by Renee Hart
“Don’t worry. I’ll get it!”
Trey was the only one taking this in stride and hurried inside to retrieve the fishing weight.
“Um…I’m sorry,” Lissa mumbled. “I’ll pay for that.”
“Oh, no, honey. Don’t worry,” Mrs. Jackson said politely. “It was an accident.”
Mr. Jackson didn’t look so convinced, but he conceded to his wife.
“We better get going,” Ryan said, still trying not to laugh. He didn’t dare look at Jessie. She was having the same struggle as she quickly tossed the rest of their stuff in her car.
“Lissa, you can ride with us,” she said quickly. “Here. You can sit in the back with Trey and my mom.”
Overwhelmed with embarrassment, Lissa was more inclined to head home, but Jessie’s quick action put her in the car. She noticed Ryan and Jan were riding together in his pick-up. As Ryan opened the door for Jan, Lissa got the distinct impression they were a couple. She quickly turned away from watching them as Trey climbed in the other door, followed by his grandmother. The two of them were acting as if nothing unusual had happened. Lissa followed suit settling back for the ride.
***
The lake wasn’t very far and to Lissa’s relief, no boats were involved in this little expedition. They would be fishing from a foot bridge along one edge of a stream feeding into the lake. There was plenty of room for them to spread out and Lissa found herself at one end with Trey while Ryan and Jan were down at the far end away from them.
They’d divided up the gear back at the parking lot and Lissa found herself with an old cane pole loaded with a bobber, a small weight and a lure. Trey assured her he’d caught plenty of fish with that ole’ pole. She was relieved not to have to deal with casting out a line again.
As they settled in to the business of fishing, Lissa willed herself not to keep looking over at Ryan and Jan. She considered asking Trey who Jan was, but felt it was probably inappropriate and since Jessie was sitting over near the middle with her parents, Lissa was trying not to imagine the worst. Ryan clearly seemed to be avoiding her and she chalked it up to morning coffee with Gary. Lost in her thoughts, she was surprised when Trey pointed out her bobber jumping up and down.
Jerking the tip of the pole up, Lissa leapt to her feet and started dancing around.
“What do I do? What do I do?”
She was almost shouting as Trey hurried to show her how to pull in the line. Everyone turned to look at them. Trey grabbed a net and leaned down near the edge of the foot bridge, hoping to scoop up her catch. Jessie started to move towards them in case they needed some help.
When the fish leapt high into the air in one last desperate attempt to escape, Lissa dropped the pole in surprise. Scrambling to get it back, she stumbled into Trey, knocking him into the lake. He popped back to the surface sputtering. Out of the corner of her eye, Lissa could see both Jessie and Ryan running towards them as she reached out and grabbed a hold of the back of Trey’s jersey. The two of them were laughing as she hauled him out.
As they lay there on the sun-warmed wood, Jessie and Ryan reached them. They both stood there watching Trey for a moment. It was clear there was no cause for alarm and they turned to head back to their own spots. Lissa reached for her pole and realized the fish was still on the other end of it.
“Uh, Ryan….could you lend us a hand here,” she hesitated to ask. “I think I’ve got a fish.”
Ryan turned back as Trey leapt to his feet to look for the net. The two of them worked together for a couple of minutes before holding up a beautiful Grayling. It measured out at nearly two hand spans.
“Wow, Lissa! You caught the first fish,” Trey exclaimed. “See! I told you this is a great pole.”
Ryan started to hand the fish to Lissa, but she stepped back.
“Put it back in the water,” she said abruptly. “Please.”
“But Lissa,” Trey said. “It’s big enough to keep.”
“I know, but I don’t want to keep it. I want it to go free.”
Ryan looked at her strangely for a moment and then leaned down to release the fish back into the water. He was smiling when he stood up and patted her on the shoulder before turning to head off. Trey was muttering something under his breath, but Lissa was lost in the moment. Everything in her was wishing Ryan would stay, but she couldn’t think of anything to make him do so. Her eyes stung with tears as she watched him walk away.
The rest of the morning dragged by as the others didn’t catch anything more than mosquito bites and a short nap for Mr. Jackson who fell asleep leaning up against the bridge support. Despite Trey’s many casts into the lake, he too came up empty and had little to say when his mom said it was time for lunch. He was acting a bit sulky and Lissa wisely left him alone. She figured it might have something to do with her fish.
As the group gathered together near the car, Jessie opened the trunk to get the picnic basket.
“Lissa, where’s the picnic basket,” she asked. “I thought you put it in the car.”
“No. There wasn’t enough room. I sat it down next to Ryan’s pick-up so he could put it in the back…”
The two women looked at each other in surprise.
“And I’m willing to bet it’s still sitting there in front of the garage doors right where we left it,” Trey said with a big grin.
“Well, the good news is that we have a cooler full sandwiches, cole slaw and potato salad. The bad news is we don’t have any plates, napkins or utensils to eat them. This meal is strictly hands-on, Jessie said with a shrug.
Ryan opened the cooler and grabbed some sandwiches to hand them out. Mr. Jackson pulled out his pocket knife and cut some crude sporks from a couple of water bottles. With short handles and small bites, they worked just like the real thing. Trey dug around in the vehicles and came up with some leftover drive thru napkins. Lissa was feeling a bit guilty, but nobody seemed upset over the lack of utensils and everyone found a spot nearby to perch while they ate.
After everyone had eaten their fill, they all agreed it was a fine meal in spite of the forgotten picnic basket. As they sat back to enjoy the moment, Lissa and Jessie decided to check out the facilities. Walking across the parking area, Lissa decided some detective work was in order after spending the whole morning wondering about Ryan’s sidekick.
“So, who’s Jan?” she ventured to ask.
“Oh. I’m sorry,” Jessie replied. “Didn’t you get to meet her?”
“Sure. She introduced herself, but all I got out of that was her name. Ryan sure seems taken with her.”
Jessie looked at Lissa strangely for a moment and then grinned.
“You really do like my brother, don’t you,” she teased.
Then, realizing that Lissa was feeling miserable, Jessie stopped and turned to look back. She wanted to make sure they weren’t being followed by any big ears.
“You don’t have to worry about Jan. She’s Ryan’s boss’s daughter and she’s home from college for the summer. Ryan’s boss has tasked him with providing some entertainment for her while she’s here. I think he’s hoping Ryan will keep her away from the party crowd that frequents the campus. I’ve heard she can be a bit of a handful. Spoiled, you know,” Jessie trailed off at the look of relief on Lissa’s face.
Lissa laughed weakly.
“You must think I’m pretty silly,” she said.
“No. I do think there’s something you need to know about Ryan though. He’s kinda gun shy about girls and dating. Teaching at the college has exposed him to some things that have given him a pretty jaded outlook about women. Some of them will do anything for the right grade or to find an easier way than studying for a test. He hasn’t always been smart when it comes to relationships,” Jessie said sadly.
Finishing their inspection of the park’s restrooms, the two women headed back to their little group. Lissa filled in Jessie on the problem of her and her partner’s morning coffee stops. She was pretty sure it was ruining any chance she had of getting
to know Ryan better. They broke off the conversation when they reached the others, but Jessie signaled her understanding and gave Lissa a smile.
“I think I know how to fix this,” she said as she began clearing up the remains of their lunch. “Just give me some time to work on it.”
“Fix what?” Trey asked. “Can I help?”
“Never mind,” Jessie said. “Why don’t you go teach Lissa how to skip some stones while I get this all put away?”
“Teach me,” Lissa protested. “I think I know a thing or two about skipping stones. He just might learn something!”
“You’re on!”
Trey and Lissa headed for the shore, looking for the right stones. Soon they were happily engaged in a loud battle of whose stone skipped the most or went the farthest. It wasn’t long before Ryan and Jessie came over to join them. Jan was sitting in the passenger seat of the pick-up listening to music on her headset. The battle went on for nearly an hour before Mr. and Mrs. Jackson interrupted the fun. They were ready to head home.
Chapter Nine
Monday morning’s staff meeting was over long before Lissa had finished her first cup of coffee. Mr. Burns seemed to be content to leave the assignments alone and with summer in full swing, it was business as usual for the more seasoned agents. Lissa and Gary headed out with a short list for the day and both of them were in high spirits.
She’d taken the liberty of making sure they left the office with full coffee cups, eliminating a need to make that extra stop. Gary was surprised when she came to the truck with cups in hand, but didn’t make any comment beyond thanks. As they headed off to their first stop, Gary shared a funny story about a weekend date that didn’t go too well. Lissa then gave him an overview of her fishing adventure with the Jacksons.
When she was done with her story, they both fell quiet. The silence between them was surprisingly comfortable and Lissa realized that in the past few weeks, Gary had become a real friend. She knew his acceptance of her had gone a long way to keeping her on the job. A feeling of gratitude rose up inside as she considered his role in helping her settle into the routine of being a field agent.
“You know, Gary,” she started to say, “I really appreciate how nice you’ve been to me. I was getting pretty worried about losing my job in my first summer here. With all of my mishaps, I was sure Mr. Burns was going to fire me.”
“Well, there’s a lot more going on here than what you know about. Mr. Burns doesn’t dare fire you. His job’s on the line with the head honchos. It seems that this was the only office without a woman agent on staff and he’s been getting a lot of heat for it.”
“Are you telling me the only reason I haven’t gotten fired is because I’m a woman?”
“Not exactly, but yes to a point, I guess,” Gary shrugged. “Anyway, the problem’s not you really. It has more to do with all the women that have come here before you. Some of the guys are pretty stiff-necked about working with women agents. Maddie’s okay for the office, but they draw the line at working in the field with them, women, I mean.”
“Are you kidding me? This isn’t exactly the seventies, you know!”
“Sure, I get it. But some of these guys have been around for a long time. They missed the memo saying it’s time for a change in the workplace. Guys like Shilling were hoping to retire before they’d ever have to partner up with a woman. You know what it can be like.”
Lissa wasn’t too sure she did know, but she held her tongue. In a way, this had worked in her favor as she had a fighting chance to prove herself despite her recent string of bad luck, so to speak. On the other hand, getting all those breaks was bound to cause the other agents to resent her. That could have made things pretty tough for her out in the field. Gary was the one person on the staff actually willing to work with her.
“Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks. You’ve really turned this around for me,” Lissa said.
“So, is that why you made me coffee this morning?” Gary teased.
“No, not exactly…..”
“Okay…so what’s up with that? I thought you liked the coffee at Java Nutz.”
“I do, but…”
Gary turned and caught a glimpse of Lissa’s red face. He knew in an instant what he’d been missing all along. He almost started to laugh out loud in relief, but caught himself.
“You’ve got a thing for Ryan Jackson, don’t you?”
Lissa nodded before she could stop herself.
“Does he know it?” Gary asked. “Because I’ve been your partner for a few weeks now and I had no idea.”
Lissa shook her head no and hunched down in her seat.
“I think he thinks you and I’ve got something going on,” she said miserably. “He barely even talked to me on the fishing trip.”
“No way! Doesn’t he know that Fish & Game has a strict no-dating policy among employees? We’d both be fired in a heartbeat if ole Burnsy thought we had something going on.”
“Yeah, well, Ryan doesn’t know that and he’s pretty much written me off,” Lissa said. “He’s had a rain check for dinner at my house for weeks now.”
“Wow! Sorry about that,” Gary said. “I wish you’d said something sooner. There’s lots of coffee stops in Anchorage. We could have patronized another place at least some of the time. It’s just that Java Nutz is my favorite.”
“Mine too,” Lissa said wryly and they both laughed.
The ringing of Gary’s phone interrupted their conversation so he pulled over to answer it.
Lissa listened in on the conversation without thinking.
“We’ve got an emergency over on the south side. There are three or four caribou caught up between a construction crew on the highway, traffic and a boundary fence. At least one of them has been injured and traffic is a mess over there. They’re calling in all the help they can get. Let’s see what we can do,” Gary said making a sharp right turn.
Lissa grabbed the dash and held on for dear life. Thinking quickly, she grabbed some rope and started tying knots. Gary was doing his best to work through the lunchtime traffic. He didn’t want to add another accident report to their work history.
As they got close to the scene, Lissa spotted the news van with the camera man standing on the roof. Following the direction of his camera, she made out several caribou running amuck between the cars stopped on both sides of the highway. Gary pulled off onto an access road made by the construction crew to get them closer to the action. No other Fish & Game agents appeared to be on site yet.
An Alaskan State Trooper was out of his car trying to redirect traffic while the construction crew tried to make an opening. The caribou ran this way and that trying to find a way to escape, but their efforts just got them further into the fenced area where the crew was working. As cars and trucks honked their horns and tried to move past them, the animals grew more desperate.
“Will they follow a leader?” Lissa asked.
“What?”
“If we can control one of them, will the others follow?”
“I don’t know,” Gary said. “’Bou can be pretty stupid when they’re panicked. They are herd animals though and like to stay together.”
“Can you get me close to them?” Lissa asked.
“How close?”
“I’m not sure. Say ten feet or so.”
“We can try. If we use the construction path, I can head them off up the road a ways. Will that be close enough?”
Lissa nodded and jumped out of the truck.
“Where are you going?” Gary shouted after her.
“I’m going to ride in the back! Just get me close to them!”
Lissa climbed in the back and grabbed onto the roll bar. In her other hand, she had a large coil of rope. Gary took off on the gravel path after the caribou. The truck pitched this way and that, but Lissa held on for dear life. As they got closer to the ‘bou, some of the people got out of their cars to watch the action. The camera man was in a prime spot to catch everything.
&
nbsp; Gary couldn’t see what Lissa was doing as he raced down the side path, struggling to avoid men and machinery. He wasn’t sure this was going to look very good on their resumes at the end of the day, but they’d gone too far to stop now. He could hear some shouts as they passed the workers, but stayed focused on the small herd.
Spinning to a stop just in front of the lead animal, he turned in time to see Lissa lassoing the large male at the head of the group. She jerked the rope tight and tied it off to the roll bar before grabbing a second piece of rope. Gary jumped out in time to watch her twirl the lariat like a pro and lasso a second animal. The herd came to a stop with two of the animals caught and milled about in confusion.
“Now drive slowly to the end of the road construction and we’ll let them go where the fence ends,” Lissa ordered her stunned partner.
Following her instructions, Gary laughed to see the animals bumping along behind the truck as they led the herd to safety. Several people were standing alongside the highways holding up their cell phones to record the unofficial parade. The news van was pacing them from the other side of the highway hoping to catch the ending on camera.
With the caribou lined up with an escape route, Lissa leaned over the tailgate and loosened the rope from her two captives. Seeing safety away from the traffic, the caribou ran like the wind, to the cheers of the construction workers and others that had gathered in the melee. Gary jumped out and ran around to congratulate his partner.
“Where’d you learn to handle a rope like that?” he asked.
“I grew up on a small ranch in Texas with four older brothers,” Lissa said with a grin. “If I didn’t catch them first, I’d end up hog-tied on the ground. Made me learn fast and well.”
They both turned as the news van pulled up next to them and stopped.
“I know you,” Ms. Winston said, and she ran over to them. “You’re the woman from the bear story in the park! That was wonderful what you did with this caribou! Where’d you learn your rope tricks?”
