As if reading her mind, Doug gave her arm a gentle squeeze as he walked by. It was all going to be okay between them. She was sure of it and felt her heart in her throat at the thought.
Things were a little crazy the first day out, with Sal wound up like a clock at the thought of being at the wheel with only Mara as backup.
“Hell’s bells, Jane, maybe I ain’t fit fer the job no more, the way I run us off course this mornin’.”
Mara had been a bit concerned when they lost sight of Doug and Joe for a few hours, but Josh had worked to get them back on track, teaching both women the finer points of navigating the area.
By the next day, Sal was her old confident self, and by day three there was no dealing with the size of the ego that had emerged once she got her sea legs back.
Mara hadn’t laughed so much in a long time, especially when Sal decided to move ahead of Doug and Joe and let the tide carry the Driftfeather onto the beach in a small cove along the shore, forcing both Doug and Derrk to do the same once they caught up with them.
“You’re one hot little tamale, Sal,” Joe chuckled as everyone met along the beach, each in skiffs from the respective seiners.
“What were you thinking, Mara?” Doug admonished her.
“Lighten up,” she laughed. “Sal said she’s done this before—said she and Bert used to beach here all the time.”
“Well, now, I guess we all have. I hope you two women have a plan for getting us back out in deep water.”
“Soon as we have lunch, young man,” Sal told him. “Ya think yer dealin’ with a coupla flea brains here?”
“Won’t do no good to argue,” Joe told Doug, who nodded his head in agreement before walking the beach to inspect both seiners.
“I guess they’re all right. Doesn’t mean it couldn’t have turned out differently, though.”
Mara stifled more laughs for now. Clearly, Doug was concerned for their safety and she loved him for that.
Even Sal sensed the stress she had placed on him. “Guess I got caught up in the fun of it all, Doug. I think it’s time to put you back in charge.”
Doug hugged the old woman and told her not to worry, meanwhile making arrangements with Derrk to get the Driftfeather refloated with the next tide, while he took care of the Storm Roamer.
They drifted out without incident during the next high tide and were back in Juneau a week later as planned.
“I ain’t had fun like that in years,” Sal laughed. “’Bout time my Joe got a taste a the life I used ta lead.”
Joe Michael tenderly pinched his wife’s cheek and followed it up with a kiss smack on the lips, which set the old woman to laughing more. Now that everyone was safe, Doug, too, joined in the laughter, admitting that he’d always wanted to try something like that but never had the guts.
After taking Derrk and Josh to the airport, he met the others at Mara’s cabin.
“How about if we start planning us a wedding?”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Home
Mara woke on the morning of her wedding to the rare treat of seeing the sun stream through the patio window. After getting up to get her coffee, she languished in bed, thinking of how the past year had brought so much unexpected change to her life. When she reached over to get a coaster out of the nightstand drawer, she saw the gun there, right where it had remained since she bought it. Why had she ever thought she needed it? Next to the gun was the feather given to her by Joe Michael. She stroked it and felt the thickness of the paint that formed the two red dots near the top, and twirled it gently as the sun made them glimmer.
Just as the first feather had done, this one had protected her from harm, but had it really been the feather, or had it actually been the fatherly love of Joe Michael that had cast a protective aura around her? She wasn’t sure what to do with this feather. Unlike the first one, which she had given to Della, this one seemed to have no more purpose—or did it? Suddenly, she knew. Placing the feather gently back in the drawer, she called for Thor and took him for a long walk, enjoying the special warmth of the morning.
Later, after indulging in a leisurely bath, she and Sal clipped along the sidewalk in their high heels—she hiking her long ivory dress up to clear any puddles, and Sal proudly noticing that her dark purple dress perfectly matched the flowers in Mara’s hair.
The small wood-framed cathedral was unimpressive by European or even by Lower 48 standards, but it served a congregation of the faithful with the best the area had to offer. Joe was waiting at the back of the church, where he handed Mara her bouquet after escorting Sal to her seat.
“My own daughter would have been about your age,” he told her.
Mara smiled in a way that revealed how touched she was by those words.
“I brought this for you,” she said, handing Joe the feather. “I finally figured it out—everything with the feather.”
Joe smiled slightly.
“Took you a while, but glad you finally caught on.”
“I’m sorry you don’t have your own daughter to walk down the aisle right now.”
“And you don’t have your own father,” Joe said. “But between the two of us, we have enough good memories and enough love to have them both here in spirit.”
She took Joe’s hand and squeezed it before reaching up to dab a tear from his eye with the sleeve of her dress.
“I can’t think of a better way to start my new life with the man I love than to have the other man I love walk me to his arms,” she said gently.
Taking the feather from Joe’s hand, she started to slide it inside the breast pocket of his jacket.
“This is of no use to me unless the love it brought me can be given back to you,” she told him. “So, I want you to take it now, because I’m going to be okay.”
“I believe you will be,” Joe said, but before he could finish pushing the feather all the way into his pocket, the sun caught the red dots and merged them into one, before they completely disappeared leaving the feather in its original state.
For a moment they locked eyes, each caught up in the significance of the moment.
“Let’s get you up that aisle so we can both get on with our lives,” Joe said with a wink, as he tucked the feather the rest of the way into his pocket and began to escort her along the white runner that led to the altar.
At the far end of the church, Doug watched them, silently thanking Joe for his part in bringing him and Mara back together. Like her, he had no doubt that was exactly how it had come to be.
And Thor carried the ring. Just as he had once found her first wedding ring, he now carried her last one. Mara smiled at seeing the little wiggle he gave when he saw her, and laughed when he nudged his way between her and Doug at the altar.
Later, when Doug and Mara passed Graveyard Island in Hoonah, Joe’s totem was lit by a ray of sun that had just broken through the heavy mist. It looked taller than before and untouched by the harsh weather of the area. Something was different about it and they steered the Driftfeather ß shore for a closer look.
No longer was there a feather running up the side of the totem as before. Instead there was an eagle, flying sideways with one wing pointing up and one wing pointing down. And there was no more red dot, only the clear yellow of the eagle’s eye, which they could see was made of Russian amber.
For a long time they stood there looking at the totem from the deck of the Driftfeather, here back in this place that held such powerful energy—this place from which arose the very essence of unconditional love.
It was here where they had both felt the immense spirit of goodness first brought to them by Joe Michael, and it was here where they now stood as they began their true life together—tested, tempered, and strengthened by not only the worst life could fling their way, but also by their eternal willingness to retain hope in the essential goodness of life.
Mara had found her path. She had emerged as the person she was always meant to be—strong, loving, and pure. She had brough
t those things with her to Doug, leaving no doubt now about their future as they stood here in the place that had first brought their two hearts together.
On the way back they would stop and visit Sal and Joe, who had decided to build a home right here in Hoonah, and who would be flying in as soon as they locked up Stu’s old cabin. Then they would head back to their cabin in Juneau, which they had decided to make home.
And they would do everything in their power to make sure that Joe and Sal would be able to join them midsummer for the party being planned in their honor in Palmer—up Knik River Road at the homestead of Mara’s best friend’s sister, where so many of their close friends would soon gather to celebrate everything good that had brought them all together in life. They just wouldn’t have it any other way.
~~~
Driftfeather on the Alaska Seas Page 15