Better to rest (12 page)

So she couldnt complain, and neither could her parents, retired now and living in Anchorage, with twelve weeks of each winter spent in a condo on a golf course on the Big Island. They couldnt say she had wasted her education, independent businesswoman that she was now. But the fact of the matter was, shed never been that good a student. It was probably more rebellion than anything else. She was maintaining an outward show of compliance by studying something her parents wanted her to, while determining inwardly to retain as little of it as possible.

She did another search, and discovered that World War II had been good to the territory of Alaska. During the war, the federal government had spent over a billion dollars on infrastructure, including docks, wharves and breakwaters in harbors up and down the coast. The Alaska Railroad was updated and improved, and roads were constructed, including the AlaskaCanada Highway, the only highway into Alaska. The Alcan had been built by the military during World War IIshe knew that muchbut she hadnt realized how much it had to do with Lend-Lease. Lend-Lease aircraft were supposed to be flown through Canada, following the route of the highway, on to Nome and then across the Bering Strait to Russia.

The phone rang, the business line next to the computer. “Nushugak Air Taxi, she said into the receiver.

“Ill be late tonight.

She looked up at the clock. It was ten minutes to twelve. “You already are.

“Surprised you noticed.

She winced away from the force of his hang-up. Ouch. Was he really that angry about Gary Dunaway being in town? Liam had never struck her as the jealous type.

But then, how well did she really know him? They hadnt had that much time together. A few months of flying him to crime scenes when she was on contract to the states Department of Public Safety, four intense days in Anchorage, and the last six months, during which they hadnt exactly lived in each others pockets.

She knew he preferred single-malt scotch, read poetry and history, could tutor Tim at math. He had allowed himself to be browbeaten into learning tai chi under the direction of that fiery little tyrant, Moses Alakuyak. He loved wearing the uniform of the state trooper; he seemed to expand inside it, some mysterious alchemy transforming him into more than a man. Call it a manifestation of the law of the land.

And he was good at it. Even after six months of laying it down, even as new to the area and to the people in it as he was, in a place where the previous trooper had made himself despised by his indifference and his indolence, Liam had earned the respect of town dweller and villager, hunter and guide, fisher and fish hawk, white and native alike. The main difference, so far as she could tell, seemed to be that Liam loved the job. He seemed to love being a trooper the way she loved being a pilot, and in some way she had yet to explain to herself it was the reason Wy loved him most.

And, yes, she was in love with himshe knew thatmadly, passionately in love with him, the love-story kind of love, the rip-your-heart-out-and-serve-it-up-on-a-platter-to-do-with-as-you-will, the Pyramus-and-Thisbe, Tristan-and-Isolde, Abelard-and-Heloise kind of love.

Although, come to think of it, most or all of those couples wound up dead. Or castrated. She placed the receiver in the cradle and pushed back from her desk. The screen of the computer went black, with points of light zooming into and then out of range. The traveling-through-space screen saver. She could wish for a little journey to the stars at the moment.

She got the Bushnells out of the desk and went out on the deck. The stars hadnt gone anywhere, Orion and the Pleiades and the Dippers and Cassiopeia, Taurus the Bull, the Great Square of Pegasus. It was cold out, below freezing, according to the thermometer fastened to the frame of the living room window, but she put the binoculars down and went into horse stance and forced herself through the form, blowing through the Fair Ladies like she knew what she was doing. The second time it was easier; the third time she was sweating freely and her thighs were trembling. She went through it a fourth time just to prove she could, and when she reached Step Up, Parry and Punch she really let loose.

“That Liam you knocking on his ass? a voice said.

She slid into Apparent Close-Up and Conclusion, brought her right fist into her left palm, and bowed, once and low, in Moses direction.

The old man was sitting on the top step of stairs leading from the deck to the edge of the cliff and the beach below. That beach was littered with shards of ice, which, in another snow and a few more high tides, would join together and reach out to the opposite shore, where the same process was taking place. In a month, perhaps less, the two would meet in the middle in a frozen handshake that would last the winter long.

“I didnt know you were there,
sifu.

“Yeah, well, theres a lot of things you dont know.

His words were a little slurred, which meant hed been drinking. Although she wasnt sure he was ever entirely sober, and he had to drink a lot before it affected him in speech or gait. He claimed to drink to drown out the sound of the voices that afflicted him with prophecy. He could tell the future, could Moses Alakuyak, and it never brought him any joy. Perhaps it was because people had always done what they wanted to in the first place, regardless of the best advice given them, and always would. It didnt help Moses disposition any to watch lives going down in flames all around him, when the way out of the inferno was so clearly seen only to himself. He was a prophet without honor in his own country.

Still, that was no reason to allow him to attack unchallenged. “Is this my night to get beaten up by every man in my life? she wondered out loud.

“Its sure as hell your night to get beaten up by me. He didnt sound like he was joking.

“Always a pleasure, she said. “You want something to drink?

“Got any scotch?

Liam did, single-malt, and Moses knew it. “I was thinking of something more along the lines of a mugup. You have any more to drink this evening and youre going to roll right off this deck.

“Who gives a shit?

“Pretty much anyone who knows you, though Im beginning to wonder why, she retorted. “Why dont you come inside?

“Im fine out here.

“You be fine out here, then. And she gave him the satisfaction of stamping back into the house and slamming the door behind her until the glass rattled in the frame.

He was still perched on the top step when she came back outside with two steaming mugs. This time she had her down jacket and her boots on, and she brought out a blanket, too, and wrapped it around his shoulders. It surprised her, and made her a little uneasy, when no scathing commentary followed on it being a fine thing when the wimmenfolks felt they had to swaddle up a grown man like he was some kind of baby too dumb to stay out of the cold.

They sat next to each other on the top step, if not in companionable silence then in silence. Shed made them tea and laced it well with honey. After an initial contemptuous snort, he drank without complaint.

Orion was well up in the sky, the Pleiades a bright cluster just out of his reach.

Wy loved flying on nights like this, when the stars went on forever and the lights on the control panel were a dim green glow, with no sun to create thermals to bounce over and the comforting drone of the engine the only sound. She hated to land on night flights, wanted to keep going as far as she could, as long as she could, wrapped in an immense cloak of warm, black velvet studded with bright, glittering rhinestones, just her, and the plane, and the night.

A meteor streaked across the sky, another, followed by a third. What day was it? Thats right, October 21st, the first day of the Orionid meteor shower. One day she wanted to be Outside in August during the Perseid meteor shower, maybe Colorado, high up in the Rockies, to see John Denvers “raining fire in the sky. Meteor showers were invisible in Alaska in the summertime; the days were too long.

Moses had been quiet for a long time, when his expressed intent in coming here had been to give her grief. “Whats wrong, uncle? she said, using the honorific earned by every elder the length and breadth of the YK Delta just for outliving their contemporaries.

He raised his head and stared out across the river. “You asked me about your father.

Wy forgot to breathe.

His voice was dry and without expression. “His father ran out on him before he was out of diapers, and his mother did the best she could, but the booze got hold of her and she wasnt much use after that. Still, he was a cute little bugger, and smart, too. He managed to make it all the way through high school, supported them both working deckhand, and could have had a full-time job with just about anybody when he graduated. But he wanted to work the big boats, Alaska Steam, the ferries.

Moses paused for tea, and Wy discovered her hands had clenched around her mug. She unclamped them, one finger at a time, cautious not to make it obvious, terrified that even the smallest movement would distract him, change his mind.

“He worked for a couple of years, saving his money, and he was all set to go to school in Seattle when he fell in love.

Her mother.

“I have never seen any two people more in love in my life, Moses said, sounding almost judicial in tone. “They were crazy for each other, dancing the night away at the bars, necking in his truck out at the end of River Road, holding hands so they couldnt hardly get through a door when they needed to. He shook his head, and in the softest voice shed ever heard him use, said, “No. Thats not how I mean it to sound. Thats not how it was. They were in love, girl. Head-over-heels, fly-me-to-the-moon, I-only-wanna-be-with-you love. You understand?

Her throat tight, she managed to say, “Yes.

“Thought you might.

She waited as long as she could. “What happened?

He shrugged. “What usually happens when two people fall in love? They got married.

“Was she pregnant?

“What? No. They didnt have to get married; they wanted to. He told her all his plans, and she was all for it, so they were careful not to let anything happen to get in the way. They needed a place to live, though, so he used up his savings to buy them a little house, and he went back to work deckhanding, saving up enough to get the both of them Outside and him to school. She was miserable with him out on the water most of the time, but she handled it. Got herself a job down to the cannery on the slimer. Then she got herself an idea, and the next time he was in town and they had come up for air

His dry tone made her smile involuntarily.

“she tells him. They could apply for a loan. Theyd just opened up a local branch of an Anchorage bank, and he was a local boy with a good reputation. No reason somebody wouldnt lend him money. So they did.

You really are a master of the dramatic pause, you miserable old son of a bitch, she thought, not a respectful way even to think of ones elder and teacher. She was determined this time not to ask, but she didnt last thirty seconds. “What happened? Did the bank turn them down?

“No. He shook his head and laughed, not a nice laugh. “No, the bank didnt turn them down. It would have been better if they had.

“Uncle! What happened?

“The bank manager told them she would have to sign the loan because she was the responsible member of the marriage.

She stared at him, again trying to make out his face in the dark. “Why?

“She was white.

“What?

“She was white, Caucasian, Polish-German-Scotch-Irish-English. A round-eye. A gussuk. Daughter to the BIA teacher couple in Icky. Think they were from Indiana, or some such.

Wy closed her eyes and bowed her head. “And he was native.

“Yupik as you and me. More. Myself, I think that was the beginning of the end. Oh, they went out to Seattle, and he came back with his certificate, and he got on the big boats. I imagine most of the big boats had mostly white crews and they werent easy on him. He started drinking, and they started fighting. In the middle of all this, she gets pregnant.

“With me.

“With you. He ran off, Wy. Maybe he was just following the sterling example set by his own father. Maybe he just couldnt watch the world be mean to a child of his. I dont know. One day he was there; the next he was gone.

“What did my mother do?

“She had you and farmed you out to your fathers sister. Not the best thing she could have done, in the circumstances.

Wy remembered what little she could of her first years on earth, and bile rose up in her throat. No. Not the best thing.

“And then she left.

“Do you know where she is?

He hunched a shoulder.

“What about my father? Do you know where he is?

“Your fathers dead, Wy.

She drew in a sharp breath.

“He quit drinking and eventually moved up to master on the Alaska ferry system. He divorced your mom and remarried. He had three kids by his second wife.

“I have half brothers and sisters?

“Yeah.

“Where are they?

“Outside somewhere. I dont know exactly where.

“Would someone in Icky know?

“Probably. Whether theyll tell you... He shrugged.

The red buoy at the mouth of the river winked on and off, on and off. Red right returning. On the very edge of the horizon she thought she could see the lights of a boat, too far away to see if it was coming up the river or passing it by. A meteor streaked across the sky. She took a long, shaky breath. “Thanks for telling me, uncle.

He grunted.

“Why now? she said. “Why didnt you tell me all this when I first moved back to Newenham? You must have known from the beginning who I was, and who my father was. You knew I wanted to know. Why didnt you tell me?

Another long silence, during which she got the impression, unusual in the extreme, that Moses was picking out the right words to use. “I hoped I wouldnt have to, he said finally.

She stared at him, trying to decipher his expression in the dark. “Wouldnt have to? I dont understand.

“Remember last month, when you launched that two-bit kite into a gale-force wind to come after that boy of yours?