Part 14 (1/2)

Lydia and I in the lead canoe. Instructions: if any heavy rapids, pull to the side and inspect the river.

We see high whitewater ahead and pull in.

But Max and Daphne keep going.

The third canoe follows Craig and Alex shrugging. So we join them.

But ahead I can tell Max is in trouble.

I stand up in the back of the canoe. I can see Max and Daphne lean and capsize. We pull into sh.o.r.e.

All I can think is, Daphne is pregnant.

They have gone down several steep shelves of rock. They are hanging onto the sunken canoe in the last pool before the falls. The current is fast.You can tell from how theyre balanced that their purchase is tender, up to their necks. They are leaning into the river.

Max is nimbly leaning back into the current, holding the nose of the canoe. The falls are twelve feet and very rough, ma.s.sive rocks. Max calm in the face of a ridiculous situation.

I throw a rope and Max secures the canoe. Craig hauls the canoe over and I steer it in. I throw a rope to Daphne. It's not clean around her. She loses her footing and swings, she swings towards the edge of froth, gripping the rope in her armpit. I see Craig lean to dive in. The rope snaps taut and we pull her in. Then it's Max.

It's six-thirty, the sky grazing the tops of heavy spruce. The food tubs were not roped in. So their gear is floating down-river. It begins to rain. Daphne a little in shock. We set up tents on the only clear spot, rocky and steep. A dreary scene. Build a fire, a fire is good, you hear about fires, everything you read about a fire is true. A fire never offers despair. A fire is pure hope, a true raw heart.

Make some tea. Tea is the drinkable equivalent of fire.

We portage the canoes. We spot a tiny cabin behind the bluff of a hill in the rain. We decide to break in. Max a.s.sures us the cabin owner wouldnt mind, considering our predicament. The rain plummeting.

We scuttle our miserable camp, our last stand, and make for the cabin. We ruin a screen on the window breaking in. There are six bunks. Six of us. A fine woodstove. Drying out the gear.

We leave money on the table to replace the screen.

We all try our best to lose our stiffness. We're too serious. Or perhaps it would be best if someone admitted how close to death Max and Daphne were. And Daphne pregnant. But it's too early, or too severe, to admit to anything, and we play cards and drink Scotch and light candles and kerosene lamps.

13 Lydia: Take a gander at the map.

Me: You mean, take an exploits at the map.

What?

Gander River. Exploits River.

I knew you were gonna say that.

We take a vote and decide to continue down the Exploits. We're sick of the cabin. We feel better in a canoe, even in the rain. We make it to Badger by nightfall and camp at the edge of a farmer's field. Max walks into town the highway runs very close to the river, so even when youre out on the water youre never that far from civilization. Craig strings up a tarp and a line to hang clothes.

The farmer and his wife come by. They are politely leery of the fire and their gra.s.s, which could transport a line of flame straight over to the sheep barn. They tell us that the Badger Chute is around the bend and that we must portage it. Search and Rescue, the farmer says, are hauling people out of that every year.

Max returns with a bottle of dark rum. And Daphne mixes drinks. It is clear Daphne has scolded Max and Max has apologized.

Craig repairs everything. A missing tent pole. He leans over to apply duct tape to the heels of Lydia's sandals.

14 We reach the chute and size it up. We portage the gear over the k.n.o.b of rock and stand studying the chute. I try to stand as if I know what I'm gauging. Craig and Alex want to do it, which convinces us. Max and Daphne have already begun to portage. We flip a coin and Lydia and I win the toss. We tow our canoe upriver a little. We have to cross the current and then swivel midstream and hit the chute at a little off-centre to avoid a ma.s.sive rock. It's difficult to see what is under the boiling froth below the chute. I throw in a carrot and it bobs safely enough. Lydia says, But we're not a carrot. The wind picks up and Daphne clambers along the sh.o.r.e to us.

It feels ominous, Daphne says. You guys are the only ones not to have capsized.

The others have gone over on tricky rapids, shelves, and ledges. It does seem a little foreboding.

I say, How often will we get to shoot the Badger Chute? The worst that can happen, it seems, is we'll put a hole in Max's canoe.

Max: Dont worry about the canoe.

Daphne: Put pressure on them, why dont you?

Max: I'm just saying.

We are close to the road, so there's no problem with hitchhiking back to the cars and getting out our gear.

Lydia: Let's do it.

We sit by the canoe and I quietly go over the path with Lydia. Hit the lip of the chute about two feet to the left of that first bit of whitewater, okay?

Okay.

This is the first time I have seen Lydia take blind-faith instruction from me.

We kneel on the floor of the canoe for a lower centre of gravity.

As I push off I see Craig hoisting their canoe over the rock. Theyve decided to portage too.

Everyone watching at the rocks. We hit the lip perfectly, which slows us and then, gathering determination, sucks us down from the peak. Heavy water plunges over the sides. We are swamped. We avoid the big rock and strike the whitewater and float over yellow boulders and push through, the stern fishtailing but then brought back straight. We're through. We turn and paddle hard to sh.o.r.e against a strong current. To hearty cheers.

Later, a moose and her calf cross the river. A horned owl blends into bark. A rabbit hunched in the undergrowth. And finally, Max's car s.h.i.+ning by the embankment.

We lift the canoe from the water. I hand Lydia my knife to cut open a mango. I watch her slice the fruit in half, remove the pit, and score the fruit into cubes. She pops each half up like city blocks and hands one to me.

15 Back working on the novel. Outside my window I can see Boyd Coady on an aluminum ladder. He's scrutinizing the work of the roofer. The roofer is carefully rolling a glistening licorice mop over the aluminum edges. This mop has magic in it. They say there's a halo around the sun today. But I can see it in the treacle of the mop. Boyd yells down, Okay, boys, two more hot!

Below, the boys fill a black bucket with steaming tar and hook the handle to a thick rope. They hoist it on a pulley lever. The liquid tar jiggles but never drips on the clapboard. The pulley is like the ones on clotheslines, except it's made of cast iron, not white metal. I am comforted to know that pulleys are still used. Every civilization has discovered them.

The boys take a break and sit in the shade on the tailgate of their red pickup. Boyd and the roofer sit on the pressure-treated wood of his wife's flower boxes. All over, city roofs are being tarred and s.h.i.+ngled. Repairs have been decided on. Is this seasonal or a sign of money? The fixing of what has already been built. Maintenance.

I borrow a scalpel from Iris's dissection kit and slit the seed pods of poppies. I make a tea slurry from the pods and drink it. It's bitter. Nothing happens.

16 I get together with Maisie to tell her the canoe trip. She's astonished at the falls, and sorry she couldnt go. She hates to miss anything. It makes me want to write down what I know of Maisie. I should write it now. How she ended up with Oliver. And now she's on her own. I first knew her when she was seeing Max. Max thought Maisie loved him. I can believe it. So when they broke up, Maisie dated a lot of men (including me) and then she found Oliver. A month later Maisie was pregnant. Maisie was still in love with Max, but she knew she was pregnant with Oliver's baby. She could feel it. It was just a weekend fling with Oliver, but enough to make her pregnant. And Max admits he still slept with Maisie occasionally. Almost for old time's sake.

So Max was convinced the baby was his. And Maisie wanted Max to think it. Maisie said to Max that he wouldnt see the baby if he didnt come back to her. So he went back.

But when the baby was born, Una, you could see Oliver's looks all over her. There was not a drop of Max in her. When Max saw the baby, and saw that Maisie knew, he closed up. He left her. So for a year it was just Maisie Pye and Una.

Then Oliver's sister would offer to babysit, and she'd bring Oliver over on the sly. Bring Una up to see Oliver's parents too. And then Oliver made it understood that he wanted to try things with Maisie. They started going out. They had never gone out.

Were you in love with Oliver?