Lost Chance (2) “Hello, how are you today?” asked Cathy. “Fine, how are you?” asked Laura. “Ok,” said Cathy. “How hot is it?” asked Laura. She got up and walked to the car window, she noticed that Cathy was wearing cut off jeans and a light blouse. “It’s in the eighties, not too bad,” Cathy answered. “It’s too hot for me.” “I’m going swimming, want to come with me?” Cathy asked Laura out the car window. “That sounds so nice but I need to look for Chris first. I haven’t seen him since he went for a shower.” She got into Cathy’s car and they drove past the cemetery and took a right turn for the road to the campground. Cathy and Laura drove around the campground and Laura checked the men’s shower room. Chris went to the hotel and dropped off his dirty towel and clothes. He went to the store and found that the store owner was a short and heavy guy of good humor. He bought a small, dusty and expensive can of cat food and then he took the river route back to the campground. Cathy and Laura returned to town to see if Chris was there. Cathy ducked into the store to look for him. “What are you looking for?” asked the proprietor. Not seeing Chris in the store Cathy answered, “Oh nothing,” and left. Laura checked the hotel room and noticed his dirty clothes on the floor. She put a bathing suit, a towel and some sun screen into a bag. She took off her long pants and put on shorts and then checked the bar. Unable to locate Chris they decided to go on up the river. “After all, Chris is not going anywhere, there’s no way he’s going to leave without you. He probably went to fern cave,” said Cathy. “Yeah, that sounds like something he’d do without telling me,” said Laura indignantly. “Let’s go for a swim.” Back at the campground Chris opened the can of cat food and turned it over onto a flat rock and stepped away. He smiled when the cat checked out the food and decided that it was good and then gobbled it down. After feeding the cat Chris walked back into town but could he not find Laura. Chris ran into some of the guys from last night on the hotel porch. Their motorcycles were lined up along the front porch. Chris could imagine horses in their place a hundred years ago. “Have you seen Laura,” he asked the group. “Lost your girl already?” jabbed Turtle. Spike glared at him. “I saw her and Cathy drive up river, guess they’re going for a swim,” said Moran laconically. “Have you heard anything about the war…” Chris started to ask. “There's no news here,” said Spike “There's a war going on?” Turtle spread his hands toward the sunshine on the quiet street as if to say there is nothing going on here and now and everything else is irrelevant. “You mean the eternal fucking war against wages and the working man?” Jason asked cynically. “There's always a war going on someplace,” Moran sounded older and wiser. “You can't trust anything the government says. Black is white and up is down, I know, I was in the military.” “What’s this about a fern cave?” asked Chris trying a different tact. “Yeah,” said Moran. “It’s down the river by the next big swimming hole past the campground. I’ll draw you a map.” He scribbled directions on a scrap of paper and explained them to Chris. He then turned to the guys with the bikes and said, “Why don’t we go upriver. I feel like going for a swim.” Spike gave Moran a sharp look. The guys got on their bikes and left. Chris checked the hotel room, Laura had left her suitcase open on the bed. It looked as if her bathing suit and a towel were gone so Chris decided to go to Fern Cave. The girls drove across the river bridge. Cathy pointed out a perfect river pool with a beach and shallow water on one side and deep water and bed rock to dive from on the other side. “Spent a lot of days there when I was younger. The new owners won’t let any one swim there because they are afraid they will be liable if anything happens.” “They own the river?” “No, the access land, they built a fence and they chase anyone off who crosses it.” They turned right and the paved road ended. They continued along the dirt road that followed the river up stream. Cathy’s VW was hot as an oven as it bounced along. Cathy depressed the clutch and shifted into a lower gear and the gear shift lever came off in her hand. “Oh my god!” exclaimed Laura. Cathy turned her head, “What? Oh it’s nothing. Happens all the time.” She stuck the gearshift back in its slot and they continued on. A few miles later Cathy said, “See those tents through the woods? Some people are living in there though they’re not supposed to.” They drove to the parking lot of a picnic ground and she parked the VW among the few other cars there and it was a short walk to the beach. Laura was a little shocked when Cathy took off all of her clothes on the beach but she did the same. She laid her towel on the coarse beach sand. They walked to the water, the hot gravel burning her bare feet. They had a quick swim in the cold water. Laura came out of the water with her nipples erect and felt cold when she sat on her towel. Cathy came out and lay face up on her beach towel. The hot sun warmed Laura between the water drops on her body and she was quickly reminded of how hot it was so she did not towel off. The slight breeze slowly evaporated the water off of her body and kept her pleasantly cool. She lay down feeling relaxed after her swim. It felt good to lie there with the sun between her legs. Catty rolled over, “So how did you meet Chris?” “At a party of a friend of a friend. We just got married yesterday,” Laura answered. “What? No kidding!” “Yeah, night before last.” “Wow! Did you have a wedding cake?” Cathy asked. “No, we just had a quickey wedding in Reno and then we played the penny slots for a couple of hours. He came out two dollars ahead I think. He won 500 pennies at one point. He kept saying, ‘If I only had put in a dollar I would have won five hundred dollars.’ Me I lost two dollars.” “Men always come out ahead.” “Mmm hum…” actually she was feeling kind of sorry for Chris. She made more money at work then he did, she had more career success, and this trip had been on her whim and she had made him do all the driving. “How long have you known him?” “We’ve been living together for a couple of years and I knew him awhile before we moved in together. It was three years ago this spring that I met him.” “So how come you got married if you were already living together?” “I never wanted to be an old maid of 30 and I just turned 30 in June.” Laura wanted to change the subject. “Are you with anyone?” “I’m between guys right now. I don’t know, I’ve been bar keeping, I have my Emergency Medical Training, I drive a school bus during the school year, I work seasonally part time in Grass Valley, I give care to my aged and ailing parents and I have two kids. I have plenty to do right now. “Sounds like it. Where you born here?” “No, I’m a refugee from the Bay Area.” “So what are you doing here? Why this place?” “My mom says all the loose rocks roll down hill,” Cathy said to Laura. “The heavy and precious ones stay.” “But everyone takes the gold away,” Laura said. Then, as an after thought, “America is not paved in gold but in copper from the pennies that people toss away.” “Anyway, where else can you live in a nice quiet place where you can lay naked in the sun without a worry?” asked Cathy. Laura thought about that. “What kind of work does Chris do?” asked Cathy. “He works at a recycling plant.” “What kind of work do you do?” “Government.” “Oh really?” asked Cathy with suspicion. “Don’t worry, its civilian. I work for Social Security.” “I don’t know much about Social Security, is there something I should be doing?” “Start a separate retirement account, you know a 401k or an IRA. Social Security is not supposed to support you in your old age it is supposed to be a supplement to your regular retirement income.” “I didn’t know that but I can’t afford those IRA kind of things. It’s not something I think about a lot. Do you think Social Security will be broke by the time I retire?” “The government keeps stealing the actual money to fight their wars and such but it won’t go broke on paper. However it is a pyramid scheme, every year there are fewer workers to support each retiree. I started out real idealistic but now I just work the system for promotions.” She did not want to talk about work. Lately it had been overwhelming and she did not like it anymore. Management wanted fewer people to do more work. She had enough stress in her life. She had forgotten what it was like to feel care free. Laying on the beach exposed to the elements she felt relaxed and grounded for the first time since… “Do you have kids?” asked Cathy. “No, three cats.” Cathy gave Laura a puzzled look and then said, “I am going swimming again.” “Ok.” Laura sat up and watched as Cathy swam a few laps and could see why Cathy was tan and sleek as a seal. She lay back down in the sun with her eyes closed feeling drowsy. “Hello,” said the voice of Moran. She opened her eyes and could see him looking down on her. She was uncomfortable being naked but he was naked also. She was a little embarrassed that she could tell that not only was he a genuine red head, he was the most tanned red head she had ever seen. “How are you doing?” asked Moran. She sat up wanting to run into the water. “Just fine,” she answered nonchalantly. “And you?” “Couldn’t be better, mind if I sit down?” “Suit yourself.” “So what do you think of this place now?” Moran asked waving his hand as if to take in the scenery. “Do you like it here?” “It’s lovely, nice and peaceful,” she answered. “I’ve left Lost Chance several times but I’ve always come back,” he said earnestly. “I was an army brat, we moved all around the country. My father came here for a logging job after he got out of the military and we lived here for a couple of years when I was a kid. I found some kind of security or quiet continuity here that I never found any place else and when I made some money in real estate I came back here and bought a place.” Cathy noticed Moran hanging around Laura and came out of the water. “How ya doin Cath?” Moran asked ebulliently. “I’m going for a swim now,” Laura said and she went back into the water. She wanted to talk to Moran but it was to weird being naked. “What are you doin here?” Cathy asked Moran unpleasantly. He looked out at Laura in the water. “Oh, I see. Don’t even think about it, she’s a married woman.” “I could mention some examples of married people having affairs but I won’t,” Moran said and then he got up and left. Laura came out of the water and lay down on the beach again. “Was he bothering you?” Cathy asked sounding concerned. “No, not really,” Laura answered. “You gotta watch out for that guy,” Cathy said as much to herself as to Laura as she looked at the water. She turned to Laura and said, “Take my word, you don’t want to get involved with that guy.” And with that she lay down in the sun. Laura laid down too. The sun, the nudity, the wind blowing over her body, it was all a little arousing. She felt warm and glowing. Chris followed the rudimentary map Moran had given him. He walked down the dirt road that went past the campground. It was pleasant and quiet, the abundant trees provided shade. He passed several large pyramidal piles of small boulders left over from the old hydraulic mines. He wanted to explore one of them but it occurred to him that they looked like a good rattlesnake habitat. The smell of hot pine trees and mountain rock came to his nose. The road to Fern Cave had Private Property signs posted and there were houses down along the river. He came to a gate across the road on it and climbed over it ignoring the No Trespassing sign. The road gained in elevation then branched off and he took the dirt road that went to the right. A Blue Jay followed him and squawked out a warning that he was coming from tree to tree. He smiled when squirrels barked at him. He could see the river far below down the precipitous slope. After some distance the road climbed a small but steep hill and became split level. One side of the road was a foot and then two higher than the other side. Water had run down the middle of the road and eroded it away and the red dirt banks on either side were worn. He couldn’t see how people could drive on it but the fresh tire tracks told him otherwise. He figured their cars must be tilted to the side at a thirty degree angle on this stretch. He got to a flat area and passed what was left of an ancient, abandoned, shot up pick up truck resting in the weeds. It had a bright chrome bumper as if someone shined it daily. He guessed the shiny chrome was somehow weather related but he could not figure out the process. He pictured a squirrel coming up to it and polishing it with its tail every day. It was hot and dry and the sun shone down on his head. He saw that many of the trees were half dead from too many years of drought. He was beginning to feel half dead himself from walking in the heat and wished that he had brought along a hat and some water. When he got to the end of the dirt road it turned into a path that dipped down to the river. He stopped when he saw tents pitched around the area but apparently no one was there so he continued on. He took the steep path down to the river and after crossing uneven bed rock he got to the water’s edge and looked into a large pool. The water was clear and he could see lazy sucker fish on the bottom and he wondered what kind of fish they were and if they were good to eat. Chris looked around and found the fern cave and was disappointed because it was just a large depression in the rock wall that stayed wet from seeping ground water and some ferns grew on the damp wall. Chris decided to return to town. He thought about the tents and houses and no trespassing signs and decided that he did not want to take the road back so he followed the river up stream thinking that it might be shorter and easier. He walked along bed rock and then over boulders and then on the hillside. The heat, the wind, the humidity, the wasted trip were all making him feel irritated. Strange thoughts blew through his mind. He thought about how deceptive advertising and shoddy products had no place in the wild. He could hear nothing but the river and the wind blowing through the trees and he had the feeling that he would go mad if he were stuck here for days. He could occasionally hear noises like voices in the rushing water. After half a mile the hillside became a cliff which was too high and steep and full of brush to climb and the river was so wide that he had to swim part of the way. He stripped down to his underpants and made his way against the strong currents and eddies holding his clothes above his head. The water grew shallow and while walking in the water he slipped on the mossy rocks but did not drop his clothes. “The water is too cold and the air temperature is too hot,” he groused aloud. He had kept his clothes dry but when he set them on a rounded rock for a moment they slid off and landed in the water. He had some trouble pulling the uncomfortable half wet clothes back on. Heading up river going back toward town he got tired of climbing up and down rocks and decided to jump from the top of one rounded bolder to another, using them as stepping stones. He found that it worked well but he hoped he did not slip and break a leg. What if he got hurt and could not move and a bear came? Could he stop it by throwing rocks? Would he ever been seen again? Whatever made him think that the river route would be shorter and easier? He hated being alone in the woods and he wished that he were back home. He missed his commercial free radio station and his computer. He missed being able to buy a newspaper or even watching the TV news. He felt cut off from the world, if it blew up he would never know it. Most of all he dislike the people who stayed deliberately ignorant. He did not want to go back to work, he hated his job at the recycling plant. He didn’t care if he ever saw another empty pizza box or beer case again. Originally he had wanted to save the planet but had been reduced to saving himself. He had been friends with the boss and he had roamed the plant doing what needed to be done but now a new management had taken over with their own crew and since he did not have a title or specific skill he was busted to the bale room to clean plastic and metal from paper bales with a hammer. He felt like a victim of circumstances, why did life have to be so frustrating? Why did he struggle so hard to keep a job he hated? He would like to camp out in Lost Chance but he would have to abandon his job and house, for what? No job and nothing to do? He did not know if he could live without money. He was beginning to realize that Moran had gone up river as did Laura. Moran had been a bit to generous in giving him a map and he had followed it down river. He was beginning to not trust Moran. “I came here whole and now I am missing a wife and I’m not even sure I wanted to be married in the first place,” Chris said out loud blowing off steam. When he finally got back to town his clothes were still uncomfortably wet in places but Chris was relieved to find Laura with Cathy sitting in front of the store eating ice cream bars. “Where were you?” asked Laura. “You were gone for a long time.” “I went to the fern cave,” answered Chris. “I knew it!” Cathy exclaimed. “I went for a swim with Cathy,” said Laura in a deceptively simple way. “Was it nice?” he asked sounding weary. “Yeah, might like to do it again sometime,” she said eagerly. “I did some swimming too, that water is pretty cold.” Chris did not like feeling that he was getting stuck in this town and he wanted to leave. Now seemed to be a good time. “So do you want to get going?” “After we finish eating our ice cream,” she answered sounding reluctant. “Is there a way out of here so that we don’t have to go back up that grade?” Chris asked Cathy.
Copyright © 2007 Michael Potter |