Mandy’s eyes dart from me to Clementine, and I think she blushes, just a little.
“Oh, I know,” she says quickly.“I just meant it’s great that you’re back and all.Trout misses you.”
Clementine puts her pack on the floor and leans her elbows against the counter.
“Where are we with everything?”she asks.
Mandy starts clicking away on the computer, and Clementine leans over.
“We’ve started clearing out the backcountry campgrounds,” Mandy says, pointing to her computer screens.“There’s a couple of old structures out there that we also checked, because sometimes people decide they’re going to live there without telling anyone...”
I look at the taxidermied raccoon.Whoever did it did a pretty good job.Looks real natural.
“That’s Sebastién,” Mandy says, and I look up when I realize she’s talking to me.
“The raccoon?”
She nods.
“Fancy,” I say, looking back down at him.
“Your crew is in the amphitheater,” Mandy says.“Down that hall and then out the door that saysNo Exit.Ignore the sign, we should change that.”
“Of course,” I say.
“I’ll see you later?”Clementine says.
“For sure,” I say, lifting my pack again.
I want to kiss her goodbye, but suddenly it seems strange and unprofessional, and like maybe I should let Clementine tell her coworkers what’s going on before just laying one on her in the workplace.
“Have a good meeting,” she says, and smiles.
“Enjoy your campground evacuations,” I say, heading to the amphitheater through the No Exit door.
Porter’s standingin front of the small amphitheater with a map tacked to a rolling whiteboard, the other guys all seated around on wooden benches.It’s hot out, but at least there’s a sunshade.
I take a seat on a bench next to Silas and put my pack down.He looks over and nods at me.
“What’d I miss?”I mutter.
“The Saturn fire jumped Gold Canyon and now it’s burning up the other side pretty fast,” he says.“There are some local guys doing controlled burns and digging fire breaks to the south, but the fire’s got a hundred or so miles before it gets to anything in that direction.”
I look at the laminated topo map up on the board.Porter’s drawn a red shape around the chunk of national forest that includes the Spires.There’s nothing much to the south of the red splotch, but to the east are a couple of small towns leading down out of the canyon.Then Ashlake, my hometown, at the mouth.
The towns to the east of the fire aren’t as far away.Just looking at the map, I can tell they’re in that uncertain gray zone that we all hate so much.
If the Saturn Fire keeps moving in the direction it’s going, Eaglevale, Coldwater, and the other tiny towns that dot the river along the canyon will be totally untouched.But if the wind changes direction, they’ll be right in the fire’s path, and whatever fire team gets sent there is gonna have a hell of a time with that terrain.
I lean forward and crack the knuckles on my right hand, studying the map.I know why we’re not digging fire breaks and doing controlled burns with the local guys.
It’s because, if the winddoeschange, we’re the unlucky bastards who’ll be keeping Eaglevale and Coldwater from burning down, and I’d be lying if I said I’m not a little excited about it.
“We’re cooling our heels until this thing gets hot?”I ask Silas.
He looks over at me and grins.
“You got it,” he says, still keeping his voice low.“The minute the wind changes, we’re on our way up.”
