Ecuador

Chapter 7

Chapter 7SHUSKIN PREVIOUSLY SPENT HIS winters in missions in Vancouver and sometimes Seattle. He had never wanted to stray far from his summer mountain home. Many others migrated south to warmer weather. Shuskin had been more than willing to trade the warmth of California for the damp winters of Seattle to be close to his favorite place on Earth, the Cascade Mountains of Washington State.

It was cold at Wolf Canyon Ranch. The same cold he had escaped when he went to the cities on the west side. But here he had a home. A warm place to stay. He felt safe; he wasn’t being abused as he’d been in the missions.

At this moment, he was in a place he had never expected to be: a dentist’s office. He looked in the dentist’s mirror and hardly recognized himself. His teeth gleamed white, and even more surprising, all of them were there. The dentist and Heather both seemed to relish the transformation in the old vagrant. He had put twelve crowns on Shuskin’s top teeth but decided to leave the bottom ones alone. He cleaned them up, bleached them, and repaired cavities. But the lower teeth needed braces to straighten them.

‘Bob,’ said Heather, ‘I’m impressed with the result. Wow! Maybe later it will be worth the effort to have him wear braces on his lower teeth. I think Shuskin has endured enough for a while.’

‘They don’t have to be the old type with wires and all. He could wear the clear covers. It’s the latest system. They’re a lot easier to deal with.’

Heather looked at Shuskin, who looked down and shook his head. He didn’t know what to think of his new smile. He let the dentist work on him out of thanks and deference to Heather, not because he cared what his teeth looked like. Nonetheless, something inside him felt pleased that people, including the dentist, cared about him. For the time being, though, Heather was right; he had had enough.

He looked up at them both with a shy smile.

‘Come on, Shuskin. Let’s see a big smile.’

Shuskin hardly knew how, but he attempted a grin. Heather exclaimed, ‘Man oh man, you look wonderful. Handsome really.’

Bob looked at her, wondering if she was serious. Handsome. Is she kidding? Heather returned his look with a pleased smile. Then she looked at Shuskin whose face had a tinge of pink. Was he blushing, she wondered? ‘Okay, we’re out of here. You ready, Shuskin?’ The old man nodded at her, happy to leave.

‘First, we’ll pick up Pedro from his tutor and then get an ice cream cone in Winthrop.’ At this Shuskin smiled for real. The things that Heather was doing for him made him feel cared for. The mission staff said they cared, but it had never felt as though they had.

Had he lost his freedom? Or was freedom a delusion for vagrants, or for anyone? Still, he was feeling the pressure of being a certain kind of person, acting and looking in ways he hadn’t cared about. But he didn’t miss the winters and the religious missions—sleeping on the sidewalks, tolerating the gospel, and putting up with the occasional beatings. And he loved his new friend, Pedro.

Often, repellent memory shards cut into his thoughts, like the hundreds of transients that slept on the sidewalks on Hastings Street to the east of the Gaslight District of Vancouver. He preferred Vancouver to Seattle. He would rather sleep outside than inside on cots doled out by missionaries whose only interest, he thought, was to steal his soul. While the mission was warmer, it was a stagnant, smelly prison. The streets were colder, wetter, and more dangerous. Even so, he felt freer there, always dreaming about the return of summer when he could go back to the mountains to breathe fresh air in a place with no people.

He knew that Heather loved the mountains too, and that added to his feelings for her. He was not sure what he would do when summer returned. Would he leave for his old existence in the mountains? Would he return to Heather when winter approached? Would she let him? He had almost as many questions as Heather who rattled them off one after another without a pause.

Heather was all smiles. Jim would arrive in three hours. Heather had to encourage and almost drag Shuskin into town unless they went for ice cream. She was determined to introduce him to the local market store. Shuskin did things for Heather, went along with Heather’s whims where he would have gone silent and refused if anyone else had asked him. Anyone else, that is, except Pedro.

The boy’s simple openness had enthralled the ex-vagrant. A new experience since he had never spent time around a youngster. Although the boy did occasionally push Shuskin to play with him. Shuskin felt little threat from Pedro’s demands. Not like he did when adults bossed him around in the city or at the missions; telling him what to do, how to behave, and what to believe. Shuskin accepted that this was different.

Shuskin’s need for freedom was now starting to be replaced with a caring he’d lost many years ago. He had latched on to Nusmen because few people had ever been kind to him before.

Underneath, Nusmen was not callous or uncaring. He simply didn’t understand how to deal with people, let alone someone like Shuskin. Still, he provided food and clothes for the old man when he had found him hiding at a trailhead in Heather’s truck. That was as far as it went. Nusmen could provide nothing emotionally. Heather had stepped in with all the emotion Shuskin had missed in his life. Despite being half his age, she nevertheless became a mother figure for him. Shuskin still was grateful for Nusmen’s kindness, but the feelings he had for Heather and Pedro were of a different caliber.

Heather gave him a home, a reason for being, comfort and care. She accomplished what the homeless missions intended but never delivered. Some truly cared for the street people; others purported that they cared by satisfying their own needs.

Still, Shuskin was confused by his feelings. Like Nusmen, he had never fit in with society. From an early age, he had abhorred authority, with understandable reasons—a mother who beat him, just as she had allowed any of her male friends to do. He had run away at fourteen. His education limited to street learning, survival was all he knew.

Eventually he had found solace in the mountains, away from people and the anxiety they produced in him. He had learned a different kind of survival. He learned enough wilderness survival skills to get by in the summer. Little by little, he learned a few things he could eat and not eat, but mainly he scrounged leftover food and supplies from horse camps. Hikers with their scanty rations left little.

Jim scared him, even though he had always been kind. Shuskin could see that the colonel and Heather cared deeply for each other. Yet his aversion to people sometimes became activated when dealing with Nusmen, a sort of friend, a colonel, a mother figure, and a small boy.

***

The clouds suddenly parted just above Coyote Ridge as Jim’s Seneca descended at over 200 miles per hour into the ranch valley. Heather smiled. Pedro jumped up and down with delight. Old Man Shuskin shivered involuntarily and slightly ducked as if the plane hundreds of feet overhead might shake loose his new teeth.

Pedro ran over to Shuskin and wrapped his arms around him.

As quickly as it appeared, the plane disappeared down the canyon, tipping wings from side to side as Heather waved with both arms. The sound dropped from a higher frequency to a lower tone as the plane picked up speed and moved away.

Pedro looked up at Shuskin, sensing his fear and said, ‘Doppler shift.’ The strange word distracted Shuskin from his fear. Pedro said, ‘The plane sound. It’s different when coming at us and then going away. I learn from Dad.’

Shuskin had never known the open love of a child. That hug and a small voice saying words he didn’t understand caused him to know he could never desert him. The decision was made; it was now beyond his control. He would go to the mountains with his new family, not on his own.

Heather turned to Shuskin. ‘You and Pedro take care of each other. I have to hurry.’

‘Mama, I want to go too.’

‘You watch out for Shuskin and Bluebell’s baby. She could have it at any moment. Keep a good eye on her. She needs you.’

***

The drive was shorter to the small Twisp Airport than to the larger Methow Valley State Airport. Heather drove fast up Beaver Creek Road, knowing she should have left earlier. There was only the occasional car, as usual, on Highway 20 to Airport Road. She smiled as she approached the airport. I’m not late. Timed it just right. The plane was taxiing toward the hangar. She was so excited that she drove through a small ditch at the end of the runway, over a hard mound of snow, up onto the runway, and sped toward Jim.

The props slowed to a stop as she pulled the parking brake on her dirt-, mud-, and salt-encrusted Volvo 240 station wagon. The burgundy color peeked through, mainly around the door handles where the winter grime had been rubbed off. She sprinted to the plane’s right side just as the door opened and Jim stepped out on the wing above her. He jumped down. For a moment they just stood inches apart, both smiling. He took her shoulders in his hands and placed his forehead against hers. They looked into each other’s eyes, blurry from the close distance, and rotated their heads, back and forth, in opposite directions as endorphins eased their time apart.

Heather pulled her head back and said, ‘This looks so dangerous, baby.’

‘I have to admit it isn’t the best idea to land and take off here even without the snow or ice, but I wanted to have Albert check some things on the engine.’

‘What if you hit the snowbank?’

‘Not a good idea. No such thing as a fender bender on planes.’

‘Why don’t you get them to plow it better?’

‘Only high wings here and I don’t land very often. There’s still about a foot clearance from the wingtips to the snowbank.’

‘A whole twelve inches, huh? You kill yourself, lover, and I’ll never forgive you.’

‘Let’s go home. Albert will tow it inside, and I’ll leave it here until I go back to the west side.’

‘I wish you never had to. At least with your new position, you can come back and forth. That is, until you get some sort of mission.’ Heather puffed out her cheeks, and then she sighed.

Jim looked at Heather and almost risked saying what was on his mind. ‘I’m enjoying coming up to speed in the labs, but I would rather be here with you...’ or out in the field, he thought. Not good. Tell her your real thoughts. He took courage and for once said something he never would have risked previously, ‘Or out on a mission.’

Heather started to scowl before she realized that this is what she’d always wanted from Jim−the truth. It hurt that he placed her equal to missions. Or did he? she wondered. No, he loved her but needed his missions, too. They weren’t equal; they were different. It was part of who he was, she thought.

***

Shuskin stood next to Pedro in the dirt road, now only partly covered with packed snow. They were standing outside his new home, the old homesteader’s cabin that Jim had once stayed in. Pedro smiled up at Shuskin. They watched a puff of dust rise when Heather’s Volvo hit a dry spot, as she drove fast over the speedway. The ranch environment sandwiched between two mountains was unique in that, for most of the winter, the sky was blue, and the sun melted the snow’s surface, leaving a frozen crust on the fields. The road was different. Once a small patch of road was exposed through the packed snow, the heated soil captured the sun’s warming rays, causing the surrounding snow and ice to retreat, and exposing wider areas of dirt.

‘Soon Dad home,’ said Pedro.

Moments later, the Volvo wagon appeared over the rise and followed the curved road in between the wood rail fences and around the crystalline snow-covered field in front of the cabin.

Surrounded by brilliant reflective snow, small patches of dormant grass absorbed more heat on warmer days like today. The exposed grass, which enjoyed the momentary exposure to the light and warmth, paid a price when the weather turned cold. Without its protective snow blanket, the bitter temperatures wreaked havoc on the grass, turning the blades wind-bitten brown. The occasional stubborn yellow aspen leaf pried loose from a branch would dance and skitter on top of the snow crust.

‘Dad, Dad,’ yelled Pedro as he ran toward the side of the car as Jim got out. He was so excited running that in a flash, his feet went up in the air, and he hit hard on the hard-packed road.

Jim reached down to comfort him. But instead of shedding tears, the intrepid Pedro grinned and then giggled. ‘You okay?’ asked Heather as she came around the front of the car in a hurry and slid her way to them.

‘Maybe sore bottom.’ Pedro started to giggle, and then they all did.

‘Shuskin, climb in. We’re going to have some snacks at the house and watch the sun go down. Lola has made your favorite stew. After dinner, I’ll drive you back down.’ Shuskin’s face lit up at the sound of Lola’s beer stew.

‘I walk back,’ he said. ‘Nice out. You stay with your family.’

‘Hold up there, bud. You’re family now too. Come on. Give Jim a big smile and show him your new choppers.’

Shuskin looked down embarrassed; he couldn’t do it. Jim would eventually see the teeth created with care by Heather’s dentist friend.

Pedro stood impatiently for some attention. ‘Dad, Dad. Carry me on your shoulders.’

Jim smiled, reached down with two hands around Pedro’s body, and lifted him level with his face. ‘Okay, big guy. A hug first.’

Pedro, grinning from atop Jim’s shoulders, looked down and over the wood rail fence at Pipestone, his dad’s favorite llama. The extra-tall human apparition caused Pipey to fold his ears back. Timidly, he relaxed at the sight of such a tall person, raised his face to Jim’s face, and they exchanged breaths. All the time, his eyes were keeping Pedro under scrutiny.

***

‘Time to eat,’ said Heather.

‘‘How long you stay?’ asked Lola as she placed plates on the table.

‘Two days,’ responded Jim.

Lola clucked, ‘You need stay longer.’

‘What do you say we go skiing tomorrow at the Loup Loup?’

‘Pedro has been cross-country skiing almost every day,’ said Heather. ‘I think he is ready for a little downhill.’

Pedro grinned alternately at Jim and then Heather. ‘It’s a deal then,’ said Jim. ‘We’ll go around ten, so the snow has a chance to soften.’

Heather and Pedro nodded. Lola just shook her head. ‘Muy loco. Pay money to slide down hill in cold.’

The next morning, they drove down the ranch road, along Beaver Creek road, and left up Highway 20. The Loup Loup ski area was only a mile as a crow flies from the back of the ranch. The driving distance was closer to seven miles.

Pedro took to downhill skiing as if he was meant for it. Fearlessness helped, along with the advantage of not much mass or distance to fall, which he did over and over, always laughing and smiling no matter how scary looking his tumbles.

‘I think we have another skier in the family,’ said Heather. ‘I love it that we have a ski hill so close to the ranch. Aren’t we lucky?’

It brought back a good feeling for Heather, reminding her of their ski trips to Canada. It seemed a long time ago now. Maybe going to the Loup Loup had been a portent of good things to come.

Returning to a warm house always felt especially luxurious after a day of skiing. The woodstove radiated heat, and the oversized fireplace burned brightly. Lola was happy cooking. Pedro and Heather were happy to be together. Shuskin had never known this sort of secure feeling. He, too, was happy, but also something inside agitated him. As he had learned throughout his life, things going this well always end.