Chapter 1
Aria looked out from the top deck of the ferry. She was on her way to somewhere in Alaska that she had never heard of, in order to take possession of a cabin she had inherited from a great aunt whom she had never known. She had been looking for a change anyhow, and so with the promise of free rent and adventure, she left behind the small town in Florida where she came from. There were a few tear-filled goodbyes, but they were balanced by the fact that Aria was more than ready to start fresh somewhere new. As she looked around her at the wide open wilderness on all sides, she realized that if the awe inspiring beauty of nature up her was any indication, she would soon have a whole lot of new things to get used to.
Everything had changed as she drove northwest through the expansive country. It got considerably colder, even for June, the closer she got to Washington. The houses were separated by wider and wider spaces, and those spaces went from holding a few trees each, to being made up of whole forests. Everything just got more natural as she headed further west. She had been overjoyed to get through what she felt was the vastly overpopulated South. The further she got from it, the more she realized how much she had disliked it. Aria was on a shoestring budget, and by the time she had gotten on the 3-day ferry up to Alaska she was already getting low on funds. Traveling like this actually cost more than flying, but there was absolutely no way she was going to get on a plane. Regardless of the cost, though, or the means of travel, she was excited to be on this new adventure.
It was the third day on the ferry and she had already spent two nights camped out on the front deck. Even though the price for an actual room was astronomical, she now kind of wished she had chosen that route. The air outside was far colder than she would have imagined for early summer. At least there were many others who had underestimated the temperature as well. On the bright side, they now shared a sense of camaraderie that had been forged through the mutual trauma they had endured in the deep chill of the last few nights. Many were ending their trip in Ketchikan, but Aria was pushing forward north to around Barrow. According to her map, even once she arrived there, there would still be two more days of travel by bus as well as by boat.
All she knew about where she was going was what she had looked up, and that had in no way prepared her for the vast majestic views that had awaited her. She also had had no way to anticipate how small such open spaces would make her feel. Nature definitely reigned supreme in Alaska. The paperwork in her knapsack said that she now owned a cabin and fifty acres somewhere up there. She could feel her destiny calling to her from the wilderness.
***
Aria finally arrived at Ketchikan and then almost immediately picked up a bus that was headed even further north. Even though the trip meant several more hours of driving, it was mainly coastal roads and the views kept her in a perpetually awestruck state. She sat next to a gentleman a little older than she was for the last leg of the journey and the two talked for hours. The conversation made the time pass quickly. At the next town, she got off to catch a boat to the northern coast. Everything had been pre-booked, so it was supposed to be a smooth trip, but she was still genuinely surprised when each leg went off without a hitch. Aria decided that she would take that as a sign. Things were on the upswing.
Her first impression of Barrow was how small it was. Taking in the houses in a glance she figured that there couldn’t have been more than a hundred or so people in the whole town. But the thing that made it seem so much smaller she decided, was the way the town was so close to the shore. It looked dangerously close. She imagined it would only take one tantrum and the sea would swallow it all up in one angry surge.
Aria’s heart skipped a beat as she hopped off the boat in the uneven tide. Her legs were happy to feel the solid dock, and then actual ground underneath her. She only had one large duffel bag that the mate handed her as he waved goodbye. Everyone had been so nice and even the couple of hours on the boat had yielded several friends she would be happy to see again. It seemed to Aria that people were just different up north. She had admit that she liked the change.
Looking through her bag pockets, she found the piece of paper that had the address. She had bought a car through a man and she was supposed to pick it up. Vehicles were extremely hard to get, in large part because the cost of transporting one exceeded the value of the actual car. So she hoped that the car she had purchased was not a complete rust bucket and that it would at least get her to the cabin some 10 miles inland. Aria found it hard to take her eyes from the view though. She could see the icebergs just off the coast. It was just so … wild … and dangerous.
Aria shivered as she walked the several blocks to the address. It turned out to be a small house/restaurant and when she opened the door, several pairs of eyes were instantly on her. There was a small bar with a few stools and she went to sit down, smiling at a few people that kept her eye contact. A waitress quickly brought over a menu and asked what she wanted to drink.
Trying to prop the large bag up, she asked for the name she had written down on the piece of paper.
“Ralph!”
The woman turned her head back towards Aria and told her that he would be out in a moment. Aria asked for a Coke and settled in to look at the menu. She had ordered and started eating by the time Ralph came up from the back. He turned out to be a rotund older man that looked much like his name sounded. He gave Aria a once over that made her a bit uncomfortable.
“So you’re Aria?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Look at you, so polite. I daresay that won’t last long around here. You kind of look like Martha you know. We never knew she had nieces.
“Great niece. I think her and my mother had a falling out when they were younger. I actually never met her or even knew that she existed until a couple of months ago.”
“Tragic. Hell of a way to learn.”
His green eyes stared into hers, as if probing for something for a moment, until he finally turned away when she didn’t. It sort of reminded her of a stare down that she had with her cat a week before.
“So you ready to pick up your car? She is a beaut. I really think you are going to like it.”
Aria had hoped for a picture, or something, but the man did not seem too on top of things technologically speaking. When she explained cell phones with cameras, he snorted. But she had been a little desperate so she went on his word.
“Oh I don’t have one of those fin dangled picture phones. What do you need that for?”
As Aria looked around the man’s yard, she believed him. There wasn’t a thing in it that didn’t look like it had been there at least ten years already. He seemed to have a combination used car and salvage business – and diner. They walked to the back where he had most of the cars. They went pretty far before he finally pulled a sheet out from the wipers of a sedan of some sort. It was a beaut and though it was old, it seemed to have no outside damage. Aria did not know the model unless she looked at the paperwork, but it was a pretty powder blue and was more of less what she had had in mind. She had been warned that it would be useless 6-8 months out of the year, but for now it was perfect and she would worry about winter when the time came.