Fire and Ice preview 1 - Scott Heath

“Look, Darlene, I’ve paid all of my child support and I’ve paid half the hospital expenses for more than a decade. Why can’t you just let me slide a little this month, so I can have some money to have fun with Sean? You know my credit’s good and you’ll get paid back. It’s not as though I won’t pay his expenses while he’s with me.”

The phone on the other end went dead. The line had that buzz that meant Scott could place a new call. There was no one to call. He sat there in the late August heat and watched a lightning storm pass--the first storm of the summer and the rest of the week promised to be hot--even for Silicon Valley.

Scott Heath replaced his two-man tent with his one-man tent. He cut his food rations in half. A tear ran down his cheek.

Scott went out on the deck and cried in the rain. It was not right. That woman had run roughshod over him ever since they had married.

Scott had cheated on Darlene. She had driven him to it. She was like being married to Mother Teresa. He had subsequently been involved in a bad accident. They had been on the lam after the accident.

Darlene had saved all of Scott’s paychecks for her get away. He had tried to make up for the single time he had cheated on her. He had gotten a new job working for a heavy manufacturing company that made armored vehicles. He had been busy helping to develop new armor plating that could take a direct hit from a top of the line Russian tank and survive. She had thought he was cheating again. Again! There had never been an again! He had no longer loved her. He had only been working hard for his children. When she had left, she had taken all of his money from six months wages, minus only the money that had been spent for food and rent.

Darlene had left on a Greyhound Bus. She had known he could have gone to the authorities. He could have gotten a restraining order to keep her in the state. She had known that if he did, they would catch up to him about the accident. If she would have done her part, the accident might not have occurred.

After Darlene had left, she had taken him to court for non-payment of child support. What a joke. He had not had any food in the refrigerator, nor had he had any money for lunch when she had left. Luckily, he had been reimbursed per diem for his company trip to New Mexico, on the following day. He had been able to buy enough Campbell’s tomato soup to survive until his next paycheck. As the mail came in, he had found out that he had become six-months in arrears on all of his payments. Child support! What a joke.

The authorities had tracked him down and served him with papers for the accident. That had been seventeen years ago for God’s sake. She had kept thousands of miles and thousands of dollars between him and his son all this time.

Scott put on ‘Sketches of Spain’, by Miles Davis, and turned up the tape deck. He returned to the living room floor where he had assembled his camping paraphernalia.

He organized his possibles in his pack the best he could.

As the sun lowered and the shadows lengthened, he went out on the deck and cried.

After while, Scott saw his best friend Terri drive up and park. When his tears had dried, he went over to see her.

Terri, “Son’s not coming, huh?”

Scott, “Darlene bleeds me of every penny, and all I get is a slap in the face.”

Terri, “Well, you need to get away by yourself and relax. Bring me something when you come back.”

Scott, “What do you want?”

Terri, “I don’t know. Use your imagination. I’ll pray for you.”

“It’s not fair. She gets all the tax write-offs and all I get is bills. She gets to go to the events at school and I just hear about the doctor bills.” Scott looked out her window at the 3,000-foot Santa Cruz Mountains. “Well, I’ve never been high before. I wish Sean was with me to enjoy it.”

Terri, “Write down where you’re going and when you expect to be back. If you don’t come back I’ll notify the authorities.”

Scott, “What are you gonna do?”

Terri, “Oh, I might have my friend over from Wal-Mart with her husband and kid.”

Scott, “They hate me.”

Terri, “You’re hateful.”

Scott ventured, “I’ll think of you every night before I go to sleep.”

Terri, “Any bears up there?

Scott, “I don’t think they go that high.”

Terri, “You ready to go?”

Scott, “I can move up my schedule and leave in the morning. One good thing!”

She, “What’s that?”

He, “Well, if he’s not going, I don’t have to carry a bunch of stuff he likes.”

“Why is that good?”

He frowned. “He likes canned goods and I like freeze-dried. The space and weight saved can be used to carry a zoom lens a macro lens and an extra camera body, not to mention a lightweight tripod.”

She, “That’s all you have--your camera?”

He, “Well I have you for my best friend.”

They kissed and hugged.

She cried a tear. “I’ll pray for you every night.

Scott wrote down his destination “Walker Lake and Bloody Canyon” on a paper towel and set Terri’s vodka bottle on the note so it would not blow away.

He returned to his apartment and finished packing. He had three first aid kits and they took up so much room. All right, the big one got packed. It would not be good--up there alone and no first aid.

He went to bed and turned on KGO talk radio with the sleep button so it would go off in 90 minutes. The conservative host was on, yapping about husbands who don’t take care of their kids. Scott thought about smashing the radio, but then he would not have a radio.

Sleep did not come easily. Scott’s apprehension grew as he contemplated hiking so far out, alone in the wilderness. Scott’s son, Sean, had picked the needles out of his arm two years ago when he had fallen in jumping cholla cactus. Before that, Scott’s dog had saved him from hiking right off a cliff and a hundred foot drop, when he was hiking at night. His dog was gone now and his son could not or would not come.