Cotton Grass Lodge (9 page)

“Tell her whatever you want to.” Duncan’s enthusiasm deflated. “Don’t you want to see the rest of it?”

“No.” Victoria shook her head and then swatted at her ear. “I really don’t. Duncan, what were you thinking? You don’t have to stay here. You don’t have to live like this. I’m sure someone can list this place and get whatever you paid for it.” To emphasize her point, she reached for him, and he evaded her touch by walking toward the back porch of the lodge.

Duncan stopped at the bottom step. “Vic, I’ve got to invest at least a year in this place. But, as crazy as it sounds, I’m having fun.” He didn’t count Nell as fun, but still. “I slept like a brick last night. I woke up knowing all the plans I had for today wouldn’t get done, so I’ll do them tomorrow.”

****

Hanna stepped back away from the door, embarrassed she’d overheard the conversation. She’d been right from the beginning. He was only going to be here for six months. A year max. She went into the kitchen. She could still be a friend. He’d changed since the first day. She wanted the tour Victoria just turned down. There were obvious changes made in the last three weeks, and she looked forward to hearing what else was going to change. She grabbed a towel to dry her already dry hands and noisily went to the back door. “Hey, anybody hungry?”

Victoria and Duncan came into the lodge and brought their tension with them. Hanna bustled around the kitchen while Nell sat quiet and distant at the table. Her moment of clarity had gone as fast as snowflakes in June.

Hanna had been a neighbor for six years, so helping Nell and Harry and just generally being around made the big kitchen at the lodge easy to work in. After they all got seated, she made a stab at light conversation. “Nell, remember the fish counter from last summer? His wife, Alice, came in with a baby. She stopped at Naomi and Jacob’s place.”

Nell’s distant reserve didn’t change much. “That prick biologist? His wife? I never figured to see either one of them again. He was such a jerk, always complain’n about one thing or another.” She seemed to brighten temporarily. “A baby? Must’ve happened while she was here, nine months and all.”

“And another thing,” Victoria added, “This Shaman person did some kind of weird blessing. It was creepy. I’d never let him put his hands on me. He must be what they call local color.”

Goose bumps shivered up Hanna’s spine. “Do you know if the state’s going to send fish counters this year?” She turned to Duncan. “I rented my extra cabin out all last summer because they were a couple. The single ones usually stay in a tent and come to the lodge once in a while to clean up or eat.”

Victoria exchanged a puzzled look with Duncan and Hanna. “You count fish? Is this a joke?”

“No. It’s called reproduction escapement. It’s part of the way the state makes sure the fishery stays healthy.” Hanna turned back to Nell. “Do you know?”

“What?”

“About the fish counters.” Hanna spoke softly to match the listless detachment Nell had retreated into. “Have you heard about any this year?”

“No,” Nell said. “I might not leave tomorrow.”

Prickles of discomfort itched at Hanna’s arms, she looked at Duncan. He scowled at his plate while repeatedly squeezing the back of his neck.

Nell stood abruptly. “He’s making a mess of the generator shed. I’m not sure he can stay after all.” She left the kitchen and slammed the door on her way out to the front porch.

Hanna shot a concerned look at Duncan.

“It’s been getting worse all week,” he said.

“Well. There you have it,” Victoria said brightly. “She’s changed her mind. You can get your money back. I ran into the chairman of Regent Corporation at the Chamber of Commerce meeting last week. He would give you your job back in a heartbeat. Everything would be like it was before.”

“I don’t want everything like it was before,” Duncan said. “Victoria, I’m not leaving.”

Victoria flushed. “But, how can you stand it here? Why can’t you get over John’s death like a normal person? Just go get drunk and be sad. This horrible place will use up all your savings, and there won’t be anything left for a decent…Anything.”

The unspoken word hung in the air, and Duncan bristled. “Wedding? Victoria, I’ve never asked you to marry me.”

“But. Your mother said—”

Controlled fury rippled over Duncan’s face. He stood abruptly. The sound of scraping chair legs exploded into the room. “I don’t care what my mother said. I’m the one expected to live with you for the rest of my life.” He wheeled on Hanna, sitting gape mouthed. “Take her back to Anchorage, now. I’ll pay extra. Please. Take Nell too. I just want to climb up on the roof of my lodge and patch a hole.”

Hanna dropped her head and stood, gathering plates and silverware. Her insides quaked waiting for his anger to turn into sarcastic cruelty. For him to strike out like her ex-husband would have. Her breath came sharp and quick. She waited, angry at the bile-covered fear rising in her throat.
His words can’t hurt me.
She repeated the mantra.

She hated the fear. She hated not being able to control the fear.
He can’t hurt me
. She hung her head furious for not confronting the fear and getting over it.
His words can’t hurt me.

It didn’t happen.

“Leave the dishes.” Duncan ordered in a level tone. “I’ll clean my kitchen when I get to it. Thank you.”

Victoria sat stone-faced at the table, her anger palpable. “I can’t believe you’d send me away like this.”

“I can’t believe you would show up, uninvited, with all those expectations. You’re a smarter woman.”

Victoria’s quick intake of breath was the only sound in the dead quiet of the room. She pushed away from the table and stood. She asked Hanna, “Is my bag in the little cart?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be in the airplane.” Victoria lifted her chin and went out the back door.

****

Duncan was tired of walking on eggshells. Victoria had to go, and Nell had to go, too. He almost got through the lodge room headed toward the front door when the radio-telephone rang. Duncan turned and stalked back to the small desk and snatched up the receiver. “Hello? Cotton Grass Lodge.” He listened intently. “Hold on a minute. Hanna?” Duncan called, a little too stridently. “Did you say the woman you dropped at Jacob’s place is named Alice?”

“Yes,” Hanna answered from where she still stood at the table holding a stack of dishes. She put them back down on the table and went into the lodge room.

Duncan turned his attention back to the phone. “No. She isn’t here at the lodge, but she is at the lake. You can leave a message, but I don’t know how long before she gets it.” He listened and wrote on a pad by the phone. “Wait a minute.” He straightened and his pen paused. “Are you stranding her up here?” He dropped the phone in disgust and shoved a hand through his hair.

Nell came back in from the front porch. “The client is leaving now, so it’s no sense me leaving tomorrow when I can leave today. Hanna, I’ll just pack a bag and go with you.” She seemed clearheaded and full of purpose. Her ideas about Duncan not being able to run the lodge seemed gone from her mind completely. “I can go to Wasilla and spend a few days with my kids. My sister lives in Arizona, haven’t seen her in over a year. It’ll be warm there, and I hear she’s got a real nice condo. I’m gonna plan a trip to see her.”

Hanna nodded. “Uh-huh. I’m going to the plane, Nell. We’ll leave when you’re ready.” She’d been looking forward to a night at her cabin. She’d even been looking forward to seeing more of what Duncan and Tom had done in the last few weeks. If nothing else, the dead snow machines in the front yard were gone.

Duncan, still standing beside the desk, listened to Nell talking to herself as she went down the hall toward her room to pack. “Thank you,” he mouthed silently at Hanna. Then he left the lodge through the back door.

Later in the afternoon, Duncan lost himself in the business of finding his way around the lake to deliver a message to the woman named Alice.

What did Victoria expect?
Duncan shook off his annoyance. He thought about Hanna and embarrassment boiled in his guts. She wasn’t fluffy, when did efficiency and competence become so attractive? What must she think of him? Why did he care?

Duncan avoided the answer to the last question and followed the rocky, rutted track around the lake. He waved at a woman shaking a rug but kept going. Last week the lake ice had cleared almost overnight, now, receding snow revealed evidence of three other cabins along the trail.

He came upon two blond children walking ahead. The boy, about eleven, carried a small rifle. It was obvious the little girl in calico skirts was his sister. She stepped behind her brother when Duncan got close and slowed.

“Hi.” Duncan stopped his machine. “Good hunting?”

“No sir. Not today. She can’t keep quiet.” The boy flashed an irritated glance at his sister. “And grouse aren’t deaf. You must be the new owner at the lodge.”

“How did you know?” Duncan struggled to keep his friendly smile from becoming a full-blown laugh. It wouldn’t be polite to make fun of the serious child.

“You’re on Nell’s favorite four-wheeler.” The boy shook hands in a very earnest attempt at adulthood. “I’m Noah and this is my sister Rebecca.” The little girl shrank even further behind her brother.

“Am I far from Jacob’s place?” Duncan asked.

The boy nodded his head and pointed. “He’s our dad. We live just around the point.”

Duncan patted the seat behind him. “Do you want a ride?”

Noah boosted his sister up behind Duncan and cradled his rifle in her arms. He matter-of-factly stood on the running board and clung precariously to Duncan’s shoulder for the short ride to his house.

Duncan didn’t think he would have gotten into nearly as much trouble as he had if he’d had this much responsibility when he was Noah’s age. His life had been scheduled play dates with hired help ferrying him from one sports practice after another. His boredom was matched only by the magnitude of his frustration. His mother angrily defended the opportunities she gave him, but he didn’t care to work hard enough to excel if only the cook was going to watch the game.

Duncan stopped the four-wheeler in front of a sprawling two-story cabin. Log for part of it, an addition finished with rough home-sawed planks and the most recent covered by glaring white house-wrap. They were met by a gaggle of chattering children and three women.

“Hi, I’m Duncan Mahoney.” He stuck his hand out to the older of the three women.

“Welcome, Duncan. You’re the new lodge owner, right? I’m Naomi.” She took his hand and indicated the woman to her right. Two of the women were little dumplings in calico dresses and head scarfs. The head covering suggested a religious practice of some kind. Duncan decided to leave his questions for later.

“My sister, Leah, she is also my sister-in-law. We married brothers. This is our friend Alice, who is visiting from Arizona.” Naomi ran quickly through the names of the polite, curious children. The small girls also wore dresses.

“It’s nice to meet you all.” Duncan got right to the uncomfortable business of his visit. “I got a phone message this morning for Alice.” He didn’t know this woman, but the contents of the message gave him a painful heartburn. The jeans-clad woman stepped forward and took the brief message with a trembling hand. Duncan had cleaned it up when he re-wrote it, which made it shorter still. It didn’t take many sentences to say the accounts have been closed.
You have no access to any of my money. I won’t take any calls. You’ll get the divorce papers in the mail.

Alice’s small boyish figure began to shake as hard as her hands. She made a mewling sound and gasped repeatedly trying to catch her breath. Tears spilled down her cheeks. Leah quickly came forward and took the bundled baby out of Alice’s arms.

Naomi spoke to the older girl, and without a second of hesitation, the child herded all the children into the house.

It became quiet. A flock of tiny unseen birds twittered in the trees to one side of the house and Duncan could hear the brittle snapping sound of despair. Alice stood vibrating, eyes closed, with her head tipped back, the wadded paper in her hands. He wanted desperately to leave. To back away, get on the four-wheeler and never be this close to anguish again.

Alice opened her eyes and whispered, “Thank you, Mr. Mahoney. I’m sorry you had to see that.” She turned to gather her baby from the woman standing close. “I never imagined he hated us so much. I don’t know what I’m gonna do.” Alice buried her face in the squirming bundle of blankets, her shoulders shuddering with each sob.

Duncan mumbled, “If there is anything I can do…” Unclear how else to deal with the awkward moment, he started the machine and left in the direction he’d come.

As he backtracked, he tried to note the other neighbors. Apparently some of the cabins were lived in for only a few short days or weeks during the year. They were boarded up and had an air of disuse easily seen from the trail. Others were real homesteads. He stopped when the woman, who’d been shaking a rug earlier, waved him into her yard. A bright yellow plane bobbed in the lake in front of the house.

“You’re Duncan, from the lodge, right? I’m Edna.” She was a stout, fit-looking woman of fifty-ish. She shook hands eagerly and turned with a scowl to shush a brown and white rat terrier yapping noisily at her feet. “If you don’t have clients, stay for an early dinner.” Edna pulsed with energy and when a tall man with a tightly trimmed gray beard came out of the house to join her, she made the introductions. “This is my husband, Harv, he’ll be home all this week, and we’d love to have you stay. It’ll be nice to get to know you before the season gets into full swing.”

Harv was an equally gregarious man. Duncan liked him immediately, and the idea of having a night off sounded great. He’d been working and cooking for himself and Nell for almost three weeks. “I’d love to,” Duncan said and turned off the four-wheeler.