Alaska
Running away never really works. But that rarely stopped me from trying.
Sometime in early 2001, me & 2 of my friends packed our bags & headed for Alaska.
The plan was to have our flight paid for by Princess Cruises, who had a mini resort in Denali Alaska. There we would stay in the employee lodging & work off our air fare and make some money while experiencing the last frontier on our days off. That was the plan at least…
Some of us made it farther along with the “plan” than others. In typical facing my plan was derailed inside my 1st week in the great white north.
For the most part the flight was long & boring, until we reached the Alaskan mountain ranges. Upon our decent the landscape reveled itself. Jagged, chipped, white teeth from some long forgotten beaches reached up through the clouds towards the plane. Rows & rows of teeth…for as far as the eye could see. This was not man’s territory. It soon became obvious. Nature would not provide any helping hands here.
The unrelenting snow capped peaks seems to never end. I imagined the plane going down somewhere in the ominous terrain. Those instantly killed would be counted among the lucky. I could think of no plan, no scenario that wouldn’t end horrifically. In all that vastness I got one step closer to grasping the idea of infinity.
Eventually we landed in Anchorage. The closest thing to civilization that Alaska had to offer. And we made the 3 1/2 hour drive into Healy Alaska. We arrived at an old Colonial style house that had been renovated & aded on to until it looked like a somewhat suitable bed & breakfast.
The three of us, me, Ben, and PJ, grabbed our bags & hustled into our new abode through a tucked away side door. Our path wound it’s way through the guts of the old building before spitting us out into the slash area of the house,. It was a living room / reception center / common area.
If houses have souls then this particular one was somewhere between Edgar Alan Poe & Ted Nugent. The fixtures & ornaments were worn brass. The carpet was a deep, rich red. Which over traffic and time had added a tint not unlike the center of a red velvet cake…
Everything structural was wood. Wood covered with 30 plus years of lacquer, layer upon layer, like the rings the trees that they now covered. The walls, the doors, the staircase that divided the slash room, were all the deep dark brown of aged wood. We were directed up the staircase, to the right, 1st door on the right. The door swung open revealing 2 sets of bunk beds, a dresser, and a battle worn boom box. We claimed our beds and slung our bags onto our new plots.
The home was owned & operated by Princess Cruises Lines as a staging area for new employees from the lower 48. It was a temporary stop while went through the employee paperwork and orientation. Temporary digs…
Afterwards we’d be moved in to the employee village. But from the sound of it we still had about a week before any of that started. A week to meet our new co-habitants, to drink, to smoke and to indulge.
One of my favorite things about traveling is the blind casting of a path. Nothing more than an a general direction, into the ether, to discovering, converging, diverging, and crisscrossing paths of others along the way.
By sheer definition I guess fate cannot be avoided, but maybe it can be dared….
It wasn’t long before there was a knock at our door. The floor outside creaked with the weight of several people. PJ opened the door…3 of our house mates & down to be co-workers stood at the threshold. 2 girls & a guy. All seemed to be around our age…early twenties. A blonde, Noel and a brunette, Beth…and in tow her boyfriend Abe, also with brown hair. The ladies were clearly running this welcoming party. Abe seemed to be more of an indifferent…a bystander at best.
Noel spoke up first, claiming her position as the leader of this trio. She held up 2 bottles of wine. One of the bottles a midnight blue glass, so dark you could not tell if it was empt or full. “Someone left these as tips in one of the rooms that we cleaned today. Wanna drink?”
Absolutely! Come on in I replied.
We passed the bottles around and got to know each other in the, no frills kind of way…like common fellow travelers.
Noel & Beth were sisters. Noel 22 and Beth 19…and Abe, her fiancé, was 22. The trio hailed from Portland, Oregon. And like us Floridians, were Alaskan virgins.
They were what I expected people from Portland to look like. Casually, and a bit ironically (I suppose), dressed in thrift store hip. A mild mixture of grunge and punk.
All three were pleasantly strange and great for conversation. But Noel was really the stand out to me. She by no means was ever a head turner. A few lbs over weight, a nose on the slightly large side, and dressed somewhat frumpy. But through Noel I first discovered my attraction to quirky, witty, intelligent and funny women.
None of this was understood by me at that time. I just knew that I liked sitting next to her. We traded self indulgent, witty & cynical remarks about who or what ever subject was currently making the rounds with the dwindling bottle of wine.
While the others were in conversation, Noel leaned closer to me & whispered “you smoke?” I nodded. She grabbed her bag and said come on. “We’ll be right back” she addressed to everyone in the room. Nothing more than an eye roll from her sister. We left. We snaked our way back through the path we entered.
We sat down under a group of trees about 50 yards from the old house. She picked up a little glass bowl from under the pines. We smoked, we talked a little bit, but mostly we just took in this experience through our slightly altered filters.
There’s an excitement, at the start of a journey, only truly known to those of us on the move.
My senses were tingling with anticipation…not to mention some decent wine (not that I’ve even known the difference).
While we sat there I saw a white fan, like the one that delivery vans use, pull up next to the house. Two people got out, then the van pulled away.
Noel waved her arms, successful grabbing the attention of one of the distant figures.
That’s Martie…she’s my roommate. Martin was the daughter of a preacher. A curvy, dark haired Southern Belle, complete with a southern drawl.
She joined us on the cold grass under the trees….Introductions were made and small talk ensued. Me & Noel continued to pass the pipe back and forth. Martin waved it away when I tried to pass it to her.
“No, I’m alright” she said. There was the subtlest tone of insecurity in her refusal. She seemed self conscious of the idea of appearing indecent. Maybe she thought it too cliche…from a preachers daughter…maybe I was just projecting some of this on to her, or maybe it was the weed.
Sitting there in silence, Martie unzipped her bag….revealing a 1/5 bottle of absolute vodka. “Look what I got!”…”interested?”
Never one to turn down road hospitality, both Noel and I in unison said “absolutely!”.
Both of us simultaneously pleased with ourselves & disgusted at the other for the shitty pun…
The way back inside seemed to me, much more difficult to traverse than the time before. Luckily we had a sober Martie to guide us.
We returned to my room and the festivities were several decibels louder than when we left. Again, maybe it was the weed.
Roughly an hour ago we were a room full of strangers, but alcohol and possibilities had transformed the mood to resemble revelry amongst life long friends…there even seemed to be inside jokes that had been established while we were away…how long had we been gone?
Me and Noel returned with the self conciseness of being the only two stoned people in the room…
We sat on my bunk and commented on the happenings of our friends. The image of scrooge and the ghost of Xmas present, looking in through a window crossed though my mind. We addressed our awkwardness and took it’s power away, well some of it at least. We created our own inside jokes & laughed at ourselves and others…
Noel’s sister intermittently shooting not so subtle disapproving glances in her siblings direction. Our direction. The festivities continued through the night and into the next morning. One by one our new friends disappeared.
Time has a way of getting away from you in Alaska. With not much separating night from day…it’s easy to count a 48 hour binge as a single day. A side affect, or benefit, depends on who you’re talking to, of a never setting sun.
We were in the Great White North and ready for sleep…we hung the blankets from the unused bunk over the window, to create some semblance of night.
I hit my bunk and drifted to sleep with a slight grin.
The next several days passed in similar manner. I grew comfortable with Noel & preferred her company most of all. We got close fast in the way that new friends do.
Our paperwork, orientation, & job assignments were complete.
Me, Ben & PJ were in the laundry room washing endless amounts of towels, and bedding for the cabins. Noel, Beth & Abe stayed on as ‘maids’ cleaning out the rooms & preparing them for the next occupants.
We moved in to the employee village. I kept Ben & PJ as bunnies. Noel & Martie stayed together. Beth & Abe got their own room.
The whole employee village was more than 6 acres. The cabins were not much more than 2 bunk beds and a table. Each unit connected to the next. Five on the ground level, and five on top. Making a single standing unit. Ten of these made up the entire employee housing.
During the 1st few days I saw less of Noel. Work being the only reason…we would still make time to hang out after work though. Usually at Beth & Abe’s room. They had a 2 bed couples room.
Originally posted June 8, 2019