1 A Box Full of Bills

In midsummer 1976, when Keith was twenty-one, the lawsuit over his injured foot was settled on the courthouse steps. His share was thirty-three thousand dollars. “In the back of my mind I wanted to use the money to relocate in Chilliwack. My body might be in Washington, but my heart never left B.C. Ever since the sixth grade I wanted to go back. But Dad came to me with a proposal to make me full-time manager of the Silver Spur and 10-percent owner of all our family property, including the house and the trailer court.

“He said he would borrow money from the bank and Rose and I could throw in my settlement. That way we could add forty-six more lots. He said the park would pay our expenses, gas for our car, all insurance and house payments and utilities, and he would buy me a new pickup equipped with a winch, a four-wheel drive and a snow-plow. Dad and Mom would get a thousand dollars per month, and Rose and I would get six hundred. Rose would do the bookkeeping.

“It sounded good, so I signed over my money and went to work. I poured a twenty-by-twenty-foot concrete driveway every day, sometimes two. At night I’d go to Biggs Junction to fish for sturgeon to relax from the pressure, then go back to work at dawn. Within six weeks I finished all the new lots and people were putting houses on them.”

Rose Jesperson had always admired her father-in-law, but now that they were involved in business together, she learned that he could be difficult. She wasn’t a trained bookkeeper, but she was good at math, and she kept the trailer park accounts in good order. The paterfamilias was free with his suggestions and advice.

Keith saw storm clouds and considered interceding, but he didn’t want to offend either party. “Rose seemed kind of put out, being on the receiving end of Dad’s control. She’d get really nervous when he approached our trailer. Now Dad is no dummy. He sees how he affects people and he believes money will fix all. So at Christmas that first year he gave Rose a box full of crinkled-up green papers—five hundred of them.

“Rose dug into the paper looking for her present before she realized it was all dollar bills. Dad said, ‘Rose, that’s kind of a payment for putting up with me. I’ll try to mend my ways.’ It smoothed over a few corners. They got along after that. It was a sign that we could all work together. Too bad the pipe dream couldn’t last.”

 

With the addition of the new units and the family future secure, Rose announced that she wanted children. The idea unnerved Keith. “I couldn’t get in the mood. What if I had kids as screwed up as me? Kids that nobody liked. Kids called Igor.”

He was still attracted to other women and coveted a highly respectable member of his bowling team. “Arliss was married to the guy who owned Skookum Bowl. She looked great and was nice and friendly, easy to talk to. I used to have sex with Rose and imagine it was Arliss. I fantasized about making it with her on one of the bowling lanes after she shut the place for the night. I had that dream for years.”

Rose knew nothing about the fantasy affairs, and she remained satisfied though puzzled by her new husband. A friend quoted her: “Keith protects me and he’s a great provider. He has an artistic side—he draws beautiful scenes: deer, wild birds, all kinds of outdoor settings. He makes intricate designs, buildings, complex plans, like his father. He solves complicated problems in a few seconds. But he lacks common sense. He’ll stand outside in a storm. People walk all over him. He forgets his car keys. He seems passive, but I’m not so sure.”

Rose told a few close friends that sometimes she suspected brain damage.

 

When six months passed and she hadn’t conceived, doctors determined that Keith’s sperm count was too low. Characteristically, he blamed his father. “The doctor asked if I was under stress. I told him what it was like to work with Dad, and he told me my sperm levels would never recover if I didn’t break the connection. By then Rose seemed almost desperate for children and signed us on a waiting list for adoption. I didn’t want somebody else’s children. I was hoping for a long wait.”