Page 7 of Thunder Pass

“So there’s a problem? I knew it.”

“I didn’t say that. Don’t put words in my mouth.”

“What is this?” A deep familiar male voice made them both startle. Luke stood at the head of the little pathway that led from the road to the grove. “Gunnar? What are you doing here?”

Ruth’s stomach clenched and her mouth dried up. She recognized that tone of voice. Her father might sound calm and controlled, but he was enraged.

Gunnar tucked his thumbs in his pockets in that way that men did to signal at-ease-but-alert. I’m not afraid of you, and I will respond if you try anything. “I heard you all were looking for an ATV to fix up, and I found one for you. Got an engine for it too.” He gestured with his head toward his truck. “While I was here, I asked Ruth to show me how she makes that Balm of Gilead.”

“It’s not the season for that.”

“Yeah, she told me.”

Ruth finally found her voice. “I didn’t know anything about the ATV, though. Is that still something you want, Papa?”

Were they going to pull this off? She held her breath. After a long moment, Luke nodded. “Bring it around to the front. We’ll take a look.”

“I can install the new engine if you?—”

Luke cut him off. “We’ll take care of it.”

Gunnar nodded and they all headed down the path toward the road. Ruth’s heart was beating so fast she was afraid she might faint. She hadn’t felt this way in a while, in fact she could pin it down to the day about a year ago. The day Luke Chilkoot was arrested and taken away.

Since then, so many burdens and responsibilities had fallen on her shoulders, sparking worry, anxiety, confusion, stress. But not this sickening dread that Luke could inspire with nothing more than a shift in his voice.

Gunnar barely gave her a glance goodbye before he turned all his attention to the men who gathered to assess the ATV. She didn’t take it personally. In fact, she was grateful for it, although also embarrassed. Most of her interactions with Gunnar had taken place after Luke left. She’d had to go to town for so many reasons that hadn’t existed before, and those trips had brought her into contact with Gunnar. He knew her as a fellow adult, not as “one of the Chilkoot women in those weird homemade clothes,” as she’d heard a kid refer to them.

It was humiliating to disappear into the background again, so automatically, so reflexively, as if it had always been this way.

She hurried across the clearing and went into the kitchen for a glass of water. Her aunt Magda was chopping potatoes and peering out the window at the knot of men. “You should stay away from that one,” she said with a shake of her head. “Playboy.”

Ruth was unfamiliar with the term. “What do you mean?”

“He spends time with many women, especially in the summer, from what they say. He goes from one to the other, enjoying himself like a busy bee. But he’s never gotten married. He’s not someone you should spend any time with.”

Ruth tightened her jaw to keep her sharp retort to herself. Why did Aunt Magda feel the need to tell her what to do? When the foster care people had come knocking at the door, Magda had hidden in the root cellar so she didn’t have to talk to them. Magda spent no time with the kids. All she did was weave and sew and talk about all the terrible things going on in the world. And she wasn’t even specific about those things, which would have at least been interesting.

“Don’t worry, that won’t be happening again.” Luke stood in the doorway. “Gunnar understands.”

Ruth glanced out the window to see Gunnar’s white truck driving away. Her heart sank, and she suddenly felt very alone.

“Ruth, come with me,” Luke told her. “We need to set a few things straight.”

4

In the summer, Gunnar rented vehicles to any tourists who wanted them—mostly ATVs for people who wanted to explore the wilderness trails without backpacking. Summer was party season, with a constant flow of new arrivals, many of them young and adventurous, fulfilling their dreams of seeing Alaska.

He didn’t have to lift a finger to get all the hookups he could ever dream of. All he had to do was help a cute girl with the gas pump out front, and the next thing he knew, she’d be back with a picnic lunch from Firelight Ridge Adventures and an invitation to take the rest of the day off.

And then there were the all-night parties. In a place where it never got completely dark and there was no one to tell you to turn the music down or not to smoke that unfamiliar herb, raves could go on through the night and into the next day.

As a working man in the busy season, Gunnar missed most of those, but he’d gone to his share over the years. They were a blur of beautiful young people he’d never see again, music he’d never heard before, drugs he couldn’t identify. Already this summer, he’d been invited to three such parties, but he hadn’t made it to a single one.

That was the life of an uncle suddenly in charge of a kid he barely knew. Thanks a ton, Bridget.

Maybe he should thank his sister for real, non-sarcastically, because he really didn’t miss those crazy parties. Recovering from all-nighters was a lot of work.

“Well?”

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