Feather From a Stranger by Marianne Schlegelmilch

Author:Marianne Schlegelmilch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Publication Consultants

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Homer

THE BEACH SHELLS MOTEL STOOD ATOP A 1000 FT. BLUFF THAT overlooked lower Cook Inlet and the head of the chain of Alaskan islands known as the Aleutians. When Mara checked in after a leisurely two-day drive down the Kenai Peninsula to Homer, the sun was just setting behind the mountains that formed the distant horizon. One of them, standing alone in the water and closer than the rest, had a plume of steam as tall as the cone-shaped mountain itself, rising out of the top.

“Augustine Volcano,” the clerk told her when she inquired. “Still cooling down from the last eruption two years ago.”

Last night she had slept in Soldotna in a bed and breakfast nestled into a stand of spruce along the Kenai River. The sunset had been beautiful from there, too, and she had thoroughly enjoyed her experience of having to wait for a moose to move away from the front door to the establishment before she could walk in.

The day spent with her new employer had been interesting and productive. One of the directors of the study group she would be working with told her there had been a slight change in her assignment. She begged Mara's forgiveness for the unexpected change, but told her that in view of the fact that she had not yet settled into the community, the timing was probably as good as could be hoped for in such a situation.

The research center would now need to place a team in Homer and were in the process of opening a satellite office there. A decision had been made to place Mara, another scientist, and a technician, at the Homer office. There would also be an office manager who would facilitate communication with the Soldotna office. Because of the small size of the satellite center, Mara and the others would report directly to the directors at the Soldotna location. The expectation was that they would usually do this by phone or email, but occasionally in person.

Mara had no concerns or issues with the change in plans. She was just grateful to have a job, especially one where everyone had been so supportive of her own recent change in plans. She filled out the required paperwork and met everyone in the main office. She found them to be a warm and comfortable group of individuals. Afterwards, she drove down to Homer, arriving around 5 p.m. In view of what she was looking at from her motel room on Baycrest Hill, it was a definite rise in fortune to have received the re-assignment.

The panorama was magnificent. Hadn't that been much of her Alaska experience so far—panorama after panorama of the most breathtaking scenery possible on earth?

The blue sky set against the shimmering silver-green waters of lower Cook Inlet and Kachemak Bay was a spectacular sight. With its pastoral vista of snow-covered mountains and glaciers across the bay, the scene before her was more reminiscent of a postcard than of a real place. Jutting dramatically into the bay was a long, winding strip of land that had a road right down the middle.

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