The Eclipse of Moonbeam Dawson (17 page)

“Are you coming back?”

“Maybe. My mother's staying in Palm Springs until the end of month so I'll still be at my dad's. It's always possible that we might show up some weekend since he's addicted to fishing. But who knows.”

“Can I have your address or your phone number? At least so I can write.” Reid ran to the table and ripped a piece of paper out of his notebook. “Here.”

“Okay.” Michelle scribbled on the paper. “I'll be at my dad's for the next couple of weeks. Then I'm at my mum's. Here's both.” She handed it back to him.

“Take it easy, Reid.” She seemed to be waiting for something.

Reid shuffled his feet, staring at the paper with her address on it.

“Bye, Reid.”

“Bye.”

Then she laughed and put her arms around him. She pulled him close to her and kissed him good-bye. In a second she was gone. Running down the path past the lodge.

He stood in the doorway watching her, not taking his eyes away until he saw the top of her head disappear from sight as she went down the steps to the marina. Slowly he closed the door. He slumped back against it and hit it with his fist. Then he was so depressed, he went to the bedroom and climbed back in bed.

*   *   *

Reid didn't wake up until almost noon the next day. Luckily, he wasn't on the schedule for the breakfast shift or he would have missed work. That's all he'd need right now, screwing up work. At least that's one bad thing that didn't happen, he thought, opening the drapes of the living room to be greeted by unrelenting gray and the day's dreary drizzle. The huge trees seemed a dark greenish gray, the sky was the color of steel; even the cedar shakes of the lodge looked gray, and it all matched his mood now that Michelle was gone. It was like she had taken the sun with her.

Getting some school stuff done was the only thing that made sense to him on a day like this. After all, there was nothing better to do and at least he might be able to get a lot of his geometry done before he had to be at work. Reid got out his next assignment, but after few minutes he shut the book in frustration. All he could think about was her. Holding her, kissing her, the way she had begged him not to shoot the bear. He played it over and over in his head, like some incredible movie. The most wonderful day of his life. And it still completely amazed him that a girl like her had actually spent all that time with him, had wanted to stay in the boat the way they had. That she had kissed him good-bye the way she had.

He put the book back on the pile with his other books and got up from the table. He wanted to be in Harvey's skiff again. Reid opened the door and stepped out to get a better look at the water. It was still raining lightly, but there wasn't much wind and the sea looked calm. He was sure there was still gas left, maybe he'd take it out.

When Reid got down to the marina, it was pretty quiet. Most of the boats were out salmon fishing like they had been when he and Michelle were there. As he walked by the slip where the
Regina II
had been moored he felt an aching loneliness. There was no way of knowing if she'd come back with her father. She didn't seem to know whether they would or they wouldn't. Reid watched a pair of ducks, little black-and-white grebes, swimming and diving together near the dock where the huge yacht had been. He couldn't stand the thought that he might never see her again.

By the time he got the tarp off Harvey's boat, the drizzle had let up. He checked the gas. Still a half a tank. Had it just been yesterday morning that she had been sitting next to him as they started out for Hope Island? It seemed like a dream.

Reid drove out of the marina, down the channel past the markers, keeping his speed barely above idle. As soon as he was out of the channel he grabbed the throttle and pushed it full out. The skiff thrust forward and the hull bounced across the ripples in the water and he remembered holding Michelle and how she had looked with the sun on her hair and how she had leaned against him.

Heading north away from Stere, Reid turned the boat toward Hope Island, needing to retrace his ride with her. He saw the speck of the island on the horizon. She had been so excited when she had first sighted it. Then when she begged him for the bear's life, it was totally awesome. What a moment! As he brought the boat in close to the edge of the island, he yelled, “Hey, Smokey, Pooh, Paddington, whoever you were. I wasn't going to shoot you, but thanks for showing up!”

Then he sped off toward Stere. Crossing Father Charles Channel, he saw the smoke curling from the Opitsat village on Meares Island, and he couldn't help remembering what she'd said about never knowing anyone Native. Actually, Indian was what she'd said and he really had been about to tell her, but then the seal popped up and he never got around to it. She had no clue about him being half-Native. What would she think if she knew? Maybe she was the kind of person who wouldn't think much about it one way or the other. After all, there were so many people in Canada who were so many mixtures of backgrounds; seemed like you always heard people saying they were Irish-English-French-one-eighth-Sioux or something like that. Maybe she'd just look at it that way.

But as he brought the boat into the Stere marina, it began to bother him. What a phony. First pretending about this whole bear hunting thing, and letting her believe he might actually have shot that bear if it hadn't been for her. And then her saying she never knew an Indian and here he was, half-Haida. Would she have still liked him if she had known the truth? It began to eat away at him.

He wished he could talk to someone about it. Then it dawned on him that Gloria was coming back to work that afternoon. She'd been easy to talk to until she got all weird before she left. But he was pretty sure she wouldn't still be acting weird, since almost a week had gone by. Being at school and all, she probably forgot about it. He'd talk to her.

Reid was peeling potatoes when Gloria burst into the kitchen. He put the potato peeler down and stared for a second. He'd been so dazzled by Michelle, he had forgotten how pretty she was. She was out of breath and her cheeks were flushed as she fastened her dark hair at the nape of her neck.

“Sorry I'm late, Claude. I tore up from the marina as fast as I could.” She caught her breath. “The bus from Ukee took forever.”

“No problem. Reid's started on the potatoes. You can prep the lettuce.”

“Okay.” She grabbed a long white apron and scurried to the walk-in refrigerator.

“Hey, aren't you even going to say ‘hi'?” Reid waved the potato peeler.

“Hi,” she said flatly and disappeared into the walk-in.

“Sure are friendly today,” he mumbled and started peeling again.

Gloria returned with an armful of lettuce. “What's that?”

“I said, sure are friendly today.”

Gloria ignored him as she turned on the water and began spraying the lettuce.

“What I'd do to you?” Reid whispered. “I haven't even seen you all week.”

Gloria's hands worked quickly, spraying the lettuce, then tearing off the leaves and wrapping them in dishtowels to absorb the moisture. She wouldn't look at him. Reid shrugged and concentrated on the potatoes.

“You missed a spot.” Gloria pointed at a potato in the pile next to the sink. “You have to get those dark spots out.”

“You're gone a whole week and that's all you have to say?”

Gloria glared at him. “I heard you got involved with Michelle Lamont.”

“Who told you that?”

“I just heard.” Gloria carried the lettuce back to the walk-in. After a minute she returned to the sink with a colander full of tomatoes. “Don't you know? There are no secrets in a place this small.”

“Listen, I really want to talk to you,” Reid whispered. “I need some advice.”

“So, what's your problem?” Gloria began slicing the tomatoes, not looking at him.

“Not here. Can we talk after work?”

“I suppose so.” She paused and held the knife pointed toward him. “Where do you want to talk?”

“If it's not raining, how about the beach?”

“Okay, what if it is?” She started slicing the tomatoes again.

“My apartment?”

“Okay.”

*   *   *

The night was still clear when Reid finished work. A three-quarter moon peeked out from behind the clouds, cutting a path of shimmering light across the water. He and Gloria could meet at the beach. He didn't know why, but he thought it would be a lot easier to talk to her out there and not in his apartment. He needed space. It wasn't that easy to ask for advice about this kind of thing, and since Gloria didn't seem to be in the best of moods, it would just be better to be outside.

Curving around a wide inlet, the beach was a two-kilometer expanse on the west side of the island facing the open ocean. Reid ran down the path to the beach, hoping Gloria would wait for him. She had finished work earlier than he had. At the end of the path he made his way across the driftwood logs, huge silver-gray cylinders tossed to the edge of the beach like toothpicks by the winter storms. The moon was even brighter as he climbed farther out on the logs, and he could clearly see someone sitting on one of them about ten meters to his left.

Reid ran over to her. “Sorry, Claude wanted me to prep a few things for breakfast.”

“I just got here a few minutes ago.”

Reid sat on the log next to her. “Nice night, isn't it?”

“Beautiful.” Gloria grabbed a handful of sand and slowly let it run through her fingers. “It reminds me of one of the prints that Roy Henry Vickers does.”

“The Native artist in Tofino?”

“You've seen them. In the beautiful longhouse gallery on Second and Campbell.” She grabbed another handful of sand. “He's Tiemshin, from up north near Alaska. He has some prints of totems in the snow. They really knock me out.”

Reid picked up a driftwood stick and started poking a pile of rubbery kelp that was tangled in a heap at the end of the log. “I like to step on this sometimes and hear it pop.”

Gloria smiled. “Me, too.”

“That's the first time you've smiled at me since you got back.”

“I guess I was pretty shocked about you and that girl. But walking out here I thought about it and I suppose I shouldn't hold it against her what her father does. Besides,” she smiled, “it's hard for me to stay mad at someone.”

“She's nice, really.” Reid stabbed a piece of kelp. “One time she kept this guy from shooting a bear.” He looked out at the ocean, convinced that omitting a few details here was okay, since the main thing was true, and also because Gloria's brother was in that Bear Alert organization and she might think it was wrong even to go on a fake bear hunt. Also, explaining the whole thing was too complicated.

“Look Reid, I'm sure if you like her she's nice.”

Reid didn't say anything. The only sound was surf, the waves breaking onto the beach and the popping of the kelp as he poked it. After a while, he stopped poking the kelp and looked over at Gloria. “I feel dumb admitting this, but I've never had a girlfriend.”

Gloria pulled the collar of her windbreaker up around her neck. “That's not dumb. Lots of people go all through school and never get involved with anyone.”

“I feel pretty out of it, living so long at Heather Mountain.” He went back to poking the kelp. Then he turned toward her again. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Do you like anybody?”

Gloria slid off the log and leaned back against it. She brought her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “I sort of did.”

“But not anymore?”

“It didn't work out.” She rested her chin on her knees and looked out at the ocean. “What advice did you want?”

“It's about being half-Native. Michelle and I passed the Opitsat village and she said that she had never actually known anyone Native.”

“She must live in a pretty different world from us. Mars, maybe?”

“Well, you said that's not her fault, right?”

Gloria sighed. “I guess so.”

“The problem is that I didn't say anything about being half-Haida. I was about to, but then this seal popped out of the water and she got to talking about seals and it just never came up again. She gave me her address and I want to write her, but I don't know if I should say anything about it.”

“Are you ashamed of it?” Gloria's eyes met his.

“No. But I didn't know my dad. I don't even know any Haida people, and the only Native traditions I know about are from the white guys who lived at Happy Children of the Good Earth. It seems so phony.”

“When you're mixed you have to be careful about not getting hung up on what race you are. It can make you crazy.” Gloria looked up at him and put her hand on his arm. “Listen, Reid. You're who you are. The truth of your life is that your dad was Haida and your mother's white. Maybe you didn't know him or his people, but it's still a fact and nothing can change that.”

Reid nodded. Then he smiled. “I was thinking how they said we look like sister and brother. Maybe we're connected, because Native people were supposed to have gotten to North America over the land bridge from Asia.”

“Everyone's connected way back somewhere. I don't worry about it much anymore. I think I was in grade nine when I figured out that if anyone had a problem with me being half-Asian and half-white, then I had a problem with them.”

*   *   *

The moon shone through the branches, lighting the path that left the beach. Reid glanced at Gloria walking beside him. Her cheekbones were high and smooth, her coppery skin seemed to glow, and her thick, dark hair brushed the top of her shoulders. When she smiled at him, her eyes were midnight black. She was beautiful. He had always thought she was pretty, but tonight there seemed to be something different about her. Or was it him? He wasn't sure. But there was one thing he did know: she was right about what he should do about Michelle. There was no doubt about it. If Michelle had a problem with who he really was, then he would have a problem with her. That was all there was to it. He would write her and tell her the truth.