First of my Kind

by Stevens, Marc

  My teeth were starting to chatter, and I had not heard a thing from my companion outside. My hand holding the latch was ready to call it quits when I decided to open the door and take a peek. I opened it a crack and saw nothing. I opened it a little more till it gave me its usual rusty hinge squeak. I was rewarded with a low growl from the side of the outhouse. I was now cold enough I made the decision to hook the latch and hope my friend outside did not start yanking on the door. I groped for my matches and lit my smelly candle. I was hoping maybe the smell of cherry blossoms would somehow be offensive to the wolf. I held out little hope it would be a fan of green apple, and the disappointment would make it quit hanging around. I tried warming my hands over the candle, but only managed to reward myself with singed fingers. I decided to try a different tactic. Tearing my hunting magazine in half I rolled it up and lit it on fire. When the smoke got thick enough, I couldn’t stand it anymore I pushed the door open. I flung the burning torch in the direction I thought the wolf would be. It was sure to go out as soon as it landed. I could not recall if there were any wolf hunting stories in it. I started yelling at the top of my lungs and kicking on the side of the outhouse. The racket I was making got my circulation working and my teeth stopped chattering. I decided to take another look. I peeked out and again saw nothing. I opened the door a little more and got the hinge squeak and still nothing. It was time to make a break for it and I was not going to slow down even if I had a wolf securely latched to my ass. I ran as fast as I could to the hanger and slammed the door so hard I was afraid it would come off the hinges.

  After my little adventure I barely got any sleep so 5:30 came quickly. When my early chores were finished, I sat down to breakfast looking haggard. Karl noticed it right away and said, “You don’t look to good you feel OK?” I told them what had happened. I got concerned responses from everyone except Wisener who said, “Aww, did the big bad wolf scare you?” That comment earned him more than a few steely stares. I got up from the table and turned in Wisener’s direction. Tom must have seen the look in my eyes. He stood up between us, put his hand on my shoulder, and said, “Nathan the wolves get a little desperate for food in the winter time. They come into town at night rummaging around looking for food scraps. Heck, I saw a wolverine nosing around the woods behind my place a couple of weeks ago.” Wisener interrupts Tom and hurriedly says “I’ve seen them at my place to!” Tom just looks back to me and says, “You wouldn’t be leaving anything for them to eat around the hangers would you?” I said, “No sir, I take all my meals here and don’t take anything to the hangers because I have enough mice living with me as it is.”

  “Nathan,” Tom said, “I got a couple of cans of Mace in the cab of my tractor and you can have one to put in the outhouse. It’s the good stuff, it will work on wolves, bears you name it. It doesn’t freeze and has a bright marker dye in it. If you have to use it, we’ll be able to spot the critter you sprayed and take care of the problem if we have to.” Callie came out from the kitchen with some fresh biscuits and caught the tail end of the discussion about food scraps. She looked over at Wisener and said, “Will you’re the only one that’s been carting food out of here lately.” At that point, Wisener’s cheeks reddened a little, and he blurts out, “Yeah well, anything I don’t eat I put in the plane for later when I’m flying.” Bill stares right at Will and says with a voice loud enough to get everybody’s attention, “There will be no more food going out of here unless Callie packs it in a lunch box for the planes.” Bill looked around at all of us and said, “Does everybody understand?” There was a chorus of "yes sirs" that ended the discussion.

  Karl and I looked at each other, then over at Wisener who saw us staring, and quickly found something interesting on his plate to occupy himself with. I looked at Karl and the look he gave me said he knew Wisener had something to do with the wolf coming into the compound. We finished eating and headed outside towards the warehouse. I started to say what was on my mind. Karl cut me off by saying, karma, has a way of catching up with assholes like Wisener." I just shrugged my shoulders and said to Karl, "Granddad always said what comes around goes around." With that, I headed towards the warehouse to start gathering the supplies on my list for Karl’s flight to Kerney.

  3

  In the following months, I had the pleasure of flying with Bill, Karl and Tom on various flights to different destinations and met quite a few new friends. I even logged some flight time with Karl in both of the 206s. Karl’s girlfriend Cindy introduced me to one of her friends who was a local girl named Tara Greentree, and we hit it off right away. Bill gave me some time off, and I spent a couple of days hunting with one of the local guides. He seemed to acknowledge my outdoor skills and politely commented on my marksmanship. I had bagged my limit of Canadian geese in less than three hours while the guide had only managed to down two. I though displaying my skills would have earned me a job offer. The quiet ride back to the airport had me convinced I had earned something else. Bill’s wisdom in keeping me away from Wisener was infinite, and I finally got over being pissed at him. I could stand working around him now without plotting his demise. I hoped he felt the same way. We hadn’t got any really heavy snow yet, but Karl said we could get it at any time.

  The next morning a big mud covered Hummer pulls up in front of the office. A pretty blonde gets out with a little wiener dog in a sweater tucked under her arm. She was pretty enough I had to find some reason to be in the office. No harm in taking a look. I walked in the door and overheard Callie say, "Hi Bonnie, long time, no see. You’ve gone and grown up on us haven’t you. How old are you now?" I hear the blonde say "nineteen and going to the University in Anchorage." Callie asked how her Grandpa was doing. Bonnie commented, "We had to put him in a home this past year because his health is starting to go downhill and his doctors say his Alzheimer’s is no longer manageable." Callie replied, "We’re sorry to hear that. Your Grandpa was a wonderful man and one of our best clients for more than twenty years. What can we do for you Bonnie?" She said she needed to get out to her grandpa’s cabin and start getting his belongings together because her Dad plans on putting the place up for sale. Callie gave her a concerned look and said, "If your Dad would have called ahead we would have had someone ready to go. Bill and Karl are over in Minatoe and won’t be back until dark. I’ll have to call Tom or Will and see if they can take you. I need to check the weather and see if we can go through Bonner pass or if we have to take the long way around. Next time tell your Dad to let us know a couple of days in advance." Bonnie just looked at Callie and said, "It was a spur of the moment thing but I’ll make sure he calls ahead next time."

  Callie gave me a quick smile and said, "Nathan since you're standing there go pull the Helio out of the hanger while I make some calls." As I turned around to leave, I heard Bonnie tell Callie to call Will because he had flown her and her Dad to the cabin a couple of months ago. I chuckled and thought to myself, Wisener, a pretty blonde, and a wiener dog. I wonder which one he will hit on more, the blonde, or the wiener dog? Wisener showed up 45 minutes later with clean clothes, a clean hat, and reeking of four dollar a quart cologne. Wisener saw the look I was giving him, and the blonde walking past me towards the tarmac. He whipped out his big goofy aviator sunglasses and planted them on his face. He yells over to me, "I hope the Helio is ready to go, and there better not be ice on the runway!" What an asshole, he knew the plane was ready, and there hasn’t been ice on the runway for days.

  They returned about five hours later, and it was getting dark as I started to walk up to the plane. Wisener climbs out and tells me to give myself a break, He will take care of unloading the plane, get it refueled, and put it away. "Seriously," he said, "I got this, go ahead and take care of the wood furnaces and make your rounds." You could not have put my jaw back in place with a plane jack. In the months I have known this guy, he had hardly spoken a handful of civil words to me. Now I get complete sentences. What the hell is he up to? As I walk away, he quickly goes around the other si
de of the plane, opens the door for Bonnie, and helps her down. I heard her say, "You are such a gentleman." This really gets my attention, so I look over my shoulder just in time to see her give him a kiss on the cheek. That raised my eyebrows. I shook my head and wondered if the wiener dog would kiss him next. I walked over to the warehouse, went inside, and stood in the dark watching out the window. They both came around the side of the plane. Bonnie had the dog on a leash and was carrying a large bag that looked heavy. Wisener had a couple of gun cases over his shoulder, and a large box in his hands. They headed for the Hummer in the parking lot. I decided it was time to get back to work. Bill and Karl should be back anytime, and I wanted to have my chores done so we could sit around after supper and shoot the breeze before I did my late rounds.

  That evening after supper Bill, Callie, Karl, and I were the only ones left sitting at the table. Bill turns to me and says, "In about a week Callie, Karl and I are going to Missouri to visit my brother. He’s going to put his 182 in an aircraft auction outside St. Louis. He’s looking for a newer plane with better range than his old 182. So we decided to take our oldest 206 down and put it in the auction since it is coming up for its annual. Hopefully we’ll be coming back in something with more power and fewer hours on it. We can’t go without knowing someone is taking care of this place. Since Will has been with me the longest, he’s going to be in charge of operations. Tom will be taking turns with Will flying charters and supplies. I know you have had issues with Will in the past but you need to put it behind you and take care of business. If you have any problems, just talk to Tom and if he can’t get things straightened out he knows how to get hold of me. I’m going to have a talk with Will tomorrow and let him know what I expect out of him. We’ll be gone about ten days, and while we're gone, we would like you to stay in our cabin till we get back." Granddad always told me even an old blind boar hog gets an acorn every once in a while. My acorn would be a bathroom that did not require a walk through the snow.

  After our meeting I pulled Karl aside and told him what I saw going on with Wisener, and the blonde named Bonnie. At first Karl said, “No shit,” then he told me her grandfather’s name is Charles Jennings, and he owns four hundred acres with an abandoned gold mine on it. He was one of Uncle Bill’s first customers. He has been flying out to his cabin and staying all summer for over twenty years. When Bonnie was little, she used to come with her Dad, and stay with Charley a week at a time. They haven’t been out for at least five or six years. I let Karl know what I had heard. “Well according to what I heard Bonnie tell Callie, they put Charley in a home because he’s got Alzheimer’s pretty bad, and his health is going downhill.” Then Karl looked at me and said, “I have a funny feeling her family doesn’t have a clue she went out to the cabin. Uncle Bill told me her parents work for a big oil company and travel all over the world. She was just out there with her Dad about two months ago. Wisener flew them out and back. He told Uncle Bill her Dad took some pictures of the cabin and the lake but only brought back a few of Charley’s personal possessions. I know it’s none of our business and there’s nothing wrong with bringing back her Granddad’s belongings but I’m going to mention it to Uncle Bill.” The next morning at breakfast Bill casually says to Callie loud enough for all to hear, “If the Jennings girl shows up out of the blue again and wants to fly out to the cabin, I want a courtesy call to her Dad. I want a day’s notice to make sure we have an aircraft and a pilot ready to go.” This earned me a quick frown from Wisener, but I more or less expected it.

  The week went by quickly. Early Friday morning I stood and watched Bill, Callie and Karl take off, headed for Missouri with Karl in the left seat. After Karl’s dad bought my grandparent’s farm, they bought a place in Key West, Florida in the same neighborhood as my grandma’s sister. The Larson’s rented the farmhouse to one of the families that worked on their farm. I stayed in contact with my grandparents by e-mail on a monthly if not weekly basis.

  The next morning I awoke to the luxury of a nice warm house and a long hot shower. I grabbed a quick bite to eat in Callie’s well-stocked kitchen, then threw on my heavy winter work clothes and headed out to my ATV for the short drive to the office. As I drove towards the office, I was getting ready to cross the main road in the compound when movement outside the gate towards town caught my eye. I slowed to a stop and standing in the road was a wolf staring back at me. From the distance between us, I could not tell how big he was. I wondered if it was my cranky friend that thought I butted in line at the outhouse. My hand instinctively went to the hunting knife on my belt that is my constant companion after my sudden introduction to another member of the top of the food chain club. For a while, I carried one of Bill’s heavy caliber revolvers the pilots usually wore when they flew into heavy bush country. I quickly abandoned the practice after seeing the looks Wisener was giving me and hearing him mutter under his breath, “Here comes the Lone Ranger.” I opted instead to carry my hunting knife because pretty much everyone you met carried one, and besides I had no plans to eat wolf, anyway. I started to head towards the office again. I laughed and threw it the bird in a small mocking gesture that in my mind I could see it doing to me as I drove off to start my day.

  Tom and Wisener usually showed up for breakfast at seven. Since Callie wasn’t around to cook I expected Wisener to be pissy for not getting his free breakfast. I’m sure that at some point it would mean a double helping of asshole if I happened to be visible around the office. Tom on the other hand, would just wink and say he was working on losing a hundred pounds before Callie got back. There was enough to do out at the hangers to keep a low profile, and I intended to keep it that way for another nine days. I spent quite a bit of time in the evenings after work entertaining Tara and Cindy up at the cabin watching old movies from Bill and Callie’s DVD collection. There were some evenings that Tara went with me to help finish my chores. Those were the kind of memories young men tend to remember all of their lives.

  Two days later things must have been going too smoothly because I had gone to look at the big grease pencil board in Bill’s office. The board has the maintenance schedule for each individual aircraft planned out months in advance. I picked up the maintenance log book for the Super Cub and was headed out the door. I knew Wisener was lurking around somewhere close because his truck was out front. Tom had taken off an hour ago in the 206 with a charter to Kescatchey, a small Eskimo village roughly 290 miles to the northwest of Seratook. I knew he wouldn’t be back for several hours. As I start to head out of Bill’s office the phone rings, then rings again and then a third time. I turned around to pick up the phone on Bill’s desk. I suddenly hear the clatter of the phone in Callie’s office and Wisener blurt out Larson’s Bush Service. I snicker to myself as I head out the door of Bill’s office knowing Wisener was napping in Callie’s office and was jolted awake by the phone. I walked around the counter and headed for the exit. I heard Wisener exclaim; "Hey Bonnie how are you doing? We haven’t heard from you in a while." I stopped for a second to listen and looked down the hall in time to see Wisener’s head peek out the door. Crap, he caught me flat footed listening to a discussion I’m sure he didn’t want me to know about. Uh oh, all I can do is give him the deer in the headlights look and redouble my efforts to reach the exit. I hear him politely say could you please hold for a second and then cover the mouth piece with his hand. Before I could get the door handle turned he yells down the hall, "Myers, what the hell are you doing? You are not being paid to stand around the office and do nothing! I know for a fact there are forty or fifty gallons of oil to be pumped into the tank on the waste oil furnace in the shop. When you get that done, one of the Helio floats is leaking somewhere and needs to be fixed. Now are you to dense to pick up what I’m putting down or do you need me to explain it to you in more detail." I glared at him until he turned around and closed the office door with enough force to dislodge the big airplane calendar hanging on the wall in the hallway. Unbelievable, the two things he just yelled at
me about were the things he told Bill he would do if he wasn’t flying. I did spend an hour hand pumping the waste oil into the furnace tank but decided he could shove the Helio float.

  The next morning when I finished my chores, I headed to the office to see what was on the schedule. I stepped inside and I hear the Helio fire up and see it through the window start moving down the taxi way. I stepped outside the office just as Tom was pulling into the parking lot in his tractor. I walked out to meet him and before I can say anything to him he says, "Where is Will going so early?" With a confused look I just shrug my shoulders and say, "I was going to ask you the same thing." We hear him do his run up and then took off for parts unknown. Well at least I won’t have to put up with his bitching until he gets back. It troubled me to know it was against the rules and all common sense to fly without letting somebody know where you are going. Wisener returned almost seven hours later. Tom and I both wondered how it was going to be logged. I walked out towards the tarmac to see if I needed to unload anything. Before I could get there Wisener maneuvered the plane past me and headed to the fuel pumps. I just said screw it and went back to doing my job. T minus four days and counting until order would be restored to my little neck of the woods.

  4

  Late in the evening the weather stations in the far north were broadcasting dire warnings of an impending Arctic storm. It was making its way towards us at varying speeds all along its leading edge. I was wondering if it would delay the return of the friends I now considered my family.

  The next morning we received a call from a research station that Bill has a contract to haul fuel and supplies to. The fuel line to their generator building somehow ruptured overnight. It wasn’t noticed until the generator quit from lack of fuel the next morning. They had managed to salvage enough fuel to run the emergency generator for a couple of days. They desperately needed fuel before the big weather front moved in.