16
In the twilight rain
these brilliant-hued hibiscus . . .
A lovely sunset
― Matsuo Bashō
Wolf River Lodge
Thelma Thomas read through the terse wording carefully for the second time, letting her enthusiasm grow. No matter what her personal preferences, she had to get this right or a lot of people could die. Despite her fears, it was all good news.
The Livengood agent had sent everything available and all of it was positive. Smiling, she got up from the table and moved over to the large wood stove. In moments the report burned to ash and she stirred all the ashes together.
She allowed herself to dwell on Levi. What was it about him that she found so intriguing? She knew men in their scattered community who were more handsome, wealthy, and even more prominent. However there was something about him that made her heart skip a beat when she first saw him.
All of her life she had been the cute, younger sister to the real beauty in the family. Thankfully it was not something that Theodora actually thought about, let alone flaunted. However, Thelma had realized her sister’s beauty from an early age.
Young men had buzzed around Teddi like bees at a rose bush. Many, after Teddi gently turned them down, would then approach Thelma. She never gave them the time of day.
Was that it? Do I feel this way about him because he barely glanced at Teddi and focused his attention on me?
She liked to think that she was more mature than the concept made her feel, but it probably didn’t hurt that he immediately warmed to her. Suddenly she felt her mother’s presence and her heart swelled with emotion. Thelma had been twelve and Teddi thirteen when cancer took their mother.
The last thing she said to them was, “Take care of your father and each other.” The memory brought tears to her eyes. Emily Thomas had been a beautiful soul, inside and out.
She had told her daughters to avoid men who held them back; that a woman could do anything she put her mind to and worked at it. She taught them how cook, butcher salmon and moose, split a moose hide and tan it to supple softness. Emily explained men and women to her girls in a matter-of-fact way.
They were functioning adults when she left, she had made sure of that. “There will be boys and men who will fill your ears with words and your minds with longing, but all they wish is to rut or treat you as a possession. The longings are real, they are natural, and they are hard to endure at first. The hard part is to wait for the right man.”
“How will we know the right one when we meet him?” Teddi had asked.
“He will look into your eyes rather than stare at your body. He will ask you questions about yourself rather than boast of his deeds and ambitions. Most importantly, he will treat you as an equal.”
Thelma remembered Levi getting lost in her eyes, and her attraction to him magnified. She fervently hoped he felt the same way. She thought he did, but certainty eluded her.
Someone tried the door–she had locked it while reading the report–and then knocked once, waited ten seconds and knocked three times. Thelma hurried over and opened the door to find her father smiling at her.
“Doing Pack work, lovely daughter?”
“Yes!” she said with a wide smile. “He’s what he says he is. We can trust him.”
“I think that might be more important to you than it is to me at this point.”
“We’ll see,” she said and blushed. “He’s an honest, good man.”