by Marian Stack
Turtle reached for the side of the raft and the hand of her passenger. “I have re-arranged all the gear so that you can sit at the front of the raft. It is the highest point and it also allows me to keep a close eye on you. You know… so that if you fall over board I will be able to notice.” Turtle couldn’t resist a little evil of her own.
“What the fuck?” Blair turned to look at Turtle with a look of horror on her face.
Turtle offered Blair a devilish smile, as she positioned her buttock on the pilots swivel seat.
“Really…” Blair’s voice went low and expressive. “This is how this trip is going to go?”
Without answering or responding, Turtle made a sudden and rapid exit from the raft, leaving her guest in complete bewilderment.
Running back from the cabin she leaped back onto her seat, and then answered the unanswered question. “Now you really don’t think I would allow you to fall overboard, do you? Although some of our guests do believe a fast dip into the raging river is the best part of the trip.” Turtle spoke, her voice expressing a joking/sarcastic tone all the while beginning her piloting manoeuvres, moving the raft into the river’s current.
Turtle watched with quiet happiness as Blair apprehensively reached for the thick tether that loosely circled the entire length of the raft, and seemed to hold on for dear life.
“You are in my world now.” “Hold on Miss Foster, and enjoy the ride. You’re in good hands.” Turtle said as she dipped her left oar into the water to move the raft towards the start of the route.
As the two women and their heavily laden raft began their journey, only the songs of the many different species of birds could be heard above the rhythmic splashing of the oars hitting the calm water.
Turtle allowed the calm of the area to sink into the body of her companion. She watched as Miss Foster’s stiffened and nervous body begin to relax and melt into the calm and breathtaking scenery of her surroundings.
After about an hour of easy rafting and quiet unspoken company, Blair turned to watch her pilot move the oars and their raft with precision. For the first time since their first meeting she finally noticed the young strong woman, and the ease in which she moved the heavily laden raft over the water. She watched her move the raft as if she was born to do this very thing. “Excuse me. I would like to apologize to you for my extremely rude behaviour before. These past several weeks… no let me add on… months in my life have been impossible to deal with and for some reason you were in the wrong place at the wrong time and got the brunt of it. Do you forgive me?”
Turtle was surprise by the unexpected almost human apology. She had begun to dread her alone time with this person but with this acknowledgment of honesty, it was easy for Turtle to respond in kind. “Yes of course. I have to be honest, and say that I will never understand the stress that people who live outside my world must endure.”
Surprised by the response and how real it sounded, Blair asked, “Just how long have you been living out here?”
“My entire life, now hold on.” Turtle spoke as she moved the raft to avoid a hidden rock.
Blair let out a happy little scream then, looked back at Turtle. They both offered to each other a heartfelt smile.
“I’m beginning to see why.” Blair spoke as she turned to enjoy her front seat panoramic view.
Then suddenly and out of know where Blair turned around again and asked Turtle,” Why did you go back to office before we departed.”
“Oh, I just forgot to get the two-way radio. There is a cell tower about twenty miles to the east of here. It’s a forestry tower for fires and things and they have a central radio system for emergencies. All us forest people use them. Both Susan’s and Sky’s group have one. And I almost forgot ours. We also carry flairs and as you may have noticed on your floatation vest you have a whistle. Our safety advancements have grown over the years. My father and I…” Turtle stopped talking for a moment to gather her courage to talk about her father in the past tense, considering the start to her day, “Well he taught me how to survive in the wilderness and to use a compass and such but, as Susan told me on many occasions we have to change with the times. Not many people outside this world seem to know this stuff anymore. She always calls it ‘a dying art’. Truthfully I never understood how surviving in the wilderness is an art but she is so smart, and knows so much more about business than I do. Well that’s why I went back for the radio.” Turtle completed her answer without taking her eyes off the river.
“I see. That makes perfect sense. I guess I’m one of those city people who would not have a clue on how to survive out here.” Blair spoke with normal honesty for the first time.
“We are about forty minutes from the first resting point. We will begin to run a little faster now so hold on and enjoy.”
Both women turned to their duties, Turtle as the pilot and Blair as the somewhat trusting passenger.
After the lunch break Turtle turned to her passenger and asked if there was any more she could attend to before they set off.
“Yes, you can now try to explain to me why the hell anyone would want to live a life out here in the wilderness. Because I’ve been watching you and you seem to enjoy all this manual labour stuff, not to mention living a life of solitude and hardship. Do you even have any friends? What about a girlfriend?” Blair’s harsh words, and rude assumption hit Turtle hard as she walked away to place the last bag onto the raft.
When she returned to the resting spot, Blair immediately stood and brushed off the few leaves that had secured themselves to her buttocks from the rock she was sitting on. “I mean really, what would possess a family to come into the wilderness with a little girl and then virtually leave her here to live, wild? I mean this reminds me of a modern day Tarzan story, but this time with a girl as the leader of the wild animals?” Allowing for a few seconds to pass, “And don’t get me started on your name again.”
“What?” Turtle’s normal soft voice amplified in shock from the anger filled statement, not to mention the complete turnaround from the somewhat friendly conversations they had prior to their lunch break.
She was in complete disbelief by the way this person was reducing her beautiful life, and then judging her parents without knowing them. She saw for the first time in her life a truly despicable person and Turtle decided then that she was going to stay clear of any more conversations with her. Her main desire was to get this person to Susan as soon as possible. Turtle began feeling that she very much wanted to mingle with the other women in the group as they could not be half as bad as this wicked woman.
“I need to pee. Just where do you expect me go? You had stated this was your normal resting spot, so you must have at the very least a jonnie-on-the-spot?” She completed her rudeness with her hands resting on her hips and a stomp of her foot.
Turtle knew she had previously packed several rolls of biodegradable toilet tissue in a water proof gear bag, and that they always carried many health and safety items to accommodate their guest and, yes, they did have a secluded spot for guests to toilet, but for this guest Turtle decided to remain wild.
She pointed to a large bush and boldly stated, “Out here in the wild we use what nature provides. The large bush to your left has very soft leaves. And by the way, you may not want to squat for too long as there are some nasty bugs at this time of the year that love latching onto clean soft skin, so they can burrow just below the first layer of skin to lay their eggs. So if I were you I’d make it snappy, so they don’t. We set off in three minutes. We have to try to keep to some kind of schedule.” Turtle did not enjoy being nasty as it was not in her nature but this was a very nasty woman who had just attacked her earthly departed parents and her lifestyle. Sadly she felt unnaturally justified with her response.
“What the fuck? Now it’s begun to rain, so much for not getting wet. For God’s sake…this day just can’t get any worse.” Blair let out another primal scream as she walked to the designated bush to toilet.
A
fter about forty minutes of rafting, Turtle began to notice a shift and directional speed to the river. She also had been noticing the river water depth change. Many of the stationary boulders that would normally be visible were completely submerged.
“Excuse me Miss Foster.” Turtle apprehensively spoke.
Blair had heard Turtle but chose not to respond. She merely secured her jacket hood tighter to cover her head to keep the pouring rain from entering down her back.
“Excuse me Miss Foster.” Turtle spoke again but a little louder. “I don’t want to alarm you but I have begun to notice some unusual changes to this river. It seems to be running faster than normal and by the colour a lot deeper in many spots. We are about to enter the canyon and I really need you to pay closer attention to me and when I give an order to hold on or bail out the setting water on the bottom of the raft you must....”
Blair immediately turned completely around and yelled, “Who do you think you are, ordering me around. Fuck I hate people like you.”
Turtle was so shocked by her passenger’s vulgar response that she did not hear the radio’s first call.
“Susan to Turtle… Come in Turtle.” Susan’s voice crackled over the two-way radio.
Chapter Three - The Event
About twenty-five miles to the north of the river, the small town of Carterville had just begun a town hall emergency meeting. Every local official and many of its citizens were in attendance. The reason for the emergency meeting was to make the heart wrenching decision to open the flood gates and control the inevitable flooding of much of the area down river or allow the dykes to burst and lose most of the town. The spring rainy season had been record breaking. The remaining snow packs that would have normally run much slower from the mountainous back country began to flow down the rivers and streams at an alarming rate.
“Please everyone can I have your attention. Yes… we have ourselves a problem, but if we open the flood gates and allow the pressure to release then we can save the town.” The mayor began to inform all in the room.
The noise in the room exploded with deafening fear. Many knew that they had a possible flooding problem but had no idea of the extent.
“Mayor, what will happen downstream?”
“Good question and I will let the forestry superintendent answer that question. Mr. John White, would you be as kind as to inform our lovely townsfolk what we are facing.”
As the room noise began to settle, you could hear the base of the microphone stand slide across the old wooden table top.
“Good afternoon everyone, yes we are in a situation that could flood the town and very possibly destroy it forever. Now if you look at the map, which we have enlarged for all to see, we have what very possibly may become a catastrophic event. If you will all look to the top of the map this is your lake that normally fills with the spring runoff first and then slowly runs down to this portion. And then splits off in these two other directions. Well this is now the problem. We have had a mud slide that has caused the river to push over the land and is now running faster along this section of the upper mountain region. Our greatest fear is that with the pending heavy rain forecast that is soon to arrive and all the rain that we have had over the past sixty days and the warmer weather that is melting the higher elevation snow pack we will be reaching water levels never before seen in this area. Now we propose that if we let the dam open we can at the very least control some of the damage and flood the lower section of this area.” He used his laser pointer to circle the area that would receive the largest damage.
“Now this area is used mainly for hunting and fishing and with the help of the forestry services, they will be contacting the few inhabitants in the area for immediate evacuation. Now before we leave are there any more questions or concerns regarding the information we have just offered?”
“When do you plan on releasing the water?” The question came from one man from the balcony section of the town hall, followed by many voices chiming in afterwards.
“Truth be told, we felt that this meeting was merely a formality to let you all know what our plan was. We really do not have a choice in the matter, so to answer your question… directly after this meeting. So time wise about two-thirty or so today. In all my years on the job I can tell you that we have never released water pressure by way of the gates before, so we really do not know what will happen but we know what will happen if we do not try. This meeting was more of a warning to get your house in order and to begin the evacuation, mostly those residents that live close to the rivers and the few streams that flow in and out of your back lands. The water levels everywhere are extremely high and the pressure is mounting. This only gives all of you about three-quarter of your day to react.”
The room exploded with angry and frightened conversation.
“Everyone listen to me.” The Mayor attempted to gain some control. “If anyone here has a better plan, let’s hear it.”
Dead silence filled the room after the unanswerable question. “So a show of hands to release the pressure is required.”
Only seconds passed and under the low murmur of the crowd, everyone responded with a show of hands.
“It’s unanimous.” The mayor voice was strained from the decision. “God help us all.”
The hall emptied out in an orderly rapid fashion. No one remained behind to discuss the decision, but instead headed home to either evacuate or wait and pray.
Chapter Four - The Gauntlet
“Susan to Turtle… Come in Turtle.” Susan’s voice crackled over the radio.
Hearing the call, Turtle reached for the radio that was now secured to her chest with a crisscross style harness. As she pressed the button and just before she was about to answer, she noticed a large dip in the waters’ flow that indicated that a huge boulder was completely submerged in the river, a boulder that would normally be very visible with the top part of the rock remaining at least two feet above the water. So instead of answering, she released her finger from the radio and immediately dug the oar into the water to manoeuvre the raft to avoid the collision. And then with equal precision she dug the oars in again and again to manoeuvre away from another submerged boulder and then yet another.
Completely engulfed with the job at hand, she was ignoring Susan’s repeated calls for her to respond. By this time Blair had turned towards her guide with a fearful expressions etched onto her face as she too had noticed the sudden and rapid change in the speed and flow of the river.
“Susan to Turtle… Come in Turtle.” Susan’s voice crackled over the radio again and again with only seconds between calls.
Blair screamed out, “answer the God Damn radio. We need help here.”
Turtle chose to ignore both crazed women’s orders. She needed to get control of the situation before she felt it safe to remove either hand from an oar. She knew that her complete concentration was all that was keeping their raft from flipping over.
“Turtle if you can hear this transmission, turn around. There has been a mud slide right at the split. Half the mountain is gone. Turtle turn around…Dear God…if you can’t turn around then get off the river. Turtle, the river passage is gone… Do you hear me… the river entrance is gone!”
Blair screamed out at Turtle to stop the raft. As if pressing some magical brake pedal that did not exist would stop the raft and gently slide it over to the river’s edge.
Finally Turtle responded to the only crazed woman that mattered. “Blair… please stop your screaming, and listen to me. Yes, we are in a bit of a pickle.”
“Are you fucking kidding me…a bit of a pickle? What the fuck is…Holy shit, you need to turn around. Is that normal?” Blair screamed out in fright as she pointed to the giant wall of water that was bearing down on them.
Turtle took the only few seconds that she felt she could spare and turned the top half of her body, then immediately returned her positioning to face her terrified passenger.
Both women gasped as they saw and then felt the w
all of water rush down towards them. The full force of the town’s water supply had begun to reach them.
“Something has gone terribly wrong. Hold on with both hands and keep your body centered in the raft. I need to concentrate and I need your body weight in that spot.” Turtle pointed with her eyes again not wanting to remove her hands from the oars. “Try not to shift or move. I will get us out of this. We…” but before Turtle could finish her reassuring talk the wall of water hit the back of the raft catapulting the entire back half of the raft completely out of the water. Both passengers were violently pushed forward with tremendous force. Turtle momentarily released her grip on the oars as she reached for her passenger that had crumbled over some of the secured front gear. Grabbing for Blair’s hand Turtle screamed, “Hold onto something. This isn’t over.” As she noticed that the water coming towards them was indeed coming towards them. Something had now pushed the river’s flow direction backwards. They now had rushing waters, filled with all sorts of debris coming at them in both directions.
What the rafters did not know was that another mudslide had occurred, blocking off all escape routes but one.
Turtle struggled again to get a hold of both oars as they bounced in and out of the cradles. Thankfully after only a few attempts and with dogged determination she was able to secure both hands on the oars and secure the Velcro straps onto each wrist. Then with one enormous pull of both oars she righted the raft into the centre of the river with its nose pointing towards the gorge. Shaking off her fear she began to survey both sides of the river seeking land refuge, regardless of size. She knew that they had to get off the river. She knew where they were and she knew where they were heading. The part of the canyon where they were was the steepest on the route, and during a normal rafting trip this would be where the pilot would begin guiding the rafts away from the upcoming split that would take them into an area of the gorge that would enviable take them on a run that past history has proven, extremely difficult to complete.
