The cold was almost oppressive, despite the heater in the beat up red Volkswagen Beetle going full blast. It had been a long trip, and though Sasha Silver had of course taken it over multiple days, she was still exhausted and ready to reach the end of her destination. The highway on which she drove was only two lanes and lonely, a desolate stretch of gray winding through a forest of evergreen trees which had been blanketed by thick drifts of pure white snow. A green sign sat beside the side of the road, and Sasha scanned it with interest. It read:
TALL TREE…..10 MILES
She was almost there. Finally.
Sasha slowed as she entered the town a few minutes later, she had been making good timing on the long stretches between towns, but the last thing she needed was a ticket from a Podunk cop in one of these Podunk towns. She had been hoping against hope that Tall Tree would turn out to not be Podunk since that’s where she was going to be living for… well, who knew exactly how long, and she would love for life to be as normal as possible, and she was coming from Chicago, where life was big, and loud, and always moving.
But Tall Tree? Not so much, from first impressions. She came around a curve and hit her brakes, the trees falling away from each side of the road as the town began. First a few houses, and then she was turning onto Main Street at the guidance of the GPS on her phone. She passed a general store, a small one screen movie theater, and a diner called Jo’s. There were a few people out on the sidewalks, but Sasha didn’t pass a single other car. She glanced at the clock in her dash, it was four in the afternoon. Chicago would be packed with people and vehicles. Sasha sighed. She was sure she was going to regret moving here much sooner than she had even imagined.
Tall Tree was in the northern part of Alaska, and Sasha hadn’t even been aware the town existed until she got a letter in the mail a few months previous. She was nineteen, living with two friends she had made after a year in college. They had all decided that maybe school wasn’t for them, at least at that time in their lives, and they had gotten a place together and talked about opening their own beauty shop. Now that wouldn’t happen, at least not with Sasha.
Her mail had been set aside for her as it always was, two bills and a long white envelope with her name and address printed on it in shaky handwriting. She sat down at the kitchen table, and when her eyes moved to the return address, her breath caught in her chest, and her hands began to shake. CONNOR FRAY it said there, in big block letters, and below that: 12 LONG PATH LANE, TALL TREE ALASKA 99501.
The address meant nothing to Sasha, but the name did. It was her grandfather, a man she had not seen since she was a child. Her mother’s father, a man she couldn’t even picture, her only memories of him hazy and dim. Single traits leapt out at her as she thought of him while her nervous fingers slid under the flap of the envelope and ripped it upwards. Big. Firm. Stern. That’s how she remembered Connor Fray, after years, over a decade, of not seeing him.
Sasha’s mother had died when she was only six, and that was the last time she saw her grandfather. He lived in Colorado then, and he had come to Ohio where Sasha grew up for the funeral, and he had spent a few days with her and her father, and then he had gone. Her father was an only child without very much family, and they kept to themselves. It seemed as though Connor was fine with that as well. More than a few times growing up, it stung Sasha to think that her grandfather never asked to see her, or invited her out to spend time with him. Her father’s parents had made an effort to see her regularly, despite living in Florida.
And then the letter had arrived. She had opened it, and she sat there for a moment without pulling the paper inside from the envelope, trying to figure out why she felt so uneasy. A letter from her grandfather? Why would he be sending her such a thing, was he alright? Years without a word from him, and now a letter?
Sasha took a deep breath and pulled the letter out. It was a page long, written in the blocky letters from the envelope. It told herthat her grandfather was dying, and he needed help with a few things. He didn’t have anyone else he trusted to turn to. Without going into too much detail, he just asked her to come out and stay with him for some time, six months or so, and that he would pay her to do so.
After leaving school, Sasha had been working as a waitress. She hated it, and was worried it was killing her slowly, not really of course, but figuratively. Her grandfather was offering a lot of money, just to go spend time with him in his last months? She figured he needed help getting his finances in order, selling his house, things like that.
Alaska was very far away, however, and it took Sasha a long time to decide whether or not she was going to go. In the end, she packed up, said goodbye to her roommates, and started to drive.
The GPS beeped, and she knew she had arrived. Her grandfather lived in a massive two storey log cabin, nestled on a large snow-covered tract of land, snow piled on the roof, long icicles hanging from the edge. The driveway was shoveled clear, and a big blue pick-up truck sat at the end of the path.
Sasha parked and killed the engine. She took a deep breath before opening the door and glanced in the rearview mirror. Her eyes were pale blue, the sunlight reflecting off all the snow around her serving to make them sparkle. It had been a long trip, and she was tired, but she was a beautiful girl and still looked it. She had shoulder length blonde hair that she spent a long time on to make it look like she didn’t spend any time at all on it. She was short, her body lithe but well rounded, her hips and bust womanly and pleasing to every man she had ever been with.
Another breath and Sasha pushed the door open. She stood for a moment in the biting chill, reaching back into a car and pulling a hooded sweatshirt from the passenger seat. Sasha slid it over her head and slipped her hands, with her slim fingers and her manicured soft pink nails into the sweatshirt’s pockets. She made her way to the front door of the cabin, knocking as she stood on the large front porch.
It took a few moments, but her grandfather answered, and before he could even speak she was stepping forward and wrapping her arms around the old man. He hugged her in return, and when she pulled away, she was surprised to see shining tears brimming in his eyes, and even more surprised to feel hot burning ones in her own. She wiped them quickly away and smiled.
“Hi grandpa,” she said.
“Hey,” the old man said, and Sasha took a moment to look him over. In a lot of ways, he was still the man she remembered. He was tall, and his shoulders broad, but his hair was now snow white, and he had buzzed it, where he used to keep it rather long. His face was lined with deep wrinkles, but when he smiled the corners of his eyes turned up, and it made him look almost twenty years younger.
Connor looked his granddaughter up and down. “Too skinny,” he said. “You need to eat more.”
The girl laughed. “I’m fine grandpa.”
“Where are your bags?” the old man asked her.
“In the car, I thought we could visit first a bit.”
“No, let’s just grab them, you won’t feel like getting them later. Get settled, and then we can visit.”
Sasha was not used to not being able to do what she wanted, but she knew she didn’t want to start her visit off on the wrong foot, so she just nodded and led her grandfather to the car, where they each grabbed some bags and carried them inside.
“I’m upstairs, so you’re here,” the old man said as he opened a closed door just off of the kitchen. The room was small but well furnished, with a comfortable looking bed in the far corner and a dresser against the wall. There was an old rocking chair in another corner, and her grandfather pointed it out.
“Your grandmother’s mother made that. Some time ago of course.”
Sasha placed her bags on the bed and then walked over to the chair. She ran her fingertips along one arm rest. The piece was beautiful, carved and built from cherry wood, the hue deep brown with a reddish tint.
“It’s amazing. I can’t believe someone could make this.”
“She made it when your grandmother was pregnant with your mother,” Connor said with a sad smile. She used to rock your mom in it every night to get her to go to sleep once she was born.
Sasha couldn’t help but picture that, a grandmother she hardly knew holding a mother she had lost too soon in the chair.
“I love it,” she said softly, her voice slight in the still crisp winter air that filled the room.
“Make sure you take it with you when you leave here,” Connor said. “You should have it. Really all of this is yours, but we can get to that later. You thirsty? Tell me about your trip.”
They went into the kitchen then, and Connor got some coffee brewing after his granddaughter turned down a glass of lemonade. After he set a cup of the steaming coffee in front of Sasha, he sat at the small round table across from her, and she filled him in quickly on her trip. When she was done, there was a moment of awkward silence.
“I’m glad you decided to come,” Connor said finally.
“Me too,” Sasha said.
“I know it’s hard to drop everything, but I wanted to see you, and I really do need your help.”
“Grandpa, what’s wrong with you? I mean, specifically.”
The old man held a finger to the side of his temple. “Cancer. Tumor, right here. It’s eating away at me, and there ain’t a damn thing anyone can do.”
Sasha felt those hot, salty tears burning in her eyes again.
“I have a lot of regrets in my life,” the old man said. “I’m not upset I’m dying, I’ve had more time than a lot of people have had, but I am angry that I didn’t use it the way I should have. There are some things about me, things you don’t need to know about. I hope it excuses me from some of those mistakes, but I should have been in your life more after your mother died. I’ve missed you Sasha, and I hope you can forgive me.”
Sasha stood and moved around the table. She crouched there and slid her arms around her grandfather. “Of course I forgive you, grandpa,” she said, and then she kissed his cheek, and the old man smiled.