chapter 1

 

Broken Blue Airplane

©Russell W Polsky
Chapter 1

 

Bright spotlights of sun glowed earthward. The small circles of light danced first near than far; a rapid exchange whose magnificence was hard to turn away from. Fast clouds rode the wind above the vast sea ice west of Kotzebue Alaska stealing the pink strands of light just as they fell from heaven. Breaking free from the pink clouds that roiled above the frozen world the liberated shards of light illuminated a treasure of diamonds hidden in the snow. The year’s first sunlight fought a brave battle against the months of dark that preceded spring. The wind carrying the clouds west wailed; crying out at its inability to break the spell of winter.  Rob Tolen stood on the step of an old aircraft, his aircraft, a DeHaviland DHC-2 Beaver. Watching the light show for just long enough to feel the chill sneak in through his clothes, he hopped in, slammed the door, primed the engine with fuel and fired the old gal up. If the weather held it would prove to be a most beautiful day of flying. But the weather was always a big if… especially this time of year.

As the summer months approached the continuous night of winter gave way to the day, acquiescing politely to the approaching warm season. The ice to the west at once seemed frozen and lifeless, then, sparkled beautifully, poised to give way to life. Life ready to spring forth. Reverently the mind and hand of man was quickly at work readying for the coming season, and that meant work for Rob. The long winter’s toils and patience and impatience would be rewarded.  

Kotzebue, on the far North West edge of the North American continent, had changed in the years following the discovery of great deposits of zinc and gold at the Red Dog mine site. Kotz, to those familiar with the area, had changed, so with it the people, the culture, and the surrounding villages. It wasn’t just the mine or the money that brought change. Also changed was the climate, not just the weather but the political climate as well. Even the migration of the Caribou had changed. The advent of modern technology and contrivances had done just as much, if not more, to change the sense of the place. Nearly everyone now had cell phones even if they didn’t have a car, truck, four-wheeler, or sno-go. Yes times they were a changing and changing fast.

Some things however seemed timeless. Men and women still loved and fought with timeless passion and men still came from foreign shores to find untold riches and take them out from under the noses of unclean savages reminiscent of the most imperial arrogance of the British Empire. What was unfortunate for the conquering foreigners was that those savages had in fact become sophisticated and shrewd business partners who’s deep love and reverence for their land and culture had given them a seat at the table shared by the corporations that sought the riches they owned.

 Most machines had changed, but Rob’s old blue DeHaviland Beaver, nearing 60 years old, shined like new, and was still quite hard to beat as the machine of choice to deliver loads of freight and cargo to otherwise hard to reach places. With the coming of spring the old craft was ready to do what she was built for… fly.

The first flights of the season were mostly aerial surveys. Mining and exploration principals burned up phone lines and satellite bandwidth with phone calls and emails telling foremen, their foremen, exactly when they could schedule opening camp and when to hire on staff. Meanwhile the “Tundra Telegraph” worked just as well as the digital communication modern times had brought to the far north. People gathered in the entrances of the local AC store or at their village IRA to talk about coming opportunities for employment. The local people were often the very last to benefit from projects that took place in their own back yards.

Mining had always been a staple of the region as men from other places came for the riches under the land. Cycles of explorations were once again at an all time high and camps were springing up in rapid fashion. With the camps came the onslaught of people and equipment. The first in and last out were always the cooks, superintendents, electricians and one or two of the best hands. Foremost on the agenda was to get the exploratory drilling rigs up and running and producing the core samples to determine the feasibility of either further exploration or full blown extraction. These folks spent millions hoping to find billions. Rob had worked hard to put himself on either end of the spectrum of these projects so that he may garner just a small slice of the pie. It’s good to know where your bread is buttered.

This morning was one of those trips. In fact the first trip of the season brought together Rob and familiar faces from seasons past. This being the third season of providing air support for Harken Gold Rob was happy and comfortable to be with old friends and good clients. Waiting patiently for the old girl, his plane N529WK, to warm up, Rob watched the gages intermittently while Jake Robinson took a last minute look at the notes, charts, and maps of the area they had prepared for this season’s first look. With Jake fully immersed in his documents Rob withstood the desire to have a little chat while his bird warmed herself, preening her feathers.

Jake looked up from his notes smiled broadly as he looked out the window and half shouted, “Damn it’s good to be back.”

“I told you you’d miss me down south Jake,” Rob said smiling behind his brown round aviator sunglasses.

“You’re the only reason I come back Rob, that and a few billion dollars of treasure waiting for me out under the tundra.”

“Yeah you guys and your rocks.”

A light punch from the back seat hit Robs arm and he winced a mock shock as he turned smiling at Jennifer Jones in the back seat.

“Yeah some girls like rocks too, and by the looks of things you found one!”

Jennifer punched him again this time a bit harder as she involuntarily hid the new ring on her left ring finger. Jen was a fortyish woman with a plain slightly weathered but cute face and brilliant green smiling eyes. There was always an air of flirtation whenever they were alone in the plane or on her infrequent trips back to town but at camp she was all business. An appealing girl with nice proportions she had to learn early on to walk a fine line in the male dominated world she worked in. Friendships and desires formed fast in remote locations but were fleeting and replaced with more rapidity by hostility and outright attack when signals never sent were crossed up in some suitors mind. It was a very delicate game to maintain professional demeanor while enjoying being alive in these beautiful places, sometimes it was dangerous to even smile for fear of it being misconstrued and that led to a rejection and often injured the fragile egos of men. One of the things she liked about Rob is although she knew he appreciated her figure she also knew he would never cross the invisible line and in fact respected her professionally. Having spent more than one weather day with him waiting for flyable weather she knew she was safe and that’s a good sentiment to have with your pilot.

As the gages began to register some heat, Rob busied himself with tuning radios and running through preflight checklists. He readied to taxi out as Jake and Jenny finished a little conference they were having over the maps when Jenny asked, “Could we fly first to the site on the north end of Ivik before we head over to camp? Then we could just head straight to see how camp looks. I would like to get a good look at the Ivik site in the best light.”

Jake looked on approvingly at Rob waiting his answer.

“Of course. If I can get my arm to work after being accosted.”

Jennifer punched him again.

“Let’s go wise-a*s,” she said smiling.

“You guys are the bosses. Next stop North Ivik hill.”

With that Rob eased the throttle forward and the old Beaver pulled away from her tie down spot eager to take to the air where she and Rob Tolen belonged.

Taxing out Rob was also thrilled to be heading out on the first flight of the season, so thrilled that a tug of emotion pulled at his chest and a little pool of tears rose up and threatened to spill out of his light green eyes. He unconsciously adjusted his weather stained brown leather ball cap shifted his weight to sit on the front of his seat as the old bird rolled onto the runway centerline. Rob smoothly pushed the throttle up as the ‘Ol girl roared announcing her return to the sky. In a moment they were climbing out under the high overcast, joy in each heart as the majesty of the vast expanses of sea ice, snow covered tundra and mountain ranges painted a moving tapestry in this beautiful land. Any notion that this was to be the ’Ol girls last summer was the farthest thing from anyone’s mind even Rob.  N529WK soared skyward and all worldly troubles were left to wait on the ground as each heart soared with her.

 

 

Reviews

[Kevin Anthony]

This was, for the most part, very polished and professional.
Your descriptive powers are impressive, even if you do perhaps tend to ramble on a little bit. Perhaps a bit more focus on developing the characters of the story would even things out somewhat (though I know this is only chapter one).

All in all though, I enjoyed this. Keep 'em coming.

[Mathias Winters]

I feel like you've done a great job on this. I like the style of your writing and I like the word choice. It sounded very professional, and you obviously took your time working on this. The dialogue was brilliant, the flow was extremely well shaped, and all in all it's a great piece of work.

Some ideas (Just an amateur writer/reviewer):

One thing that I found was a weak point is that I felt like there was too much background information. All of that information might get boring to the reader after a while, and they may find themselves wanting to skip over it. I'd suggest revealing all of that information over time instead of in one big chapter.

There was a part in the dialogue, where the guy said the word "Accost". I don't know if that was the best word to use in a dialogue sentence. Most people wouldn't use it, and it doesn't really seem to flow.

The entire story flowed brilliantly, but there were a few parts where I got hung up on words that were used too much. I would try varying those words.

Another thing I noticed is that there was not enough dialogue. The parts with dialogue were very short lived, but they were strong. I would use more of those dialogue bits you write so well.

Lastly, there doesn't seem to be much conflict going on. It's good to have at least some (even if it's minor) going in the beginning so that the reader gets involved in the story. Maybe some emotional conflict or societal conflict.

Otherwise, fantastic work.

100/100