I’d waited until I’d heard hoards of people walking past the cabin on their way to the bar. Clark had knocked and asked me to join them, but I’d begged off, showing him my book. Being one of the rare readers around, he understood perfectly. Or so he thought. My book was a red herring. I hadn’t started reading it yet and all I really wanted was the way clear as I headed up to Malcolm’s.
It was only about 8:00 when I headed toward the Fish House. There were still some people milling around right in front of the door I needed to enter. I went to the phone booth instead.
I tried calling Russell and got no answer. So I took a deep breath and dialed the number for the Ranch.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Kitten, it’s me.”
“Petey, Mom’s pissed! Why haven’t you called?”
“We’ve been busy and it’s not like I have my own phone. A lot of other people use the pay phones and it’s hard to get one during break time and it’s a long way from where I’m staying.”
“Well, you’re going to wish you’d called.”
“Why? What’s up?”
“We’re up. We’re coming up.”
I didn’t say anything for a moment because Kitten’s words made no sense to me.
“Huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Repeat. I’m not understanding what you mean.”
I could feel Kitten rolling her eyes, a bad family trait we all seemed to share. “I mean, that Mom and Richard and I, against my will I might add, are flying to Pelican, Alaska.”
“Why?” I asked in horror.
“To bring you home.”
“But I don’t want to go home.”
“Well, it sure would have been nice if you’d called once or twice to let Mom know that you’re alive and well and happy. She saw some program on Lifetime or one of those networks about all the drugs in Alaska and she’s afraid that you’ll be sold into prostitution.”
“Kitten, I clean fish. For $5.75 an hour.”
“Well, don’t point that out or she’ll think you’re brain-damaged from all the drugs.”
We enjoyed a moment of silence while all this news started to sink in.
“Ok.” I said, trying to psych myself up, “Put Mom on the phone.”
“Can’t do it. She and Richard are away this weekend, some kind of ranchers’ get- together.”
I groaned. “When will they be back?”
“Sunday night. Monday morning. Something like that. You know how Mom is. She never wants to give a definite time because she doesn’t want us to know what the window of opportunity is for doing anything she doesn’t want us to do.”
“I hear you. So you there alone?”
“Kind of. Not really. Richard hired a new guy recently. It was kind of strange. He just showed up right after Hal disappeared.”
“What do you mean ‘Hal disappeared?’” Hal had been working for Richard for years.
“He didn’t show up one day and his stuff was gone out of the bunkhouse. The next day this guy Ken shows up and asks for work. He’s built like a cowboy, has the boots, so Richard is giving him a try. He’s good-looking, but gives me the heebie-jeebies. Also, he seems to know some stuff about working with horses, but I think he’s full of shit, so I don’t feel good about leaving him in charge while we fly up to Alaska, but Mom definitely won’t let me stay here with them so far away.”
“Richard should ask someone else to watch the place. Hell! What am I saying? Kitten, convince them they don’t need to come up! It’s more important to stay down there. I’m fine. I’m fine. Keep them at home!”
Kitten snorted. “Yeah, right. Nice try. Just prepare yourself because nothing is stopping Mom from coming up there.”
“Great. Just great. I got to go, Kitten. Do what you can. Please.”
“I’ll try, but you know it’ll do no good. Ok. Talk to you later. Maybe I should say ‘see you later’”.
“That’s enough of that. Bye, Kitten.”
“Bye, Petey.”
And with that I hung up and headed up the stairs to Malcolm’s.
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