Many years ago, Cricket drops out of college. Existential questions roll around in her head. What is life about, what am I doing with life? She decides to leave the university town, family, friends to figure things out. She submits job application to the US Forest Service for GS-04 Fire Lookout position, in remote forest location, posted with the following job duties:
Uses standard equipment to maintain surveillance over forest to detect and report occurrence of lightning strikes, fires, status of fires, suspicious smoke. Ascertains probable distances to smoke or fire. Records and reports daily weather observations.
Cricket receives notification that she has been accepted for the GS-04 Fire Lookout position. She gathers essential belongings and jumps in her two-door sedan with Trusted Friend (black and white cow dog) and heads north. A couple of days later, she reports for duty at Ranger Station. She is furnished with temporary quarters during a short training period. She learns how to use an instrument known as the Osborne Fire Finder to get accurate locations of fires and lightning strikes and is supplied with a radio for communication with the ranger station. Post-training, Cricket is given directions to tower and informed that she is responsible for hauling 2 weeks of water and groceries to tower, that she is required to be on duty, cycling two weeks on, four days off. Cricket acquires said groceries, water, heads to tower for first two weeks on.
Cricket’s sedan meanders up rocky four-wheel drive road for at least an hour and questions whether or not she is on the correct road, whether or not her car will make it. Finally, Cricket is assured after a towering structure on adjacent ridge emerges through the fir trees. The road reaches higher and higher until Cricket arrives at the tower. Trusted Friend jumps out of car to chase little forest critters that she’s been salivating over for the last mile. Cricket hikes up red-painted wooden stairs to red-painted wooden balcony that surrounds a 15’ x 15’ apartment and enters. Accommodations include 1 hard, lumpy bed, 1 trash-burner stove, 1 propane stove, 1 propane refrigerator. One Osborne Fire Finder is located in the center of room. Each wall is composed of nothing but windows, windows that overlook the forest. Cricket’s home for the next 4 months.
Cricket maintains duties, calling in each morning on radio, looking for fire or smoke at prescribed times, reporting any concerns, recording weather observations. That’s it. That is all she has to do. She spends the rest of the time hiking with Trusted Friend, reading novels, doing needle arts, watching wildlife. She journals, she thinks. She stares at the sky. Jay birds visit. Squirrels. Deer. A Great Horned Owl. Flying ants. So many flying ants that they cover her windows at times. Little creatures in the night. Creatures that sometimes wake her up crawling across her face.
She experiences her first lightning storm at the tower. Lightning strikes tower and brass fittings on Osborne Fire Finder arc with electricity. Cricket’s heart pounds. Another storm, she just happens to be looking at a tree when it suddenly explodes from a lightning strike. More pounding heart.
But mostly it’s just quiet.
She soaks in the quiet, learns to love the quiet.
Quiet wind. Quiet dinner. Quiet walks with Trusted Friend.
She sits on the balcony and listens to quiet.
Her mind becomes quiet.
She can feel her heart and what’s inside.
Existential questions that weighed heavy no longer seem to matter.
She just is and accepts what is.
