JOURNEY TO THE MIDNIGHT SUN
James Sheldon
LOVE CONQUERS ALL
Book 1 of 3
Chapter 31
Early the following morning while John was returning from the family’s latrine, Jessie met him just paces outside their camp.
“John,” speaking lowly.
“Yes.”
“Emma and I have been talking, and, we’ve decided we cannot risk putting it off any longer. The time has come to do what we’d hoped not to do.”
“The dogs?”
“Yes,” shaking her head and pursing her lips tight. “Dear God, I hate to even think about it. Nemo has been such a faithful dog. But if we don’t…well, we’re not going to make it. And John, you cannot run for the river on nothing to eat. You would freeze to death.”
In the gravity of the moment, she held his gaze. Then, glancing back towards camp, “We can keep the children in the tent. They don’t have to know. We’ll tell them that Nemo ran off in the night. Then you’ll have something substantially more than a handful of rice to take with you. And we also will have something to sustain us.”
“I’ll do it.” And grimly, he added, “I’ll do it right now.”
They hadn’t taken three steps towards camp when John stopped and turned to Jessie, “I will get to the river and back, but, just in case…you have my horse. Do with her what you must to stay alive.”
Once back in camp, John quietly took up Nemo’s leash. Only Mia remained in the tent with the twins. Cody stoically split firewood with tears in his eyes. Laureal, also weeping quietly, filled a pot with snow and put it on the flames. Emma lie in her lean-to. Her lips pursed tight, she gave John a nod as if to say, ‘It must be done.’
John turned to take Nemo into the wood but no more had he began when Yike set to whining and struggling against his leash like tomorrow would never come. So distracted was the family, none noticed Weya standing on the opposite edge of camp.
Suddenly seeing the wolf so near his wife and family, John dropped the leash and brought bow and arrow from his back all in one quick motion.
“Don’t shoot her!” cried Laureal.
Nemo, having bounded over to Weya, jumped about like a pup before the wolf, wagging his tail, cringing in submission and licking at her mouth. Weya then began to heave, her head down, her front paws placed apart. It seemed as if she would vomit. And sure enough she did, not once, but four times.
Cody cried out, “Look at all that meat!”
Like a wild man, John leapt over the campfire and kicked Nemo in the ribs, driving the starving dog off the pile before it could wolf down more than two bites. Nemo yipped but, suffering no serious injury, turned and dashed off to beg and dance around Weya who had moved several paces into the wood where, panting, she laid down like a sphinx to cool herself in the snow.
Laureal came alongside John, joined by Jessie and Cody altogether in astonishment, for steaming in the snow before them lie fifteen pounds of fresh undigested meat. Not just any meat but the meat that wolves instinctually prefer. The heart, liver, kidneys and other organs were packed with essential fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. In a manner of speaking, just what the doctor ordered.
“This is from the hand of our Creator,” Jessie uttered in awe. “In our moment of great need, he has answered our prayers, and, shown us his endless ways.”
“Indeed he has,” said John, starting into the wood with a light bulb going off in his head.
“Where are you going?” Laureal called after him.
“To follow her tracks,” breaking into a trot, hollering over his shoulder, “She couldn’t have come far with all that.”
“John! You need to rest!” starting after him only to have Jessie grab her arm.
“He’ll be alright, dear.”
“Mom!”
“Stay here! Don’t let Nemo near this pile!” And turning, Jessie went to fetch a pot.
Standing over the pile, Laureal was jolted from her thoughts when Weya suddenly set to growling and barring her teeth. As it turned out, the wolf was only telling Nemo to calm down and leave her be. Weya had only done what her parents had trained her to do; bring food home to the family. An adult timber wolf could carry ten to twenty pounds of meat back to the den in its stomach, and a wolf of Weya’s size could do so easily. She had only done what all good wolves do, she had carried the meat of a kill back to the den and shared it there with her family members.
“This calls for a celebration,” said Jessie, taking out the last of their breadroot which, along with some herbs, she added to the pot to make a savory stew like meat and potatoes with just the right spices.
Having followed Weya’s tracks approximately two miles, John used the last of his strength to reach the crest of a gentle rise. From there the land fell away slowly to the east and, looking through gaps in the wood, he could see what appeared a snow covered plain extending as far as the eye could see. Huffing clouds of steam and feeling lightheaded with legs heavy as lead, John could scarcely believe his eyes. For there it lie, big as life, the Lake of the Swans.
Trudging wearily, John entered camp wearing a victorious smile.
“Did you find her kill?” Cody asked.
“I might have…had the lake not got in the way.”
“What?”
“John,” Laureal uttered in disbelief, “did you find the lake?”
“Not two miles that way, just over the crest of a low rise.”
“I hunted squirrels along the base of that rise!” cried Cody.
“Had you walked to its top and looked east, you couldn’t have missed it. And what’s more, you would have seen a wide boggy flat along the shoreline. It looks to be an excellent hunting ground.”
Looks of amazement went round the campfire, followed by joy and laughter.
“That lake is known for its trout!”
“And walleye too.”
“John, there will be grass for Ellie.”
“Yes, and when we’ve taken care of ourselves, I intend to do some shoveling so she can eat, just eat, without digging.”
Emma sat up slowly and scooted forward, “Let us join hands and give thanks.”
All bowed heads as Jessie led the prayer, after which the stew was doled out in wooden bowls and the family had plenty of good food for the first time in what seemed a long time.
Alive with hope and happiness, Laureal leaned into John, “What say you, darling? I say it’s caribou. Mia thinks it elk?”
“Smelling his bowl, “Moose?”
“Oh, you diplomat!”
Laughs went round the fire.
Sitting up straight, John turned to look at the dogs. “Did Yike get a little?”
“We gave him a few pounds, about as much as Nemo got. We don’t want to feed them too much too fast anyway.”
“I need to apologize to Nemo.”
“John,” asked Emma, “when you were on the rise, could you tell our location, I mean, with relation to the lake?”
“I cannot say for certain. But because the lake stretched away both to north and south, it would appear we overshot the south end and approached the west shore on a north-northeast diagonal. That would explain why I couldn’t find the stream yesterday. Having overshot the southern half of the lake, we were farther from the stream than we thought.”
The conversation continued until, at last setting his bowl down, John took a sip of hot tea and said, “That was some good eating. Thank you, ladies.”
“Would you like another helping, John?”
“In an hour or two, Jessie. Thank you.”
A comfortable silence fell over the group, their present state like day and night when compared to an hour before. John and Laureal shared a smile. Lifted on a wave of hope, each with an arm around the other, the light in their young eyes told the tale. Love conquers all.
Finally, looking around the fire, John addressed their need of a plan, “How about we get a few hours’ sleep, have an early lunch, and then Laureal, Cody, and I can go on a sortie to the lake. If our good fortune holds, perhaps the wind will not be severe. Ellie can eat grass while we forage. And hopefully, we’ll return with a stringer of lake trout for supper, and perhaps some identifiable red meat.”
Emma seconded John’s suggestion and soon thereafter all were fast asleep. A few hours later when they emerged from their tent, pleasant was their surprise. A mild breeze had come from the south. The cloud blanket had broken to reveal patches of blue sky. The sun never felt so good on their faces. And of course, Emma declared it a sign.
End of Book I
There will be a lag between posting Chapter 31 and 32 (the last chapter of Book One and first chapter of Book Two). All three books of this trilogy are complete and so is most of the editing work. So readers will not have to wait long. Look for the link to Chapter 32 to appear here in approx 30 days (Jan 01, 2025):
Link for Chapter 32 will be here.
Note from Author: I apologize that there will be a delay in posting books two and three. The reason for this is as follows: When this first book was first posted, this website got swarmed by scraper bots. Oddly perhaps, if the scrapers would have kept my work together as one book, then at least they would inadvertently have helped me to inspire other people by spreading the story, but that is not the case. If I may use the analogy of a stolen car, scrapers steal a car and then "part it out," selling the engine, the wheels, and other parts separately. This is what happened to book one.
To combat this problem, I have paused my final editing work on book’s two and three in order to work on setting up protection for this website. Readers need not worry because the scraper bots are not after you. Additionally you are protected by Google Chrome, or Microsoft Edge, or Firefox, or whatever browser you use, plus the firewalls in your computer. On my end, I have worked hard and feel good about the progress I have made in protecting this website. Scraper attacks have been greatly reduced, but no website can completely stop scrapers.
Therefore as an additional measure to safeguard that my trilogy remains together as one book, I will be publishing all three books in print form before posting them digitally. This means that all three books will be available as paperbacks on Amazon and other outlets first. The books will be priced as low as the outlets allow which means I will receive no royalties and that is fine with me (as I explain in the “About This Book” page).
Of course, publishing my books in print creates an additional delay due to time spent on artwork for book covers and collaborative work on artistic maps inside the books which eats up a very considerable amount of time that I would otherwise use on final editing. Additionally, once the books are out in print, a discovery period of at least eight weeks will be allowed before the books are posted here. I hope to have all three books posted here by the first day of Spring, although my estimate may be overly optimistic. I will post updates here to let you know my progress. And please rest assured that ALL THREE BOOKS WILL BE POSTED HERE, FOR FREE TO READ! And if you liked book one, then I think you will love books two and three.
Finally, I just want to say that this delay would not be necessary if we lived in a perfect world but of course we do not. I once heard a pastor say, “We are all wonderful, and we are all pathetic.” And I was just old enough to think, “Brother, ain’t that the truth!”
Thank you again for reading! I apologize for this delay, and I greatly appreciate your patients!
James Sheldon
