Deep River

Carter rang down to the from desk to ask the valet to pull their car up while Georgia got dressed and put on her makeup. Today was not a day to skimp out on her business look. While it was a casual trip she needed to appear the strong, professional woman for her meeting with Ben Jamison. She double checked that she had the letter, the key and the journals with her, and he laptop just in case. Finally she was ready to go and she felt that twist of butterflies flitting around her stomach the way the did before every big moment in her life. 

They rode down the elevator in silence. The tension was palpable between them as they so clearly held different views but were bound together to ride out the mission today. Georgia knew if today didn’t go well she would be hearing about it for a long time, so she chose wisely to keep her mouth shut and hope for the best.

Settled in their car Georgia typed in 111 Front Street into their GPS and headed north. They drove past the protest on Parliament Hill, growing by the minute as crowds of people stopped to watch the people marching up and down the steps, demanding change. Georgia wondered why she never felt such a passion towards a cause that would lead her to a public display of protest, and then realized it was because she had been consumed her entire life by another purpose and hadn’t wavered from it. Her destiny was to succeed her father and she would never do anything to jeopardize that. Especially not something that might get her tossed in jail for a public outburst. 

 111 Front street was not a far drive from where they were staying but with the traffic caused by the protest it took them nearly an hour to drive the 3 kilometres across town. The anticipation had built with ever moment they sat in traffic and Georgia mused aloud about all the possibilities they could find today. 

“Georgia, just temper your expectations okay.” Carter said as he drove, not takings eyes off of the road in front of him. “I know you are excited but we have to prepare for the possibility there is nothing there, and. This was as much of a wild goose chase as it been so far.”

“I know.” Georgia sighed. “But I have to believe there is something there, because its all I have left of him right now.” Since punctuated the sentence, neither of them having much more to say. 

When they finally they pulled up to the office building, disappointment shot through Georgia chest as it was nothing short of ordinary. It was a spectacularly boring and slightly run down building from the 70’s and it matched the era office buildings in its style and structure. It was simple and minimalistic. Mostly concrete and glass that left nothing to the imagination. Georgia felt an ache ride through her chest and felt embarrassed. She was hoping for a big aha moment or a feeling of recognition or connection to her father when they pulled up. She had been romanticizing this mystery and the plainest of the building reminded her that they were doing this all on a whim, and Carter was mostly humouring her. 

They pulled into a parking spot out front of the building and Georgia dug in her purse for the small round headed key that had brought them this far. Doubt filled her mind and she grabbed the handle, pausing for a moment to look back at her husband. 

“Why don’t you go in and I’ll meet you in there. I need to take a quick work call.” Carter said to his wife, leaning across the centre console to kiss her cheek. Georgia nodded and got out of the car and walked into the building. As expected there was a mailbox at the far corner of the lobby. Each box had a square metal door keeping it locked shut that measures 4x4 inches in size except for the three larger door fronts that measured 6x12 inches. Georgia hastily scanned the number on the doors searching for number for. It was one of the larger boxes on the far left hand corner of the mailbox unit. She took a deep breath and walked over with her key. Hands shaking she tried to fit the key into the lock, anxiety flushing her system with heat as the key jammed against the door scraping it but not sliding into the lock. 

“Here, let me try.” She heard Carters voice behind her as his footsteps neared. He stood behind her his swarm body comforting her and put his hand over her hand to steady it. The key slid into the lock and with a clockwise twist they heard a click, releasing the lock. Key still in the hole they tug together and the door swings open. Georgia gasps.

“Oh my god we were right.” She says just as surprised as Carter was. Inside the mailbox sat a thick accordion folder that appeared be stuffed full of something. Georgia reached in and pulled out the thick heavy folder, unravelling the tiny string wrapped around a fastener that was keeping the fastener sealed shut. Holding the folder with her left arm like she would a baby on her hip she used her right arm to lift the top and peer Insee. Carter leaned in over her shoulder to get a look for himself. The folder was full of documents and newspaper clippings stuffed to its maximum capacity. 

“We probably shouldn’t do this right here,” Carter said, logically. 

“You’re right.” Georgia said nodding as she turned around and started walking.” Lets take this to the car.”

Carter closed up the mailbox and followed Georgia who was walking without abandon as she leafed through the folder. The two of them got back into the care and put the giant folder between them. Georgia started unpacking the documents one by one making piles between their laps and the dash as she haphazardly sorted them. She pulled out a spiral bound document that looked to be 200 pages long and inspected it. 

“Whats that?” Asked Carter, tilting his head to read the cover page. “Chalk River Safety Assessment 1954. Thats is long before your parents met.” He said scratching his head.

“I know, its odd.” Georgia said biting her bottom lip, “And the whole thing is heavily redacted.” She fanned the document with her thumb showing Carter all of the blacked out pages that took over most of the document.

“That is a lot early then when the notes and letters are dated.” Carter observed taking the document into his hands to inspect for himself. “Hmm, is there anything else like this in the folder?” 

“No,” Georgia said shaking her head,. “The rest of the documents are mostly newspaper articles about the two documents leaks in 1952 and 1958. And there are a few articles pertaining specifically to the Deep River community and the manufactured town they built for the scientists.” Georgia said point to the piles across her lap and the dash. Thats what ive been sorting into piles here. I haven’t had a chance to look through all of them yet.”

“Hmm, I wonder why they had all of this and what exactly they were doing hiding it all away like this?” Carter said his brow furrowed not understanding how a redacted document and a bunch of new clippings would need to be hidden away, there didn’t appear to be anything confidential or damning in their possession. Carter checked the time and then put the car in reverse, handing Georgia back the documents. “Georgia we have to go or we will be late from our meeting. All that traffic set us behind schedule.”

“No problem I will sort through this on the drive.” She said gathering the piles off the dash and stacking the piles in a criss cross pattern on her lap.

Driving north was a beautiful drive along the Trans Canada Highway. It was a forest lined drive and the further they drove the more little lakes popped up along the way. It was peaceful and serene, a direct contrast to what they had imagined were the goings on of the Chalk River Nuclear plant. 

They drove through Deep River taking in the small town as they passed through. During the drive as Georgia read an article about the version of Deep River that was manufactured for the scientist. The land that was cleared, the idyllic cookie cutter homes down tree lines streets and the community sceptres and schools that offered many programs and hobbies for the scientists and their families. It was far away from any major cities and they worked hard to build up this little town to make it a happy place for the intelligent minds who they brought out to the middle of nowhere. Georgia found it fascinating. An entire community manufactured for an industry, not unlike a military base or coal town. 

Ten minutes later they finally pulled up to the gates of the expansive Chalk River facility. When they entered through the factly Georgia was surprised to see the many acres lined with trees and looking peaceful and it was backdropped by the Ottawa river. The horrible atomic bomb machine lab she had envisioned in her mind was not at all even in comparison to what she was seeing in front of her. As she had read in her articles, Deep River, and the lab facilities were beautiful and serene.

They drove up the long winding street passing small office buildings along the way to the main plant and stopped about half way up the drive to a small one story building that held Ben Jamisons office. Parking their car they got out, Georgia stuffed the redacted document in her bag and they walked in. 

Ben Jamison was an attractive man who looked to be in his mid 50s with smooth tanned skin and dark brown eyes. His hair was thinning but most of it was still a chestnut brown with only a few fleck of grey strewn throughout. 

“You must be Georgia Callahan,” he smiled warmly taking her hand in his and giving her a courteous nod. “And who might this be?” He said directing his attention at Carter who stood a good 6 inches talker than him. Carter reached out his hand with an equally warm smile said

“Carter Johnson, Georgias husband and CFO of Callahan Corporate.” Georgia cocked an eyebrow in his direction, amused at his peacocking. 

“Ah the power couple.” Ben said his crows feet fathering as the corner of his eyes as he smiled at them both inviting them in. “Please come in and make yourself comfortable.” He said pointing to two overstuffed chairs across from a sofa in the far corner of the room. 

“My secretary didn’t have the chance to give me much of a heads up on what this meeting was about as it was so last minute so forgive me I’m a little unprepared for our visit today.” Ben said feigning a sheepish look.  

“Thats alright Ben, I’m happy to fill you in.” Georgia said sitting down across from the man on the sofa, Carter to her right. “We saw the news this morning and quite honestly didn’t expect you to keep our meeting here today. It looks like your might be under a bit of duress right now.” Georgia said pulling her papers out of her messenger bag.

“Oh you saw that did you.” Ben sighed. “Yes it is quite unfortunate there are protesters who create a PR headache from time to time, but nothing we haven’t dealt with before.” Ben brushed it off as easily as if it was a compliment. 

“Good to hear.” Georgia smiled politely at the man, unable to read him. “As you know my father recently passed and as such I have taken over as acting CEO. In this time of transition I found some documents,” she said placing the redacted document on the table between them. “I’m here because I’d like to understand the nature of your relationship with our business because I cant see any clear connection or contracts that give any indication to the nature of the relationship. All I found was this.” Georgia said point to the document on the table between them. “And as you can see its heavily redacted. 

Ben Jamison picked up the document and started to leaf through it. His face was unreadable for the most part but Georgia caught his eye flare open at one point, ever so briefly, signalling there might be something there. 

“Georgia, I don’t know what you’re playing at here but those are confidential papers and should not be outside of the facility. It would be illegal for you you to have those on you so I would recommend you hand them over now and go home to grieve your father.” Ben said sternly his brown eyes narrowed and locked with hers. Without break his gaze he continued in a softer tone. “I understand it can be difficult to lose a loved one, especially a man as great as your father. My relationship with your father was a casual one, we did not do business with Callahan Corporate. I didn’t know him well but what I did know that he was smart and kind, and would have been an excellent father”

Georgias eyes welled with tears and Carter squeezed her hand under the table. Her heart sank and she felt embarrassed. She was following clues like a 5^th grader playing Nancy drew and not taking this mans livelihood into consideration, or anyone else for that matter. Carter had been right, this was a waste of time and a sad attempt to distract her from grieving her father. 

“Im so sorry for wasting your time Mr. Jamison.” Georgia said grabbing Carters arm and standing to leave.

“Do you have any other copies of this document?” Ben asked standing with them. 

“No thats the only one.” Georgia said sadly, here eyes still damp from the tears that crept up on her. 

“Alright.” Ben said his brow furrowed and his kind eyes losing their softness. “You can go now.”

Carter and Georgia walked in silence out of the office, down the long corridor and back out to the parking lot. The got in their car, neither of them saying a word and started their two hour drive back to Ottawa.