In the Heart of the Canyon - By Elisabeth Hyde Page 0,18
Plan Bs develop on a river trip.
“Last call on dessert!” shouted Abo.
By now the light of a quarter moon was sliding down the western wall. There were dishes to wash, pots to scrub, food to be packed away. Then, a good night’s sleep. They would figure out the dog issue tomorrow.
Overall, if you’d asked him to assign a letter grade to the first day, he’d have given it a good solid A.
Fine. A-minus, given the dog.
July 4
Please oh please oh please get me off this trip. I cannot take two weeks of this. Everybody stares at me and I know EXACTLY what they’re thinking. What’s a FAT GIRL doing on a trip like this? Why isn’t she at FAT CAMP? Wonder where she gets those FAT CLUB T-shirts? Quick get in line before the FAT GIRL takes all the dessert!!!
I wonder how sick you have to be for them to call a helicopter. Maybe I could get bitten by a rattlesnake. Then again, maybe not; maybe rattlesnakes don’t like FAT GIRLS.
Fine. It’s kind of pretty here. But it’s unbelievably hot and I have no energy whatsoever. I hope these guides don’t expect me to do any work because I can barely move. Mom made me help her put up the tent tonight and I felt like I was on percocet. Oh and by the way, when we were done I went inside to change and guess who takes up the entire tent. Sucks for her but she’s the one who wanted to do this trip and if she only has three inches of space to sleep in, she should have thought of that earlier.
Maybe some night I will just float off down the river when everyone else is asleep and never be seen again, the lost whale.
We found a dog tonight. Some people are freaking out but I don’t see what the big deal is. I fed him a lot of salmon so he will like me. Maybe I can make him FAT and then I will have something in common with someone else.
DAY TWO
River Miles 16–30
House Rock to Fence Fault
10
Day Two
Mile 16
JT was leery of naming the dog, but people are driven to name things—especially on a river trip, where you have a lot of time to contemplate things you normally wouldn’t. And so the next morning, as Abo and Dixie were cooking breakfast, people stood around proposing names for the dog. Evelyn suggested Glen, after Glen Canyon. Peter came up with Lassie, as a joke. Sam for some reason got stuck on the name Roger. Matthew, already well aware that Sam was getting more attention than he on this trip, countered with the name Groover. Mitchell, who, like JT, knew the danger of naming any animal, remained silent.
But since nobody could agree, for now they simply called him River Dog, which seemed appropriate given his tendency to dash into the water after anything they could throw. Not everyone was enthusiastic about playing with the dog, though; and, it being their first morning on the river, many of them simply milled about, not quite sure what to do with themselves before breakfast was ready—whether to brush teeth and wash, or skip the hygiene and go straight for the coffee. Jill, for the first time since the boys were toddlers, did not insist that anyone do anything; she ladled out a cup of coffee and stood quietly on the beach, taking in the reflections of cliff and sky on the moving surface of the water. She felt an unfamiliar serenity as she stood there, a realignment of nerves that allowed each breath to resonate out through the tips of her fingers. She felt like a lot of things that mattered two days ago no longer mattered. Fleetingly, she wished that she were on this trip without her family.
JT sat on his raft, also drinking coffee. It was six thirty; he figured he would wait until seven to call Park Service and see if they had any boats coming by today that could perhaps take the dog down to Phantom Ranch, where somebody might be able to hike him out. Meanwhile, he opened up his map and planned out the day. Just ahead was House Rock Rapid, rated seven, sure to wake everybody up. Then there was a flat stretch of water, followed by the Roaring Twenties, a five-mile series of nonstop rapids. Tonight, depending on how much time they made, they could camp down around Shinumo Wash or Fence Fault.