Echoes

Humming a little under her breath, Sage Galloway filled her favorite china mug with coffee. With a small pang of guilt, she added cream and a heaping spoonful of sugar. Balancing the mug carefully, she walked out her door and into the breathtaking brilliance of the early Alaskan morning. As usual, she'd left Ben upstairs snoring gently, his long, muscular body sprawled across their king-size bed. She'd paused a moment, watching him sleep, missing him even before he was gone. He was flying to Anchorage today, the first leg of a journey to Tanzania to hunt buffalo. The thought of huntinganythingmade Sage shudder. She and her husband had different passions, different rhythms. She was morning, and he was night. After four years of marriage, Sage had finally stopped yawning her way into the midnight hours to keep Ben company. After all, she reasoned, he made no effort to rise at dawn with her. Marriage demanded compromise, but it ought to be an even balance--in a perfect world. At 4:30 a.m., it was already full daylight outside. Even this early in June it was light most of the night, thanks to the midnight sun. The birds were singing a cheerful chorus, and the cow moose who'd been feasting on Caitlin's flowers took one guilty look at Sage, lowered its ungainly head and ambled off into the woods. "Glutton," Sage accused under her breath. "You should be ashamed." Her mother-in-law's beloved marigolds were once again missing most of their heads. Caitlin would patiently replant from the seedlings she nursed all summer long in the wide kitchen window of the Lodge. She'd endlessly searched for a variety the moose and deer didn't fancy. With her cup in one hand, Sage drew in a deep, delicious lungful of air that smelled of pine trees and ocean before she headed down to the dock. Off to her left, the Lodge and its inhabitants still slumbered. This was her own magical, private hour. A fresh, cool breeze from Prince William Sound stirred the branches of the spruce trees that sheltered the four guest cabins. The cabins, too, were all silent, although she knew that every one was occupied. She did the bookings for the Lodge, keeping the complicated schedule of arrivals and departures in order, updating theWeb site she'd designed, making certain there were live links to publicize this wild, beautiful place. Along with the rest of the Galloways, Sage was proud that Raven Lodge had been voted best fishing lodge in Alaska byTravel and Adventure Magazinefor the third year in a row. This June, the Lodge was filled to capacity, and booked solid for the remainder of the season. The blinds on the windows of the long clapboard bunkhouse were still pulled down against the light, but Sage knew that within the hour the fishing guides would be up, readying the boats. Raven Lodge was isolated, the only access by plane or boat from the small town of Valdez, and yet the Lodge and its cabins were filled with visitors eager to try their luck at catching the fabled king salmon for which Prince William Sound was famous. They came to fish, to experience what was known as the Last Frontier, and not least to sample the down-home delicious food Caitlin and her staff concocted. Sage ambled to the far end of the dock and settled into the lawn chair she kept there, stretching out her long, bare legs and sliding her sunglasses down against the glare of sun on water. She savored her coffee as her brain ticked off items on her schedule for the particularly busy day ahead. She was down to the last mouthful of coffee, but far from the bottom of the to-do list, when a deep voice from behind her said, "Morning, early bird." Sage squinted up at her father-in-law and smiled with pleasure and affection. Theo had lost muscle tone since his recent heart attack, and his formerly robust body was frail and thin. His baritone voice was the same as always--rich and strong and reassuring. "Theo, what are you doing up so eHutchinson, Bobby is the author of 'Echoes ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373198542 and ISBN 037319854X.