Chasing God's River by Barry James Hickey

Author:Barry James Hickey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, drama, adventure, river, colorado, sports, kayaking, rafting, river rats
Publisher: Barry James Hickey

RIVER OF SORROWS

The whites told only one side. Told it to please themselves. Told much that is not true. Only his own best deeds, only the worst deeds of the Indians has the white man told.

- Yellow Wolf, Nez Perce.

The old converted school bus chugged west on Highway 160 past Mesa Verde National Park with twelve bodies on board. Big John Turner was at the wheel, occasionally looking in his side mirror to check on the three rafts and supplies he was pulling on the trailer.

Still there.

His wife Evelyn was sitting in the passenger seat behind her husband. A small but scrappy woman in her late thirties, her short hair was burned between blonde and obstinate gray with tanned and leathered skin from many summers on the river.

Little John, the oldest Turner boy, was amusing the other passengers with the p.a. system microphone.

“Now we are passing the famous Indian ruins of Mesa Verde National Park,” the boy said. “Anybody ever been there? Give me a show of hands.”

Wade raised his hand. So did Pistol Pete, Kyle, Denny and Trevor Pryce.

“Come on, Mom!” Little John said. “You took me and Kevin there last summer. Remember?”

“I remember,” his mom said obligingly as she chewed on a soda straw, here yes glued to a steamy Danielle Steele novel.

“That place was so boring,” ten year old Kevin said. “Indian kids didn't even have toys back then except for dead animals and heads.”

“Victoria,” Kyle said to Victoria. “You've never been to the ruins?” He was in the front bench seat across the aisle from Evelyn.

“Never,” Victoria said, sipping on a wine cooler. She felt giddy today. Happily giddy.

So did everyone else on the bus. So far, the trip had been a five-hour singalong booze cruise starting at the Wild River Adventures camp to the southwestern corner of the state. They stopped twice so far. Twenty minutes for gas and an hour for a mineral bath at the Pagosa Hot Springs. Ronda, one of the extreme sports girls that came along managed to get a half-hour massage in with Victoria. Victoria paid for it.

As the Dolores River loomed closer, everyone was anxious to get started on the float trip.

Wade liked Big John's kids a lot. They were the kinds of boys he wanted to have with Katie some day. Both were smart and likable and interested in the world around them. Evelyn had home-schooled them for a few years and her teaching skills showed. The two boys were talking encyclopedias with all sorts of facts, figures and opinions. (Unlike Malachi. You couldn't get a syllable out of him today.) Being around so many adults over the years, the Turner boys were able to hold their own in adult conversations. Although Little John Turner was only maybe fourteen, he could already handle a big raft from the stern.

“Who can spell Anasazi?” Little John asked next.

Nobody raised a hand.

“Gee Dad, looks like we got us some illiterates on board the magic bus today.”

“Looks like it,” Big John smiled proudly, his eyes on the road.

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