Amazingly enough, Danny slept pretty well that night, the first night in the nearly two weeks since he’d walked out on Marsha. Maybe it was because he’d gotten some of the ruminations out of his mind while he’d been staring into his beer across the street. Or, maybe it was because for the first time in two weeks he had something to think about besides what an asshole he’d been to have put up with Marsha for so long. At least, maybe he was looking ahead a little instead of backwards, and he had something to occupy his mind for the day. That had to help.

A little to his surprise, he awoke long before the alarm was getting set to go off. It was still dark outside, just a little after six in the morning. He thought about rolling back over for another forty winks, and in fact, gave it a try, but sleep wasn’t coming back to him. It was just as well; he hadn’t sorted out many of his impressions from yesterday, just sort of stored them and got on with things. He realized that he’d happened to walk into a strange world he’d never even thought about before, and there wasn’t really much that he could do but get on with it.

The alternative to lying in bed and trying to think about it was to get up and do something. He got up, took a shower, and got dressed, pulling on a white shirt and tie in an effort to look a little more professional than in his sport shirt the day before. After all, the girls looked professional in their way, and even George wore a suit. The Redlite Ranch wasn’t some sort of dive, after all, he was surprised to reflect. Twenty-four hours before, he would have expected something far different than what he’d seen.

There was one thing he really needed to do, and he’d been putting it off. He’d called his folks not long after he’d walked out on Marsha, letting them know what he’d done, and telling them he was getting a divorce. At that point, he hadn’t made up his mind on Nevada or Mexico or whatever, and he didn’t want to leave much trail in case Marsha might decide to hunt him down, so he hadn’t filled them in. Things had changed quite a bit since then, even forgetting about yesterday, and he really needed to let them know he was all right.

He glanced at the clock. It would be possible to head over across the street, have breakfast before he went on clock, and probably call from the office – but somehow, he couldn’t quite bring himself to call his parents from a whorehouse, no matter how legal it might have been. And, he knew it was going to be tricky – his parents had been friends with the Austenfelters for a long time, Marsha and Amy’s parents, and this was probably going to screw things up for them, too. There was no point in making that worse, either. A call home was long overdue, especially a day overdue, considering yesterday. He glanced at the clock again – three hours difference between here and Spearfish Lake. His dad Gil would probably be at the store, most likely alone, but his mother had been going to the women’s club meetings on Thursday morning since God knew when, and was still doing it the last he knew. Very well, he could call her later, maybe tomorrow or something, maybe next week; his dad would do fine.

He’d known the number for the store since he was old enough to dial a phone. He pulled out the calling card he’d gotten back in north Florida and started punching numbers. In a few seconds, he heard his father pick up the phone and answer, "Spearfish Lake Appliance."

"So, how are things back in Spearfish Lake, Dad?" he asked.

"About the same as usual," his father snorted. "Except that my ears are still ringing from the bitching out that Marsha gave me a few hours after you called. I ain’t had my ass chewed like that since I was in basic, and you know how long ago that was."

Danny did know: it was fifty years, or had been last summer. His dad had been drafted into the Korean War right out of high school, and wound up spending twenty years in the service, getting out as a Master Sergeant – technically a Sergeant Major, since he’d had a final promotion for the sake of his retirement the day before he got out of service, but he’d never sewed on the stripes. "She was just warming up, then," Danny snorted. "You should have heard her when she was pitching a fit."

"She wasn’t none too happy with you," his father said, and Danny could hear the sparkle in his voice.

"Well, I wasn’t any too damn happy with her," Danny told him. "I told you about the stunt she pulled on me." In fact, knowing that Marsha had called his father and complained had taken one load off of his mind – his plan must have more or less worked, although he had been pretty sure it had. That was a relief, because if it hadn’t he could have been in a world of shit. Still, he didn’t plan on showing up in Florida any time soon, for the next seven years, for that matter, and it was part of the reason why he was lying low in Antelope Valley. But it still gave him great pleasure to recall it; it didn’t add up to a payback for all the shit he’d taken from her over the years, but he felt he’d more or less made his point.

"Yeah, and I don’t blame you for telling her to go to hell, either," his father said. "Bob and Linda called too, and they weren’t too happy, either."

"I was wondering about that," Danny said, knowing that his father was referring to Marsha’s parents. "I hope it isn’t going to screw things up between you and them."

"It probably will," his father commented. "But it’ll probably blow over in a while, too, at least with them. I’m not going to worry about it much. They’re just friends, but you’re family. It makes a difference. You gotta do what you gotta do, and I’m surprised you put up with her as long as you did."

"Well, me too," Danny admitted. "I’ve been kind of kicking myself the last few days for not doing something about it long ago, like maybe when Amy told Josh to go to hell. I should have realized then what kind of shit I was getting myself in for."

"Water down the river," his father grunted. "It ain’t too late to start over. This time, maybe you won’t get so blinded by what you think is love."

"I sure as hell hope not," Danny said. "I’d like to think that I can be half as lucky as you and Mom were."

"Would be nice," his father said. "You never know when something interesting is going to happen. Hell, I wasn’t given much warning myself. You know that."

Gil didn’t need to go into the story, for Danny knew it well. The romance was a family legend, mostly because it lasted for about ten minutes before his mother informed his father that he was going to marry her – no asking involved. They were in fact married within a week. That was almost forty years ago and it had worked out well by anyone’s reckoning.

"It would be nice," Danny admitted. "But stuff like that doesn’t happen to me."

"You never know," his father smiled. "Hell, the girl of your dreams might be right around the corner."

Helplessly, a vision of Peppermint Patty rose in Danny’s mind. Yes, she was a smart, beautiful woman, there was no doubt about that. But he couldn’t imagine introducing her to his parents – and worse, telling them where he’d met her and what she’d been doing. Oh, man, that would set off an explosion something bigger than Art had told him used to happen out on Jackass Flats! Yeah, right, Spearfish Lake, where the giant mushrooms grow . . . "I’m not thinking that far ahead right now," Danny admitted. "I’m still trying to get rid of the last one, and then I think I’m going to want a little breather to try and get my mind back in order."

"So, how’s that part of it going?" his father asked.

"Well, I’ve got the initial papers filed. I have to sit it out for six weeks before anything can happen," Danny explained. "Well, actually closer to five, now. I offered her a deal that I think is more than fair, since all I want out of the marriage is my hat and my ass. If she doesn’t contest it, or doesn’t reply, then it’s pretty much a done deal. If she does contest it, it could take a while longer."

"Where you at, anyway?"

"Nevada," Danny admitted. "I stopped at a library after I called you, and did a little research online. I thought about Mexico, but there seem to be some loose ends that don’t get tied up there, they could cause problems in the future. Nevada seemed like the best bet."

"Vegas?" his father asked.

"No, out in the country," Danny told him vaguely. "I took one look at Vegas and knew I’d go nuts if I had to hang around there for six weeks. I’m staying at a little motel out in the middle of nowhere, mostly because it has a cheap weekly rate. It’s not too bad. It was getting a little boring, but then, just yesterday, I picked up a job bartending for a few weeks. I figure it’ll help pay for the divorce as well as make the time pass quicker."

"Never been to Vegas," his father said. "But I always heard it was a good place if you wanted to piss your money away."

"That’s just it," Danny said. "I figure out in the country is good. By the time I get wrapped up here, Spearfish Lake in the winter will seem pretty good to me."

"You figuring on coming back here, then?"

"More or less," Danny admitted. "I mean, if you don’t want me to, like maybe it’ll screw up things with Bob and Linda, I won’t. But Marsha worked so damn hard to drive a wedge between me and everybody I knew at home for the last several years I kind of figure I’d like to spend some time repairing the damage."

"That’s a good thought," his father said. "You got any idea what you want to do?"

"Haven’t thought much about it yet," Danny replied. "I talked to Josh for a few minutes one day last summer, and he sort of said that if I wanted it there’d be a spot open as a summer brakeman. Maybe I need to fall back that far and regroup. I was kind of thinking I might give him a call one of these days and see if the offer is still open."

"Might be," his father said. "I have breakfast with him every now and then out at the café. I know he said he was losing two brakemen to graduation this summer, and he only sorta had a line on one replacement. But, you know, there might be something else."

"Well, yeah," Danny admitted. "Like I said, I haven’t thought about it too much."

"Tell you what," his father told him. "I hadn’t really thought about it till just now, but you know I ain’t getting any younger, and it’s a little hard being tied to the store all the time. Let me think about that a bit. Might be such a thing as you could work here part time, working toward taking it over up the pike, and maybe be a brakeman on the side, or tend bar, or something."

"Interesting thought," Danny admitted. "I have to say, that never really crossed my mind. Might be worth thinking about. I don’t want to tie anything down right now, anyway."

"Yeah, probably a good idea," his father admitted. "You might give Josh a call out at the railroad office sometime and let him know you might be available. He’s out there a lot, now. Did you know he and Tiffany ain’t running the race this winter?"

"No shit?" Danny said. "No, I hadn’t heard that!"

"They sold most of their operation to Phil," his father said. "Phil’s gonna do the race again this winter, and Josh and Tiffany are just going to stay doing stuff where they can more or less stay at home and not have to be gone three months at a crack each winter."

Phil was Danny’s brother-in-law – Brandy’s husband; they’d been married last spring after living more or less together for years, and of course he’d had to miss that wedding, too. Both of them had had globetrotting jobs that only brought them home once in a while, occasionally together, and they’d gone like that for ten years before Phil finally got sick of it, quit, and teamed up with Josh and Tiffany to run the Iditarod with them the last winter. Danny had heard about that, of course, and had heard that Brandy had quit her own job in the spring. He did not know the details, but understood that they’d both stacked away the cash over the years, and were probably worth eight figures themselves. That just added to his feeling of being a failure when he thought about it.

"Son of a gun," he said. "Finally settling down, huh?"

"Jennifer told me that they was working themselves to death," his father said. "It finally came down to the fact that they was going to have to give up something. Don’t know a lot of the details, but I guess they’re going to raise dogs and train them for Phil."

"I haven’t seen them much, or even heard a lot," Danny admitted. "But what I’ve heard, they’ve really been busting their butts."

"Yeah, they have been," his father agreed. "Jennifer didn’t quite come out and say it, but I guess maybe they figured it’s time to be thinkin’ about starting a family. Of course, your mother has been saying that about Jennifer for years."

"When’s she due?" Danny asked. "The news I got was kind of murky since I didn’t dare talk about it around Marsha."

"Tail end of January, I guess. Probably won’t be a major big deal, but you might want to think about being back by then."

"If things get settled here," Danny said. "Of course, I haven’t quite lost sight of the fact that I’ve spent the last several years in Florida, and it’s not exactly cold here by Spearfish Lake standards. I might just try sitting out the coldest months."

"Might not be a bad idea," his father told him. "Then again, maybe getting up here where the air is cold and the snow is deep, and getting out and doing a little skiing or something will be just what you need to get Florida behind you."

"There is that," Danny smiled. "Hey, look, I don’t expect to have any real news for a few weeks, so I guess what I’ll do is call home every now and then. Tell Mom that I’ll try to get to her in a few days, then maybe Jennifer, and Brandy, and who knows. You ought to be able to pass any real news around among you."

"Sounds fair to me," his father said. "I gotta say, I’ve been sort of wondering about you the last few days, but I figured you had shit to sort out in your head and wasn’t thinking about home much."

"That’s a fair statement," Danny agreed. "I’m still working on it, too."

"Any chance you’re going to be home for Christmas?"

"Probably not," Danny said, realizing that he hadn’t even thought about it. "That’s a hell of a long drive, and I don’t want to do anything that might bitch up establishing my residency out here for the divorce. And, while what I’ve got isn’t much of a job, it is something to pass the time and I don’t want to bitch that up, either. But I’ll run it by my lawyer, and see what he says. If it’s a go with him, I’ll run it by my boss, and think about making a quick trip home. I might not be home for long, but we’ll have to see."

"Might be a good chance to sort of reopen family ties," his father opined. "Phil will probably be up in Alaska by the time you’d be home otherwise, but Brandy should be here for a while. She’s going to take a few days off and fly up for the race itself, I guess, depending on how the basketball playoffs go."

"Just have to see," Danny agreed. "Hey, Dad, seriously, it’s been good talking to you, and you’ve cleared up my mind on a few things."

"Good to hear that," he said. "You know I ain’t much on going to church, but I do remember the story of the guy killing the fatted calf to celebrate the return of the prodigal son. Don’t think you ain’t welcome here."

"That’s good to know, too," Danny agreed. "Hey look, like I said, I’ll call again in a few days, Mom next time, but let everybody know I’m OK and getting this shit cleaned up."

"I sure will, son," his father said. "You take care. We’ll see you one way or another before too much longer, I guess. Glad you’re finally getting yer shit straightened out."

They exchanged goodbyes, and Danny hung up the phone, a little in wonder at the conversation. He’d always been told you couldn’t go home again. Maybe he could, after all. Things would have changed in the twelve years he’d been gone, effectively most of that time, and probably changed a lot. But at least there was the hope that he could patch things up and put them back together.

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