hiking, swimming in the ponds, and teaching them about birds, snakes, turtles, insects, trees and plants. By age ten, he was an expert marksman with a slingshot and a bow and arrow, he knew how to start a fire, build a shelter and forage for food, distinguishing between the edible plants and berries and the poisonous ones so that he could basically survive outdoors, no matter what the temperature. He learned how to carve plates out of wood polished with beaver fat and could weave baskets out of split white oak, make his own clothes and get by in the woods with just some basic clothes and a knife.
That was a world that, of course, was unknown to me. I never did understand all the esoterica about camping and being able to use a compass if I was lost, build a tent for shelter or cook over an open fire.
That’s not to say I wouldn’t welcome being in the wilderness with the right guide, particularly if he looked like the six-foot-four Australian who took me and a group of friends on a rafting trip in Colorado, our present to ourselves after we graduated from college.
“So you spent your summers camping out?” Ellen asked Moose.
“I camped outside my house from the age of eight,” Moose said. “My parents built me a tepee in the backyard instead of a tree house and I spent most of the year out there. I grew my own fruits and vegetables in the garden and made my own clothes. Even my own shoes.”
Ellen and I looked at each other. Manolo of the Adirondacks.
“And I bet you never went to the doctor,” I said.
“To get my shots and all, sure. But when I was sick I tried to treat myself with medicine from plants. I haven’t been to the doctor in the past twenty years.”
“Germs probably can’t survive where you live,” I said. He smiled.
“And what about when you’re doing all that outdoor work. Don’t you ever fall or hurt yourself?” Ellen asked.
“I broke my ankle a few years ago. Set it myself.”
We were all silent. I was proud of myself when I closed a wound with ointment and a butterfly bandage.
“So you’re writing your book with a quill pen, or what?” I said. He shook his head.
“I have a computer and all that. I’m connected.” I imagined him hunkering down by candlelight and writing on a computer.
“Let me guess,” I said. “You built your own with twigs and leaves.”
“Actually I have a Dell,” Moose said, laughing. “But now that you mention it…” With a smile he steered the subject to me, obviously eager to get himself out of the spotlight. “So what about you, how are you doing with the column?”
“The pressure gets me a little crazy,” I said. “But I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”
“I read your stuff from time to time online,” he said. “I try to keep up with the papers.”
“We don’t cover your part of the world that much. Any good investigations to be done where you are?”
He was silent for a moment. “Local political stuff, sure, but it’s a small town and people tend to get along.”
“And if they don’t?”
“They don’t go running to the media.”
“Sounds idyllic,” Ellen said.
“What do you do?” Moose asked Ellen. She reached into her bag and gave him her card. Moose looked at it and smiled slightly.
“Consumer reporter,” he read. “That raises your blood pressure.”
“I try not to let it,” Ellen said. He stared at her for a long minute and didn’t say anything.
“How long you been doing it?”
“Six years,” she said. She looked back at me. “Remember when I took the job?”
I couldn’t forget. It was a year after she started with the network. She was nervous and we arranged to have lunch at 21 to celebrate, even though most of the time she talked about all the reasons why she secretly felt she wasn’t up to the job, couldn’t do it and shouldn’t have agreed to take it. With all the negativity out of the way, we agreed never to have another conversation like that, ate every bit of the amazing hamburgers that the place is famous for—each seemed to be made up of at least half a pound of meat—finished off most of a bottle of very expensive wine and had to practically hold hands to steady ourselves as we walked across Fifth Avenue and over to Saks to buy her clothes that would look good on television.
“We didn’t think you’d stay there for more than two years,” I said. “Six is a record.”
Ellen nodded resignedly.
“So what keeps you going when everyone else burns out?” Chris asked.
“Venom,” Ellen said, “and determination. I can’t let the bastards win.”
Moose nodded, weighing that. “But there are more of them,” he added. “So at some point you have to stop and concentrate on fixing your own head.”
“Is your head fixed?” she asked, confronting Moose. “Are you balanced? Normal?”
“I’ve never been accused of being normal,” he laughed. “But I’m better than I was,” he said, continuing to look at Ellen. The waiter brought the food and we all stopped talking as he set it in front of us.
“Guess you don’t eat like this too much in the mountains,” Chris said to Moose.
He shook his head. “I used to live with a girl who liked to cook,” he said, then shrugged. “Since then, I make do.” He looked down at himself and laughed. “Doesn’t look like I’m starving, does it?” Ellen smiled at Moose, a real smile. I poked Chris with my foot, under the table. He glanced at me questioningly for a second.
“Listen, I don’t know what your timing is,” he said to Moose. “But I’m probably getting some concert tickets next weekend for a group that’s getting big around here.” He looked at Ellen and then back at Moose. “If you guys want to join us, I can get two more tickets.”
Every once in a while Chris surprises me with how fast he can operate. I suppose that was why at work he was able to focus at a crucial moment and create something that was right on target for his audience.
“Sure,” Moose said. “I’m going to be here through the week.”
“Anything that gets my mind off what I do,” Ellen said, unusually upbeat.
“Great,” Chris said. “Saturday then.” We ordered flan and Mexican cheesecake and then talked about Adirondack life, hiking in the snow, cooking dinner on an open fire under the stars, and then sleeping in a tent with down sleeping bags made to withstand temperatures up to 20 degrees below. Moose didn’t camp out in winter, but even in the summer, temperatures at night and in the early morning can get down into the 50s, sometimes dropping dramatically as the wind picked up.
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