As the miles sped by, Jack clutched the vans steering wheel and unease settled over him. Why did he feel he shouldn’t have left that cabin? Why did he feel he shouldn’t tell Rikki how he felt? Why was a human head carved on each end of the white bone that hung over the door? And why was he the only one upset that they left and not the Mounties?
Something bad was happening, and he didn’t know how to prevent it. He fretted and worried all the way home.
“What’s happening to me?” he said aloud, gritting his teeth, “I’m losing it and I don’t even know why.”
When he and the Mounties finally got back to Merriweather, Jack remembered how frantic he was to leave. He had to go home, back to Langley, back to his wife and son. He didn’t know why he couldn’t remember his wife’s name, but he knew he had to go home.
Now!
A soothing voice in the back of his head kept telling him it was unreasonable that he had to go now, what he really needed to do, was to go back to the cabin. That was where peace and tranquility waited for him.
But the need for wife and family was stronger now that he was on the road to home, and returning the borrowed boat to the Merriweather grocery store helped his resolve.
He even remembered to thank Freddy for arranging to have Ralph’s Garage replace the ignition in his van while he was away. He paid both bills before he started home.
If anyone found any items from his boat he knew Freddy would call him, collect. He gave his home phone and his work number to anyone who asked.
Earlier, when he got into the van, habit took over, and he looked for the dog. But he wasn’t there! The old folded doggy blanket he lay on when they spent the whole day travelling was on the back seat. His water dish still pushed under the passenger seat. Remembering BG didn’t survive was almost more than he could bear.
He remembered pulling out of the parking lot. The open windows blew in cool fresh air; he turned the radio up and found some music, really loud music. So loud, it was hard to think, but memory sat beside him and he remembered anyway.
Jack clutched the steering wheel, and concentrated fiercely on going home. He knew he couldn’t give in, no matter what memory said! His wife needed him, he had to go home. He had a son...
It was late when he got to Langley; he drove the car into the carport and tiptoed into the house through the unlocked basement door.
Up stairs in the kitchen, he realized there were dishes on the table, and pots on the stove. In the light from the street lamp, he saw the preparation for dinner.
She’d waited for him.
Guilt overcame him and he sat down heavily in the chair. Now he felt bad that he took so long to come back.
His beautiful wife stood in the doorway waiting for him to look up. She was wearing the Chinese silk pajamas he bought her on their first anniversary. The top buttons on the jacket were open.
Finally aware, he stood up and she quickly ran into his arms, they were strong and she knew everything was going to be all right.
Jack was home, there was no other problem!
He bent his head and kissed her. Picked her up and carried her into the bedroom, kicked the door shut with his foot and placed her on the bed.
Now, he remembered why he had to come home.
This was where the love was.
Chapter Eight
The accident on Andover Lake provided fresh gossip for the town of Merriweather. But when nothing else happened, they attended to their own business and it became last week’s news.
Freddy, the grocery store owner’s son was sorry when the fuss died down, almost everyone in town found a reason to see him and hear the story first hand.
He loved being so popular.
Chapter Nine
Sergeant Bill Majors, ‘E’ Division, Carling Detachment, who’s assigned case this was, was catching up on his ‘paper work’. His ‘To Do’ list said he had to go to Merriweather to see if the boat or anything else floated up. He also knew he should get in touch with Chief George from the Xaali’pp Band Council. The episode at that empty cabin across the lake had to be explained. Rumor said someone from the Xaali’pp band owned it at one time.
Sometimes behind his dad’s back, they called the store, ‘Gossip Central’. Folks didn’t mean it in a nasty way; it was just that Freddy always seemed to be up on all the latest news.
“Hi Freddy,” Sergeant Bill said entering the store, “How’re you doing?”
Actually, there wasn’t much to check, it was just a summer tourist whose boat sank. It was too bad about the dog though, but strange things happen on big lakes.
Jack McKinnon, owner of the boat that went down, said they had insurance on the boat and that was the ‘why’ of this visit.
“Freddy, I need a ‘Witness Statement’ from you. Were you the first person Mr. McKinnon talked to when he came into the store the morning of May 17, 1989?”
“Yes sir, that was a Sunday, I remember he came in kind of out of breath, he had bits of sticks and dirt all over him, no coat and he didn’t have any shoes on either, he looked kind of wild. I didn’t know what to say.”
“Was it around eight o’clock in the morning?”
“Yes sir, we open at 8:00 am in winter, in summer we open at 6:00 am, folks get up earlier in summer.”
“Yes, Yes, never mind about that. What exactly did he say?”
“Well, I can’t really remember but I know the other officer took all that down. I remembered real good then. Felt bad for Mr. McKinnon though, he looked funny, not ha ha funny, but weird funny.”
“I don’t remember reading that in the report. What made him look weird funny? Try to remember.”
“Yes sir, I’ll try, sir, I guess it was the look in his eyes, and it was real cold out and he didn’t have any shoes on and he didn’t know it. I know he didn’t know, because I asked him where his shoes were and he looked down and said he must have lost them. I just said oh.”
“Thanks, Freddy, you’ve been a great help. Has Mr. McKinnon been up to his cabin since the accident?”
“Not that I seen, he wouldn’t have any way of gettin’ there, most folks wouldn’t walk it you know. Boat’s only way up. Mind, some Skim’ka’mx Indians do it. They always talk about the old days. I was a young kid when The Lady of the Lake; you remember the steam ship that used to run from Merriweather to Seton Portage, made the trip to Carling a lot quicker.”
“You say the Skim’ka’mx Indians sometimes walk it? How long does it take them? Why don’t they go by boat? Wouldn’t that be easier?”
“Those guys don’t like little boats, they walk everywhere. I can’t remember how long the lake is, I always have to look at the fishing chart to check the miles,” he said, turning around and pointing to the big map on the wall behind the cash register.
“Look here, it says the lake is 15 miles long, and you know something else? It’s 700 feet deep! How’s that for a long way down?”
“Why are they walking from that end of the lake, what’s up there, besides the McKinnon cabin?”
“Didn’t you know? That’s holy ground up there for them Indians, it’s a big old time burial ground. White folks shouldn’t go up there.”
“Why did Jack and Rikki buy the cabin there then? Do the Indians mind them living close by?”
“Don’t know nothin’ about that! Don’t know nothin’ about nothin’. I keep on the good side of everybody.”
“Don’t get excited Freddy, thanks for the information. Give me a cup of your freshest hot coffee and I’ll be on my way,” Bill said, as he paid with a new one-dollar coin.
Some said it looked like gold, but others said it didn’t fool anyone. Some liked the new coins. Some thought it a stupid thing to do, get rid of the paper dollar bill, and began calling it a loony; others called it that because of the Canadian Loon on the front.
“Oh, I forgot, who owns the garage in town, now?” said the Mountie, “I mean I forgot his name and I want to speak to his wife.”
“You mean Ralph? He bought that garage from old man Jenkins a couple a year or more ago...He was getting old and said the winters were too cold, I think he...”
“That’s okay Freddy, I met him last year but I forgot his name. I wanted to be sure I had the right person.”
Sergeant Majors walked back to his vehicle and spoke to Constable Dillon. “I’m going to walk over to the garage, and see if Ralph is open today. You go and check the marina to see if anyone found any of Jack McKinnon’s belongings. Ask if the dog floated up yet. If it did, find out what they did with it. It wouldn’t be good if it wound up on the beach in front of the McKinnon cabin while they were there.
“See you back here in an hour.”
Chapter Ten
“Jack McKinnon, what aren’t you doing now?” said his exasperated wife a few days later.
The garbage was scheduled for collection tomorrow in their Langley neighbourhood, and she wanted to give her husband a reason to get up and do something.
“I can’t believe you’re still sitting there? I thought you said you’d clean out the basement before you went back to work.”
“I’ll get to it, but not now,” said her suffering husband. He sat on the back patio with a cup of cold coffee in his hand and an unseeing look in his eyes. Not a muscle had moved in over an hour.
The loss of the boat and the death of the dog was taking its’ toll on the McKinnon household.
As bad as Jack felt, he knew it was time to start picking up the pieces and getting on with life. But not right now.
One thing that was making him crazy was the insurance for the boat...the unsinkable boat. He took the completed forms in to the local office of the insurance company, but they kept rejecting them. It was becoming a very sore point.
Usually he was the level headed one, the calm one in the storm; but not now and Rikki was worried.
She couldn’t talk to her folks about this, so...she went across the lane to have coffee with her neighbor.
“So, how’s everything going?” said Carol Adler. “Does Harry still like Play School?”
“Yes, he loves it; there are always kids to play with. Sometimes he doesn’t want to come home.”
Carol, who was standing by the sink filling the coffee maker, looked at her friend from the corner of her eye, saw she was tearing up and was trying to hide it.
“You know what, Rikki,” she said bringing two cups to the table, “we need a day off to shop. The kids are on a Pro ‘D’ day, and want to visit my folks. My mom spoils them terribly. They think it’s great!”
“I’d love to go, but I can’t be sure Jack would remember to pick Harry up. He hasn’t been himself since that ‘thing’ at Merriweather.”
Rikki had yet to give closing words to the death of BG and the sinking of the boat. She couldn’t bring herself to say, ‘dead dog’.
“Let’s go see if we can talk Jack into picking Harry up, it will do him a world of good. He’s been wallowing in self-pity since it happened. I know I’m only the neighbor but sometimes a stranger can say things a wife can’t.”
“Do you think he’d listen?”
“Can only try.”
* * * *
Jack McKinnon stood in the bathroom giving the face in the mirror a stern talking to. He looked at his reflection. The black hair looked okay, but the bags under his brown eyes and sallow skin spoke loudly of how little sleep he was getting.
Why did it take a neighbor to tell him he was neglecting his wife and son?
This was enough! No more selfish shit!
He went back to the kitchen and set the timer for 11:30. It took 10 minutes to get to Play School at the Community Centre. Trouble was it took the same amount of time to find a parking space.
“Can’t be late today,” he muttered to himself. His son was fearful, afraid something would happen to his mom or dad, look what happened to BG? He had to watch his parents very carefully so they wouldn’t just disappear, too.
Jack knew he had to come to terms with the dog’s death, and the loss of the boat. But what he couldn’t seem to accept was the experience in the cabin that he could hardly remember, and the walk along the railway tracks (that weren’t there) back to Merriweather.
Something was wrong; he couldn’t get over the feeling of disorientation and that he shouldn’t have come home. And like it or not, he knew he had to go back and sort it out.
But, first things first.
Clean out the basement!
He worked the rest of the morning, and threw out the junk from everyday living that accumulates in a basement. Empty paint cans, dried up paintbrushes, and why did he save these old boards? There was even an old wooden chair with one broken leg. Plus piles of newspapers and boxes of empty bottles.
He took it all outside the back yard fence, and stacked it neatly for the garbage men to pick up next day. It felt good to be doing something that was needed. And besides, Rikki would be pleased.
He knew she’d put up with a lot since...he couldn’t speak of it either.
Even to himself.
Poor Harry he thought, his dog is gone and he doesn’t know what’s wrong with his dad. Jack remembered when they were playing in the back yard last summer, one day he laughed, and got into Harry’s little wading pool too. His wife and son thought it was so funny, he was such a big man and the pool was just one ring tall, all the water spilled out.
ZZZZZ, Jack knew immediately what that was. The timer on the stove said he had to pick up Harry.
It was good that he just finished tidying up the basement, everything was nice and neat and put away.
The next day...
“Carol,” said Rikki who was sitting at her neighbor’s kitchen table again, “you aren’t going to believe this. I don’t know what to do.”
“Let me pour the coffee,” she said standing up, “what happened?”
“You know how I’ve been after Jack to clean out the basement, well, he finally did.”
“And that’s bad, because?” she said, putting a plate of cookies on the table.
“You remember last month when those rowdy boys from down the block were breaking into everyone’s house and robbing them?”
“Hold on, I don’t remember them ‘breaking into everyone’s house’, it was just ours because my own children didn’t shut the door when they left for school, and the Lynn’s kids across the street aren’t any better at door closing either. They weren’t stealing everything, but they drank the milk in my fridge, and took the cake that was on Lynn’s table, so that’s not like they ransacked the houses.”
“You’re right, but they still broke in, and it frightened me that Jack was up at the lake and we were home alone. You remember which day that was, don’t you? Well, you know my Uncle Philip has been giving me a silver dollar every year since I was born, and my parents give Harry a $100.00 Savings Bond on his birthday every year. I got to thinking, what if they stole the silver dollars and the Bonds, so I hid them.”
“Where?”
“In a paint can.”
“A paint can? What do you mean?”
“I went down stairs and found a can that the paint was all dried up, and I put the Bonds and the silver dollars into it, put the lid back on and put it back on the shelf. No one would ever know there was money in it. Yesterday was garbage pick up day.”
“So?”
“I’ve been after Jack for months to clean up downstairs. This morning at breakfast, we watched the garbage truck go down the lane. That’s when he told me he cleaned out the basement. It took me a moment or two to think about it, and then I realized what he did. I rushed downstairs and sure enough, no more old dried up paint cans. No more paint cans, period!”
Carol got up from the table and rushed into the bathroom, she was laughing so hard she started to choke. She quickly splashed cold water on her face. How could she laugh at her neighbor’s tale of woe, even if it was the funniest thing she’d heard in a long, long time?
?
??So what happened?” she asked coming back into the room.
“Didn’t you see us all running after the garbage truck? I thought the whole block was on the back porch watching us yell at the driver to pull over. He stopped but wouldn’t let us look for the can; he said he had to keep to a schedule, because when they didn’t finish on time they got their pay docked.”
Carol started to choke, and had to rush into the bathroom again.
More cold water! Another stern talking to about not making fun of someone else’s catastrophe!
“Okay”, she said to her friend coming out of the bathroom again, “I’m over my coughing fit, what now?”
“I’m going to call the Sanitation Department and find out where they dumped the truck and go see if I can find the can.”
“Really?”
The coughing started again, but Carol was able to control it this time, “I didn’t know you could go and rummage around in the garbage dump. What if another dump truck dumped on top of the truck load you wanted to look through? What if you were digging around and another truck came in, and dumped...all over you?”
“I don’t know,” Rikki said seriously, looking down at her clenched hands, “I can’t even remember what brand of paint it was, but I do remember the label had writing on it.”
Carol, choked back the coughing fit this time, to ask, “what’s Jack saying to all this?”
“He’s going out of town tomorrow. On his regular route.”
That did it!
Carol couldn’t contain herself any longer and was almost rolling on the floor with laughter. Her woe-begotten friend sat and looked at the crazy lady that she expected sympathy from and began to see the humor in the situation, too.
She smiled at Carol, and a little snicker began, it crept up to her eyes, and then it erupted into a wholehearted belly laugh.
Both women sat at the kitchen table and laughed and laughed. One, because it was funny, the other, because it wasn’t.
* * * *
Nothing news worthy was happening in Harrisburg and the disappearance of the boat and dog in Andover Lake played on TV and in the Newspapers for several days. The fate of the dog interested everyone.
The Jamison Copier/Scanner Company of BC, was very understanding of the events in Merriweather, and gave Jack a few days off to do the paper work, and look after his family. He appreciated the consideration. But the ‘time off’ was over and Jack returned to his regular out of town route the following Monday, and the companies he delivered copier ink and paper products to wanted to hear about the boat that sank and the dog that disappeared.