Arctic Homestead: The True Story of One Family's Survival and Courage in the Alaskan Wilds by Charles W. Sasser & Norma Cobb

Author:Charles W. Sasser & Norma Cobb [Sasser, Charles W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780312283797
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2003-02-23T23:00:00+00:00

35

Dee sat next to me on a log by the campfire, chatting. Across from us, Sid worked with leather, building collars for Black, Lady, and Lady’s two big rowdy pups. Les and Don were overnighting in Fairbanks to pick up more building materials. The rest of the clan romped around in the vicinity, creating din enough to repel even the most obnoxious bruin.

Dee’s face was screwed up in thought. Clearly, she felt anxious about being left alone with another woman and children in the vastness of the northern wilderness.

“What if something were to happen out here, Norma?” she asked pensively, gazing into the fire.

“Like what?”

“Like if one of the kids were hurt or . . . anything It’s not like you can go to the telephone and call for help. It would take you a whole day to get to a doctor. Look at what happened to Sean.”

I shuddered at the recollection. It was something you could not dwell on, however.

“And the bears?” she persisted. “The Bigfoot thing?”

Her eyes shifted uneasily toward the rifle leaning against a log within easy reach, and the holstered forty-four next to it. Pioneers a century ago lived like this, with a gun for protection always at hand. Les was teaching her and her kids to use weapons accurately and safely, but she was never at ease with them. People accustomed to policemen on the street corners and neighbors so near you heard them snoring found it difficult to visualize a wild world in which you either took care of yourself or perished. The vastness of so much space filled with wild animals and ravaged by fierce weather frightened people.

Dee hugged herself and shivered, even though the fire felt warm against our legs.

“I worry about you and the kids up here, Norma,” she continued in the same vein. “I imagine you snowed in out here with a sick kid and unable to get out for months.”

“We’ll have dog teams soon, and maybe a sno-go machine someday.”

“But alone out here . . .”

“I’m not alone. I have Les and the kids.”

“What if something happened to Les?”

I looked into the fire. I looked across at the almost-finished cabin.

“Without Les,” I finally admitted, “I’d be scared to death.”

LATER IN THE NIGHT, after we had all turned in, noises outside the tent awoke me. I assumed it was the kids in their tent. I shouted at them to hush and go to sleep.

The sounds persisted. All four dogs and Callie the cat cowered in a corner of the tent, whimpering from fright. Bastions of courage they were not.

“What is it?” Dee whispered frantically.

“Shhhhh!”

Armed like Annie Oakley and feeling brave, pistol in one hand and rifle in the other, I crept to the tent flap and pushed it aside. It never got exactly dark this time of year. I blinked into the silvery near light that always reminded me of a black-and-white snapshot negative. Embers glowed from the firepit.

Dee’s head poked out next to mine. She pointed suddenly and in a whispering near shriek stammered, “B-b-b-bear!”

Sight of the creature froze her in place.

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