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Show 128 Girl pinup calendars, which they snatched right off the walls. I wanted to be a Klondike king. I had worked as hard as any of them had, perhaps harder. Why had I drawn a blank? "Life is never fair," Caribou said, as we trudged through deep snow down to the hotel. "We do our best with it." He sounded like ray pa. I thought of Pa often those long winter nights, when the northern lights crackled and flashed. The first time I saw them flashing through our window, I thought the mountain was on fire. I jumped from my bunk and ran to the door, shouting for Caribou. Outside, lights flashed across the sky-yellow and red-like someone waving a torch. The flames hissed in the bitter cold night. "It's the aurora borealis," Caribou said, "The what?" "The northern lights some call them," he explained. "I like the Eskimo's story. They say the lights are torches, carried by spirits to guide travelers on their journey to heaven." "It's a nice way to go," I said, thinking how Pa must have enjoyed it. During that long, bitter cold winter, I liked to think that Pa was one of those spirits with a torch, and that he waved it purposely over our cabin, just for me, I felt he was sending a message to me-if only my earthbound |
