Detour to Otherwhen ©
by K Pelle
Chapter 8
As soon as I stopped near the quonset hut, the gals pulled up and bailed out of the vehicles, asking a thousand questions at once. Then Chuck, Maybelle and their three kids pulled up and added to the din. I just held up my hands to get some peace and quiet so I could say something to everyone at once.
"Whoa, just hold the questions for a minute or two. The first thing we need to do is to let the dogs out of the wagon and get a shotgun out of the Jeep, because Wally warned me there's a cantankerous bull somewhere in the valley. Next we need to unload the team and the riding horses from the trailers and either put all of them in the corral, or hobble them and turn them loose in the pasture. I'd like to use the corral, but that means someone needs to check it and see if the fencing is solid enough to keep the horses from wandering off. Hopefully there's enough feed in the corral for them to graze there for a couple of days, but we need to make certain they have water too. Chuck, I hope you don't mind, but with that mare of yours horsin' I thought maybe you could hobble your remuda and put them out in the pasture. I'd even say you could turn 'em loose and let 'em run if you want, but the fences there would need to be checked first.
"Now I know you have a ton of questions concerning the valley and this ranch, so I'll fill you in on what Wally told me about it. It was his son's place, but the son and his wife were killed in an accident at a level crossing on the railroad. Because of those idiots who are raising hell in town, Wally felt we'd be safer here than at his ranch, so he was kind enough to let us use this place as a base camp."
"But why hide us out here? I looked at the map and the roads, so I'd guess that this valley is even farther from the road up to the plateau, which means we'll have to go back across his ranch to travel up to the area we want to research," Anna argued.
"Actually, this valley is closer to the park than Wally's place and on top of that, there's an old Métis trail leading up to the plateau which starts on the other end of this valley. If I remember the map of the area correctly, that trail could actually be one of those leading directly to the area where everyone thought the Métis had their village. In other words, not only are we going to be hidden away from all the rowdy young bucks back in town, but we might have a short cut to the main area we wanted to check first."
"Oh!" Anna looked astonished. "Are you telling me that Wally already knew where to look for the evidence we're hunting?"
"It sounds that way to me, but then he's a local native, so he'd have word of mouth info and rumours that the Métis Council wouldn't have heard. Now, let's get to work and if we get our butts in gear, we may be able to have the wagon packed by tonight, then we can head up into the hills early tomorrow. That way we won't hold up Chuck and Maybelle for long and they can get on with their holiday. The first job is to check out the corral. Then if it needs repairing we need to get that done so we can get the horses out of the trailers and grazing. If they're going to be working, they need to be fed."
Chuck and the three kids unloaded and saddled their riding horses, then went off to check out the fences in the two pastures, while the rest of us began to work on the other important stuff. There were a few of the poles on the corral that had been knocked loose, but none of the poles were broken, so it only took a little work with a hammer and nails or pliers and wire to reattach them. There was even water available in a long trough that ran across one end of the main corral and since it was running constantly I barely checked it since I could see it was fresh. When we turned the horses loose inside the corral, they celebrated by rolling and romping around like young colts, probably because they were free of ropes and hobbles for the first time in two days. As we worked on the repairs I explained the whole story behind the valley, which brought misty eyes to all four women. I was surprised at their reaction when I told them about the old bull though.
"Joe, I want you to take Bruno and your gun, then go hunt down that bull. I want to be certain it doesn't get another chance to terrify that old man," Anna demanded, suddenly wearing a grim look on her face. "By the way, if Wally said the bull was around here and warned you that it was dangerous, where is your shotgun?"
"Anna, have a look around you, we're out in the open, in a raised area, with grassy slopes leading away from us for a quarter of a mile in any direction. There isn't any way that an animal as big as a bull can get close to us without being seen. On top of that both Bruno and Curly as well as Chuck's dog, Brindle, are running around free and you can bet they'd let us know if there was any animal of any kind approaching us. If they do, I'll get the bloody shotgun, which is loaded and sitting in the back of the Jeep beside the gun case. Right now though we have other things to do that are more important than hunting for a stupid bull. After all, we were supposed to be up in the hills by this time, and we should already be looking for evidence of the Métis settlement. Instead we're still trying to get ready, so we need to get our butts in gear and do some work, but we've got a few extra things to do that I hadn't planned on."
"Oh, just what do you mean?"
"Anna, right now I think we should do what Wally suggested, which was to put all our vehicles in the shed so they're out of sight, and safe from tampering when we're away from camp. I agree with his thinking, because if those nuts from town do follow us here, but they don't see any sign of vehicles, they may bypass this place. Once we have them all parked inside, we need to sort what supplies we are taking along with us on the first trip and pack them directly into the wagon. Now before everyone gets all upset, you'd better realize that there's no way we can take along everything we brought with us in a single wagon load. We can probably take along a week's worth of supplies, but after that we'll have to come back and resupply for the next week or so."
"Are you thinking we'll sleep in the same building as we park the trailers tonight?" Ellen asked quietly.
"I think it would be safer, especially since we seem to be dealing with nut cases. Just ask Mimi what she thinks of the ones we met."
"Umm, I wasn't thinking of that, I was thinking how smelly the horse trailer is after having the horses in it all day yesterday. If we park it inside the building with us, it'll stink us out."
"So let's park the horse trailer in the open fronted cattle shelter over on the other side of the corral, then it'll still be out of sight from most directions. Anyway Wally said there were quite a few things stored in the quonset hut, but he thought there would be room for our vehicles and trailers too. Let's open the doors and see what it looks like inside."
I unlocked the double doors of the big corrugated steel building, and rolled both doors open, then just stared in surprise. First off, I was impressed by the size of the building, because from my present viewpoint it was even larger than it had appeared from the outside. It looked huge, at least forty feet wide and about a hundred feet long, but there were more supplies and material stored in there than I expected. I'd gotten the impression from Wally that there wasn't much inside the building when we'd talked about it, but I suppose I'd only made an assumption of that being the case. Instead, almost a quarter of the floor was covered with tools, equipment and building materials, some new and some very old. Not only that, but there was an upper loft at the far end of the building and it looked like there were a lot of bulky, but light weight items stored up there.
I could see relatively well even though the only light illuminating the place was what came through the doors and a few small windows set into the walls. Most of what was stored on the one side looked like building supplies, but the other side was full of tools and things that the women soon referred to as 'junk.' I didn't think that though, since at first glance I saw a couple of open topped barrels holding shovels, rakes, picks, mattocks, pry bars and various other tools of that sort. Then I noticed several open topped wooden boxes of wood working tools loaded with saws, hammers, goose necks and so on. On the top of one of those boxes I even saw a chain saw. Mostly it was a lot of old style equipment, in fact at the far end of the building I even noticed an old wood-burning stove. Near the stove was what I thought of as a big garden tractor and some implements built to the same scale as the tractor.
After looking at all that equipment, I just sighed softly to myself. Almost everything looked well used, but it all looked like it was still useable. At least most of it was packed away quite neatly along the outer edges of the building and the majority of the floor was empty, although there were a few items scattered around in the open area. After a close look at the things scattered around on the floor though, I remembered Wally telling me about hurrying down there to rescue things from the damaged trailer after a big storm. Obviously any furniture or personal items they had saved would have been brought inside hurriedly, then just left where it happened to land. Once we shifted that stuff to the side though, we'd still have room to store the vehicles, so we set out to move anything left in the central floor area over to the sides, either with the materials, or over with equipment.
By the time we had the central portion of the floor cleaned up, Anna declared it was time to make lunch. While she and Maybelle were preparing something to eat, Mimi, Ellen and I backed my trailer into the big building, then parked the horse trailer inside the cattle shed. Chuck and the kids came back while we were there and they said the fences on the pastures were fine, so they turned all of Chuck's horses loose, but for his gelding. Chuck turned the gelding in with the rest, but hobbled him first so he'd have one horse that was easy to catch.
Over lunch the four of us who were going up into the park discussed how we were going to park the vehicles inside in order to simplify the task of packing supplies that we'd need to take. What complicated matters was the fact that the women still wanted to be able to use the camper whenever we were at base camp. As well as that I still wanted to be able to get at my Jeep in case we had an emergency and needed to go somewhere in a hurry.
"I knew we should have packed things more carefully back in Victoria," Mimi grouched. "Now we have to sort darn near everything, but then after we sort it all, we have to pack some of it again, but in the wagon this time. If we'd known what we were up against . . ."
"Mimi, just let it be, okay?" I frowned at her. "I blame circumstance more than anything else for that problem. For instance I was planning on being home to help with packing on the last day, but instead I had to work late. As it is, we'll just have to do what we can as quickly as possible."
"Well, as I see it, we need to pack the wagon in reverse order to the way we'll need everything when we're on site," Anna sighed resignedly. "Which means we have to plan our whole week as we're packing, with the initially used items at the back and the least used items in the front."
"Wait a minute, even with the top on it, the wagon has two open ends, at least the front end is partly open, so whoever drives the team can get at things even while we're moving," Mimi said quietly. "What we have to do is decide what we're taking and pack everything where it will be handy, and I can't see that it's such a big deal. We've already parked Joe's trailer so we can get at the back of it to unpack and since we'll be using the tent and that stuff all the time, we can sort out the camping gear first. What we need to decide right now is how to park the wagon, the Jeep and the camper so we can get at the supplies and sort them into batches of what we'll need to have each week."
In the long run we decided that the wagon had to be backed in toward the far end of the shed with the Jeep parked in front of it. That way we could use the Jeep to pull the wagon back outside after it was loaded, then we decided the camper would be parked in front of my trailer, but it needed to be parked with the tail end toward the big doors. Since Anna felt uncomfortable driving in tight quarters, it became my job to park everything. I suggested that we start with the wagon and push it in by hand, but I thought it might be wise to get the top in place before we took it inside.
So that's the job we started on right after lunch. Since Chuck and I hadn't marked the hoops or the canvas when we'd put the top on the wagon at the ranch, we made a few mistakes when we tried to set it up again. In fact it was late afternoon and time to have something to eat before we got the top on correctly. To be honest, after putting hoops and top on, then having to remove everything more than once, we were all a little short tempered. Eventually we had the hoops installed right and called a halt to our efforts, deciding to take a break and have a coffee and a snack. Anna and Maybelle made coffee and a snack ,while Mimi, Ellen, C huck and lil' Jo helped me push the wagon into place.
Since we had some time before taking a break, Mimi and I wandered down to the corral. I spent some time looking around, and soon realized that we couldn't leave the horses there for long. There simply wasn't enough graze in the corral for more than three or four days, but having them wander around free seemed somewhat risky. Just to be safe I called the dogs over and walked around the perimeter of the corral and then the area where we were staying. I was hoping that the dogs would catch on that the area we had circled was our campsite and that they should guard it. I wasn't too sure what Curly thought of the situation, but both Brindle and Bruno seemed to switch into protective mode, which was all I could ask for. Curly was smart though, so I was confident she'd pick up the idea on her own and if she didn't learn by imitation, I didn't think she'd be hard to train.
I'd barely led the dogs around the corral area when Ellen called to Mimi and me that our coffee and light lunch was ready. So we went to the camper and sat just outside. That's when I realized that my group were using the wooden folding table and chairs Mom and Dad had always used when they went camping, while Chuck and his family were using a modern plastic set.
"Hey, I recognise these camping chairs," I grinned as I sat down.
"You should, they came out of your basement," Ellen grinned right back. "Here I went to all the trouble of packing them right at the back of the trailer and on the top of the load so we could get at them easily on the trip and this is the first time we've needed them."
"Well, it's better to have them and not need them, than need them and not have them," Anna smiled. "After seeing these I'm just wondering what else is in that trailer. These have to be the best made folding table and chairs I ever saw, even if they are a bit heavy."
"Oh yeah, Mom and Dad had good camping gear, but it seems a bit old fashioned now," I commented.
"Well, if it was in that storage room in your basement, it's in the trailer now," Ellen smirked. "I don't know how we got it all in there, but everything that was there is in that trailer"
"What? There were four piles in that room, only the larger one in the middle was camping gear. Outside that and against the wall was all my hunting rifles and stuff, as well as my old fashioned black powder guns, along with the bows and arrows that I take to every Métis rendevous. On the other side of the camping gear there was a pile that I call the family 'heirlooms,' which are things that were special to my folks and even some that were special to my grandparents. Finally there was a pile of boxes and bags of stuff that came from my folk's house which still needed to be sorted out, but I've never got around to sorting," I was staring at Ellen in astonishment. "All you were supposed to pack was the camping gear."
"Uh oh," Ellen giggled. "We packed everything we found in the room and had a heck of a time getting it all into the trailer."
"That might be my fault, because I didn't know enough to show her exactly what should be packed and what stayed behind," Anna laughed nervously. "I guess I should have been more specific, rather than just pointing into the room and saying to pack all the camping gear into the trailer, shouldn't I?"
"Oh good lord!" I shook my head slowly. "No darn wonder that trailer pulled like a lump of lead. If you took everything in that room, then you must have packed at least a ton of stuff. I didn't really pay a lot of attention since my tent and sleeping bag were right inside the tailgate and that's all I've needed so far on the trip. I did notice that the trailer was packed to the gills, and now I know why!"
"Well, your tent and sleeping bag were two things I wanted to be easy for you to get at, so I made sure that I packed them last," Ellen sighed. "Sorry if I screwed up on all the other stuff from your family."
"Oh, no harm done, except we've burned a lot more diesel than we should have, just hauling that stuff around. From the sounds of it, there's a lot of junk as well as a fair bit of my family's history packed in that trailer and I hope like heck we don't lose any of that old gear."
"Well, since you said the camping gear was in one pile, and since we've already pulled your tent and this picnic set out, the rest of the camping gear must all be at the back too. I think your family's stuff is probably toward the forward end of the trailer," Ellen sighed. "I suppose if it wasn't too fragile and was packed well, it should be relatively safe."
"It's too late to worry about it now," I managed a chuckle as I shook my head again. "Although, if I ever move again I'm going to hire you to pack my moving van. I can't believe you got all that stuff into that little trailer."
Since I wasn't really all that upset, I did spend some time making sure that Ellen knew I wasn't really bothered by the mistake she'd made. It hadn't done any real harm except for costing a bit in extra fuel, and since her family had insisted on paying for that, it hadn't hurt me in any way. Then I managed to shift our discussion to how we were going to manage our sleeping arrangements when we travelled with the wagon. Anna felt that we should try to arrange things so we could all sleep in the wagon itself, but I felt we'd be better off sleeping in Dad's big army tent so we could reserve the wagon for our supplies.
The discussion was getting somewhat heated when the dogs all perked up, then we heard a vehicle on the trail that entered the valley. About then I was wishing that Chuck and his family were still nearby, but they had all decided that the four of us needed some privacy. Maybelle and lil' Jo had packed up a lunch to eat later, then they'd all gone to catch their horses and go for a ride, leaving earlier than they would have gone out when they were back home. The reason for their enthusiasm had been easy to understand – this was new territory for them, so they could do some exploring while seeing a totally new area. I did warn Chuck about the chance of meeting that darn bull though, so he'd taken along a rifle, but at the moment I was wishing both he and his rifle were nearby to back me up in case of trouble.
The vehicle I'd heard turned out to be no problem though, since it was a cop car. In fact it wasn't long before we saw that it was our friend the young RCMP officer again, but as he approached us we could easily see he had someone with him. In fact we could soon tell that his passenger was a female, which caused Mimi to frown.
"Damn, he's brought a girlfriend along," she muttered, so quietly that if I hadn't been sitting beside her, I wouldn't have heard her.
"Easy, kitten. You're showing your claws," I whispered.
"You weren't supposed to hear that," she whispered back, but she did manage a weak smile.
"If you didn't want me to hear, you shouldn't have spoken aloud," I grinned, but was still being quite quiet.
"It's not my fault you have ears that could hear a jackrabbit fart in a howling blizzard. Do you realize you were already looking down the road before the dogs turned their heads that direction?"
She had me chuckling with that one, but I managed to answer her question. "Well, if I did look that direction, it was by accident. Seeing the dogs' ears perk up was what drew my attention."
"How could you even see the dogs when you were already looking up the valley and the dogs were beside you. Do you have eyeballs in your ears too?"
I didn't comment because by then the car had driven near us, then the cop and his passenger got out. The cop was holding a sheet of paper in his hand.
"Hi," The cop nodded and held the paper out toward Anna who had walked toward the car. "I have a fax here for . . ." he paused and glanced at the sheet of paper. "Professor Anna Schmidt. That would be you, wouldn't it, Anna?"
Anna nodded, read the fax, then frowned and turned to face the rest of us. "The fax is from Mary Bluesky and the National Métis Council. Both the council and the University of Victoria want us to add a fifth member to our group for safety reasons. They also say you might know this woman, Joe? She's an EMT who recently was based at the fire hall just on the edge of the UVic campus."
I took a second look at the young woman, then grinned since I did recognise her. "Oh, hi there, Fran. I didn't recognise you at first. Anna, you should know her too. This is the young woman who used to date Ozzie, the big rugby player who lives in room four at the boarding house, don't you remember her?"
"Oh!" Anna suddenly smiled. "Darn it, Fran, I didn't recognise you in that getup."
"Well, I ain't wearin' either my EMT uniform or a party dress, which were probably the only sorta outfits ya'da seen me in before," Fran laughed. "I really didn't know either of ya very well anyway. I mean Ozzie and I never spent much time with you folks. Then we broke up a coupla months ago, so I ain't been around Joe's Joint for a while an' . . ."
"Well, that's behind us," I snorted. "So you got shanghaied into trying to keep us healthy, did you?"
"Shanghaied heck!" Fran grinned at me. "This is a holiday for me, but ya should know a bit about my trainin' an' my background before I join ya, so I'll give ya a quick summary. First off, I'm still a tribal police officer of the Nekaneet Cree Nation, so I've got police authority all through the Cypress Hills, but I was trained by the RCMP before I became an EMT. I'm supposeta give ya both medical and police support, even if I hope I ain't gonna hafta do all that much o' either one."
"Wow! I'm surprised that the Métis Council would go that far," Anna frowned. "Is this because of all the crap brewing with the locals?"
"Partly, but it's also because anythin' to do with archaeology around here has become somethin' of a political hot potatah," Fran sighed. "Two universities in Alberta and one in Saskatchewan, and the various tribes in southern Alberta, are up in arms over some weird stuff that's been happenin' durin' some o' the recent archaeological digs. They're checkin' out a group o' guys that seem to be taken advantage of a loophole or two in the laws about native artifacts. I think you just might know one of the people . . ."
"Royce Dingle?" I barked.
"Yep, one guy's name is Dingle," she snorted. "I met him - a little twerp, with an overgrowed ego, a snotty attitude and a big mouth."
"Oh, it certainly sounds like you've had the pleasure of meeting dear old Dingle Dongle, the dipwad," Anna frowned. "So, have they charged the little prick with anything yet?"
I just stared at Anna, having never seen her sounding quite the way she was right then.
"Well, when I left Victoria las' week, he hadn't been charged with nothin', but he'd been put on suspension by UVic, pendin' a look inta what they could find out 'bout what all he'd done. From what I heard some fireball on campus had a lot of pull, so he bullied several politicians an' boss types into doin' sumthin' 'bout the turd."
"Well, meet the bullying fireball," Anna's mood changed and she broke into a chuckle as she patted me on the shoulder. "Joe got a little upset and decided to rock the boat a mite."
"I didn't bully anyone," I protested. "I just pulled in a few favours, asked a few questions and told people that I expected to get some answers."
"Well, whether yer a bully or not, is it okay with ya if I tag along on your lil' trip?" Fran asked quietly.
"Don't ask me, Anna is in charge," I snorted.
"I certainly have no problems having an EMT along, but you do know that we're going to be camping and we're not allowed to use any cars or trucks in the hills, don't you? Are you going to be uncomfortable about travelling by horse and wagon?" Anna said quietly.
"No problem," Fran smiled. "Remember, I'm a breed and was raised on a Cree reserve, so I'm everythin' that comes with that first, and an EMT or Tribal Police Officer second. I was just 'bout raised on horseback and I don't need t' take a lot of stuff with me, just my clothes, my sleepin' bag and some emergency medicines. I did bring a little food too, but since I was raised close by I know most of the local natural foods and native medicines, so I doubt if we'll starve."
"Oh, wonderful!" Ellen suddenly joined the conversation. "Joe knows some native plants used for foods and medicines too and I know a little bit, but not a lot. The problem is that I'm from the Island and Joe is too, but other than that he's only hunted much in the foothills of the Rockies, so we don't really know very much about plants from this area. I'm Ellen by the way and this is Mimi. We're Anna's students and some more of Joe's friends."
A hen party broke out as they got Fran's gear out of the trunk of the squad car. They weren't letting me get close enough to help, so I wandered over by the young RCMP officer who looked worn out.
"Don't you ever sleep?" I asked quietly.
"I'll be able to have a nice long snooze soon, I hope," he sighed, but managed a weak smile. "I actually got three or four hours in the sack last night and since Fran is with you now, I'll probably be able to get a few more tonight. It's a real relief to have her with you, since I trust her judgement."
"Just so I know, how serious is this stink the elders are kicking up?"
"Huh, I'm really not too certain myself. I do know there's a lot of talk goin' on amongst the young hotheads, and I know the elders have shut down the other dig for the time being, but other'n that, I don't know much. Having an armed officer in your camp makes me feel a lot better about this situation though."
"She's armed?"
"Yeah, she's fully licensed and carrying a handgun, but not openly. Actually, somewhere in her gear she has a riot gun too, a twelve gauge, but it's probably broken down at the moment. She's originally from this area and she's been back here for a few days, working undercover and wandering the town, so she probably knows more about what's going on than I do. You might want to get her aside and ask her what she thinks, but I suppose you should wait a while and let her settle in with the women first. I've got to get back to town soon to help keep an eye on things this evening, but I'll try to drop in on you tomorrow morning."
"Well, since we aren't planning on being near town for a while, I hope things calm down for you."
"Yeah, me too," he nodded, then turned toward the women. "Fran, before I leave, have you got all your gear and everything you need out of the car?"
"Yes, Tom, I do. Thanks for the ride and the introduction. I'll be seein' ya in a few weeks," Fran answered and waved, then turned back to say something to Anna.
"Okay Joe, I've got to go. If I don't happen to get back before you guys take off up the hill, I hope you have the best of luck."
"Thanks Tom."
See Editor's Note - bottom of page.
After shaking my hand, Constable Tom Collins hopped into his car and drove away. I watched the car as it drove up the valley and disappeared around the first curve, then I turned back towards the women. We now had one more personality added to our mix and from what I could see, a very welcome addition. She certainly represented a welcome level of security and safety, all wrapped up in a very pleasant looking package, but at the same time I felt that she was going to cause a disagreement or two. I already had a minor worry that she and Mimi were going to come into conflict with each other. I couldn't shake that hunch, no matter how much I tried and the only thing I had to go on was one comment I'd overheard Mimi make before we'd even met Fran. I wondered if jealousy was going to become a problem.
Shrugging my shoulders and trying to shake off my apprehension, I wandered toward the huddle of women to see what they were planning to do. I was hoping to get some sorting and packing done before the sun set and it became too dark to work inside the building, but it seemed that I wasn't about to get any help.
Grumbling to myself, I wandered over to my trailer in the big shed. I was glad then that I'd put some thought into parking the trailer, making sure it was near the back of the building, but off to the side and out of the way of anything else moving in and out. With it parked out of the way I was able to open it and begin to sort through the gear that we'd brought for camping. I wanted to separate everything into piles, with essential items in one area, handy items in a second and what I called fripperies in a third.
The first pile of essentials held the tents, camp beds, mattresses, sleeping bags, spare blankets and so on. A second pile of essentials held cooking gear such as a stainless-steel grill, cast-iron pots and pans, stainless-steel bowls, kitchen knives, flatware, plates, cups, glasses, and things of that sort. Then there were the 'essential-for-women' items that Mom had always insisted on having along, things like a toilet seat mounted on a folding stand so she didn't have to squat over a hole dug in the ground. In that pile I added a 'sun-shower' bag that could be hung in a tree and wished I had two or three more. Then I started a pile of less essential items, but I didn't get very far with that before Anna called me outside.
"Joe, I think you need to talk to Mimi. I can't seem to find out what's wrong and she's acting like a grouch."
"I think it's jealousy," I sighed, speaking quietly. "She thought she had the inside track on the young cop we've been dealing with until he showed up with Fran in the car and we added her to our crew."
"Oh hell! For some reason I missed that," Anna growled. "Could you talk to her before I have to? If you can't do anything I'll have to say something to both of them, I suppose."
"Well, I'll give it a try," I rolled my eyes, but she shook her head and frowned at me.
"You are the one who needs to say something, you know. She'll listen to you and if you've talked to her first, then she'll pay attention if I do have to talk to her."
I glanced around and saw that Mimi was over at the corral, petting one of the horses, so I wandered over toward her. She was on the far side of the horse and looked at me over it's back, then sighed heavily.
"Why do I always get wound up about nice guys that are already taken?" she asked quietly. "First you, and now Tommy."
"Ah, but you knew I was taken when we met," I grinned slightly, encouraged that she'd brought up the subject without any prodding on my part. "As for your cop buddy, I'd say from the way he was acting that Fran is a close friend, but I'm not sure if they're involved. I didn't see him running over to hug and kiss her before he left, so you might just be jumping to conclusions."
"Oh, you're right," she stared at me first, then broke into a tentative smile. "How did you get to be so smart?"
"That's easy to answer, I make it a policy to hang around with smart women," I grinned and winked broadly. "Now I notice that the sun is going to set soon, so what do you say we go build a small campfire before it gets dark, then I can make some camp coffee."
"Hah, if you plan on sleeping tonight, you'd be better off with some herbal tea."
"Actually, since I plan on keeping watch for a few hours, I think I'll have a strong coffee instead," I sighed. "Your cop buddy has me all wound up and a bit worried about our safety."
"Hmmph, you might be right about keeping an eye on things then. Why don't you go make a fire ring out of some of the rocks laying around? I'll go get some squaw wood, that way we can have a relatively smoke free fire."
And with that she headed off toward the trees on the edge of the bank below the cliffs. I noticed that she hadn't gone more than a few feet before Bruno was up on his feet and following along with her. I just smiled, thinking to myself that he was one smart dog, feeling thankful that he was as protective of our group as he was. Meanwhile I walked over to Anna, who was levelling the camper truck for the night. Ellen and Fran were still sitting at the table, quietly talking about native plants and their various uses, so I could talk to Anna privately.
"I think I've calmed Mimi down for now, but I'm not sure how long it will last," I smiled at Anna. "Right now she's off to get some wood to build a little campfire. I'm going to make some coffee and she wants to make some herbal tea."
"Coffee? This late in the evening?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "I'm planning on sitting up for a while, just in case we have a visit from those elders or the young bucks that Constable Collins was mentioning. I'll set up the fire ring, then pitch my tent while the coffee is perking."
"Well, there's a fire pit already set up over there. It even has a rusty old cast iron grill and a swing stake," she pointed toward it. "There are even a few logs and rocks nearby that people must have used for seats. Ellen found it and cleaned back the long grass around it earlier today when she found her temper getting away from her while we were working on that wagon top."
I checked over the area she'd pointed to and decided that I didn't want to set up my tent there, but since we didn't need the fire to warm the tents anyway, that old firepit would do for now. After all, I just wanted a campfire because we were camping and I needed something we all could enjoy, just to break the sombre mood that seemed to have set in. I suppose it's only nostalgia, but I find that coffee tastes different when it's made over an open fire and even if none of the others wanted coffee, they might enjoy the fire.
So after checking the fire pit, then getting a hatchet, I only had to wait a few minutes before Mimi brought some dry wood and I could start a small fire. Once that was burning I wandered off to get my tent and sleeping bag, then set those up near the camper. I wasn't the only one to set up a tent though, so did both Mimi and Fran, who each set up a small pup tent on either side of mine. We barely had them up before Ellen let us know that the water for tea was boiled and the coffee was perked, so we all clustered around the fire pit and found seats to enjoy the tiny fire I'd built.
Since Fran was going to be travelling with us, I thought I should get to know her a bit, so I asked her a few questions and got her talking.
Fran had been born on the Nekaneet Cree Reserve, but considered herself a Métis because she did have mixed blood and she had cousins who were registered as Métis. As well as that she'd learned about native food plants and natural remedies from her grandmother who was a local 'healer.' Then, since she had a strong sense of right and wrong, she managed to overcome the local prejudice about women on the Native Police Force and actually took that part of her training through the RCMP. Later, since she was already knowledgeable about native plants and medicines she'd taken a couple of courses on emergency medicine and was rated by the Native Police as an EMT. In fact, she'd been in Victoria to take further EMT training when Anna and I had previously met her.
When I asked about the local elders who were stirring up trouble, she wasn't positive which tribe or even which nation they belonged to and didn't know where the trouble makers were from. The only thing she knew for certain was that they only showed up in town during the evenings and they seemed to draw the wilder sort of young men to them with ease. She knew two of the guys that Mimi had tangled with and surprised me by winking at Mimi with a grin.
"The young bucks in town have give ya a native name, ya know?" Fran chuckled.
"Huh? Me? Why?" Mimi looked completely surprised.
"They call ya by a Cree name that means 'Lightnin' Woman,' 'cause you move so fast and hit so hard. My cousin, Tommy, thinks I'd better ask ya to teach me how ta move like that, since we'll be workin' together for a month or so."
"Your cousin?" Mimi still looked confused.
"Tommy Green Grass, you know, Officer Tom Collins, the RCMP ossifer who gimme a ride out here. His mom and my mom is half-sisters, same mom, different dad, so I call him my half assed cousin."
"Oh!" Mimi looked astounded, then grinned. "I thought he was your boyfriend or something."
"Oh, is that why you was actin' standoffish. I'm glad it wasn't nothin' serious," Fran laughed softly. "You was stayin' so far away from me, I thought I mighta had B.O. or somethin'."
In only a few moments, the women were all chatting away happily, so I looked at Anna and she gave me a surreptitious wink, then glanced down at the small fire left in the fire pit. I was wondering what she was up to when she leaned over to Ellen and whispered something in her ear which made Ellen grin and hop to her feet then run over to the Jeep. She came away from there carrying that damn black fiddle case.
"You want me to play that thing – tonight?" I frowned at Anna.
"Unh huh, I do. I noticed that Fran brought along a guitar, so I thought perhaps the two of you could try playing together this evening."
"Ohh, you play a fiddle!" Fran squealed as Ellen handed me the old black case. "That's wonderful! I just learned to play guitar and I need to keep in practise, so can I join you?"
When I nodded, she hopped to her feet and ran to the old tin hut to get a guitar from her pile of gear. In only moments she was back and flopping down, then tuning up to match the tone of my fiddle as I went through each of the strings. When I broke into the 'Red River Jig' she just grinned and began to play backup almost perfectly.
We worked through half a dozen songs quite quickly, but as I played I knew there was something far different about playing the fiddle that night. It was almost as if the fiddle had a different 'mood' or something, but more than that, it felt different to me than it had the other night. To me it felt as if the fiddle 'liked' fast happy tunes and held back and played 'weaker' on the less happy songs. Thankfully there were no wild effects either, instead that night it was just a fiddle and it made noise, nothing more. The music didn't reach out and grab you the way it had on the night of the party when that fiddle had stolen everyone's attention, then held them in its thrall. I was quite thankful for that, but I think Anna had expected something else to happen.
While we'd been playing though, the fire had burned down and was now nothing more than a few glowing coals in a bed of ashes, so eventually I set the fiddle back in it's case. After that I just stared at the dying embers of the fire for a few moments . Reaching out with a long stick to stir them around, I doused them with the grounds from my mug and what coffee was left in the pot, then stirred everything again. I felt what few embers still left were safe since I wasn't going to bed right away and I'd check it later, just to be certain the fire was completely out.
"Well, ladies, I think tomorrow is going to be a long day, so it might be an idea if you all turn in pretty soon. I'm going to sit up for a while, just in case, but I'm not sure why. After all, we haven't seen any trouble today and we have three dogs on patrol. Besides, Chuck and his family aren't back yet, so I want to wait up for them, just to be sure they're okay."
Of course that comment led to a discussion. Fran insisted that if I felt it was important enough to sit up and keep watch, then we should take turns to have an all night watch. Anna chimed in at that point and stated flatly that everyone should take a turn for an hour or two, then Mimi began working out the actual time everyone would need to spend.
Just then though I thought I heard sound of a vehicle on the incoming trail, so I paused, letting the women go ahead of me toward the tents and the camper. Whatever it was that I heard stopped, then I heard a car door close, perhaps at the gate, and after that I might have heard the sound of a voice. I couldn't be certain of that, but I did notice that Bruno lifted his head and his ears perked up as he looked toward of the trail that came down the gully.
Even though I waited for a moment or two, I didn't hear any further sounds and I wasn't certain whether I should check to see what was going on or not. Then noticing that I'd left my hatchet and the fiddle case near the fire pit, I wandered over and picked it up, realizing offhandedly that the sunset had almost faded away and the sky was quickly growing darker. The whole effect seemed almost unnatural – after all, the sun had just set, so I didn't think the surroundings should have grown so dark anywhere near that quickly. The strange thing about the darkness was that it didn't seem to affect the area around our campsite; we stood in normal twilight, but it seemed as if the hills above us were darker than they should be. Since we were in a valley, that effect was somewhat eerie and quite unsettling. It just didn't seem natural for the hills to be darker than the valley floor.
I'd just stood up after picking up the hatchet and fiddle when I heard a rumbling noise that sounded like an avalanche, followed by a loud metallic crunching noise and the sound of breaking glass. The rattle of rocks had hardly passed when I heard the roar of a revving engine and the screeching sound of tortured metal. I peered up the valley, trying to see through the gathering darkness, but couldn't make out any details – everything in that direction was in deep shadow. In fact it was dark enough that I couldn't make out any movement, and although it sounded like there might be a vehicle coming our way, but I couldn't see any lights. Those sounds worried me, just because I was unable to see any sign of the approaching car.
At that moment I was positive there was something very strange happening. My first thought was that someone had been trying to sneak up on us and had driven off the road on one of the steeply ditched sections. My second thought was that perhaps someone had been coming to warn us about some kind of danger and had been ambushed while passing through one of the steep cuts in the hillside. I could still hear the sound of an engine as it was approaching, but not being able to see what was coming really bothered me. Just in case whoever was coming our way wasn't friendly, I wanted to be holding a weapon that was a lot more effective than a hatchet, so I started toward the Jeep to grab my shotgun and one of my heavy duty flashlights.
Unfortunately, I was unable to go more than a few steps in that direction before I had to dodge back as a car roared out of the darkness, cutting between the women and me, then it skidded to a stop. The car was a wreck, almost as if it had been through a demolition derby, but the insignia on the door showed that it was an RCMP car. Then the driver's door opened and Constable Collins staggered out.
"Mob comin,'" he groaned. "Attacked me. Rolled boulders downhill. Wrecked m'car."
Then he took one more step toward me and staggered so heavily that I thought he was about to collapse.
"Someone come help me!" I shouted, trying to catch him before he fell. "Tom's been hurt."
The next few moments were utter confusion for me, but we managed to get Tom carried into the quonset hut and stretched out on blankets which were laid directly on the floor. Fran had a couple of her packs open and was examining Tom, who had passed out as we tried to help him inside. Then as the rest of us stood by ready to help, he opened his eyes and looked up at Fran.
"Fran, radio inta base . . . Call shtation at Elkwadder," Tom slurred his words. "Let 'em know . . . 'bout t'ambush."
"Joe, can you do that, please? Use the radio in the car," Fran plead. "I can't leave Tom right now. I need to see how badly he's been hurt."
"I'm on it, but the car is wrecked, the radio might not work."
"Just try, dammit!" she snapped.
"No problem. I'll do what I can."
I rushed toward the wreck and checked the radio antenna first, seeing that it was bent, but still looked to be in one piece, so I slid inside the open door and studied the radio. At the moment it was silent and the faceplate didn't even glow, but I tried to key the microphone anyway. There was no effect, not even a click from the speaker and when I tried speaking into the microphone, it sounded completely dead. I tried turning the key to the car on and off, and did the same to the switch for the radio, but that didn't change anything. Thinking that I'd see if there might be a blown fuse, I glanced around for the fuse panel, but couldn't see one, so as a last resort I popped the hood latch. I was thinking that the fuses might be under the hood or perhaps the battery had been disconnected by the jarring of the accident.
Unfortunately the hood was jammed and didn't want to open, so I decided I needed something that might act as a pry bar. The first thing to come to mind was the hatchet that I'd dropped when Tom staggered from the car, so I looked around, saw it, then bent and picked it up. It was useless for the job of opening the hood though. No matter which opening I jammed the blade into, or how much I twisted and pried on the handle of the hatchet, that hood was jammed tight. I was just wondering what other tool I had that might work to pry open that hood, when I heard a strange sound that seemed to be coming from behind me.
That sound started as a quiet murmur, but as I turned to face it, the sound seemed to shift. No matter which direction I turned, the murmur of sound always seemed to come from behind my back. That bothered me and I turned back to the hood of the car again, trying frantically to wrench it open, but when I did that, the sound level behind me seemed to grow. I spun around to face the sound again, but this time the murmur didn't diminish, instead it grew and spread. In only seconds it seemed as if the campsite was surrounded by a murmuring ring of muttering voices. Only now it seemed to come from an area larger than just around the campsite. Now that ring of sound encompassed the whole area, including the buildings and the corrals as if some group had surrounded our group, the animals and everything we had brought with us. The murmur grew in volume and as it was growing louder it seemed to grow more menacing. The murmur became a chant, then grew loud enough to draw the attention of the women who were with Fran and Tom.
"Joe, who's making that noise?" I heard Anna call.
"I don't know, but stay where you are," I called back. "If the dogs are with you, keep them there for protection."
As if our voices had been a signal, there was a flicker of light, then a racing flare of flames that leapt from torch to torch all the way around the circle. By twisting my head back and forth I could see that we were completely surrounded by ghostly figures and each figure now held a flaming torch. It seemed that I stood in the middle of a ring of threatening shadowy figures bearing torches who formed a circle perhaps two hundred yards away from me. I couldn't see the figures distinctly, but considering how closely they stood to each other, there must have been hundreds of them in order for them to surround us completely. That fact alone was intimidating as hell, but my worry about the situation grew as the chant grew louder and wilder. I began to edge toward the door of car, intent on checking to see if Tom had a weapon in it that I could use as protection, but in an instant the situation changed once more.
The sound of chanting lessened and three figures appeared out of the darkness, walking slowly toward the fire ring where our group had recently been gathered. I only needed one glance to guess that the three men who stood there were shaman just from the ornate outfits they wore. Each of the three shaman was old, very old, with wrinkled visages, stooped shoulders and palsied steps, yet in a strange way they seemed to radiate strength and anger as they approached.
At that moment I was feeling a slight stab of fear, then suddenly Bruno was at my side and my fear lessened as he growled at the advancing trio. Right then I decided that no matter what these old guys wanted, I was willing to argue with them, so as the three old men glared at me, I returned their glares, scowling just as deeply as they did. The sounds of chanting diminished and died as those three old shaman came to a halt facing me across the dead ashes of the fire pit.
I'm unsure where the sensation came from, but right then I felt that I was being backed into an untenable situation, and yet I grew stubborn, refusing to give up. Our group had official sanction to be here and to carry on with our task, so who were these intruders and what right did these people have to interfere? So the longer those three old shaman glared and postured, the greater my resolve to oppose them steadied and grew into a passionate resolve to oppose their desires. I had long since decided that I had reason and permission to be here, so I adopted this as my territory and resolved that my will would prevail. I was outnumbered and surrounded, but I simply refused to be forced into submission to their will. I did not wish them ill, but if they attacked, I knew I would fight to protect my friends, so I wanted those three old men to know that this would be a battle that would end in death for one side or the other.
For an interminable time the three shaman sought to bully me with a silent battle of sheer willpower, unblinking, unmoving and extremely unsettling, yet I refused to be intimidated. There were no sounds, no movement, only a gradually increasing darkness as night fell, but my resolve was firm – I would not back down and I would not give in. At the same time I was certain they felt as strongly as I did, but for some reason they seemed to be hesitant to make any indication of any action that could be interpreted as offensive.
At the moment no one seemed to want to appear to the physical aggressor, so for the time being we all stood there in motionless silence.
Somehow the confrontation seemed to have degenerated into a stalemate!