term seemed remote indeed. Against his better judgment, but with his curiosity aroused, after a moment he added, "What brought this on?"

"Oh, lots of things," Michelle told him, a little less tentatively. "I still want to do the Bahamas trip since I've already got money tied up in it. But I think I've been helping you out with the dogs quite a bit, and I've really been enjoying it."

"You've been a big help," he said, realizing instinctively that there was more to her proposal than that. "We were way behind when you showed up, and we've gone a long way toward catching up."

"Your dad and Vicky are really neat people, you know," she said, obviously foundering around for what she wanted to say – something that was really pretty strange for her. "You know, I was wrong the other day when I said that I thought you were one of the straightest people on the river. Well, you're not, Duane, and I like that. I like it a lot."

"We all have our quirks," he smiled. "It's just that I inherited most of mine, and they wouldn't work on the river very well."

"Yeah, but still," she shook her head, still struggling to find what she wanted to say. She started a couple times to say something, then stopped and started over again. Finally, she managed to say, "Duane, you remember when I was talking about being a little submissive the other night?"

"Yeah, I remember," he laughed. "I told you that you were about as submissive as Godzilla."

"I know," she sighed and went on, more sure of her ground now that the ice had been broken. "You know, I've thought about it a lot, and the more I do, the more I think I'm right. I mean, at least in some ways. Duane, you're a leader; there's no doubt about it, so maybe you don't see it. I could have been a trip leader years ago, but I don't want to be one. I'm not a leader, Duane, and I don't want to be."

"I don't know why not," he shrugged from behind the steering wheel. "You're as skilled as anyone on the river, probably more skilled in most areas."

"Not that one," she said. "I'm perfectly willing to do pretty much what I'm told to do, and within the limits they set. But I have to have someone set those limits for me. That just doesn't strike me as being a very good leader. I'm not sure it would be a good idea for me to be responsible for people if I didn't have someone set those limits for me."

Duane shook his head. "I thought a big part of your not wanting to be a trip leader was that you look so young that people won't take you seriously."

"That's not a reason, it's an excuse," she said flatly. "Yeah, I look like I'm fifteen years old mostly because I dress and act like I'm fifteen years old. Hell, thirty isn't that far off, and I don't think I want to be a thirty year old fifteen year old. It wouldn't take me much to look my age if I wanted to, but I don't want to because Al is going to start getting trip-leader ideas again. I think I'm safe for a while since he's got three solid leader teams, but sooner or later, he's going to come to me again and it's going to be harder to turn him down. I just want to be a boatman."

"Peter Principle."

"Huh?"

"The theory that people rise to their level of incompetence. You recognize that there's a level at which you think you're incompetent, and are trying to avoid it."

"Yeah, that's it in a nutshell."

"I think the Wild Woman of the Grand Canyon is a little scared," he said solemnly, suppressing a giggle.

"No, I'm just recognizing my limitations," she replied.

There was something there that didn't make sense. "I guess I'm missing something," he frowned. "What does all this have to do with not going on the surfing trip and staying with me?"

"Oh, get real, Duane," she smirked. "I want to stay with you because I'd be staying with you. Like I said, I think I'm just a little bit submissive and I need a leader, and not just on the river. Maybe watching Crystal and Preach then Scooter and Jim have something to do with my thinking, too. Hell, to get right down to it, you're the best candidate I know of. You're good on the river, and it seems like you want to stay with it for a while. We work well together. I really like what we do for each other in bed. I know I tend to intimidate a lot of guys because of my reputation, but it doesn't seem to affect you too badly. I think we like each other a lot, and I like where you're coming from now that I've seen it. There's no guarantee we're going to be running together next season, so if we're going to work on this, we need to do it while we can. Dumping the surfing trip gives us another few weeks to work on it. Depending on when you guys think you're going to go to Alaska, maybe I can come back here for a few days after the Bahamas trip."

Duane had been feeling increasingly surrealistic all through this conversation. Yes, he'd been having a terrific time with Michelle, and he'd been sad thinking it was coming to an end all too soon. But now, she seemed to be thinking farther ahead than he had been – after all, setting up something permanently with her seemed like it was something out of a dream, and he'd never taken the dream seriously. While he'd really like to continue enjoying her company in the short term, this was Michelle, after all, and the long term needed some serious reflection. It was clear that this wasn't the time to do it; maybe out on a dogsled in the next few days would be better. To shift the subject just slightly and cover up his thoughts, he asked, "What about when I head for Alaska?"

"I guess I head back to Flag," she shrugged. "I'll help with the rigging, and we'll just have to see what happens when it happens. Maybe I'll spend my spare time working on Al to rig it around so we can run together this summer. Oh, and I probably ought to stop off and see my grandparents for a few days. It's been a while. They're all in New Mexico."

"New Mexico?"

"Yeah, Roswell. It's not a bad town, but I like Flagstaff better."

"Well, I sure don't have any objections if you want to hang out with me for a while longer," he replied. "Michelle, you're a lot of fun and we get along together. Just don't expect me to make any long-term commitments today, and if you had any idea about pulling a Scooter and Jim job at Myleigh and Trey's wedding you can get it out of your head right now. I learned from Chica, the girl I lived with for a while, that it's not wise for me to rush into things like that."

"I don't think I'm ready for that kind of commitment either," she replied thoughtfully. "Like I said, maybe the thought of Crystal and Preach and Scooter and Jim is pushing me a little. I think I'm having a little trouble getting my head around what that means for me, but right now this seems like we ought to try it out a little more."

The overnight stop in Mackinaw City meant that they pulled into Spearfish Lake not long after noon. "Well, back at it," Duane sighed. "Our lives now go to the dogs. I guess we better get our stuff inside and then track down Josh or Tiffany or Phil and see if we have to take teams out."

"Face it," she smiled, "We needed a few days off, and that was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be."

Being outdoor people and raft guides, they hadn't taken much stuff with them, and an armload apiece was all they had to haul into the trailer. They dropped it off in the bedroom, and Duane went out to the phone in the kitchen to call Josh or someone to see what they needed to do about working dogs. Before he got to the phone, he found a note on the kitchen table: If you guys get back at a halfway reasonable hour, call Al at Randy's. – Josh

Wondering what it was about, Duane picked up the phone and called Randy's house – he'd learned the number by now. Nicole answered the phone. "I thought you guys were going to be back late last night," she said.

"Originally we were, but we got sidetracked a little," Duane replied.

"Well, come on over to dinner tonight, about six, and you can tell us all about it."

"I can't promise; we could be out behind dog teams somewhere. But we'll be there if we can. Anyway, Josh left a note that Al wanted me to call."

Soon he was talking to his real boss. "So, how was your trip?" Al asked.

"Pretty good," Duane said. "Got a little crazy at times, but with my dad and Michelle in the same room I sort of expected that."

"Not knowing your father, that could mean almost anything," Al chuckled. "Hey, if you two aren't heading out to run some dogs, Karin and I would like to buy you a cup of coffee or something. The last time I was here, Randy's dad took me out to a place called the Spearfish Lake Cafe. You know it?"

"Yeah, I have breakfast there every now and then."

"If it's not going to screw up your day too much, maybe a half hour all right?"

"I don't see why it wouldn't be," Duane told him. "See you in a few."

As he hung up the phone, Michelle came into the kitchen. "Al wants to meet us at the Spearfish Lake Cafe in half an hour," he told her. "I wonder what that's all about?"

"It might not be anything," she shrugged. "He probably just wants to see how we're getting along."

"If that's all he wanted to know, he's find out at Randy and Nicole's this evening," Duane shook his head. "I suspect this is something else, but I can't imagine what it could be."

She looked a little confused. Spending a lot of time in the Canyon Tours office whether she wanted to or not, she knew more about what was going on in the company than the average boatman. "Beats me," she said. "I know Al was planning some changes for next summer, but I don't think it was anything too radical. Guess there's nothing to do but find out."