Page 36 of Snow River

“You pick up all kinds of things working at a bar.You know that.A lot of scientists come through this place.”

“How did you end up running a bar?”

Apparently Lila was in an inquisitive mood.“I told you.I bought it from Newt Delano when he retired.”

“That’s not really an answer.Why a bar?Why here?You weren’t born here.Why did you choose this place?”

“Jesus, Lila.It’s eight in the morning.Why the interrogation?”

“I’m a morning person,” she confessed.“It’s one of my most annoying qualities.I always wake up like this.”

“How did I not know this?”

“The Fang doesn’t even open until noon, that’s why.You’ve never encountered Morning Lila before.”She shone a radiant smile at him.“Sorry.I’ll try to tone it down.”

“No no,” he said quickly.The last thing he’d ever want her to do would be to diminish herself in any way.“Let me adjust, that’s all.My coffee Thermos is in the back.That’ll help.“

She reached into the back seat and rummaged around for the Thermos.She found two, because he’d brought one for her too.“Bear.You didn’t.Is it?”

“Mocha latte with sprinkles, yes,” he muttered.

“And you’re not even a morning person.I’m so touched.”She didn’t tone down her beaming smile at all, he was happy to see.“That’s pretty funny that you brought coffee and I brought muffins.No advance coordination, but it worked out perfectly.”

He just grunted.Just a coincidence that it had worked out that way.She unscrewed the cap of his Thermos and handed it to him.

They reached the edge of town, where he pointed out part of a smokestack that had blown off Gramps McGuire’s smokehouse.At the old boarding house, a woodpile tarp had come unfastened.The wind was whipping at it, working at the last remaining tiedown.

The town was going to have some cleanup in store.Nothing they hadn’t been through before.“Happens every fall.Like a wakeup call.It’s good, helps us get ready for winter.”

“Which brings me back to my original question.You didn’t grow up here, did you?”Lila asked as they turned onto the old logging road that would take them to Paulina’s place.“Now that you’ve had some coffee, maybe you can say?”

He shouldn’t be such a grump, he told himself.“I didn’t grow up here, no.But I’d been here before.My grandfather worked the mine back in the thirties.He was young, eighteen, a big strapping guy from Norway.He married an Ahtna woman who worked in the kitchens at the mining camp.They had a child, who was my mother.My mother had me when she was real young.Too young.”

He sure was talking a lot for someone who didn’t like to talk about himself.He cleared his throat, glancing at her to see if she was bored yet.She didn’t look bored, but rather, fascinated.“Anyway, just to say, I have a connection to this place.After the mine closed down, my grandfather was hired to help shut it down, and then he stayed as kind of a caretaker.My mother used to bring me to my Pop-Pop when she wanted to have some fun on her own.He taught me a lot about the woods, survival skills, that sort of thing.”

“Is he still here?”

“No, he died in a hunting accident when I was a teenager.But I remembered the fun times I had here.So when I was at a loose end, I came back with my camping gear and a fishing rod.I planned to spend some time in the woods.Maybe catch a few fish.I stopped at The Fang for a quick beer and ended up talking to Newt for hours.He knew my grandfather.It meant a lot to me.At the end of the night—after a lot more than one beer—he offered me a screaming deal to take over the place.He said he’d been waiting for the right guy to come along, and he knew it was me.”

He felt Lila’s fascinated gaze on him.“That sounds like destiny.”

“I don’t know about that.Maybe I was just the first sucker to show up and be interested.He made it real easy to buy, low monthly payments, no interest.He died two years later and left the whole thing to me.No strings.No more payments.”

“Wow.He really believed in you.”

Bear grunted.He didn’t often talk about these elders who had helped him.His grandfather, Newt Delano.The most kindness in his life had come from older people, which was one reason why he looked out for Firelight Ridge’s elders.

“Where does your mother live now?”

“She lives in Nome.She got married to a preacher and they seem happy together.I don’t see them much, but whenever she texts, she sounds good.”He didn’t mention that her new husband didn’t like having him around, a reminder of her previous relationship.

“And your father?”Lila asked, right on cue.

“Got me.”Did he sound like he didn’t care?Maybe once he had.Not anymore.

“You don’t know him?”she asked softly.

“Nope.Mom told me he was a college student spending the summer at a guiding outfit on the Yukon.Another time she said he was a carpenter building a lodge in Denali.My birth certificate doesn’t say one way or another.I figure whoever it was, he was a big guy.My mom’s a normal human size.”

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