Arf Walker

Alfred "Arf" Walker is a character in the Eden Pond Series.

Biography

Arf Walker served as an Air Raid Warden at the same post as Harry Pond.

People who didn't know him well thought him a heavy drinker, not unfairly as whiskey had been a factor in the accident that cost him two ribs. When he recovered, he gave up fishing and from then on survived doing odd jobs and accepting tips from drunks he drove home from the Smokehouse Tavern and other bars. He spent a great deal of time at the Smokehouse, sitting at the bar drinking coffee and staring at the half-empty bottle of whiskey he'd been drinking the day of his accident. The level of the whiskey has been unchanged ever since, though the casual observer couldn't be faulted for assuming he still drank.

While working as a commercial fisherman, he owned a 32' flat-bottom gillnetter. In 1935, he took on Eaton Turley, the younger brother of Fred Turley, as deckhand. After seriously injured himself on his boat while drunk, he was unable to set sail for the spring Chinook run on the Columbia River. Unbeknownst to Arf, Eaton took the boat, convinced he could fish the run alone. The boat was subsequently found drifting near Arch Cape, Oregon, unmanned but otherwise showing no sign of trouble. Eaton Turley's body latter washed up on Cannon Beach. Though Arf had told Eaton he couldn't take the boat, he blamed himself and his drinking, believing had he been sober he never would have been hurt.

Though the two brothers had never been close, years later Fred Turley used to Arf's guilt to force him to turn the vessel over to him in compensation for his dead brother. The boat was later used in Sergeant Val Getty's scheme.

Appearances

• Tillamook Guerrillas (working title), Eden Pond Book 1