The Light of Shimmering Cove

By Mark Doherty

This novella is the second of two stories featuring adventurous school teacher Jack Carment. He discovers a unique injustice regarding one of his students’ parents while teaching at school which compels him to attempt to right the wrong. In doing so, he meets many challenges, reacquaints himself with his former attorney, and goes on a solo sea kayaking trip in order to gain insight into the problems facing him.

Filled with both descriptive outdoor adventure and anecdotal classroom scenes, the story weaves ocean and big river scenery and adventure together with some creative problem solving. Throughout the story readers will also find a sprinkling of philosophy, some regarding the outdoors, some regarding precepts of education.

Short scenes of Jack’s sea kayaking trip on the Columbia River recount in flashback form Jack's creative approach to the challenging problem at school. The court case which then ensues culminates with Jack’s attempt to help someone seek justice.

The work is liberally spiced with dialogue, much of it pertaining to the classroom and the courtroom, but also finding voice with other community members in town. Descriptions of the Columbia River and the Oregon Coast are loaded with sensory imagery and vivid detail.

Although purely fiction, the work is semi-autobigraphical in nature. The work also features some original song lyrics written by the author who has thirty years of experience as a singer/songwriter. Other classic folk and popular songs are discussed along with classic quotes from Thoreau, Conrad, and Melville. Both educators and outdoor enthusiasts will surely enjoy this piece. It has something to offer both reading audiences. Whether or not a young adult readership would enjoy such a work remains to be seen.

This is not a complicated novel, nor is it a lengthy one. It can be read easily in one or two sittings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark Doherty
• Release date: Jul 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301699971

Mark Doherty

Mark Doherty was born and raised in the Colorado Rockies where he developed his passion for both the outdoors and music. After graduating from Western State College of Colorado with a BA in English and Writing, he moved to Moab, Utah where he worked as a guide, musician, and carpenter for nearly ten years. In 1993 he moved to the Salt Lake City area to work as a high school English teacher. He retired from teaching in 2021 and now spends his time writing, playing music, and doing woodworking. In 2016 he completed his MA degree in English, Creative Nonfiction and has produced his sixth manuscript Creativity, Teaching, and Natural Inspiration. His seventh book length work of creative nonfiction will be completed sometime in 2024. In his free time, he and his wife spend as much time as possible hiking, skiing, ocean kayaking, bicycling, and backpacking.

Book preview

The Light of Shimmering Cove

(The second Jack Carment Tale)

by

Mark A. Doherty© 2009

Smashwords Edition

Chapters:

Chapter 1 Morning Water Departure

Chapter 2 Antlers on Writing Desk

Chapter 3 Pilings in the River

Chapter 4 Parent Night Surprise

Chapter 5 Elochman Slough and Eagle

Chapter 6 The Startup Song that Started it All

Chapter 7 Cathlamet Channel

Chapter 8 The Silvas Visit Café 22

Chapter 9 Big Freighter Waves at the Crossing

Chapter 10 Something Puzzling on the Writing Desk

Chapter 11 Crossing The Channel With Memories of Light

Chapter 12 Old Friends, New Challenges Ahead

Chapter 13 The Plagiarism Lecture

Chapter 14 Tenasillahe and Welch Islands

Chapter 15 Jack Gets Involved Again—Six to Meet

Chapter 16 Rich and Full of Himself

Chapter 17 Exploring the Islands

Chapter 18 Compromise, But Still Captain

Chapter 19 Water and Wilderness Themes, From the River to the Room

Chapter 20 Larkin’s Lie Grows Strong

Chapter 21 Storytelling John Silva Style

Chapter 22 Philosopher on Deck

Chapter 23 Stalling Between Islands

Chapter 24 Intellectual Property

Chapter 25 Planters of the Piers, Seeds of an Idea

Chapter 26 Place Names of Great Memories

Chapter 27 Arbiter is Latin for Judge, Karma is Sanskrit for Deed

Chapter 28 The American Riverways Assignment

Chapter 29 Low Tide, High Spirits

About the Author (More Books by Mark A Doherty)

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Chapter 1 Morning Water Departure

Fog crept mysteriously in ribbons along the great river as Jack Carment leaned from the Skamokowa dock and shifted his weight into his kayak. Through breaks in the mist, grassy topped pilings rose from the mud and the deep green cedars from the far shore danced in and out of view. Beyond that, the rare early morning November sun shone on the high green hills in between more soft blankets and streamers of fog. A mix of Sitka spruce, Douglas fir and Western hemlock added tone and texture to watercolor feel of morning. Dawn on the Columbia River is often timeless. Jack felt as if he might see the Corps of Discovery loading canoes and putting out dawn cook fires as he stretched his spray skirt, reached for his paddle, and looked over to Carol who stood erect the end of the dock with binoculars trained on the edge of the cove.

Safe Paddling, Love, she said, lowering her field glasses from the Osprey nest she was watching. Then she added, Remember, tide turns at nine thirty today.

No worries, Jack called back. Your drive today carries more hazards I think!

Jack, Carol spoke, extending the vowel of his name a bit. She walked down the dock to him, kneeled down and turned her sea green eyes sharply into his. She didn’t need to say a word.

"Ok, I know. I will be very mindful that I’m paddling alone today! I will be more careful than ever." He leaned onto the dock to give her a kiss, turned toward the fog shrouded estuary inlet where Skamokowa Creek met the Columbia River and began paddling out toward the main river and the shipping channel. Jack stroked quietly as his kayak began to glide effortlessly through the glass smooth surface of the inlet. He was hoping not to disturb the Osprey nesting on the channel marker buoy. It was the same Osprey Carol had been watching all morning with her field glasses. Just inside the green channel marker, he turned up along the lush verdant edge of Price Island, closely hugging the shoreline as it began to emerge from the mist and fog.

The only sounds he heard for a time were the gentle gurgle of his paddle strokes and the rustling of his paddle jacket as he stroked smoothly out into the fog. Soon a sandpiper on a small exposed mudbank, alarmed by the approaching kayak, began to scold. Then Jack heard goose music from down the main channel of the river. A distant cry of the Osprey also drifted across the water from behind. He paused, letting his boat glide quietly and listened as the echelon of geese honked their way by, appearing now and then through the fog. The edge of their honking voices was just slightly muted by the moist air, but the morning was so still that he could hear the wind in their wings.

The river itself began to speak as Jack reached the current. Subtle gurglings and whispers belied the moving waters, still calm on the surface, but now mixing with the incoming tide as the river sought the ocean nearly thirty-three miles away at the Pacific Ocean. Jack consulted his chart, got his bearings through a break in the fog, and turned upriver for his special day alone. Carol wanted to see old park service friends from her national park ranger days in Glacier National Park who were living now in Astoria, and Jack needed some recharging, some alone time, some time to think. A strange coincidence, a beautiful song about water, and a poignant problem had brought him here today. It was time to speak to the river, explore some of its mystery, and perhaps seek some wisdom there.

. . .

Chapter 2 Antlers on Writing Desk

Jack reached for the box labeled Writing Topics on the top shelf of his closet. He could feel his deltoids ache as he stretched. For a moment he rested his hands on the shelf, pulled back and let his upper body stretch. The long weekend’s kayaking tour was giving Jack a painfully pleasant memory. Carol had suggested they take advantage of Jack’s Friday no school day to make a trip to Yellowstone Lake. They had paddled their ocean kayaks nearly thirty miles in two days, reveling in glass smooth water, bugling elk, turning leaves, and billowing steaming thermals.

Jack smiled, shaking his head still unable to believe the beauty they had traveled through, Ok, ok, back to work! It’s Monday, Homecoming Week, and I’ve got to get this writing lesson ready. Stretching his arms up over his head and letting out a muscle moving groan, he reached again for the box.

This was no ordinary box of teaching paraphernalia. It was not full of didactic paperwork files, nor did it have dry, desiccated instruction manuals or texts. This box was packed with things. Jack lifted the lid off and stared inside. Greeting him were seashells, antlers, a small cross section of a spruce tree, a piece of sandstone ripple rock, fossils, an old radio, a wooden carpenter’s plane, an antique hand iron, a bull whip, a fourteen inch crane feather, old leather hat, a pair of white mukluks, some yucca braids, pot shards and chert scrapers, a jar of polished rocks, and half a dozen other obscure items. Indeed, this writing topics box was full of things. These objects comprised the lovingly collected and carefully presented points of departure for Jack’ Daily Writing lessons.

Thinking about the Elk bugling at Yellowstone, Jack chose the small polished deer antler for the week. It seemed appropriate to use an antler for homecoming week at Elkhorn High. Jack always enjoyed pointing out the misnomer of the school name. The antler versus horn distinction was a nice cross curricular lesson with a little biology mixed in. He returned the box, and placed the antler in a conspicuous spot on the front desk beneath his whiteboard labeled Daily Writing, Monday, October 10. Descriptive Writing.

Then he quickly penned the lesson instructions, including a quote:

Daily WritingDescriptive Mon. 10/7

"You only need sit still long enough in some attractive spot

in the woods that all its inhabitants may exhibit

themselves to you by turns"

Henry David Thoreau

Compose a ten sentence descriptive paragraph in which you portray

a wildlife scene in detail. Remember sentence fluency. Use and underline

at least one of our previous vocabulary word of the day words.

In the ten minutes remaining before the first bell, Jack retrieved his essays folders, scanned the week’s plans, and glanced at the leftover parent teacher conference handouts waiting to be given to students whose parents had not made it to the conferences.

Wow, parent teacher conference, thought Jack seems so far away after such an amazing weekend! It was due to conferences that Jack had last Friday off and made it possible for them to travel over to Yellowstone. But that was not the thought running through his mind as the first students began to arrive and distract him. He was just about to recall a discussion that took place at conference. Two parents had come early, but his discussion with them in his mind had lingered far beyond conferences.

But the first student did arrive to distract his thoughts, spotted the antler as he entered the room, and blurted, "Hey, are we talking hunting this week for writing?"

Jack flipped his mental circuit breaker into teacher mode and replied, "Johnny, If I can get you to write more than one paragraph each day, we’ll talk about hunting! But we’re going to widen our scope a bit, then he paused and looked right at Johnny, get it, widen our scope? So we’ll talk hunting, but we’ll also talk biology, ecology, predator and prey and a whole lot more!!!"

Oh, said Johnny, plopping into his desk.

But wait until you see my trophies young man, just you wait!

"But Mr. Carment, I didn’t think you were a hunter!

Jack smiled, moving toward the door where more students were appearing. "Depends on your definition of prey Johnny. You’ll see what I mean later today. Jack was looking forward to pulling out his three by four foot poster of student heads mounted on a wall. He got the idea from a Gary Larson cartoon, created a poster, and blew up photos of four seniors every year and tacked them on. Beneath their heads were labels beginning with Homo sapiens and continuing with silly details about the hunt which bagged" them.

Meanwhile Sam came in, picked up the antler from the writing topic desk and started making feints at Sarah who squealed and leapt from side to side.

All right! Jack quipped authoritatively, No weapons in school! Then he reached around Sam’s shoulder and smoothly removed the antler from Sam’s grasp.

Sarah’s tongue came out and wiggled at Sam, but he was mischievously eying Jack and said, Weapons? Who, me?

Meanwhile Jack put the antler to his temple and lunged toward Sam growling good naturedly, "Get to your desk before I stag you!"

Jack always enjoyed a little levity at the beginning of class. He believed that people