William Redman Carter Chapter 31

Posted: April 01, 2006 - 10:07:52 pm

William sat back and stared at the stack of papers. He had spent the

past four weeks going over the first draft of his dissertation and

fixing the small errors that had crept into it. Sections had been

changed to be more precise. The language had been improved to be more

readable. References had been checked and the original sources double

checked for accuracy.

This pass through the dissertation was at a less strenuous pace than the

first pass. He had worked eighteen to twenty hours a day on the first

draft. This draft, he had settled down to a twelve to fourteen hour a

day pace. It was still hard on the mind and body.

Now that he had finished the second draft, he felt the need for a major

break, but there were things that had to be dealt with first. He pulled

out his telephone and dialed Ling. She answered on the second ring,

"Hello, William."

"Hello, mom."

"Calling to gloat that I haven't found you yet?"

"No. Just wanted to find out what has happened with Derrick," William

answered pleased to note that she had asked her question with more than

a little amusement in her voice.

"Oh, he's staying in one of the guest rooms and is recovering just

fine," Ling answered. She had brought Derrick home because of his

actions when they had gone to save the White Buffalo. Derrick had

stepped between her and one of the men who was about to shoot her. It

wasn't necessary, but she appreciated his attempt to protect her. She'd

been ready to subdue the man, but the presence of Derrick had forced her

to change her plans and she had reacted with much more force than

intended. That had accounted for one of the deaths. Despite her best

efforts, Derrick had gotten injured in the process.

"I'm pretty sure that he's about ready to look for a job now."

Surprised that William would mention work, Ling said, "He mentioned

something about that yesterday."

"With forty-eight square miles of property, I need a fulltime ranch

foreman. Let him know that the position is his," William said.

"Good idea. He'd be perfect for the job," Ling said with a smile. She

wondered how it was that John, Ed, and now William could always find the

right person for a job.

"I would like a fence run along the front of my property in Arizona.

Could you ask him if he'd be interested in putting a crew together to do

that? I'm sure that a few of the young men on the reservation would

appreciate a job," William said.

"Sure, I'll mention it to him."

"Thanks, mom."

"So how's your dissertation going?"

"I just finished the second draft," William answered as he ran a hand

over the stack of paper that comprised the results of his work. It was a

substantial body of work.

"That's good. You've been there for two months. It took your brother and

sister longer than that to reach the same point," Ling commented.

"I'm going to take ten days off before tackling the third draft. Then

I'll send it to my professor for his comments," William said. He knew

exactly which sections his professor would ask him to change, but he was

prepared to argue the case for keeping it as it was.

"You have your credit card. Why don't you get on a plane and fly

somewhere for a short vacation? Go down to Cancun for a little sun or to

the north for some skiing."

"And let you know where I am?" William asked with a grin.

"Oh, I didn't think of that."

The lie was so obvious that William burst out laughing. He said, "That

was a good one."

"I had to try," Ling admitted. She was beginning to enjoy the game that

was playing out between William and her.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow after you've had a chance to talk with Derrick."

Ling said, "I love you, William."

"I love you too, mom," William replied. He hung up the phone and went

into the living room. Settling onto the couch, he considered what he

wanted to do for the next ten days. The fact of the matter was that he

missed Lucy. Even though they talked on the phone every morning, it was

hard being separated from her. Half of the reason driving him so hard

was to return to Lucy as quickly as possible.

He went into his father's room and looked through the camping equipment

in the closet. Smiling, he decided that he'd try hiking through one of

the parks where his father used to hike. He fished out his cell phone

and spent the next thirty minutes inviting Joe, Mark, and Birdie to go

to the Dinosaur Valley State Park with him on the next Saturday morning.

All three of them accepted his invitation.

After parking in the parking lot in front of the main office, William

got out of the car and looked down the road. He could see two giant

statues of dinosaurs from where he stood. He shook his head at the

sight. William said, "Wow. This is not what I expected. I don't see how

it could have been like this when my father used to hike around here. My

father would have hated this."

"It wasn't. For a long time it was just a plain area with a creek bed

with the dinosaur tracks. I think it was after your father moved to

Arizona that they opened the park to the public. We come out here on

school field trips to check out the dinosaur tracks all the time,"

Birdie said.

William turned and headed towards the office to get information on the

hiking areas. When he reached the front door, a man stepped out wearing

a Ranger's outfit. It wasn't the uniform of a Park Ranger, but that of

the naturalist group that surveyed animal populations. Surprised to run

into a Ranger at a public park, William said, "I didn't expect to find a

Ranger here."

The man, paused, turned and pointed into the building as he said, "The

Park Rangers are inside."

"I studied under CC at the Druid College my fourth year," William said

even as the Ranger was walking away.

The Ranger froze and turned to look back at William. A smile grew as he

put the known facts together and came to the right conclusion. He said,

"My God, you must be William Redman Carter."

"Yes, I am," William answered. Joe, Mark, and Birdie were staring at

William wondering how a complete stranger in the middle of nowhere knew

who he was.

"I'm Ken Walker. CC is a very good friend of mine. She told me all about

your time with her. Of course, all of the Rangers know your brother,

John, and his wife, Susan."

"These are my friends Joe, Mark, and Birdie," William said well aware of

his brother's relationship with the Rangers. He pointed to each person

as he introduced them.

"Birdie? You wouldn't happen to be Beatrice Fletcher, would you?" Ken

asked looking at the young woman.

"Yes, I am," she replied wondering who this man was and how he knew

about her.

"You picked up an injured Red Tailed Hawk about a month ago. How's it

doing?"

Shocked, Birdie answered, "She's doing fine."

"Good. Do you think it will fly again?"

Turning on her professional face, Birdie answered, "Yes. The bone is

healing well. The joint wasn't impacted. There was a slight infection,

but it cleared up after we treated it with antibiotics."

"Excellent."

"So what is a Ranger doing here?" William asked.

"I heard some more footprints were found outside the park. I came to see

if that was true and what would be the environmental impact if it was

opened to the public. Would you like to go with me?"

Looking over at the other three teenagers, William answered, "Sounds

interesting. We just might be some of the first people to see tracks

that were made a hundred million years ago."

Joe said, "That would be so cool."

Mark thought about it for a second and said, "Do you mean that we'd get

a chance to go off the marked trails?"

"Yes, but I'll have to insist that you be careful and make as little

impact on the environment as possible." Ken put an arm around Birdie and

said, "Walk with me. We have a lot to talk about."

Uncomfortable at having a strange man's arm around her, Birdie shrugged

it off. Stepping back, she said, "I don't think so."

William stepped forward and said, "Birdie. You can trust him. He's a

Ranger. Believe it or not, you and he have a lot in common. If he wants

to talk with you, it would be in your best interest to listen."

"You don't even know him," Birdie said.

"True, but he's a friend of my brother, my brother's wife, CC, and he's

a Ranger. That's enough to recommend him to you, but if you are really

concerned then let me say that Rangers have a compact with the Druids.

Any Druid will treat a Ranger as an equal and vice versa."

Puzzled, Birdie asked, "What do you think he wants to talk to me about?"

"Joining the Rangers," William answered with a smile. He gestured to the

Ranger and said, "Go walk with him. Joe, Mark and I will follow you so

that you have a little privacy for your chat."

The three young men walked about thirty yards behind Birdie and Ken. Joe

asked, "What do you think they are talking about?"

"About Ranger stuff," William answered.

"I've never heard of these Rangers. There are Park Rangers, the Texas

Rangers, and the baseball team. So who are they," Mark asked.

"The Rangers are the best organized and most rational of the

environmentalist organizations. They work to protect environmentally

sensitive areas. They make sure that animals are not over hunted. They

protect endangered species. And, unless I'm mistaken, they are about to

get into the business of wildlife rehabilitation," William said.

"Wildlife rehabilitation?" Joe looked at William with a confused expression.

"Treating wild animals that have been injured and releasing them back

into the wild once they've been healed," William explained.

Frowning, Mark said, "That's what Birdie does."

"Exactly."

"Oh. I see what you mean. He's talking to her about joining their

organization," Joe said. Over the past month, his opinion of Birdie had

changed. He'd come to recognize that she was very talented in what she

did. The fact that an organization that did all of the things William

had described was interested in recruiting her increased her stock in

his mind.

"Exactly," William answered with a smile.

It took two hours to reach the new site where Ken had been directed. He

paused on the bank of the Paluxy River and looked around. Although it

was named a river, other areas of the country would probably consider it

to be a stream. Although it was November, the weather was not cold. He

said, "Let's get out of our shoes and roll up our pants. We'll want to

walk along the shallows and look for the tracks."

Birdie pointed ten yards upstream and asked, "Is that a fossil over there?"

Looking in the direction Birdie pointed, Ken nodded his head when he

spotted what appeared to be a long thigh bone. He looked around and

said, "It might be. Why don't you all have a seat while I look around?"

William promptly sat down. Turning to the others, he said, "Have a seat.

Ken needs to examine the flora and fauna to determine if there's

anything environmentally sensitive here. We'd just get in his way and

probably trample anything that's important."

Birdie sat down and asked, "William, what do you know about the Rangers?"

William answered, "I studied woodcraft under CC at the Druid College. We

spent weeks out in the woods learning how to track, read sign, and

observe nature. Of course, I already had that at the Native American

College. Still, I'd have to say that she's as good at tracking as any of

the Native Americans that I know. That's saying a lot.

"As an organization, there are about forty members now and they are

spread all over the North American continent. They work with the

government and other environmentalist organizations to study wildlife,

plants, and the land.

"Unlike a lot of groups, they don't have a rose colored view of nature.

They recognize that some species have really blossomed in the presence

of man while others have suffered. They also recognize that some of the

problems are very complex and can't be solved by prohibiting people from

going into an area. Some of the problems aren't a result of people, but

arose because the species has practically marginalized itself out of

survival.

"A couple of years before I was born they found an area that had been

untouched by humans for at least a hundred years. In that area was an

endangered species of plant. Under a purely natural process, its habitat

was disappearing as new growth woods gave way to old growth forest. The

species was down to less than a hundred individuals when a beaver dam

killed them all off. The Rangers had recognized that it wasn't a matter

of if they would become extinct, but when they became extinct. Every

year they've gone back there looking to see if any individuals survived,

but there has been no sign. At least they saved some seeds.

Like I said, they don't have a rose colored view of nature and they

don't blame people for all of the problems they find. Sure, most of the

problems are a consequence of people. Still, they understand that it

isn't necessarily malicious actions on our part that are creating the

problem. An animal, plant, or insect travels here on board a ship and

then displaces a native species. The native species becomes extinct

because it can't compete. It happens.

"They are one of the good guys. I have a lot of respect for them. I'd

say that they were the ones who've uncovered sixty percent of the

illegal toxic waste sites in this country. They do it by observing the

impact of the environment on the wildlife and plants. They really study

wildlife and know what they are talking about. If you ever get a chance,

you should check out their headquarters. Their library has thousands of

journals containing observations made by individual Rangers."

William looked over at Birdie to make sure that he had her attention and

then pointed over at Ken. The Ranger was taking notes in a small leather

bound journal. He said, "Ken is detailing every species of plant,

animal, and insect that he sees here. He'll work about an acre of this

area for about six hours to record as much information as he can."

"You know a lot about them," Mark commented while watching Ken work. He

noticed the man was sketching one of the few plants still growing. He

asked, "What can he find out when everything around here is dead until

spring?"

William laughed and answered, "A lot."

Mark asked, "Birdie, are you going to join them?"

"I don't know, but it is tempting. He said they would pay all of my way

through college. He said that he could get me accepted into Texas A&M

for a bachelor's degree in biology. Then I would go for the D.V.M within

the department of Avian Medicine in the College of Veterinary Medicine

at the University of Georgia. After I graduated, they would get me into

the Avian and Zoological Medicine Service that is part of the Department

of Small Animal Clinical Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine

at The University of Tennessee."

"You mean they would give you a scholarship for your Bachelors and D.V.M

degree?" Joe asked. He had hoped for an athletic scholarship, but he was

just an average high school football player in a small town where

average was pretty good. There wasn't a chance of him getting one and he

knew it.

"Not exactly. He called it an internship. I work for them and get paid

to go to school," Birdie answered. She shook her head and said, "They

are talking about nine years worth of study."

"It sounds like a pretty good deal to me," Joe said. He was afraid that

he was going to end up in a Junior College somewhere and have to work

his way through college. The only saving grace was that tuition in Texas

was pretty cheap.

"I'm just a junior in high school. They are talking about a pretty

significant amount of work. What if I fail?" Birdie asked feeling a

little overwhelmed by thee offer.

William laid down on the ground and looked up in the sky. He studied a

cloud that looked at lot like a very fat man playing with himself.

William chuckled when the cloud drifted apart in a manner that was

almost unnatural. He said, "I bet if I were to ask you what is the most

common parasite to affect pigeons that you would know the right answer."

"It is..."

William interrupted her, "I'm not asking. I have no idea if the answer

you give would be correct or something you made up. My point is that you

probably do know the answer."

"I do," she admitted with a shrug of her shoulders.

"And you are worried that you won't make it through a program when you

already have more knowledge about the subject matter than most students?

Give me a break," William said. The cloud changed to look a lot like a

man and woman holding hands. He said, "I'm not impressed. If you could

form into the shape of a bird and flap its wings, then I'd be impressed."

Birdie stared at William in shock and asked, "What did you say?"

Realizing that he had spoken the comment to the cloud aloud, William sat

up and looked at Birdie. Looking slightly embarrassed, he said, "I

wasn't talking to you there at the end. I was talking to the cloud up

there."

"What cloud?" asked Joe as he looked over the clear blue sky. There

wasn't a cloud to be seen.

William looked up at the sky and saw there wasn't a cloud to be seen. He

raised a fist to the sky and shouted, "That's it. Make a fool out of me.

I hope that you had your fun."

Joe asked, "Who are you talking to?"

"The Two-Sided One. He likes to play games with me on occasion," William

answered.

"That's one of the Druid Gods, isn't it?"

"God and Goddess," he corrected. Taking a deep breath, William said,

"One day I will become a servant to the Two-Sided One."

Mark shrugged his shoulders and said, "Cool."

Joe gave William a skeptical look while Birdie frowned at the

explanation. She felt that William was too many people to live inside a

single body. He was the same age as her and seemed to be involved in a

lot of things that required more life experiences than anyone her age

had a right to have lived. She didn't bother to voice her disbelief.

William had returned to lying on the ground and stared up at the sky.

Lost in his thoughts, he didn't hear Ken say that they could walk around

for a bit. Joe, Mark, and Birdie slipped away to look for dinosaur

prints in the bed of the river. They were joined after having discovered

one set of prints by Ken. The thigh bone had turned out to be a tree

limb that had fallen into the river and been covered by mud.

Turning to examine Joe and Mark, Ken said, "I can understand why William

has taken an interest in Beatrice. What are your stories?"

Shrugging his shoulders, Mark said, "All he told me was that I was going

to get a direction from Birdie. I'm still waiting to find out what that

direction might be."

"I'm just a nice guy," Joe said with a grin. After having been around

William for the past six weeks, he didn't have any pretensions that he

was special in some way. He wasn't smart like William or Birdie. He had

come to accept that William was a better athlete than him. Even Mark had

seemed to have more drive lately than him.

Staring at Joe, Ken said, "There has to be more to you than that. I

don't think he'd take the time to cultivate a friendship with someone

who was just a nice guy."

"I'm not smart like Birdie. I don't seem to have the ability to focus on

something like Mark. I'm not good enough of an athlete to get into

college on a scholarship. I don't have any special skills of any kind,"

replied Joe. He shrugged his shoulders and added, "I haven't gotten out

of high school yet and I already know that I'm not destined for

greatness. This is my year of greatness. It's kind of depressing, if you

think about it."

"Focus? Me?"

"How many chickens have you sacrificed in your attempt to make a bird

splint?"

Mark blushed at the reminder and said, "Well, my dad threatened to throw

me and my mother out of the house if we had chicken one more night for

dinner."

"Bird splint?" Birdie asked unaware of what Mark had been doing in his

spare time.

"Yeah. I've got this idea that there ought to be a better way to take

care of a broken wing so I've been trying it out on chickens from the

grocery store. I've been trying to make a wing splint that would give

more freedom of movement in the wing while it is healing."

"The feathers will interfere," Birdie said absently.

"I'm working on it," Mark said with a shrug. He knew that there was some

way to achieve the idea he had in mind. His design had evolved from a

wrap-around design to something that was more like a giant clothespin.

Ken shook his head and said, "I thought you said that you were looking

for a direction in life."

"I am. I just haven't found it yet."

"You don't think the invention of medical devices is a direction in

life?" Ken asked.

Struck dumb by the question, Mark didn't know how to answer it. Was his

fixation on the wing splint a direction for his life? He stared at

William who was still watching the sky and wondered how he had known. A

shiver went through his body.

Birdie turned to watch Joe. His words had slowly percolated through her

thoughts and she realized it was really a very sad situation. The idea

that a young man had decided that his senior year in high school was

going to be the high point of his life was disturbing. She knew it was

true for a lot of people, but to hear a high school student state it in

such blunt terms hurt. She asked, "Joe, why do you think you don't have

much of a future?"

The change in subject freed Mark's tongue and he said, "I don't think it

is true. William said that you needed to learn gentleness from Birdie."

Birdie turned to stare at Mark wondering what he was talking about. Joe

knowing that the term gentle had never been used in connection with him

asked, "Gentleness?"

All four jumped when William said, "Sometimes one finds that their role

in life is to be a supporting character to someone who is destined for

greatness. Maybe the world at large doesn't appreciate it, but to the

principal and the supporter it can be a very rewarding life. The opinion

of the world doesn't really matter in such situations."

Mark snorted and said, "Supporting character?"

In a tone of voice that conveyed a real sense of loss that such a life

was not available to him, William said, "Yes. Supporting character."

Joe said, "You sound envious."

Birdie nodded her agreement. Even Ken reacted by nodding his head in

support of Joe's statement. It was clear that none of them had ever

given thought as to the importance and rewards of being the spouse of a

famous person. The public eye seldom turned to the person standing

behind the famous, supporting them with loving words when they felt weak

or hurt by criticism.

"I am. It is the most personally rewarding role in life that a person

can have. It is one of the purest loving relationships that one person

can have with another. You should all envy Joe for the love that he is

going to experience in life."

/I'd like to thank Drahkan for his fine work editting this chapter./