Northern Hearts by Paige Lee Elliston

Author:Paige Lee Elliston
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781441239259
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group

The fire cast its orangeish yellow glow for a good distance around itself, suffusing the snow with soft light, washing the sharp edges from shadows nearby. The air was completely still; smoke from the fire rose ruler-straight into the night sky. Albin and Randall sat motionless, Indian style, at the very edge of the glow. If they spoke, their voices were so quiet that no one else could hear them. Tessa decided that they weren’t speaking; they were simply being together, just as they had been for all their lives. Other than Albin’s cautioning her about her nose, Tessa hadn’t seen the brothers exchange a word between themselves or with anyone else all day. A quirky thought struck her: How much of what passes for conversation—chitchat—in the lower 48 is really worth breaking silence for? How many of us can sit with someone who’s important to us, someone we love, without feeling the need to clutter up the time with inconsequential words?

Tessa and R. E. walked slowly together, well within the firelight. Kalluk was sitting outside a tent, sharpening a sheath knife with a rectangle of stone, working the blade lightly against it, the slight scritch-scritch sound rhythmic and clear in the quiet. Jessie peered into the embers at the edge of the fire, motionless, looking to be a thousand miles away.

“Your legs still a little stiff?” R. E. asked Tessa.

“A little. Walking eases them up.”

Fuzz glided by a few yards to their side, moving in the smooth, flowing motion that seemed to be part of his nature.

“I guess we’re going to have lots of time to think on this trip, Tess. Even on this first day, I’ve been rolling things around in my mind.”

“I know what you mean. And that’ll probably be even more true once we leave the snowmobiles and start hiking. There’ll be no noise and no fast motion—just the sound of scrunching snow.” She had the feeling that R. E. had more to say, that his earlier comments weren’t without some meaning to them. “What’ve you been rolling around in your head?” she asked.

They took a couple of steps before R. E. answered. “I guess nothing specific. A kind of analysis of stuff.”

“Stuff?”

“Yeah. How much I’m enjoying all this, what’ll happen after we get back and the trip is all finished, things like that.” They took another step. “What’ll you do then, Tess?”

The question perplexed her for a moment. “Hmmm. I’ll finish up my writing, I suppose. Visit the elders with Meeloa a few more times. Then, head on back to Minnesota and the university with some very fond memories.”

“And lots of photographs too.”

“Sure. Lots of pictures of all of us from the trip and the People and the store and my cabin . . . and everything.”

“That’ll be good,” R. E. said quietly. He stopped, and Tessa stopped next to him. R. E. tilted his head upward. “Look,” he said, raising his arm. A shooting star flashed across the sky, its tail bright and wide and distinct, even among the pure light of billions of other stars.

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