Tracy

061:

*****061

Landing her plane on the hastily prepared dirt air strip was challenging enough, landing it in a snow flurry with high winds had been annoyingly next to impossible. Even though her own nerves were frayed, the enthusiasm Austin, Richard, Redd Kelly, Monday and Danny displayed was contagious. They rushed to get into fur lined parka's and nylon under armor, while crew members already in attendance grabbed luggage and other equipment and took it to the platform tents now billowing and collecting ice.

Tracy was shocked at the wood burning stove in the center of the small tent, and the army cots with space heaters beneath them. She raced with Danny covered completely, to the indicated tent, sides flapping in the strong weather. The cold bit through to her skin easily. She'd not been able to see once the plane landed.

Austin was right behind her, dumping her gear, and helping Monday unload.

"Are you kidding me?" She screeched. "We can't do this, Austin! This is insane! You let me bring this baby out here? What were you thinking?"

"Hey, don't blame me for the weather! You did your research and know it's unpredictable at best this far north." His breath came out as frost, and Danny was whimpering inside her jacket.

"That stove in the center? What am I supposed to do with that? He can't play with that thing there!"

Richard came in directly after. "Hey, it's all good." He announced with a hearty laugh. "We're all gonna freeze our tushies off and they'll find us years later in some kind of arctic excavation and thaw us out. Human ice cubes!" He dumped more gear on somebodies cot, and pulled his ice covered knit hat off, leaving his hair as wind-blown and bed head as he could. His eyes met Tracy's. "You can't leave in this weather anyway, so let's make the best of it. Storm's only supposed to last through the night, and we can get to work directly. There's a mess tent just across the yard, and I heard you freaking out over the wood burning stove in the center, a safety hazard for three-year-olds for sure, but we've had a small pre-fabricated cabin brought in and he'll be able to play in there most of the time. Unless somebody is using it for conjugal rites. Then he'll have to wait his turn like the rest of us."

"You're a freak!" Tracy whirled around. "Danny! Look, I have some fruit funs."

Everybody laughed uneasily, shivering until they realized that the tent was actually quite warm, and the sound of the wind whipping against the sides was  soothing.

Monday and Tracy set up their cots, discarding Danny's, Tracy decided she'd sleep with him snuggled next to her and assure his safety. In moments, Austin had added three more cots to the not-crowded space, making six in all, the same six who had ridden up in Tracy's plane. Tracy might have objected to being invaded by the male species, but her ideas had changed since arrival, and she kept her mouth shut, glad for their immediate presence.

It was her first time camping, and she had no idea what to expect. The idea that it was full on dark at four in the afternoon, and that they would all eat, sleep and dress together, showering in a single shower trailer, meant for men and women respectively had never occurred to her. But there was very little private about this kind of set-up. What had given them the idea that tent-camping in the Alaskan Wilderness would be a smart idea anyway?

After eating, there was a general comradery going on among the sparse crew, only the bare minimal for this kind of filming had been invited. Austin and some of the other guys, those who had speaking parts wanted to run lines, even go through the whole set of scenes to be played out while in Alaska. Tracy wanted to crawl inside her down sleeping bag and force her child to sleep, so she could get warm.