On the afternoon of May 8th, after Emma had finished her session with Clara, she joined Pearl and they headed to the river. Talk the past few days had been that the ice was about to break up. They’d learned that it was a special occasion with people expected to begin arriving to watch.
“Isn’t it a glorious day,” Emma said, breathing deeply as they walked.
Pearl smiled. Emma had been in a cheerful mood since Christmas. Nothing, not a cold snap, not a heavy snowfall, not the fact that she had only seen Donald a few times in the past couple of months had dampened her cheerfulness. And why not? She was engaged to be married to the man she loved.
Pearl tried hard to keep her own mood happy and upbeat, but sometimes she faltered. She knew she loved Joseph Ladue, and there were times she thought he felt the same. But he had been working so hard since the prospectors began arriving from Circle City, he had little time for anything else.
Businesses and tents were being set up on both sides of the Klondike River and everyone was demanding lumber. He’d even increased the size of the sawmill, hired more men, and he still couldn’t keep up.
Pearl knew that Joseph was taking the next few days off. While he hadn’t planned a large party like at Christmas, because everyone brought their own food this time, he had enlisted her help to make sure there was enough bread and meat for sandwiches if anyone wanted one. Even then he’d only had a few minutes in between other jobs to discuss it with her. She held onto the fact that, again, he had asked her to help.
When Pearl and Emma reached the riverbank, they saw that the ice was holding. As miners straggled into town the first thing they did was check the ice, then those who had brought tents set them up along the bank. Some of them laid out blankets to sleep on.
By the time Sam and Donald and their group arrived in the early evening the bank was lined with townspeople, as well as miners. They all watched expectantly, turning their heads at every slight grinding or crunching noise.
When Emma saw Donald she ran into his arms. After kissing him she took his hand and they walked away. Pearl knew Emma wanted to tell him about receiving an answer from Reverend R. J. Bowen.
Pearl stood with the Berrys, Drurys, and Sam. She hadn’t seen any of them since Christmas. Gregory had headed down to the river’s edge and was running up and down the beach. Occasionally, he’d look at the group as if to reassure himself that they hadn’t left him. Either Isabel or Henry would wave to him.
Joseph and Paul joined the group, Joseph standing beside Pearl. She glanced at Sam to see his reaction. Sam just looked away.
“Why is break up such a big thing?” Isabel asked.
“Once the ice is gone we will have contact with the outside world again,” Joseph explained.
“Because the sternwheelers are able to come?”
“Yes. They bring supplies and mail and newcomers and take those who wish to leave.”
“Do you think there will be any flooding?” Henry asked.
“I don’t think so,” Paul said. “We had snow before it got really cold, so the ice on the river isn’t unusually thick.”
“Why?” Pearl wanted to gather information about this natural phenomenon.
“The snow works as insulation and prevents the cold from going too far down. And there wasn’t an overabundance of snow in the hills. The warm weather came slowly, so the snow didn’t melt all at once.”
“Those conditions are what you go by?” Henry asked.
“Yes.” Joseph grinned. “But they really don’t mean anything. Mother Nature makes up her own mind what she wants to do.”
Emma and Donald joined them. Pearl sensed they had something to announce. The others must have, too, because they fell silent.
“We’ve decided to have our wedding on June 1,” Emma said.
Everyone erupted with excitement.
“Oh, that’s wonderful!”
“Where?”
“It’s about time you picked a date!
“Who is officiating?”
Donald held up his hand. “Reverend Bowen has agreed to come when the ice is gone. We’d like to have it right here on the riverbank in front of the store if that’s okay with Joseph.”
“Of course, it’s okay with me.” Joseph shook Donald’s hand and slapped him on the back.
“Thank you.”
“We’ll have to get started on the preparations immediately,” Pearl said to Emma as she hugged her. She was looking forward to helping organize and plan the event. “It’s only a few weeks away.”
It was getting dark and the ice hadn’t moved. Most people went to bed, but some men lit a fire. They were going to stay up all night drinking and waiting for the action to happen.
While the others went to their tents, Donald and Joseph walked Emma and Pearl to their cabin.
“I will provide anything you need for the wedding,” Joseph said. “And if it rains we can have it inside the store.”
“Oh, I never thought of rain.” Emma wrung her hands. “There is so much we have to talk about.”
“Don’t worry,” Joseph said. “It will work out.”
Pearl remembered those words from her panic about the Christmas party. She remembered her sense of relief when he had been right. Now all she had to do was convince Emma that Joseph knew what he was talking about.
Donald hugged Emma, then kissed her.
Joseph bent and kissed Pearl on her nose, surprising her. What did a kiss on the nose mean? Was he holding back because they were with Donald and Emma? Again, it was a gesture. When was he going to express his feelings for her in words?
The men left the women at the cabin. Pearl and Emma spent hours lying in bed discussing the upcoming wedding before finally falling asleep.
The next morning they were both up early. Neither wanted to miss their first ice break-up.
The sun shone and the walked to the waterfront in its warm glow to join the others already lined up for the big event.
Everyone milled around, laughing and talking, and making plans to attend the upcoming wedding.
Pearl saw that the fire had died and the men who had camped there were still asleep.
Suddenly, there was a sharp report, like a canyon shot.
Pearl screamed and jumped. “What was that?”
Joseph immediately put his arms around her holding her close. The ground shook and there was a cracking, tearing noise.
“Oh my god!” Pearl exclaimed. “Is it an earthquake?”
“It’s just the ice.” Joseph’s voice remained calm.
“The ice? The ice does that?” Pearl looked around. Donald had Emma enveloped in his arms, but they were both staring out over the river, as was everyone else on the bank.
Pearl’s panic lessened as she became conscious of being in Joseph’s embrace. She leaned against his shoulder enjoying the feeling. Her love threatened to overwhelm her. She wanted to spend the rest of her life, wrapped in his embrace.
“Are you okay, now?” Joseph whispered.
Pearl lifted her head and nodded. She didn’t want him to let her go.
“The ice is moving.”
“Oh.” Disappointed, she turned to look at the river, and the fascinating scene took all her attention. The whole mass of rotten ice on the river slid along in sluggish motion. It broke apart, fracturing into floes, and those floes were heaving and crashing, with noise deafening noise. For an hour, the Yukon River continued in earsplitting movement. Then, slowly, falteringly everything ground to a stop. All turned quiet.
“There must be a jam below,” one man yelled.
The water in the river started to rise. The people on the beach hurried up the bank. Pearl looked up and down the Yukon. There was heavily compacted ice as far as she could see. Everyone waited in suspense as the water continued to swell. Was there going to be a flood?
The ice started moving again and the volume of crashing and grinding increased as the great ice cakes smashed the smaller ones into pieces. Some of the chunks reared out of
the water, and Pearl gasped at their massive size. The men who had drank all night had awakened and were watching closely. “Look at the Klondike,” one of them yelled.
Along with everyone else Pearl turned to the Klondike River. The bulk of ice from there was pushing into the mass of ice on the Yukon forcing it across and downstream. Floes rose up and fell on others.
At noon some went to their tents for lunch. Pearl and Emma laid out the sandwiches Pearl had made for those who didn’t want to leave.
All afternoon they watched as the ice gradually made it way down the river, sometimes stopping for long periods before moving again. The whole thing was a tremendous force of nature and Pearl was thrilled that she was lucky enough to be watching it.
A cheer rose up from the crowd, when the ice on the Yukon settled down and began to sedately flow past the community, on its hundreds of miles journey towards the ocean.
Joseph held up his hand. “I have an announcement to make.”
Everyone turned expectantly toward him. Pearl held her breath. Was he about to propose just like Donald had done at Christmas?
“Pearl, Emma, Clarence, Ethel, Henry, Isabel, and young Gregory, you have seen a freeze-up and a break-up and survived a winter here. You can now call yourselves sourdoughs.”
Disappointment gripped Pearl with such intensity that she barely heard the rest of the conversation.
“What were we called before?” Henry asked.
“Cheechakos.”
“Cheechakos? What does that mean?”
“That’s the Indian word for tenderfoot.”
“The name sourdough was applied to the pioneers of the Yukon River area to distinguish them from newcomers or cheechakos as the Indians called them,” Sam explained.
“So now I’m a sourdough,” Ethel said.
“Yes,” Joseph nodded.
“I’d heard that term but I thought it was because we ate sourdough bread,” Isabel laughed.
Pearl sighed with relief when they turned to watch the ice flowing by. She needed time to gather her thoughts, to get over the letdown she felt. Maybe that was what Sam meant when he said she didn’t know Joseph. Maybe the man couldn’t make a commitment.
She noticed that the miners had started to drift away. Now that the ice had broken, they were ready to head back to the cleanup on their claims.
“I’m not ready to leave, yet,” Donald said. “I’d like to stay one more night.”
“I’ll stay, too,” Sam agreed.
After some discussion, the Berrys and Drurys decided to remain overnight also.
“I’m going back to the cabin,” Pearl said. She didn’t know what else to do. She couldn’t bear to be near Joseph right now.
Chapter Eighteen
The next morning Donald knocked on their door before they’d even had breakfast. “Come see the river now,” he said.
Pearl and Emma quickly dressed and followed him to the bank. Many of the townspeople were there, as were the Drurys, the Berrys, and Sam.
Pearl saw that the breakup had settled into a steady migration of ice floes. Some of the chunks, closer to shore were rotating, slowing as others hit them. She could even see open water between some of the ones further out in the river.
Gregory was on the shore throwing rocks at the chunks of ice. Occasionally, he looked up at them as if to make sure they were still there and again either Isabel or Henry would acknowledge him.
“Gregory wanted one last look before we head back to our cabin.” Isabel smiled at Pearl.
Joseph came up to them. “I’ve got a fresh pot of coffee on the stove if anyone wants a cup before leaving.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Ethel said. “We didn’t bother making any this morning.”
“I’ll just get Gregory and join you,” Henry said to Isabel.
Suddenly there was a yell. They looked up and saw a man pointing to the river.
There were several gasps as they spied a small figure standing on a large ice floe that was drifting down the river.
“Gregory!” Isabel screamed.
Henry took off at a run down the bank and to the river. He ran along the shore gesturing to Gregory but soon seemed to realize that Gregory would not come off. Henry hopped onto the edge of a piece of ice that wobbled precariously at his weight. He dashed across it and leaped onto the one Gregory was standing on. The other men ran beside him on the shore. Joseph grabbed a rope from someone as he went by. Pearl reached for Isabel but she, too, headed to the shore.
“Oh, my god,” Pearl said, as she saw Gregory look up and see his father. Her mind went to the first time she had met them on the boat and the way that Gregory had taken off down the stairs with his father behind him. Now, as then, Gregory turned and darted away from his father. Was that his laughter she heard?
Pearl could only imagine Henry’s fear as he ran to save his son. And he was catching up to him, his long strides being one to Gregory’s two. Then Gregory reached the edge of the flow. He looked back at his father barrelling down on him. He wasn’t ready to be taken back to the shore. There was water between the ice and the one next to it farther out in the river. Gregory got ready to jump.
“Nooo!” Pearl was sure she heard Henry yell.
Gregory almost made it. His one foot hit the floe but the other missed. He fell into the frigid water. He tried to grab hold of the edge of the ice but his hands kept slipping. He was floundering in the water, his head going under. Henry raced to the edge of the ice and jumped into the water. He went under then came up. He swam to Gregory and tried to hoist him up on the ice. But Gregory’s wet clothes added weight and his hands barely moved to grasp the edge.
Pearl could see that Henry’s movements were slowing. His wet clothes and heavy boots were pulling him down and he was losing the precious energy he needed to rescue his son. Sam, Donald, Joseph, and Clarence ran along the shore following the flow of the ice downstream. Isabel stumbled after them.
They were yelling at Henry. Joseph made a lasso in the rope and threw it out into the water. It landed near but by now Henry was oblivious. His stamina and body heat were gone. His only thoughts were of his son and he held him close as they sank under water. An ice floe glided over the spot where they disappeared.
Everyone stared in stunned silence. Henry and Gregory were gone, taken by the river. It had happened so fast. No one knew what to do. Pearl heard a far off wailing. Sam had his arm around Isabel and was trying to guide her back to the store. But she kept slipping out of his grasp and running along the shore following the ice. Finally, Sam and Joseph managed to convince her that her husband and son were gone. She fainted and Sam lifted her in his arms. He carried her up the bank to the store. The other men walked slowly behind.
The watchers along the river gradually left, stunned by the tragedy they had witnessed, unsure of what they should do now.
Pearl’s little group followed Sam into Joseph’s store. Isabel had recovered and Sam set her down gently in a chair. Everyone was in a state of shock. They had no idea what to say. Emma held tight to Donald. Sam knelt with one arm around Isabel wiping tears from his eyes with his other hand. Isabel sobbed against Sam’s arm. Joseph had gone into the storage room. Clarence and Ethel stood apart talking quietly.
To keep from crying, Pearl busied herself taking the coffee pot off the stove and pouring coffee into mugs. No one noticed. She added some wood to the fire. It was warm in the building, but she couldn’t think of anything else to do. When Ethel Berry came over and took charge Pearl signed with relief.
“We must have a service for Henry and Gregory before we leave,” Ethel said.
The suddenness surprised Pearl. At home it took days to arrange a funeral. But this was different. There was no funeral home, no minister, and no bodies to bury. And it wouldn’t be easy for anyone, even Isabel, to come back in a week. They had to do what they could now.
“No!” Isabel cried. “You can’t have a service for them. What if they survived and come back?”
&
nbsp; “They won’t have survived.” Sam spoke in a gentle tone. “No one lasts very long in water that cold.”
“But you don’t know for sure. They may have.”
Pearl watched the way Sam tenderly, almost lovingly, convinced Isabel that her husband and son would not be returning. When Isabel finally realized what he said was true, she began wailing again. She rocked back and forth in the chair, torn by her grief.
“We’ll spread the word about the service,” Sam said, then turned Isabel over to Emma.
Donald and Clarence followed him out the door. Joseph returned and Pearl saw that his eyes were red. He’d gone into the storeroom to cry on his own.
“I heard what you said, Ethel,” Joseph said. “With Pearl’s help I will supply a lunch.”
“Yes,” Pearl agreed, glad for the distraction. Her mind went into task mode, mentally listing everything they needed. She barely registered that this was the third time she and Joseph were planning something together and always at his request.
Pearl went to the three bakeries that had been set up during the spring and asked for anything they could donate. The women were generous with their bread and pies, offering to take them to the warehouse. Emma quickly whipped up a batch of plain cookies and baked them. Pearl set up the lunch on the table Joseph and Paul assembled in the store. It was the one they had built for the Christmas party and taken apart afterwards. Other plates and pans of food also showed up as men and women arrived for the service.
Within three hours, most of the residents of Dawson had gathered in front of the store to honour and say goodbye to Henry and Gregory Drury. Many had never met either of them, but they came out of a sense of obligation. Henry had been one of them. Isabel stood bravely, her tear-streaked face determined. Sam remained beside her.
Clarence stepped up to present the eulogy for Henry and Gregory. He told of their meeting and how their friendship had grown over the winter as the two couples played cards on the cold evenings, helped each other on their claims, and shared meals.
He ended with. “The one thing that always stood out about Henry was that he loved his son. He would do anything for him and right now, wherever he is, Henry is happy that the two of them are together.”
Romancing the Klondike Page 20
