The Mountain Lights

Chapter 3

Dany stepped into the large log building. Inside there was a roaring hearth, pool tables, men who talked loudly and drank beer, a lady who served food and drinks, smells coming from the kitchen that made her stomach growl. The whole place was very rustic inside, the benches weren't straight but looked rather as if they'd somehow been cut right out of a tree, as they were, and just sanded down to smooth them out. There were dim gas lamps. And the heads of animals on the walls, a big black bear and some kind of animal with horns, Dany noted. She thought the horned animal was called a moose, but she wasn't sure.

Some of the grownups kind of looked at her funny, like she didn't belong there. In her mind she had just as much right to be there as them! She walked right up to the big burly man with the massive beard and the checkered cap. He had a big flask of foamy beer in his big hand.

"Hi! I'm Dany."

The man gave a chuckle then extended that massive hand. Her eyes widened at the size of it, but she took it anyway. Six of her hands could fit in it. He lifted her hand up and down once. "Jack. Can I buy you a beer, Dany?"

The skinny man next to him laughed. He was a lot younger than Jack.

"No thanks! I actually just want to find my uncle. His name is Matt. He used to be a lawyer. Do you know him?"

The skinny man next to Jack cleared his throat. "Yup, everyone knows him around here." He murmured.

Jack frowned then as he looked at Dany. Fin was right. Everyone knew Matt, he came here every night to drink until he could barely stand upright. Then he stumbled home with Frost. Sometimes he went to drink in the hours of the morning too, despite Rose's best efforts.

Some people couldn't understand why she liked the man so much.

Jack wasn't one of them. Matthias wasn't so bad. He was just more drunk than sober, been like that ever since he came to Harlem after his wife left him for some other guy and took his kids with her. He'd never mentioned to Jack that his children had ever sent him a single letter. Pity, really.

He recalled him mentioning Dany once, years ago, though the conversation was really about his sister. And he was already slurry so he didn't know if he was delirious or not. It was the same night he got into a fight with the O'Malley brothers, and Jack drove him home with a black eye. First and last time he ever got into a fight with anyone.

"Yeah, I know him." Jack said, "Does your mom know you're here?"

"Do you know where he lives?" Dany asked, evading the question.

"Trust me kid, you don't want to go there." Fin said, slurping the foam off his beer. Jack nudged him hard with his elbow. "Hey!"

"Yeah, he lives in the cabin near the woods. Come on, I'll show you." Jack stood up, and Dany's jaw slacked at his size. She had to look way up to see his face.

She followed him to the door, and he pointed at a little log cabin at the edge of the woods, on the other side of town, with the mountains as the backdrop. There was a faint light inside the cabin, and smoke coming out of the chimney. But her eyes were really drawn upward to the sky. There were lights in the sky, dancing all around the mountain tops. She gawped. Green and blue and purple and some almost red. It was a postcard picture. She'd never seen that before.

"What are those?" She pointed.

"Ah, the Aurora lights," Jack said. He'd laid a hand on her shoulder. She didn't even notice. She was enthralled by their beauty.

"You want me to, ah, take you over there?" He asked. Poor thing was ice cold. She wasn't wearing proper thermal clothing.

Coming back to herself, she beamed at him and nodded excitedly.

He cleared his throat and pulled up the belt of his pants over his belly. Then he took a key out of his pocket. He pressed a button and the lights of his Jeep blinked twice. "You go on in, I'll be right out."

She nodded, then skipped off. He watched her to make sure she got into the vehicle, then went to the counter where Rose was helping Lily fix drinks.

"Hey Rose, put the stew and the beer on my tab. I'll come pay tomorrow."

Rose Kirnsky was a naturally beautiful woman. Tall and slender, thirty-nine years old, with cascading wavy locks of auburn hair and bottle green eyes. Her skin was near the color of pearls. The face was slightly roundish with high cheekbones, and small, plump lips the color of her name. She was soulful and outgoing, and had been working for Charlotte in the Full Barrel Inn since she was a teenage girl.

"No problem, Jack. Who's the girl?"

Jack leaned in. "Says Matt's her uncle,"

Rose abruptly stopped what she was doing. "Oh,"

"Yeah, I'm taking her to him. What do you think of that?"

She considered as she wiped down the spirit dispensers. "Well, he's not going to kick her out onto the street."

Jack lifted his shoulders. "Don't even know where the kid's mother is."

Rose didn't either, but her gut told her that she wouldn't like the woman. What kind of a mother lets her daughter go around to an inn of all places without supervision? Not that they weren't a respectable establishment. But still. Most parents came in here with their kids.

"Yeah. You have a good night, Jack. Tell Matt I said hi."

Jack snorted. "I'm not going in there. I'm just dropping her off."

With that, he left the Full Barrel Inn and climbed into his Jeep. Dany could swear the whole vehicle sank when he got in. He wasn't plushy, just very big and broad. Her heart beat frantically in her chest with anticipation as they drove through the quiet street. All the buildings looked nearly the same. One had big yellow things in their yard.

"What are those?" She asked, pointing.

"That's a snowplow. The other one is a tow truck. Sometimes people get stuck in bad weather out here."

"What kind of work does my uncle do?"

Jack rubbed his beard as he drove. "He sells wood and charcoal to the grocery shop. His cabin is small but the land he owns is big. He owns many of the trees. Sometimes," When he's sober, "He writes."

Her eyes widened. "Books?"

"Aye."

The grin split her round face.

They arrived at the cabin, and Dany jumped out. "Thanks for the ride, Mr. Jack!"

"You betcha. I'll just make sure you get inside."

She nodded and waved, then shut the door and stomped through the snow to the wooden door of the log cabin. She knocked. Waited. She glanced over her shoulder, saw Jack was still behind her, the Jeep's lights illuminating the pure white snow.

She knocked again.

Come on, Matthias. Open the door. The kid's just what you need, Jack thought, rubbing his beard while he peered out through the window.

Dany's heart dropped. She was about to turn around, and she didn't know what she'd do then, when she heard the handle turn. The door opened.

Matthias was tall and athletically built even for his forty-seven years, from all the wood chopping. He had dark short-cropped hair that only greyed slightly at the temples, and the shadow of stubble, and dark eyes just like Dany's, except his' were a little red. All in all, he was still handsome, even nearing fifty. He frowned at her, and he swayed slightly. He wore a dark checkered shirt, baggy sweatpants and he was barefoot. Even in this cold, liquor warmed the blood. But he did, at least, pull on an orange thermal jacket halfway over one shoulder.

Her eyes were big and shiny with happiness. "Uncle Matt!" She wrapped her arms around him before he could say a thing, and he had to hold onto the doorframe to keep from falling backward.

"Dany?" He got out with slurred diction. Couldn't be anyone else. He only had one niece.

He crouched now, it was sort of safer than standing, took her by the shoulders, his brow knitted as he looked at her. She swam a little in front of his vision. He brought two fingers to his eyes and rubbed them.

"What are you doing here? Why aren't you in school?"

"It's the holidays, and it's night. Aren't you happy to see me?" She asked excitedly.

He looked at her like she'd asked him if he knew the man on the moon. No. Not like this. You shouldn't see me like this. "Danae, where's your mother?"

Her smile dropped slowly. He didn't seem very happy to see her. She silently stared at him. "She's, she's in An..An..." her voice was softer now.

"Anchorage?"

She gave a frail nod.

"You shouldn't have come here alone."

His vision might have swam, but he could see that her eyes teared up at that. His chest ached. But what was he supposed to do with her? He was in no state to take care of a child. Apparently, he was such a pathetic father that his ex-wife even managed to convince his own children to break contact with him. He hadn't spoken to them in seven years. Anne would now be eighteen, Luke sixteen.

He didn't know what she told them, but the last time he called, they angrily told him they never wanted to see or speak to him again. He worked long hours, many weekends, to try and give them a good life and education. Even exhausted, he had warmth and love to give. Unlike their mother. She was cold, but she was more present than he was. Stephanie worked from home in marketing, and loved to socialize. Why they chose her in the end, he'd never know.

"I'm taking you back to your mother tomorrow. You can stay here tonight," he said.

Dany didn't know where to begin to tell him, or even how to say it. She started crying, pressed her quivering lips together as her eyes glistened.

As some of his attention came back, he felt she was ice cold.

"Come on," he pulled her in, frowned when he saw Jack leave, then closed the door.

Inside, the cabin was cozy. The door led right into the living space. It was open-plan. There was a fireplace that crackled, with a big black Siberian husky in front of it. He had white cheeks and icy blue eyes. The tip of his tail, his paws, and the tip of one ear was white too. There was a kitchen with an island opposite the living space. And a stack of cut wood.

The furniture wasn't new, but it wasn't worn. The kitchen had a coal stove, and there was an old whistling kettle on it. Everything was rusty and old looking, which added a charm to the cabin. But it was all neat and in order.

"Who's that?" She asked, with a shaky voice. She didn't want to go back. But she supposed that there was nothing she could do to stop it.

"Frost." Matt said.

Frost said Hello with a single bark.

Matt looked around. He didn't even have a bed for the girl. He wearily drew his hands over his face. Thinking does not come easy when one is intoxicated.

Cold. She was cold. "Stay here," he said, lifting a finger. Then he went into the next room. The cabin had two bedrooms. He moved here from a three-bedroom house, and he used one bedroom of the cabin as a storage. The stuff that didn't fit, he sold. He didn't think about keeping another bed. What for? It was just him. Had been for years.

Dany heard him rummage through boxes. She saw the bottle of...brandy...she thought it was, on the island. There was only a little left. She sat down on the wooden floor next to Frost in front of the fire, gave his soft fur a rub. He yawned lazily and gave her a puppy kiss. Not knowing what else to do, she gave him a hug and stifled a sob.

Matt stumbled back into the living room with a bunch of thick furry blankets and pillows. He hesitated when he saw the girl lying against Frost with her back to him. She shook lightly. His heart squeezed. See, no good for her. Hell, he barely knew her. Helen had told him she didn't want to see him ever again because he wouldn't lend her money. She'd always been irresponsible, even with Dan's finances. She wanted to borrow money to fly off with some other guy to the Bahamas. Matt refused to help her set flame to her own marriage.

And that meant he never saw Dany again.

He laid a thick white blanket down on the floor right next to her, nearly fell over his own feet, the pillows on top, then two other brown blankets lined with pelt on top of that.

He hesitated, then laid his hand on her back. She turned around, and her cheeks were wet. She sniffed. She wasn't mad at him. She just didn't want to leave. And she didn't know how to tell him. Maybe another hug would do it.

She clasped her arms around him so tightly that she could feel his bones against her body. He hugged her back. She could smell something else beneath the alcohol. It was a nice smell, but she didn't know what it was.

"Come on now, it's not so bad." He said, rubbing her back. "Your mom and dad's probably worried." He frowned at his own use of the word probably. He didn't know what kind of a mother his sister was. He remembered Dany had a nanny when she was small, the last time he saw her. He figured it was to help Helen out because Dan worked so much.

She just cried more at that. He wasn't helping. He gently shifted her into the blankets, and tucked her in. Frost shifted against her.

He got up and swaggered over to the counter, not really thinking. He poured the last of the brandy into the glass. No matter how much he drank, he couldn't fill the empty hole inside him. As was habit, he turned around to look at the fireplace, and Dany left his intoxicated brain completely for a moment.

And there she was on the floor, watching him. He hesitated to bring the glass to his mouth. And the lawyer braincells started working. He still had a few of them left.

What was Helen doing in Anchorage at all? She had no business here.

He studied the color of the liquor, glanced at Dany again, then put the glass down on the island without taking a drop. And stumbled off to bed.