Legends of the North Cascades Read online

  Contents

  Cover

  Title

  Dedication

  Contents

  A Brief History of the North Cascades

  I. The Book of the Dead The Time Before Everything Changed

  When Everything Changed

  Holding On

  Fortifications

  One Crummy Backpack

  A Hole in the Sky

  The Only Hospitable Place

  Home

  S’tka

  Honey, I Can’t

  Dark All the Time

  A Very Brief History of the Clan

  Signals

  Gordon “Gordy” Prentice; Football Coach

  Barely a Sniff

  Coach “Gordy” Prentice

  Grander Things

  The Otherness

  Deb Coatsworth; Public Librarian, Vigilante Falls

  This Many

  Little Black Lies

  Beyond Earshot

  S’tka

  Nothing or No One

  S’tka

  A Sticky Burden

  Underdogs

  Faint Traces

  Third Time Is the Charm

  Refuge

  U’ku’let

  Gently in the Darkness

  S’tka

  Salty Sweet

  A Real Home

  II. The Book of Doubt Sean Halligan; Bartender, Doc’s

  A Real Home

  S’tka

  U’ku’let

  Castoffs

  Untethered

  S’tka

  Don’t You Even Care?

  Where I Should Be

  S’tka

  But Not for Me

  N’ka

  The Toll

  S’tka

  First Offering

  Travers Cartwright; Brother

  Estimates

  A Different Life

  S’tka

  The Stranger

  S’tka

  The Law of Diminishing Returns

  Counting Days

  If Not Remote

  S’tka

  The Damage

  Reacting and Pretending

  Jerome Charles; Brother-in-Law

  N’ka

  A Big Pat on the Back

  N’ka

  III. The Book of the Living Darla Dayton; Dale’s Diner

  The Pull of the Unknown

  S’tka

  Precious Oil

  N’ka

  This Time

  Various Discomforts

  N’ka

  The Right Thing

  N’ka

  Clipboard Jesus

  Ed Paulson; Ranger

  N’ka

  Travers Cartwright

  Almost Perfect

  S’tka

  No Quit

  Snags

  N’ka

  Duane Barlow; Marine

  Dale Duvall; Owner, Dale’s Diner

  IV. The Book of Healing Tristan Moseley; Caseworker

  Exposed

  N’ka

  Miss Martine; Second-Grade Teacher

  No Small Wonder

  N’ka

  Extremities

  Sheriff Harlan Dale

  N’ka

  Mercy

  Ranger Ed Paulson

  Lights in the Sky

  A Prayer

  Sean Halligan; Bartender, Doc’s

  A New Coat of Paint

  No Place Like Home

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Jonathan Evison

  Copyright

  Page List

  i

  iii

  iv

  v

  vi

  vii

  viii

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  41

  42

  43

  44

  45

  46

  47

  48

  49

  50

  51

  52

  53

  54

  55

  56

  57

  58

  59

  60

  61

  62

  63

  64

  65

  66

  67

  68

  69

  70

  71

  72

  73

  74

  75

  76

  77

  78

  79

  80

  81

  82

  83

  84

  85

  86

  87

  88

  89

  90

  91

  92

  93

  94

  95

  96

  97

  98

  99

  100

  101

  102

  103

  104

  105

  106

  107

  108

  109

  110

  111

  112

  113

  114

  115

  116

  117

  118

  119

  120

  121

  122

  123

  124

  125

  126

  127

  128

  129

  130

  131

  132

  133

  134

  135

  136

  137

  138

  139

  140

  141

  142

  143

  144

  145

  146

  147

  148

  149

  150

  151

  152

  153

  154

  155

  156

  157

  158

  159

  160

  161

  162

  163

  164

  165

  166

  167

  168

  169

  170

  171

  172

  173

  174

  175

  176

  177

  178

  179

  180

  181

  182

  183

  184

  185

  186

  187

  188

  189

  190

  191

  192

  193

  194

  195

  196

  197

  198

 
199

  200

  201

  202

  203

  204

  205

  206

  207

  208

  209

  210

  211

  212

  213

  214

  215

  216

  217

  218

  219

  220

  221

  222

  223

  224

  225

  226

  227

  228

  229

  230

  231

  232

  233

  234

  235

  236

  237

  238

  239

  240

  241

  242

  243

  244

  245

  246

  247

  248

  249

  250

  251

  252

  253

  254

  255

  256

  257

  258

  259

  260

  261

  262

  263

  264

  265

  266

  267

  268

  269

  270

  271

  272

  273

  274

  275

  276

  277

  278

  279

  280

  281

  282

  283

  284

  285

  286

  287

  288

  289

  290

  291

  292

  293

  294

  295

  296

  297

  298

  299

  300

  301

  302

  303

  304

  305

  306

  307

  308

  309

  310

  311

  312

  313

  314

  315

  316

  317

  318

  319

  320

  321

  322

  323

  324

  325

  326

  327

  328

  329

  330

  331

  332

  333

  334

  335

  336

  337

  338

  339

  340

  341

  342

  LEGENDS of the NORTH CASCADES

  A novel

  Jonathan Evison

  ALGONQUIN BOOKS OF CHAPEL HILL 2021

  For Jean Paul Pecqueur, poet, prince, and pal for life . . .

  Contents

  A Brief History of the North Cascades

  I. The Book of the Dead

  The Time Before Everything Changed

  When Everything Changed

  Holding On

  Fortifications

  One Crummy Backpack

  A Hole in the Sky

  The Only Hospitable Place

  Home

  S’tka

  Honey, I Can’t

  Dark All the Time

  A Very Brief History of the Clan

  Signals

  Gordon “Gordy” Prentice; Football Coach

  Barely a Sniff

  Coach “Gordy” Prentice

  Grander Things

  The Otherness

  Deb Coatsworth; Public Librarian, Vigilante Falls

  This Many

  Little Black Lies

  Beyond Earshot

  S’tka

  Nothing or No One

  S’tka

  A Sticky Burden

  Underdogs

  Faint Traces

  Third Time Is the Charm

  Refuge

  U’ku’let

  Gently in the Darkness

  S’tka

  Salty Sweet

  A Real Home

  II. The Book of Doubt

  Sean Halligan; Bartender, Doc’s

  A Real Home

  S’tka

  U’ku’let

  Castoffs

  Untethered

  S’tka

  Don’t You Even Care?

  Where I Should Be

  S’tka

  But Not for Me

  N’ka

  The Toll

  S’tka

  First Offering

  Travers Cartwright; Brother

  Estimates

  A Different Life

  S’tka

  The Stranger

  S’tka

  The Law of Diminishing Returns

  Counting Days

  If Not Remote

  S’tka

  The Damage

  Reacting and Pretending

  Jerome Charles; Brother-in-Law

  N’ka

  A Big Pat on the Back

  N’ka

  III. The Book of the Living

  Darla Dayton; Dale’s Diner

  The Pull of the Unknown

  S’tka

  Precious Oil

  N’ka

  This Time

  Various Discomforts

  N’ka

  The Right Thing

  N’ka

  Clipboard Jesus

  Ed Paulson; Ranger

  N’ka

  Travers Cartwright

  Almost Perfect

  S’tka

  No Quit

  Snags

  N’ka

  Duane Barlow; Marine

  Dale Duvall; Owner, Dale’s Diner

  IV. The Book of Healing

  Tristan Moseley; Caseworker

  Exposed

  N’ka

  Miss Martine; Second-Grade Teacher

  No Small Wonder

  N’ka

  Extremities

  Sheriff Harlan Dale

  N’ka

  Mercy

  Ranger Ed Paulson

  Lights in the Sky

  A Prayer

  Sean Halligan; Bartender, Doc’s

  A New Coat of Paint

  No Place Like Home

  Acknowledgments

  A Brief History of the North Cascades

  Eight million years ago these mountains began pushing their way through the earthen crust of the continent, born hundreds of millions of years earlier as a jumble of tertiary rock, sediment, and basalt from beneath the ocean floor, all of this castoff material trucked along upon the shifting plates of the earth until it collided in a geological mosaic here, on the northwestern edge of the North American continent.

  These are the North Cascades, west of the Skagit River and east of the Puget Sound, extending north to the Fraser Valley, still volatile and ever changing. As recently as twelve thousand years ago, this entire wilderness was covered in a massive ice sheet, from the eastern divide, extending south and west to the Olympic Peninsula: a great, barren world of white, frozen and wind-ravaged. The people who lived here hunted mammoth and bison. They lived in caves and burrows, imprisoned by ice. Enduring the constant perils and malevolent moods of the shifting ice, they managed to abide in their small clans.

  In time, the great sheet of ice retreated, freeing the rivers and exposing the waterways and marooned alpine lakes. Thousands of years before European explorers arrived to “discover” this new world, before the trappers and loggers came to impose their wills and claim their fortunes, before the corporations came to reap their profits, the Nooksack, and the Skagits, and the Wenatchis wintered on the banks of these waterways, fi
shing, and hunting, and telling stories by the light of the fire about the beginnings of the world, about The Time Before Everything Changed, and about the great spirits who lavished upon them all the natural wonders that sustained them through the epochs. And about the spirits who still walked among them.

  I

  The Book of the Dead

  The Time Before Everything Changed

  Maybe Nadene was right; maybe their marriage wasn’t worth saving. God knows she’d tried twenty different ways already. Dave couldn’t begrudge her now for wanting to throw in the towel after fifteen years. Still, lingering there in the driveway, five minutes after she’d sped off in the Dodge, leaving a rooster tail of gravel in her wake, Dave nursed a small hope that cooler tempers would prevail, and that she’d come around. This time would be different. Dave would quit running from the damage, and take ownership of his own shit, once and for all. No more excuses, no more obfuscation, no more avoidance. He’d finally get the help he needed. He’d go back to the damn desert and relive it all if that’s what it took to win Nadene back. He was ready for the fight.

  Though it was hard to account for Dave’s optimism, there it was. Maybe it was that fine day. That first hint of spring warmth in the air, the mountains finally beginning to shed their snowy cover, bristling green with cedar and spruce in the morning sunlight. After a long winter, it was hard not to be hopeful under all that blue sky. He made a pot of coffee and began drinking it on the front porch, hopeful that she would return soon.

  If they could not find another convincing reason to save their marriage, they’d save it for Bella. For all their failings, they’d always done their damndest to provide a good and stable environment for Bella. They’d fed and clothed her to the best of their means; they’d tried to nourish her burgeoning interests every step of the way, tried to allay her fears, and reward her enthusiasm, and instill Bella with confidence, and a sense of possibility. They’d always done their best not to argue in front of her. And mostly, it seemed, they’d succeeded. Bella was nothing if not bright, and curious, and quietly confident. Though she was only seven-and-a-half years old, she read at a fifth grade level. She communicated easily with adults. She had an emotional IQ higher than Dave, but she seemed to be taking the world more personally than ever.

  In the truck after school Friday afternoon, on the way to drop her off at Nana’s, Bella had started in with the questions again.

  “Do you still love Mommy?” she said from the passenger seat.

  “Of course, I do, baby. I love you and Mommy more than anything in the world.”

  “Are you gonna get separated?” she asked.

  “No, baby,” Dave said.

  “Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  Bella eyed him evenly. “I don’t believe you,” she said, turning to peer out the fogged-up side window.

  Dave reached over and patted her on the knee.

  “Baby,” he said. “Look at me.”

  Bella complied, a little dubiously.

  “Adults sometimes have issues they have to work through,” Dave said. “They have patterns that develop in their relationships, not-so-good habits, and sometimes they’re hard to break.”

  “What kind of habits?” she said.

  “Well,” he said. “Like a lack of communication, things like that.”

  “Like how you never talk about Iraq?”

  He winced inwardly, and patted her knee once more.

  “Baby, I don’t want you to worry about anything,” he said. “Everything is going to work out fine.”