A Time in Heaven (10 page)

At that point, Smith had planned on selling the camp and keeping the money.  Besides Colby, Smith was the only one that knew anything about the books and the papers for the camp.  The old man had shown them to him once.  Colby had explained that he had no relatives, and he wanted Smith to take over the
camp when he died.  Smith had no intention of running the camp, but he would sell it for the money. 
It wasn’t long after this that
he was approach
ed to smuggle illegal aliens.  He figured that this one job would pay him more than
a year at this
crummy fishing camp.

Jesse was the first to reach the radio
in the camp store
.  He had used one like it
before.  He flipped the on switch. 
Nothing happened.
He tried again.  There was
still
nothing.  In desperation he tried the microphone.  “This is Heaven Fishing Camp.  Come in.  This is Heaven Fishing Camp.  Please come in. Can anyone hear me?” There was some panic in Jesse’s voice.

He checked the radio.  Remembering Smith saying that it would work with the battery if the electricity is off, he took off the battery cover. There was no battery!

“Oh Katie, I think we’re in trouble here,” Jesse said as he grabbed Katie by the arms. “The radio won’t work without the battery.”  Katie broke loose from his hold and took the radio.

“Even with a battery I don’t think it would work with all these wires not attached to anything.” She showed a handful of tangled wires she had taken from inside the radio.  “Smith did this, didn’t he?”

“I don’t know.  Probably.  All I know right now is that we are alone here with a dead body
upstairs,
and no way to call for help.” Jesse paused. “Wait a minute.  Smith said that cell phones won’t work here.  Maybe he was lying.”

Katie was putting the radio and the wires back on the desk, “He was telling the truth on that one.  I tried to call home a couple of times, but there was no signal.”

Jesse grabbed Katie’s hand and headed toward the lobby, “We have to get out of here, now.”  Katie grabbed Sadie’s leash with her other hand and followed.  As they left the lodge through the
double
door
s
in the
lobby, Jesse turned to close them
. 
He even gave them a little tug to make sure they were securely closed.

They hurried along the path back to the cabin.
They couldn’t get away from the lodge fast enough. Reaching their cabin, they rushed inside and slammed the door.
Jesse and Katie were out of breath, and flopped down on the bed.  Sadie went straight to her water bowl for a drink.

“What do we do now, Jesse?” Katie asked. “We have three more days here.”
She added, “With someone’s body
rotting in the lodge
!
”

“We can’t go back to the lodge, that’s for sure.  For all we know it’s a crime scene.” He thought for a second and said, “Katie, people just don’t go into a closet and die.
The way things
look;
I bet S
mith had something to do with the poor man’s death
.
S
adie didn’t like him from the beginning.”

They could have had no idea of what had actually happened to Dan Colby, so they imagine all sorts of things, the worse being that Smith murdered this man. “He’ll be coming back here.  What if he finds out we know about the dead
guy? That won’t make him happy.”
Jesse told Katie.

Katie shook her head telling him, “No, no.  Remember I told you he said he wouldn’t be coming back to pick us up?   So we just have to stay away from the lodge until we do get picked up, then we can have that pilot radio the authorities.”

Jesse agreed, “OK,
but we have to be careful.  Our
cabin
door stays locked.  If we go outside, we both go.” Half to himself, he said,
“God
, I wish I had found a gun.”

Katie came back with, “I wish you had, too.”

ALONE

The next three days passed quicker than Jesse and Katie figured they w
ould.  They didn’t venture from the cabin except to take Sadie out
.  She didn’t like it, but Katie kept her on the leash the entire time they were outside. Jesse walked next to them, most often holding Katie’s hand.
He hadn’t told Katie, but he carried a large
kitchen
knife under his coat.

The days that they
confined
themselves
to the cabin
, waiting for the plane to take them far away from Heaven,
led Katie and Jesse to
recognize
how
truly
compatible they actually were.
Even though they were living in such close quarters, both Jesse and Katie were amazed that they didn’t get on each other’s nerves. When the day came to leave,
they
both knew they were in love for sure
.

They awoke in each other’s arms
on the day they were to go home
.  Jesse softly kissed Katie as
he
got out of bed. By this time
, all their
inhibitions were
gone.  Katie followed Jesse
into the bathroom where they
undressed, then showered together.  It was a long, sensual showe
r that lasted until Sadie gave out a loud “Woof!
”
  They jumped, but realized that she
only
wanted to go outside.  “Just a minu
te, girl, we’ll be right there,”
he yelled to Sadie in the other room.

Just to be safe, they both
took the
lab out to do her business.  They didn’t stay out long and soon
came back into the cabin to make breakfast and finish packing.  They didn’t have to rush, since they were told to be ready to fly out at 4 P.M. That afternoon was the longest time of the past three days.
They curled up on the bed in each other’s arms. 
Jesse helped pass the time by telling Katie about all the exotic places that she would be visiting with him. With every minute that went by
,
she became more
eager
to start her life with Jesse.

At three thirty Jesse suggested, “I think we should take our stuff to the dock now.  It should be ok.”

They gathered up all their gear and headed down the path toward the dock.  Katie walked Sadie one last time, but they stayed well within the sight of Jesse. 

Jesse, Katie and Sadie stood on the dock and waited for the plane to come.  They watched the sky.  They listened for the familiar sound of a plane engine.  Four o’clock came and went.  Soon it was five, then five thirty. 

Jesse started to pace.
“What’s wrong, Jesse?” Katie asked.  She was almost in tears.  “Where’s the plane?”

“I don’t know!”
Jesse snapped. “This whole trip has been a disaster.”  He looked at Katie. Now there were tear
s flowing down her cheeks.  “No, no.  I didn’t mean that!  Meeting you and f
alling in love with you was not part of this disaster.  I’m so sorry.  I gues
s I’m just worried, and
wasn’t thinking
.  Forgive me?” Jesse
was a little teary eyed, too.

He stepped over their gear and
kissed away the tears from Katie’s cheek. Then he
gave Katie a long, intense hug. 
They stepped back and Jesse cupped Katie’s face in his hands. They kissed and embraced again
.  Katie and Jesse stood on the dock holding on to each other.

They hadn’t noticed that a storm was moving in.  There was a distant clap of thunder and it started to rain
ever so lightly.  Without saying a word, t
hey gathered u
p their stuff and dragged it back
to the cabin.  By this time it was nearly 6 o’clock.  The plane was two hours late.

Jesse built a fire to help take the chill off from being so damp. As she warmed herself in front of the fire, Katie asked,
“Do you suppose the storm stopped them from coming?”
She really hoped
Jesse would agree with her.
What other answer could there be?

“It’s possible,”
he said, but then looked in Katie’s eyes and saw her fright. “Yeah, that’s what happened.  I bet they have to wait until morning to land safely.”  Jesse
tried to
lighten
the situation. But
being a pilot himself,
he
knew this storm wasn’t going to keep an experienced pilot from landing here.  There
hadn’t
even
been any waves on the water as they left the dock.

Katie wanted to believe the weather was why the plane didn’t show up.  But she
,
too, saw that the storm was nothing more than a passing shower.  It shouldn’t be a problem to a pilot, especially one of Alaska’s bush pilots.

Jesse went to lock the cabin door, still fearing danger for them.
“Let’s leave the door open so we can he
ar if there is a plane landing,”
Katie
proposed
. 
She was grasping at straws trying not to face the reality that no one was coming for them. 

“I don’t know if that’s wise.  It will be dark soon and
besides,
there won’t be
any plane tonight. 
Anyway
the
bear could be wandering around,
” Jesse
told Katie as he
latched to door.
“Or whoever killed that guy at the lodge.” He thought to himself.

Katie sat down
on the floor
with Sadie and wrapped her arms around the
dog.
With her head buried in the lab
, s
he started to weep.  Jesse sat down beside them and held Katie and Sadie in
his embrace
.
He had this awful feeling that something was terribly wrong – more than just a late plane.

The morning found Katie lying in Jesse’s arms on the bed.  They hadn’t changed their clothes just in case the plane
did co
me. 
Sadie had been allowed to sleep on the foot of the bed. 
She had her head
resting
on Jesse’s foot.

Sadie woke up with a start and a low growl.  She jumped down from the bed, waking Jesse.
  He nudged Katie awake. “Sssh,”
he said softly. 
“Sadie heard something."  They listened, but heard nothing. 
Then there was a loud bang. 

“The bear!”
Katie whispered.

Sadie was still growling as Jesse peeked
out the window.  “Not the bear,
” he
said.  Katie sighed with relief.

“What
then?  Sadie’s still
uneasy
,
” Katie
said as she went to look
out the window.

On the porch
was a pair
of young pine martens chasing each other around the chairs that had been put by the door.  They had kno
cked over one
of them
,
causing the crash
.  The noise
may have frightened them for a moment, but they were still on the steps of the cabin having a good time
wrestling and chasing each other.
  Jesse
and Katie laughed.  It relieved their anxiety
for the moment.

“We proba
bly should go back to the dock,”
Jesse said while he was gathering up what he could carry. 

“You’re right.
The plane could come any time,”
Katie
said rather wishfully.  She put
Sadie on her leash and gathered the rest of their gear.

When they opened the door, the pine martens took off and ran up the nearest pine tree.  Katie was glad that Sadie hadn’t seen them.
  It was hard enough leading the excited lab
and carrying her stuff.

At the dock, they put down all their possessions again.  All eyes were toward the sky, but there was no si
gn of a plane.  “It’ll be here,”
Jesse thought out loud as he scanned the sky.

Jesse looked at
his watch
.
I
t was just after 7
o’clock.
The sun had been up
long enough for the plane to
have
be
en
here
already
.
There was still no sign of their transportation off the island.

As the morning passed, neither Katie nor Je
sse said much.  They paced a great deal
.  Sometimes
walking
together, and sometimes walking in opposite directions.  And, they sat
and watched the skies
.
 
Overhead a bald eagle was harassing an osprey until it dropped the fish it had just taken from the bay.