Tusk by Stephen Pidgeon

Author:Stephen Pidgeon [Pidgeon, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798891555273
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
Published: 2024-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

Part Three

Ernie Kaiotov

Chapter Thirty-Two

It was the hot summer of 1988. Ernie was headed for the Anchorage International Airport expecting the arrival of his new girlfriend, who was coming in from Russia. He was expecting to meet her in person for the first time, although they had talked many times on the phone and had written to each other several times. There were many Russians coming into Alaska these days, many of them coming in from the Russian Far East, given the new political reality of Glasnost and Perestroika.

Ernie had little idea what these terms meant, but it seemed he was meeting more Russians in Anchorage. Nice people, really, but they had a slightly different perspective on things, compared to the typical Alaskan. This flight that he was expecting did not originate in Magadan, however, but in Moscow. The flight route came from Moscow to Vladivostok, and from there to Seoul, South Korea. His prospective wife would then be coming in on Korean Airlines.

Ernie parked his Ford F-350 well out in the parking lot so he would have plenty of room to back out and turn around. There was no problem, because as usual, there was plenty of room in the parking lot. He pulled the keys and headed for the entrance doors. As he entered the arrival area, he double-checked the monitor and determined that the flight would be arriving at gate B-11. He headed up the gateway, watching the various arriving and departing passengers make their way from one bar to another along the gate.

It was celebration time in Alaska, because the snow had melted, and the temperatures nearly reached nearly 70°. Suddenly, all the cares and concerns about keeping your car running and carrying sufficient supplies to stay warm in the event you ended up in a ditch had evaporated. Instead, it was common to leave your house without even a coat, and to drive with the windows down.

Some snow still remained on the mountains, but only in the dark crevices. It too would soon be gone. The smell of last winters’ dog deposits had faded, and the mud puddles of break-up had dried up. The roads were completely free of snow and ice, and the sun would now rise around 4:00 a.m. and wouldn’t set until after 10:00 p.m. Suddenly, all summer was day, including the evening and the night.

Ernie, having been born here, was completely used to the change in daylight. He put aluminum foil on his bedroom windows in May. He celebrated this time of year as well, taking the opportunity to visit some of the places his dad had left him and to do a little upkeep. He always ran the engines on the hovercraft and on the PBY-12. He would do all required maintenance as well, including all fluid changes, filter changes and so forth, and every other year he would upgrade all the hydraulics.

This year, he took the opportunity to take the PBY-12 up for a nice long flight, flying from the Matanuska Glacier to Fairbanks and back.

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