The Mountaineer - Page One

Paul Thurber held the newborn baby in his arms, swinging him lightly back and forth. He cooed and made faces at the baby boy. Sonia stood next to him smiling in the afterglow of childbirth. She hadn't felt a twinge of "post-partum depression" that afflicts many women. Her happiness surprised her as she had always had bouts of depression. 

In her eight-year relationship with Chad Knowles she would come close to breaking off with him every few months when a depression hit. With Paul she felt as if everything would be perfect forever. Being married to him was like Heaven. He had the perfect temperament for a husband. She knew he'd make a great father.

"He looks a little like Chad," Paul remarked, taking Sonia off guard. Where did that come from?

"Why would you say that?" she asked. "Chad's blond and blue-eyed, and the baby is brown-eyed and brown-haired."

"Just looks like him, that's - "

The doorbell rang, cutting off the rest of Paul's sentence.

"What was that again?" Sonia said. "I couldn't hear you over the doorbell."

Paul began to speak but the doorbell sounded again. "You might want to get that," Paul suggested. "I think it's the Montoyas."

The Montoyas! Sonia jumped up into a sitting position on the family room sofa. The T-shirt she was using to cover her eyes fell into her lap. The room was suddenly bright, very bright, as in late morning bright. A glance over to the TV set, which was still tuned in to Turner Classic Movies reminded her that she had fallen asleep during South by Southwest, probably sometime after 3 in the morning.

She thought it would be fine to have them come over at 10 - that seemed late enough, but she'd settled on watching the Cary Grant Marathon to keep her mind off her depression. It had been a difficult struggle to keep her spirits up in the four months since the plane crash. She knew Paul was gone and dreaming about him didn't do much good. When she awoke her depression would only be worse.

The doorbell rang again. That had to be June Montoya's doing. Bill would have rung it once and taken a seat in the love seat on the tiny porch.

Chapter One - The Montoyas' Proposal

[Bill and June Montoya are having lunch at Jill Petra’s house in Livonia, Michigan with Sonia and the Montoya’s two newly adopted children of flight victim Violeta Blanco. They are trying desperately to get Sonia Petra to go with them on a train trip to lift her out of her doldrums.]

        3-year-old Justin Blanco had wrestled himself down off of the booster seat to Bill’s right. The toddler landed feet-first and walked over to the terrarium without missing a stride.

        “Whoa, Justin, where’re you going?” asked Bill, raising his hand then putting it down as he saw no need to stop the boy, or maybe his yelling and food-slinging wouldn’t be missed.

        “I think the boy is the, what would you call him?” Bill continued.

        June said, whispering loud enough for the women to hear, “Barbarian. They think he has ADHD.”

        “Oh, June,” Bill said, “I don’t think they know what you’re talking about. You don’t have to whisper, honey.”

        “Mommy used to say I had ADHD!” the little black-haired girl chimed in. Jillian smiled broadly at the four adults. “But not any more!”

        “Jeejee,” Justin groaned from the side of the terrarium. He was striking it softly with his fist. The 5-pound Iguana inside the glass box was moving around. It wasn’t fake, after all, he thought. Seeing the movement, Jillian jumped down from her chair to go to her brother’s side. They continued chortling at the animal, who looked at them with only a miniscule tidbit of curiosity.

        “What do you call your Iguana, Jill?” Bill asked.

        Jill Petra raised her paper napkin to her face and, having finished chewing and wiping, she replied, “My ex named him ‘Whoop-ti-doo’.” The Montoyas chuckled but she didn’t crack a smile. “It stuck, I guess. I don’t really call him anything.”

        Bill and June observed Sonia’s older sister sympathetically as she ground down another bite of chicken pot pie. She was pleasant looking but not nearly as beautiful as Sonia. Jill was six years older, having just turned 35 weeks before. Her hair was a sandy brown as opposed to Sonia’s shiny jet-black hair. Sonia could easily pass for a Latina, but Jill looked more European.

        June was still chuckling. “Why did he call him ‘Whoop-ti-doo’?” she asked.

        “Well, he was actually my idea,” Jill said. “He wanted a pet and I didn’t want anything running around the house. It was hard enough cleaning up after his sloppy…persona. So, he named the animal ‘Whoop-ti-doo’ and I have no clue why. I don’t even know why I married him.”

        “It could be,” June began thoughtfully, “that he was mocking…you by calling it that. ‘Whoop-ti-doo’ seems to have undertones that perhaps he was telling you that you got a pet you wanted but it was no big deal to him.”

        Bill rubbed his forehead; he sensed a rising sensation of chagrin. “Oh, no, ladies, I present ‘Dr. June’.”

        “Oh, no,” replied Jill, “I think she hit the nail on the head! ‘Whoop-ti-doo’ was named for my own vanity.” She glanced over at the terrarium as Jillian was now joining Justin in slapping the plastic surface near where the Iguana was sitting. The bright green reptile slowly rose up and looked toward the commotion. “You know, they taste like chicken. Maybe I should do ‘Whoop-ti-doo’ Potpie?”

“No, Jill,” Sonia said, laughing. “Whoop-ti-doo is your offspring from your old relationship.”

Jill wrinkled her forehead in consternation. “Whoop-ti-doo? I can see the T-shirt now. ‘Worked free for five years as a secretary for a balding slob of a law professor and all I got was this lousy Iguana’! Whoop-ti-doo!”

Bill bit his lip trying to suppress a belly laugh.

Jill looked over at the white-haired man and said firmly, “It’s not all that funny when you think about it,” she said.

June punched Bill lightly on his left upper leg to encourage him to stop giggling. Sometimes she felt like she was married to a 67-year-old college kid.

Bill swiftly recovered and, despite redness in his face, said, “I understand. It’s hard when you dedicate so much time to someone….and then it’s over. Sonia was with Paul, I mean Chad, for, what, eight years?” Bill’s face went even redder as he dropped the P word. No one had referred to Paul Thurber in their 3-plus hour visit thus far.

There was a dead silence. Bill glanced at June, who gave him a scowl to end all scowls. As June was not helping him he looked across the table at Jill, then at Sonia opposite him. “I’m sorry,” he said, “I didn’t mean to mention Paul. But, Chad, you know, Chad was around for - ”

“Eight and a half years,” Sonia finished. “We met on my birthday.” She paused for a moment, thinking of what to add. “He was all right, I guess. We just got bored with each other.”

“No,” Jill started, “you had to look at those two. It was true love. I still have their engagement picture over on the hutch.” She motioned with her chin where there was a gallery of photos several feet to the left of the Iguana’s habitat. An impressive mahogany furnishing rose from the ceramic tile floor with its intricate carvings and useful cabinets. An array of Petra family photos were spread out in an orderly fashion on the main surface under the lighted cabinets.

Sonia jumped up quickly and walked over to the hutch. Bill and June noticed that, although she had changed into a blouse from earlier, she still wore her pajama pants and fluffy rabbit slippers. Jill had complained to them that Sonia didn’t go out of the house for days. Often she’d find her crying over photos of Paul Thurber. Sonia confessed Paul as her true love even though he was gone.

Sonia looked from left to right at the pictures. “You didn’t have a picture of Chad and me before!” she protested.

“Oh, I brought it out for Bill and June, Sonia,” Jill said. “It’s right in the center.”

Then Sonia saw it. They had been on a sailing expedition onto Lake Michigan in summer many years before. She remembered the photograph, and the day. Chad looked superhumanly attractive, she’d thought; his blond wavy hair blowing around his chiseled athletic face. Chad stood six foot two, about the same height as Paul, she thought.

“I noticed that earlier,” June Montoya said. “He sure is good-looking. You know how to find them, girl.”

Sonia turned toward the table, standing in front of the hutch. “Weren’t you going to tell us about some train trip, Bill?” she asked innocently.

“Oh, yes,” Bill started, laughing, “The Lofty Mountaineer. It’s one of the most spectacular train rides in the world!”

As he started speaking, June and Jill turned to look at him. At that moment, Sonia opened a top drawer in the hutch and let the picture fall into it. She closed it slowly; a smile coming to her face a she listened anew to Bill’s train story.

“It starts out in Vancouver, British Columbia,” he continued, “then goes over the Canadian Rockies to Banff and Lake Louise. This time of year is the most beautiful time to go. The scenes are….to die for!” He smiled, impressed with his sales pitch. “So, I’m going to ask you again, Sonia, all expenses paid – it’s a fun trip, will you go with us?”

Sonia walked back to her seat. As she pulled her chair in toward the table, she looked down thoughtfully. After a brief pause, she said, “Well, I’m afraid of heights, you know, especially after the plane crash. Doesn’t the train go through some high mountains?” she asked tentatively.

“Oh, sure it does,” June replied. “But it’s on the ground all the way. On a train, gravity is working for you, not against you!” She looked at Bill to gauge his approval. He smiled at her clever quip. “It’s perfectly safe, “she added. “We’re taking the kids.”

“It’s beautiful, you’ll love it,” Bill coaxed her some more.

“I don’t know,” Sonia started. “You don’t understand how Paul’s death just…devastated me.” She tried hard to cover her emotions. Her voice fluttered a bit just the same. “He was so wonderful. God! When you said the trip was to die for, I thought of something he said…that I was to die for.” She raised a rumpled Kleenex to her nose. “And he died for me..” she whimpered, overcome with emotion. Four months after the crash, her feelings hadn’t faded one iota.

Bill and June and Jill exchanged glances. They knew this wasn’t going to be easy, this getting Sonia to think of something other than brooding over Paul. And the plan the three of them hatched that she has no clue about; having Chad sit near them on the trip, could backfire atomically.

June cleared her throat and said, “Sonia, we love you so much. We know you loved Paul and Paul loved you, but he’d want you to move on.”

Sonia shook her head tearfully. “No, no…”

“He wouldn’t?” June asked. “You’re a young, beautiful girl, Sonia. Please go with us. We’ll pay for everything!” The pleading in June’s voice was undeniable. “We love you, Sonia. We just want to cheer you up.”

Sonia smiled weakly, lowering the Kleenex. “I love you guys.” The sound of the children knocking on the side of the terrarium saying “Whoop-ti-doo” repeatedly momentarily distracted Sonia, but she had finally thought of her trump card. She knew how to get the Montoyas to give up.

“OK, I’ll go on one condition,” Sonia started. “And that is…that Jill goes with us!”

Sonia looked at her sister with a look of triumph. No way would she ever want to go. Her sister didn’t go anywhere. She only had a passport because she went on a fishing trip with her ex once just across the border. Jill was known by family and friends as Mrs. Excitement and, at other times, as The Inspector. Whenever they went to a friend or family members house, Jill would point out all the defects in the doors, the tile, the kitchen cabinets, and so on – hence the Inspector. Jill was a bore as long as her little sister could remember. Jill would never go.

“So, if Jill goes, I go,” Sonia repeated. She looked at her older sister. “What do ya say?”

Jill looked at the Montoyas, then back at Sonia. A smirk of a smile formed beginning at the corner of her mouth. Jill took a deep breath and said, “OK, they already got me a ticket.” She finally burst into a smile. “I was already going.”

Dumbfounded, Sonia glared at the Montoyas. They knew she was going to pull the “if my sister goes” stunt. Jill must have been in on it from the start. Sonia glanced over at the kids who were now banging the glass surface of the Iguana box harder, raising their voices louder in their “Whoop-ti-doo” chorus.

“Kids,” Sonia said, “Don’t bang on that! It’ll break.” She looked over at the Montoyas. There was one tactic left. “So, I know you guys were well off, but I didn’t know…I mean, are you sure you want to do this, pay our way?” Bill and June nodded. “So, where did you get all this money?”

Suddenly, a sheepish look came over Bill’s face like a shadow. Tilting his head down and to the right, he replied wistfully, “Mother died.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Sonia exclaimed.

“Don’t be,” June said, “she was kind of a cold woman.”

“Juuune!” Bill groaned. “Don’t say that. She was a bit cold...but she was my mother, you know.”

Jill reached to her left and grabbed her sister’s right hand. “So, you’re going!” Sonia hadn’t remembered her sister having been as excited about something in a long time. “That’s great! You know what we’re gonna do, girl?”

Sonia shook her head. “No, what’re we going to do?”

“We’re going to get our groove back,” Jill declared. “That’s what!”

“You mean like ‘meet somebody’?” Sonia quizzed her sister.

“Well, actually,” Bill interjected. “You might find that a lot of these folks will be…well, older – “

            “Don’t throw water on the fire, Bill!” June scolded. “Us girls are gonna have fun no matter what.” She looked over at the children again. Jillian and Justin were play-kissing Whoop-ti-doo, only they were slobbering on the terrarium glass.

“You can watch the kids,” June said.

Chapter 2 - The drive from Detroit to Vancouver begins

"They said it was the only car insured for Canada today," Bill Montoya said with a sigh. "If you want a Mercedes, honey, one's coming in tomorrow!" He looked incredulously at the Toyota Yaris.

"This is a go-cart!" June growled. "You know we've got to leave today, Bill. We'll miss the train if we wait till tomorrow."

"It'll get great gas mileage," Sonia said, now feeling a bit guilty for throwing a fit over flying. I should've let them sedate me. 


"It's yed! I wuv yed!" said Justin. He grabbed the door handle with the same hand he was holding his stuffed T-Rex, which fell to the pavement. "Uh-oh!"

After Jill helped get the T-Rex and the matchbox cars that fell out of Justin's other hand as he fumbled for the T-Rex, they piled into the little red roadster. Jillian and Justin sat between the sisters in the back while Bill started out driving the first leg of one of the longest road trips he'd ever attempted.

"There was that trip from DC down to see Mother in Florida," he rambled on, taking the I-94 West ramp. "That was a doozy. My friend Clayton and I went through two bottles of vodka on the way down. We took turns driving."

"And drinking?" Jill asked.

Bill laughed. "Whoever was driving had to mix his vodka with Big Red. We were on a Big Red kick."

"Big Yed?" Justin blurted out.

"Big Red, Big Red, buddy. The driver had to have caffeine....but you don't need to know about caffeine yet."

"Neither does he have to know about drinking and driving!" June rebuked him.

"Ok, Ok, if the boy takes out the Go-cart on a drunken joyride, I take full responsibility."

"Who's Clayton? When the hell was that, anyway? The Nineteen-thirties?" June asked.

"The sixties. Actually we heard over the radio that Bobby Kennedy'd been shot around Macon, Georgia."

"That was June 5, 1968, you goof!" June barked.

Sonia had started to feel sleepy even though they were only a half-hour into the long slog. "I thought he was shot in California."

June laughed. "You're right, Sonia. Bill just needs to go back to grammar school. Watch out for that motorcycle, Bill!" 

"I see him. I'm not even close!"

"But you weren't looking at 'im!"

Bill looked into the rear-view mirror where he could see that Justin was pulling on Jillian's hair, Sonia and Jill were looking sleepy. "Hey, one of you guys has to stay awake and count how many 'Watch out, Bill' s June shoots at me. Any takers?"

"What was that?" Sonia asked.

"That was Number Seven!" June said firmly. "I can count my own 'Watch out's."

There was a silence that lasted a few seconds...an odd silence since Bill and June almost never stopped talking. Bill broke it.

"Hey, look, Vancouver, two thousand three hundred and one miles - "

"Look out!" June erupted.

"Look out what?"

"The Tyson Chicken truck - you're tailgating him!"

"I'm like three car-lengths away from him..."

The two bickered on for a while as Jill and Sonia dozed off in the back seat. They were awakened a half-hour later by Jillian's screams as her brother was pulling her hair out.

"Justin! Justin! Come one!" Sonia scowled, grabbing both arms of the little anarchist by her left knee. To Jill fell the duty of consoling Jillian, who was crying in pain. She didn't say a word, gently rubbing the area where her hair had been pulled. Jillian calmed down immediately.

June looked over at Jill with a contented look. "Jill, you have a way with kids. I do believe you're a natural mother."

Jillian sobbed quietly on Jill's shoulder. The older sister stared at June. "I love kids, but only other people's".

"Oh, no, Jill," June started, " you would love to have your own. Why didn't you want kids with what's-his-face?"

"That's exactly it..I was tired of seeing his face and I didn't want to see little faces that reminded me of him."

"What's he done since you two divorced?"

"He married again. Wife's pregnant. She's ugly as sin."

"How 'bout someone else for you? What kind of Daddy material would you consider?"

"I don't know if I want Daddy material. Guys smell. They don't clean up after themselves. They even...they even... reuse dirty clothes. And most of them aren't useful around the house. What's Daddy material anyway? Semen?"

"Chicago!" Bill blurted out. "Chicago - 51 miles".

"Paul was Daddy material," Sonia affirmed.

"And that Chad, too!" June replied.

Before Sonia could answer, her sister asked, "But how am I going to find a Paul or a Chad at my age?"

Bill, unfortunately, had an answer for that question. Looking into the rear-view mirror, he said, "I read a survey once that explained that women should find their soul mate in their twenties. For a woman in her thirties, the number of decent men available can be like 75% less. All the good ones are taken, so they say."

There was a ghastly silence. None of the women knew what to say to Bill in reply.

Then June spoke up. "I was over 40 when I met Bill."

"See what I mean?" Bill said. It was then that he noticed the women and even the children were glaring at him.

"