– Episode 4 exposes some intriguing parts of Niko’s past –
Each time Niko rang up a purchase he saw that envelope, that stack of bills hidden inside such a common thing. He didn’t want to look at his schedule to see who was on it. He didn’t want to consider if they were friends or from out of town, or just some guys down the road who could reschedule easily.
And each time he saw the envelope, he thought of the Nagadan River, and he knew Tracey would say he wasn’t ready.
Half way through the day, he got a text.
“It’s Bradley. Any decision?”
“Still thinking. How did you get this number?”
“Add ten more. Thirty grand for a few days of work.”
“I’ll let you know in the morning.”
Niko considered the money as he worked the day, closed the shop, and headed back to the house for dinner. It was Tracey’s night to cook, so he just sat on the wooden kitchen chair and nursed a beer.
“I’ll cook it, but I’m not your damn waitress. Come on up and get a plate,” Tracey said.
Niko wandered to the counter, scooped himself the handmade pasta and Bolognese and returned to the table in silence. Tracey sat down across from him.
“You gonna tell me who that hotshot in the SUV was? Or do I need to get you liquored up first?”
“Huh?”
“The guy in the SUV who came in the shop. Who was he?”
“Oh just some guy who wanted to get on the schedule this week.”
“Aren’t you free tomorrow?”
“I’m supposed to fish with Mossy tomorrow night.”
“So, you’re going to turn down a paid client to hang out with Mossy? You can fish with him when ever you want.”
“The guy wants an overnighter. I’m booked later in the week.”
“Overnighter? You don’t do trips like that anymore.”
“I know,” Niko took a small bite of food.
“Did you give him the other guys’ info? They could use some business like that.”
“Tried.”
Tracey dropped her fork onto the plate. The metallic clink was barely audible, but it might as well have been a fog horn.
“What’s your deal?” she asked. “Put your damn fork down and talk to me. For the past ten years, the only time you ever stop yapping to me is when you are asleep, or something’s wrong, and you haven’t said more than five words since you got home.”
“I don’t know. The guy didn’t want another guide.” Niko finished his Bell’s Two-Hearted and walked to the refrigerator and opened another.
“Okay. Tell him to deal with it. You have other clients,” Tracey said.
“He offered me a ton of money.”
“To do what?”
“To cancel my other clients and take him out for a few days.”
“How much?” Tracey asked, frowning.
“You wouldn’t believe me.”
“Try me,” she said as she chewed.
Niko leaned back and forced a laugh and waited.
“Well?” she said.
“Thirty thousand dollars.”
She leaned over the table and smiled.
“I know when you are up to your stupid ass jokes. I’m not falling for it.”
“He already gave me twenty.”
Tracey laughed and then pointed at Niko with her fork. A glob of sauce fell onto the oak kitchen table. “I was really worried about you.”
“Worried?”
“You actually worked a full day. No nap, or break to go fishing, or twenty minutes staring at the animals and muttering to yourself.”
“I can work a full day,” Niko said.
“Since when?”
Niko had no answer.
“Then you didn’t even say hi to the bears. They were scratching their backs on the tree in the side yard, which is your favorite.” She shook her head and smiled. “And then you sat here in silence over duck Bolognese. Usually you dance around the kitchen and sing Italian love songs when I make this.”
“You make me sound a little crazy.”
“I’ll give you credit. You really went all out for this trick.”
“Trick? I’m not messing around,” Niko said. “There’s twenty thousand in an envelope across the street right now. I’ll show you.”
“Sure.”
Niko stood up. Tracey shook her head.
“Sit down and eat. You can show me whatever it is you have over there after dinner.”
“I knew you wouldn’t believe me.” Niko audibly slurped a noodle and smiled.
Niko did the dishes, and as he dried his hands, Tracey walked towards the living room, away from the front door.
“Where you going?” Niko asked.
“I’m going to read for a while and then go to bed.”
“What? I need to show you that money.”
“There is no money.”
“Okay. Prove me wrong, come on over.”
“No way. You probably put a frog in the register or something.”
Niko laughed. “That does sound like me, but that ain’t this. God’s honest truth. There is twenty thousand in an envelope in the register.”
She squinted her eyes and waived her finger at him. “Fine. But if it isn’t there, you are in charge of dusting the house for a year.” She expected that would stop him. Niko was a talented counter wiper, landscaper, and floor cleaner, but he would do nearly anything to get out of dusting.
“Sure.” He walked out the door. Tracey followed, more curious now.
“Holy hell.” She held the envelope. “Why would he pay this much to go fishing?”
“I don’t know. He wants to spread his father’s ashes way out there. Said I was the only guide he would use.”
“Are you thinking about it?” she asked.
“Sad story — death and divorce.”
Tracey thumbed through the thick stack of bills, her lips pursed. Then she examined the backside of the envelope.
“Why are you the only guide he can use?”
Niko started fidgeting with a rod rack on the wall. He ignored Tracey’s question.
“Well?” she said.
“What?”
“Why does he specifically want you?”
“Oh,” Niko paused, his eyes darting.
“Niko Chamonix, you are good at lot of things. But lying to me is not one of them.”
“He said he read about me in some paper, that he liked the backcountry expeditions I had done.”
“You don’t guide those anymore. Do you tell him that?” She put the envelope down and looked right at Niko.
“I know, yea I told him, but he just offered more money.”
“So you are you thinking about doing it?” Tracey picked the envelope up and held it towards Niko as if it were a traffic ticket. “These are the decisions we are supposed to talk about together. It’s not just you. You’re not twenty-five anymore.”
Niko nodded and looked down. “I know.”
“You know this is weird right?” Tracey asked. “All this money for a trip up a river.”
“I guess so.”
“Why are you even entertaining this? The money? If you ever cared about money, you have done a great job hiding it your entire life.”
Niko leaned over the counter and looked down. He voice soft now. “I was just thinking I could give the money to the family somehow.”
Tracey sighed and smiled as if she were looking at a child. “You do remember what that family did to you?”
“I know, but — “
“That was not your fault.”
“Some of it was.”
“I really can’t wait for the day you will forgive yourself and stop dreaming up ways to try to fix something that can’t be fixed. Until you give that up, I know for sure you shouldn’t be out on a trip like this.”
“I have to get out there again sometime.” Niko pulled his hat off and ran his hand through his hair.
“Now is not that time. Plus, who the hell is this guy anyway?” She held the envelope up in the air.
“I think he is just grieving.”
“Even more of a reason for you not be out there with him. He is unstable. You always assume the best in people, and that is one of the reasons you are so great at what you do, but it also blinds you to the assholes of the world — which there are no shortage of.”
“I just want to be past all of this,” Niko was pacing up and down the counter.
“One day you will be. Where does he want to go anyway? I’m sure someone else can get him there.”
“You’re not going to like this.”
“Why is that?”
“He wants to up the Nagadan River drainage.”
Tracey put the envelope back in the register and closed it and looked at Niko, “Well, that makes our decision easy. You can’t go back there.”
Niko looked up from the counter and smiled at her. “I know. I just want to help the guy.”
“He can find help elsewhere. Just promise that you won’t go.” She held his shoulders and forced looked him directly in the eye and waited.
“I promise.” Niko crossed his chest with his pointer finger.
Niko couldn’t sleep that night, and he stared at the moonlight drifting into the bedroom through the narrow space above the curtains. He remembered three years earlier, when he stumbled from the woods onto the narrow ATV track. His shirt — once a light-blue Columbia PFG — was missing buttons and darkened with blood and dirt. His eyes were red from lack of sleep, and he limped. His bled from a partially healed slash running in a line midst a raised and swollen purple ridge on the side of his face. Any exposed skin was sunburned and covered in the swollen pricks of bug bites.
He was thin, and his eyes focused on nothing in particular as they peered forward and slightly down into the dirt in front of him, as if he was willing his mind to dig a hole into which he could crawl and forget it all.
Less than a quarter of a mile along the path, he fell to the ground. He could not move his limbs — a level of exhaustion few have really felt. Niko laughed and coughed and whispered nonsense to the trees, and then he closed his eyes.
…
Episode 5 will be available next Tuesday!