What started out pretty awkwardly soon turned into a fascinating discussion, with Tara doing most of the talking. She’d had some interesting experiences, and it was clear that she led a very alternative lifestyle and enjoyed it. Still, as they talked, Danny had the feeling that there was a piece missing somewhere, something he couldn’t put his finger on – but let it slide, just for the fun of getting to know his sister again after all these years. It would come out in time, he figured.

It turned out that his father had to make a couple of service calls after he closed the store at noon, so he would be a while getting back. About one, Phil came in and joined the discussion. "Candice said you were out and took a ride with her," he said. "Sorry Josh and I missed you."

"I hung around for a while waiting," Danny admitted, "but decided you guys had decided to tack on some miles."

"Yeah, we saw you disappearing over the hill just as we pulled in," Phil smiled. "It always seems to work that way, doesn’t it?"

"It does," Danny agreed. "There’ll be other chances. Besides, Candice showed me around pretty good. She’s quite the lady, isn’t she?"

"She is," Phil smiled. "I mean, considering that she’s got her husband running a little scared. She was always this nice quiet little suburban mom and out of nowhere she turns into Wilderness Woman on him. He doesn’t know what to think about that."

"I just barely remember John," Danny said. "But yeah, what I remember of him strikes me as the kind of guy who would tend to be pretty straight."

"John’s all right, just conventional," Phil smiled. "I mean, he’s a CPA and a CPA type; that ought to tell you a lot."

"Where’s Brandy?" his mother broke in.

"Still doing one-on-ones, I guess, Carrie," Phil replied. "She’ll show up sooner or later, she was all over my case not to get out with the dogs somewhere and forget about this. If push comes to shove in another hour or two, I’ll head over to the gym and drag her over here."

"One-on-ones?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, she’s got this standard routine," Phil explained. "She goes over to the gym early on Saturday morning, and any kid who wants to come over and go one on one with her to work on individual skills, she’s ready. Sometimes it turns into quite a group, but you can tell real quick who’s there to hang around and who wants to learn. They did it out in the driveway by the house the last month last summer, and then into the fall until it got too cold."

"I thought some of those kids on the varsity had some pretty good moves for just being beginners," Danny smiled.

"There’s the real secret," Phil told him. "She puts in a lot of time with the kids. She doesn’t force them, just inspires them, and most of them realize that she’s got a lot to teach them if they’re willing to learn and practice. At that, it’s really a sideline for her. She puts even more time into preparing for classes, grading papers, tutoring and like that."

"She’s teaching, too?" Danny frowned. "I guess I hadn’t heard that."

"Oh, yeah," Phil smiled. "It’s not as high a profile, obviously, but it really is her first love. She got hired in to teach math and an AP section in geology at the same time they put her on as basketball coach. It keeps her busy. I had to set up a lectern in the office at the house so she could grade papers standing up. If she tried to do it sitting down she’d fall asleep."

"Good grief," Danny shook his head. "It sounds like she’s busy!"

"She’s busy, all right," Phil grinned. "I learned a long time ago that Brandy is happiest when she’s so busy she doesn’t know whether to shit or go blind. I’ll tell you what, I’d rather have a busy Brandy than a bored Brandy any day of the week. She spent five months bored shitless last spring and last summer. It wasn’t a happy time."

"She was really at a loss," his mother agreed. "She didn’t have much to do besides go out and run a few miles, come back, shoot some hoops, then go out and get in a kayak and burn off some more energy. The teaching and the basketball came along, and it was a sheer godsend."

"Till it came up, I didn’t know if I was going to be running the race this winter or not," Phil agreed. "I’ll tell you what told me I could run this winter. It was Tabitha grabbing Vanessa’s long pass over in the Warsaw gym and sinking a three-pointer at the buzzer to win the first Spearfish Lake basketball game in three years. I knew that second it was going to be a success for Brandy, no matter how the rest of the season came out. I will admit to being as surprised as anyone that those kids turned into The Magnificent Seven."

"So she’s settling in to being a local again, I take it?" Tara laughed, shaking her head. "I know she was getting pretty burned out on her old job."

"She was way past burned out," Phil sighed. "I knew it but I couldn’t make her realize it. Of course, I’d been there and done that myself. But finally, she was out on a site and just plain blew a breaker."

Danny knew a fair amount about Brandy’s old job, but not everything. Back when she’d been in grad school, working on her doctorate in geology, she’d come up with the idea for using something involving the fluctuations of the resonance of the earth’s magnetic field to search for ore deposits – he was not sure that was dead correct, but could not have explained it nor understood it any better than that. The geology department at the University of Colorado thought it was too weird and a long shot and didn’t want to back her, but a company outside of Denver called Front Range Technical Services heard about it, and thought it had merit. Both she and Phil had dropped out of school to work on it, and a few months later, a first breadboard test rig proved her to be right on. She’d worked for Front Range for most of the next ten years, becoming a partner along the way. She spent her time mostly on various mining sites around the world, usually at a given site for two to four months at a time.

It bored Phil to tears, and finally they decided that rather than break up, he’d get a job in the states, and they could get together while she was on hiatus between sites. That didn’t work out quite like they planned; Phil wound up with a good-paying job with a Chicago-based company called Hadley-Monroe as a tech rep specializing in a proprietary laser-guided computerized die cutter they had – when something went wrong it usually took a factory rep to fix, and since the device had been sold all over the world, that was where he went. The two bought a small house in Spearfish Lake together so they’d have a home to come home to, and Gil and Carrie could take care of keeping the bills paid and the lawn mowed. Given the different schedules, sometimes they might spend as much as six weeks a year together, never all at one time.

"You’d already quit Hadley-Monroe, right?" Danny asked.

"Yeah," Phil nodded. "I just couldn’t take it anymore. I was pretty well burnt out anyway, when we had this company in Japan decide they wanted a new application of the die cutter, and a tech rep wasn’t good enough for them. So, they had to send this senior engineer to talk with them. The guy knew his stuff forward and backward, but he was a sour old fart at the best of times and didn’t like to travel at all, so they decided to send me with him, just to grease the skids. Little did we know that his wife had been waiting for a couple years to get him out of the house long enough to get her stuff out. I mean, we’d barely hit the ground in Japan when he got an e-mail that she was leaving him."

"Pissed?" Danny smiled.

"Yaaah, you betcha pissed," Phil shook his head. "I mean, he was all business with the customer, but as soon as we were back in the cab heading to the hotel he was in a rage and stayed that way. I put up with that horseshit for about four days, and then decided that Hadley-Monroe couldn’t pay me enough to put up with any more of it, so I grabbed a plane back to the States and told them to jam it, I was doing the Iditarod."

"Tell the rest of the story," Danny’s mother prompted.

"What? Oh, yeah," Phil grinned. "I won’t go into the ins and outs of it, but it turned out this guy’s wife is an old Spearfish Lake girl, but hadn’t lived here in years. But she was also the mother of the maid of honor at Randy and Nicole Clark’s wedding, so she came up for the wedding. I didn’t know Nicole real well at the time, or Randy either, but she decided to invite everybody she knew in Spearfish Lake, so Randy figured he might as well invite the guys he eats breakfast with out at the café most days."

"Gil and I were there, too," Danny’s mother commented. "And so were Jennifer and Blake, of course. It was quite a memorable wedding."

"You can say that again," Phil laughed. "Anyway, I got to talking with this woman at the reception, and we kind of put two and two together and figured out who we were. She just apologized all over me for dumping her husband into my lap like that. I told her it was no big deal, by then I’d been out of Hadley-Monroe for over a year, was getting set to run the race and had my head all back together. I told her not to apologize, it was the biggest favor anyone could have done for me."

Danny shook his head. "Sometimes it works out in the weirdest ways, and that sounds like one of them."

"Yeah," Phil shook his head. "I mean, what kind of a long shot was it for the two of us to run into each other like that? You never know."

Danny nodded. "I’ve had a couple weird ones like that over the years," he said, without elaboration. The best example he could think of was Amy walking into the Redlite Ranch, and while he had decided he might say something about the place, he felt honor bound to not mention her. "It really is a small world, when you get down to it."

"It’s an awful damn big world," Phil commented. "And I’ve seen more than I want to of it. It’s almost hard to go to Alaska, anymore. I don’t know if you knew, but we’re flying the dogs up this year, rather than driving them like Josh and Tiffany always used to do. I’ll tell you, I’m not too sure how happy I’m going to be to get on the plane. I’ve spent more than my fair share of time on them."

"So, how are the dogs looking, anyway?" Danny asked. "They seemed pretty good to me when I was out there this morning, but Candice said they were just touring dogs, and I don’t know diddly about dogs, anyway."

"Coming along real well," Phil said. "Not all the spots are settled yet, and they won’t be till we get up to Alaska, but right now I’d say I’m looking at an even better team than last year, and I’ll have the advantage of having been over the trail once before. On looking it over, I pretty much ran about level with Tiffany between most of the checkpoints, but she pulled ahead of me partly on being more efficient at the stops, and partly because she knew what to do in some tricky spots I didn’t understand until I saw them. So, I hope to do better than I did last year, but there’s always enough unknowns that you never know."

"I’ll try to get out and watch you in action, sometime before you go," Danny promised. "I mean, I learned a lot just from that ride with Candice this morning, but I know that’s still just a drop in the bucket."

"You never know it all," Phil said. "And when you think you do, it’s time to quit, because you’re getting dangerous. We’re getting into racing season, now, so if you do hang around, you might learn more. In fact, next weekend, Josh and Tiffany and Candice are going to do the Warsaw Run, first time since ’94 for Josh and Tiffany, first time ever for Candice. They’re going to take some of the younger dogs for evaluation, a few that we’ve cut from the Alaska team, too. I sort of got myself volunteered to do turn point support. Come on along, I can use the extra hands."

"What’s that involve?" Danny asked.

"Oh, not a lot, just hauling and carrying things," Phil told him. "It’ll give you a little more of an inside view."

"I suppose I can, if I can dress warmly enough," Danny said. "My blood is still pumping at Florida thickness or thereabouts. I about froze my fanny out there today."

"No problem, we probably won’t be out in the cold that much," Phil said. "Kinda sorta depends, you know. I don’t really need the extra hands; it’s mostly a case of driving the truck up there and having the stuff to exchange. The rules are pretty tight; the mushers have to do all the real work. It’s not like you’re a pit crew, changing tires and like that."

"Sure, sounds like fun," Danny said.

"Great," Phil told him. "We’ll get together sometime this week to work out the details. It’s about my last real break before I have to be getting real serious about Alaska. Josh and Tiffany are going to do the Beargrease over in Minnesota the next weekend; it’s a training opportunity for dogs for future years, so we don’t want to pass it up."

"I take it you’re going to stay with it for a while, then?"

"Probably," he said. "Realistically, it’s a year-to-year commitment, but we’re investing enough money in the new dog barn this spring that I need to stay committed for a few years to get my money back out. When it quits being fun, or I think of something more important to do, I don’t think I’m going to have much trouble giving it up. That’s the nice part about being retired, I don’t have to worry about where the next buck is coming from."

Danny knew that Phil and Brandy weren’t hurting for money, but didn’t know details other than the fact that Brandy’s partnership in Front Range Technical Services, which she still held, was worth an awful lot of money. She’d made a lot over the years, had had little chance to spend it, and had let Phil concentrate on investing it wisely for her. He had made no small amount at Hadley-Monroe in ten years, had likewise spent little, and had also been investing for himself. And, Danny had heard the outline of a story from his father last summer that Phil had written some custom software in the recent past, and charged well into seven figures for it. Clearly, he and Brandy didn’t have to worry about where their next meal was coming from, and even all those dogs of Phil’s didn’t either. "Would be nice," Danny shook his head. "If you balance my assets and my debts right now, I may be as much as ten bucks in the black. But, I’m happy, and I guess that I’m one of those people who’s fated to never be a multi-millionaire."

"You never know," Phil shrugged. "Five years ago, I had the dream of doing the Iditarod, and never figured I’d really get the chance to do it. Life goes squirrely on you sometimes, Danny, and you ought to know that as well as anyone."

*   *   *

Danny’s dad showed up in the next few minutes, followed almost immediately by Blake and Jennifer. "Guess we better go help, Danny," Phil said. "Blake’s being real careful with Jennifer, and he’s probably got a ton of food to haul in."

"Sure, no problem," Danny said, grabbing a jacket on the way out the door.

Outside, Jennifer was just getting out of their large Chrysler, Blake offering his assistance. Danny soon saw that Phil wasn’t kidding; Blake held Jennifer’s arm as she climbed up the steps to the porch, holding onto the porch railing. "Danny, help her inside," Blake said. "I’ll help Phil and Gil with the food."

"Sure thing," Danny said.

"Damn it," Jennifer said softly as he held the door for her. "I’m a perfectly healthy adult, not an invalid, but Blake is insisting on babying me." She let out a sigh. "I guess I can’t blame him, this is pretty new for him, too, but it gets irritating after a while."

"I guess I can’t blame him," Danny said. "I mean, I’d feel a little worried, too."

"I suppose," Jennifer said, starting to peel off her long coat. "Danny, it looks like we’ve got a second. I just wanted to wait until I had you face to face to apologize to you about last summer."

"Your wedding?" he said.

"That wasn’t nice of me," she told him in a low voice as her coat came off. Yeah, he could see now, there was no question that she was pregnant. He knew her due date was now only about two weeks off, and she looked it. "But it was a shoot, not a family thing, and I couldn’t risk having Marsha throw a scene, louse things up, and ruin the atmosphere. I hated like hell to shut you out, little brother, and I’m really ashamed of it."

"Don’t worry about it," he said softly. "I understood perfectly what you’d done the second I heard about what happened, and you did the right thing. I want to thank you for it. When I got to thinking that Marsha was such a bad actor that she couldn’t be depended on to keep her cool in a situation like that, well, it got me to thinking. Some other stuff happened, you know about that, but what you did allowed me to get prepared."

"I know," she sighed. "But it still bothers me. Danny, I’ll try to make it up to you some time, I don’t know how."

"Don’t worry about it," he said. "All that crap is in the past, and best left there. Besides, you’ve got other things to worry about right now."

"I’m glad you understand," she said, and let out another sigh. "I suppose I’d better head on into the living room and sit down before Blake gets finished hauling the food in, or he’ll be hovering over me again."

"Works for me," he said, taking her coat and hanging it up, then following her into the living room. It was good to see her face again. It was a famous face, of course, and he’d seen her dolled up many times, especially in photos – but now, with no makeup, long blonde hair cascading off her head, and nine months pregnant she seemed radiant, glowing like she never had before.

She found a chair, the one Danny had been sitting in, and sat down gently; Danny noticed that the people who had been in the living room earlier were out helping with the food. "So, everything’s finished and you’re back to stay?" she asked.

"As far as I know, assuming I can come up with something for a job," he said, finding a spot on the sofa a few feet away. "Got a couple leads for part-time that’ll hold me for a while. We’ll just have to see once I get my feet under me and catch my breath a little. That’s my main goal for the next few months, anyway."

"Did Dad talk to you about working at the store?" she asked, still keeping her voice down. It was clear she wasn’t real anxious to be overheard.

"In general terms," he said, "nothing specific. About the only thing we’ve worked out is that we decided to not make any final decisions for a while."

"Good," she said. "Look, this isn’t the time to talk about it, but there will be time. Probably not in the next month, considering. But Blake and I will have you over some time and kick that around, and maybe some other options."

"Sis," he said. "I told you a long time ago, I appreciate the offer but I don’t want your charity."

"I know," she said. "And I appreciate that. I remember what happened when Marsha tried to hit on us years ago, and I appreciate that, too. But this isn’t about charity; it’s about some things I want you to see from my perspective a little, OK? And besides, we need to spend some time, just you and Blake and me. We haven’t had that for a long time, and there’s a lot of things that have changed."

"Well, obviously," he grinned. "I never thought of you as a mother."

"Me, either," she smiled, her voice back up to conversational levels now, as people began to drift back into the living room. "And yes, while it’s important to me and a major change in my life, there’s considerably more that you probably haven’t been made aware of."

"Sure, I’d love to sit back and spend an evening or two with you catching up," he smiled. "It’s been too long, and it was one of those things that Marsha stole from me."

"Good," she said. "We’ll just have to find the time."

"We ought to be able to do that," he said. "Right now, I don’t have a whole lot on the schedule, anyway."

"Hi, sis," he heard Brandy’s rough voice break in. "Still pregnant, I see."

Danny realized that Brandy must have come in during the confusion of hauling the food in from the car. There must have been a lot of it, he thought, enough to feed a small army – but Blake wasn’t known for doing things in half measures. He thought he heard Blake and his mother out in the kitchen, presumably working out the dinner details.

"When I’m not, you’ll be among the first to know," Jennifer smiled.

"Hey Danny," Brandy said. "Sorry I couldn’t talk to you much last night, but I had my game face on."

"I know how that works," he said. "I remember you from years ago. Varsity looked real good, I thought."

"Not bad, but that wasn’t the strongest team we’re going to go up against," she replied. "We’re probably going to lose some, but we should kick ass in future years."

"It sounds like you’re having fun with them," Tara said.

"This year has been a bit of a struggle," Brandy shrugged. "But it was going to be if we’re ever going to get the program back on track. The payoff is in the future."

"I really haven’t been staying too current," Tara admitted. "What’s happening?"

Danny had heard a lot of discussion of basketball before, and just leaned back as Brandy gave a quick once-over of the boys’ season – not going over the details since she knew that Tara really wasn’t interested. While it went on, he glanced at his three sisters. Not for the first time he reflected that it was hard to believe that they were all his sisters, they were so very different. While he physically took more or less after his father, he was the only one of the five kids who really had much resemblance. Jennifer was tall, actually a little taller than he was and, well, not thin, not now, but slender and shapely, with long blonde hair and a natural, pretty face; Brandy, the middle sister, was the shortest of the bunch, downright stocky. You wouldn’t want to call her pretty in the face, but she wasn’t downright ugly; her short brown hair was unkempt, and it was fairly obvious that physical appearance wasn’t a big deal with her. She was, of course, far and away the most athletic of the family – solid, muscular, a chunk of energy waiting to explode. And Tara . . . even without the Goth getup, she was different yet, more slender than Jennifer, certainly nothing you could call shapely, and that black hair of hers didn’t involve dye. Jennifer was musical, outgoing, an entertainer; Brandy exuberant, coarse, an athlete – although one who had also been a superior student, and he suspected a superior teacher, a genius who tended to keep her lamp under a bushel. And Tara, intense, inner-driven, artistic. Three very different people, all who led three very different lives. But, all three were successes in their fields, although Tara’s still seemed to be stil developing. Once again, the reality struck him that he was a failed quack medicine salesman that didn’t really measure up to them.

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