Tok, Alaska

3

There was much merrymaking. Walter sat down next to Erik and pointed out who the various visitors were around the circle. Some of them were friends of the brothers Duffy; others were acquaintances of Molly's from the veterinary office where she worked. In particular, there was Robert, Molly's boyfriend (she was five years divorced, Walter explained), who had shaggy graying hair and a long, gnarled beard. Everyone had the utmost respect for Molly, listening to her stories attentively and laughing at the punch lines. Most of them had to do with her work and her family. Erik caught a couple of them.

"We had a parrot named Arthur at the office, who had been brought in by a couple of teenage girls. He was in his cage in the back room, with a sign attached that said, 'Hi, my name is Arthur. Please don't reach into the cage, I bite.' So there was this woman who had come in who was treating me like absolute shit, just totally dismissive and disrespectful. She walks into the back room where Arthur is, and I hear a scream. Then, I swear to God, the bird says, 'Read the sign, bitch!'"

Everyone cracked up.

"The girls who'd brought him in must have taught him that. Anyway, she's finally leaving, and she says to me in a bossy tone, 'Call me a cab.' So I just looked at her and said, 'Okay. You're a cab.'"

Everyone cracked up again, and someone said, "That must have been satisfying."

In another story, Molly talked about a time when she and her family were on some trip. Erik didn't catch all the details, but she was introducing her party to someone, and said, "I'm Molly, and these are my sons Thomas, Leo, Walter, Walter and Henry." The person said, "Wait, you have two sons named Walter?" She said, "Well, yeah, but one of them goes by Walt." And apparently the person reacted as if that made total sense, even though it really made no sense at all.

After awhile, Thomas and Walt went into the house and reappeared with a guitar and a fiddle, respectively, and began to play folk tunes. They were both wonderful on their instruments and with their voices, and Erik said so to Walter. He explained that they'd been playing together as long as he could remember, and that he himself could play a decent guitar, but he was nowhere near as good as Thomas.

"I'm surprised Molly hasn't told this story yet," said Walter, "but once when Walt was nine or so, he broke his right hand. And he asked the doctor at the hospital, 'Will I be able to play the violin?' The doctor said, 'Well... could you play it before?' When Walt said that he could, the doctor said, 'Then yes, you will.' She'll probably tell that one later." He leaned in and said quietly, "If you want to know the truth, she tells the same stories every year."

Eventually, Walter got up to chat with some other people, so Erik stood up too. He looked through one of the other entrances from the one he'd entered, and saw for the first time that there was another edifice farther away. It looked like a large shed. Stepping under the twine frame, he walked with curiosity towards the shed, and saw that the doors were fastened with a rusty padlock. He ran his finger over the lock, and then turned around to look back at the circle. Robert was standing in the entranceway staring at him. Erik looked at the shed again and then back at Robert, and Robert said, gruffly, "Yeah, I see you." Erik had no idea what he meant by that, but turned to walk back, when he noticed that there was a trail leading further up the hill. He decided to explore it and hiked through the overgrown foliage covering the path until he reached the very top of the hill. There, he was surprised to see that there was another, smaller circle. Sitting on a stone bench on the far side was Kendra. He hesitated.

"Come in," she said, smiling.

He walked into the circle and sat down opposite her. After a period of silence, he said, "That was quite a speech your boyfriend gave for the fire."