From Out of the Blue

by Nadia Nichols

  Mother. Father. Son. Bonding into…

  Family?

  She wiped the steam from the mirror and studied her reflection long enough for the powerful and positive feelings to falter. It was hard to reconcile herself to being the stranger in the mirror, that bald sci-fi space cadet who had just endured her second round of chemo and still faced another, the last and the worst.

  She dressed in blue jeans and hiking boots, T-shirt and baggy sweater. “Rosa?” She opened the bathroom door.

  “Sì?”

  Kate lowered her voice to a whisper and pointed to her head. “My wig…?”

  Rosa handed her a small shopping bag. “You left it on the coffee table, señora. I removed it.”

  “Thanks.”

  Kate pulled it on, wishing she didn’t feel like such a fake for wearing it, but reassuring herself that her own hair would grow back. This was just a temporary morale booster.

  Hayden and Mitch were still outside. Good. She went to the window and peered out, hoping to catch a glimpse of their interaction, but they weren’t in sight. She dropped onto the couch to pull on her hiking boots. “Rosa, Mitch is taking us all to breakfast.”

  Rosa shook her head emphatically. “No, no, señora, I think it is best if the two of you go alone and leave Hayden here with me.”

  Kate glanced up in the midst of tying the boot laces. “Why?”

  “So the two of you can be alone together. I will fix us something here. There is plenty of food. I will make breakfast fajitas. Hayden loves them.”

  She straightened. “I came here to see what kind of parent Mitch would make. What better way to do that than to watch the two of them together? How else will I ever know?”

  Rosa raised her hands, palms up. “What more do you need to know? Look at how they are together. Already I can see this is good. This early time should be for the two of you, alone. Then, later, with Hayden.”

  Before Kate could respond, the cabin door opened and Hayden ran inside, holding his plane. “Look, Mumma!” He skidded to a stop in front of the couch and flung the glider across the room. It flew just fine until it hit the far wall with considerable force and the tail snapped off. Hayden stared for a moment at this latest catastrophe, then looked crestfallen at Mitch, who was just coming through the door. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “It’s okay, I know you didn’t mean to break it.” Mitch picked up the glider and the pieces that had broken off and caught Hayden’s eye. “But here’s the thing. If you want to be a hotshot pilot like your mother, you better learn to fly your planes outdoors. It’s a whole lot safer. I’ll fix it up again after breakfast. Deal?”

  Hayden nodded. “Deal.”

  “Good. Let’s eat. I’ve heard the Moosewood serves the best sourdough pancakes in the state.”

  Rosa’s well-meaning protests died a quiet death, and at breakfast, while Kate worked on a formidable stack of pancakes, Hayden asked Mitch about his real airplane and where he flew it. Mitch used the back of his paper place mat to draw a map. “I’ll show you where I fly the climbers in and out. This is the park,” he said, drawing a big outline. “This is the park road that comes in off the highway.” Long squiggly line. “This is Denali, McKinley, the big mountain.” Jagged peak. “This is the base camp where I drop the climbers off and pick them up. This is the route they climb up the mountain.” He drew a series of little slashes to depict the ascent. “And this whole area inside the park is where all the wolves and grizzly bears live.”

  “I wanna go,” Hayden announced. “I wanna see wolves and bears.”

  “It’s a long drive from here to the heart of the park, but there’s a pretty campground there. Primitive, but nice. You like to camp, Hayden?” Mitch asked.

  Hayden nodded vigorously, though he’d never been camping before.

  Rosa shook her head just as vigorously. “Hayden is too young to go camping.”

  “I wanna camp!” Hayden insisted.

  “Boys are never too young to go camping,” Mitch pointed out to Rosa.

  “And I suppose girls are?” Kate asked, nibbling on the last of her bacon. She’d eaten every last bite of her huge breakfast. It was the first meal she’d devoured hungrily in a long time, and her stomach felt just fine.

  “What I meant to say was that kids are never too young,” Mitch amended.

  “That’s what I thought you meant to say.”

  Mitch pushed back in his chair. “Well, anyway, that’s my flying route.”

  Kate took a sip of coffee and regarded him over the rim. “What kind of plane do you use?”

  “A Stationair, but a better name would be Stationary.” Mitch pulled his own mug toward him. “Before Wally got his hands on her, Babe was ground looped twice, went through the ice three winters back, weathered two major hailstorms that banged the hell out of her, and on top of that I’m convinced she was a lemon to start with. The fact that she’s over forty years old is the least of that plane’s problems. Everyone who flies in this neck of the woods knows all the aircraft that are in use commercially. Babe doesn’t have a good reputation, even though she manages to pass the hundred-hour inspections.”

  “You mentioned getting another plane?”

  “I have my eye on one, but convincing Wally to make the switch is the hard part. I thought he was on board but he got cold feet at the last minute. Says the Porter’s too much money.”

  “I wanna go camping,” Hayden interrupted.

  “Hayden, it’s impolite to interrupt,” Kate admonished.

  “But I wanna see wolves and bears.”

  “Mostly what you’ll see are big biting bugs this time of year,” Mitch cautioned.

  “I like bugs!” Hayden insisted.

  “Yeah, but you’re a guy. What about your mother? She won’t like that a bit.” Mitch said, giving Kate a conspiratorial wink. “You know how girls are. They think bugs are yucky.”

  Kate smiled grimly over the rim of her cup. “Wrong again. I love bugs. The bigger the better.”

  “I’m going camping!” Hayden announced, sitting up straight to make himself look taller. “Bears and wolves, Mumma. I’m going.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  AFTER BREAKFAST, MITCH FIXED Hayden’s plane as best he could, but it didn’t glide with any of its former grace. In fact, it didn’t glide at all. “Tell you what,” he said after the glider’s fourth abrupt nosedive off the porch. “I’ll pick you up a new one at the general store. How’s that? Then I better stop by the airstrip and find out what’s shaking.” He glanced at his watch then looked over to where Kate sat on one of the porch chairs, watching them. “I won’t be that long.”

  She caught the meaning in his glance and nodded. “Okay. I’ll be ready and waiting.”

  “And then can we go camping?” Hayden asked, holding the faulty glider. “Will you take us?”

  “You better talk it over with your mother,” Mitch advised. “I wasn’t lying about the bugs. They’ll eat you alive. I’ll see you both in a little while.”

  As he left the Moosewood, Mitch realized that the way things were going, he’d have an ulcer soon. Hayden was a cute kid, but any serious conversation with Kate was impossible as long as the boy was around. And he cursed himself for mentioning camping. No way did he have any intention of taking a sick woman and a little boy out into the wilderness. A day trip, maybe, but nothing more. He stopped at Yudy’s and went in to pick up another balsa glider, silently giving thanks to the generosity of the rescued climbers. It was nice having money in his wallet.

  When he arrived at the airstrip, Wally and Campy were in the middle of some heated discussion inside the hut. They broke off the moment he entered. Campy tossed her hair out of her eyes and took a drag on her cigarette, studying him through curls of blue smoke. “Well?” she said. “How’d things go last night?”

  “Good, until Wally called. I stopped by to ask if I could take a couple days off.”

  “What? That’s just great, just terrific,” Wally growled, heaving himself
out of his battered and broken old chair. “Go ahead, abandon me here at the busiest time of year. Great. Terrific.”

  “Last night you told me to do just that,” Mitch reminded him. “When I called you from Fairbanks to report the successful rescue, you told me to take a few days off. Remember?”

  “That was last night. This morning I’ve already had three calls. Three! That’s never happened before. Three calls in one morning. Hell, in one hour! What the hell am I supposed to do?”

  Mitch was dumbfounded. “What do you mean? Tell ’em hell yes, we’ll come.”

  Wally was trying to light his cigar without much success. He shook out the match with a curse when he singed his fingers. “That’s what I told ’em. God knows we can’t afford to turn any business away.” He struck another match on the woodstove and tried to light his cigar again. “Seegar Safari,” he said between puffs. “That name mean anything to you? That was one of the calls. Big-time mountaineering group based out of Seattle started by John Seegar, the Everest climbing guru. They want to set up a base camp contract. Ow!” He shook out the second match. “Big bucks. Big-name clientele. Steady business. The kind that brings more and more business.” Wally paced back and forth in the small confines of the hut, clutching his unlit cigar and waving it about for emphasis as he spoke.

  Mitch shook his head, baffled. “I don’t get it. Why all these calls, all at once?”

  Wally stopped to face him with a triumphant expression. “Turns out that group you flew off the mountain last night were big-time climbers—famous.”

  “Huh. That’s probably why there were a bunch of reporters waiting at the airport when I landed.”

  “No shit, and that’s probably why they interviewed you last night, which you could’ve told me about, you big buffoon. Anyhow, they interviewed the climbers in the hospital this morning and they raved about how you got them out of there in that windstorm after they got into trouble. Said you saved their lives. All of the other flying services told them it was too windy and dangerous to fly, but you came. And then last night’s interview with you at the airport after the climbers were taken to the hospital was spliced into the story. The phone rang three times in the hour after that newscast aired.” His eyes were bright and his face flushed with excitement. “This is our big break! Maybe that fancy plane is within our reach after all.”

  “Mitch,” Campy said, blowing smoke. “I know you want to spend some time with Kate, but you need this business to succeed as much as Wally does, and I’m sure she’ll understand. When the flying’s done, you can do something special with her.”

  Mitch rubbed the stubble on his jaw. This unexpected spate of work was the best thing that could have happened. It provided a perfectly legitimate excuse not to have to deal with a woman who might be dying and a kid who was probably all broke up about it. “Yeah, sure, that sounds okay to me. So, when’s the first job?”

  “There’s a group of climbers in Talkeetna who want to be dropped off at base camp tomorrow morning if the wind dies,” Wally said. “Right now, nobody’s flying.”

  Campy crossed to him and gave his arm a squeeze. “Aw, Mitch, I know the timing’s not the greatest, but you might get a new plane out of it. Bring Kate out to your cabin. She likes it there, she told me she did.”

  “What about the kid?”

  Campy’s eyes widened. “Her son’s here? In Alaska?”

  Mitch nodded. “And the nanny’s here, too.”

  “He has a nanny? Well, there you go. No need to worry about a babysitter while you sweep his mother off her feet. What’s the boy like?”

  He shrugged. “You know, a typical kid. Young, kind of shy, about three feet tall, maybe a whisker more. Look, I better get back to the Moosewood. I bought him a new glider and I told him I’d bring it right back.” Mitch heaved a sigh of relief. “I’ll be here bright and early tomorrow, and in the meantime I might just stop by and talk to Yance about the loan.”

  “You do that, Mitch,” Campy said, giving him an impulsive kiss on the cheek. “Tell Kate I said hello. Maybe you could bring the both of them by. I’d like to meet her son.”

  KATE WAS SURPRISED at how much she was looking forward to Mitch’s return, and equally surprised that he’d advised Hayden to talk to her about the camping trip. She had the distinct feeling Mitch didn’t really want to take them camping, but nonetheless, a camping trip would be a good chance to see how Mitch related to Hayden. There was nothing like a journey into the back country to strip the veneer away and expose the heart wood. Throw a little rain and some biting bugs into the formula and a person’s character was instantly bared for better or for worse. Camping was just the ticket to find out what kind of man Mitch really was in the shortest time frame possible. Of course, he hadn’t actually offered to take them, but Hayden was convinced it was a happening thing.

  Rosa was still grumbling about the idea being planted in the boy’s mind. “I don’t like it at all, señora. Hayden, he is too young to camp in a tent. The bears—they eat people. I have read articles about it.”

  Kate laughed. “Have you seen my bottle of vitamins?”

  “It is above your bathroom sink. Does your man have a big gun, in case these bears attack?”

  “Rosa, he’s not my man and we’re not going to be attacked by bears. I seriously doubt we’ll be going camping at all. Calm down.”

  When the knock came at the door, Kate beat Rosa to it with a mile to spare. She couldn’t suppress her smile when she saw Mitch standing on the porch, holding the balsa wood glider, but his expression gave her pause. She stepped outside and closed the door behind her. “What’s wrong?”

  “I have a few flying jobs lined up for tomorrow if the wind dies, and maybe more after that. Business is picking up.” He delivered this announcement gravely, as if it were terrible news.

  “And that’s a bad thing?”

  “Well, Hayden seemed pretty excited about going camping.”

  Kate smiled. “He’s packing his things as we speak, but I already told him it wasn’t a done deal. Don’t worry about it. Rosa will be delighted to hear we aren’t going to be attacked by bears while sleeping in a flimsy nylon tent. Rosa?” Kate opened the cabin door and stuck her head in. “The camping trip’s been canceled. Looks like the bears will have to wait for their next good meal.”

  At Kate’s words, Hayden raced out onto the porch and fixed Mitch with that steady, somber gaze. “But I wanna go camping!”

  “Maybe you could visit my place instead sometime while you’re here,” Mitch suggested, handing him the promised glider. “There’s a big log cabin and a river and it’s in the woods so it’s just like camping.”

  “Do you have wolves and bears at your place?”

  “They come around from time to time,” Mitch nodded, “but Thor takes a dim view on intruders. He chases ’em off.”

  “Who’s Thor?”

  “This half-wild dog that hangs out with me. Come to think of it, maybe Thor’s a wolf.”

  “Does he howl?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “Can you make him howl for me?”

  “I can’t make that dog do anything. He keeps his own council.”

  “Can we go now?” Hayden pleaded.

  “That’s not polite, Hayden,” Kate admonished gently but firmly. “You should wait for Mitch to tell us when it would be a good time to visit.”

  “Will you tell us to visit now?” Hayden said with youthful hope.

  “You like to fish?” Mitch countered.

  Hayden nodded enthusiastically, despite never having fished in his life.

  Kate rumpled her son’s hair with affection. “You won’t even eat fish,” she said.

  “Salmon are great eating, Hayden,” Mitch told him. “So are trout. I bet you’d like fish the way I cook ’em over the coals. Tell you what, you catch one, I’ll fix it for you, and you try it. You don’t like it, you get a hamburger and fries. Deal?”

  Hayden nodded again. “Deal.”

  “T
hen let’s go. That is, if it’s okay with your mom.”

  “Am I invited?” Kate asked.

  “You bet.”

  HAYDEN SAT BETWEEN them on the front seat of the truck, buckled into his car seat after a lengthy but triumphant search for the long unused seat belt that turned up all sorts of odd bits and pieces of Mitch’s life. Kate cataloged it all in her quest to discover all she could about this man: a huge roll of duct tape on the floor, multiple food wrappers from various fast-food eateries, several .30 caliber rifle shells between the seat cushions, four dark brown plastic encased MREs under the seat just in case he got stuck out in the boonies long enough to get hungry, along with two half-empty cans of bug repellent in case the insects did.

  “I keep meaning to clean the cab out, but since she’s probably going to break down for good at any moment, the project seems kind of pointless,” Mitch apologized as she delved through the layers of trash in her search for the middle seat belt.

  “Probably true,” Kate agreed, stuffing the MREs back under the seat.

  Two miles into the journey, Hayden craned his neck to see over the truck’s dash. “Are we there yet?”

  “Almost. We’re going right past the airstrip so you can meet Campy and Wally, my boss and his girlfriend, and see the plane I fly.”

  “Can we go flying?”

  “That’s not such a good idea. The plane’s not running all that good right now. But when I get my new wings, I’ll take you and your mother for a spin. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Kate felt her eyes sting with dry tears and looked out the side window as she struggled with her emotions. Hayden was starved for the company of men. He didn’t know what it was like to tag along with the guys because he’d never done it, but clearly, he craved male companionship. Mitch was good with him. He might not be used to being around kids, but he had an easy, laid-back manner that had alleviated Hayden’s shyness almost immediately. The only thing she couldn’t figure out was how Mitch could be so blind to the glaringly obvious fact that he was Hayden’s father.

  Mitch turned off Pike’s Creek Road and headed toward the airstrip. Kate glimpsed it through the spruce. The shabby little outbuilding with wood smoke whipping from the rusted metal stovepipe, the orange wind sock standing out straight in the stiff breeze, the rough grass strip, a shiny old classic Harley and a rusted Subaru wagon nosed up to the side of the building and the big old Stationair airplane tied down near the hut, wings rocking in the wind.