Provider's Son (5 page)

It was rather awkward walking past the family of strangers again with a cup of pee in his hand, but they seemed to have adopted the policy of no eye contact, or even the slightest indication that they noticed his presence. He was just another piss ghost. His crotch and lower shirt splotched with water, he put the sample on the nurse's table between the forms. She snapped on her latex gloves, opened the cup, and placed an applicator inside of it.

They both stared at it.

Levi coughed.

“Chilly day.”

“Supposed to rain?”

“Thats what theyre saying.”

A few more slow minutes passed and the urine sample was negative.

Levi took his coat, and walked out the door, winking at Ray as they passed in the doorway.

This was only Levi's second time on a plane. When it lifted off the ground and the runway quickly dropped beneath him he remembered how much he hated flying. The first plane ride had been to attend a wedding in Brampton, the old stomping ground for Newfoundlanders in search of work in the eighties. He had been off the island a couple of times before and after that, but he had always driven. It was not the height or the cramped space that bothered him as much as the thought that his life was completely in someone else's hands.

There was a touch screen on the seat in front of him. The lady next to him was watching a movie on hers and although he wanted to try it he was intimidated. Yet, considering all the stops, he had fifteen hours of boredom ahead. He had discretely watched her going through the screen-menus so he hoped he was doing it right when he touched the Movies button. A list of movies appeared on the screen, none of which he recognized. He tapped one and it began to play. Only then did it dawn on him that he didn't have any way of listening to it.

“A flight attendant can get you headphones,” the lady next to him said. He thanked her and pressed the attendant button. A young man with curly blond hair and thin arms responded. He was so effeminate that Levi smiled helplessly, and in truth, wanted to laugh.

Citizen Kane
was the name of the movie. He found it so boring that he started to nod off long before Kane was divorced by his first wife. He woke up when the captain came on and told everyone that they were soon landing in Toronto.

The plane bumped onto the runway, and he nervously made his way through the airport, looking for the gate that would take him on the plane to Calgary.

As he was landing in Vancouver Levi saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time. It was beautiful but intimidating, knowing how far it stretched. The other side of the Atlantic Ocean was the land of his ancestors. On the other side of this ocean was…in a straight line from Vancouver, he wasn't even sure. Russia?

The plane hit the runway in what seemed no more than a few miles from the shoreline. He looked at his boarding pass and realized that he had a three hour wait in that airport. What would he do for two hours? He looked out the window and the ocean in the distance.

Levi went through security and out the door. He jumped in a cab. A young Asian man was driving.

“How far to the salt water?”

The cabby stared him.

“The ocean by,” Levi said, “the Pacific Ocean.”

“Oh. No more than twenty minutes.”

Driving to their destination Levi noticed there were a lot of Asians about. More than he had ever seen in Ontario. But to him they were all “Chi-nee.” His daughter still laughed at him every time he said it.

As they pulled up to the shoreline he was surprised. Because it was an island he had the impression that Vancouver's shoreline would be as jagged as Newfoundland's. It was not. This island slipped into the water with ease, whereas in Newfoundland even the coastline seemed to hold itself back against that cold colossus of water.

He stepped out and asked the driver to wait. He began walking towards the water. Levi would bet that every inch of coast in this place was property. He took off his shoes and socks and rolled up his jeans. He crept towards the sea and let it meet his toes. There was little wind and the roll of the tide was gentle. It was colder than he expected, numbingly cold, but still not as cold as the Labrador current that brushed the coast of Gadus. To his surprise he found himself getting choked up. He took out a cigarette and slowly smoked half of it before heading back to the cab.

When he saw his daughter standing near the luggage area in Fort McMurray airport he felt himself yet again overwhelmed with emotion, and had to force it down. This was getting ridiculous, but if he was anything like his father it would probably get worse. There was no doubt about it, men softened up with age. But they also lost their nerve, lost their abilities, became pitiful children in the end. Before he said anything to Sinead he gave her a hug, and a kiss on the forehead.

“How are you, Dad?” Sinead asked.

Levi loved to hear that word, “Dad.” It made him feel wanted, and reminded him of all those years he was still his little girl's hero. He liked to think in some ways he still was.

“Not too bad,” he said, “considering. Is the luggage out yet?”

Sinead laughed. “You just got here.”

“Well, how long do it take?”

“Oh Dad, youve got a lot to learn about this racket.”

Levi sat in the passenger seat of Sinead's company truck, exhausted. Nighttime driving soothed him, but as he leaned his head against the window and gazed out into the darkness, he wondered what it was that he could not see besides the stretch of forest on each side of the highway.

“I hope its not much trouble getting everything straightened out at the camp.”

“I know everyone in the offices so we should be able to get things done a little faster than usual.”

“What do I have to do?”

“Register, get your ID badge, key, room, and...thats it. When do you start work?”

“Orientation tomorrow. How long is that?”

“All day,” Sinead said.

“As long as I can get into bed before eleven oclock I dont care.”

“Well, its nine now. Hopefully you will.”

“How many people are in this camp?” Levi said.

“Twenty-six hundred. Its the biggest of the three on site.”

“I still dont understand what youre supposed to be doing.”

“I go around site and watch for breaches in safety, check SFCs...all that kind of stuff.”

“SFCs?”

“Safety First Cards. Believe me, youll know what theyre all about soon enough.”

“Doesnt sound too back-breaking for you,” Levi said. “Thats good.”

“Oh, its definitely not back-breaking. A little spirit-breaking sometimes...”

“Why?”

“Well, it gets kind of depressing seeing the annoyed look on the mens faces. Like my only reason for being there is to piss them off. They dont seem to care that Im there for their own safety.”

“Fuck em.”

“Easier said than done. Hows Mom?”

“How do I know?”

“Figured you might be talking to her sometimes.”

“I calls. Half the time she dont answer or call back. What can I do?”

“Did —“

“Talk about it later,” he said. “Im too beat out to think about that now.”

The bush faded away from the edges of the highway and the land opened up so that it was hard to tell where the western horizon ended and the sky began, much the same as being on the ocean on a cloudy night. The eastern horizon was easier to discern, however, because of an orange glow that clouded the stars. It was not long before a city appeared beneath that glow.

“What city is that?” Levi said.

Sinead laughed. “That aint no city.”

Levi sat up straight and stared in disbelief. “Thats a project?”

“That it is.”

“Sweet Jesus...”

It was then Levi realized that the tracts of land he was looking at were actually man-made. Thousands of acres of forest turned into roads, pits, and mud, with cities of metal and fire, like the landscape of a distant planet in a science fiction movie. It was the first of many more projects they would pass along the way.

Eventually they were back to a highway cutting through forest. It was not much longer before they were slowing down for the security gate and entering Camp Wisti.

After getting his picture ID and the key for the assigned dorm room, Sinead led Levi down the main hallway. She pointed out the bar, recreation rooms, dinner hall, and TV rooms on the way. Levi didn't say anything but he was not much impressed. There were no paintings or pictures on the walls, which were grey. The linoleum floor was white except the foot-wide black line running down each side. The ceiling was t-bar tiled white as well. It felt like he was in some sort of low security correctional institution.

“Thats a camera, by the way,” Sinead said, pointing to small, square box on the wall with a curved lens on the outside.

“Theyre all over the place. Well, except the washrooms and your dorm room. A guy got kicked out of camp last week for getting caught on camera pissing in a garbage can. When it comes to camp privileges this place is a dictatorship. Which suits me just fine. Some of the guys in this place are dirtbags.”

The dorm corridor was worse, almost dizzying in its symmetric sameness, thirty-six blue doors extending for two hundred feet, like a mirror reflecting on itself thirty-six times, with the only signs of life being the occasional “Night Shift” sign hung on a doorknob.

“Youre lucky you didnt get H dorm,” Sinead said. “Thats the party dorm, this is the quiet one.”

“Is they quiet or dead?” Levi said, putting his key in the door.

“Itll be a lot more alive here tomorrow morning,” Sinead said. “Trust me.”

“Tomorrow,” Levi said, and opened the door to his dorm room. It looked no bigger than eight by ten feet. The sheets on the bed were hospital white, the walls yellowish-white, and dresser, desk, and closet were fake oak. A twenty-one inch television sat on top of the dresser, and a medicine cabinet mirror under a shaded light was on the wall. A florescent light on the ceiling brightly lit the tiny room. The blind-covered window overlooked the bed. And the smell. The room smelled like an ashtray, which was also why the walls looked faintly yellow.

“Oh my God I can barely breathe,” Sinead said. “Look, its actually in the walls. Its in everything. That is disgusting. Are you sure you want to be in a smoking dorm?”

“Im sure.”

“Home sweet home.”

“At least I dont have to make a bough bed like the old man did when he worked in the woods.”

“Or wear the same long johns for months on end.”

“That too.”

They stood in silence for a moment.

“Im glad youre here,” Levi said. “Ive worked on the water all me life. This is all new to me...and with your mother…”

“Okay, you better get some sleep.”

“Loves ya.”

“Loves you too.”

When Sinead left Levi laid on the bed and stared at the ceiling. “Sweet Jesus, what have I got meself into?”

As tired as he was he wondered if he would get any sleep.

Two hours later he awoke with his clothes still on, thinking he was in his bedroom, back in Newfoundland. The four close walls quickly reminded him he was not. Still half asleep he got up, then suddenly realized that he left his alarm clock home. He cursed out loud and flopped back on the bed. He usually woke up early when he slept in a strange bed, or when he was nervous, so he hoped tomorrow would be the same. He lit a cigarette and lazily dragged his clothes off. He opened the window and finished the cigarette in his underwear. He crawled under the covers of the strange bed. It was surprisingly comfortable for a cot, small enough so that he did not feel the absence of his daughter's mother.

Security

Orientation the next day was the most monotonous thing Levi ever had to endure in his life. And that included the one time his aunt Mildred conned him into attending a three-hour Pentecostal church service. This consisted of eight hours of sitting in an uncomfortable plastic chair with sixteen other men watching safety videos, followed by open book tests with everyone telling one another the answers out loud after the instructor left the room for a few minutes, pretending he had urgent business to attend to.

Despite the dreary look of the place, however, there was an effort to keep the workers happy. There were seven TV rooms, two large recreation halls, a fully equipped gym, internet access, a bar with a dance floor, convenience store, rotating menu in the dinner hall, outside basketball court, baseball field, hockey rink, and to his utter delight, a Tim Hortons. When he was drinking Tim Hortons coffee he could almost eat cigarettes.

Levi went for a coffee and once he got to the security gate in the lobby he realized he had left his badge in his room. Tim Hortons was on the other side of the gate. There were two security guards in the lobby office, and both were native. Actually all the security guards were native. The younger man with a ponytail was staring at a monitor. A white-haired man who looked as if he should have retired ten years ago was sitting at the desk, staring at Levi, and smiling. He came out of the office and used his own badge to open the gate. Levi thanked him.

With a large triple-triple Levi temporarily forgot the stress of settling into this strange place. When he got back to the gate the old man was gone and only the young native was left. Levi stared in at him, waiting for him to notice, but he seemed lost in the security monitor. Levi watched a few people swipe through the gate, and then asked one of the men if he could let him use his card to get through. The man obliged and Levi was on his way down the hall when a deep voice came from behind him.

“Sir.”

Levi turned around. The native was catching up to him.

“You didnt swipe. Youre not supposed to use someone elses card.”

“I forgot mine.”

“Youre supposed to get me to let you in after I find you in the system.”