Fort Liard [Due South]

Chapter 5

The log house was tucked a short ways up into the edge of the mountain, and four Dene children were scrambling out in the snow in the front yard. They shouted in recognition when Fraser and Meg pulled up and cut the engines.

"Sergeant Ben! Sergeant Ben! Look at the snowman we made!" One eight-year-old girl shouted, running up to him and pointing back at the rounded, lopsided sculpture in the middle of the yard.

"I put the head on it," the tallest boy said. He looked about eleven. Fraser got off his vehicle, grinning down at the children.

"It looks very big and well-made," he said. Meg noted that it was about a metre tall, and generously propped with a pile of unevenly-distributed snow around the base.

"Mommy gave me the carrot!" The littlest girl came running up to Fraser and tapped his leg. "Mommy gave me the carrot!"

"That's wonderful, Lizzie," he answered, "It's a very nice carrot."

"I put the eyes and arms in," the first girl said.

"I put the arms in!" The tall boy said.

"No you didn't, I did! You just found them scrawny sticks!" The girl made a face at the boy.

"Yeah, and I put 'em in!"

"But I had to fix them, because you didn't put them in even," she responded, and stuck her tongue out at him.

"That's rude," little Lizzie said, putting her hands on her hips. "You shouldn't do that."

"Yeah, Jolie, that's rude," the boy said, and stuck his tongue out at her.

"Hey!" Lizzie said, looking very upset about the whole affair.

"Lizzie is right, you know," Fraser said authoritatively. He looked up at a second boy, who was coming over to them. Meg got off her snowmobile and left the helmet on the seat.

"What did you build, Clay?" He asked. The boy shrugged.

"He didn't make nuthin'," Jolie said.

"Did too," Clay answered stubbornly, stuffing his mittened hands into his pockets. "I made the toilet."

"Everybody's gotta have a toilet," Lizzie said, matter-of-factly. "Even the snowman."

"Of course," Fraser nodded reasonably. "That's true."

Oh, so that was what that slightly rounded lump next to the snowman was. From this angle, now that they mentioned it, it did bear some resemblance to a toilet bowl. How charming. She looked at all the footprints in the snow-over on her right were three snow angels and one small spot where a lot of uncoordinated thrashing had been attempted. It was about Lizzie's height.

She remembered making snow angels as a child, so long, long ago. There was a new burst of shouting, and she looked over to see Fraser crouch down and Lizzie leap on to him, piggy-back style. When he stood up, she squealed with delight and pulled off his Stetson. She tried to fit it on her own head over her knitted cap. It ended up resting tilted over the side of her head. He turned around to look at Meg, something sparkling in his eyes.

"Could you get the mail sack?" He asked, giving a slight head nod towards the excited load on his back. Meg nodded and took the sack off the side of his snowmobile and slung it over her shoulder. She envied his ease with children.

"All set," she said.

They went up the walk, the other children scrambling ahead to announce their arrival.