Olivia's Mine by Janine McCaw Read Free Book Online Page B

took over. Tragic dey was, lost
a lot of good men. But nottin’ like dat fer a while. Not like what
‘appened in Alberta. Dat was bad. De whole side of Turtle Mountain,
it come tumblin’ down. Killed a lot of people. McMichael, ‘e read
de report on dat and ‘e hired some engineers from de Asbestos mines
in Quebec to come ‘ere and take a look-see. No misses, anyting dat
happens now would be an act of God, like dey say. And den God would
have to deal with de temper of McMichael, and I dunt tink even ‘e
wants to do dat, so I dunt worry aboud it too much.”
    “Do you worry about anything, Frenchie?” she
asked.
    “Not much Liv.”
    Olivia blushed when he said her name.
    “Well,” he said, “if yer gonna get familiar
wid me, den I tink you have to extend me the same courtesy. I’m
calling ye Liv. At least when it’s just us girls talkin,” he
winked. “Der’s tings in life you can’t change. You can’t change de
wedder. You can’t change de mind of the Irish-remember dat when
Lucy drives ye nuts. Ye can’t change water into wine, even doh it
would be a good ting if ye could. So, I try not to worry about
worryin’.”
    “You sound like a smart man,” she
commented.
    “No, I’m not smart. I’m born wid a lot of
common sense doh, and I wouldn’t trade dat for all the schoolin’
and smarts in de world. I’ve seen many a smart man do a stupid
ting, let me tell ye. I got a good memory, too. I hardly ever
forget a face. Dat man who was wid ye back in Seattle…”
    “My father.”
    “Okay. Yer fadder. ‘E’s been on my boat
befer.”
    Olivia remembered her father’s warning about
telling to many tales about her family to strangers.
    “I don’t think so Frenchie. People always say
that, that he looks familiar to them. It happens all the time.
We’ve often joked that he has a twin brother running around
somewhere.”
    “Well, den, I must be mistaken. Must be
de “ deja-vu ”. Dat’s what we
say when ye feel like ye’ve seen, or been somewhere befer. ‘E must
have a common face, like ye say.”
    But Frenchie knew better.
    It had been a rough night a sea some twenty
odd years before, the night he carried William Bower up to the
Beach. The waters were choppy and an eerie grey green in colour. It
was dark and it was late, but no one aboard the Queen Mary was in a
mood to sleep. The swells were crossing the deck and the winds had
not let up for several hours.
    As they passed through Puget Sound, just
passed Port Townsend, Frenchie had heard a cry in the night. There,
on the starboard side of the boat, was an overturned fishing
vessel, with two men clinging to it for their lives. It was a
wonder the two ships had not collided.
    Frenchie instructed his First Mate to take
care of the boat while he tied himself to the guardrails and began
the rescue attempt. To his surprise, his own passenger, the same
William Bower, instantly did the same thing, and together they were
able to pull the freezing men from the water. Bower bundled the men
up and helped carry them below deck. They knew the men needed to be
hospitalized, that they might not make it through the night, but it
was too dangerous at sea to take them to Victoria, the closest
centre with the right kind of medical care. Even though it meant
that Bower would be a day behind for his important meeting, they
decided to take refuge in Oak Harbour and transport the men over to
the island the next day when the seas cleared.
    It turned out that two other men had been
lost from the fishing boat that night. How long they had suffered
no one knew. Hypothermia had probably taken the fight of life from
their bodies. No, the Captain and crew and one particular passenger
of the Northern Mary were very indebted to their makers that they
had been able to save two lives that night, two lives besides their
own.
    It was when Frenchie learned that this man
Bower, was headed to meet McMichael, that he began to wish they had
headed straight for Canada and not been