Dunc Ahn
Dunc Ahn
Disconsolate, miserable, cheerless; Duncan Morency searched for the right word to describe his current mood. Current was not even the right word, as his mood had been in the pits since the first week the mountain opened, and here in April, the last day of the season he had only grown more chapfallen. In his mind's eye, he regarded himself as he rode up the chairlift with his young student squirming next to him.
Why do I do this,he asked himself. Duncan Morency it said on his nametag, Ski Instructor affirmed the patch on his jacket; yes, those things were true to a certain extent. At least they were what he had allowed himself to be this winter, but he wanted more, so much more.
I have had it with this place, these people and this job,he ruminated as he rode up the chair lift. This is it; I'm not comin' back next year. The ten-year-old on his right twisted around in the chair and had to be admonished once again to stay still. Just once, just once I'd like to let one of these little hellions take the big drop. How he'd love to see the look on the astonished parent's faces. How he'd like to say to the Mountain Manager,yeah, that's right I pushed him, I just chucked the little bastard out. What d'ya expect, he bit me when I tried to get him to sit still so I just let him sail right out there!
This has gotta stop, this is not healthy, let's just get through the lesson and tomorrow I'll be gone.
Gone! What a beautiful thought. Duncan had been saving all winter for this upcoming and well-deserved departure. Not the beach this year, not a trip to the city to see the folks, this year it's a profound change he chased. He had seen the ad in the magazine back in November and the thought had kept him through the winter. It was just a short ad:
PRIMITIVE STONEAGE SURVIVAL
A 30-day seminar in a primitive setting. Run by experts. You can be one too!
He had only to take one look at the ad and he was sold. All his life, Duncan had loved adventure, loved the outdoors and extremes of all kinds. This was precisely why he now loathed his present job. The adventure was gone; the outdoors was no more that a corporate playground, the only extreme was in his amount of discontent.
Finally, it was about to be over, the long-awaited day was almost upon him. He finished the lesson and went to the Ski School office.
"Here's the damn jacket, here's the damn hat and here's for every little creep and their creep parents that you saddled me with all year," he shouted as he brandished a gracefully curved and rigid finger in the face of the mountain manager.
Duncan stormed out of the office and strode down from the base lodge to the parking lot. His car was packed and all he had to do was cash his last check and hit the road.
His thoughts were joyful as he contemplated the trip. The road! The damn fine road; it's never lonely but always lone. The always beckoning road, one of the finest of places. It takes you there. It doesn't ask where and it always gives you more. You just have to take it.
His plan had been to leave in the morning, to spend one last night with his girlfriend before taking off on the trip. Why rehash that same old tired bullshit? I think not, not when the road is ready and so am I.
A young man is bored with his life as a ski instructor. He joins a seminar to learn Primative Stone Age Survival and is put together with a diverse group of people. Trouble for the seminar unfolds soon after their arrival in Echo Park, Utah, a part of Dinosaur NMational Monument.
Getting much more than he bargained for, his life is changed forever as he becomes who he was meant to be.