Chance Encounters

Crossing fields

Mark stopped at a little rest stop in Indian River just shy of the Mackinac bridge. The woods were becoming more dense full of the bright yellow and orange leaves. “Alright babe,I’ll take over driving from this point on.” He nodded. We swapped seats, it felt good to be able to drive again. The sun was setting further into the horizon. “If we are lucky enough we will see the sun setting as we cross the bridge.” Mark smiled and pulled out a disposable camera. “I bought this to hopefully make some memories and keep them.” I shook my head as it turned red. Leave it to the man to actually think.

The front tires hit the road on the actual bridge. It was slightly windy so the bridge had some give to it. The copper suspension lines were now colored sea green due to oxidation. Lake Superior gleamed underneath the bridge and off to the sides you could see glimpses of the water. I rolled down my window letting the saltiness of the air into the truck. Continuing down the bridge the sun was setting; letting out bright bursts of pink and orange. Mark began to snap the camera to get a few pictures of it. I smiled, with my eyes glued to the front I failed to notice him taking a picture of me driving. The clouds covered the ball of energy that was the sun allowing the pinks and oranges to be extremely vibrant. We got to the other side where a toll booth waited. “25¢ please.” The man held out his hand and I told Mark to dig in the glove box for a thick piece of paper. I handed it to the man in the booth. Glancing at my bridge pass he handed it back to me and let us through. “What is the point of that?” He asked. I told him how the toll went to maintenance for the bridge and that I got a bridge pass so I could come and go as I pleased. “I paid for mine,but could have gotten it for free. Anyway, I want to take you to picture rocks on the way back. I would say now,but we aren’t going to make it.” He tilted his head, “Picture rocks?” He asked visibly confused. I smiled,just enjoying being with him for a trip. “I think we will be able to make the drive shorter by cutting northwest,when I came down it was under construction…” I mumbled. I kept driving towards St. Ignas. “Now darling,we can stop for the night or continue on it doesn’t matter to me.” He laid down across my lap. “We can keep going as long as you are fine driving.” I nodded. He planted a kiss on my cheek then stretched out letting a sigh escape him.

Refusing to turn on the radio I decided to grab one of my many eight tracks and put it in. It was Are you experienced? By Jimi Hendrix. I grinned shifting my truck into third, shooting straight up 141. The night was young,well very young as it was only 7:30 yet it looked like it was 1am. I laughed to myself. We will have just missed dinner and uncle Ike and uncle Grey Hawk will be outside having a bonfire and probably passing around their bong. I pulled into a gas station that looked to be in miserable shape. The man who ran the station sat on it’s front porch in a chair with a shotgun laid across his lap. “Don’t cha know it’s almost closin’ time?” I nodded, “Yes sir, I just came to get some fuel before I ran out.” He looked me up and down. “Where ya goin?” I nodded my head up and responded, “Eagle Harbor, got family up there.” He narrowed his eyes as he seen my last name on my father’s jacket. “Ah the Wolfe’s. Rafael owes me around 15$.” I shrugged leave it to my cousin to make my life harder for absolutely no reason. “I’ll pay his tab off and give you some extra if I can get gas right now.” I said. He smiled, “Of course youngin’. You are gonna wanna use that one over there it has the best flow through it’s lines.” I nodded and pulled out two crisp 20$ bills. “Here ya go sir. I do apologize for my cousin.” His eyes widened and he grinned. “Not a problem,safe travels.” He said. I got in the truck,gently moving Mark’s head out from where I was going to sit. He was still sleeping soundly. Before I did anything I turned on the heat making sure he wasn’t uncomfortable and set out for the place I once called home.

I made the turn down the gravel road and Mark sat up,rubbing his eyes. “Good to see you are awake.” He kissed my cheek, “Are we there?” He asked adjusting and sitting up in the seat. I smiled, “Yup, in about two minutes.” We pulled into the rez. My uncles Ike and Tom were attempting to control the dogs. My cousin Rafael was grinning tying up his black hair into a pony tail. I rolled down my window, and yelled out for the whole rez to hear, “IM BACK BITCHES!!!” I pulled up to Ike’s house and parked. Mark and I got out. I got a warm welcome from my dog Splash as Tom went chasing him. “Goddamn your dog Skye.” I laughed. He noticed Mark and gave me a wink. “We are at the fire so y’all come on down,there’s venison stew and more than enough for you two.” We walked down the trail from the close knit houses, all the way down to the big open area where indeed my cousins were burning everything imaginable. “Hey Skye! Are we gonna play the famous duck and cover game? Got plenty of dead batteries to use?!” Andrew laughed, I felt Mark grab my hand. “Uhh probably not tonight. Maybe tomorrow.” Looking defeated he walked away. My aunts and uncles were sitting around the fire. Splash was in a near perfect heel next to me. My aunt Betsy stood up. “Well we all know she’s back,but introduce us to your friend.” We sat down on a log. Ike was sitting at the end and Mark sat in the middle. “This is Mark. He’s my boyfriend and I wanted to bring him up here and do some hunting with him.” Everyone welcomed him and I got up to get us a bowl of stew. Ike leaned over and whispered to Mark. I still to this day have no clue what he was saying to him. “Well,let’s all be happy that the lunatic of the family got someone in her life. Tonight let’s celebrate her father for sacrificing so much and the return of her.” Everyone cheered. I handed Mark a bowl of stew. Taking it he started to wolf it down. I took the first bite of venison,it fell apart in my mouth, something I haven’t had in such a long time. Ike looked at me, “Did you show him your talent yet?” I tilted my head; then it hit me what he was talking about. “No… not yet.” I said in between bites of stew. “I will when everyone else goes to bed.

I was happy to see Mark getting a nice warm welcome with the family. Everyone was asking him to tell stories which he did. “Yes my step father wanted to make a raccoon a pet. So he took it to the well pit. As you guessed it this coon was not happy and went near rabid on him. In his eyes he was going to go down there with a .22 pistol and kill the thing. I had to explain why that would be a poor idea, to which he finally realizes that the bullet would be bouncing around in the concrete and most likely hit him as well. So I left on a dirt bike and came back to no coon. I was only gone an hour and I asked him what happened to it, wouldn’t answer me.” I smiled. He then told everyone how we met and how I was bench pressing my transmission into my truck. Lots of stifled giggles were heard, then he went on and told them about Larry. By the time he was done everyone acted like he was part of the family. The fire turned from raging to a nice little fire. Ike got up and went inside mine and my father’s old house. Everyone else left us three alone.

Ike came back with my guitar. A nice acoustic Gibson. “Here, I’d like to hear some music if you don’t mind.” Ike said handing it to me. I shrugged, “I haven’t played since leaving.” Mark’s jaw dropped, “You can play?” I nodded. “Just a little bit.” I quickly went through and did a basic scale to warm my hands up. “Alright what song Ike?” I asked to which his reply was “House of the rising sun.” I nodded and began to play. Ike sang along passing Mark a whisky bottle. Mark took a swig. Without missing a beat I leaned over for him to dump some in my mouth. The song ended and Ike smiled. “She’s like my own at this point especially because of her father’s passing. Hey Skye did you even look at the jacket pockets? Your father probably left something in there for you. “I will in a minute,I wanna keep playing.” Ike smiled and passed me the bottle. “Play one of your favorites.” Mark kissed my cheek, “Play your favorite band I know you want to.” I smiled and nodded. I strummed the intro to Green river. Ike sang along. Mark pulled out a joint from a cigarette pack and lit it. Ike chucked as I was tuning my guitar for the next song. “I see she hasn’t changed much at all.” Ike passed the joint back to Mark who then stuck it in my mouth. I grinned and strummed the song Truckn’. Mark sang to this one. As the fire burned down to just coals Ike led us back to my truck to grab our clothes and hunting stuff from. “Nobody has been inside your dad’s house other than to clean. Feel free to stay in it.” I nodded and said my thanks as Ike walked away. We opened the door which led straight into the living room. Everything was still there from when we left. I showed Mark to my old room which sported a mattress, a wooden dresser and a bunch of tapestries on the wall of different Egyptian gods and bands. Some vinyl albums lined the wall as well. Splash came in after us. “This is my dog Splash, he’s a Chesapeake bay retriever. He’s an amazing dog and probably thought I left him. Mark smiled petting him as Splash soaked up all the attention. I led him to the bathroom. “Let’s take a shower,I’m all gross from driving and I’m sure you feel the same.” He nodded and followed me as I grabbed some towels for us.