Cotton Grass Lodge (8 page)

“Hi, Charlie.” A blazing smile replaced the woman’s frown. “Is this the place I’m supposed to catch a ride to Cotton Grass Lake? I’m Victoria. My friend Duncan bought a resort at Cotton Grass Lake. I want to drop in and surprise him.”

Surprise him? I’m sure you will
. Hanna straightened the phone and lined the four pens up with a note pad. She followed Charlie’s look up at the schedule board.

“Ya don’t have a reservation, but I think we’ve got room.” Charlie took his cup back toward the hangar. “Give your credit card to Hanna. She’ll do the paperwork.”

“What? I’m a secretary now?” Hanna glared as he passed.

“Yup.” He nodded. “Be glad you’ve got the job.”

An interminable forty-five minutes later, Hanna called flight service. “Yes!” she mumbled, when the automated voice confirmed the latest Pilot Report—broken clouds at five hundred feet with mild turbulence at one thousand. She jumped out of the chair with the phone in her hand. She speed dialed the pizza place she used for these special deliveries and ordered.

Victoria looked up from her seat on the sofa. She’d been picking absentmindedly at a duct tape doily on the arm, trying to avoid touching Dog, who, once petted, showed eternal adoration. “Do you mean we’re leaving?”

“Pretty soon,” Hanna said. “Is this your only bag? I’ll get it into the plane.” She picked up the small traveling bag and looked at Victoria’s feet. “Do you have boots or sturdy shoes?”

“No, I’m not the outdoorsy type. Besides, I travel light when I’m on vacation. If I don’t have something I need, I’ll just buy it.”

“Humm, an amusing thought.” Hanna picked up the clipboard with the freight manifest. “If there’s a store where you’re going. You’ve never traveled in Alaska before, have you?”

“No, first time.” Victoria hoisted herself off the broken down couch and stumbled over the dog.

Hanna steadied her.

“Thanks,” Victoria said. “Why did you order pizza?”

“Birthday party.”

“Yes, but, I don’t understand why you had to order it.”

“It’s remote, we have to order the pizza and deliver it. You’ll see when we get there.”

Charlie opened the door from the hangar. “Well?”

Hanna twisted. “There was a good Pilot Report, and I called for the pizza. We should be out of here soon.”

Hanna squatted down in front of Alice and gently touched her arm. “Alice? Sweetie, I’m going to load your stuff and the rest of the freight. You need to wake up now.”

Alice moved in slow motion, opening her eyes and sitting up, her face pale and haggard. Without a word she crawled over the baby, went into the restroom, and shut the door.

“Is she sick?” Victoria asked.

“Jet lag.” Hanna hoped it was true. She took one of Alice’s bags and Victoria’s carry-on to the plane.

Two more trips took care of the last of the bags and the cold freight from the cooler. The pizza came, and Hanna loaded four large pizza boxes into the back with a case of toilet paper and a four-wheeler tire.

Hanna did a final walk around the plane. She breathed deeply of the damp morning. She knew above this ground scud a glorious flight beckoned. Victoria struggled to get into the right seat, her slippery little sandals had no grip for climbing into the plane. Hanna followed, checking straps, closing doors, and getting the headset plugged in.

Alice was detached, but Victoria chattered like a parakeet. “This is going to be so cool. The resort has rooms for a drop in guest, don’t they?”

Hanna patiently explained, “This is early in the season. Most places have rooms.” This unexpected guest and Nell’s surprising return made her curious about how Duncan would deal with the unforeseen activities of the summer.
If he lasts for the whole summer.

The patchy fog cleared rapidly as the day warmed and a blue cloudless sky opened up when Hanna got above the skyline of Anchorage.

Victoria’s saucer eyes weren’t attached to her tongue as they flew north over the Knik Arm of Cook Inlet. Her head twisted to take in the view of huge, snow covered mountains dominating in all directions.

Forty minutes after they took off, Hanna keyed the mic with her thumb and called the first stop on her trip. “Cotton Grass Lake traffic, Menlow strip, Cessna one seven one four Alpha-over.”

The squeal of the Menlow’s ten year old girl, Rebecca, made Hanna wince. “Hi, Hanna!” She didn’t release the button on the home microphone so everything relayed instantly, and loudly. “Mooomm, she’s here. Hanna did you bring it? Did you bring it?”

Hanna smiled. “Yes, and I have a surprise, too. Out.” When she landed, the strip had two families waiting. Moms and dads and a total of seven children.

Hanna helped Alice unstrap from her seat in the plane, and the crowd’s excitement went up thirty decibels. Hanna liked being the deliverer of good news. Having Alice drop in was no problem for Naomi and Jacob. They were happy to add another plate to the table.

The two men helped Hanna unload the tire and half the groceries. Victoria got out to stretch her legs. “Is there a restroom?”

“There would be an outhouse up there.” Hanna pointed toward the rambling home. “I’m going behind those bushes.” She excused herself, and when she returned, Victoria stood beside the plane, her arms crossed defiantly over her chest.

“Everyone will be considerate,” Hanna said matter- of-factly.

Victoria scowled and shook her head. “I’ll wait.”

Quiet seized the happy hubbub with Naomi’s sharp intake of breath. She cast a quick glance at her husband and back to the Shaman, who walked out of the brush at the far end of the strip.

“Rachel?” Naomi called to one of the older girls. “Run up to the house and fix a parcel for our Shaman.” She turned back to the scrawny unkempt man walking up the beach.

The Shaman’s eyes never wavered from Alice. He walked directly toward her, never acknowledging Naomi or any of the others standing in the crisp shadows of the spring day.

“I came to see you,” Alice said quietly. “I need you to bless my baby. I named her Emily, she isn’t thriving, all the doctors tell me there isn’t anything wrong, but I remembered what you said when I left and I-I thought if I came back…” her voice trailed off as the man got close to her.

She loosed the blanket from around the baby in her arms.

Hanna heated from head to toe, annoyed as always when perfectly intelligent people paid deference to this crazy, old fool. It made them fools, too.

The Shaman smiled and gently placed his grimy hands on either side of Emily’s head. The baby didn’t squirm, and Hanna didn’t think she had ever seen such big, blue eyes. Emily gazed up into the benediction being granted.

Then, the Shaman moved so quickly, Alice couldn’t pull away. He clamped his hands on either side of her head the way he had with the baby. “The blessing is for you.” He held her firmly. Her eyes fluttered, tiny explosions of breath showed her surprise, and when her shoulders drooped in wide-eyed submission, he dropped his hands, and a vacant smile crinkled his face.

For a moment his pointed focus went to Hanna and her heart raced. She hated having a gerbil-on-a-wheel feeling skittering through her stomach. Why would anyone concede power to this man?

She refused to be drawn into his crazy game. Peaches? She wouldn’t pay for something she didn’t ask for.

Naomi broke the uncomfortable silence. “You’re invited to eat with us.”

The Shaman’s answer was quiet. “No,” he said and in the distance, the door of the house slammed. Rachel bounded back with a bag. She gave it to her mother and withdrew to stand beside her father.

Naomi handed the bag to the Shaman. “Thank you for the blessing.”

“You’re welcome. Happy Birthday, Rebecca.” He dropped his head and turned.

Rebecca grinned broadly and buried her face in her father’s thigh.

With a bow-legged shamble, the Shaman went back the way he’d come.

“Yes, Happy Birthday, Rebecca.” Hanna avoided looking at anyone else and quickly bustled Victoria back into the plane.

Hanna called ahead letting the lodge know she was coming in with groceries and a passenger named Victoria. When she landed, Duncan and Nell were waiting.

Duncan’s face was smudged and unshaven. His hair had grown away from the barbered perfection she’d first met. His shadowed jaw didn’t hide a distant impenetrable look. Nell was there, too. Sitting on the four-wheeler frowning and hugging her jacket tight around her chest.

Victoria exited the plane with single minded urgency. “Duncan, I have to use the restroom. Now.”

“The outhouse is up at the lodge, or you can go behind those bushes,” Duncan said. He pointed to the cluttered pile of dock material and the thick leafless brush behind it.

“But…are you serious? I have to go now. Isn’t there a place…?”

“I told you.” Duncan closed his eyes briefly and ran a hand through his hair. “Bushes are all we’ve got.”

Victoria’s need to pee won the battle. Stumbling on some soft-ball sized rocks, she went behind the dock.

Hanna and Duncan moved in unison toward the plane. “How’s it going?” Hanna asked first. The guest she’d just unloaded obviously didn’t fill Duncan with joy and anticipation.

“Just great.” He didn’t need to look at her. She heard his icy frustration. “And you? Had a good rotation?”

“I did.” Hanna backed away from the plane. Nell now stood beside the four-wheeler. Hanna handed Nell a packet of mail, then she squatted down to give Nameless a two-handed scrub behind his soft ears. “How are you, Nell, is the coffee on?” She stood and gave the old woman a quick hug.

“Of course.” Nell responded with a snap.

“When I finish, we’ll have a cup and catch up on the latest gossip.” Hanna went back to the plane. Her old friend had changed dramatically. She shouldered into the cargo space next to Duncan pulling the rest of her cargo out. “I thought Nell was gone?” Hanna said quietly to Duncan.

His eyes narrowed, and he scrubbed the heel of his hand into his eyebrow. “She was back after a week and—” Victoria’s peppy voice cut his explanation short.

“Duncan, I just can’t wait to see all you have done with your resort. Your mom sent me on a reconnaissance mission.” Victoria slipped her arm around Duncan’s waist. “Let’s let the help get this stuff. You show me around.”

Hanna watched the line of his jaw clench over and over. “I am the help.”

Victoria wrinkled her nose and extricated her arm. “Yes, and a little hot and sweaty, too.”

“I didn’t know you were coming,” Duncan said and turned to Hanna. “Are you going back now or in the morning?”

“The schedule says to take Nell back in the morning. But it doesn’t matter to me.” Hanna said with sympathy. She could tell how hard he had been working. His hands bore the brunt of the last two weeks with bandages on three fingers. The nasty gash in his jeans had to mean a scab she couldn’t see underneath. His limp was obvious, and he didn’t even try to cover it with a swagger.

“Okay, let’s go have some lunch and see what we can do to coordinate these in and out trips.” Duncan took the last bag of groceries to the trailer behind the four-wheeler. Then he held a hand out to Victoria. “We’ll walk up to the lodge and let Hanna and Nell take the ATV.” It was then he looked at her feet. “Did you bring any other shoes?”

“What is it with you people and shoes? I have shoes on,” Victoria chirped, but she lifted her right foot to rub at a rosy blister of bug bites next to the sparkly strap of her sandal.

Nell smiled at Hanna just like old times and swung a leg over the seat of the ATV. “I’ve got a nice little lunch planned. You come help me get it on the table.” Nell’s voice carried over the noise of the engine, “I don’t know why Duncan sent Tom home early. There’s still plenty of work to do before the clients start to show up. If ya ask me, he’s makin’ all kinda bad decisions.” Hanna swung onto the four-wheeler behind Nell. She caught Duncan’s attention on their way past. He shook his head, his face emotionless and blank.

****

“Vic, it’s nice to see you.” Duncan walked slower than he’d like to since the brush held clouds of insects. “What’s new in your life?”

“Work is good,” she said and waved madly at her face. “I’m putting a lot of hours in, but I’m getting ahead fast.”

“How is, umm, sorry, what’s his name?”

“What’s his name is fine, I guess, we broke up.” Victoria had always been a chatterbox, and Duncan found himself expected to carry part of the conversation.

As they walked the rutted track to the lodge, Victoria’s uncharacteristic quiet gave Duncan opportunity to share his vision of Cotton Grass Lodge with her. They had grown up on the same block, and even if he didn’t want the dynastic marriage their parents seemed bent on, she was a connection to the life they grew up with, and he was eager to share the potential he saw here. As he talked he could feel his evangelical excitement building with each recount of something done or planned. Even with Nell’s return, he had accomplished more than he thought possible. Tom had started showing up four and five days a week. He seemed energized with their progress too, because some days he wasn’t especially hung over.

“Here will be the new shower house.” Duncan grinned. “It isn’t much to look at right now, but it will be a thing of beauty when we finish it.”

“It’s a hole in the ground,” Victoria said, frowning. She bent over to claw at her foot, removing two mosquitos. The breeze pulled at a wisp of her hair.

“Sure, but after we get the pit and the foundation done the rest of the building will go up fast.”

“It’s a hole in the ground.” With her arms crossed tightly over her chest, Duncan fully expected her to stomp her foot next. “This place isn’t even up to the standard of rustic. Why do people come here when all you have is that—an outhouse? Are you serious? Your mother said this was a resort. Duncan, I’m going to have to tell her the truth.”