Chapter 11: The Fish Run

The man who was on watch for the fish thought he’d seen something just before dark the night before. The fish had been expected all day and the community was talking about nothing else. The older members of the tribe supervised the setting up of racks for smoking the salmon. They had ordered digital thermometers to help give the younger members of the tribe a better understanding of the process. They had enough wood chopped to smoke thousands of fish and then about three times as much again.

Frank Johnston was one of the federal employees who still went to his office in Spokane to work every day, even though he was sure he would never get paid again. He was the Director for Region Twelve National Fish & Wildlife. He had a very good working friendship with Chief John Nation. The two men respected each other, and agreements were often made with a handshake. His current estimate for this year’s salmon run was calculated at 100,000 fish moving through Omak and Okanogan, Washington. The tribe’s share would be 50,000. Frank Johnston and John Nation had worked out for the tribe to catch 5,000 fish per day.

Soon, everyone realized that with so many fish coming through, they were going to be understaffed. Chief John grabbed his phone and called the school board president. When Chief John was a kid, the schools let junior high kids out of school if they were working in the fish run, and the assumption was that the high school was closed during the run. The students expected to be busy. Often if the fathers were working the fish, then the kids would be running the farms and ranches. The girls were assigned groups of workers. They would feed and keep them hydrated. This had become a tradition as the braves of long ago sometimes worked themselves to death. Even thirty years ago, the old-timers remember working to exhaustion.

On Monday morning, the junior high students were called to assembly just after the start of the first-class. Tony’s dad had gotten a call at breakfast telling him of the fish running in the river. They’d been spotted massing in Brewster Lake five days ago and entering the river. Now, this morning, they’d finally been seen in the river. There were just a few at daylight, then more as the morning passed. The call went out. So, two hours later, the Taylors were having breakfast. The kids were preparing for another day at school.

“Tony, are you going to join the men doing the fishing?” Jenny asked.

Tony came alive, “THE FISH! ARE THEY RUNNING? YOU’VE HEARD SOMETHING?!”

“Yes, the high school is closed and there will be an assembly first thing this morning at the junior high. Chief John hopes to have first nets in before 10:00 AM.

Tony held his breath, “Everybody okay if I go do this?” Tony looked at John, then Jenny, then Sally. Ben wanted to help too and got upset that he wouldn’t be allowed to. The twins were big-eyed at the thought of big fish. Lucy wanted nothing to do with fish. Willy was excited and wanted to help too.

“Ben, after school maybe mom and dad can bring you by, so you can learn. Okay? Tony asked.

“Okay.” Ben pouted. He followed his big brother anywhere and felt he had earned the right to go everywhere.

Tony looked at Willy, “You have to learn to swim first.”

“Swim?” Willy asked. Everybody agreed, Willy needed to learn how to swim and grow a bit.

Just a bit later, the seventh through ninth grades and part of the tenth grade were placed into the old empty Junior High. For assembly purposes, they joined the elementary school. Willa and Tony, along with Brad and his girlfriend Gloria were in tenth grade so they were sitting in the bleachers. The principal stated any boy or girl over twelve who wanted to help with the fish please stand. Willa was ten feet away from Tony and was second to stand with him.

“Tony, why are you volunteering? You’re not a native,” Principal Phil Parker looked curiously at him.

“I was born here, I hope to live a happy prosperous life, have many children (Tony looked at Willa when he said this) grow old here, and die here. This is my home; I only see friends and neighbors. This community may be in trouble with all the Earth Changes. If I intend to see no one starves this winter, then how can I not help with the fish?” Tony saw Willa clapping and then realized everyone was clapping, including Principal Parker. With that, several others stood and when called, moved down to be with the principal. The list was made, and the volunteers were told their names would be in the Okanogan Record Newspaper.

A total of two dozen kids grabbed their stuff and walked the easy half mile to the bridge across the Okanogan River. From the bridge, it was easy to see the big salmon swimming in the river down below. They saw men unloading a big net. Tony yelled, “Look over there. Let’s go help.” They ran off the bridge and came up to the men and made the job easy.

The kids were told to put their stuff in a safe place and introduced the man in charge, a guy named Big Henry, had the first net poised to be put out at 9:00 AM. The fires under the racks were doing a good job and he hoped to catch 500 fish today.

He had what he called ‘the young crowd’ and was proud of their enthusiasm and even sent the high school kids off to the other 9 stations to help them. He had eight men for the racks and eight women on the tables. When they put their first net out it became apparent when it filled within ten minutes, that this was not what the tribe’s historians were talking about, this was going to be a whole lot more.

The boys and girls started pulling fish. Some tried to take two, but it became apparent that two flopping 40-pound fish was too much to handle. Big Henry had the girls and the smaller boys take the fish from the table to the four men at the racks after the heads had been removed and the guts cleaned out. He positioned two men on either end of the net because it was bouncing more than one man could control. As the net emptied, Big Henry and the four men were able to pull it onto the shore. His cousin Jason came up in a hurry, “We’ve hung 100 fish.” The two men looked at the net, there were still 40 or 50 fish in it. They looked at the table covered with fish. All the kids had at least one fish, “Jason, we have 200 fish here or more.”

“And they are weighing in at almost a 40-pound average,” Jason reported.

“No wonder we could not lift that net!” Big Henry chuckled.

Just shortly before 10 AM, Big Henry had the second net in. The first one was empty and within minutes the second net felt like it was anchored to the earth. The boys and girls each took a fish to the almost empty tables. On the second trip, Big Henry had his second squad start carrying fish to the racks. By 11:00 AM they had 400 fish hanging on the racks and another full net waiting to be serviced. Big Henry called for a halt by the net, “Girls, you four are to oversee us. Listen up everybody, if they tell you to sit, you take a break. Let them feed and water us. Okay?” Big Henry got agreement all around, “And girls don’t worry about the fish until later today. Keep us alive. Anybody that looks tired, you have them sit down and eat and drink and rest.”

They went back at it and even with people intermittently having lunch the feelings were still sky high. Tony and his friend Brad grabbed onto a king salmon that must have come up to Tony’s chin. Two of the girls moved over to help and even Big Henry moved into position to smack it with his walking cane. Just as he came down with a killing blow, the fish moved, and Tony reacted. The cane hit Tony’s right hand breaking at least two bones.

Tony didn’t scream, he closed his eyes, his face turned white from the pain and he tried to take a deep breath and after a few minutes, he had Willa pull his phone out and call Jenny. He had her number listed under “Mom”. He went over and sat down. Funny, he never listed his real mother under “Mom”. Jenny was at the pharmacy and was able to grab her new Smart Car and drive it to the bridge. She was there in a few minutes. Willa had gotten Tony some cranberry juice, but he didn’t feel like eating or drinking anything for fear of it coming back up with all the pain. Jenny came over and Willa got another chair, so she could sit on Tony’s right.

“We need something to distract him. John says when broken bones are involved, we have to distract.” Jenny was looking around to see if she could find something.

“I got it,” Willa said.

Jenny watched as Willa grabbed Tony by the ears and kissed him. “Well, that’ll do the trick!” Jenny laughed and then closed her eyes as she tried to ground herself again.

Jenny carefully took Tony’s mangled hand and laid it out flat. She saw the Christ Ports and visualized them both being there. She said the Lord’s Prayer and after a few minutes, Jenny felt the healing was complete, “Willa.” Jenny looked down after hearing Tony’s stomach growl and saw the tent in his pants, “Willa?”

A couple of minutes more went by and Willa shivered. Then with a dreamy look on her face, she looked to Jenny, “Is that what love is?”

“White Eagle does that to me too!” Jenny smiled and snickered, “All the time.”

Tony made a fist with his hand. It seemed alright, he started to get up, “I need to get back to the fish.”

“No, you don’t.” Willa stated, “You eat!”

“I need to get back to the fish.” Tony pleaded.

“Tony you listen to that girl. Today she and her friends are the bosses. Now sit and eat. We are nearing 600 fish; we’ll be at 1,000 by this afternoon.” Big Henry said, then shook his head, “Sorry I hit you.”

Tony looked to Jenny, “Big Henry is a really good boss, but he carries a mean club!” Then he laughed.

“Mrs. Taylor, can you heal a couple of old knees?” Big Henry asked, “I’ve been on my feet too long today and my knees are swollen so much they won’t bend very good. I can’t even get my butt into a sitting position. I’m concerned I won’t be able to walk tomorrow.”

“Big Henry, stand in front of me, toe to toe.” Jenny could see all the damage in the knees and right ankle, “This is going to take a bit of time Big Henry.”

“Tony, when Willa lets you back up, let’s do another net.” Big Henry directed.

Big Henry and Jenny disappeared. “Where did they go?” Willa asked.

“They went to see God. You’ve been there Willa.” Tony shared, “Can I go back to work?”

“I guess you’d better, it looks like you’re the boss for now. Give me another kiss.” Willa giggled.

One of the lurkers on the bridge did not like a white man kissing a Native American girl. He was working his way home from being locked up for two years of a ten-year sentence. He got into a fight with a white man for the same scenario. The white man was doing okay until Scott Tennis broke a bottle and slashed the man’s neck. The man bled out before help could get there. Scott was sentenced for manslaughter. The local courts had seen enough of Scott Tennis and gave him ten years. Who would’ve thought that the state pen in Walla Walla would be underwater? The state had nowhere to send him or others like him, so it kept and moved the worst, those with life sentences and sent the rest on their way with a hundred dollars in their pockets. Scott decided to come back tonight when everyone was asleep.

Jenny worked on Big Henry for over an hour. Henry asked hundreds of questions. He’d been here the day of the wedding, but this was his first chance to ask away. Jenny found a dozen major things and a dozen minor things that any two or three of them together could have ended his life. She asked for a large bottle of water and was happy to see her future daughter Gaia carrying a two-liter bottle. She hugged her and kissed her.

Gaia was overjoyed by the attention, “Here help me.” Jenny put her hands on either side of the water and said the Lord’s Prayer again. She added that the water was to flush the system of toxins. She handed the jug of water to Big Henry, “You carry this all day and when you go to sleep, it had better be empty. You need to drink it all.” Jenny watched as Big Henry took a long swallow from the jug.

“That’s good water.” Henry smiled.

“If the water in the Dry River is clean, drink it. It’ll be good for you.” Jenny watched Henry take another long drink, “Ready to go back?”

“Your son just had the men put another net in. They are up to 800 fish.” Big Henry smiled, “I’m Willa’s grandma’s brother. Maiden is my sister. You are going to be seeing a lot of her.”

“How old is she?”

“Almost sixteen. When the reservation school closed, and she transferred into the city’s school system, she lost a grade. Tony was held back and did not begin school until he was almost seven. They both should be in high school. Their two friends too.”

“I’m the same age and I’m going to have a baby.” As Jenny said this, she heard her son come running. She spotted him just in the nick of time, as he launched himself at her. They ended up laughing, “Henry, meet my son. He is going to show up in our world in about 5 months. His name is Robert Taylor, and he wants to be called Bert.”

“Hi Bert, I’m Henry. Glad to meet you.” Big Henry smiled as they shook hands.

“Thank you, Big Henry. You will become the Wiseman of the people! My big brother wants to know if they can catch more fish.” Bert smiled.

“What’s he going be when he grows up?” Henry put the question out.

Gaia had been sitting in one of the Christ Ports, just watching as her brother got some attention, “Tony’s going to be the Treasurer of the World. The man that helps everyone make a real living like Papa John is doing now.”

“Do you think Tony and Willa would make a good couple?” Big Henry asked.

“Yes! The couples that are coming together currently are here to take on certain projects. You too will find a mate and a new cycle of life will be upon for you.” Gaia shared, “Your immortality gene has been switched on. Your soul has made the decision and you are to be the wise one that sits in the circle of the council.” Gaia shared.

“When will we see the change into ‘Heaven on Earth’?” Big Henry asked.

“When you see Mother Earth in the arms of her mother. The day before there will be like a bump in the road. At first, nothing will have changed. Then as the current reality fades from memory you will see new earth and it will become heaven to you.” Gaia shared.

A short time later

“You look tired chief.” Big Henry said to John Nation.

How many fish did you get today, Big Henry?”

“We got a little over 1,000.” Big Henry shared.

“You got too many fish.” John Nation complained, “What happened to your cane?”

“I’ve had healing by God. I’ve been told that I will live for another 100 years, maybe longer.” Big Henry smiled.

“Well if you can still teach the young ones to fish like this, then we’ll need you.” Chief John laughed, “Big Henry, meet the Federal fish guy, Frank Johnston.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Johnston.” Big Henry shook hands.

“Your men and women,” Frank Johnston looked around, “they’re my age, aren’t they?”

“Are you in your 70s Mr. Johnston?” Big Henry asked.

“I’m 69” Frank Johnston shared.

“Close enough that you’d fit right in. Everybody here, except for the kids, is somewhere between 70 to 81.” Big Henry responded, “You want a job?”

“What’s it pay?” Frank Johnston was having fun.

“We don’t know, we’ve been waiting to hear how many fish we can catch?” Big Henry replied.

Tony was standing there, “Do we do another net?”

“No, Tony!” Big Henry smiled, “Now you catch a fish for your family. That’s your payment for fishing.”

“Okay!” Tony took two steps then turned around, “How?”

Chief John laughed. “We were originally thinking we were going to see 100,000 fish come up this river. But there are lots of fish coming. It’s going to be two or three times that isn’t it?” Frank Johnston thought out loud, “Maybe more. I hear from Brewster that the lake is still full. I even hear from farther downriver it’s also full of fish. We may be seeing close to a million.”

“Tony.” Big Henry called him back, “Come join us.”

“Chief, how many fish can you use?” Frank Johnston asked.

“If Tony keeps catching 40-pound fish, we’re going to run out of storage at 70,000 fish. We were thinking 50,000 at a 20-pound average, but then Mother Earth, Gaia told us there would be twice the numbers coming. We didn’t think twice as big. We need to be able to sell our surplus.” Chief John warned, “Other people will need the food to eat.”

“What if we bought a refrigeration truck? One that could carry 50,000 pounds of fish to Spokane?” Big Henry asked.

“I had a friend of a friend call me last week saying he had just what you are talking about. It’s a Peterbilt tractor with low mileage, and a refrigeration trailer that’ll keep a load at 32 degrees,” Frank Johnston shared. He pulled out his phone and started going through the call received numbers.

“How much?” Tony asked.

“Son, we are talking some big money here.” Frank Johnston.

“Ah, Frank. Tony is not only going to be one of the leaders of the people, but he is also the owner of the local bank. The only bank in operation in the area,” Chief John shared.

“Ah, I apologize, Tony, we are talking about $90,000.” Frank Johnston was a little red-faced.

“Chief, if I get you $100,000 in greenbacks, do you think we have a good chance to make the deal?” Tony asked.

“Found it, I’ll give him a call.” Frank shared.

“Yes, Tony, I do.” Chief John replied.

“Didn’t I hear somebody who used to drive those big rigs was out of a job?” Big Henry asked.

“Yeah, that Dunhill guy. He lives over on Elm, just west of 2nd Ave,” Chief John shared.

“He still has it. I told him to fill up the tank and check all the tires.” Frank Johnston advised.

“The fish?” Big Henry asked.

“You guys realize you have to let enough get through to build on what you’ve got!” Mr. Johnston got nods all around, “Our future depends on what we do today and tomorrow. I will depend on you to handle this right. It is my opinion that you could go up to 100,000 fish or more and not harm the future.”

Big Henry and Chief John looked at each other and thought of the possibilities.

“So, do we fill up another net?” Tony asked.

“NO! You fish.” Big Henry laughed, “But first call up that wonderful mom and ask her how many fish she wants in her freezer at home. And ask her if she wants them smoked? Tell her you need someone to pack them home for you.”

While Tony was on the phone with Jenny, John came into the pharmacy. He liked cream soda and almost every day he would leave the bank with Patty and April in charge and go say hi to Jenny and have a cream soda, “Your dad just sat down with a cream soda in hand.” Jenny giggled. She was still trying to figure out if it was the cream soda or if he really was coming to see her. “Tony wants to know how many fish he can catch to put into the freezer?”

Jenny handed the phone to John, “Tony, catch two a day.” John listened to everything Tony had to tell him to bring him up to speed about the $100K for Chief John and that the fishing was open to everyone. The only stipulation was that this was for survival, not for sport, “Tony I’ll see you soon. Ask Chief John to wait a bit and I’ll have the money there ASAP.” John listened, “Do we need fishing poles?” John listened some more, “Thank you, see you soon son.”

“I’m going fishing!” John smiled, “Want to come?”

“Yeah, I think I want to see more of what my son is doing.” Jenny smiled.

Back at the fishing hole

Tony had been handed Big Henry’s best fishing pole. It was set up to catch up to a 70 to 90-pound fish or more with a 100-pound line on it and Henry thought Tony might need the strength of it to handle even a 40 or 50-pound fish. Henry showed Tony what he needed to do to cast the lure out and then handed the pole to Tony. Henry had a big wood box that held fishing poles and other gear he’d been collecting all his life. He’d dreamt of the day when he did not have to travel hundreds of miles to enjoy his favorite pastime. Tony cast out. The lure went almost across the river. It had just barely sunk when a giant King Salmon thought it was going to have a meal. Tony was looking at Henry when Mr. King decided he was going to turn down the river. Tony lost his balance and went headfirst into the water. Henry grabbed one of Tony’s legs and brought him back. Tony still had the pole and was working as fast as possible to stand his ground as the fish was pulling line working against the drag.

Everybody was laughing at him until the fish turned and headed upstream. When the fish got even with Tony it cleared the water by four feet. Everybody stopped laughing and said, “Ohhh!”