T, hi is week: The crunch of breaking ti Part Il 66 ilton, brace your- M self. We're in for another unpleasant session here." "What’s wrong?" Jovial asked, suspecting he had an idea what it was. "The good news is that you'll be able to take advantage of your bonus penalty system. The bad news is that it won’t help much because the money these guys are throwing off the edge of that cliff up there will add up to a lot more than any penalty you assess against them.” Squish hit the gas, gravel spew- ing from spinning tires. Jovial was thrown against the back of the seat. "Hey. Take it easy. Even Plug doesn’t drive like this.” There was a hint of fear in Jovial’s voice. Squish slammed on the brakes, sliding to a stop only inches from the front bumper of a parked log- ging truck. Jovial, his whole world filled with truck grille, dug holes in Squish’s dash with bare fingers Terrace Review _ Wednesday, June 5, 1991 A7 | All colour gone from his face, he turned slowly to glower at Squish. Nothing. The door was open... Squish was gone. There was yelling. The roar of working diesel engines died. There was more yelling. Jovial wondered why he hadn’t stayed in New York or Milwaukee. His New York office was pure luxury and the office in his Milwaukee plastic plant was really very nice. And the population in both cities was sane. But a friend, as of the moment a former friend, had told him there was money to be made in the B.C. lumber industry. Where was that friend now? Jovial pried his fingers out of Squish’s dash. With effort, he opened the door and carefully tested his balance as he stood up. A little shaky... but with a little will power he felt he could hide it. He walked to the rear of the log- ging truck. A crowd had gathered to watch grown men yell at one another. In Jovial’s estimation, Squish was winning if high pitch was the only criteria in the contest. “What's wrong," Jovial asked innocently, his voice betraying the unforgettable experience he had lived through during the past thirty seconds. . Everyone tried to answer his question at the same time. Jovial held up both hands. Silence. "Herby... Start explaining. Every- insights by Tod Strachan, in consultation with Rod Amold and Doug Davies quiet," he said flatly. And there was silence. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind who was in charge. "It’s ignorance of the PHSP again,” Squish continued. "The PHSP contains a map that shows exactly where every landing is to be built. And the landing we're one else... Keep your mouth shut." "It’s really quite simple," Squish began. "These people are destroy- ing your trees." Jovial raised his hands against the objections of the others. "I told you guys to keep The Way I See It... by Stephanie Wiebe Last Sunday was my mother’s sixty-second birthday. I can only print that because she lives too far away to take off her slipper and smack me. f was genuinely surprised: to figure out she was sixty two years old, That used to seem like such an elderly frail number, but it doesn’t anymore. Sixty two isn’t what it used to be, maybe because its closer than it used to be. My mother certainly doesn’t seem elderly and frail. She's becn preparing to die for about thirty years now. Not that she's in poor health, mind you. She’s a fit and sturdy woman. She hikes every day, has never smoked, eats things like wheat germ, tofu and just about any organically-grown plant. She even reads Prevention magazine, a habit conclusively shown to improve health in white labora- fory mice. She’s one of the healthiest people I know, yet she’s been anticipating her own death since the age of thirty. Throughout her house are hidden bits of paper and tape, stuck under jamps, chairs, paint- Ings and appliances. Slips of paper invade her jewellery box, spark when she dies. Years ago, when I was young and didn’t even know what the word "estate" meant, my mother heard stories of families dividing and battling in court over the estates of their deceased parents or grandparents. The names involved are usually something like Rockefeller or Hearst. My mother decided then that this would never happen to her close middle-class family, and the bits of paper have invaded her house- hold since. Turn over a lamp and you'll read "Granddaughter Tara"; flip up the leaf on the dining table and the label says “Son Jeff". Each item has been inventoried and marked, so there’s no mistak- ing its future ownership. Some- times this gets ridiculous. During one visit, my husband was admir- ing some charcoal portraits of my parents displayed on the wall. "Gee, Mom, these are really lovely," he remarked. Mom walked over and replied, "Those will go to Kathy and John because they bought the frames." "No, I don’t want them when better be labelled for each sibling. Four siblings, six grandchildren, means that everything in her possession must be divisible by. . ten. This causes mathematical problems with each new purchase or gift, so many items are given away now, ‘to avoid the bloody battle she anticipates later. On my most recent visit, I forgot myself and pointed out a new painting. "What a pretty picture of the - harbour," I innocently said, not considering her imminent death in the next thirty years. "Oh, do you like it?" She reached up, pulled it right off the wall and said, "Here, take it." "No, mom, I won’t take paint- standing on right now doesn’t exist on that map... For a very good reason. It’s dumb to drag trees off the edge of a cliff. Even the trees that aren’t obviously destroyed might be damaged inside and that’s something you won’t find out until you try to put them through your mill. "And I don’t have to climb that cliff to tell you there’s probably an environmental disaster up there. Trees crashing into stumps... rip- ping them out of the ground. It exposes the soil and provides a toe-hold for erosion. "There was supposed to be a landing on either end of this cut- block so High Tower could pull the trees off the top of this cliff from either end... Down the slopes on cither end... And there wouldn’t have been any damage to the trees or the site. But this... High Tower should never have set up here. He should know better." High Tower wasn’t going to listen to any more. Standing as tall as his 5’°1" frame would allow, he turned to Jovial and said, "Can I please speak now?" Jovial agreed he should be allowed his say. "Of course I know better. But I didn’t have any choice. This is where Rhodes built the landing and once | arrived I had no choice but to set up and do the job as best I could given these impossible conditions." Jovial looked at Squish. "Why would Rhodes build a landing here if he was told to build two else- where?" he asked. Squish didn’t reply immediately so High Tower answered the question for him. "It's simple,” he said. "Rhodes told me he thought this was a better place and it was cheaper to build one landing instead of two. "He even thought he was helping me. He told me I would only have to make one setting instead of two. He’s lucky he wasn’t around when I arrived and found out what he'd done. This has cost me plenty. Rhodes. messed, up, neither Squish or Nicholl checked up on him, and you and I are paying the price." Jovial was curious. "How has this cost you anything?" he asked. "I bumed the mainline on those rocks up there until it snapped.” The volume of High Tower’s voice was rising, "Twenty-eight thousand dollars for fifteen thousand feet of inch-and-a-half cable. I don’t know how many chokers and choker cables I’ve destroyed. "There’s lost time due to hang- ups... I can plow right through smaller stumps and rocks, but if - — Continued on page A& — Continued on page A8& P.H.S.P MAP 4S% V (SH Y DATE ©. 3 @_ ROAD LOCATION € OPENING BOUNDARY REGION Rupert STRATA BOUNDARY —. —~-— .— . DOXSTRICT c.P. 001 | : B.G.C. SUB ZONE LANDING =| her closet, and her photo albums. you die, Mom, I was just com- oe . TENURE F.L. #123459 SKID TRAIL aaet arr ae a, | These are the labels identifying = menting that they were nice." ORES SLOPE . om which object goes to whom after = She ignored him. "You can Se ppane . onvusH OVER “cae ; her death. No, her adult children DRAWER BY SWAMP have the antique lamp there, it are not bickering over a future was Grandma's." multi-million dollar estate— we = My mother also has a strong 1 7 get along quite well, actually, and sense of fairness and equality. If she’s spending our inheritance. twenty seven items are slated to My mother is mercly anticipating be inherited by an adult child, the huge legal war we might then twenty seven items had A portion of the map Indicating where Rocky Rhodes was to build the landings for High Tower’ 8 high lead operation. Ignoring the map, and because it was cheaper, Rhodes built one landing (marked with an X) instead of the two indicated by Herby Squish imarked with a horizontal ban) That was the beginning of a lot of expensive problems.