* * *
Three hours into our five-and-a-half-hour journey, the flight attendant serves us a lunch of quesadillas, fruit salads, and hot fudge sundaes. They were obviously told to prepare for children.
Four hours in, the kids are both fast asleep. By the time we land in Anchorage and get off the plane, I inhale a deep breath of the freshest air that’s ever hit my lungs. The dead weight that’s been in the pit of my stomach is immediately replaced by a flicker of optimism.
Prisha has arranged for a ride to the docks where a float plane is waiting to take us to Gamble. The driver, a young man who introduces himself as Gib, clearly recognizes me. I know this because his jaw is currently having a meeting with his neck. Happily, he doesn’t do the usual, “Oh, my God, you’re Harper Kennedy! Can I get a selfie? No one is going to believe I met you!” thing. Instead, he recovers quickly and holds the back door of the SUV open for us. “Welcome to Alaska, the last frontier.”
“I thought space was the last frontier,” Liam tells him, looking skeptical.
Gib chuckles. “Space is thefinalfrontier. Totally different.”
“Hmm, I don’t know about that,” Liam says as he climbs into the backseat.
I find myself smiling as the kids point at the mountains in the distance and the ocean to our left. “It’s so pretty here, isn’t it?” I ask Lily.
She nods excitedly and the three of us chatter about all the fun things we’re planning to do while on vacation.
“If you want to see something really amazing, we could stop up ahead at Crow Creek and pan for gold,” Gib says.
“Gold?! Like real gold?” Lily asks, her entire face lighting up.
“Yup, real gold. They have a place there where you’re guaranteed to come out with some real gold flakes,” he tells her.
I glance at both my kiddos, a wave of relief washing over me as I see the expressions of excitement on their faces, then I remember we’re due at the float plane. “How long will it take?”
“About half an hour,” he answers. “You’re a little ahead of schedule so you’ve got time. Besides, you’re the only passengers on your next flight so you can rest assured they won’t leave without you.”
“The pilot won’t mind?” I ask.
Shaking his head, Gib says, “You’ll find people are a lot more laid back here than in most places.”
“Please, Mom,” Liam whispers. “It would be SO cool.”
I love seeing my son so happy. It’s been far too long. “Sure. We’re here for an adventure, so let’s have one.”
Chapter6
Digger
“Evie, are you sure this name is right?” I ask, pointing to the booking for the guests I’m picking up this afternoon.
She gives me the stink eye from behind all that black eyeliner she wears. Evie has the blistering confidence only the young possess. She also hates when I dare to question her competence.
Evie made her way up to Gamble three years ago, when she was fresh out of high school—and fresh out of fricks to give—as she so poetically puts it. Also, she doesn’t say frick. She pulled up in a beat-up ancient Volkswagen camper van, and I hired her immediately.
It takes grit to drive all the way from Virginia to Alaska by yourself when you’re forty. You have to be made of much tougher stuff to do it at eighteen. If there’s one thing a person needs to survive here, it’s a strong backbone.
“I got the woman on the phone to repeat it twice. Marge Simpson and her two children. I’m assuming she’s bringing Lisa and Maggie. Bart has probably been sent off to military school or something.”
“Hardy har har.” I rub the bridge of my nose. “This better not be a joke because I’m going to feel like a jackass standing on the dock with a sign that says Marge Simpson.”
She wrinkles up her nose. “Right, because there’ll be so many people on the dock this afternoon.”
“I could do without the sarcasm,” I tell her, taking the lid off the Sharpie and writing my guest’s name on the piece of card stock.
“Sarcasm is my love language,” Evie tells me with the closest thing she’s got to an actual smile.
I answer with a half-grin. Popping the lid back on the felt tip, I grab the cooler of refreshments Evie prepared for Marge et al, and start for the door. “We’ve got a full house, so we’re going to have to stay on top of our game today. I should be back in time to make supper for our other guests, but you know the drill if I wind up running late.”