The Dredge

Well, after a five and a half year hiatus I finally wrote something new. Is it good? I don’t know, think so, but ultimately it’s done and more importantly, I enjoyed the process again. I do hope you enjoy.

 

By Jason D. Warden

I met Sam in my first year up here. He owned Marsh’s Fix It Shack. He had supposedly been a miner in his younger days but age had driven him inland, at least that was the story everyone told. For his part, he answered, “Fool’s work,” anytime anyone asked him why he had given it up. But of course that didn’t stop him from taking my money along with everyone else for repairs every off season. Salt water is notoriously hard on equipment, I’m convinced it is doubly so when cold. Of all the things Alaska has, nothing is more abundant than cold. Usually Sam’s thoughts on mining consisted of little more than those two words, but as I paid for the repairs he said a few more words that for a long time after, I wished I had never heard.

“Lookin’ in the wrong damn place.”

“Let me guess Sam, you know of a honey hole, everyo…”

“I know where the fucking comb is,” he interrupted. His eyes were wild, so wild in fact that I could only stare, even though my feet wanted to run. Finally breaking free from his eyes I asked, “Well shit Sam, why are you not out there if you have it all figured out? Save us all the trouble and put us out of our misery.” I was still scared, he just had the look of a nut, but I was also more than a little irritated. Just about everyone up here has heard a thousand time from friends, family and even other miners how completely idiotic the dream is, all I had to do was look around. The only ones making a significant profit had millions to throw away in the first place.

“Look, if you’re so goddamn smart why aren’t you out there cashing in? Cause you’re a chicken shit frog-faced mother fucker. You’ve probably never even been to the bottom. Looking in the wrong place? Fuck off.” I didn’t wait for an answer, just dropped the check on the counter and finally able to move my feet, walked out.

That night and all of the next day as I was putting the pieces of my dredge together and trying to hold on to what little hope I had for the season, I kept going back to Sam Marsh’s face as I berated him. I could see in hindsight how it had no effect on him at all. His too big eyes remained glassy, and his matching bulbous lips were curled into a slight grin, but he had never made eye contact with me. On one hand I was still angry, but that face showed nothing but absolute confidence and greed. I’d seen that look around Nome more than enough times to know it well. It was the face of a man on a hot streak, ready for his last mining of the summer. I, on the other hand, had lost that look after my second year but yet, was still here dreaming. I wanted that look back. It could happen too, all I needed was one big clean out, but that wasn’t going to happen without a crew. I had to find someone to drive the boat and man the sluice box. Without, I couldn’t even get in the water.

I was too late though, everyone I approached who had any experience at all was either already on a crew or captaining their own dredge. The thought did cross my mind to go out alone, but diving with no one topside to pull you up if things go wrong goes against every precaution I’d ever known. This life is dangerous enough without taking more risks.

That is how I found myself back at Sam’s place. Before the bell over the door had even stopped chiming I heard him call from the storeroom, “I thought you’d be back.” He was still wearing that grin as he came around the counter, he appeared at first to be sweating, but after a closer look I decide that wasn’t the word at all, he was glistening. As if reading my mind he stuck out his hand, I took it, intending to apologize, and found I was disgusted. His hand was indeed wet, slick wet, almost slimy, as if he had just gutted a fish. We shook and as I wiped my hand on my pants, I said “Look, I just came to say I was sorry, I was out of line.”

“No you weren’t, harsh maybe, but dead on the money. Anyway, you didn’t come to apologize, let’s talk about why you are really here. You feel it don’t you?”

“Sam, I just need a partner, I need a crew, I can dive, but I need someone watching my air and the sluice.” Before I could go any further he said, “I’ll take you out tomorrow.”

“Well, I appreciate that Sam, but I need someone full time, do you know of..”

“Listen.” He said and his eyes finally met mine, “After tomorrow, you won’t need to go down again, ever. We head for the bluff at 6am, you just make sure you are loaded up and ready to go. I will be here waiting.”

“Sam, the bluffs are a hundred miles away, I’m already docked in the harbor and ready to head out. I can’t just pick up and..”

“You can, see you’re still under in the impression you will need to more time, you won’t. This is your last dive, the last one you’ll ever need.”

“I still don’t see how you can know that. If there really is that much, or ever was, it’s gone by now.”

“Nonsense, if it were, I’d know, everyone would know. Even my kin from Innsmouth would know. Mikey, we are about to make the biggest find in history. I only have one condition. Once we get it you never dive again.”

“But why,” I argued, “This is crazy. This is my life. How can you expect me to make that kind of promise?”

“You must, or I’ll wait for someone else. I’ve waited this long. Mikey, I’m talking about more gold than you’ve ever seen. Enough for you to live like a king and run your own place as long as you like.”

“If we get there and it is as you say, I’ll agree, but that is as far as I will go.”

Reluctantly he shook the hand I outstretched again and once more I was disgusted by its slickness.

“Six A.M. Now go, get the dredge ready, I have to make arrangements here.”

I went back to the harbor and as I was loading the dredge back onto the trailer a strange euphoric feeling came over me. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but it felt right, even if my head screamed it was nuts.

If I’d just slept in, drunk myself into a stupor, or had an accident. Sam may still be with us or at least everything would still be sane. As it is, I no longer believe I had any choice at all. Everything I’d ever done had led me to Sam’s proposition. I no longer try to fight the inevitable.

We headed north toward the bluffs, a drive of a hundred miles is no small feat on rarely if ever maintained roads, particularly while hauling a trailer. It was nearly noon by the time we arrived at the turn off to the bluff, as I approached and slowed Sam spoke for the first time since we’d left.

“No, further down. “

We traveled a few more miles to a crossroad where Sam instructed me to turn back west through a break in the trees. This new road, if it can even properly be called that, bumped and jostled us for a couple miles before finally opening up on a small cove no more than three-hundred yards wide and possibly a quarter of a mile deep. As I stepped out of the truck I noticed that although the sun had crept well into the sky above, the entire area seemed to be in shadow, and the sand, it wasn’t sand at all. It was completely unlike anything I’d ever seen, entirely gray with black and green flakes in patterns, but the strangest thing was it was solid. One solid layer of rock, broken only by the sea in front of us and the bluffs on either side of the cove.

“How has this place not been overrun?” I asked

“It’s best you think of this place as Invitation Only Cove. Without one, only by luck would you ever find it. Most people aren’t that lucky. Now get the dredge unloaded. We only have a few hours.” Sam Said

“I’m on it, just got gas up the sluice motor.” I said

“Don’t bother, you don’t need it.”

“What? I have…, look I’ve gone along with this fantasy, but we aren’t getting gold if we don’t move material, we can’t move material if we don’t have a sluice to run it through.”

“Mikey, we aren’t here for that kind of gold. I promised you something you’ve never seen and that is what you’ll get. Just get it in the water.”

His tone forbade any argument, but I brought the gas can anyway.

As I fired the motor and we began to pull out toward the shore I asked Sam, “Where to,”

He didn’t answer with words, but produced a small dowel from his bag along with a slightly green star shaped fragment of soapstone. On one side of the star was a small depression, Sam placed the dowel in the depression and held the odd item out across the bow. It began to spin slowly at first, but as I moved closer to the center of the cove it spun faster, and faster still, until I could see smoke rising off the dowel from the beneath the soapstone.  I slowed the dredge, hypnotized by the spinning star. The smoke had stopped and as it was carried away by the wind the star began to rise into the air. It moved out over the water on our starboard side and as the spinning slowed, the soapstone began to fall. I turned the dredge quickly trying to stay under it.

“Quick,” I yelled, “grab it.” But Sam only watched it fall with what I can only assume now, was relief.

“That is the spot,” he said calmly. “Right there.”

Then his voice changed as we stood watching the ripples where the star had fallen. “Get your ass down there, hurry, we don’t have much time.”

“What do you mean Sam.”

“No time. Go.”

I suited up as fast as I could, at the time thinking I shouldn’t have trusted Sam, he clearly had problems. I fired up the compressor and was checking the sluice when Sam grabbed me and shut it off.

“I said there isn’t time. You don’t need the fucking sluice and we sure don’t need the noise. Just dive so we can get the fuck out of this…. Just go.”

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little scared, Sam wasn’t acting right. The crack in his voice, the terror in his eyes. Determined not to show how uncomfortable he was making me I pulled on my mask, walked to the front of the boat and jumped in.

Immediately it struck me how poor the visibility was, Water this calm should have been clear but instead it was dark gray and almost milky. I held my hand up in front of my mask to gauge the visibility and found I could only see a couple of feet in front of my face. I dove, and even though the depth finder told us that we were only in ten feet of water it seemed like forever before I reached bottom. Once there, the sea looked like anywhere else, well mostly. It was sand covered, at least, however, as I set foot on it, it seemed to give way, almost like jelly. It didn’t cloud up as I walked across it either, nothing I did seemed to have any effect at all.

All at once my field of vision cleared and a glow replaced the murk. I saw it no more than six feet in front of me, a mound of cubed stones as high as I was tall and nearly as wide, on the sea floor next to it, the glowing star shaped soap stone.  The cubes were stacked in a circular shape like that around a well. I picked up the star, and even through my suit it was warm to the touch. It had almost no weight at all. I brushed at the cubed stones, each of them I later found, to be exactly thirteen inches by thirteen inches by thirteen inches. As I did so I recognized what they were and gasped. Each cube was solid gold. I tugged at one at the top but it would not budge. I braced my feet on the lower stones and pulled with all my strength. Nothing. Not even a hint of movement. My heart was racing. I was sweating from the adrenaline dump seeing the stones had caused. I shot back to the surface, wanting, no, needing to tell Sam what was down there. I pulled off my mask as I broke water and Sam standing on the deck said, “Did you get one?”

“They won’t move, they’re stuck. I..”

“You idiot, drop the star. You cannot possess both.”

Pulling the mask back down I dove to the bottom, the eldritch star still in hand and set it on the bottom where I had found it. Again, I reached for the uppermost cube and pulled. It was heavy, but came easily, too easily. It should have been much heavier than it was and my heart sank. It wasn’t gold at all, just something painted to make a fool out of me. Anger flowed through me and I decided Sam was going to pay for the humiliation.

I swam up to the surface again, and threw the cube over the side of the dredge at Sam, he ducked and it banged around loudly. Sam, looking shocked stepped back as I pulled myself up the ladder I began screaming.

“You think this is funny Sam, You a goddamn comedian now. Did you just bring me out here to make me look stupid? I don’t have time for this shit. What the fuck is wrong with you?” With each question Sam’s face changed and his countenance did as well. He cowered in front on me on his knees begging in some unintelligible garbage I couldn’t make out. The look of him broke my fury and I realized I had my hands over my head and was holding a fire-extinguisher over him. I still have no idea how it came to be in my hands or how close I came to smashing his head with it.

I put the extinguisher down and reached for the cube, intending to ask him again what this was all about and why, but as I grabbed it, it seemed to have regained its weight. Not only that, but where it had landed a dent had appeared in the side of the boat. At the center of the dent a hole, a hole that was now leaking. Not a large leak, but one that would have to be attended to. “You’re paying for that,” I said reaching again for the cube. I lifted it this time, but it was much heavier than it had been when I had thrown it. I know that isn’t possible, but it is the truth.  As I lifted the cube, the previously calm, eerily calm water heaved as if a ship ten times the size of mine had just gone by way too close. Before I could even consider the source of the swell, I wretched. The smell coming from the water had changed and it was as if a thousand eons of curdled milk and rotting flesh had been set free. Sam had recovered and I turned to see him starting the motor. He quickly pushed the throttle to full and turned the boat, as he did a rogue wave slammed the side of the boat and he stumbled. Another hit and another, pushing him back and forth. It took me a long time to convince myself of what I saw, and I doubted it every day for many years.  I told myself it was a wave, a rogue wave and he had just been unlucky one too many times in his life. In reality it was a tube, a tube of water like flesh, it reached out of the sea and pulled him overboard. I flailed and screamed for him, but he was gone into the murky blackness and the sea had quieted before the echo of my call to him even ceased.

One could ask why I didn’t dive in after him and pull him to safety. The people who would ask that weren’t there.  They didn’t see that tube, they don’t know the terror of looking into it and seeing something staring back. I see it even in my dreams now. I’ll never set foot in the water willingly again. Not here, not anywhere. Not until it’s time.

I don’t know how long it was before I came to terms with the fact that Sam was gone, only that the light was fading and I didn’t want to be out there any longer.  I started the motor and headed to shore.  I began to pull the dredge up onto the trailer and gaped at what was there. The soapstone was stuck in the stone beach.  Three of its six not quite even points turned up as if it were looking across the cove. Cube in hand, I pulled it free. At the same time the cube dropped from my hand as if pulled.  Sam’s voice echoed in my head, “You cannot possess both.” I stared from one to the other and grabbed the cube, carried it to the truck and deposited it in the passenger floorboard.  I walked back to the star shape and realized the dredge was sliding back into the water. I reached for it instinctively but it pulled out of my hands. As if something was tugging at it from the water. In seconds, my dredge was out of reach. I watched it move toward the center of the cove and stop.  Unable and unwilling to go back in the water I left it. I told myself I’d get it back once I brought the police and water patrol out to look for Sam. I told myself that for at least two years, but I never did either.

The drive back isn’t there, I know I made it, I know it took about as long as it should have, but I remember none of it. Sam’s voice is all I remember. That chant started in my head as soon as I got in the truck, and continued until I arrived in front of his shop. That unintelligible chant he had spoken echoed though my head like a drum. I could have died listening to it, only when it stopped did I realize that I was back in Nome.

The door to his shop was unlocked, a strange thing to do, given the area, but nothing seemed out of place. I didn’t know why I was here, but this was where I had stopped and I was too tired to go any further.  “Sam, “I called, I don’t know why, just for a thing to do in case someone else was there I guess.

Of course there was no answer, but as I reached the counter I saw an old, cracked sheet of paper, I hesitated to even touch it. It looked as though it may fall apart. On it was written.

I, the property owner Sam Marsh do hereby enter into on this day 08/28/2000, a silent partnership with Mikey Owen formerly a dredge operator. I require no payment as I have gone home and keep my share in formality only.

Until we meet again,

Sam

In each of the places where names or dates were written other names and dates had been written before and erased, the paper in those places barely held together and was nearly see through. Behind the counter the sign that previously had been in front of the shop sat upright. On it, rather than Sam’s Fix-it Shack, it read Mikey’s Fix-it Shack.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about it then, but I eased into the routine and found my hands already knew the work. One season became another and one year became ten and ten became twenty. Over the years my eyes grew sharper, my mind more dexterous and though it has been gradual my outward appearance has changed as well. I’ve come to wonder if Sam and I are related. As I age, I find myself looking in the mirror and seeing as much of him as of myself. I told everyone here Sam had gone home to be with family and no one really ever questioned it. I’ve come to believe over the years it was truth. He had in fact gone home, and someday when the gold runs out I will as well. Each year I shave off of the cube what I need to make ends meet when the shop is slow. I weigh it each time, and each time the star speaks a little louder in my dreams and I wake with a little more dampness on my skin. I’m beginning to understand the words and chants as the star continually explains my purpose in this world.  I almost see what comes next. So far I have used 8.45 pounds of the 9 pound cube. When it’s gone, I will be as well and I will bear another family member to take my place. I yearn to play my part and serve. The star says when the cubes are gone we will rule again. Some dreams do come true.