Part 5
Frank looked up at the vent, then pulled free of Tessa and went along the outer wall of the container. The snow there was untouched. It slowed him until he was barely moving, and he could smell scorched insulation beneath the wood smoke.
The vent covers were meant for the months when he shut down the shop. He dragged them closed with his right hand. Inside, Juniper moved away from the window, coughing. He couldn’t see her leg anymore.
“That buys a little time,” Tessa said when he came back. “Stay out of that smoke.”
Deputy Bennett’s snowmobile emerged from the trees. She took in the fire, the damaged machine, and Henson standing beside it. When Ray tried to come toward her, talking fast, she ordered him to move away from the building and keep his hands where she could see them.
The groomer arrived behind her, pulling a freight sled with the transport crate fastened to it. Earl was driving. A second snowmobile followed with the two handlers, who dismounted and came forward, one carrying a medical case, the other assessing the approach to the shop doors. Tessa told them what she had given Juniper, when she had given it, and how the animal had responded.
Frank heard Ruth’s name from inside his own head. He had been calling it the afternoon she died, over and over, although she couldn’t answer. For a moment, the yard in front of him became that other yard, and he had to grip the porch rail to make the two places separate again.
“Mr. Keller.”
The woman from the transport crew stood in front of him. Her hat was covered with melting snow. She pointed toward the ramp, and he made himself follow her hand.
“Can we move the animal’s sled down that?”
“Yes.”
“Will it hold all of us?”
“It’ll hold.”
She didn’t ask him to guarantee anything else. She went back to the crate, and he followed her, trying to understand how to be useful with one hand.
Tessa stayed beside the observation window while the handlers positioned the crate clear of the worst heat. Juniper could not be moved safely while she was awake and frightened. The vet made the decision she had hoped to avoid, spoke briefly with the hospital, and worked with the handlers to prepare her for the move.
Frank watched from the edge of the ramp. He wanted to hurry them. He wanted to tell them that steel conducted heat and that the insulation inside his shop would burn. They already knew. The woman’s glance toward the roof told him that.
Cody approached with his arms held awkwardly away from his coat. He had tried to shift the damaged generator when the fire started, Frank learned, and burned both hands through his thin gloves. He hadn’t told anyone until Bennett asked why he was standing like that.
“I can help,” he said.
The male handler shook his head. “You’re going to keep back where the deputy can see you. We have enough people.”
Cody looked at Frank. There was something he wanted to ask, but Frank couldn’t take responsibility for whatever it was. He pointed toward the deputy, and the young man went.
The handlers watched Juniper until Tessa said they could enter. Frank gave the woman his key. She opened the steel doors slowly, keeping the others clear until she could see the animal.
Smoke came out around her shoulders. The tiger lay near the back of the shop, where she had shifted as the noise and heat increased. The loaded sled had moved with her, its front end crooked against Frank’s workbench.
The handlers went in with Tessa. Frank stood at the opening. Through a gap beneath the walkway roof, he could see fire taking the edge of the house eave.
The spare bedroom was only a few steps from the kitchen. He knew the route without needing to look. Open the door, pass the stove, turn right. The photograph was on top of the trunk. He wouldn’t have to lift anything heavy.
He stepped toward the house.
“Frank,” Tessa called.
He stopped. She was crouched beside the sled, her coat covered with soot along one sleeve.
“There’s a runner caught behind the bench. How is the bench fastened?”
“To the wall.”
“Can it come loose?”
He looked toward the kitchen window again. Smoke was thickening behind the glass. A small shape on the bedroom wall, the coat hook Ruth used, disappeared and came back as it passed.
“Frank?”
He went into the shop.
The bench had been built to fold up when he needed room for a large repair. Frank had left it down so long that the handlers couldn’t see what it was. He pointed to the supports, then put his good hand under the edge. The woman caught the other end. Together they raised it far enough to free the runner.
Pain flared in his injured wrist when he tried to help with both hands. He stopped using the left one and held the bench with his shoulder instead. It was an ugly, awkward job. Tessa kept her attention on Juniper while the other handler eased the sled away from the wall.
The animal’s head shifted with the movement. Frank saw the open mouth, the teeth, and the pale fur beneath her chin. He pressed harder against the bench and stayed where he was.
Once the sled was clear, the woman helped him lower the bench. Frank backed out after the others, keeping hold of the door while they guided the load onto the ramp. The injured paw lay wrapped against Juniper’s body. One corner of Ruth’s quilt dragged through the dirty snow.
Earl held the freight sled steady with the groomer. The handlers and Tessa worked together at the crate. Frank stood where they told him, bracing the small sled until they had moved Juniper onto the transport padding and secured her inside.
Only then did he look at the house.
The kitchen window was opaque. Flame showed through the upper corner of the spare bedroom, growing brighter as something behind it caught. He could no longer pick out the hook on the wall.
Frank took two steps toward the porch. Bennett came to him, putting herself between him and the stairs.
“You can’t go in.”
“There’s a picture.”
Her face changed, but she didn’t move.
“I’m sorry.”
He looked past her. For years he had remembered Ruth with the photograph in the shop: her half smile, her sleeves pushed up, the onions she insisted were his. He had used it to correct his memory when the memory began to fail him.
He couldn’t see the picture from here. He couldn’t even see the room it was in.
The porch roof sagged. Bennett took his arm and drew him back toward the groomer. He went with her because his legs had begun to shake and because there was no useful thing left to do near the house.
Tessa sat on the edge of the freight sled, monitoring Juniper through the crate. Her wet gloves lay beside her. One sleeve had a scorched patch near the elbow, and she was holding her arm stiffly.
“You burned?” Frank asked.
“A little. They’ll look at it when we get down.”
“She breathing?”
Tessa moved so he could see. Juniper’s chest rose, fell, and rose again. Frank watched until the vet looked up at him.
“We need to go,” she said.
Bennett had reported the fire, but the fire crew could not bring an engine through the trail. She had restrained Henson clear of the building and was arranging the evacuation. He would ride out with her. Cody would go with one handler on the second snowmobile. Frank needed his wrist checked, and Tessa’s coat was no longer keeping her warm.
Earl came down from the driver’s seat long enough to fasten an extra coat around Frank. Its zipper caught halfway. Earl tugged once, swore softly, and tried again.
“Leave it,” Frank said.
“Hold still.”
The zipper closed. Frank looked over Earl’s shoulder at the burning house while his friend secured a blanket around his lap on the groomer’s passenger seat.
“I had her things in there,” he said.
Earl’s hands stopped for a moment. Then he tucked the blanket down around Frank’s boots.
“I know.”
They traveled slowly. The transport sled followed in the groomer’s cleared track, with Tessa and the female handler watching Juniper. Behind them came the deputy with Henson and the second snowmobile carrying Cody. Frank could hear the machines without needing to turn around and count them.
At the gate, a waiting ambulance crew took him into the warmth of their vehicle. His wrist swelled as he removed his glove. Somebody asked whether he had breathed smoke, whether he’d hit his head, whether there was a place he could stay after the hospital.
Frank started to give the familiar answer. He knew places in the woods where a man could manage. He knew how to build a fire and how to keep himself fed.
Earl stood outside the ambulance doors, waiting for him to finish. “Could I come home with you?” Frank asked…
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