Harry knew he had as much sway with the Director of the CIA as he had with the weather and the tides. Saying he would go along with them approaching Ivan might keep him in the loop. He would call Ivan to warn him, Mason will be in the cove at the end of the week.
Harry was powerless to stop anything the CIA planned to do. Notifying him was a safety valve, because Harry once stood between Ivan and the local Cambodian station chief doing whatever he decided to do with Ivan Aleksa.
Inadvertently dialing the private number Harry jotted down on the back of his business card, before giving it to Ivan, the call went through the Capitol switchboard and left a trail a mile wide. Harry needed to go down the list of people he’d given his private number to, and he didn’t need to get any further than the single A on the list.
Someone in Cambodia had that business card and they had Ivan. This sent him on a journey down a rabbit hole the junior congressman would just as soon have avoided.
Now, he was a senator who had far more power. It was best not to cross a senator if it could be avoided. The new Director of the CIA knew Harry’s history between the agency and Ivan Aleksa, and he came to tell Harry, ‘We need Ivan Aleksa.’
He was asking Harry’s permission, while telling him they needed Ivan’s services, and they planned to have them, one way or another.
All the directors of the CIA gave Harry indigestion. What made it worse, if he let this happen, Clay was going to pitch a fit. He’d be lucky to keep his marine biologist in the fold. The best he could do was soften the blow and hope for the best, but trouble was brewing.
It all came back to Harry’s need to keep Clay as happy as possible. He was Harry’s man in the Gulf of Mexico, and Harry needed him to be there. The fastest way for that applecart to be upset was to allow something unthinkable to happen to Ivan Aleksa.
Even after Ivan was gone from the cove for years, any time his name came up, Clay became uneasy and unpredictable. Harry respected Ivan for what he’d done at the cove after he came back. He was proving to all concerned that he wasn’t going anywhere.
That was admirable and it kept Clay happy and on the job. Ivan being in the cove made Harry happy. On this Monday in May, that happiness was in jeopardy for all three of them.
“Harry, Howard has called three times. You’re wanted on the floor,” his secretary reminded him.
“If he calls again, tell him I’m on my way.”
“Yes, Senator,” his secretary said.
Harry glanced at the still-unopened bottle of bourbon on his bookcase. He’d love a drink. He knew better than to indulge himself before going to the floor to meet with other senators. They might not know he’d been drinking, but he’d know.
Harry left his office agitated and stone cold sober.
*****
Clay looked at the phone for a long minute before hanging it up.
“Isn’t Harry the senator?” McCoy asked.
“Yes. He’s checking up on me. Either that, or he’s checking up on Ivan. He usually gets his information from Peg, she really runs the Conservancy. Harry and I just sign papers she puts in front of us.”
“Not like him to call you?” McCoy asked.
“No, he calls me when he wants something. He didn’t want anything. He asked how Ivan was and told me to do some work. Then he hung up.”
“Probably has to do with the plane crash. Ivan was in sad shape after the plane crash. Harry probably wanted to make sure he’s OK.”
“You’re probably right, McCoy, but it doesn’t make me feel any better,” Clay said, feeling uneasy about the call. “He does try to keep in close contact with what’s going on at the Conservancy.”
“Sounds like he wanted your opinion on how Ivan was doing,”
“Yeah, he has a relationship with Ivan these days. I wouldn’t say they’re friends, but Ivan’s with me on social visits, and he’s turned the cove into a moneymaker proposition.”
“You spent the summer in the Pacific Ocean?” McCoy asked, remembering what had Dylan told him.
“Yes, Dylan went with me. I needed to see what another large body of water was like. It was a chance of a lifetime.”
“I can see where it would be. I told you that Kodak was lost in the Pacific a dozen years ago. He was on an assignment. His plane went down in the Pacific. The pilot died, but Kodak was lost for months. The navy ran across him on an uninhabited island they were asked to check on.”
“I liked Kodak. Taz was a bit quiet. I didn’t find out anything about him that Kodak didn’t tell me. He obviously had a great deal of affection for Taz. We don’t have any male couples around here.”
“In some ways, Taz is a bit like Ivan,” Harry said.
“No, Taz was way more quiet than Ivan is,” Clay said.
“That is true, but Taz is a guy that would run into a fire to bring someone out alive. He wouldn’t give it a second thought. Ivan ran into a fire to rescue that girl. Taz would have gone with him.”
“As I said, I don’t know Taz. I didn’t dislike him. Dylan thought he was scary. Kodak spent hours with Dylan, talking about photography. I think Dylan formed an attachment to Kodak. I wouldn’t be surprised if he shows up in Montana to see him one day.”
“Kodak is easy to like, and knowing Taz comes with the deal; it makes it easier to accept Taz as he is,” McCoy said. “I did hear him talk more at the ranch. That’s his world. That’s where his interests lie.
“The ranch is huge. Indians from the local reservation come to stay there from time to time. It’s their ancestral lands and the general respected that. He always visits them when they come.”
“He died,” Clay remembered.
“Yes, he did. I was remembering from when he was alive. The general was larger than life. A lot of people miss the general. Taz and the general’s wife will do all within their power to keep the ranch the way he kept it. There won’t be any more men from misguided wars who go there to readjust to the world, but there are plenty around from the last war the general took part in.”
“Well, this is my lab and I’ll show you the path through the forest that will take you to the cove. It’s a twenty-minute walk. As the driveway we came in on curves away from the cove, it’s a deceptive distance, because parking for the campgrounds is next to the Conservancy driveway.”
“You have work to do. Put me on the path and I’ll walk back.”
As they walked outside, Clay decided to ask some questions.
“You were an investigator for the army. Then, you went to the Chicago Police Department?”
“Yes. I got my detective shield five years in. I’ve been working homicide the last three years. It suits me. I’ve never taken any vacation since before I got my detective’s shield. We had the girls to raise and there’s always a case I’m working. I’d forgotten how nice it was not always being at work. Ivan helps make it more enjoyable. He’s a fine man, and I believed that before the plane crash.”
“Ivan is special. I knew that the first time I saw him. He was flying at the time. You didn’t know Ivan could fly?”
Few things stopped McCoy dead in his tracks. That got his attention. When he turned around to ask for clarification, Clay was walking back toward his lab.
He’d need to hear that story the next time he talked to Clay.
*****
Dylan slept outside on the deck at Ivan’s house for the week after the plane crash. After April ended and May grabbed hold, it saved Ivan a little time. He didn’t need to drive to the Conservancy house to pick Dylan up, once Ivan went back to work. He wasn’t a man to hang around the house when there was work to do.
Mama needed to be consulted before such changes were made. These days, Mama approved of anything Clay sanctioned, but Dylan’s room was in Mama’s house, and she needed to be consulted and have no objections to a new plan.
Mama understood Dylan’s need to sleep at Ivan’s for a few days.
April was when the weather began a steady warming. In May the night time temperatures warmed as well, and it made sleeping on the deck a good deal. Dylan didn’t ask to sleep on the deck at Ivan’s before the plane crashed, because his fathers needed their privacy.
Dylan did plenty of stuff with Clay. They were together before school and after school most days. He didn’t even mind sharing one father with the other. He understood adults in love needed to spend time together, alone.
He may have been a kid, but he wasn’t stupid.
Ivan healed fast and he was almost back to normal after a week. Clay continued applying the cream even after Ivan went back to his regular schedule. Ivan approved Dylan’s plan to sleep over. He didn’t mind Clay pampering him. The burns were bothersome for several days. Even when he no longer needed to be pampered, he let Clay have it his way.
Ivan could take care of himself and most things were just happenings that came and went. Clay touching him, fussing over him, worrying about him, was always nice for Ivan.
If he ever doubted Clay’s devotion to him, and he never did, his constant need to be near him after the plane crash left no doubt. Ivan didn’t give much thought to dashing toward the plane crash, even after he realized it couldn’t be Harry’s plane. The consequences of such an action never occurred to him. He was sure he could help someone, and that’s what he did.
Clay and Dylan didn’t think like Ivan, and his brush with disaster left his men with a need to stay close to him for a little while.
After a week he asked Clay to cut down on the frequency of the applications of the burn cream. Twice a day was fine. Three or four times a day was a bit excessive.
Each time Clay applied the burn cream, Ivan smiled.
“What are you smiling at?” Clay would ask.
“Nothing,” he’d say.
They both knew that the other’s touch put lead in his pencil and triggered a different kind of satisfaction. “Have I ever told you how much I love you?” Ivan asked.
“You may have mentioned it once,” was always Clay’s answer. Their predictable reaction to each other was never allowed to overtake them while Dylan was sleeping on the deck with the giant Teddy bear Ivan gave him after returning from Southeast Asia.
Even though Clay and Ivan knew Dylan was still a child, they had difficulty convincing Dylan. It was never more apparent than when he got up the first night he slept on the deck. He left the house for a half hour. When he came back, he was carrying his Teddy bear. Once he had his Teddy bear, he slept soundly, but usually not all night.
It did remind his fathers that in spite of Dylan’s look and demeanor, he did his best not to let the little boy side of him show.
Ivan knew his men worried about him. He understood. For now, they preferred to stay close. They didn’t spend enough time together. Their lives kept the three of them going in different directions much of the time. There was no longer a reason to fuss over Ivan, but he allowed it for as long as they thought it was necessary.
It was nice to know his men cared so much about him.
He wasn’t going anywhere except to the shop and to Fort Myers from time to time, when he needed parts for the compressor. His life was predictable and that’s how Ivan liked it. Dylan hadn’t taken any movies of his father as of late. They’d gone on the trip to DC early in April. He didn’t take any of his cameras to DC. They hadn’t been in the water since coming home. Clay was busy in his lab with Conservancy business Harry needed to be done. Clay’s appearance in front of Harry’s committee created work that needed to be completed and that kept them on shore. Dylan used the motion picture camera almost every day on the Horizon. He stayed close to Logan, while keeping his eyes and ears open. Logan reminded Dylan of how Kodak treated him two months before the research trip. They were both patient and went into detail about what photography represented to them. This allowed Dylan to start thinking about what photography meant to him.
Kodak was a professional still photographer who went on assignments for magazines. Logan was a documentary filmmaker. Dylan’s first love had been his Nikons, and then he was given a motion picture camera that offered him an exciting new opportunity to put motion into his photography.
Talk of Kodak, who told him, ‘My name is Paul Anderson,’ reminded Dylan of what Kodak told him about still photography. He liked seeing Mr. McCoy at the shop after the trash pick-up. There was always something new that the man would tell him about Kodak. Most of his stories took place on the Montana ranch.
Kodak spent hours with Dylan, showing him the finer points of professional still photography with his Nikon. Dylan was disappointed when Kodak went back to Montana. They had become friends.
Photography was at the center of his life, because through it he could tell his father’s story. Since as far back as he could remember, what his father did was the most important thing in his life. As the years passed and he grew to understand more about what his father was doing, his interest increased. Until the summer before, on the Horizon, Dylan’s lessons were learned slowly.
On the Horizon the lessons came at light speed. Dylan felt himself learning the things he needed to know. Since the day Mr. Payne asked him to come back next summer, it’s something that was on his mind a lot. He wanted to go with Bill and work with Logan, even if it meant being away from both of his dads.
School for Dylan was like going to the dentist. Teachers droned on and on and it took an hour for them to get to the point. On the Horizon, Dylan learned so fast that he felt he couldn’t keep up. What he wanted to know, everything he needed to know, was right there at hand every single day of the trip.
Logan let him learn at his own pace, but each day, something new about the way Logan worked fascinated Dylan. Just by watching the filmmaker, Dylan saw how Logan did his edits. Watching Logan taught him where he was making his mistakes when he edited.
Mr. McCoy knew things about Kodak and Taz he hadn’t heard before. It mostly had to do with their time on the ranch Taz ran. He knew about what they did before they went to live on the ranch. Listening to the stories was like seeing them again.
He liked McCoy because he included him in the conversations. The other thing McCoy’s stories made him want to do was go to Montana one day to see his friend Kodak. Dylan’s instincts told him that a still picture and a motion picture had one thing in common. Both told a story. Dylan lost sight of the value in his Nikons once he was given a motion picture camera. It seemed like another step forward.
When his father bought the Conservancy’s underwater Nikons, after Harry bought new, Dylan got his feet wet and when he did, he figured out that he wanted to take pictures of his father at work. He knew what Clay was doing was important, and he wanted to take pictures showing what he was doing.
Once he had a motion picture camera in his hands, he was off and running in a new direction. He was sure he could make a movie. He wasn’t sure anyone would want to watch it, and then the idea of a movie went underwater, and once again, what his father did was the basis for the movies he made.
He always had something else to learn, but that was kewl too. There were people there who didn’t mind teaching him.
One step followed the next, until he was on the Horizon helping to make a documentary film of last summer’s research trip. It was Logan who brought motion picture taking into focus. Logan taught Dylan how to use the motion picture camera to get what he was after on film.
Dylan watched Logan assembling the footage that would become the documentary film. It was important for them to tell the story of the research trip. In chronological order, the documentary came together.
After demonstrating what he was doing, Logan put Dylan to work splicing some of the film he took and having him assemble it to tell a story. Every day Dylan practiced splicing film together. Gone was the seasick feeling people got while watching his first films.
Cameras were put into his hands at a rate that allowed him to figure out how to use each one. Not only that, but he was getting lessons on how to use them from professional photographers. Kodak happened to come to stay at the Cove Campgrounds. Logan was a man Bill wanted to do the summer’s documentary. He just happened to teach filmmaking for a living, and teaching Dylan the art of filmmaking made Logan’s summer far more exciting for him. Kodak was a professional with years of experience. The things he told Dylan about how he did what he did had Dylan taking his Nikons back off the shelf. He was glad Kodak came before going away for the summer. The summer was all about motion pictures, but Kodak stimulated his appreciation for what still pictures gave him.
When Dylan told Kodak he was torn between using his underwater motion picture camera and his underwater Nikons, Kodak explained that too.
“If you want the detail, go with a still camera. When what you are after is in the motion, go with the motion picture camera.”
Something too complicated for Dylan’s mind was made simple.
If he wasn’t meant to be a professional photographer, his path wouldn’t have been paved with everything it took to become one. With what he’d learned from Kodak, and then Logan, he could be a still photographer and a filmmaker. He’d be good at both.
McCoy talking about Kodak reminded Dylan of the number one lesson Kodak taught him. ‘If you want to get better, practice, practice, practice. Keep taking the picture until you get what you want.’
Ivan was the one who decided to start giving Dylan cameras. It was Clay that was most often the subject he photographed. He might not have given photography a thought if Ivan hadn’t come home and bought that first camera. That was a lesson Dylan learned too.
The fact that Mr. McCoy knew Kodak made Dylan curious about the older guy who spent a lot of time in his father’s shop. Some adults were cool enough, but most dismissed Dylan as insignificant, merely a child. They weren’t the least bit interested in his thoughts or ideas.
Dylan understood this. He never moved forward onto their turf.
Mr. McCoy understood his connection to Dylan through Kodak. The detective in him acted accordingly. He was fascinated by Kodak as well. When Dylan brought him up, McCoy was happy to take the ball and run with it. He felt Dylan’s affection for a man he himself liked.
McCoy seemed to enjoy talking about two men he admired. The way he described Taz made him less scary. Taz didn’t have an easy life. He lived in a world that had no feelings for him. His father’s most important lesson for his son, ‘Be a man, you big sissy.’
McCoy didn’t understand Taz, mostly he reached Taz through Kodak, who knew everything about his strong, silent partner. Above all, and at all times, Taz was a man’s man. It’s what was required and he was up to the job.
This was the ground he occupied. You either accepted it or you didn’t. Taz wasn’t budging, once he took a stand.
Dylan almost always listened to the adults around him. You never knew what you might pick up if you listened. He was good at listening while paying no attention, but hearing every word. Listening to teachers talk in the cafeteria was particularly revealing. Listening to McCoy talk about the respect he had for Taz was better than listening to random conversations that didn’t concern him. McCoy knew how Taz got the way he was. Taz wasn’t as stubborn as he seemed. He lived with a strict set of rules that gave him a feeling of maintaining control, and that wasn’t scary at all. It sounded about right for a boy who could never please his unfortunate father.
Somehow, thousands of miles from home, Taz and Kodak found each other in Vietnam. Taz trusted no one. He never had until he realized he could trust Kodak. That trust was what kept Taz close to Kodak. Anything that confused him or seemed insurmountable, he talked it over with Kodak to get his clearer slant on things.
Lying on the deck at Ivan’s, watching the darkness fade, Dylan thought of the things that came to mind. Waking early and thinking about his life, the way it had been, the way it was, and where he thought it might go, didn’t always follow a straight line. His life didn’t go in a straight line either, and his mind managed to make sense of it as it came to him.
He had to reconsider McCoy, because of how little he had to go on. He didn’t know him, even when he listened to him talk about people he knew. He considered the influence Logan had on him and the way Kodak made still photography sound like an adventure.
Dylan thought he may be the luckiest kid in the world. He knew what he wanted to do, and he had been given the equipment to do it with. Not only that, he had professionals who were willing to teach him what he needed to know to get professional results.
He needed to be smart enough to make the most of the advantages his fathers made sure he had, and he needed the creativity to bring his ideas to life. Dylan was confident he could.
He heard Ivan stirring. Ivan got up before Clay. He’d go down to the kitchen and make a pot of coffee. He’d bring it upstairs and put it on the warmer in the bedroom.
A new day had begun, even if Dylan had been awake for an hour.
Even early in his recovery from his burns, Ivan got up to make the coffee. Dylan liked watching Daddy-O move around. Each day his movements came easier as he healed.
For some reason Dylan was apprehensive about Ivan. It wasn’t like he feared what might happen. It already happened. It wasn’t the plane crash. Well, maybe it was. He had an uneasy feeling because there were things he couldn’t see and didn’t know about. There were planes that fell out of the air. There was Ivan running toward it.
Dylan didn’t think he was worried. Clay was the worrier.
He understood why McCoy thought Ivan was like Taz. He may have had a reason to do the things he did, like run into a fire to save a girl, but he didn’t need to explain it to anyone, not even to Clay. Especially not Clay, because Clay worried.
Clay sometimes got up as soon as Ivan did, but most mornings he slept in. No matter what, Ivan had trash to collect. He did not like trash building up for more than a day. No one on vacation wanted to deal with an overflowing trash can.
Once Ivan was strong enough and was able to move around without pain, he needed to get back to work. After a cup of coffee or two, which they drank on the deck together, it would be time to go.
This had become the best time for Dylan and Ivan to be together, while taking care of the Cove Campgrounds. Like his father, Dylan woke early. Most of the time it wasn’t daylight when he woke up. He loved watching the Gulf and the wildlife come alive. It wasn’t simply the sight of it. It was the smell. It was the sounds.
The days that started on his father’s deck were the best days. The coffee provided a comfort that Dylan wasn’t aware of until Ivan handed him his first cup of coffee, before they went to pick up the trash that first morning. Dylan felt grown up sitting on the deck with his fathers, doing something they had been doing for years. He’d grown into becoming part of it, because he was an early riser and there were times he was allowed to sleep on the deck at Ivan’s.
Dylan had always had plenty of time with Clay. He was intimately involved with what his marine biologist father did. It wasn’t until he offered to help his other father do the trash that there was a predictable time each day when he’d be with Ivan. Being with him was important. Seeing what Ivan was responsible to do helped Dylan to not simply believe in Ivan, but to believe he wasn’t going anywhere.
He knew his apprehensions concerning Daddy-O were directly connected to the first ten years of his life, when Ivan was absent. It was hard to forget. It was even harder to forget those first awkward moments the day his father came home. It was the day they came face to face for the first time.
“Cat got your tongue?” Dylan said, as Ivan stood staring at his mirror image.
He was speechless to say the least. Clay had told Dylan years before, ‘Ivan furnished your biology, but I’m your father.’
That gave Clay the right to overrule Ivan. Daddy-O knew the score in those first few days with the son he didn’t know he had. Both his dads were trying to figure out where they stood. Over the years since Ivan’s return, Dylan always loved both his dads. He felt sorry for kids who only had one dad, because his two dads had to be the best dads in the world.
He’d always spent a lot of time with Clay. At work, at play, and with the family. Dylan spent a lot of time with the family. The time he spent with Ivan wasn’t as predictable as the time he spent with Clay. Only recently, knowing how Tag hated to get up early, Dylan asked to collect the trash with Ivan. It had become their time. The best part was, Clay came to the shop to take Dylan to school during the week. The three of them were together, drank coffee, and talked.
At first Ivan drove the trash buggy and Dylan ran the trash. It was more like Dylan walked the trash. He was in no hurry. The idea was to be close to his father. It worked out fine and only recently, after the plane crash, had Dylan started sleeping on Ivan’s deck.
Seeing his father after the plane crash scared Dylan. His father was going to be fine but the precarious nature of the risk Ivan took, reminded Dylan of a time when Ivan wasn’t in his life. Dylan decided he needed to stay close to his fathers for a while.
He knew they loved each other and they made love, and they needed that time together. He didn’t mind, but for now he needed to stay close to them because planes crashed and because he was a kid. For some reason, after a few weeks of Ivan driving and Dylan collecting, Ivan reversed the roles. He let Dylan drive the trash buggy and Ivan ran the trash. He did run, and he did sweat. This was an even better deal for Dylan. He got to drive the trash buggy.
How kewl was that?
Dylan reasoned that Daddy-O wanted him to drive because it wouldn’t be long before he was old enough to get his driver’s license.
No matter the reason, it made the time with his father even better.
The day was fresh, and coming alive with the smell of the sea air never failed to invigorate him.
These had to be the best days of his life.