Monday, New Year’s Eve Canyon Hot Springs “Need a refill?” “Well, sure. But who’s going to go get it?” A good question. The wind was howling, the snow was swirling, and on New Year’s Eve it was already as dark as it got in Alaska to begin with. Which made cuddling with your honey in…
July 19ththe Park “You know where she is,” Jim said. It wasn’t a question. “You don’t?” Bobby said. It wasn’t an answer. They glared at each other, both big men, one black, one blond, one in a wheelchair, one in the blue and gold of the Alaska state trooper, both of them mightily pissed off.…
Tuesday, July 10th Kushtaka Tyler Mack was an eighteen-year old stick of post-adolescent dynamite just waiting for the right match. He was smart in all the wrong ways, using his intelligence chiefly to conspire with Boris Balluta, his best friend and coconspirator since childhood, on ways and means to avoid manual labor. Of medium height,…
On the other side of the door, the two men in the almost identical uniforms exchanged a long, expressionless stare. Finally Jim said in a voice entirely without inflection, “Liam,” and nodded at a chair. “Have a seat.” “Thanks, Jim.” Campbell unzipped the heavy blue jacket and sat down. There was silence. “How long you…
1918 Niniltna The black death didn’t get to Alaska until November. When it did, it cut down almost everyone in its path. The territorial governor imposed a quarantine and restricted travel into the Interior, stationing U.S. Marshals at all ports, trailheads and river mouths to interdict travel between communities. He issued a special directive urging…
One Memorial Day Father Smith was the proud proprietor of a forty-acre homestead in the Park, a wife and seventeen children, all of whom still lived at home. Not that he would ever have admitted it, even to himself, this registered as nothing compared to the fact that he was the sole owner of…
Six months ago VANCOUVER, BC (AP) – A Canadian-based mining firm, Global Harvest Resources Inc. (GHRI) yesterday announced the discovery of a gold, copper and molybdenum deposit on state-leased land in Alaska’s Iqaluk Wildlife Refuge. At a press conference at the company’s headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia, GHRI said preliminary estimates put the recoverable gold…
She’d had to spell the word “weary” in a spelling bee in grade school. She’d spelled it correctly, but she’d never really understood what it meant, until now. It sounded like what it meant — there was a word for that, too, but she couldn’t remember it — and she was weary, weary from the…
ONE “I’ll get it,” Kate said, and fetched the Crisco forthwith. Auntie Vi eyed her. “Your auntie not that old, Katya.” “I know, auntie,” Kate said. “But I was closer.” She had, in fact, been in the next room at the time, but Auntie Vi, exercising monumental, not to mention unnatural restraint, forbore to comment.…
“Yuck!” The pool of slush covered the road from snow berm to snow berm and thirteen-year old Andrea Kvasnikof had just stepped in it up to her ankle and over the tops of her brand-new, white on white Nike Kaj. “Ms. Doogan! Ms. Doogan, my shoe’s all wet!” “This is where the leading edge of…
