Chapter 3

Tuesday, October 30, 2001

In the late spring or early fall when Nicole was teaching, Randy was often out the door well before she left for school – if nothing else, he could sometimes get a lot of work done while the office was quiet. This time of year, with the construction business heading into its annual northern winter slowdown, the need to go in early wasn't quite as imperative. He often got up as Nicole was getting around, and he headed out to the Spearfish Lake Cafe, out on Central near the state road, for a real breakfast, rather than just the toast and cereal that Nicole usually used to start her day.

The Spearfish Lake Cafe was little different from thousands of other breakfast-lunch type places around the country. There were stuffed animals and trophy heads on the knotty-pine wall, which was also dotted with calendars and sports schedules. Back in the back there was a big community table where a bunch of semi-regulars gathered to gossip and talk about items of mutual interest – often sports, but usually there were a good many other subjects that got talked about as well. It was still amazing to Randy how many construction projects were first broached over coffee, eggs, and sausage around the big table.

For instance, Josh Archer was more or less one of the regulars, if he wasn't out on a run behind a dog team or on the diesel engine of a train. A few years older than Randy, he was more or less operations manager of the local short-line railroad, and until a couple years before had been a regular competitor in the Iditarod, the annual thousand-mile dogsled race across Alaska. He and his wife Tiffany still raised and trained dogs, providing teams for Phil Wine, another local dogsled addict. A year or so before, a discussion across this table had led to Clark Construction building Josh and Tiffany a nice new house on their land a ways out of town, and a new steel dog barn not far away. Don's crew had done the house and Rod's built the barn – both had been good, solid projects for the company last summer, finished ahead of schedule and under budget, just the way Randy liked things.

This morning, Duane MacRae was with Josh. Duane had only been around a month or so; he was spending the winter working with Josh, learning how to manage and run dog teams. Duane was only a few years younger than Randy, but they led vastly different lives, and in the mood that Randy was still in from the day before, he seriously envied the younger man.

Randy knew Duane a little from college – Duane had been a freshman when Randy was a senior – but back then, Duane's life goal had been to be a ranger for the National Park Service. That had been modified a little over the years, for since Randy had left school, Duane had been a river guide for a rafting company in North Carolina, had hiked the Appalachian Trail, and now spent his summers as a raft guide on the Colorado River with Crystal. He was now picking up the skills for another outdoor adventure – the kind of thing Randy could only dream of. He'd gotten to know Duane a little better when they'd been together on half a Grand Canyon trip in the spring – the same trip where Josh and Tiffany had recruited him to be their dog handler for the winter.

Right at the moment, Duane represented what Randy felt his life could have been like if only he hadn't been sucked into working in the family business. It was hard to not resent him a little bit, but it came down to the fact that Duane had made his decisions, and they'd just led in a different direction. So, in spite of everything, Randy tried to be friendly, because the other side of that string of decisions was that Duane was a stranger in a town where he knew only a handful of people. There were some things, especially Grand Canyon things, where Randy and Nicole were probably the only people in town who knew what Duane was talking about.

"So, Duane," Randy said as he sat down at the table across from the raft guide turned musher, "I suppose you heard the news about Crystal and Preach?"

"Yeah, Karin called last night and told me," he replied. "She wanted to know if I felt like coming down to the wedding. Are you going?"

"Most likely, unless something comes up," Randy shrugged. "I've known Crystal a little too long to just blow it off. I've known Preach quite a while, too, if not quite as well."

"He's pretty cool," Duane agreed. "I've been watching Crystal and him off and on all summer, and I don't think the idea of them getting married surprises me much. It seems to me that they're hot for each other and want to do it straight, rather than just shack up like Scooter and Jim."

"Knowing Crystal as well as I do, it still sort of surprises me," Randy admitted. "I mean, Crystal marrying a minister? I mean, I know her well enough that it's the last thing I could have imagined. There was a time there that I wouldn't have been surprised to wind up marrying her, except for the fact that she's so independent that I doubted she'd ever get married at all. So, are you going to the wedding?"

"I'm sort of planning on it," Duane shrugged. "It depends on how the training is going."

"I don't have any problem with him taking off for a couple days," Josh shook his head. "But when this goddamn rain quits and we get some snow, we're going to have to get our asses seriously in gear."

"No snow in the forecast for at least a few days," Randy shook his head. "You're still training on wheels, right?"

"Shit, yes," Josh snorted. "Some of the Alaskan guys have been on runners for a month or more and we're still dicking around with wheels, and you can't train worth shit on wheels in all the mud we have out on the trails. I am so ready for some snow it's not funny."

"So, are you going to go to the wedding?"

"Don't know yet," Josh shook his head. "If I had to say, I'd say we're leaning a little against it. That's Thanksgiving weekend, and there's family stuff. Besides, Tiffany doesn't want to be away from the baby that long, and I can't say as I blame her. On the other hand, neither of us wants to go through the hassles of taking a new baby to a drunken raft guide party."

"Yeah, I can see there'd be some reasons against it," Randy nodded, "Although I'll admit that one hadn't crossed my mind."

"It's not that we don't want to go," Josh protested. "After all, Crystal is a friend, too. It's just that there are too many good reasons not to take the time for it, too."

Randy shook his head. He knew going to that wedding and end-of-season party was just going to rub his nose in the fact that he was a worker bee, not an adventurer, no matter how he dreamed otherwise. On the other hand, Crystal was a friend, at one time a very close friend and fiancee in sort of a way, so there really wasn't any logical reason to avoid making the trip – at least not one as good as Josh and Tiffany had. "Yeah," he replied sympathetically, "That baby stuff does put a crimp in the fun sometimes, I guess."

"I had no idea of how much it was going to affect things," Josh shook his head. "Not that I'd do it any different, mind you. Tiffany and I had to clear away a lot of crap in our lives to have the kid, so we want to make it worth the effort. There's a whole lot more to it than raising puppies, and it takes a lot longer. You'll find out what I'm talking about soon enough."

"I suppose," Randy sighed. He and Nicole had discussed having children, but mostly they'd decided to put it off for a while yet. It probably wasn't going to be that far off in the future, probably inside of five years. "So, Duane," he said to change the subject and lever his thoughts out of that channel, "If we all wind up going, maybe we ought to share out the ride to the airport and the cost of the car rental from Phoenix, or something."

"How about 'or something'?" he suggested. "It's a bit farther from Flag, but both the flights into and out of Vegas and the car rentals are cheaper than Phoenix, more than enough to make up the cost and time of the extra miles."

"I'll take a look at it when I can get on the 'net sometime," Randy promised. "I'm figuring an out Friday, back Sunday deal. I can't really lose that much time at the shop, and if there's snow Josh won't want to let you miss that much time with the dogs."

"Another quick in and out wedding," Duane sighed. "My dad got married a year ago last summer, and I had to do a quickie like that over a break. Al drove my Jeep down to the Diamond Creek takeout, and I went straight from there to Vegas, got on a plane and wound up in Chicago still wearing river shorts and sandals. Then I had to fly back the day after the wedding with the worst hangover I've ever had and a baby crying in the seat next to me. Let me tell you, babies and a hangover from single malt Scotch just don't mix."

Josh shook his head with a grin. "I've had one or two like that over the years, but never one quite that bad. It doesn't sound like something I'd want to do for the fun of it."

"Yeah, at least somehow I'd managed to get my clothes changed," Duane shook his head. "Jeez, can you imagine how apeshit airport security would go if I tried to get on a plane in a full-out great kilt, with a dagger in my belt and a couple throwing knives in my boots?"

"Kilt?" Josh shook his head again, this time with eyes wide in surprise. "You wore a kilt?"

"My dad is into Scottish cultural stuff," Duane shrugged. "So we had to go the whole nine yards."

"My God," Josh laughed. "Duane, I can't imagine you wearing a skirt."

"'Tis not a skirt," Duane said expansively in a feigned Scottish accent. "'Kilt' is wha' happens ta' da' hoon tha' calls it a skirt. Tha's th' reason for th' dagger an' th' throwin' knives." He dropped the accent and continued. "That makes me think. Did Karin tell you about the little prank she's got lined up?"

"No, we haven't talked to her," Randy said. "Just to Crystal."

"I probably ought to let her talk to you about it," Duane grinned. "But it sounds like good payback to me."

By the next morning, Nicole felt a little bit better about the situation. Just sitting around talking and cuddling with Randy the night before had cleared up a lot of his bad mood, but this wasn't the first time the issue had arisen. If nothing else had been worked out, it was clear that it wouldn't be the last unless she took some positive steps. She could tell that Randy was still depressed about the whole thing, although he wasn't obnoxious about it. It was clear that something had to be done and she was the one who was going to have to take the bull by the tail and look the situation in the face.