He was a small, older man, and he walked with a limp. He’d struggled with the bags at the small airstrip the evening before, when Jordan arrived from Vancouver. He’d carried them into the inn where she’d spent the night and then lifted them back into his cab this morning. Envisioning herniated disks and heart attacks, Jordan tipped him lavishly and shook her head.
“Nope, not again. You’ve been great, and I thank you for the offer. But I’ll get someone on the boat to help me. You’ve wrestled with these long enough.”
He looked relieved. Thanking her profusely, he hurried away through the rain before she could change her mind.
Unsure what to do next, Jordan hefted her medical bag, abandoning the suitcases and groceries on the dock. By now quite wet, she clung to the railing, gingerly making her way down the slippery wooden ramp to the tiny floating pier. Moored to the dock, the aluminum boat the cabdriver had pointed out rocked as she scrambled aboard.
There was no one on the small deck. Feeling awkward, hoping she wouldn’t slip and catapult straight down into the cabin, Jordan gingerly climbed down the narrow ladder, surprised by how large the interior was.
There was space for about twenty-four passengers, and so far, she was the only one. Two tall, heavy native men were seated in the cockpit, talking as they drank from gigantic mugs of coffee. They turned and looked at her, dark, weather-beaten faces devoid of expression.
“I want to go to Ahousaht,” she began. “I’ve left a couple of heavy suitcases and a bunch of groceries up on the pier. Could someone help me carry them on board?”
Without a word, the younger man got up. When Jordan turned to follow him, the older man shook his head and motioned at a seat.
“Billy’ll get them.”
Jordan set her medical bag down and slid into a seat. “Thanks, that’s very kind.” She reached into her handbag for her wallet. “How much is the fare?”
“You’re the new doctor.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, I’m Jordan Burke. Hi.” She got up and they shook hands, hers swallowed by his rough paw. His scarred face softened into a smile.
“Charlie Tidian. No charge this time, Doctor Jordan Burke.”
“Thank you, skipper.” Jordan smiled at him. “You make the trip back and forth from Ahousaht every day?”
“Twice a day. The boat’s also used as an ambulance, if anybody needs to get to the hospital and it’s not urgent enough for the medevac.”
“How long does the trip take?”
“Forty-five minutes in good seas.”
Billy heaved her suitcases to the deck and then stowed them and the groceries at the back of the cabin, and soon people began trickling aboard, most of them First Nations. A young, pretty girl with a toddler and a huge backpack, an older woman, four young men. A middle-aged couple, obviously tourists, outfitted head to toe in Tilley gear, took the seat across from Jordan. The man whipped out a digital camera and began filming the boat and its occupants, concentrating on the mother and toddler and the older woman. Jordan figured he was being rude as hell, but the three ignored him.
At ten-thirty, the captain started the engines and the boat slipped away from the dock, heading at ever-increasing speed out over the gray-green expanse of water.
As the mainland disappeared, Jordan thought back to her first and only visit to Ahousaht three weeks earlier. She’d taken her car that time, driving from Vancouver to Horseshoe Bay and catching the Nanaimo ferry across the Inlet. It had taken three hours to navigate the twisting and terrifying Island Highway to reach the village of Tofino. There, feeling more and more as if she’d reached the end of the world, she’d chartered a floatplane to Ahousaht.
The isolated island village had both appalled and appealed to her. Sunshine shimmered on the water, blue-gray mountains rose in the distance and thick forest surrounded the sprawling frame buildings. The only road was a rutted dirt track that snaked its way up island. If she’d wanted isolation, it didn’t get any more remote than this.
The chief, council members and the nursing supervisor, Christina Crow, had greeted her warmly. They’d asked a lot of questions, including why she wanted to come to Ahousaht.
Without going into details, she’d told them her marriage had ended and that she wanted a complete change of scene. Her résumé spoke for itself, graduation at the top of her class and several years at St. Joseph’s E.R.
They’d been touchingly honest about their community: the isolation, the lack of amenities, the unique customs of the First Nations people.
She’d admitted little knowledge of their culture, and giving her two books, they’d left her alone with coffee and a plate of brownies. By the time they decided to hire her, the plate was almost empty, she knew a little about the history of the Nuu-chah-nulth people—and she was on a sugar high.
Jordan had accepted their offer on the spot.
Now, however, she wasn’t so sure. She tried to suppress her apprehension as the distance from Tofino increased, but finally gave in and let her emotions run. Aware that the Tilley couple were watching her bawl, she turned her face to the window, pretending to be intent on the small islands rushing by.
“Be aware of what you’re feeling. Don’t censor it, don’t struggle to subdue it,” Helen had advised. “Allow the emotions to come and just watch them. Darkness can’t survive when you let light in.”
Back in Vancouver, Jordan had been certain that this drastic life change was right and good for her. But as the minutes ticked by, she began to wonder.
She’d sold her car and many of her belongings, making the trip from Vancouver to Tofino by plane this time. There really was no point in having a car on an island where the majority of the community was within walking distance. And they did have a rusted-out ambulance for emergencies.
The boat chugged along, rising up high and then slapping heavily down on the waves. The noise of its props and powerful twin-engine motor finally soothed her. Whatever lay ahead was out of her control.
The tension in her neck and arms gradually subsided and she relaxed. For these brief few moments, she could just be.
Half an hour passed. Ahead, the clouds began to dissipate, revealing blue sky in patches overhead.
The water taxi skirted a long finger of land and several crab boats before turning into an inside channel, bordered by a wild, rocky shoreline. A few houses came into view, gray and weathered against the thick evergreens.
The boat glided past a fish farm and then more houses on the left and a long brown building with the sign Motel and Restaurant.
They finally arrived at the ramshackle dock, where a purse seiner and a cluster of fishing boats bobbed in the waves. And just as Jordan was wondering what to do with her unwieldy suitcases and grocery bags, Billy hoisted them out of the boat.
“They’re fine here,” he told her. “You go ahead, we’ll bring them up for you. You’re living at the back of the medical center, right?”
“I am. Thank you so much.” Carrying her medical bag and her purse, Jordan climbed out of the boat and walked slowly down the long pier and up the dirt road. A large sign nailed to a building read, Welcome to Ahousaht. Jordan looked around for Christina. The nursing supervisor had said she’d meet her, but she wasn’t there.
Two small boys on bikes came ripping past. One of them did an elaborate wheelie for her benefit and then hopped off the bike. He was wearing a billed cap backward over unruly black hair, and he gave Jordan an enchanting, gap-toothed grin. His face was still round with baby fat.
“Hi,” he said. “You’re our new doctor,