PLEASE. STAND BACK.
Could you tell me if there was any trace of the boat?
No. That is—please. No one knows.
Are the men all presumed dead?
The children. Jesus, these people must have had children.
I wonder if I could get a word with you.
The river is like hell here.
You mean—
Should cover them with a tarp.
I’ve lived here all my life.
Yes?
And each year it happens like this. If not here, then somewhere else.
I’ll bet there were three of them in the boat when it hit the logs.
Yeah. I’d expect.
Seventeen people here since 1970.
Should shut it down. State should.
Excuse me, would you say the river, well, a violent river like this, exacts a toll?
What?
Do people pay a price to use this river?
Mister, if a tree fell on you, would you say the forest was taking a toll?
What I meant—
Someday you might drown. You want your wife to say he paid the price?
And when you least expect it too, bub, just like these fellows.
These guys sure as hell knew it was dangerous to go into these rapids.
Went in, nevertheless.
Paid for it too.
That’s what I meant.
We ain’t talking the same price.
Excuse me, sir, did you see the accident?
No.
Well could you tell me what you know about it?
You ought to write down Collier Rapids. That’s what the name of the place is.
Would you—I wonder if there are any members of the family you could point out here.
Jesus, look at the water come through that chute.
How old is this man? Twenty-four? Twenty-five? What a waste. And look at the wedding ring. He’s married.
You know I hate to see anyone die. There’s no need.
If you try on this side it ain’t so bad, but you try on the other side and you whittled your last stick.
Mister, there wasn’t anybody here when it happened. If you want to figure it all out why don’t you just walk over there and look. You could throw a locomotive in that hole and never find it again.
Excuse me, do you live around here?
No, I was driving by.
Could you step back please, sir?
This guy’s trying to write a story by talking to people who ain’t got no answers. You ought to get yourself a boat and get out there. That’s all the answer you’ll need.
There’s no need to yell at me. People have drowned here. Someone said seventeen in the last few years. This is a terrible thing. It makes people very sad.
River’s the one sad.
My Lord, look how white his hands are. Why don’t they put a jacket over his face.
Officer, I believe one of these poor men was at Nesmith’s station, last night. In a pickup pulling a boat. Had a kind of collie dog with him.
You’re looking for someone to explain a couple of dead men and what’s left of a boat.
The boat? Where?
There, in the water.
People want to be informed.
About these dead people and a broken boat? What are they gonna learn?
You ought to tell them to stay away from what they don’t understand. These guys went in to the wrong chute. Won’t work when the water’s this high.
You got to know what you’re doing.
Look, tore his shoes off. And I just—oh my—I just bought my husband a pair of pants like that. I’m taking them right back.
Can you imagine what they thought when they knew they were wrong, how lonely it must have been?
Pardon me, did you know these people?
Me?
Yes.
No.
Well several people have drowned here in the last few years. I wonder if you’ve ever been involved in a rescue—I presume this is your home here.
Yes. My wife drowned here in 1947.
You were present?
We were fishing on those rocks up above. Current pulled our boat away and we were stuck. We couldn’t swim, either of us. We tried to get back, jumping from rock to rock. We’d slip and get swept farther downriver each time. I’d grab a rock, she’d grab my foot. She was a small woman, no bigger than this. Pulled me by the hair, right out of the mouth of one of those chutes. We were trapped on a small rock and it got dark. We knew no one was going to come that far down in a boat. We lay there shivering all night. In the morning it seemed the water had dropped some. We decided to wait until the afternoon. We sat there holding hands. I wanted to try it alone, come back with help somehow. It came time and we hugged. I jumped in and I heard her jump in suddenly upstream of me. She had hold of me for a moment and then was gone. I reached shore. I never saw her again. I ran below, along the bank, calling her name. I looked for her for days.
I’m sorry to hear that.
Sometimes it happens that way.
But you went right on living here anyway?
Yes. It’s easiest to live where you have an understanding.
Death? You understand death?
No. It’s more about anger. About blame.
Well, it’s a very moving story.
Yes. Well, I have to go. Good luck to you.
You know, I came up here to do a story about these drownings. Now I think I might write it up with another point of view, a different slant.
Yes. Yes, that might be good.