Thunder In Her Body (28 page)

C
HAPTER 18

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Planning The Cabin

O
n Sunday afternoon, the melded family of flyers arrived at the airport together.  Trapper was off on an American flight back to New York, Janette was on her way back to Portland, Oregon and Blaze and Lynette were leaving on the 11:50 flight to Albuquerque.  The waiting time at the airport gave the two newest, about-to-be siblings, a little more time to talk.  Janette and Trapper had spent precious little time visiting, with all the festivities and an incredibly short weekend.  It also afforded Lynette some time to make Trapper feel a little better about what his dad was about to do.  Not that he was against the marriage, he wasn’t.  He just never thought his dad would marry again after all that happened with his mother.  She destroyed an entire family, and he was still paying a painful price for it, with his unresolved anger.

Trapper, like Merrilynn, had few features to tie him to Blaze.  His hair was a medium brown, his eyes were grey, he was short and stocky but he was unmistakably white.  It was very possible that he and Merrilynn also had different fathers.  Did Blaze have no biological children after all, Lynette wondered.  It struck her as so tragic.

After the young adults departed, Blaze took Lynette’s hand and said, with such pain in his voice, “at least I’ll have one child that looks like me, even if she’s your daughter – my step-daughter.”  How ironic it seemed.  Lynette squeezed his hand and leaned over to kiss his cheek.

In the air, over the barren southwestern desert of west Texas and eastern New Mexico, Blaze asked Lynette to set a wedding date.  The sooner the better.  They looked at the calendar on her check book and decided on Saturday, July 15
th
.  There was much to do before that date.  Let’s keep it simple they both agreed, but it wouldn’t be a quickie courthouse wedding.  They’d get married at home with a few friends and family.  Lynette’s first wedding was a huge church event.  Been there, done that, don’t need to anymore.

“Where would you like to go for our honeymoon?” Blaze asked Lynette as they drove  back toward the ranch.

“Have you ever visited Alaska?” she asked.

“Not exactly,” he replied.

“Would you like to go to Alaska?” she asked.

“But you were just there last year.  Why do you want to go back to
Alaska with all the places there are in this country – this world?” he asked curiously.

“Because it’s the most beautiful place in the world,” she replied with a big smile on her beaming face.

“I want to take you to another place that I’ve fallen in love with.  You think New Mexico is beautiful, and of course it is, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the immenseness and majesty of Alaska.  I want you to share what I’ve seen, and there are still so many places I’d still like to see up there.  How about Alaska?” she implored.

“If that’s what you want, you’ve got it,” he smiled, rubbing her thigh.

“Do you still have any of the brochures and stuff,” he inquired.

“Sure do, and you’ll be amazed at how much information and photos are on the internet,” she said quickly.

“Then let’s put our heads together and whip up a once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon for the Snowdowns,” he said happily.

“Mrs. Snowdown.  It sounds so nice,” she said.  For all intents and purposes, it was spiritually accurate.

Back at home, Blaze went back to working in his office.  He had a variety of construction people coming in and out from time to time, and he did a lot of business over the phone and on his computer.

He was gone all one evening, which was unusual.  When he returned, he had the walk of a satisfied man.

“I went to discuss this marriage with a few of the elders of the tribe.  They want to see the photos of your father.  Can you get Clare to bring them up when she comes this weekend?” he asked.

“Sure, but what’s that all about?” she asked.

“They want to see, if what you suspect is true, that’s all,” he replied patiently.

“They’ll just see what I came to see.  It can’t tell them much.  I often thought that my dad was part Asian because of the slant of his eyes.  It didn’t dawn on me until I was in my late thirties that the shape of the eyes and the high cheek bones, plus his lighter skin might have come from Native ancestors,” she said.

“Blaze, there’s a team of earth movers and trucks down the road,” Lynette announced with concern.

“Oh good.  They’re here,” he exclaimed.  “Throw something on
Lynn.  Let’s go meet them,” he said excitedly.

It was strange how the two ranches were laid out.  From Aaron’s deck, you could see some of Blaze’s land, but you couldn’t get over to it easily in a vehicle without driving out onto the highway and turning left after about a short mile.  There was a gravel road that turned in at that point, and that was the entrance to Blaze’s major property.  It didn’t have a name on it, but the entrance had short stone pillars on either side of the turn-in.  Blaze liked to keep things simple and he never thought to put up an iron gate with an overhead marker for his ranch.  If you drove far enough out on Blaze’s land, you could see Aaron’s house and the out-buildings in the distance.  One night Blaze drove Lynette over to that part where you could see the house.  They parked on that same rise and lay in the back of the pickup truck looking up at the millions of stars.  It was a beautiful night, and other than the howl of a lonely coyote, - why are coyotes always lonely? - there was absolutely no sound.  The lights in Aaron’s house glowed brightly, like a photo out of a Santa Fe Homes magazine.  It was the only light anywhere around.  It was beautiful and yet surreal.

“I’m building your house right here, Mrs. Snowdown; your log cabin,” he said sweetly,  “on this rise, overlooking much of what I survey, near the horses, and far away from worry,” he told her.

He was quiet for a long while.  “Let’s call it Satellite Hill,” he said, and she couldn’t see the smirk on his face.

“Why Satellite Hill?” she asked, clearly intrigued.

“Remember that bright, sunny day not too long ago, when we rolled around with our bottoms to the sky, and you joked about a spy satellite overhead?”

“Yes,” she replied, looking sideways at his image.

“Well, we gave them a day light show, let’s give ‘em something to wish for tonight,” and he turned to her and began to fondle her tenderly.

The blanket in the cab of the truck softened the hardness of the floor on the back of the pickup truck, only a little.  Neither of them minded.  They made love with the stars and a partial moon turning their bodies an eerie blue.  Afterward, they lay totally naked looking up at a brilliant sky.  “Wonder if they got a good shot,” Lynette laughed in that wicked way she had.

“They’ll have plenty more times to try to perfect the camera angle on the satellite,” Blaze laughed, as he laid his arm across her full breasts, teasing one of her nipples with his index finger as he intertwined his legs with hers.And that’s how the place where their new home was going to be built, got its name.

“So, are you all ready to build my wife’s new home?” he laughed, shaking the hand of the project foreman.  He’d known this fellow for several years.  In fact, it was his father’s company who built the addition onto the big house.

“Didn’t know you got married,” the fellow said.

“Well, it hasn’t happened yet, but the date’s fast approaching,” he said as he introduced Lynette to Alberto Montoya.  The man took off his hat in a very gentlemanly way and shook her hand.

              “How do you do ma’m,” he said politely.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Alberto.  Thank you for taking on this project.  This is going to be our home for the rest of our lives,” she said proudly.

“We’re gonna build you a good log home,” he assured her.

Lynette sat in the pickup truck and watched as the blade of the excavator struck its first blow, gouging out a huge mound of reddish dirt with small chunks of limestone rocks in it.

“There it goes, Honey,” Blaze said as he kissed her through the open window.

“Where are you going to get your logs from?” she’d heard Aaron ask someone over the phone a few weeks earlier

“Back over there on the east side of my land where the forest fire burned about an acre,” he replied.  “I’ve had most of the trees cut and the burned outsides stripped away.  Those are going to be the foundation logs.  They’re all just about the right size.  The guys up on the reservation at the lumber mill are going to handle ‘em.  When they’re all ready and kiln dried out like they should be, they’ll haul them back over here.  I’ve also got an agreement to purchase some other burned ones from the tribal lands, that are not in the  National Forest.  It’ll be a bit more costly, but it’s good stewardship of the land.  Wouldn’t make much sense to have trees cut down up in Montana or somewhere, or Colorado, and shipped down here, when we have just about all the building timber we need for the house,” he added confidently.  “I’m going to get some seedlings and replant that area.  Maybe  Lynette and I’ll live long enough to see a good stand of pines over there again.”

“Remember the Kokopelli fire back in 2002, well I heard they needed some of those trees cleared, and I had them moved up to the mill also.  All we don’t need can go to the mill for profit.  That way, everybody wins,” he said.

“Your perc tests all come back Ok?” Aaron asked.

“Did.  No problem,” Blaze replied.

“I’ve got a good well less than 300 feet down also.  Hell, you know about that.  You recommended the guys who dug it,” he said to Aaron.  “I was thinking about trying to put a wind turbine out there.  Maybe it could pump the water and bring us electricity too.  Don’t know if it’ll work though and Lynette and I aren’t really sure we want to live with that hum all the time.  You know they’re not quiet.  I’m working with a New Mexico energy company to see if it’s feasible.  If it is, then that’ll probably be what we’ll use, even if it’s part-time.  Have you ever given any thought to using the wind for energy here?  With the way the wind blows so much of the time, I’m surprised that the county hasn’t considered setting out a field of turbines,” Blaze finished.  After a long pause, he said, “You know, that might be an opportunity that no one has seriously considered around here!”

Lynette heard the two brothers talking about energy and conservation, preserving what the Lord had given them, and leaving things better than they found them.  She liked what she heard.  “I need to get My Pretty a new truck,” Blaze said to Aaron, loud enough on purpose for Lynette to hear.

“A truck,” she exclaimed as she walked over to him. “You already bought me a car!”

“Yep, a truck,” he said.  Trucks are for hauling stuff and they sit up high so they can bounce over rough spots.  You need a truck, so when I’m not here, you can go do whatever you need to, or go over and pounce on the construction workers at the house if they’re not doing what they’re supposed to,” he laughed.

“I only know a little about building a log home from many months of reading my
Log Homes Magazine. 
I did go to a few log home expos,” she remarked.  “They had one in Austin a couple of years ago, down at the coliseum.”

When she dumped – literally dumped - that brown expandable folder on the kitchen table after their trip to Austin, Blaze was astonished at the wealth of information and research Lynette had collected.  She had a basic understanding of high-performance and moisture resistant building techniques and by choosing hard surface floors rather than a lot of carpeting, it could reduce toxins in the air and other pollutants that could make them sick. So, she was being modest when she said she didn’t know much about building a log cabin.

“Now, I heard you talking to Alberto the other day about log fasteners and tread lengths. You know more than you want to let on, City Girl,” he smiled.  “I watched you checking over the worksheet.  You know what they’re doing at every turn,” he said patting her firmly on her butt.  He liked to pat her butt and grab it too, squeezing it with adept fingers.  It was soft and full and it felt good in his hands.  Truly, she did know more
than
the average bear
about building that log home.  She kept a copy of the Log Home Magazine in her briefcase.  It was not unusual for her to read up on advances in the technology while sitting at an airport waiting for her flight to somewhere.  She and Blaze decided together on which model they would build.  They found the photograph and floor plan in one of her stacks of magazines and she ordered the blue prints to be over-nighted to Blaze.  They decided on one that was smaller than Aaron’s home by about 200 square feet which made it approximately 3800 square feet on one level.  There would be a loft over the kitchen area with an additional 325 square feet of living space, which they intended to use as both a sitting area, with easy conversion to a fourth bedroom for guests, or grandchildren.  Their design had three nice size bedrooms on the main floor, two and a half baths, a major Great Room with adjoining dining area, nice Tuscan kitchen open to the entire house, a laundry room, which also served as a mud room, and adjacent pantry.  There was also an office for them to share, with a walk-in closet for Lynette’s research materials!  It was a really comfortable floor plan with the prow front Lynette always wanted.