ROLAND’S RUT-RIDER GOT them safely into Isignaq at mid-morning on Sunday, but Cowboy was still waiting out the fog in Shelukshuk Canyon when night fell.
The governor and Pudu spent the rest of the morning following the Isignaq 400 via Kay-Chuck’s live coverage from the finish line.
Brad Mercer indeed led the pack down Beach Street, which prompted a call of congratulation from the governor on a phone in the principal’s office at the school, as Isignaq, like the rest of the villages along the river, was without cell service.
Active waited with Pudu at a desk in the administrative area outside the principal’s office as Mercer went through the ritual with her husband and promised to call Kay-Chuck for an interview about the race.
Then she was silent as, Active gathered, the First Mate asked a question. When she answered, her voice had a slight edge. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said. “I’ll be there when I get there. I am not taking a snowgo.”
More silence.
“I’m sure this will break up by tomorrow and…” She noticed Active and Pudu outside, eased up to the office door, winked, and closed it.
Active smiled. Every marriage had its secrets, he supposed. If it weren’t for the universal compulsion to keep up appearances, civilization would no doubt collapse like a snowhouse in the sun.
Mercer spent the rest of the day squeezing in as many of the things from her original village schedule as time allowed. She made it to the school Inupiat Spirit assembly, cut the ribbon on the new village health clinic, and bade Active farewell at the door to the home of Reverend Waldron, where she and Pudu were to savor a muktuk-based dinner and spend the night.
With the First Body safe in the care of the reverend and his family, Active made it to the village store just before closing. He picked up some pilot bread, squeeze cheese, beef jerky, plastic cutlery, and bottled water, as you never knew about a village water system. Then he made his way to the new clinic, downed his plastic-wrapped banquet and stretched himself out on an examination table in his snowgo suit with his parka for a blanket.
By dawn Monday, the sky was starting to thin, and by mid-morning was clear, as if the ice fog of two days earlier had never happened. Rodney Hamilton, Lienhofer’s Isignaq agent, caught up with them at the village store to let them know that Cowboy was on his way.
Mercer wrapped up her purchase of a set of nesting birch bark baskets made in the village—no politician would dare pass through without doing so—and the agent hauled them to the runway in his pickup. Mercer rode in front, while Active and Pudu took the bed with the luggage and the birch baskets.
“Arii, my mom, ah?” Pudu lifted his eyebrows.
Active gave this some thought. “I work for her,” he said finally.
“Ah-hah,” Pudu said.
“At the moment,” Active said after more thought.
Cowboy pulled up to the Lienhofer hut and shut down the ladies’ model. He helped them in with their stuff, they climbed in, and were in sight of Chukchi in its lambent bed of snow and sea ice by ten-thirty.
They touched down and Mercer nudged him as Cowboy stopped the 207 at the Lienhofer hanger. “Thanks, Nathan. Quite a trip, huh?”
“Goes with, I guess. This is the Arctic.”
“Indeed.”
“So, ah, will you be—”
“Needing you again today? I don’t think so, not till the musher’s banquet tonight. I’m sure my folks and the girls have all been terrified, so I think we need some family time, plus I really should get on the phone to Juneau to make sure all’s quiet on the political front, plus Brad and I have some business to take care of this afternoon, plus Fox News wants a Skype interview, plus I have to keep an eye on Pudu while he edits our video, and…oh, I won’t drag you through it all. But no doubt you also…?”
“Yep, I’m sure there’s something between a three-alarm fire and a train wreck on my desk by now, so I should probably shovel away the top few layers today if at all possible. And Lucy Brophy’s supposed to take me through the accounting system. Oh, yeah, and I have to look at the applications to replace her while she’s on maternity leave. So, I, yeah, definitely—”
“Good, then, let’s both go take care of business and I’ll see you at the banquet.”