Cotton Grass Lodge

by Woodbury, DeNise

  “Hi there stranger,” he said. “What happened to two weeks?”

  Only Hanna’s tiny smile acknowledged his comment. “Duncan Mahoney,” she said formally and flipped a hand to present the two people standing by the plane. “Nell’s daughter, Petra and her husband, Jay Ivan.”

  The cloud of tension settled like fog.

  Duncan stepped forward and shook hands with both. “Pleased to meet you. Nell’s going to be glad to see you, I’m sure.”

  “Where’s my mother?” Petra said. “She always meets the plane. I hope you don’t have her working like some hired help.”

  Hanna interrupted before Duncan could say anything. “If Nell didn’t meet the plane, it’s because she didn’t want to. She does whatever she wants around here.” Hanna’s neck and cheeks turned rosy with her impulsive interference. “I’m going to my cabin. I’ll be back to the plane in an hour and a half.” She looked directly at Petra. “I won’t be late going back to Anchorage.”

  She turned and marched off down the shore toward her cabin. Her braid swung sharply with each brisk step.

  Duncan clamped his mouth shut. His surprise at Hanna’s defense was offset by her coldness.

  He turned back to Petra and Jay. Petra was openly annoyed because Duncan expected them to walk up to the lodge. Her mouth, as if toothless, worked in her round face, “I don’t know why you didn’t bring a four-wheeler.” She touched her short, salt and pepper hair rearranging it. Her quiet, tall husband took her hand as if to steady her stride forward.

  Duncan didn’t respond, and the silence stretched until they got to the yard.

  “Wow,” Jay said. “I didn’t think those snow machines in front would ever get moved.”

  “It was interesting since they were in so many pieces,” Duncan said cautiously. “Look, before we get up to the lodge let’s clear some things up. Nell’s a nice woman. I bought this place sight unseen, so if anyone was taken advantage of, it would be me. The place was a shambles. I don’t want any trouble. What are we going to do about Nell?”

  “Well,” Petra huffed.

  Jay gave his wife a look and seemed to take charge. “Mr. Mahoney, the family sent us up here to see what’s going on. We didn’t know she was going to sell. The market price on a property like this is much higher than you paid.”

  “Not in the condition it was in when I got here in April,” Duncan stated.

  Petra snapped, “It might have needed a little fixing, but—”

  “Petra,” Jay said. “Please. Let’s just look around and talk to your mom before we jump to conclusions.”

  Duncan said, “What’s important is Nell.”

  Petra planted a fist on her hip. “You don’t know anything about my mother.”

  Duncan took one step closer to Petra. “What I do know is it’s dangerous for an old lady to be wandering around Anchorage without her family knowing where she is.” He abruptly turned toward the lodge.

  Nameless, the official greeter, rushed out to do his duty and before he could get close enough to do the damage she expected, Petra shouted. “Get down. Get away.”

  Duncan gave a quick hand signal and as usual Nameless didn’t obey. He loped in close, his tongue lolling and his tail thumping wildly.

  “Sit.” Duncan said. The happy dog continued to romp around in circles, barking, until the group mounted the steps. Duncan held the door open.

  Nell was bustling around the kitchen, and Duncan could see Alice’s mounting frustration as Nell removed clean cups from the cupboard and rinsed them again before putting them on the table.

  “Welcome to the Cotton Grass Lodge,” Nell said.

  “Oh Momma, you shouldn’t have to work.” Petra cast a spiteful look at Duncan.

  “My name is Nell, dear. Can I get you folks some refreshments? Duncan here will put your bags in your room.”

  “Momma? It’s me, Petra.”

  Nell stopped with a coffee pot in mid-air. “Oh, Petra, how are you. Oh! You brought Jay. Good to see you.”

  “Momma, didn’t they tell you we were coming?” She shot another nasty glance at Duncan.

  “Why, no,” Nell said. “You didn’t leave the children alone did you?”

  “Momma? The kids are grown and gone. You know that.” Petra nervously took the coffee pot away from her mother, “Why don’t you sit down?”

  “Oh, I can’t. Alice don’t do anything the way I like it.” Nell allowed herself to be pushed into a chair.

  Alice on the other hand, turned, scooped Emily off the pallet, and left through the back door. The screen banged.

  Duncan quickly followed her. “Alice?” He called.

  She turned and held up a hand like an angry crossing guard. “I’m going to take a walk.”

  Tom came out on the porch of the bunkhouse and leaned on a post. Alice slowed, said something unintelligible, and he swung down to join her on the way past. He reached out, and Emily eagerly opened her arms to be taken into his massive chest.

  Jay and Petra were standing on either side of Nell’s chair when Duncan went back into the kitchen. “We can’t leave her here,” Jay said.

  “But I’m not ready to have her move in with us,” Petra responded. “I put her on the waiting list at the Pioneer Home, but it could take months.” She flushed when she realized Duncan had overheard.

  “Go pack her stuff.” Jay pointed down the hall toward Nell’s room. “We’ll work something out.”

  Duncan recognized the man’s tone. Jay was desperate to leave his wife and mother-in-law to what he considered female business.

  “Would you like a tour?” Duncan offered. “Your family might like to know what I’ve done with the place.”

  Jay quickly moved around the table and the two men went outside.

  Duncan proudly showed off the bunkhouse. The open storage shed had parking spots for all the now operable equipment. A testament to Tom’s mechanical ability, the Ford 8N tractor purred, as did all the four wheelers. The jewel in the crown was the foundation for the new shower house. Plumbing. Duncan gushed like a teenager with his first car. The two men examined the generator shed and discussed the merits of the big diesel generator over a smaller gas powered one.

  The conversation started to lag, and Jay looked down at his watch. “I remember what Nell and Harry had here. You’ve made a lotta improvements.” He shrugged. “Don’t worry, the family’ll ignore Petra. She gets all dramatic, but they know her. Now, I better get back. Hanna won’t wait. She really stuck up for you. You’re a lucky man.”

  “Lucky?”

  “Yeah, she’s quite a catch,” Jay said with a wink.

  “Uhh, thanks.” Duncan convinced himself Hanna needed a ride from her cabin. “You go ahead,” he told Jay. “I’ll be back in a little while.” He wanted to know what Hanna was so irritated about, too. Why had she changed her plans? Why did she fly back when she’d made it clear she had other things to do?

  The green ATV started immediately, and he took it down the track toward the lake. He had never been to Hanna’s cabin before. She didn’t offer, and he hadn’t wanted to push her. The alders grew in close on the seldom-used trail. When he came into a clearing, he could see one small cabin and through the birch trees another slightly larger one. Both were set back from the shore. The dismal morning had cleared, and thick, spring-green leaves muted the sparkle off the lake.

  The first cabin must be the rental she talked about. It was sided with home sawed slabs. The bark wane showed as an irregular dark outline down each vertically set board. Green metal roofing matched the roof on the larger cabin, and both were trimmed in green paint. Evidence of Alice and the baby hung from a clothesline to the side of the smaller cabin. He drove on toward the large cabin.

  When he stopped the four-wheeler, he realized why Hanna hadn’t heard his approach. Classic old New Orleans blues pulsed out the open door. He dismounted, walked to the screen door, and knocked.

  He could see through the screen as Hanna sat up from her chair and rea
ched to turn the volume down. “Com’on in,” she said.

  Duncan opened the door and took two steps into—into what? The aura of this woman surrounded him. A faint hint of incense permeated the sparse room. He’d always liked the comfort of having her stand close to him as they went about their business, but this was different. His mind wasn’t the only thing tingling at the sight of her. The fragrance of flowers always seemed to hang around her. It drifted over him and he liked the distraction.

  Her damp hair hung down across her shoulders, and her shapely breasts were outlined under the thin fabric of a lace camisole. Faded jeans clung to her body like a leotard. The mouthwatering thought of putting his mouth on her caught him by surprise.

  She stood warily, her bare feet planted, her arms loose at her sides. Duncan felt her cool politeness on the surface of the room. “I didn’t expect company,” she said.

  With a nod, Hanna indicated an over-stuffed love seat. She turned the volume down even further, and the CD changed to a techno jazz piece he was fond of.

  “No, thanks, I won’t stay,” Duncan said. He gestured toward the CD player. “I’m impressed; I have all of that artist’s music. That’s one of my favorites. I have an apartment full of things I haven’t moved out here yet. I guess I never thought of you as a musical person.” He wanted more, unexpectedly wanted to reach out and touch her.

  “There’s a lot about me you don’t know. Why are you here?”

  Duncan prided himself on reading people and her aloof watchfulness made him uncomfortable. He shrugged. “I knew you walked from the plane. I thought you’d like a ride back. I wanted to let Jay and Petra have some privacy while they packed Nell up.” Duncan breathed out pointedly, “I didn’t mean to intrude. You were upset back at the plane. I wanted to know why. I’ll walk back, and you bring the four-wheeler when you get ready.”

  She looked at him without answering, and he began to wonder if she’d heard. “Are you going to move your apartment full of stuff to Cotton Grass, or are you going to keep it wherever it is?” Hanna’s eyes narrowed in concentration waiting for his answer.

  “I.” Duncan shrugged his shoulders and his face in unison. He cautiously went on, “I’ve been too busy to think about moving it and I have a lease, so—”

  “So—you have an out. If you decide this is just too big a pain in the ass to continue with…”

  “So—” Duncan shot back. “When my lease is up in October, I’ll take a week off and tie up those particular loose ends or not. What did you expect me to say?” He had come here to be kind, her reaction caught him off guard, and his own defensive retort startled him.

  “Or not. Exactly what I thought.” Hanna dropped her eyes to her fidgeting hands and avoided Duncan’s question.

  “You started this.” Duncan lowered his voice, “What do you mean?”

  Hanna raised a defiant chin in his direction. “I wanted the lodge to stay the same. I imagined when Nell’s kids finally came and carted her off it would stay the same. Or—I would buy it and somehow it would just stay the same. In my imagination Nell and Harry would still be here too. Now, you’re here instead.”

  Her voice trembled while she uttered the impossible dream.

  “Nothing stays the same, Hanna,” he said. “I couldn’t keep it the same. When I leave I want someone to say what you just said about my Cotton Grass Lodge.” He left her, the screen door bumped loudly, and he didn’t turn around when she called his name. He left the four-wheeler. He walked fast enough to be short of breath. He needed to expend the energy of desire welling up in his body. He’d begun to dream about her. He wanted her to dream about him, not fight with him over day dreams.

  Chapter 14

  Three weeks later Hanna flew into Cotton Grass Lake again. Duncan hadn’t been around when she’d left. Jay and Petra had loaded an argumentative Nell into the plane. Her belligerence escalated the closer the plane got to Anchorage. She had angry tears on her cheeks by the time they landed.

  Now, Hanna finally had another week off. It was fishing season in Alaska. She and the other freight rats swapped days off to make compatible schedules. It worked for the company and worked for the pilots too.

  Hanna didn’t fish; she hunted. She’d had her fill of fishing the summers she spent on her uncle’s drift net boat in Bristol Bay. The money she’d made for seven weeks on a pitching thirty-two foot boat sorting dead salmon couldn’t compare to even one day in the air. But the money was the means to an end. Flying.

  Hanna liked the meat-for-fish swap they’d all worked out. It was a perk she wasn’t willing to give up, but this time it had kept her away from the lake longer than she wanted.

  For three weeks she played the scene with Duncan over and over in her mind. Why had she been so—angry? He had turned into a pretty nice guy. One who occupied her quiet moments with questions and curiosity. There were men who came to Alaska on a one week vacation and never left. Everyone had heard those stories. Was he one of those men?

  The day was crystal clear. This cloudless blue canopy was the reason Hanna flew. Touching heaven on a morning like this was worth the turbulence and headwinds and fog and cold and fear they brought with them.

  Charlie glowered at Hanna when she walked into the office. “’Bout time you showed up.”

  Hanna pulled her watch out of a pocket. “’Bout time you climbed off my ass.” She paused. Charlie’s usually prickly nature glowed with spikes of especially bad humor. “What’s wrong with you this morning?”

  “Damn new kid. Training you was a pain. Training him is gonna kill me. Took off without checking the manifest, flew around for an hour before he figured out half the freight was still back here on the ground.”

  Hanna glanced at the schedule board. Her name shared the space with someone named Jeff. “Why start training this late in the season? I thought you were going to slow this operation down?” Hanna asked.

  “I didn’t pass the damn flight physical.” Charlie’s subdued response slapped Hanna like the clipboard he dropped on the desk with more force than it needed. “They grounded me. High blood pressure.”

  Hanna felt the breath-taking jab of Charlie’s pain—not fly? “Are you okay?”

  “Oh hell, I’m gettin’ old.” He scrubbed a hand over his tightly shaved gray hair. “The damn dog might just sell and go to Hawaii and sit on the beach. You wanna buy Charlie’s Air Service?”

  Another piece of Hanna’s world got tossed up into the air. An ember of yes flared brightly in her chest. “I’ve been to Hawaii. The dog wouldn’t last twenty minutes on the sands of Waikiki,” she said. “Let’s see what we can do about training this Jeff person to pick up the slack until you get your blood pressure down. The doctor told you to quit smoking, didn’t he?”

  “Go check your damn plane,” Charlie growled, cigarette smoke curled around his ear and dissipated into the office.

  Hanna picked up the clipboard. Her hand trailed over Charlie’s boney shoulder as she passed to go outside.

  While she loaded the plane, Charlie directed two men, dressed in brand new camouflage shirts and pants, carrying an amazing array of fishing gear, to the plane. They throbbed with enthusiasm. It would be the trip they talked about for years when they got back to New Jersey. Their infectious excitement didn’t help Hanna ignore Charlie’s news as she loaded their gear and got ready to take off.

  Before she left, Charlie waved Hanna back to the office.

  Something about the two people standing by the dog-hair covered sofa was familiar. They poured over a map duct-taped to the wall. The woman was dressed in chic well-used traveling clothes. The man was an older version of—Duncan.

  Were they here to make him leave? Hanna’s heart pounded. Don’t be ridiculous he isn’t twelve.

  “These folks are headed to Cotton Grass. Do ya have room for two more?” Charlie knew to the ounce and inch how much room there was in the plane and Hanna knew it too.

  The man, attentively watching, added, “We don’t have luggage.”<
br />
  “Nope.” It was an old game, instead of playing twenty questions with people who didn’t have a clue how critical weight was on a small plane, Hanna and Charlie went directly to ask the pilot.

  “How long before you can turn around?” Charlie asked.

  “’Bout an hour and a half.”

  “Will two hours work for you folks?” Charlie asked.

  “I guess it will have to,” the woman said. “We’ll have time for a bit of lunch. It’s a good thing we had the taxi wait.”

  “Is the lodge expecting you?” Hanna feigned an innocent question. “Mr.?” She reached for a handshake.

  “Mahoney, Paul and Pamela. No, we’re just going out for the day,” Paul said. “There’s no need to let them know either. We’ll just be a surprise.”

  “I’m sure you will.” Hanna smiled and went back out to the plane. A little conspiracy like this tickled her, but she knew this didn’t rise to the level of humor Duncan would enjoy.

  ****

  Duncan was in the kitchen holding the baby when he heard Hanna’s voice clear space on the radio. His pulse twitched.

  “Alice, you have these vegetarian-client needs under control?”

  “Yup, they’ll eat better than they do at home.” She started to reach for Emily, but Tom eagerly stepped forward to take her. The last couple of weeks Tom had come to work every day, sober. He willingly thought of ways to improve the operation of the kitchen. And Alice appreciated every little suggestion. Her face glowed every time she spotted Tom heading toward the lodge.

  Duncan went to the desk under the stairs and quickly checked the book to see who was on the way. Two men for the bunkhouse, they would be fishing with Mathew for two days. There would also be fresh groceries and the mail, and Hanna. As the weeks passed, he had become more anxious for a resolution of the fight. Was it a fight? Usually, a fight was two sided. He’d been fighting the specter of something or someone unknown.

  He stepped out onto the porch and savored the spectacular day. This was what summer should be. Sixty-five degrees and no clouds. They’d had a week of this, so far; there were a whole lot fewer bugs, and no one worried about missing connections to other flights.