Stone Cross (Arliss Cutter #2) - Marc Cameron Page 0,28

to the bone. He hadn’t been too hard to convince. So they shipped a few household goods—mostly Bobby’s hunting stuff—and moved to Alaska as a package deal. Aften taught math and science, Bobby taught English and social studies, and they made this little village off the Kuskokwim their home.

“I’m going upriver,” she said. A decree really, but her husband was used to that.

Bobby Brooks glanced up from a pair of insulated pants he was mending at the small Formica table. He’d torn a gash in them hunting caribou two days before. “You can’t go upriver.”

She dipped her head, glaring over the top of her big, black-framed glasses. “What do you mean can’t?”

He returned to his mending, ever calm. “This isn’t me exercising unrighteous dominion, darlin’. The river is the one saying no. Abe’s boat was sucking up ice crystals all the way home yesterday.”

Abe Richards was the shop teacher in Stone Cross. He and Bobby had taken two days off to hunt caribou upriver. Richards was a little on the weird side, but Birdie gave them the time without complaint because they provided meat for several elders who were too old to go hunting.

“Everything was all right when you stopped by the lodge?”

Bobby nodded. “I didn’t see Sarah, but we left a caribou shoulder with David.” He set down the pants, carefully sticking the heavy-duty needle in the fabric so he didn’t lose it. Like most things in the village, you couldn’t just run to the store and get another one.

He wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging her from behind. “Look, hon, I think David is kind of a putz, but Sarah’s a tough lady. They’re probably so busy getting everything ready for freeze-up she hasn’t had time to call.”

“I already talked to Melvin,” Aften said. “He told me he would try and take me up in his boat.”

“He did?” Bobby said. “That doesn’t sound like him.”

“He tried to talk me out of it.”

“Smart guy, Melvin,” Bobby said. “I heard Vitus say he’s taking the day off for subsistence hunting. He plans to take his ATV out tonight and try to catch a moose. Maybe he’d give you a ride if you asked. That new substitute, Donna, said she’s been taking out Mr. Gordon’s dog team for short training runs, pulling the four-wheeler to keep ’em in shape. You could probably talk either one of them into letting you tag along.”

Vitus Paul, the school’s maintenance man, was just nineteen years old. He had a massive crush on Aften, which would make riding behind him on an ATV beyond awkward. Plus, he was taking subsistence time and she doubted Ms. Pingayak would allow her to miss a day to go hunting, since she’d already let Bobby go. Donna Taylor was new to the school, having taken over Colby Gordon’s combined second- and third-grade class when Gordon went in for emergency knee surgery. Unlike the rest of the teachers who lived in district-owned duplexes next to the school, Mr. Gordon rented a small cabin at the edge of town with twenty-six Alaska huskies. One quarter Yup’ik, he was something of a local celebrity and planned to run the Kuskokwim 300 sled-dog race in January if his knee healed up in time. Donna Taylor had not only agreed to teach his class, but to exercise his dog team as well during his absence. There wasn’t enough snow to run a sled yet, so she made do by hitching a team to the front of Gordon’s four-wheeler and waiting until after dark when the trails froze solid enough they didn’t bog down.

“Donna’s probably the best bet,” Aften said.

“Or,” Bobby whispered into her ear, “you could wait a day or two. It’s supposed to warm up tonight and things’ll only get worse. We’re not going to do anyone any good if we’re buried up to our necks in mud. Fog’s supposed to roll in sometime in the morning. We might run aground on a sandbar or two, but the river should be a little better for a few hours.”

“We?”

“I’m not staying home while my wife runs off and has all the adventure.”

Aften wheeled suddenly. “I’m thinking about this all wrong.”

“That’s a first,” Bobby said. “Not the being wrong part. Just you admitting it.”

Aften ignored him. “I don’t have to be the one to go in person,” she said. “Sarah told me she’s seen a couple of good moose in that little drainage south of the lodge. If Vitus is going out tonight, I can