Tuesday started out much like Monday, except this morning they headed out to the more regular breakfast spot, the Spearfish Lake Café.

There wasn’t much untypical about the Spearfish Lake Café. It was like ten thousand other little breakfast-lunch places, right down to the deer heads on the wall and the basketball schedule for a season long past hanging underneath them. There was a counter at one side, and booths along the far wall. In the back corner of the room there was a big table with three or four chairs empty. They took seats.

"Well, Jeez, Gil," a familiar man said from across the table. "Who’s this stranger you brought with you?"

"Come on, Ryan," Gil laughed. "You remember Danny, don’t you?"

"Oh, hell yes," the man grinned. Danny remembered him – Ryan Clark, the president, and the primary owner of Clark Plywood, the biggest plant in town. Long ago, the Clarks had lived up the street from the Evachevskis. "Long time, no see, Danny," he continued. "Good to have you back among the living."

This was a lot more familiar than the crowd at Rick’s had been, and yes, Danny knew several. He knew Ryan Clark, of course – he’d been on the expedition to Vietnam with Gil, and so had Steve Augsberg, the VP-Operations out at the plywood plant. There were several others – and right across the table, a familiar face. He knew who it had to be, but it was still hard to believe: Ryan’s son, Randy. He’d been just a little shit when Danny had last seen him, and as far as that went, he still was – maybe 5-3 or 5-4, no more than that, now with thin dark hair and a neatly-trimmed Van Dyke. He couldn’t even have been shaving the last time Danny had noticed him, but he’d grown up, a lot. He’d heard stories about Randy, many hard to believe. He was well-muscled and fit, and now, Danny knew, highly skilled at martial arts. "Randy, it’s been a long time," Danny said. "I think the last time I saw and talked to you was before your folks moved out on the point."

"Probably something like that," Randy smiled. "I think I was in seventh grade when you were a senior, so we probably didn’t cross tracks at school much. Been a few years, Danny."

"That it has," Danny agreed. "Seems to me I recall you went to Northern Michigan."

"Yaah, up dere in dat Marquette, yaah, you betcha," Randy laughed, his voice slipping into the local accent around the college town; Danny was familiar with it – there were some locals who used some of it, too. "Majored in construction management," he said, his voice slipping back to normal, "then into the construction company."

"Seems to me I remember someone saying you got married here recently," Danny commented.

"A year ago, actually on New Year’s Eve," Randy said.

"Anybody I know?"

"Well, you ought to," Randy smiled. "Nicole Szczerowski."

"Nicole?" Danny said, eyes wide. Yeah, he knew Nicole, Sally’s daughter. "But she’s just a little . . . " he stopped, and shook his head. "Well, she was just a little kid," he smiled. "But then, you were too. Boy, the years fly by."

"That they do," he nodded. "No, she’s not a little kid anymore, in fact, she’s a couple inches taller than I am. Teaches history over at the high school, now."

Danny thought for a second. "Seems to me that Phil said you had a pretty interesting wedding," he nodded. "But he didn’t give me any details."

"Oh, the wedding was all right," Randy said. "We wanted to do it right at midnight, to catch the Y2K thing. It was the reception that got a little out of hand."

Ryan shook his head. "Your mother uses a little stronger language than that," he laughed. "They’re still just a touch pissed over at the Methodist church."

"Uh-oh," Danny smiled, seeing some grins around the table. If he remembered Phil right, some of the regulars if not most of them must have been there. "Sounds like a good one."

"It’s what happens when you let women plan a wedding and they don’t let you have any input," Randy shook his head. "I thought they were being stupid, but they had to have the reception right there at the church. One of my old girlfriends was the maid of honor, and she and a friend of hers thought it was a little stupid, too. I mean, have a reception in a church where you can’t have booze? They’re Grand Canyon raft guides; I’ve run with them and know they party a little hard on their time off, and they thought they’d liven things up a little. So, they spiked the punch. A lot."

"Hey," Ryan said, "It might not have been Crystal and Scooter, you know."

"And if you think that didn’t get all over town in an instant," Augsberg laughed, "you got another think coming. And that was after your old girlfriends flew into town, as if that didn’t have the stories going already."

"Well, yeah," Randy said. "I still don’t know what to think about that. I don’t think Karin was pulling our legs, but she’d been hanging around with that Colorado River raft crowd all fall, it may have skewed her sense of humor."

"Your mother doesn’t know what to think either," Ryan grinned. "And she still gets apoplectic when the subject comes up."

"Oh, cripe," Danny shook his head. "This sounds like another good one."

"Like I say, I don’t know what to think," Randy said. "Nicole wanted one of my old girlfriends, Crystal, to be maid of honor, they’re good friends, and Myleigh was playing at the wedding, she was another old girlfriend . . . "

"He’s not going to come out and say that he had three girlfriends at the same time for years," Gil laughed. "They all knew about each other, and they’ve all stayed good friends. It gave this guy aserious reputation as a great lover."

"It wasn’t quite that bad," Randy snorted. "We were all good friends, yes, but romantic, not very. It worked because we were all good friends. Anyway, Crystal was out there in Arizona with her mom and dad and her buddy, Scooter, they’re all involved with the rafting company, and Myleigh had been out to spend Christmas with them. They had airline tickets into Camden, but when they got to the airport in Phoenix they found out that the fucking airline was overbooked and bumped the whole group, and there was no way they could get airline seats to make the wedding. Well, Crystal’s brother had taken them to the airport, and he got the big idea to call up this gal he works with; she runs an air charter service on the side. She said, yeah, she could fly all five of them up here in her Learjet. So, the first we hear about it is that we don’t have to go to Camden to pick everybody up, they’re going to fly this charter in to the airport here, and they’d buzz Nicole’s and my new house out on Hannegan’s Cove to let us know when to come out to the airport. This was like the day before the wedding, and Nicole and I were trying to move in while we still had carpenters putting finishing touches on the house."

"It was kind of a relief," Ryan agreed. "It really was pretty busy."

"Well, yeah," Randy said. "Again, I didn’t see any problems with it. I just happened to look up, and here’s this little white bullet streaking across the ice right toward us, and it went overhead with a roar that shook the whole freaking house. If that wasn’t bad enough, it made another pass. I guess you know we hauled ass out to the airport. By the time we got there, the jet was on the ground, and Crystal and Myleigh and Karin and Al and Scooter got out. The pilot had gotten off first, a good-looking woman. Well, it was cold and she wasn’t dressed real heavy. We offered to take her out to the Inn for lunch or something, but she said, no, she had to be heading right back, she had an appointment that evening in Nevada. So, she got back in the Learjet, cranked it up, and sort of shook the place up when she left. That thing is loud!"

"So anyway, as the Learjet blasts off into the sky, Karin dropped the bomb." Ryan grinned. "Karin is an old Spearfish Lake girl; she hadn’t been back for years. Linda and I went through school with her, so we’re starting to catch up on old times, and Karin said, ‘I always wanted to make a splash when I came back to Spearfish Lake, but I never thought I’d come back on a Learjet flown by a millionaire prostitute.’ Well, Linda just about shit, and just couldn’t believe it. Karin said yes, she knew this woman a little, she’d spent Christmas with them, and she was a millionaire prostitute. None of us knows whether Karin was pulling our leg or not."

Danny had already made up his mind he wasn’t going to start telling Redlite Ranch stories around town for a while, at least outside of family and close friends, but this one was too good a chance to pass up. Maybe, if he chose his words carefully, he could get away with it. "This gal," he smiled, "serious babe, about five-foot-ten, nice chest, lots of long, black hair in a pretty full hairdo? And was the tail number on the Learjet N590SH?"

"That would fit the description," Ryan said, looking puzzled. "I don’t remember the tail number."

"Sounds about right," Randy frowned. "And yeah, she fits the description."

"This Karin wasn’t pulling your leg," Danny laughed. "You met Jennlynn Swift, otherwise known as Learjet Jenn, the fastest woman in the state of Nevada, although she actually lives in Phoenix. And, I’m told she’s also the most expensive legal prostitute in the state, too."

"You’re kidding," Randy said through a seriously dropped jaw. "Do you know her?"

"I’ve met her," Danny smiled. "I sat and had a cup of coffee and shot the bull with her for about an hour one time while she was waiting out some charter customers to finish their business. Veryinteresting woman. There’s a lot of stories around about her, and I understand the wildest ones are the true ones."

"Oh, God, Randy," Ryan shook his head. "Your mother is going to just shit."

"She’s not the only one," Randy snorted. "Danny, you’re sure?"

"Oh, yeah," Danny smiled.

"Your mother," Ryan said to his son again. "Is going to absolutely shit."

"Nicole, too," Randy shook his head. "Danny, welcome back to Spearfish Lake. I’m afraid around the Clark households, your arrival is going to make about as big a splash as Karin’s."

"Look on the bright side," Ryan shook his head. "At least we don’t have to tell them until they get out of school."

"Damn, Danny," Josh said from down the table, "It’s good to have you back. We’ve heard some of the same old stories around this table for so long, it’ll be good to hear some new ones. By the way, I talked to Tiff and tonight will work, but let’s make it a little early, like maybe 5:30 or six. We need to crash a little early; we want to run before dawn, again."

*   *   *

"So how was dinner over at Josh and Tiffany’s?" Jennifer asked a couple of nights later, as Danny sat with her and Blake in their large living room. There was a nice fire going in the Italianate marble fireplace. The room was neat as a pin, not ostentatious, but filled with reserved elegance.

It was considerably later in the evening than things had started at Josh and Tiffany’s, and Blake was still in the early phases of getting dinner ready. But, that was fine, Danny could wait. Blake’s cooking was worth it.

"Pretty good," Danny reported. "Once I got over the unreality factor. I mean, my memories of Tiffany are when she was a young teenager, or mostly even younger. I find it very hard to believe that this strong young woman Josh is married to, who has run the Iditarod six times, is that same little kid. I mean, what happened?"

"Ten years passed," Jennifer shrugged. "Over ten, for that matter. She’s changed a lot in that time. Of course, we watched it happened, were a part of some of it, but it’s still pretty amazing. To have it just dumped on you, I can imagine how it could be rather surprising."

"It is all of that," Danny said. "It’s just difficult to believe the experiences she’s had."

"They’ve had their adventures," Blake smiled. "I suppose you heard some stories?"

He had; it was better to tell stories about the Redlite than it was to tell stories about how bad it had been with Marsha, especially to have to compare it to how happily and successfully his friends’ marriage had worked out. They weren’t rich, but it was coming together for them, their new house would be under way as soon as the weather broke, and they were respected both in the community and in their sport. This time, Josh hadn’t mentioned Amy, like he had last summer, but he probably would sometime when Tiffany wasn’t around. Danny had long made up his mind he wasn’t going to say a thing. Period. How different things would have been for him; Josh had been the lucky one, indeed.

"They do have them to tell," Jennifer grinned. "That is the bright side of how hard they’ve worked, they have some good memories to show for it. In fact, they were working too hard there for a while; they needed to slow down and smell the roses and make a few of those memories, too."

"Dad was saying something about that," Danny nodded. "He said you sort of leaned on them a little."

"No, we leaned on them a lot," Jennifer nodded slowly. "They are workers. You know that they’re planning on going to the Grand Canyon on a raft trip this spring?"

"Yeah, they talked about that some," Danny said. "Apparently this Crystal, this old girlfriend of Randy’s who worked for them one winter, invited them out."

"I’d kind of like to do that trip myself some time," Jennifer smiled. "But not real soon, now. Maybe the last time we have a kid in the terrible twos I’ll be ready for the break."

"I remember you saying that you don’t plan for Jeremy to be your last one," he said. Considering his sister’s age and the possibility of birth defects, especially Down syndrome, there had been a lot of tests done during her pregnancy. They’d known for months that a boy was on the way, and had long since worked out a name.

"No," Jennifer said. "Really, it’s Blake’s request."

"I was an only child," Blake said. "It’s not fun. I really think I missed a lot growing up without a brother or sister."

"I can’t imagine what it would be like," Danny agreed. "I mean, we fought a lot, but we stuck together a lot, too."

"Still do," Jennifer agreed. "Danny, I want to thank you for the way you treated Tara, not only for being considerate, but for sort of shielding her from Michelle the other night. We were all pretty worried about how that was going to come out. I’ll be honest and say we were a little worried about you, too, considering what happened with you and Marsha."

"You mean because they’re both lesbians?" Danny shrugged. "I told Tara it’s not the same thing, and it’s not. She may have been reticent about it, but at least she was honest and up front. Marsha was never honest about it, even after she knew I’d caught her in the act."

"I know you realize that now," Jennifer nodded. "But we didn’t know at the time this was set up. The plan was to sort of sound you out about it before you were told, but things didn’t work out that way."

"I don’t know that it’s not better the way it worked out," Danny said. "Tara and I wound up having a pretty good discussion, both Saturday night and Sunday. She even invited me to come over and visit Sylvia and her some time."

"Sylvia is interesting," Blake grinned. "They both can be pretty forward. But they’re both very intense, creative people. Sylvia is much more the person Tara needed than Roger was."

"There’s no doubt about it," Jennifer agreed. "What surprised me was that Dad accepted it as quickly as he did, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, Dad and Mom aren’t any more normal than any of the rest of us, at least as far as most people are concerned."

"I suppose," Danny smiled. "Each of us is a little goofy in our own way."

"No, a lot goofy," Jennifer laughed. "Well, except for Garth. He’s probably pretty close to what most people would consider normal, which makes him the weirdest one of the bunch of us."

"Never thought of it that way," Danny smiled. Jennifer was right, it was an old family discussion, and although it had modified considerably over the years, it had just broadened. All of them had been brought up as fairly serious nudists, and most people considered that off the wall to begin with. Gil and Carrie still were, and Danny had been until recently – but figured that, like herbal supplements and volleyball, it was something he had walked away from when he left Marsha. As far as he knew, Brandy and Tara might make courtesy visits out to the Club once in a while but not often. Jennifer didn’t – not that she had anything against it per se, but she refused to make some idiot with a long lens an instant millionaire by showing up out there and stripping down, and the media frenzy it might draw would likely ruin the Club for people she grew up with. But Jennifer was now a rich and famous country singer, Brandy a millionaire inventor/geologist though now a basketball coach and high school teacher; Tara was a weird – face facts, Danny – lesbian portrait artist. "But, when you think about it, I’m turning straight," he protested.

"Not real straight," Jennifer laughed. "I mean, who worked in a bordello?"

"OK, point made, but it’s past tense," Danny grinned. "But then, who knows what’ll happen in the future?"

"True," Jennifer laughed. "That’s kind of the back way to work around to it, but that’s sort of what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Yeah, you were saying something about that Saturday," Danny said.

"I was," Jennifer said. "This is something that Phil and Brandy and Blake and I have talked around a bit, and now that you’re back here, we really need to bring you in on it, since it looks like you’re going to have to play a big part of it. I’ll just state the problem up front: we’ve got to ease Dad into retiring over the next few years without being too pushy about it."

"He was talking a little about that earlier this week," Danny reported.

"Yeah, but you know Dad," Jennifer said. "Look, I know you don’t remember, you were too little, but when we came back from Germany and Dad retired from the Army, he sort of said he was going to sit down and let Mom work for a while and he could watch us kids. I don’t remember for sure, I think Brandy started kindergarten that fall, and you and Tara were preschoolers, and the five of us just about drove him nuts within a month."

"I’ve heard stories," Danny said. "That was how he got into the appliance store in the first place."

"Actually, I don’t think it was us kids driving him nuts as much as it was boredom," Jennifer said. "For that reason he’s not real anxious to retire. Danny, for a long time now, I could have supported Dad and Mom in style for the rest of their lives. They wouldn’t take my money, not any more than you or Brandy or Tara would take it for college expenses. I mean, I really appreciate the thought of you guys not wanting to leech off of my good fortune, but damn it, there were some times when I wish you had. The only one who’s ever taken any money from me was Brandy, I loaned her a couple thousand to live on back when she and Phil were building that magres thing, and she paid it back with interest six months later. I couldn’t even get her to skip the interest."

"I can’t speak for the folks, but Brandy, Tara, and I talked it over years ago, and we mutually agreed it wouldn’t be right. You earned your money, Jennifer, we didn’t."

"I know, that old Evachevski pride," Jennifer sighed. "Both Tara and Brandy have told me the same thing, and Garth came to that conclusion independently. But, no matter, I know I’ve got hardheaded brothers and sisters. This is different. The point I’m making is that Mom can retire from the paper in maybe three years, although it’s six before she can draw Social Security and ten before she could draw it at the maximum rate. In ten years, Dad is going to be pushing eighty; there’s that much age difference, and it would be nice if they could have some real retirement together, not just work until Dad dies."

"I hate to say it, but I think that’s about what he’d just as soon do."

"Oh, I agree," Jennifer said. "But it’s not real fair to Mom, is it?"

"Well, no," Danny agreed.

"Brandy and Phil and Blake and I have talked about it lots," Jennifer went on. "We didn’t really have any good ideas until we heard you were planning to come home, and Dad offering to have you work in the business part time. We thought that with you involved, together we could push at the problem."

"Could be," Danny said. "And really, Dad is thinking along your lines, too. That’s why they’re going to take off in that motor home when it warms up some. I expect he’ll also be spending more time out at the Club this summer, how much depending on the hours I’m working at the railroad."

"We knew that," Jennifer nodded. "It’s a good first step. But there’s an obvious problem there, and I’m wondering if you’re seeing it?"

"Could be," Danny said. "The big problem is that it really isn’t a two-income business anymore. As far as that goes, it never really was, he always had some part-timer in there to help out, when he could have freed himself up a lot more if he’d had someone full time. Dad is planning on paying me pretty decently, but it’s going to take working on the railroad about as many hours as Josh will let me to make a halfway decent income out of it, especially considering it’s part time. We also need to consider that I don’t want to keep living with Mom and Dad for an extended period. I figure they’re going to be gone enough between now and the end of the season at the Club that it won’t have the time to grow into an issue with them, but by then a place of my own will be a concern with me. So, I’ve got to build up the nest egg a little over the summer, too."

"Right," Jennifer nodded. "That’s about what we see. Phil actually has a little more experience in retail sales businesses than the rest of us, and it’s how he sees it, too. He points out that if you were to actually make an offer to buy Dad out, it really doesn’t change anything; you’re still paying him as much and not having him working, to boot."

"I thought about that angle," Danny agreed. "Like I said, the plan now is to just get through till the rock trains end in the fall, then sit down and reassess. I think Dad wants to try slowing down, just a little, before he makes up his mind how bad he wants to come anywhere near a screeching halt. That works for me, I might get through this summer and decide that staying in Spearfish Lake isn’t for me, anyway."

"There is that, too," Jennifer added. "Look, I don’t want you to have to commit to something tonight. By fall you ought to have an idea if it can maybe be built up into a two-income business. More advertising, new lines, maybe even a new location, I don’t know. I know you hated selling herbal supplements, but you did it for years and you’re a good salesman, I know that. If it looks workable, and you want to give it a try, let’s just say there’ll be all the easy low-interest-rate credit available you’ll need. Dad may even put up with the idea of Brandy and me putting some money into the business under those conditions, I don’t know."

"Considering the objective, that does put a little different spin on things," Danny agreed. "Again, no promises, not till next fall or something. By then, I should have a lot better idea of what I’m getting into, whether I want to go to the effort, or what."

"We realize it’s going to be tight and you’d prefer to work your way through it," Jennifer nodded. "Danny, look, if it gets real tight, what we’re trying to do is worth a little subsidy. Don’t feel ashamed to ask for it."

"And," Blake added, "don’t think about running up high-interest loans on a credit card. It really isn’t a big deal for us to honestly loan you something at a favorable rate."

"I might have to consider that, sometime. In fact, I’ve got several grand on a credit card right now at a rate that stinks. I could pay it off out of my savings from Nevada, but it would leave me with about ten bucks in my pocket. I’d just as soon have a little emergency money on hand, just in case."

"Figure out what the payoff is and let us know," Jennifer said flatly. "There’s no point in you paying fifteen or eighteen percent or something stupid like that when you could be paying us one or two percent without us even noticing it."

"All right," Danny sighed slowly. "I’ll get back to you in a day or two on that. I guess I can manage that much charity."

"Don’t think of it as charity; think of it as a brother and sister working together to solve a problem," Jennifer said. "The real work in getting Dad to slow down is going to fall on your shoulders, so you deserve some reward for your efforts. But, at least you have some idea of what we’re thinking, and it’s us kids here in Spearfish Lake who are going to be the ones to deal with the problem. I just wanted you to be thinking the same way Brandy and Phil and Blake and I have been thinking on it."

"Just so you know," Danny said, "Dad is sort of thinking that way, too."

"Good," Jennifer said. "We’ve leaned on him enough, maybe he’s getting the message."

. "I guess that pretty well covers that." Blake said. "How’d you like it if I go get you two some more tea, and then I’ll get started on the halibut steaks?"

"Works for me," Danny smiled.

"No," Jennifer said thinly.

"No?" Blake frowned.

"I don’t think we’re going to get to eat them tonight," Jennifer said, a concerned look on her face. "I think we’re going to be dealing with something else."

"Jeremy?" Blake asked, a little surprised. "I thought he wasn’t due for another week."

"Apparently he doesn’t know that," Jennifer said, grimacing again. "I don’t know, but it feels like he’s coming fast."

"I’ll call Gene," Blake said, getting up and heading for a nearby phone, dialing it quickly without taking his eyes off Jennifer.

"Tell him to hurry," Jennifer said.

A few seconds later, Blake was back at Jennifer’s side. "He’ll be here in five minutes or so," he reported.

"Good," Jennifer moaned. "I think I can hold out that long, but I wouldn’t want to bet on much more than that. It feels like he’s coming now!"

"Danny, go call your folks," Blake ordered. "They wanted to know. Brandy, too. Then get some water from the jug in the refrigerator in the teakettle and get it going."

"Can do," Danny said, getting to his feet. "You know, I always wondered what they wanted all the hot water for in the movies."

"Tea, in this case," Blake laughed. "I mean, we’re going to have guests, we need to greet them properly, don’t we?"

"Blake, good grief!" Jennifer laughed in spite of herself. "You think of the damnedest things at a time like this!"

Danny was just drawing water into the teakettle when the back door opened, and a big, bearded man with a leather jacket and a Harley-Davidson do-rag came in, heading straight for the living room, carrying a leather bag. Danny hadn’t met him before, but he recognized him from his picture – Shovelhead, from the band. What the hell was this big, bearded biker doing here? Curious, and a little concerned, he eased his way over to where he could see what was going on. "How long has this been going on, Jennifer?" he heard the biker say.

"I’ve been having vague pains all day," she said. "But he started hammering my gut about ten minutes ago."

They exchanged a couple more sentences as he examined Jennifer. Danny realized, biker or not, this guy knew what he was doing. "All right," he heard Shovelhead say finally, "you win. I told you none of this home birthing stuff, with your age you really ought to be at the hospital in Camden. But even the EMTs won’t get you there in time. He’s fully crowned. Blake, help me get her into bed, anyway."

"Danny!" Blake yelled. "Come help! I better go strip a bed and get it set up."

"On the way, Blake," Danny replied, rushing for the living room, arriving seconds later.

"Oh, you’re Danny," the biker said genially. "Jennifer’s told me a lot about you."

"Sorry, Danny," Jennifer puffed, now looking sweaty. "Should have told you. This is my doctor, Gene Metarie, better known around here as Shovelhead."

"You play a hell of a violin, Doc," Danny said. Now that he thought about it, he realized that Dr. Brege, the old family doctor, was long retired, and a replacement had to have been found – but somehow, he’d never expected it to be this big, violin-playing biker.

"Just for fun," he smiled. "Jennifer, we’re going to help you stand up, and then help you walk into the bedroom," Dr. Metarie said. "Danny, good to meet you, we’ll have to talk sometime, but not just now."

"Fine with me; you tell me what you want me to do."

"Just help me keep her upright while we get her upstairs, make sure she doesn’t fall. This’ll only take a minute."

It wasn’t much longer than that – closer to ten minutes – but Gil and Carrie were just in time to stand with Danny and watch Blake hold Jennifer’s hand while she delivered their third grandchild.

"Hello, Jeremy," they heard Dr. Metarie say. "Welcome to the world. It’s a big place but there are some good people in it. You’re related to some of the better ones, and your folks are about as good as they come."

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