Summer of the Loon Read online

  Ben sat quiet a moment, definitely not the reaction Ali expected. Finally, he said, "I didn't really think I'd be welcome there. Figured it was best to stay away."

  Ali turned away as her eyes filled and two tears trailed down her cheeks. Welcome to Minnesota, she thought as those incessant trees continued to pass by and the sun sank into darkness.

  Chapter Two

  They arrived at the house in darkness with only the half moon and the headlights illuminating their way. Ali had never in her life seen so dark a night sky. Without the illumination of streetlights, building lights, and car lights, it was pitch black in all directions. To top it off, the house had no lights on to welcome them.

  "Wait here a minute," Ben said, then stepped out of the pickup with a flashlight and headed into the garage. After a few minutes, Ali heard an engine begin to hum and the garage lights came to life. Her grandfather came back to the truck. "Had to start up the generator," he told her.

  Ali had no idea what a generator was.

  Ben came around to Ali's side, opened up the back door, and pulled out her suitcase. He lifted the heavy bag easily and walked into the two-stall garage that was attached to the house. Ali wasn't sure what to do, so she picked up her backpack and followed him.

  Ben opened a door in the garage that led into the dark kitchen. He set Ali's bag down and clicked on the light, then proceeded farther into the house and turned on another light in the living room.

  Ali stood in the small kitchen and looked around her. The walls were split, smooth, honey-colored logs. The kitchen was small but efficient, with an oven and broiler built into the wall ahead of her and the gas burners embedded in the counter on her left. The refrigerator stood by the door behind her, where they'd entered. All the appliances were stainless steel, which surprised Ali because they seemed to be quite new. There was a double sink to her left with a small window over it and counters on either side. The cupboards were also stained a soft honey color and gleamed to a polished perfection in the light. Ali noticed there was no dishwasher or microwave in the kitchen. Over the burners was a pass-through window with a ledge, and she saw that her grandfather was watching her through the opening.

  Ali walked into the next room, which held a large, oak dining table and eight chairs. The open room continued straight on to a living room where a large sofa and two reclining rockers sat with a coffee table separating them. All along the wall to her left were windows. Ali walked on the polished hardwood floors to one of the large windows and looked out. With so little moon above, and no outdoor lights, she couldn't see a thing. To her right, down below, there was a light on in the window of a building.

  "That's the lodge down there," Ben said. "Straight ahead of you, down the hill, is the lake. That's why it looks so dark. Wait until the full moon, then you'll be able to see it at night."

  Ali nodded. She suddenly felt very tired, as if it had been years since she left California instead of hours.

  Her grandfather lifted his arm and pointed to a smaller room off the living room. "Through there is the door to the bathroom. It's the only one we have. My room is through the door by the kitchen where we entered."

  "Is there somewhere I can plug in my phone? And my laptop?" Ali asked, looking around. She noticed there was no television in the living room. What did he do for fun around here?

  "You can plug them in upstairs in your room, but it won't do you much good tonight. I turn the generator off at nine every night. I get up early, so I go to bed early. There's an oil lamp in your room if you need light after nine."

  Ali just stared at him. She wasn't used to having the electricity turned off each night. "Don't you have power out here?"

  "They ran power down to the lodge a few years ago, but I didn't bother to have it hooked up here. Don't need it. I have the generator for all my needs. I don't have television or internet connected here, either. If you want to watch T.V. or use a computer, you'll have to go down to the lodge. And like I said, your cell phone is useless out here. There's a phone down at the lodge, though, if you need to make a call."

  Ali blinked and stared at the old man as she absorbed his words. No television, no internet, and no phone, and only a generator for power. She hadn't realized people in the United States still lived like this. Like it was the 1800s or something. And the worst part was that her grandfather looked smug about the fact that he didn't have any conveniences. Like he was showing her a thing or two. Ali sighed.

  "I'll show you where your room is," Ben said. "Follow me."

  Ben walked back toward the kitchen and Ali frowned. She hadn't seen a staircase anywhere in the kitchen when she came in.

  "You coming?" Ben asked gruffly.

  Ali sighed again and followed him to the kitchen.

  "My room is here." Ben pointed to a door by the refrigerator that Ali hadn't noticed when she walked in. Then he lifted her suitcase and headed back out into the garage. He took a left and flicked on another overhead light. That was when she saw the staircase. It was on the side wall of the garage. Her mouth dropped open as she watched him start up the wooden stairs. The entrance to her room was in the garage? Could it get any worse?

  Ali reluctantly followed her grandfather up the stairs and through the lightweight door that had a small window on the top half covered with a curtain. What greeted her was a long, open room the size of the full length of the house. The roof peaked, and slanted down. They were in the attic.

  "I hope this is okay," Ben said as he clicked on the overhead light and set the suitcase down on the arms of a big, plaid upholstered chair.

  Ali looked around. There was a window on one end of the room, over the bed, and two dormers with large windows to her left at the front of the house. The bed was queen size with a white, wooden headboard and footboard and had a patchwork quilt covering it. A white chest sat at the foot of the bed with a red pillow on top of it so it could be used as a bench. There was a nightstand beside the bed with a small electric lamp and an old-fashioned oil lamp sitting on it, and a white, six-drawer dresser with a mirror on top to the left of the bed. Sitting in one dormer nook was an oak desk and chair. Cherry red curtains were over all of the windows and matched the red patches in the quilt. To the right of the bed was a long bar hanging from the ceiling holding empty hangers on it. Ali supposed this was to be her closet. As she looked around, she thought it wasn't too bad of a room after all.

  Her grandfather cleared his throat. "There are power sockets by the desk and dresser, if you want to charge your things. You'll have to wait until morning though, since it's almost bedtime. You should go use the bathroom downstairs, too, before I turn the generator off. You'll want to be sure to keep this door shut tight at night so you don't let any critters in."

  Ali's eyes grew wide. "Critters? What type of critters?"

  Ben looked at her seriously. "Well, there's chipmunks and squirrels. Then there's skunks and raccoons, they really like to dig around in people's things. I'd advise you not to have food up here at night, either. Bears can smell food from far away."

  "Bears?" Ali squealed. "Bears can get up those stairs and in this room?"

  "Bears are climbers; of course they can get up a flight of stairs. Of course, I wouldn't worry too much about them. I almost always close the garage door at night so critters don't get into the garbage. I'm sure you won't have a problem, just keep your door shut tight and stay up here at night."

  Oh, great. Not only do I not have lights at night, but now I might get a visit from a bear. I've officially landed in hell. As Ali contemplated the fact that animals might end up in her bed, she noticed a tug at the corner of her grandfather's mouth and a twinkle in his eyes. Ali narrowed her eyes. He's enjoying this. He wants to scare me, just for the fun of it.

  "We eat breakfast early, especially now that there are guests staying at the resort. I'll wake you in time to go down to the lodge with me. Jo and her son are nice people, you'll like them."

  "Jo?" Ali asked.

  "Yeah. Short for
Josephine. She and her husband bought the resort from me a few years ago and now I help out around there. Her husband died awhile back. She's a good person." Ben looked around the room a moment, his eyes landing on the red curtains. "Jo helped me get this room ready for you. She made the curtains. The quilt used to be your mother's. My Lizzie, your grandmother, made it."

  Ali noticed her grandfather's voice softened when he said "my Lizzie". Maybe he wasn't such a mean old man after all. She reached down and touched the corner of the quilt, rubbing the material between her thumb and forefinger. The fabric was soft from years of washing.

  "It’s a nice quilt," she told him.

  Ben raised his gaze to look into Ali's blue eyes. He nodded curtly, and turned to leave. "Come and use the bathroom before lights out," he reminded her, then let the door bang behind him as he left the room.

  Later, after Ali had unpacked a few things she needed, and used the bathroom, she pulled back the old timeworn quilt on her bed and slipped between the soft sheets. The sheets were new, as were the pillows and the blanket under the quilt, but the quilt was from another time. A time when her mother had been young and carefree, before her life changed course. Ali ran her hand over the soft fabric, and thought about her mother and how she'd slept under this quilt that her own mother had lovingly made for her. The quilt was made from yellow cotton, denim blues, red calico, pink corduroy, and white cotton that had turned creamy with age. Ali wondered if it had been made from clothes her mother had worn as a child and outgrown. She wondered if her mother had been happy as a child, lying under this quilt. Suddenly, the light beside her bed went out, and the hum of the generator grew silent. Ali sighed. Nine o'clock. She lay back and listened to the nighttime sounds of the woods in the distance as tears streamed down her cheeks.

  ***

  Long after he'd turned the generator off, Ben sat in his chair in the living room with only the golden light of the oil lamp. Usually, he was sound asleep only minutes after the lights were out, but not tonight. After his granddaughter headed back up to her bedroom, and he closed the garage door and locked it, and after he turned off the generator, he found he wasn't sleepy.

  Ben rocked back and forth in his chair, watching the shadows on the walls around him as the flame flickered in the lamp. Outside, the frogs croaked in a nearby swamp, and an old hoot owl called out into the night. Usually, these sounds of the night lulled him to sleep, but not tonight. Tonight, he was worried he'd made a mistake, having his granddaughter move out here and live with him. As much a mistake for him as for her.

  Ali was used to living in the city with access to television, cell phones, and that blasted internet everyone seemed to need these days. What the hell would she do out here, in the middle of the woods?

  Ben couldn't help but smirk when he thought about how frightened she'd looked when he'd told her to watch out for critters coming up to her room, especially bears. He'd only been kidding. Of course he'd make sure she was safe up there. But she didn't understand his sense of humor yet, and how serious he could look when he was pulling a person's leg. Then again, how would she know if he was kidding? She didn't know him from Adam.

  The moment he'd seen her at the airport, he was surprised to find that she didn't have her mother's square jaw, although she sure could tighten it stubbornly when she wanted to, just like his little Jen had. No, her face was a soft oval, like his Lizzie's. And those eyes. They were the same vibrant blue as her mother's, the same blue as his. She was a striking girl, with her long, dark hair and light skin, standing tall and lean. All he could think was that he'd have his hands full keeping the boys away from her.

  Ben ran his hands through his thick hair and stood, staring out the window into the dark night. Ali's comment earlier in the truck reverberated in his head. He'd been trying to be nice, saying he was sorry for her mother's passing. And he was. After all, she'd been his daughter. But when Ali had said, 'Not sorry enough to make it to the funeral,' it had shook Ben to his core. He had wanted to go to the funeral. He'd wanted to fly out immediately after hearing his daughter had died and hold Ali in his arms and grieve with her. But deep down, he knew he wouldn't have been welcome there. Nor should he have been.

  Below, down at the lodge, the light in the kitchen still burned. Jo would still be up, baking fresh bread for the morning and doing about a hundred other chores necessary for running a resort. She ran it just as smoothly as he and his Lizzie had years before, always baking and cooking delicious meals for the guests and providing the perfect north woods experience for each and every person who came to stay. Ben helped as much as he could, cutting firewood, cleaning the outdoor areas, keeping the boats in working order, and so many other small chores in addition to taking guests out on fishing and hunting trips. Chase, her son, helped out, too. He was a hardworking boy, and Ben had enjoyed watching him grow up. But raising a boy was so much different than a girl. Ben knew this from experience. Having Ali here was going to be a handful, for sure.

  Ben finally went to bed and lay there for some time before sleep eventually fell over him. His last thoughts were of his Lizzie, as they always were each night, and how much he missed her gentle guidance, even if he hadn't always listened to her.

  Chapter Three

  Ali awoke with a start in the dark room. Slivers of sunlight seeped in through the red curtains, leaving an orange tint across her bed. Lying on her stomach, arms above her head, Ali lifted her head a little and squinted at the small battery powered alarm clock she'd placed on her nightstand. Five forty-five a.m. She closed her eyes and dropped her head back on the pillow.

  "Ali, wake up. It's time for breakfast."

  Ali's eyes shot open and she quickly rolled over in bed to see where the gruff voice had come from. Standing over her was a dark shadow. It took her a moment to come to her senses and realize it was her grandfather.

  Ali fell back again on the bed, holding her hand over her pumping heart. "Geez, you scared me half to death," she told the looming shadow.

  "You sleep like the dead," he said. "Been trying to wake you for over five minutes. It's time to get up for breakfast. If you aren't downstairs in ten minutes, I'm going without you." Ben turned and stomped out of the room. Ali heard his heavy boots retreat down the stairs.

  Ali groaned. Who in the world eats at dawn? I'm not even awake, let alone hungry. She shook her head to try to wake up and finally rolled over enough to pull herself up and out of the bed. Standing there in the semi-dark room, she remembered that there was internet down at the lodge, and her tired face brightened a little. She pulled the string on the light hanging from the ceiling, and the room filled with light. Excited that the generator was running, Ali plugged in her phone and hoped he wouldn't turn it off when they headed down to the lodge for breakfast. Then she dressed hurriedly, ran the brush through her long, straight hair, grabbed her laptop bag, and headed down the stairs. She caught up to her grandfather, who was standing on the cement slab outside the garage, waiting for her.

  "Well, it's about time. Almost left without you. Let's go."

  Ali turned to follow her grandfather down the hill when suddenly she stopped. Her eyes touched the scenery, and she involuntarily drew in a breath. The scene spread out before her was breathtaking, like a painting or photograph of the most serene place on earth. Dew glistened on the grass all around her, and the crisp, morning air gently caressed her cheeks. Down the hill lay the lake, peaceful and still. It looked like a small cove, with land protecting it on both sides, but then opening up to many more coves over miles of acres. Directly across the lake from the house stood a tall, rocky cliff, where pine trees and moss jutted out of the rock. Down the gravel road, to the right, sat the resort on a point of land that spread out like a peninsula into the crystal blue water. A forest of trees, blue sky, and deep blue water surrounded Ali, and she couldn't help but be amazed at the spectacular beauty of it.

  "It's so beautiful," she said, her voice a reverent whisper.

  Ben stopped and glanced at her
in surprise. He looked in the direction of the lake where Ali was staring, and finally nodded. "Yes, it is," he agreed.

  Suddenly, a tremulous wail sounded from high above as a shadow swooped across Ali, making her duck involuntarily. The shadow continued on, finally landing on the still water with a splash and then gracefully swimming forward, leaving a trail in its wake. It called again, a long wail that echoed off the water and the cliff.

  "What was that?" Ali exclaimed, still ducking and looking up into the sky for more wailing creatures.

  Ben chuckled, which made Ali draw up to stand tall again, embarrassed.

  "It's a loon, silly," Ben said. "Haven't you ever heard a loon before?"

  On the water, the loon called out again, a long, laughing wail as if making fun of Ali too.

  "No," Ali said, crossly. "I lived near the coast. I'm used to seagulls and pigeons, not crazy birds that laugh at you."

  Ben sobered at Ali's tone and spoke in a kinder voice. "He's calling to his mate to let her know where he is. We have a couple of pairs of loons nesting around the lakeshore, in separate coves. One parent goes off to feed while the other guards the nest. You can practically set your watch to their feeding times. Around six every morning, one or another will fly over the house and then the next one will fly over about nine. Then about nine at night, they head back to their nests. You'll hear them almost every time they fly over the house."

  "If they live on the lake, why do they fly over the house?" Ali asked, interested now in these strange birds.

  "They feed on different lakes in the area, and there are loons nesting on each of the lakes. About a mile behind the house, there's a smaller lake, more like a pond, I'd say. There are loons nesting there. And about two miles north of here, there's another larger lake. This lake has eight coves and covers miles of area, so the loons fly from cove to cove."