Part 13 (1/2)
They drove under the arch with the words FOR THE BENEFIT AND ENJOYMENT OF THE PEOPLE carved into the rock. The cornerwas still scarred and had not been patched. It receded in his rearview mirror.
”Joe, are you okay?” Demming asked.
”Why?”
”Your face is white. Are you sick?”
”No.”
”Are you okay to drive?”
”Yes.”
She settled back in her seat, silent, but stealing looks at him.
”I haven't seen that arch for twenty-one years,” Joe said finally.”It brings back all kinds of bad memories. I'm sorry, but it sort of took me by surprise.”
”A stone archway took you by surprise?” she said gently.
He nodded. ”My family used to vacation in the park. This is the way we came in. I still have pictures of us standing by the arch, my dad and mom, my brother and me. Victor was two years younger. We were close. The park was our special place, maybe because it was the only place where my dad was happy. He loved Teddy Roosevelt's words: 'For the benefit and enjoymentof the people. 'For the benefit and enjoymentof the people.' He used to say it all the time.”
Joe hesitated, surprised how hard it was to tell the story, surprisedhe wanted to tell it.
Demming didn't prompt him for more. They drove north through Paradise Valley in Montana as the morning sun poured over the Absaroka Mountains.
He swallowed, continued. ”I was in college. On my brother's sixteenth birthday he called me in my dorm room at two in the morning. He was drunk and real upset. His girlfriend had dumped him that day and he was, well, sixteen. Everything was a crisis. He wanted to talk but I told him to go home, get some sleep, I had a test in the morning.”
Joe slowed while a rancher and two cowboys herded cows down the borrow pit next to the highway. Puffs of condensation came out of their mouths like silent word balloons. Calves bawled. When they were past, Joe sped up.
”After I hung up on him, Victor went home like I told him but took my dad's car. Stole it, actually. He drove five hours in the middle of the night and crashed it head-on into that arch. The police said later they estimated he was going a hundred and ten miles an hour.”
She said, ”My G.o.d.”
”We stayed at the Mammoth Hotel for the funeral. Victor's buried in the Gardiner cemetery somewhere. My dad said he didn't want him back. I haven't been to his grave since.”
Tears formed in his eyes and he didn't want them there. He wiped brusquely at his face with the back of his hand, hoping she didn't see them.
”Do you want to turn around and go there?”
Joe turned his head away from her. ”Later, maybe.”
”I'm sorry.”
He shrugged. ”I'm sorry I started your morning out with such a downer.”
”Don't apologize.”
”Okay.”
What he didn't tell her, couldn't tell her, was that when his family returned home after the funeral his mother never unpacked.She left without saying good-bye. His mother and father blamed each other for Victor's death, although Joe knew it was his fault. The implosion had been in the cards for years, fueled by alcohol. He went back to college after that. While he was gone, his father sold the house and vanished as well. Getting back at her, Joe supposed. He'd not heard from either of them in years, although an Internet search by Marybeth indicated his mother had remarried and moved to New Mexico. His father's name produced no hits. Joe tried not to think of them at all, and asked Marybeth to stop searching. His parents could be happy, or dead. His family consisted of Marybeth and the girls. Period.
After they cleared Bozeman, Joe said, ”Really, I'm sorry about telling you that story. Don't pay any attention to me. Forget you heard it.”
She was puzzled. ”You probably needed to get it out.”
”No, I didn't.”
”It's okay, Joe.”
”No, it isn't,” he said. ”I'm not really a touchy-feely guy and I don't want you to think I'm sensitive.”
She laughed and shook her head, reached over and patted him on the arm. ”Don't worry-your secret's safe with me.”
He glowered at her.
Joe said, ”you mentioned last night that the park has its own language. What are some of the other terms you can think of unique to here?”
She smiled. ”Over the years, I've kept a list of them. 'Bubblequeens' are laundry room workers; 'pearl divers' are dishwashers;'pillow punchers' change sheets on the beds; 'heavers' are waiters and waitresses. All guests are called 'dudes' behind their backs long before everybody called everybodydudes.”
”What are flamers?” Joe asked.
”Excuse me?”
”When I read Hoening's e-mails to prospective women, he always wrote, 'We'll go hot-potting and light a couple of flamers.' ”
Demming shrugged. ”I'm not sure. Zephyr people have their own language within a language.”
”Is he talking about dope?”
”I a.s.sume.”
”Maybe Layborn was on to something,” Joe said.
”Maybe.”
They stopped for lunch at Rocky's in West Yellowstone. It was one of the few places open. The streets were deserted, most businesses closed until the winter season. While they waited for their sandwiches, Joe surveyed the crowd. Everyone looked localand had the same logy listlessness about them as the people he saw in Mammoth; no doubt recovering from the tourist season,he thought.
”James Langston,” Joe asked Demming, ”what's he like?”
”The chief ranger? He's a bureaucrat of rare order. I've alwaysfound him arrogant and very political. He didn't get to where he's at by being everyone's friend, that's for sure. I heard him say once he thinks he's underappreciated given all he has to put up with. By underappreciated underappreciated he meant underpaid. Ha! He should take home he meant underpaid. Ha! He should take home my my government paycheck.” government paycheck.”
Joe said, ”Maybe he should quit the Park Service and work in the private sector if he wants more money.”
”What-and have to be accountable to shareholders? Work past five? And not live in a mansion that's financed by taxpayers?Are you crazy, Joe? What are you saying?”
She caught herself and looked horrified. ”But I shouldn't be saying that.”