The Darkening Archipelago (18 page)

Nancy drove down the hill to the house and shut off the ignition. She rolled up the window and stepped from the car. She could hear cattle and smell the pungent mixture of hay and manure. She guessed that Walter Blackwater, Cole's older brother, would soon trail the cattle into the high country west of Highway 22 on the family's grazing lease. She stood a moment in the yard, letting the smells and sounds of the ranch waft over her. She exhaled and felt herself relax a little after the dusty, bumpy road.

Nancy walked toward the house, casting her eyes at the barn. She longed to walk straight into its darkened spaces and begin to pry at the secrets there, but decorum dictated a visit with Cole's mother was in order first.

From the back porch a border collie bounded toward her, wagging its tail. Nancy bent to pat the dog on the head, scratching behind its ears. She took the steps to the porch, opened the screen door, and knocked on the heavy wood-panelled door beyond. In a moment it opened, and she was greeted by a small, grey-haired woman in a flower-print dress who was wiping her hands on her apron.

“You must be Nancy Webber. Come in, come in. I'm Dorothy Blackwater,” she said, extending a hand. Nancy shook it. It was warm and firm.

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Blackwater.”

She stepped into the house, and the smell of dinner cooking on the stove and something baking in oven welcomed her. “Wow, does it ever smell good in here.”

“When you called I put a pie in the oven and made us a little dinner. I'm so glad that you came by.” She turned and made her way out of the mud room into the kitchen. Nancy kicked off her shoes and followed. The kitchen was large and bright and warm. Windows opened onto the backyard, facing the sheds, barn, and garden.

“Would you like tea, dear?”

“That would be nice.”

“Black tea or something herbal?”

“Black would be fine, thanks.”

Dorothy Blackwater set a kettle on the stove and took a teapot from the sideboard, pouring hot water from the tap into it. She sloshed it around before emptying it again.

“Do you take milk or sugar?”

“Both.”

Dorothy found a pitcher of milk in the fridge, took a bowl of sugar from the sideboard, and set them on the kitchen table. When the kettle boiled, she put three teabags in the pot and poured the hot water over them. She let them steep, then took them out and dumped them in a bowl filled with vegetable cuttings. “Come, let's sit at the table.”

They sat at the kitchen table, Dorothy on the end and Nancy sitting close to her on the side. Dorothy poured tea and produced tea biscuits and homemade Saskatoon berry jam. Nancy sipped her tea and ate the buttery biscuit as they chatted.

“How do you know Cole?”

“He and I met in Ottawa. We met up again when he was in Oracle last year.”

“Oh, that was a nasty piece of business, wasn't it?”

“Which?”

“Oh, both, I guess,” Dorothy Blackwater said, looking out the window. “But that business in Oracle, my goodness, Cole was a mess after that. I do hope he's more careful now. Do you see him at all?”

“I saw him a few months ago in Vancouver. We had dinner.”

“How was he?”

“He seemed just fine,” she lied.

“That's good. Have you met Sarah?”

“I haven't.”

“She is such a darling, that girl. Just loves horses. She was out at the ranch last spring, and she and Cole rode every day. Wore him out! But she could just go and go and go.”

“Cole thinks the world of her,” said Nancy.

“As he should. I do hope he's getting on all right.”

Nancy sipped her tea.

“So, Cole doesn't talk much about his family, Mrs. Blackwater. I'm really curious to know more about you.”

“There's not much to know. I've been here on this ranch most of my life. Raised the boys, always made sure they had good food to eat and that they did their homework. Those boys sure had fun when they were little. They had the run of the place. I'd open the door after breakfast and they'd be off like a shot, running up into those aspens, and I'd have to yell for them at lunch or they'd have starved out there. They'd be gone again after lunch and the same thing after dinner. It just drove Henry crazy, but, my goodness, those boys had a spirit to them.”

“It must have been a wonderful place to grow up.”

“Well, it wasn't without its hard times. We never had much money. The ranch only just paid its way. We lost money many years when the price for cattle was low, but we got by. I did some work in town, and Henry did odd jobs around the area on other farms. We got by. The boys had to work some. Cole not so much as Walter. Him being older, he got the heavy jobs. But both boys worked. Henry saw to that.”

“Cole mentioned boxing.”

“I think those boys spent as much time in that blasted boxing ring as they did in school. Every night when they were of age Henry'd have them out there. Poor Cole, he was always getting his nose bloodied. I didn't have the heart to watch. Not once. Never stepped foot in that place.” She pointed toward the barn. “Walter being older, I think, got the better of Cole most often, but Cole went on to do well for himself. At least until he went off to college.”

Nancy put down her cup of tea. “I'd love to have a look around the place in the daylight,” she said.

Dorothy Blackwater stood up, putting her teacup and plate on the counter next to the sink. “Let's go and have a stroll around, and then I'll put the finishing touches on dinner.”

The late afternoon was cool and bright. The ground was bare and the earth beneath it hard, full of frozen moisture and frost. Dorothy pointed at the two rusting automobiles. “Walter's been trying to get rid of all the junk that was collected when Henry was alive,” she said. “Can't stand to have all those old cars around. Every few months he finds someone to take a few of them away. That used to drive Cole crazy, all those cars that his father bought and stripped and just left there to rust. He said it was fouling up our water. Never seemed to make much difference to me, but Walt says it's better to be rid of them, so …”

They walked toward the drive shed. “This was built in 1919, when Henry's dad bought his first truck. He'd just come back from Europe and used his soldier pay to buy a Ford automobile. One of the first men in the area to have one.” Nancy looked around the shed. A newish Ford Focus was parked there now. They looked in on the chickens and the pigs, Nancy enjoying the sounds and scents of the working farm. They made their way toward the barn. “Over there is a trail that leads up through the aspens to the crest of the hills. From there you can see clear over to the Livingstone Ridge and beyond to the Continental Divide. Cole and Sarah rode up there every day they were here last spring.”

“Are they going to come back for a visit this year?”

“Oh, I don't know. Cole loves being here, but it's so hard for him.”

“Why is that, Mrs. Blackwater?”

“Oh, goodness, I don't know. He doesn't talk about it much. I think the business with his father really gets to him. I didn't see him for three years after, well, we really don't talk too much about it.”

Nancy bit her lip. “Talk about what, Mrs. Blackwater?”

“Here we are. Let's have a look inside the barn.” Dorothy led Nancy to the back and showed her where half a dozen cows drank from a trough, and where a few more came and went from the darkened basement of the barn. “I have a boy come from the next ranch over to put some hay out for the herd here every day. Walter comes most weekends to see to some of the heavier work. The cattle get most of what they need to eat on the hills in the summer, but in the winter, well, they need a little help. Walter always says that the open range only exists in the movies, and that our cows would starve or freeze to death if we didn't put up enough hay. I suppose he's right.”

They made their way around the barn toward the front doors. “This is where Cole and Walter used to box. Henry built them a ring and strung some lights, and those boys would be out here nearly every night after dinner. They'd come in and I'd have a tub ready for them to clean up in before they went to bed. Henry worked those boys pretty hard.” She opened the broad doors. Nancy felt her heart beating with anticipation. The light slipped between the weathered boards as the door squeaked open and fell across the inside of the barn.

“You see, there's nothing left now,” said Dorothy.

And indeed, she was right. The barn was stacked with hay and, in the centre of it, where Nancy imagined seeing the boxing ring with its stories and evidence of Henry Blackwater's end, was parked a riding lawnmower. Nancy stepped inside.

“Walter and Cole took down the old ring last spring when Cole was here. Said it was just taking up space that could otherwise be used for the ranch equipment. They burned most of the wood and even the canvas floor out back. We had a big fire going one day. It was quite the sight.”

I bet it was, thought Nancy.

— They sat at the dinner table and finished their meals. “That was really very good, Mrs. Blackwater,” said Nancy.

“Please, call me Dorothy.”

“Thanks again for dinner, Dorothy.” Nancy smiled.

“Would you like coffee?”

“I think that would be nice. I'll need a little jolt for the drive back to Claresholm.”

“You are very welcome to stay here, there's plenty of room.”

“I don't know if I can do that, Dorothy.”

“I insist,” she said, patting Nancy's hand as she stood to clear the table.

“Only if you let me do the dishes,” said Nancy.

“That's a deal.”

“I don't know if I ever said how sorry I was for your loss,” said Nancy, rising to clear the plates away.

Dorothy Blackwater poured water into a drip coffee maker. “Thank you, dear,” she said.

“It must have been a terrible blow.”

“It really was.”

“I hope you don't mind me asking about it.”

“What do you want to know?”

“I'm really just worried about Cole is all,” said Nancy.

“Is there something wrong with Cole? He does take things very hard, doesn't he?”

“He does. I suppose I'm just worried that maybe he's suffering.”

Dorothy took out cups, sugar, and cream and placed them on the table. “How do you mean?”

“He seems to have taken his father's death very hard. I feel that it's changed him.”

Dorothy busied herself in the kitchen, piling up the supper things next to the sink and cleaning the stovetop. Nancy stood next to the sink and watched her.

“Can you tell me anything about Cole's relationship with his father that might help me help Cole?”

“I don't really know what I can say,” said Dorothy. “They were father and son. Like most, they had good days and bad. There's really nothing more I can say than that.”

“Did they, well, get along?”

“They got on okay. Cole and Henry had their differences of opinions. They didn't see eye to eye on how the ranch ought to be run. But Cole knew that Henry ran the show around here. I think much of what came between them was the arrogance of youth. After Cole left for college, he didn't come back very often. We hardly saw him at all until Sarah was born.”

Nancy began washing the dishes. She looked out the window over the sink at the hills beyond the barn, aspens moving as the breeze slipped down the hillsides and pooled in the low places for the night.

“Did Mr. Blackwater do most of Cole's training?”

“In boxing? Most of it, yes. When he was seventeen, Cole went to live in Calgary for a year to train in a professional gym. That's when he went to the provincial championships.”

“Mr. Blackwater must have been very proud.”

“I dare say he was.”

“Do you remember if Mr. Blackwater went to see Cole fight?”

Dorothy stopped and looked at nothing. “I believe he must have,” she said, smiling. “He was very proud of his boys. He was always talking about what good boxers they were. I think Henry figured Walter would be the one to go on and box for a championship, but when Cole did, Henry was just as proud of him as he was of Walt.”

“Mrs. Blackwater, I wonder if you would be able to tell me anything about the time when Cole was here four years ago. When he was heading out to Vancouver.”

“I don't know what I can say….”

Nancy piled up the clean dishes and started in on the roasting pan. “It's just that, well, Cole really seemed to change after that. He seemed to, well, get pretty dark after that visit. Can you tell me anything that might help me understand Cole a little better, just so I can help him out?”

“There isn't really anything to tell. It was a very difficult time for us all, Cole and Walter being here and that business with Henry. I really can't say much more.” She turned to finish cleaning the counter.