The Princess Diaries
theSam!!!! presents
thePrincess Diary.
The crunch of gravel ground under his bicycle tires as he pedaled across theLodge grounds
and over to theLodge to eat.
A 1/4mile trip it was,
this Separation of theLodge from theEmployee housing was both good and bad for him.
He patrolled theLodge grounds each night and also had to attend to the Camping and
Drinking area off-grounds and see that the bonfire left each night by the young kids was Out.
ThePrincess Lodge was separate from Employee housing to keep Noise from bothering theGuests.
Too big of grounds to cover when he had to get to one end or other in a hurry, he had decided.
He was half-asleep yet pedaled smoothly across the driveway transitioning from soft gravel to hard pavement.
Half-aware of theLodge's white van that was approaching.
The van drivers gave him the right-of-way and let him pass.
It was just like them to be nice like that.
They smiled at his yawning and especially at the black tuft of hair on his head that stood Up.
He had just woken up, thrown on some clothes, headed out the door and didn't comb his hair.
"Look who just woke up for Lunch" the driver observed.
The Elderly couple, that had to be taken into theTown to visit theClinic just down the road earlier that morning,
chuckled in amusement.
At the back door by Shipping & Receiving he kicked open the bike kick-stand, or rather he ried to kick it down but kept missing. He couldn't even park a bicycle.
After 7 tries he leaned the bike, let it fall really and went inside the side door of theLodge.
50 feet away at the smoking area the Server girls blew smoke rings and pondered last nights drinking party
out on the Bluff.
The aroma of basil, garlic and sauce from a bottle wafted up from the EDR (employee dining room)
as he descended the stairwell for the days Lunch.
"Pasta again?", he thought. Seems that was always on the menu for him now a days.
He likened this situation to the proverbial newlyweds couple;
when the man-being nice to his new bride mentioned that he liked her pasta dish,
or what ever favorite dish of his that she served him for the first time.
There afterwards the man got "pasta this-pasta that" as the main meal for years until the subsequent divorce.
And like wise, the Copper River Princess Honeymoon was over the first week for all theEmployees.
The pending Divorce would be over at end of Tourist season in Sep.
As for theHoneymoon period for all the employees and upper Management.
No longer did everyone speak to him as he walked by.
No longer did everyone look at him.
no longer....
Yet those unseen Chefs in theKitchen were still talking about the note that he left for them
one morning after seeing the "cute Lincoln Log shaped" square waffles they had made for breakfast.
And they did, they looked adorable those cute square waffles.
Exactly 1" thick and measuring roughly the size of the "IT" Industry standard 3.5" plastic
computer "A" drive floppy disc.
When he saw those waffles in the heated tray that morning
he wanted to build a miniature house with them instead of eat them.And being nice to theCooks he left a note.
For that is how it is in their world.
Talk to them, be friendly and approachable and talk about everything and nothing, and smile all the time.
And in being nice to theCooks in his note he mentioned "more pasta please!!" for his Night-shift security meals.
Words that he would soon be eating.
"What did you say to them?" groused the Night-shift Auditor after finishing her 5th straight nights meal of Pasta.
Her work outfit lacked a bow tie.
He thought of suggesting one of the "bow-tie pasta shells" that theKitchen served to theGuests.
Later on in his trailer house, as he flushed the commode, he thought he smelled lemons,
the wheatness of the Bow Tie pasta and "sniff-sniff", Olive oil??
Ahh.. that is theCRPWL (Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge) "Princess" experience from start to finish,
top to bottom, In and OUT.
Fluffery and niceness for guests and employees.
Whether duck or lamb or steak, whether potatos, spinach or broccoli.
The Princess always found ways to artfully arrange the dish on the plate, carefully pouring out
just the right amount of sauce or gravies for topping.
And just a dash of pepper or croutons and a few shreds of cheese all around the edge of the plate.
Everyone sat and looked at the meal first before they ate.
EVERYONE.
During the first week of the CRPW Lodge being opened, he ate in the main dining room with the Guests and observed the commotion.
The cheesecake was absolutely sinful. Almost as sinful as theGirls in room B-28, 30 and the Extended housing girls in rooms... *ahem* (I digress!)
The pork loin arrived medium rare for Gramma and Grampa Tallahassee
and they loved the fact that it was heart-shaped, had diagonal "sear" lines from theGrill
and the mashed potato mound was shaped just like a miniature Mountain with a gravy "volcano".
The hot-steaming asparagus was neatly stack 7 on the bottom, 4 on top
and 1 lone stalk lay atop the rest at a diagonal.
Even the quarter-sized pat of Real butter beside the asparagus was worth $3 alone.
At another table the hamburger and fries arrived piping hot.
The flame grilled patty still dripping sauce and the melted cheese patty was hand-scalloped by the Sous-Chef around the edges.
The dill pickle chips were actually one whole pickle artfully, carefully!!,
cut lengthwise down the middle and made to look like several pieces "stacked" next to each other.
It was said in some Stock Trading circles along Wall Street last year that Vlastic Pikkels
was sending 2% more product up to Alaska each summer since 2002.
A sprout of red onion with the heart standing "stalk-like" was skewered through the top
of the kaiser bun and the leafy ends curling up with panache, dash and flare.
You were brought to tears just looking at the proud little red stalk, tears from being overcome by the artful
display of food or else by the crisp pungent bared-soul of the red onion-I'm not sure which.
The occasional gray haired, spectacled Tourist turning towards theKitchen would catch a glimpse of Her.
Ms CRPWL as she tended theGrill, washed theDishes or else stacked her server tray with food for her guests.
She was theWoman behind thePrincess Logo, if you can recall the picture of the woman's face
and blue hair like ocean waves.
Yep, all spectators to the inner workings of the kitcen would glimpse theAthabascan Princess herself
inSpirit slaving away over a hot open flame stove or dicing up Ice lettuce for the sweet Salads.
The 2" wide carrot slices even had smiling faces cut out of them!!!
The salad dressing was a blend of select herbs, spices and oils hand-picked by thePrincess herself and personally
whipped up by her in the corner of theKitchen.
She was a busy woman thePrincess, as were her other contemporaries at their respective Princess Lodges throughout Alaska.
Nothing but the best filler Rice for the fresh seafood platters.
Uncle Kens and Mr's Smiths companies jostled long and hard for exclusive platter hoarding rights
to all of the 5 Alaska Princess Lodge hand-fired china plates.
Even now, thousands of miles at sea to theWest the baby squids were clambering aboard trawlers suction-cup
over tentacle just for the rare opportunity to end up in Her vinyl gloved hands on the cutting board
and fussed over on the grill before being served to her guests.
Already 3 trawlers had gone down overnight in the South China sea.
5 fishermen still missing. Missing because of the work needing to be done for the Alaska Princess' (all 5 of them)
"I wanna be stuffed with rice, pressure steamed and served with cream cheese by thePrincess!!",
one little baby squid quipped to his mother-He was promptly eaten.
Even at 3,000 feet below, they had all heard of Her and the long reach of her silky-skinned arm
with calf-skinned gloved hand. Her the Interior Princess.
The biggest one of all in heart, warmth, responsibility and territory for her Tourists to see.
She had existed for the last 800 yrs that they know of but during the last 15yrs
when She had started to extend Her reach across thePlanet to satiate the hunger of Her guests,
even the Old ones far down below started to fear Her and her 4 sisters.
But the young ones were eager to please Her and so they gave their lives toHer, toThem; theOld ones that traveled
from all over the world just to see her and her sisters.
He smelled pasta (again) and lost his appetite.
"I gotta get out of this place" he said to himself one afternoon after waking up from 8hrs sleep.
15 miles down the road he enjoyed his double cheese burger, curly fries and large coke-Supersized of course!,
at the Alaska DeepFreeze trailer.
One day those white folks drove their two 20'wide double trailers into town
and parked right by the Junction Crossing store at-where else???
The corner Junction of Richerson & Glenns Hwy,
There they've been in business every summer for the last 22yrs.
Every day as the DeepFreeze owners wake up and head to work they wonder what would have happened if the trailer
tires had not gone flat on them-forcing them to pull over into the spacious parking lot of the "JCX" as it was called by the locals.
Business was brisk that day as Mama Cash rang up till after till amount and burned up a few trees worth of paper order receipts for the Cooks in the back grill room.
Food was a comfort during stressful times and so were the twin Glock pistols concealed under his armpits that day.
The summer sights and smells coming from all around made his head spin at times.
He turned his head slowly and bobbed his chin and tightened his neck muscles-platysma first,
then sterno-clydo-mastoid and felt his cervicals pop and move slightly with an audible crunch
as if someone were popping their fingers.
One young white girl two spaces ahead of him heard theNeck pop, turned and looked at him.
He stared up at the lunch menu on the wall overhead and tried to wonder what separated
the 'Mount Angel burger' from the 'Mount Ellis burger'??
The actual Mt Angel stood 12K feet tall and Mt Ellis was a giant at 16,800 feet yet was over 7 miles across.
"Like a flattened out loaf of bread", he thought as he glanced out the windows of the DeepFreeze.
Flattened out with several bodies deep inside her.
He thought of the past 30yrs news that he heard and read of her-theMountain.
Ms Ellie was the tallest, meanest of the 4 peaks that occupied National Park Territory.
Last year a lone hiker was helo'd part way up to her south slope
and was expected to climb up to one of her smaller peaks and meet his chopper ride a week later.
He never showed up.
Searchers looked for 3 weeks, maybe 4.
They found his base camp, his cache of supplies. No body.
Only God and of course Ms Ellie knows where the poor man is.
Traffic hummed by theDeep Freeze on the busy two lane hwy: a State trooper vehicle,
a small red sedan and a big Tourist bus. One man hitch hiking with two shaggy dogs.
No one ever stops for dogs.
He'd give rides to anyone going in his direction but never stopped for dogs. His pet cat-TDC, under the pickup seat would go ballistic if her ordered existence were troubled by an ugly mutt in the pickup cab. He took That Darn Cat!! everywhere.
While driving, sleeping, sitting at the computer, popping his neck
always brought on the tiny fingers of tingling and chills followed by the euphoric rush of endorphins to his head.
Light headed and dizzy, he stepped up in line one pace and then settled his weight on one leg
while the lady cashier took the next order.
The other leg smarted where he pulled a muscle using thePrincess' treadmill machines
in the Employee workout tent.
He's too big for the flimsy 3mm thick tread mat of the Machine and the spring board won't take his weight.
The mat just stops dead on the spinning roller tracks if he starts to run.
So later that week he hit the back roads trail past theEmployee drinking & camping spot
and never looked back at the Workout tent since.
He moved his head again and quietly sniffed the air in front of him,
often the movements of his clothes would suck in air next to his body or expell air.
Moving his arms would often push out air from his side and he caught the scent of pine needles.
"The Speed Stik" said the deodorant label on his shelf at home miles away.
And another label in his Public Safety war-bag inside his pickup parked outside the DeepFreeze read,
"Happs gun oil".
"Haps gum ole" was the way the burly White man behind the bigK counter in theCity pronounced it.
He wondered if he should ask the Man if he was from the deep south??
But instead he took his gun cleaning oil and put it into the full shopping cart and marched to the checkout stand,
dodging military couples toting kids and grandmothers with walkers and their shopping carts along the way.
Being physically clean was also a comfort that he indulged in and that necessity was given to his fire arms as well, as he also caught the sweet scent of synthetic oil wafting up through his T-shirt.
He didn't have to take such drastic steps to comfort himself and to protect thePrincess like that.
But She didn't seem to mind, when one day She was walking through Administration,
saw him standing by the Mail/Outboxes and gave him an impromptu hug.
His Glock stuck into thePrincess' big breast and she quickly sucked in her breath,
looked at him wide eyed for a moment and then continued on with Her day.
Later on that evening when he was on duty for Her, She was sitting at the bar
with some of Her employees drinking and She smiled at him.
Perhaps it was theVino smiling??
He looked closely at a discarded bottle in the trash later that night.
"Bottled in 2003 after being Aged 9 months in American Oak barrels from jellies of sweet blue grapes and sugars".
"Keep in your cellar for up to 10yrs".
"Goes perfectly with tomato-based food dishes or lamb and steak meats".
"The flavors of wild berries is crisp and the finish is long and smooth".
Hmmm... And the more you drink, the bigger your ass gets until you're all ASS just talking out of a hole. Ok.
But thePrincess never let her guard down at all, She just sipped here and there and moved amongst her employees
and then retreated to her Office to fuss over next months budgets and last weeks pay roll.
Later that night one of Her employees decided that He'd become theAss after downing too many whiskies down the road
at Grizzly Pass In before returning to Princess' property and then going to her bar.
The off-duty Cook staggered from theBar, made off handed comments to some of Her guests
and after She radiod him to eject the Cook from theLodge, theCook quickly walked away after glimpsing a big White shirt approaching from across the parking lot.
Her young, aged brow furrowed over Her work once again as She sat in her office Chair.
Her handmade antler, leather and fur Tiara with daily-fresh Spruce bough twigs weighed heavily upon her dark hair and she stayed up until the seal oil burnt out from her lamp.
Maybe it was the flat notes from the piano playing out in theLobby that jolted her back to Reality at 0400hrs.
She had glimpsed him from time to time late at night or early in the morning as he pecked away at some melody,
scribbled notes into his transcription stave book and rolled out another melody.
He did this periodically between errands and patrols of her grounds and each day he was getting better and better.
She retired to her Quarters for the Night and did it all over again the next day,
talking to many employees, hugging a few people now and then.
Even scolding herChef for being an Ass the night before
then buying breakfast for her Offended guests that were departing herLodge bound for the
SisterPrincess Lodge up North where her older
Cousin the Conceited Ms Denali Princess strutted her stuff for theGuests.
"ha! Just wait till Auntie Chinook returns from sabbatical" the Mt McKinley Princess said
over the weekly conference calls.
"She's going to be the "Northern Ice Princess" about 6 hours North of Fairbanks
where her resort will be open Year round in the High Altitude mountains.
"You mean the Northern Brooks Range Princess??" all the other 4 Alaska Princess' chimed in unison.
"wow"...
"Good riddance" she thought, when the full bus load of Tourists departed later that morning.
"Good riddance" to theOffended couple that was really offended the moment they got off
thePrincess Cruise Ship in Anchorage.
They were finnicky guests, and German to boot!!!
He had to wake up theGerman speaking employee at 0200hrs one morning
because he didn't quite understand the woman Guests mother tongue.
You see, when most Europeans speak freely, or use slang and especially when being irritated and foul-mouthed.
They speak in terms of body parts and disease.
"you cholera filled cund whore" they say.
"your mouth has AIDs".
Anyway, he thought the German Guest had herpes of the throat and wanted heat for the room,
it was piping hot anyway at almost +80'F.
Papa G (german) was wiping his brow and in broken English saying the heat is on.
Yes, it's on.
And Mama G was still in bed speaking german, "My throat..."
So he excused himself from their hotel room and went to Employee housing and woke up Ava Maria.
Glumly she listened to his explanations, intrigued that theGuest would call him names.
He was so big and intimidating looking that she wasn't upset at all for being awakened,
this situation she had to see to believe.
Looking for her glasses in the dark as not to disturb her room-mate, Ava Maria pondered her many years working
for thePrincess.
Ava was currently a solitary pin stuck-in Germany on the wall map of the EDR (employee dining room) of theLodge.
Many years ago she had worked in Spain, France and the Nederlands for several travel companies before
heeding theCall of Adventure and meeting theAlaska Princess herself.
ThePrincess was more beautiful than the Swiss Alps. The Natives were impressive in the flesh and that boy, him-theGuard.
He looked like some of those Native Americans that she and her fellow Germans elevated on Kluas vanHous day,
as Klaus was a big political figure in the 1950's and a celebrity that embraced the Native Americans.
And to this day, most Germans in many small villages and communities dressed like Indians,
played big drums and sang like them.
She wondered what theBoy looked like in paint and feathers as she stumbled to theLodge.
20 mins later she would be laughing with the currently-happy German guests as she explained to them
that he had mentioned that he thought they were mad at him for some reason and were calling him names.....
LOL.
"no no." Mama G explained.
"The heat soothes my throat and the air conditioning was broken when we went to turn it on. Oh.. and the water through the pipes is keeping my Hans awake."
It's nothing my sweet plum, your health is more important". Hans gestured.
The Maintenance man finished adjusting the air conditioning and shrugged his shoulders at the noisy pipes.
Saying the main heating unit was just 20 feet away on the roof top.
Nothing could be done about it, and he left-went back to his house on theLodge grounds.
These things that happened and that he had heard about echoed in his dizzy head as the line moved up closer to the food counter.
He could hear the voices of theVillage Tribal Administrator, her gorgeous daughter that-upon turning 21 last year.
Came of age with him on a long weekend in theVillage when no one else was around.
The two little girls that mother and daughter were currently watching wanted "just fries and pop to drink".
"Look!, he's here" they giggled to the two grownups.
Without turning to see them he smiled to himself before finally stepping up to order his food.
She was a nice girl-theDaughter, often suffering mean treatment at the hands of her father after he got drunk.
The mom did nothing to stop the bullying done to her for years.
Then one day dad got drunk and went after her with a hunting knife.
She called him for help. Not something she'd normally do but in such a dire situation as that moment he was the closest person around.
He went over to her house, interupted her father who was banging on the windows with his hunting knife and cursing her and her mother.
Her father felt him approaching, turned in time to see his hand reach for the ever-present baton he wore on his belt.
His hand and arm blurred, "thoomp" went the 31" extended baton as it snapped out and her fathers vision went gray then black as the baton made contact with his graying drunken head.
Her brother had pulled up on his four-wheeler and saw the commotion, saw him leave his pickup truck, saw him walk up to his father and drop him with the baton.
Her brother knew from experience that he was only stopping father from doing what he had done many times before, only this time it must have been worse for sister to summon - Him.
Brother was scared to see him approach and then he was up close.
"I hear you scream at her sometimes too".
"why was she walking 2 miles down the road to work this last winter?!!" he demanded.
He put the black baton away and brother was relieved, scared all at once.
Yes, Granpa had bought the new blue car for her and then when mom got drunk and wrecked her own yellow car,
she took her daughters new car for a week and brother never gave her a ride to work down in theVillage.
"if I get called back here again or even think that she's in trouble, I will return".
He growled and then got back into his pickup and drove off.
Sure theFamily groused about it and other village events, but NO ONE ever spoke of jailing him or sueing him.
And father kept his drinking to himself and for a short time, Sister had some peace at home until she could move out to another house in theVillage.
She was the one person in that family worth being nice to.
"Worth saving", he thought to himself that day when he answered her call for help as her father got violent,
and now when she was again "calling" at the door.
She was just being sober, normal, sweet and lonely. You're worth loving" she said to him afterwards.
Apparently she didn't "take" because her figure still remained slim and her belly didn't get any bigger.
They didn't have to say anything about their future if they were to be together.
They both somehow knew that they each were good people and would make it through
what ever life had in store for them if any little ones joined them from that weekend union
or subsequent meetings after wards.
She did like to drink, but realized that such a life wasn't for her.
She was too pretty, nice and slim, really well liked by all theVillagers
and her grandparents looked to her to be theNext Generation as they looked to thePast
and then to theirFuture and realized that theLanguage was dying.
The culture was dying and no one was interested in keeping it alive.
Who would keep it alive?? They saw her in a new light then.
She kept things low key after that with Him.
He shook his head in amusement when she brought her "white boyfriend" to the local basketball nights
at the school gym.
Her new squeeze was clumsy yet aggressive, after all, he had his Village Princess to impress
and so he played good ball.
She had an image to keep and she elbowed him a few times, knocked him down once,
stuffed him several times to show loyalty to her new white boyfriend.
When village women play basketball-Look out!!!
His niceness and safeness that he exuded to her that winter afternoon and then later on in private
over that long weekend, she told to another troubled young lady.
Soon the troubled young girl showed up at his house with Her friends for a Haircut or a Chair massage.
They talked.
He did nothing intimate with them, as they were all 15 to 17yrs old.
His daughters they could have been if he had married out of high school, so young they were.
He hugged them instead and teased them, listened to them.
A couple years earlier he had helped arrest two of them after they were drinking and driving.
He saw them run into the ditch with the car, they got out and staggered around.
One pouted and fumed that Mother didn't love her enough and the Other one was mad that he was calling the Troopers.
Mad that he made them stay, mad that two other Village Gramma's had come round and scolded them both and in turn,
told them to stay put while the State Troopers come.
And they did, out to theVillage and flew away with the two young girls.
He had written a poem about one of them once,
"he was feast, she ate like famine". She was a big girl, tall and lean.
Her parents were big as Samoans but they were Alaska Native,
She had her mothers looks and her dads fighting spirit as well as an arrest record almost as long as his.
Some kids just trusted him when he was in uniform and working in theVillage, one day out of the blue
she hopped into his patrol vehicle and they drove and drove.
And later on that day they were arrested and once again she got into his patrol vehicle-only this time she
took the back seat.
She and her friend, they openly cursed him and privately he wept.
But that was then, they made choices and had to live with the consequences.
Now years later when they were no longer Children, not that he had anything to do with their drug use and Coming of Age,
they were learning about Love and Trust.
And they took some advice from an older village girl they looked up to about Him.
"Go see him, he's not that bad".
Turning off "Anna, Anna, Anna, Anna, AnnaNicole!!" (she's so outrageous) on satellite
just for them and then turning on the Empathy that was buried inside his head and heart,
things he once had for his Hair and Massage women in Seattle-things he put away after coming to Alaska,
He settled into the role of Big brother for them.
All these memories were tangible things, things to experience & forget or to experience and re-play over and over again in the mind and soul.
Strange man that he was to Not disrespect women and forget them like yesterdays news He re-played the memories again and again over the years, especially the good ones he kept and savored. His "feelings", the emotions, the events.
Yet new experiences brought on new feelings and new decisions to make.
He often said and wrote that he wasn't afraid of anything, yet, change was one thing he feared.
Losing friends, losing family, gaining new friends and doing new things.
All exciting and good yet the work involved was tremendous.
One morning after 4 a.m. while guarding thePrincess Lodge he did another patrol at theEmployee housing quarters
once more and was surprised that some kids were still up watching movies.
These were the kids that were up all night away from theLodge around a bonfire, whooping-hollering and drinking.
They looked so peaceful sitting there watching the movie.
He looked closer. They were all passed out.
One girl drooling onto the shoulder of her friend. He chuckled inwardly.
He stood in the doorway of the tv room and watched "XXX", or was it "Chronicles of Riddick"?
Who knows? It was the same bald head, same big guy and same kick ass action.
Wow, was that the young girl that Riddick had saved in the last movie?? She looked like a boy then.
Now she had all that hair and was dropping men left and right. Kind of like a village girl he once knew during his
first arrest on her. His shins still hurt.
"I should get a razor knife for my duty shoes" he thought.
But herHighness theAlaska Princess would frown on such a thing.
Besides, with his luck he'd pull a "Beverly Hill Billies-Jethro Clammpett" move and reverse the blade.
Making it "click" to theInside of the shoe instead of Outside.
*sigh*, it's too early or too late anyway, the sun is up in the Alaskan summer sky and at 0430hrs his thoughts went every direction due to his being tired, overworked, overstressed and underpaid.
As he went out to the employee's extended housing for the 4th time that night he realized that he forgot to lock up the laundry room there.The housing lights lit up the central board walk as he crept his way to the laundry.
A tv was on behind one tenant door. Senfeld or else Jess Leno?
He stepped into the laundry and was irritated by the stack of left over clothes that had sat for days, 3 days to be exact, and no one had claimed them.
He never bothered with them at all, just left them and left it at that.
But something caught his eye in the pile.
Something....Red.
She wore red.
He saw it the 2nd day of work when-after hours, everyone that smoked headed to theSmoking tent and lit up,
puffed and fumed and laughed with each other.
Meanwhile over 60miles away and at almost 17K feet up on the south slope of Mt. Ellis,
a quarter mile wide crater vent fumed away 18 hrs a day hissing black smoke up into the -40F air.
It was rumored that nothing lived downslope of the toxic fumes.
NOTHING.
No ice worms, no bacteria, no grass or flowers even lower down in elevation.
Yet looking at those tall ominous mountians-Who could tell??
The Vent had been doing that since Natives and white men could recall.
Damn smokers. Creating clouds of carbon monoxide that he smelled on the wind over 300 feet away
as he took an evening walk with Her,
'lil Red.
She was sitting in the chair and leaned over far to retrieve her pack of smokes that fell off her lap.
The black ink of the Tribal tattoo on her flanks peeked out from above her low riders.
He glimpsed Red thong.
Red, a nice color for her.
She was White as a Ghost, which contrasted sharply with her dark brunette hair,
long tresses with a few copper Red highlights streaked roots to ends.
She was 18 yrs old and she looked much older with all the makeup she wore.
She had come to Alaska for the first time for this summer job with thePrincess.
At home in the sunny Peoples Republic of Kalifornia, theAthabascan Princess had interviewed her
for theHousekeeping job.
ThePrincess needed people to keep the individual rooms in her hotels immaculate for theGuests.
"What else can you do?" theAthabascan Princess asked her in closing.
Lil' Red thought for a moment
"I like to make Espresso for my Dad and brothers" she replied.
"Really?", thePrincess leaned forward and with Caribou-skin gloved hands took notes.
The leather brain-tanned gloves-almost white, scribbled delicately.
TheHands that held the eagle feather quill pen dipped in squid ink and smoked oil ash, she did note this in her Moose skin covered binder.
The walrus ivory nibb and seal hide and sea-weed parchment was a gift from her Sea dwelling sister Ms Kenai Princess and such things helped Ms Athabascan Princess in her record keeping.
ThePrincess shifted posture in her long fringe dress and continued her applicant interviews that day.
ThePrincess shifted posture all day long, not because of boredom or chair or dress discomfort. But earlier at some trendy salon & day-spa she had comforted herself with luxeries of having her hair done, nails looked after, body massaged and (hee hee) had received a full brazillian bikini wax.
She felt bare, undressed, slippery. But no one knew of her discomforting excitement.
Out of the 15 people interviewed that day thePrincess chose 7 to be part of Her "Food & Beverage dept" and 6 to be in the "housekeeping" depts.
ThePrincess didn't like to travel too far from Alaska. In fact, She didn't like to leave Alaska at all.
Her long black hair lost it's luster if she went too far south and stayed there amongst the smog and pollution of theWhite man.
If she let her long tresses fall from her ponytail or Updo they would catch the suns light and reflect vividly like theNorthern lights dancing in the Alaskan winter skies.
She caused a traffic accident one day visiting theMidwest.
It was late fall when the Alaska skies were clogged by smoke from the summer fire season, theAlaska days were growing shorter and thePrincess needed to warm up for the upcoming Winter nights when she would dance on the clear star filled nights.
So she made her Fall debut and decided to extend her Reach far south to theLower-48 one evening. Bad idea,
but no one hurt in the accident.
Her Ancestors chided her that night, those were her people in fact, as they danced and moved through the Alask skies at night.
Some journey'd far into theSpirit world and other relatives of hers just stayed on theEdge of Here, theNow and kept thePrincess company until one day when She too would move on.
She recalled that day when she was out in the Alaska woods admiring the snow fall and Grandmother Wind blew up to her.
"grandaughter, You look 24 again,,,
ahh.
Still"
"yes Gramma?"
"summer will be here shortly and you must go down again to look for people to work for You.
Good people to represent us, our Alaska Spirit, our People and State
and this time you must travel far to find those people".
"Gramma?, will I get airline credit miles??" thePrincess queried.
"And redeemable points towards the end of year stock purchases and corporate bonuses my Child!!"
Gramma gently laughed and moved away across the landscape moving the trees as she went, snow swirling from the branches.
The Princess' caramel eyes and pale Olive skin belied her existence of almost 800yrs upon this Earth.
Plenty of time to see the Territory of Alaska sit under reign of 4 different Nations.
She was 2nd youngest of all theAlaska Princess'.
The 3 Princess' to theSouth were older than she and off to theWest the youngest Princess of all dwelt by theSea.
4 Nations they had been under or was it 5? At least 2 Native nations, theRussians, theAmericans. Oh, and the almost successful invasion of her beloved Aleutian Islands by the, what were they?? The Japanese.
Her sister to theSouth the KenaiPrincess didn't like to speak of those days.
When pressed upon to speak of things she didn't like she'd grab a crafts project and start working on it.
Sewing seal gut lining for mittens or seal skinz hunting shirts for the ocean-going men to wear
and wrap the bottom of the shirt around the the opening of the kayaks and tie off to keep the water out of the kayak.
Perhaps that was why theKenai Princess never hired anyone from theFar East.
But by the 4th year of the existence of theAlaska Princess Lodge Resorts.
The 5 Princess' had hired from almost every race on the planet to visit their beloved home in Alaska
and work for her during theSummer season.
For She, theAthabascan Princess and her 4 Sisters, each did live on in theLodge workers
who "caught the Spirit" of theCompany and who faced each day with Enthusiasm, Vim and Vigor.
And it was in the face of one of these potential employees that theAthabascan Princess met in the PRK that she saw such friendliness.
So the little white girl with dark brown hair and cute face with a touch too-much makeup was hired as morning barista.
More Princes Diaries later.
luvs,
theSam!!!
thePrincess Diary.
The crunch of gravel ground under his bicycle tires as he pedaled across theLodge grounds
and over to theLodge to eat.
A 1/4mile trip it was,
this Separation of theLodge from theEmployee housing was both good and bad for him.
He patrolled theLodge grounds each night and also had to attend to the Camping and
Drinking area off-grounds and see that the bonfire left each night by the young kids was Out.
ThePrincess Lodge was separate from Employee housing to keep Noise from bothering theGuests.
Too big of grounds to cover when he had to get to one end or other in a hurry, he had decided.
He was half-asleep yet pedaled smoothly across the driveway transitioning from soft gravel to hard pavement.
Half-aware of theLodge's white van that was approaching.
The van drivers gave him the right-of-way and let him pass.
It was just like them to be nice like that.
They smiled at his yawning and especially at the black tuft of hair on his head that stood Up.
He had just woken up, thrown on some clothes, headed out the door and didn't comb his hair.
"Look who just woke up for Lunch" the driver observed.
The Elderly couple, that had to be taken into theTown to visit theClinic just down the road earlier that morning,
chuckled in amusement.
At the back door by Shipping & Receiving he kicked open the bike kick-stand, or rather he ried to kick it down but kept missing. He couldn't even park a bicycle.
After 7 tries he leaned the bike, let it fall really and went inside the side door of theLodge.
50 feet away at the smoking area the Server girls blew smoke rings and pondered last nights drinking party
out on the Bluff.
The aroma of basil, garlic and sauce from a bottle wafted up from the EDR (employee dining room)
as he descended the stairwell for the days Lunch.
"Pasta again?", he thought. Seems that was always on the menu for him now a days.
He likened this situation to the proverbial newlyweds couple;
when the man-being nice to his new bride mentioned that he liked her pasta dish,
or what ever favorite dish of his that she served him for the first time.
There afterwards the man got "pasta this-pasta that" as the main meal for years until the subsequent divorce.
And like wise, the Copper River Princess Honeymoon was over the first week for all theEmployees.
The pending Divorce would be over at end of Tourist season in Sep.
As for theHoneymoon period for all the employees and upper Management.
No longer did everyone speak to him as he walked by.
No longer did everyone look at him.
no longer....
Yet those unseen Chefs in theKitchen were still talking about the note that he left for them
one morning after seeing the "cute Lincoln Log shaped" square waffles they had made for breakfast.
And they did, they looked adorable those cute square waffles.
Exactly 1" thick and measuring roughly the size of the "IT" Industry standard 3.5" plastic
computer "A" drive floppy disc.
When he saw those waffles in the heated tray that morning
he wanted to build a miniature house with them instead of eat them.And being nice to theCooks he left a note.
For that is how it is in their world.
Talk to them, be friendly and approachable and talk about everything and nothing, and smile all the time.
And in being nice to theCooks in his note he mentioned "more pasta please!!" for his Night-shift security meals.
Words that he would soon be eating.
"What did you say to them?" groused the Night-shift Auditor after finishing her 5th straight nights meal of Pasta.
Her work outfit lacked a bow tie.
He thought of suggesting one of the "bow-tie pasta shells" that theKitchen served to theGuests.
Later on in his trailer house, as he flushed the commode, he thought he smelled lemons,
the wheatness of the Bow Tie pasta and "sniff-sniff", Olive oil??
Ahh.. that is theCRPWL (Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge) "Princess" experience from start to finish,
top to bottom, In and OUT.
Fluffery and niceness for guests and employees.
Whether duck or lamb or steak, whether potatos, spinach or broccoli.
The Princess always found ways to artfully arrange the dish on the plate, carefully pouring out
just the right amount of sauce or gravies for topping.
And just a dash of pepper or croutons and a few shreds of cheese all around the edge of the plate.
Everyone sat and looked at the meal first before they ate.
EVERYONE.
During the first week of the CRPW Lodge being opened, he ate in the main dining room with the Guests and observed the commotion.
The cheesecake was absolutely sinful. Almost as sinful as theGirls in room B-28, 30 and the Extended housing girls in rooms... *ahem* (I digress!)
The pork loin arrived medium rare for Gramma and Grampa Tallahassee
and they loved the fact that it was heart-shaped, had diagonal "sear" lines from theGrill
and the mashed potato mound was shaped just like a miniature Mountain with a gravy "volcano".
The hot-steaming asparagus was neatly stack 7 on the bottom, 4 on top
and 1 lone stalk lay atop the rest at a diagonal.
Even the quarter-sized pat of Real butter beside the asparagus was worth $3 alone.
At another table the hamburger and fries arrived piping hot.
The flame grilled patty still dripping sauce and the melted cheese patty was hand-scalloped by the Sous-Chef around the edges.
The dill pickle chips were actually one whole pickle artfully, carefully!!,
cut lengthwise down the middle and made to look like several pieces "stacked" next to each other.
It was said in some Stock Trading circles along Wall Street last year that Vlastic Pikkels
was sending 2% more product up to Alaska each summer since 2002.
A sprout of red onion with the heart standing "stalk-like" was skewered through the top
of the kaiser bun and the leafy ends curling up with panache, dash and flare.
You were brought to tears just looking at the proud little red stalk, tears from being overcome by the artful
display of food or else by the crisp pungent bared-soul of the red onion-I'm not sure which.
The occasional gray haired, spectacled Tourist turning towards theKitchen would catch a glimpse of Her.
Ms CRPWL as she tended theGrill, washed theDishes or else stacked her server tray with food for her guests.
She was theWoman behind thePrincess Logo, if you can recall the picture of the woman's face
and blue hair like ocean waves.
Yep, all spectators to the inner workings of the kitcen would glimpse theAthabascan Princess herself
inSpirit slaving away over a hot open flame stove or dicing up Ice lettuce for the sweet Salads.
The 2" wide carrot slices even had smiling faces cut out of them!!!
The salad dressing was a blend of select herbs, spices and oils hand-picked by thePrincess herself and personally
whipped up by her in the corner of theKitchen.
She was a busy woman thePrincess, as were her other contemporaries at their respective Princess Lodges throughout Alaska.
Nothing but the best filler Rice for the fresh seafood platters.
Uncle Kens and Mr's Smiths companies jostled long and hard for exclusive platter hoarding rights
to all of the 5 Alaska Princess Lodge hand-fired china plates.
Even now, thousands of miles at sea to theWest the baby squids were clambering aboard trawlers suction-cup
over tentacle just for the rare opportunity to end up in Her vinyl gloved hands on the cutting board
and fussed over on the grill before being served to her guests.
Already 3 trawlers had gone down overnight in the South China sea.
5 fishermen still missing. Missing because of the work needing to be done for the Alaska Princess' (all 5 of them)
"I wanna be stuffed with rice, pressure steamed and served with cream cheese by thePrincess!!",
one little baby squid quipped to his mother-He was promptly eaten.
Even at 3,000 feet below, they had all heard of Her and the long reach of her silky-skinned arm
with calf-skinned gloved hand. Her the Interior Princess.
The biggest one of all in heart, warmth, responsibility and territory for her Tourists to see.
She had existed for the last 800 yrs that they know of but during the last 15yrs
when She had started to extend Her reach across thePlanet to satiate the hunger of Her guests,
even the Old ones far down below started to fear Her and her 4 sisters.
But the young ones were eager to please Her and so they gave their lives toHer, toThem; theOld ones that traveled
from all over the world just to see her and her sisters.
He smelled pasta (again) and lost his appetite.
"I gotta get out of this place" he said to himself one afternoon after waking up from 8hrs sleep.
15 miles down the road he enjoyed his double cheese burger, curly fries and large coke-Supersized of course!,
at the Alaska DeepFreeze trailer.
One day those white folks drove their two 20'wide double trailers into town
and parked right by the Junction Crossing store at-where else???
The corner Junction of Richerson & Glenns Hwy,
There they've been in business every summer for the last 22yrs.
Every day as the DeepFreeze owners wake up and head to work they wonder what would have happened if the trailer
tires had not gone flat on them-forcing them to pull over into the spacious parking lot of the "JCX" as it was called by the locals.
Business was brisk that day as Mama Cash rang up till after till amount and burned up a few trees worth of paper order receipts for the Cooks in the back grill room.
Food was a comfort during stressful times and so were the twin Glock pistols concealed under his armpits that day.
The summer sights and smells coming from all around made his head spin at times.
He turned his head slowly and bobbed his chin and tightened his neck muscles-platysma first,
then sterno-clydo-mastoid and felt his cervicals pop and move slightly with an audible crunch
as if someone were popping their fingers.
One young white girl two spaces ahead of him heard theNeck pop, turned and looked at him.
He stared up at the lunch menu on the wall overhead and tried to wonder what separated
the 'Mount Angel burger' from the 'Mount Ellis burger'??
The actual Mt Angel stood 12K feet tall and Mt Ellis was a giant at 16,800 feet yet was over 7 miles across.
"Like a flattened out loaf of bread", he thought as he glanced out the windows of the DeepFreeze.
Flattened out with several bodies deep inside her.
He thought of the past 30yrs news that he heard and read of her-theMountain.
Ms Ellie was the tallest, meanest of the 4 peaks that occupied National Park Territory.
Last year a lone hiker was helo'd part way up to her south slope
and was expected to climb up to one of her smaller peaks and meet his chopper ride a week later.
He never showed up.
Searchers looked for 3 weeks, maybe 4.
They found his base camp, his cache of supplies. No body.
Only God and of course Ms Ellie knows where the poor man is.
Traffic hummed by theDeep Freeze on the busy two lane hwy: a State trooper vehicle,
a small red sedan and a big Tourist bus. One man hitch hiking with two shaggy dogs.
No one ever stops for dogs.
He'd give rides to anyone going in his direction but never stopped for dogs. His pet cat-TDC, under the pickup seat would go ballistic if her ordered existence were troubled by an ugly mutt in the pickup cab. He took That Darn Cat!! everywhere.
While driving, sleeping, sitting at the computer, popping his neck
always brought on the tiny fingers of tingling and chills followed by the euphoric rush of endorphins to his head.
Light headed and dizzy, he stepped up in line one pace and then settled his weight on one leg
while the lady cashier took the next order.
The other leg smarted where he pulled a muscle using thePrincess' treadmill machines
in the Employee workout tent.
He's too big for the flimsy 3mm thick tread mat of the Machine and the spring board won't take his weight.
The mat just stops dead on the spinning roller tracks if he starts to run.
So later that week he hit the back roads trail past theEmployee drinking & camping spot
and never looked back at the Workout tent since.
He moved his head again and quietly sniffed the air in front of him,
often the movements of his clothes would suck in air next to his body or expell air.
Moving his arms would often push out air from his side and he caught the scent of pine needles.
"The Speed Stik" said the deodorant label on his shelf at home miles away.
And another label in his Public Safety war-bag inside his pickup parked outside the DeepFreeze read,
"Happs gun oil".
"Haps gum ole" was the way the burly White man behind the bigK counter in theCity pronounced it.
He wondered if he should ask the Man if he was from the deep south??
But instead he took his gun cleaning oil and put it into the full shopping cart and marched to the checkout stand,
dodging military couples toting kids and grandmothers with walkers and their shopping carts along the way.
Being physically clean was also a comfort that he indulged in and that necessity was given to his fire arms as well, as he also caught the sweet scent of synthetic oil wafting up through his T-shirt.
He didn't have to take such drastic steps to comfort himself and to protect thePrincess like that.
But She didn't seem to mind, when one day She was walking through Administration,
saw him standing by the Mail/Outboxes and gave him an impromptu hug.
His Glock stuck into thePrincess' big breast and she quickly sucked in her breath,
looked at him wide eyed for a moment and then continued on with Her day.
Later on that evening when he was on duty for Her, She was sitting at the bar
with some of Her employees drinking and She smiled at him.
Perhaps it was theVino smiling??
He looked closely at a discarded bottle in the trash later that night.
"Bottled in 2003 after being Aged 9 months in American Oak barrels from jellies of sweet blue grapes and sugars".
"Keep in your cellar for up to 10yrs".
"Goes perfectly with tomato-based food dishes or lamb and steak meats".
"The flavors of wild berries is crisp and the finish is long and smooth".
Hmmm... And the more you drink, the bigger your ass gets until you're all ASS just talking out of a hole. Ok.
But thePrincess never let her guard down at all, She just sipped here and there and moved amongst her employees
and then retreated to her Office to fuss over next months budgets and last weeks pay roll.
Later that night one of Her employees decided that He'd become theAss after downing too many whiskies down the road
at Grizzly Pass In before returning to Princess' property and then going to her bar.
The off-duty Cook staggered from theBar, made off handed comments to some of Her guests
and after She radiod him to eject the Cook from theLodge, theCook quickly walked away after glimpsing a big White shirt approaching from across the parking lot.
Her young, aged brow furrowed over Her work once again as She sat in her office Chair.
Her handmade antler, leather and fur Tiara with daily-fresh Spruce bough twigs weighed heavily upon her dark hair and she stayed up until the seal oil burnt out from her lamp.
Maybe it was the flat notes from the piano playing out in theLobby that jolted her back to Reality at 0400hrs.
She had glimpsed him from time to time late at night or early in the morning as he pecked away at some melody,
scribbled notes into his transcription stave book and rolled out another melody.
He did this periodically between errands and patrols of her grounds and each day he was getting better and better.
She retired to her Quarters for the Night and did it all over again the next day,
talking to many employees, hugging a few people now and then.
Even scolding herChef for being an Ass the night before
then buying breakfast for her Offended guests that were departing herLodge bound for the
SisterPrincess Lodge up North where her older
Cousin the Conceited Ms Denali Princess strutted her stuff for theGuests.
"ha! Just wait till Auntie Chinook returns from sabbatical" the Mt McKinley Princess said
over the weekly conference calls.
"She's going to be the "Northern Ice Princess" about 6 hours North of Fairbanks
where her resort will be open Year round in the High Altitude mountains.
"You mean the Northern Brooks Range Princess??" all the other 4 Alaska Princess' chimed in unison.
"wow"...
"Good riddance" she thought, when the full bus load of Tourists departed later that morning.
"Good riddance" to theOffended couple that was really offended the moment they got off
thePrincess Cruise Ship in Anchorage.
They were finnicky guests, and German to boot!!!
He had to wake up theGerman speaking employee at 0200hrs one morning
because he didn't quite understand the woman Guests mother tongue.
You see, when most Europeans speak freely, or use slang and especially when being irritated and foul-mouthed.
They speak in terms of body parts and disease.
"you cholera filled cund whore" they say.
"your mouth has AIDs".
Anyway, he thought the German Guest had herpes of the throat and wanted heat for the room,
it was piping hot anyway at almost +80'F.
Papa G (german) was wiping his brow and in broken English saying the heat is on.
Yes, it's on.
And Mama G was still in bed speaking german, "My throat..."
So he excused himself from their hotel room and went to Employee housing and woke up Ava Maria.
Glumly she listened to his explanations, intrigued that theGuest would call him names.
He was so big and intimidating looking that she wasn't upset at all for being awakened,
this situation she had to see to believe.
Looking for her glasses in the dark as not to disturb her room-mate, Ava Maria pondered her many years working
for thePrincess.
Ava was currently a solitary pin stuck-in Germany on the wall map of the EDR (employee dining room) of theLodge.
Many years ago she had worked in Spain, France and the Nederlands for several travel companies before
heeding theCall of Adventure and meeting theAlaska Princess herself.
ThePrincess was more beautiful than the Swiss Alps. The Natives were impressive in the flesh and that boy, him-theGuard.
He looked like some of those Native Americans that she and her fellow Germans elevated on Kluas vanHous day,
as Klaus was a big political figure in the 1950's and a celebrity that embraced the Native Americans.
And to this day, most Germans in many small villages and communities dressed like Indians,
played big drums and sang like them.
She wondered what theBoy looked like in paint and feathers as she stumbled to theLodge.
20 mins later she would be laughing with the currently-happy German guests as she explained to them
that he had mentioned that he thought they were mad at him for some reason and were calling him names.....
LOL.
"no no." Mama G explained.
"The heat soothes my throat and the air conditioning was broken when we went to turn it on. Oh.. and the water through the pipes is keeping my Hans awake."
It's nothing my sweet plum, your health is more important". Hans gestured.
The Maintenance man finished adjusting the air conditioning and shrugged his shoulders at the noisy pipes.
Saying the main heating unit was just 20 feet away on the roof top.
Nothing could be done about it, and he left-went back to his house on theLodge grounds.
These things that happened and that he had heard about echoed in his dizzy head as the line moved up closer to the food counter.
He could hear the voices of theVillage Tribal Administrator, her gorgeous daughter that-upon turning 21 last year.
Came of age with him on a long weekend in theVillage when no one else was around.
The two little girls that mother and daughter were currently watching wanted "just fries and pop to drink".
"Look!, he's here" they giggled to the two grownups.
Without turning to see them he smiled to himself before finally stepping up to order his food.
She was a nice girl-theDaughter, often suffering mean treatment at the hands of her father after he got drunk.
The mom did nothing to stop the bullying done to her for years.
Then one day dad got drunk and went after her with a hunting knife.
She called him for help. Not something she'd normally do but in such a dire situation as that moment he was the closest person around.
He went over to her house, interupted her father who was banging on the windows with his hunting knife and cursing her and her mother.
Her father felt him approaching, turned in time to see his hand reach for the ever-present baton he wore on his belt.
His hand and arm blurred, "thoomp" went the 31" extended baton as it snapped out and her fathers vision went gray then black as the baton made contact with his graying drunken head.
Her brother had pulled up on his four-wheeler and saw the commotion, saw him leave his pickup truck, saw him walk up to his father and drop him with the baton.
Her brother knew from experience that he was only stopping father from doing what he had done many times before, only this time it must have been worse for sister to summon - Him.
Brother was scared to see him approach and then he was up close.
"I hear you scream at her sometimes too".
"why was she walking 2 miles down the road to work this last winter?!!" he demanded.
He put the black baton away and brother was relieved, scared all at once.
Yes, Granpa had bought the new blue car for her and then when mom got drunk and wrecked her own yellow car,
she took her daughters new car for a week and brother never gave her a ride to work down in theVillage.
"if I get called back here again or even think that she's in trouble, I will return".
He growled and then got back into his pickup and drove off.
Sure theFamily groused about it and other village events, but NO ONE ever spoke of jailing him or sueing him.
And father kept his drinking to himself and for a short time, Sister had some peace at home until she could move out to another house in theVillage.
She was the one person in that family worth being nice to.
"Worth saving", he thought to himself that day when he answered her call for help as her father got violent,
and now when she was again "calling" at the door.
She was just being sober, normal, sweet and lonely. You're worth loving" she said to him afterwards.
Apparently she didn't "take" because her figure still remained slim and her belly didn't get any bigger.
They didn't have to say anything about their future if they were to be together.
They both somehow knew that they each were good people and would make it through
what ever life had in store for them if any little ones joined them from that weekend union
or subsequent meetings after wards.
She did like to drink, but realized that such a life wasn't for her.
She was too pretty, nice and slim, really well liked by all theVillagers
and her grandparents looked to her to be theNext Generation as they looked to thePast
and then to theirFuture and realized that theLanguage was dying.
The culture was dying and no one was interested in keeping it alive.
Who would keep it alive?? They saw her in a new light then.
She kept things low key after that with Him.
He shook his head in amusement when she brought her "white boyfriend" to the local basketball nights
at the school gym.
Her new squeeze was clumsy yet aggressive, after all, he had his Village Princess to impress
and so he played good ball.
She had an image to keep and she elbowed him a few times, knocked him down once,
stuffed him several times to show loyalty to her new white boyfriend.
When village women play basketball-Look out!!!
His niceness and safeness that he exuded to her that winter afternoon and then later on in private
over that long weekend, she told to another troubled young lady.
Soon the troubled young girl showed up at his house with Her friends for a Haircut or a Chair massage.
They talked.
He did nothing intimate with them, as they were all 15 to 17yrs old.
His daughters they could have been if he had married out of high school, so young they were.
He hugged them instead and teased them, listened to them.
A couple years earlier he had helped arrest two of them after they were drinking and driving.
He saw them run into the ditch with the car, they got out and staggered around.
One pouted and fumed that Mother didn't love her enough and the Other one was mad that he was calling the Troopers.
Mad that he made them stay, mad that two other Village Gramma's had come round and scolded them both and in turn,
told them to stay put while the State Troopers come.
And they did, out to theVillage and flew away with the two young girls.
He had written a poem about one of them once,
"he was feast, she ate like famine". She was a big girl, tall and lean.
Her parents were big as Samoans but they were Alaska Native,
She had her mothers looks and her dads fighting spirit as well as an arrest record almost as long as his.
Some kids just trusted him when he was in uniform and working in theVillage, one day out of the blue
she hopped into his patrol vehicle and they drove and drove.
And later on that day they were arrested and once again she got into his patrol vehicle-only this time she
took the back seat.
She and her friend, they openly cursed him and privately he wept.
But that was then, they made choices and had to live with the consequences.
Now years later when they were no longer Children, not that he had anything to do with their drug use and Coming of Age,
they were learning about Love and Trust.
And they took some advice from an older village girl they looked up to about Him.
"Go see him, he's not that bad".
Turning off "Anna, Anna, Anna, Anna, AnnaNicole!!" (she's so outrageous) on satellite
just for them and then turning on the Empathy that was buried inside his head and heart,
things he once had for his Hair and Massage women in Seattle-things he put away after coming to Alaska,
He settled into the role of Big brother for them.
All these memories were tangible things, things to experience & forget or to experience and re-play over and over again in the mind and soul.
Strange man that he was to Not disrespect women and forget them like yesterdays news He re-played the memories again and again over the years, especially the good ones he kept and savored. His "feelings", the emotions, the events.
Yet new experiences brought on new feelings and new decisions to make.
He often said and wrote that he wasn't afraid of anything, yet, change was one thing he feared.
Losing friends, losing family, gaining new friends and doing new things.
All exciting and good yet the work involved was tremendous.
One morning after 4 a.m. while guarding thePrincess Lodge he did another patrol at theEmployee housing quarters
once more and was surprised that some kids were still up watching movies.
These were the kids that were up all night away from theLodge around a bonfire, whooping-hollering and drinking.
They looked so peaceful sitting there watching the movie.
He looked closer. They were all passed out.
One girl drooling onto the shoulder of her friend. He chuckled inwardly.
He stood in the doorway of the tv room and watched "XXX", or was it "Chronicles of Riddick"?
Who knows? It was the same bald head, same big guy and same kick ass action.
Wow, was that the young girl that Riddick had saved in the last movie?? She looked like a boy then.
Now she had all that hair and was dropping men left and right. Kind of like a village girl he once knew during his
first arrest on her. His shins still hurt.
"I should get a razor knife for my duty shoes" he thought.
But herHighness theAlaska Princess would frown on such a thing.
Besides, with his luck he'd pull a "Beverly Hill Billies-Jethro Clammpett" move and reverse the blade.
Making it "click" to theInside of the shoe instead of Outside.
*sigh*, it's too early or too late anyway, the sun is up in the Alaskan summer sky and at 0430hrs his thoughts went every direction due to his being tired, overworked, overstressed and underpaid.
As he went out to the employee's extended housing for the 4th time that night he realized that he forgot to lock up the laundry room there.The housing lights lit up the central board walk as he crept his way to the laundry.
A tv was on behind one tenant door. Senfeld or else Jess Leno?
He stepped into the laundry and was irritated by the stack of left over clothes that had sat for days, 3 days to be exact, and no one had claimed them.
He never bothered with them at all, just left them and left it at that.
But something caught his eye in the pile.
Something....Red.
She wore red.
He saw it the 2nd day of work when-after hours, everyone that smoked headed to theSmoking tent and lit up,
puffed and fumed and laughed with each other.
Meanwhile over 60miles away and at almost 17K feet up on the south slope of Mt. Ellis,
a quarter mile wide crater vent fumed away 18 hrs a day hissing black smoke up into the -40F air.
It was rumored that nothing lived downslope of the toxic fumes.
NOTHING.
No ice worms, no bacteria, no grass or flowers even lower down in elevation.
Yet looking at those tall ominous mountians-Who could tell??
The Vent had been doing that since Natives and white men could recall.
Damn smokers. Creating clouds of carbon monoxide that he smelled on the wind over 300 feet away
as he took an evening walk with Her,
'lil Red.
She was sitting in the chair and leaned over far to retrieve her pack of smokes that fell off her lap.
The black ink of the Tribal tattoo on her flanks peeked out from above her low riders.
He glimpsed Red thong.
Red, a nice color for her.
She was White as a Ghost, which contrasted sharply with her dark brunette hair,
long tresses with a few copper Red highlights streaked roots to ends.
She was 18 yrs old and she looked much older with all the makeup she wore.
She had come to Alaska for the first time for this summer job with thePrincess.
At home in the sunny Peoples Republic of Kalifornia, theAthabascan Princess had interviewed her
for theHousekeeping job.
ThePrincess needed people to keep the individual rooms in her hotels immaculate for theGuests.
"What else can you do?" theAthabascan Princess asked her in closing.
Lil' Red thought for a moment
"I like to make Espresso for my Dad and brothers" she replied.
"Really?", thePrincess leaned forward and with Caribou-skin gloved hands took notes.
The leather brain-tanned gloves-almost white, scribbled delicately.
TheHands that held the eagle feather quill pen dipped in squid ink and smoked oil ash, she did note this in her Moose skin covered binder.
The walrus ivory nibb and seal hide and sea-weed parchment was a gift from her Sea dwelling sister Ms Kenai Princess and such things helped Ms Athabascan Princess in her record keeping.
ThePrincess shifted posture in her long fringe dress and continued her applicant interviews that day.
ThePrincess shifted posture all day long, not because of boredom or chair or dress discomfort. But earlier at some trendy salon & day-spa she had comforted herself with luxeries of having her hair done, nails looked after, body massaged and (hee hee) had received a full brazillian bikini wax.
She felt bare, undressed, slippery. But no one knew of her discomforting excitement.
Out of the 15 people interviewed that day thePrincess chose 7 to be part of Her "Food & Beverage dept" and 6 to be in the "housekeeping" depts.
ThePrincess didn't like to travel too far from Alaska. In fact, She didn't like to leave Alaska at all.
Her long black hair lost it's luster if she went too far south and stayed there amongst the smog and pollution of theWhite man.
If she let her long tresses fall from her ponytail or Updo they would catch the suns light and reflect vividly like theNorthern lights dancing in the Alaskan winter skies.
She caused a traffic accident one day visiting theMidwest.
It was late fall when the Alaska skies were clogged by smoke from the summer fire season, theAlaska days were growing shorter and thePrincess needed to warm up for the upcoming Winter nights when she would dance on the clear star filled nights.
So she made her Fall debut and decided to extend her Reach far south to theLower-48 one evening. Bad idea,
but no one hurt in the accident.
Her Ancestors chided her that night, those were her people in fact, as they danced and moved through the Alask skies at night.
Some journey'd far into theSpirit world and other relatives of hers just stayed on theEdge of Here, theNow and kept thePrincess company until one day when She too would move on.
She recalled that day when she was out in the Alaska woods admiring the snow fall and Grandmother Wind blew up to her.
"grandaughter, You look 24 again,,,
ahh.
Still"
"yes Gramma?"
"summer will be here shortly and you must go down again to look for people to work for You.
Good people to represent us, our Alaska Spirit, our People and State
and this time you must travel far to find those people".
"Gramma?, will I get airline credit miles??" thePrincess queried.
"And redeemable points towards the end of year stock purchases and corporate bonuses my Child!!"
Gramma gently laughed and moved away across the landscape moving the trees as she went, snow swirling from the branches.
The Princess' caramel eyes and pale Olive skin belied her existence of almost 800yrs upon this Earth.
Plenty of time to see the Territory of Alaska sit under reign of 4 different Nations.
She was 2nd youngest of all theAlaska Princess'.
The 3 Princess' to theSouth were older than she and off to theWest the youngest Princess of all dwelt by theSea.
4 Nations they had been under or was it 5? At least 2 Native nations, theRussians, theAmericans. Oh, and the almost successful invasion of her beloved Aleutian Islands by the, what were they?? The Japanese.
Her sister to theSouth the KenaiPrincess didn't like to speak of those days.
When pressed upon to speak of things she didn't like she'd grab a crafts project and start working on it.
Sewing seal gut lining for mittens or seal skinz hunting shirts for the ocean-going men to wear
and wrap the bottom of the shirt around the the opening of the kayaks and tie off to keep the water out of the kayak.
Perhaps that was why theKenai Princess never hired anyone from theFar East.
But by the 4th year of the existence of theAlaska Princess Lodge Resorts.
The 5 Princess' had hired from almost every race on the planet to visit their beloved home in Alaska
and work for her during theSummer season.
For She, theAthabascan Princess and her 4 Sisters, each did live on in theLodge workers
who "caught the Spirit" of theCompany and who faced each day with Enthusiasm, Vim and Vigor.
And it was in the face of one of these potential employees that theAthabascan Princess met in the PRK that she saw such friendliness.
So the little white girl with dark brown hair and cute face with a touch too-much makeup was hired as morning barista.
More Princes Diaries later.
luvs,
theSam!!!