Driftfeather on the Alaska Seas

by Marianne Schlegelmilch

  The moment she knew would one day arrive came much earlier than expected when she ran into Doug at the grocery store that afternoon.

  “Mara,” he said as he pushed his cart toward her, “I can’t believe it’s you.”

  “Doug?” she answered, feeling the muscles in her shoulders tighten uncomfortably.

  “I heard you might be in Juneau. I can’t believe I found you.”

  She pushed her cart around to the next aisle and continued shopping, but Doug followed right behind.

  “Mara, we need to talk.”

  “What could we have to talk about anymore, Doug?” she said icily, but inside she sensed something different about Doug. He seemed more like he had been when she first met him—confident, centered, balanced. “Besides, I’m in a hurry.”

  “There’s a café over near the Baranof Hotel where I’m staying and there’s also a great restaurant. I’m only here for another couple of days until the fisherman’s lobby is over and then I’ll be heading back to Homer. I could meet you there later. We could talk over dinner.”

  “Are you going to bring your girlfriend?” She sniped.

  Ignoring the jab, he said, “I’ll be there waiting in the dining room at seven—alone—since they won’t let my usual dinner partner, Thor, inside.”

  Mara watched him push his cart to the check stand and pay for the few items he had picked up, and then she looked down, refusing to look at him anymore. How dare he act so nonchalant, or even have the gall to assume she wanted to talk to him, much less have dinner with him?

  She made several other stops, including one to thank the manager at the boat store for all his help with the inflatable.

  “I just love it,” she told him. “I’ve had it out several times and it’s perfect for what I need.”

  She also stopped to upgrade her cell phone to a satellite phone that included a GPS. Although more expensive, its practical value would far outweigh the increased cost. If she were going to be out on the water, she would need reliable communication.

  On the advice of the boat store manager, she also purchased a locator beacon.

  “It’s not good to be out in remote areas alone, even if you’re just skimming the shoreline in your boat, but if that’s what you intend to do, then at least use common sense and make sure someone can find you if you get in trouble.”

  Once back inside her cabin, she put everything away and threw a log into the woodstove to take the chill off the room.

  To say it had been a shock to run into Doug was an understatement. Strange how he had acted so laid-back after everything that had happened between them. Was he really that shallow?

  She made herself a cup of tea and propped her feet up in front of the woodstove, stooping to pick up the latest feather from Joe Michael that had fallen to the floor. Suddenly, for some unknown reason, she jumped up and took a quick shower before putting on a clean pair of jeans over which she pulled on the new boiled-wool sweater she had purchased last week.

  Kicking her Uniroyals off to the side, she pulled on the tall fur-lined leather boots she had picked up in Anchorage before she left, wrapped a long wool scarf whose ends fell well below her knees around her neck, and started walking the few blocks to the Baranof Hotel.

  By the time she got there, the humidity had caused her long hair to spring into the usual wild curls that defied any attempt to control them. Pulling the mane back from her face, she arranged it in a loose ponytail and secured it with one of the scrunchies that she always carried with her. The several wisps of hair that she couldn’t corral fell loosely around her face, where they would just have to stay.

  “Mara,” Doug called, standing up from a table along the wall in the dining room. “I didn’t think you would come.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Fine Dining

  While Doug pulled a chair out so she could sit down, a rapid-fire array of thoughts that included bolting from the room ran through Mara’s head. What was she even doing here? Suddenly, a disturbance near the entry disrupted the tranquility of the dining room. Before she could sit down, a dog came bounding through the restaurant, knocking over a tray being carried to a table by a server, and narrowly missing two others who rushed to help.

  Next thing she knew, Thor had his front paws on her shoulders and was licking her face like there was no tomorrow.

  “Thor! Thor!” she called, hoping he would sit or stay or do something besides nearly knock her backwards off her chair.

  “Thor!” Doug hissed, and the dog looked briefly toward his owner before again nuzzling her with his head.

  “Sir. Madam. There are absolutely no animals allowed inside the hotel,” the maitre’d said firmly.

  Doug stood and grabbed a hold of Thor’s collar while she stood to regain her composure. Unfortunately, Thor broke loose from Doug and once again proceeded to jump on her, pulling the tablecloth off the table, along with four place settings of fine china, silver, and crystal. In the clamor that followed, one of the broken pieces tore a long gash in the antique wallpaper that was a hallmark of the establishment, and an entire bottle of wine soaked into the carpet leaving giant purple splotches extending several feet out from the table.

  Somehow, against all odds, she managed to get Thor under control and lead him outside while Doug stayed behind to try to make arrangements to settle the damages.

  She was standing a few feet from the door when a patrol car pulled up and a uniformed officer approached her and asked to see her ID as well as Thor’s tags.

  Thankfully, Doug had remembered to get Thor his new license at the beginning of the year, which also indicated that his rabies vaccination was current.

  “You do realize there is a leash law in Juneau, miss, don’t you?” the officer asked her, making his words sound more like a statement than a question.

  Mara apologized and explained that Thor had been securely shut inside their boat and must have somehow gotten loose.

  “My husband is inside trying to settle any damages right now,” she said, fudging the truth.

  After asking her to wait where she was, the officer went inside, returning a few minutes later to tell her that the damages had been settled and she was free to go.

  By the time Doug came out, she was sitting on a bench outside the restaurant and Thor was lying asleep beside her on the bench with his head in her lap.

  “Mara,” Doug said, looking exhausted and embarrassed.

  But before he could say anymore, she began to laugh and suddenly Doug was laughing, too.

  “Talk about breaking the ice. Are you okay, Mara? It looks like he put a few snags in your sweater.”

  “He just saved me the trouble of breaking it in.”

  “Look, I know you have every reason to go running away right now,” Doug said, his tone suddenly serious, “but if you’ll give me a few minutes, I’ll take Thor back to my boat …”

  “Better yet, why don’t I just walk there with you,” she answered. “I’ll be able to find my way back okay.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Uncharted Waters

  Mara knew her way around any set of docks in Alaska. Her days on the run from Carlos Antoya and his thugs had taken her to most of them, some more than once. It was almost an anticlimax, then, when the boat Doug led her to ended up being the Storm Roamer, which he had apparently moved from the Douglas harbor over to the Juneau side.

  “Somehow I knew it was Derrk Stanley’s voice I heard over the radio a week ago,” she said simply.

  “It’s true that Derrk is helping me with the boat,” Doug said, “but we’ve only been out once on a short run to Hoonah.”

  “The Driftfeather’s my boat,” she answered. “It belongs to me and my business partner, a young man named Alex Winron. We were right behind you on that day, but slowed to look at some orcas that were putting on quite a show.”

  “This is incredible,” Doug said, hoisting Thor up onto the deck of the Roamer. “I saw the orcas, too, but Derrk and I were focusing on t
esting the seiner before I bought it and so we kept going. I was just here in town like I am every year and I ran into this kid, Alex as you call him, and next thing I know, I’m buying another seiner—and a really nice one at that.”

  Suddenly Mara was exhausted.

  “I think I’ve reached my limit on surprises for this day,” she said, picking up her jacket and straightening her clothes. “Thanks, anyway, for the almost dinner.”

  Turning, she started walking away from Doug and his boat. When she got around the first turn to the long dock and right before she began the steep climb up the floating stairs, she turned and looked back to find him sitting on the deck watching her with his arm around Thor’s neck.

  When she did, Doug waved and Thor woofed, but neither tried to stop her and for that she was grateful.

  When she got back to her cabin, the fire was all but out in the woodstove, so she threw a log in and then another for good measure before noticing that the feather was on the floor again.

  Making a mental note to find somewhere secure to keep it from falling victim to the drafts that seemed to be blowing it off the table all the time, she tucked it into a book she had been reading, before changing into her nightshirt and climbing into bed for the night.

  Just to be safe, she checked to see if her 9mm was in the nightstand where she normally kept it. Somehow, knowing she had the gun made her feel less vulnerable.

  Chapter Twenty

  Misty Solace

  Mara savored the privacy of sitting on her deck the next morning. It was late in February and the foggy seclusion felt comforting. Things were quiet around town with many having gone off on vacation to places like Hawaii, Belize, or southern Mexico to escape the Alaska winter’s cold and darkness. In the distance, a couple of boats knocked against the docks and something clanged rhythmically in time, creating an eerie symphony with the gently lapping waves underneath her cabin.

  Just a few months earlier, she had made a dramatic exit from everything and everyone she knew, even getting rid of her almost new SUV. Last night, unbelievably, she had laughed with the very man she had then sworn to have nothing to do with again. Not only laughed, but had followed him home without as much as a thought to the past.

  Where was her newfound independence, not to mention her steely resolve to begin anew? Apparently she was as fickle as he was—and as impulsive.

  She went inside and made herself another cup of Kona, this time pouring it into one of the travel mugs she kept on hand. Grabbing her Gortex jacket, she pulled on her Uniroyals and climbed down through the trap door in the deck to her dinghy.

  Halfway down the ladder made of wooden slats nailed to one of the dock’s support pilings, she punched in the code to the keyless entry and opened the waterproof box that someone had built there long ago, retrieving her lifejacket, emergency kit, and repair kit, which she threw down into her raft below. She then locked her house keys inside the box and climbed the rest of the way down.

  She was glad she had remembered to bring mittens as the winter air sent a chill through her that went right to the bone. Right now she relished the feeling, though, as well as the solitude as she putted in the dinghy along the shoreline for several miles. The sun had not yet risen, but there was just enough light from the full moon and the breaking dawn to see her way.

  When she saw a couple of wolves walking along the water’s edge, she chastised herself for forgetting her shotgun, but feeling no real danger, watched them on their morning hunt, all the while enjoying the privilege of the rare sight from her vantage point safely inside the inflatable boat.

  She loved the spruce forests, shrouded as they were in this misty aura of aloneness. Was there any more peaceful place on this earth than right here? Beside her, two otters rolled lazily on their backs, using small stones to pound open the shells that they held on their chests as a couple of seagulls hovered above, ready to take advantage of any lost parts of the otter’s tasty meal.

  In the distance, a seal popped its head out of the water; its huge welcoming eyes making contact with hers as if watching her every move. It soon disappeared into the water only to surface minutes later, hundreds of feet away, but still watching her.

  The sound of an eagle’s screech pierced the air, followed by several more. Within minutes, several of the majestic birds had swooped down close to the water, their white heads and tails reflecting the glimmering orange glow of the rising sun. One of them succeeded in snatching a fish out of the rolling sea and then quickly flew off across the water with the other eagles tailing right behind. Once on shore, they would jockey for the best position from which to snatch the prized catch should the lucky eagle let down his guard for even a moment.

  The raft motor sputtered a bit, causing her to have to adjust the throttle to keep it running, but the situation was momentary. Still, perhaps it was time to turn around and go back home. She made a mental note to pick up a gas can to carry in the raft in case she lost track of time next time out and traveled too far. Although she had oars, she would much prefer to use the motor.

  On her way into the harbor, she passed the Storm Roamer. She could see Doug and Derrk working on the deck, but she didn’t notice Thor until he raised his head from the bench he had been lying on to watch her go by.

  Luckily, the men didn’t see her, nor did they react to Thor’s succession of three barks before he lay back down again.

  Any answers to the mystery behind the failing of their relationship that Doug had been willing to provide during their ill-fated dinner would have to go unanswered for now. Still, for the first time in a long time, she felt a tiny spark inside the heart she had forced to stop feeling, before she made herself stop thinking his name, tied up her dinghy, retrieved her house key from the lockbox, stuffed the life preserver, emergency kit and repair kit back inside, and climbed back up the ladder to her cabin.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Wedding Bells and the Rain

  Alex had been working furiously to ready the Driftfeather for its first major outing under his ownership. He had made a decision not to partner with the Storm Roamer as soon as he learned that Doug Williams was the ex-husband Mara had referred to when they met.

  It wasn’t that he had anything against Williams; it was just that he felt the potential for conflict of interest was too high, and it was important that Mara did not question his loyalty. Still, he remained on friendly terms with Doug Williams, and the two agreed that they would engage in friendly competition for the prized herring roe of the Sitka sac roe herring fishery in March.

  As it turned out, the plan was one that served them well as both he and Doug Williams exceeded their expectations and enjoyed a lucrative first outing of the season. Lucrative enough for Alex to inform Mara that he had just proposed to his girlfriend, Emily, who he had first introduced to her just before leaving for Sitka.

  The wedding was held in Juneau in late April and a small reception followed at the same hotel where Thor had unceremoniously jeopardized any chance that either Mara or Doug would be welcome there again. But no one turned either of them away the evening of the gathering, much to their surprise.

  Fortunately for Mara, Emily had arranged for her to be seated at a table across the room from Doug, which made for a comfortable evening—that is, until he cornered her for a dance after, which he led her outside for a walk around the docks.

  Perhaps it was the wine, or maybe just the joy of the occasion, but she let him guide her along the waterfront in the light rain that was the norm for this time of year.

  “Nothing happened between Erin and me,” he told her, filling her in on the details of how Erin had lost the baby she had been determined to carry and had leaned on him for support.

  “She had lost her mother, her friend, Ethan, and become pregnant by the man who had killed her mother. I don’t have to tell you the story, because you were there, living it with me the whole way,” he said.

  She wanted to leave—run, even, from the discussion, but she stayed kn
owing it was one that needed to take place.

  “You and I had already filed for divorce. Look, Mara, I’m not saying that what was going on wasn’t on the verge of moving into dangerous waters, but the point is—thanks to Ben and the others—the point is that I came to my senses and saw things for what they were and ended it.”

  She felt her eyes fill with tears, not sure if they were tears of anger, hurt, or just relief at having the truth come out.

  “Erin was—is—the spitting image of her mother,” Doug said. “I suppose that part of me wanted to bring Sassy back, maybe even find a way to make up for any hurt I caused her …

  “I don’t know. It was such a confusing time for me. With everything that was going on then, I guess I just fell into this hole I couldn’t climb out of and it all came to a head with our divorce. The Erin thing, well, it was just a sideshow to what was really going on inside me.”

  Mara forced herself to stay calm, even as her mind raced with torrents of words she wanted to hurl Doug’s way. Why was he telling her all this? Was he trying to ease his own conscience? Did he think she would just accept it and pretend it never happened? Finally, in words that surprised even her, she spoke.

  “Alex says that he’s taking the Driftfeather out into the Gulf next week and that you’re going to fish there, too, before heading back to Homer.”

  Doug nodded as they continued walking.

  “I was just thinking that if you wanted to leave Thor with me, it would be good to have him with me again.”

  “He’d love that, Mara, and I’d love that.”

  He placed his arm lightly around her waist and she let him. Then he walked her back to the reception, thanked Alex for including him in the wonderful evening, kissed her lightly on the cheek, and walked alone in the rain back to the Storm Roamer.

  Chapter Twenty-Two