Chapter 14
14
It didn’t seem fair to Gunnar that Naomi Chilkoot was still in prison when Luke had been released. Luke was the mastermind behind the Ice Falls plot, after all. But Naomi had been the driving force behind the “adoptions”—some legitimate, some not—to expand the Chilkoot clan. Those charges had gotten her sentenced to fifteen years in prison. He had no problem with that.
She was serving her sentence at the Hiland Mountain Correctional Center in Eagle River, and wouldn’t come up for parole for many years. Soraya was also serving time there on charges of resisting arrest and breaking an FBI agent’s nose. Gunnar imagined that the two of them were a handful for the guards and probably the other prisoners, too.
Ruth’s offer to visit her mother and learn whatever Naomi knew about Anthony Amundsen touched him deeply. She’d never even been outside of Firelight Ridge, never gone to Blackbear or even Kursk, the last gas station before the sixty-mile road to Firelight Ridge began.
The idea that Ruth’s first-ever trip to the outside world would be to a prison didn’t sit right with him.
“If we’re really going to do this, we have to work in something fun as well,” he’d insisted.
“Like what?”
“Leave it to me.”
He picked her up at Martha’s farm, where Sarah saw her off with tears in her eyes.
“Don’t worry,” Ruth kept murmuring. “We’re only going for one night, two at the most.”
“But what if something bad happens at the prison? What if they see you’re a Chilkoot and put you in prison too?”
“It doesn’t work that way. I haven’t committed any crime, so they can’t just put me in jail.” Ruth sounded as if she wasn’t entirely sure of that herself, so Gunnar nodded his agreement.
“I’ll be with her the whole time, Sarah,” he told her. “I’ll make sure nothing bad happens.”
Sarah twined one of her strawberry-blond braids around her index finger. “Are you sure I can’t come with you?”
“It’s not safe for you. Neither of us has an ID. If we get stopped, you might get sent to social services.”
“But what about you? Won’t you need an ID?”
“I have a plan for that,” said Gunnar. His plan wasn’t strictly legal, but it would work. Fake IDs weren’t that hard to come by. He drew the line at getting one for a minor like Sarah, though. The risks outweighed the benefits.
“Until we get back, stick close to Martha’s,” Ruth told her sister. “Promise me.”
“I promise.” Sarah wiped a tear away. “Will you promise to be careful? And come back as soon as you can?”
It took a lot more hugging and a few more tears, but finally they were able to hit the road.
“You okay?” Gunnar asked after they’d gone a few miles toward Snow River.
“I’m okay.” Surprisingly, Ruth didn’t look rattled by the tearful goodbye. “Sarah’s in her dramatic phase. I was like that too when I was her age, but Naomi always told me to knock it off. I don’t want to do that to Sarah.”
Gunnar snorted. “She doesn’t seem like she’d take it well anyway.”
“Probably not. Ever since Sarah came, she’s been a little different from the rest of us. But I asked her if she wanted to find her real parents and she said, not yet. One thing at a time. She’s happy to be away from the compound and she likes Firelight Ridge. She loved going to school and she wants to go back this fall, if Maura’s teaching again.”
“Has anyone from the Chilkoots tried to get her to come back?”
“No. Not yet. Honestly, it’s been so quiet that I’m a little worried. It feels like they’re planning something else big and don’t want to make waves before it happens.”
He groaned. “Goddamn Chilkoots. Can’t they just chill out and enjoy the mountain air? Why do they always have to be up to something?”
Luckily, she giggled, unbothered by his critique. “If I ever go back there, I’ll suggest some Zen meditation. That should go over well.”
They reached the turnoff by Snow River, where the one-lane road turned west and widened into two lanes on its way to Kursk. Ruth leaned forward, gripping the edge of her seat. “Everything from here on out is new to me.”
“Soak it in, baby. Soak it in.”
To him, it was more of the same—spruce forest mixed with birch and cottonwoods. But he savored the excitement on her face, the wonder of her first glimpse of the old train trestle, some of its timbers still intact, others dangling like broken limbs.
At the Snow River overlook, she made him stop and they spent a good half an hour watching the flow of white water through the braided channels. “I always wanted to go to fish camp, but I never got that assignment,” she said wistfully. “I was always part of the berry-picking brigade.”
“You want to go fishing sometime? You should have told me. I’d take you, but the salmon run’s pretty much over. And you know what the Ahtna say—they have a word for salmon and a word for every other fish that isn’t salmon. Salmon’s the only fish that really matters around here.”
“Maybe next summer. If…well, if…maybe next summer.”
He knew what she meant. Her entire life was filled with uncertainty at the moment. He knew the feeling. “Let me ask you this. What would you like your life to look like this time next year?”
She went quiet for a long time. “It’s hard for me to think about that. A year and a half ago, I thought I’d be married now. To Daniel.”
He remembered Daniel very well. Good guy who made pot smoothies and drove the plow truck. Not at the same time, so far as he knew. He was a sweetheart of a guy, and the town still missed him. He’d heard rumors about Ruth and Daniel, but hadn’t entirely believed them. “So things were serious between you?”
“Oh yes. We used to meet in the woods, and sometimes at his cabin. We talked and…got intimate, sometimes. We kissed, like he’d kiss me on the neck and things like that. He knew that anything more would lead to marriage. Then finally he said he wanted to marry me, but I knew Luke would never agree to it because Daniel didn’t want to drop his whole life and live on the compound. So we decided to run away together and get married in secret. Then…well, you know what happened next.”
He did. Daniel had been killed in an avalanche, but there was much more to the story than that. Although it had never been proven, the Chilkoots had been implicated. “I’m so sorry. Daniel was a cool dude.”
“He was. But apparently he overheard something when he was at the compound…” She shuddered. “Anyway, after that happened, I gave up on the idea of getting married. I was never meant to, you know. I’m a Chilkoot by blood, so I’d have to marry outside the clan, and they wanted me to stay and be the full-time homeschool teacher. I figured that would be my life. Kids. And chickens. And berries. Life on the farm. Then suddenly Luke and Naomi were arrested and the state of Alaska put me in charge.”
She watched a kayaker navigate the passage between two gravel banks, while he watched her. Ruth had no idea how fascinating she was. This was the first time she’d opened up, and he could listen to her forever.
“Are you saying you want to have children of your own? Is that what you want for your future?”
She shook her head. “No, not necessarily. I mean that I’ve never had any choice in it before. Now I do and it’s confusing. I never knew that life could be so complicated. Back home, things were much more simple. Every day I had my tasks and I performed them. I didn’t have to choose or decide or anything like that. I guess I’m still just getting used to how things are now. So, the point of this whole story is that I can’t answer your question. My life has been turned upside down so many times. Daniel dying, then Luke and Naomi getting arrested, then Luke coming back. Our escape. Now I’m on my own for the first time, and it’s a challenge. I’m still just taking baby steps.”
“I don’t know, driving to a prison in Eagle River is a lot more than a baby step.”
The smile she turned on him made his heart skip a beat.
“That’s true, and I’m glad you’re with me. Thanks for listening to all that. I’ve told some of it to Martha, but she’s always so tired at the end of the day that she falls asleep while I’m still talking.”
He smiled back ruefully. “Ruth, I love it when you talk. Don’t ever think I’m not interested, because I am. Besides, you have a pretty voice. Do you like to sing?”
“I sing lullabies, but that’s about it. We used to have music night at the compound, and sing around a campfire. I always enjoyed that.”
“Good. I know what we’re doing the rest of the drive. I think we’re almost in range of the good radio station.”
They spent the rest of the drive to Blackbear listening to the classic rock radio station, then picking up more signals as they got closer to civilization. Country, jazz, oldies, and a college radio station that played a mix of alternative and hop-hip that really blew Ruth’s mind.
As they listened and sang along, they watched the terrain change from mountainous to vast open fields, with tiny dots of communities popping up here and there. Ruth watched everything with wide open eyes.
The funniest moment was when they stopped to buy snacks. The Firelight Ridge general store carried a small selection of chips, but nothing compared to your average gas station. Ruth stopped dead in the aisle of the convenience store and whispered, “What’s a Flaming Cheeto? Will it actually catch fire in your mouth?”
When Gunnar explained, she turned so red that he felt bad, and bought one of every type of chip so she could experience them all for herself.
Five half-eaten bags of chips and one stomachache later, they reached Blackbear. From there, it would be another long drive to Eagle River, just north of Anchorage, where the only women’s correctional center in Alaska was located.
“Do you want to spend the night here or keep going? We have another seven hours of driving before we reach Eagle River.”
“Seven hours.” She whooshed out a breath. “We probably wouldn’t be able to see Naomi then anyway.”
“No. Visiting hours will be over.”
“We could keep going and sleep in the parking lot. Martha gave me a tent and a sleeping bag, and we could set it up right there, or in the woods.”
He hid a smile at her na?veté. “We can’t just set up a tent anywhere. Private property and all that. But they have hotels in Eagle River. There are a few on the way there, too.”
“I’ve never stayed in a hotel.” Her eyes lit with worry. “Are they very expensive?”
“They can be, but this is Alaska. Things aren’t very fancy here,” he explained when she looked blank. “We can find something affordable. Don’t worry, I’ll pay for it, since you’re doing me a huge favor with all this.”
“Also, I don’t have any money.” She made a little face. “I’m only doing work trade for Martha. She said I could try to earn money too, but it sounded very complicated when she explained about taxes.”
“The Chilkoots don’t pay tax—never mind, I don’t want to know.” He waved it off, since it wasn’t his business, and he’d rather have plausible deniability if any IRS agent showed up. “Most of the world runs on money, you know. So if you go anywhere outside of Firelight Ridge, it’s good to have some.”
Her face turned pink. “You must think I’m so ignorant. I’m trying to learn, but it’s a lot to catch up on.”
“I don’t think anything like that. I think you’re brave. All these new things you’re trying to figure out, and on top of that, you’re doing this for me. It’s my problem, not yours, and yet here you are. I really appreciate it, Ruth.”
Right there in the cab of his truck, something zinged between them, an electric sweetness that burrowed itself into his heart.
Unnerved, he turned back to the road and hit the accelerator.