Spending one night here with Jason before finally being where I was supposed to be made me anxious, but the one letter at the end of the text excited me more than anything.
“Fennec will come get me tomorrow morning. He texted,” I explained.
“Good. It’s too late to walk through the forest now. Grab some things and help me get everything inside.”
I sighed, pushing my phone back into the duffle bag and then helping Jason with everything he took with him to survive another six months here.
“Stop frowning like that, kid. I’ll make us something nice and then you can go to sleep so tomorrow comes quick. What do you like to eat?” he asked.
“I eat everything,” I told him with a shrug.
“Didn’t expect anything less from you,” he said with a chuckle. “How about a big steak with mashed potatoes?”
“Sounds delicious,” I replied, trying to make my smile meet my eyes.
I wanted today to be over already, and I wanted the night to pass me by in the blink of an eye so I could finally run into Fennec’s arms.
3
Last night, my excitement wasn’t the reason why I couldn’t sleep.
It was the loud noises Jason made in his sleep.
He sounded like a race car mixed with a tractor, snoring as if it was the one thing he was good at.
I couldn’t close my eyes, but my tiredness took over me eventually, making me fall into a quick but deep sleep until six in the morning when Jason was up already, talking to Sitka.
He let me take the guest bedroom, which he for some reason had.
Never did he have guests over.
None that I knew of.
I pushed myself up to stretch, and once I was dressed, I left the bedroom to see Jason standing in the kitchen, cutting a chicken in half to feed to Sitka.
“Good morning,” I announced.
They both turned around, and Sitka was the first to greet me back by running toward me and jumping up with her paws on my shoulders.
I rubbed her head with both hands and pressed a kiss to it before making her get down again.
“Morning. Sleep well?” Jason asked.
“Uh, yeah. The bed’s very comfortable,” I replied, not mentioning the struggle I had to fall asleep because of him.
Not even Sitka’s barks were that loud.
“Good. I’m giving Sitka her breakfast, then I’ll prepare some for us. Want eggs and bacon?”
“Yes, please.”
He placed the raw chicken on the floor, letting Sitka go at it like a wild animal.
Papa once had a dog too, but he died a few years ago because he was old.
He was Papa’s helper in the forest, carrying firewood to the camp and helping him hunt down animals like hares, moose, and even bears.
“Can I help?” I asked, stepping closer to him and looking at the other half of the chicken on the counter.
“You can get the bread out of the freezer and preheat the oven,” he told me.
I nodded and walked over to the big freezer next to the fridge, pushing up the lid and looking for a loaf of bread I knew he took with him from Fairbanks.
“Your mother texted. Wanted to know if you’re already with your father and brother.”
“Oh.”
Already? I wasn’t even gone for a whole day.
“Did you reply to her?” I asked, taking the bread to the table and then heading over to the oven.
“I did. Told her you’re still here waiting to get picked up. She’s quite worried, don’t you think?”
“She is, but there’s no reason for her to be. I’ll be fine. I can take care of myself.”
I had repeated those last words too many times ever since I graduated and announced to Mama that I wanted to live with Papa.
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes.”
“All right,” he said with a chuckle and a shake of his head. “You’re determined to live in the middle of nowhere. I get it. Don’t think I would let my daughter do that though.”
“Lucky I’m not your daughter then,” I muttered, looking over at him with a frown. “You live in the middle of nowhere too.”
“But I’m an old man. I also have electricity and warm water.”
“We don’t need those things at Papa’s. We can make fires and have the river close.”
Jason shrugged, obviously not wanting to continue this conversation.
As nice as he was, I needed him to care about his own shit rather than mine.
“Scrambled?” he asked instead, taking the eggs out of the fridge.
“Sure.”
*
“Bring it back, Sitka!” I called out to her.
I had thrown her favorite tennis ball and Sitka ran after it to fetch but didn’t come back.
Instead, she let the ball fall out of her mouth again, staring toward the dirt road leading into the woods and barking as if an intruder was walking her way.
“Sitka, come on!” I called. “Bring the ball back!”
She still didn’t move, and when I started to walk toward her, passing a few trees and finally getting a clear view of what she was seeing, my jaw dropped as I saw Fennec make his way toward us.
“Fen!”
I didn’t expect him to be here this early, but the way my heart pounded the second I saw him told me that I probably wouldn’t have survived one more hour waiting on him.
His wide grin made me smile brightly, and while I ran toward him, he stopped and held out his arms for me to run into.
Sitka was running too, thinking we were playing a different game now, and since she was a dog, she reached Fennec before I did.
“Down, girl,” Fennec ordered, pushing Sitka down to step aside and let me hug him tightly.
“Finally,” I whispered, pressing my body against his as his arms wrapped around my body.
“I missed you, sweet girl. Sorry it took me so long to come and get you,” he said, rubbing my back gently before letting go of me to look into my eyes.
“It’s been a while, huh?” he said, his wide grin still stuck on his face.
“I missed you. I missed Papa. How’s he doing?” I asked, keeping my arms around his shoulders while he continued to caress my back, keeping a bit of distance between us though.
“Papa’s fine. He’s excited to see you. Did you pack everything?” He was studying my face closely, taking in every single part of it while I did the same with his.
His hair had grown, and it was sticking out of his black beanie, curling at the ends.
I couldn’t deny his attractiveness and had to agree with those girls back in Fairbanks.
Fen was a handsome guy.
“I packed everything. I can’t wait to see him. Did anything change? How’s the treehouse?”
Papa built the treehouse when we were little, letting us sleep in there while he continued to sleep in the tent a few feet away from the tree.
The land we lived on in the forest was Papa’s, which he bought even before we were born, so he was allowed to do whatever he wanted to with the trees and space surrounding him.
“Nothing changed. Treehouse is still there,” he assured. “Go tell Jason I’m here,” he said, and I quickly nodded while letting go of him but grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the cabin.