Excerpt
“I have no idea. Let them make an offer.”
“What do you mean ‘make an offer’?”
“Since I’m doing the work of four or five people, I want to be paid
accordingly or I’m not going back. So, John, how about you becoming a
messenger the other way around? Go back and tell them my story and let
them make an offer.”
“You little bugger,” John grinned. “You’re really going to do it, aren’t you?”
John drove off and came back the next day with an offer of $450 per
month.
Ken shook his head, “No.”
John continued to drive back and forth with offers that Ken refused to
accept. After two-and-a-half days, Ken said yes to $2,500 per month.
News of Ken’s engagement swept through the camp. The manager offered
him married accommodation and then asked, “Who’s the lucky
young lady?”
“Jessica, Patrick’s sister. I’ll ask her about moving to the management
camp and see what she says. I doubt it though – she has a ranch down the
road and lots of animals to look after. But I’ll ask.”
The manager’s face flushed red and he looked down and shuffled his
feet. “Yes, well, that could be a bit difficult.”
“Difficult? Why?”
“It’s just that there’s a company policy – no Indians in the company
management camp.”
“Do you mean there are no Indians allowed in the camp?”
“I don’t know,” the man’s face flushed redder. “That’s just the policy.
It’s simply something that’s been handed down.”
“What bright spark came up with that idea?” Ken asked. “Don’t you
think it’s strange that aboriginal people can’t live any damned place they
want, given the entire country was theirs in the first place?”
The manager shrugged.
“Tell me this, if you can. How about black people or brownish people
or Jews? Can they live in the camp?”
“No policy on that, as far as I know,” the man replied. “Why?”
“Just curious.”
Despite Ken’s state of bliss he had one nagging concern. Would Jessica
want to come to the Arctic with him? Should he ask her? When he finally
did she laughed, “I can’t believe it took you this long. Of course I’ll come
– right after we get married. You look surprised.”
“I am,” he said. “I didn’t think it was something that interested you.”
“Yes it does. It does because it’s your big dream. It’s been building since
you were a child. Every time you talk about it, which happens to be most
of the time in case you didn’t know, it’s as if a light is shining from the
inside of you. I’ve never met anyone else with a big dream.”
Libros Libertad 