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Thrown Out at 80, He Wintered in a Lumber Camp Cookhouse — In March, a Snowplow Stopped… — Transcript

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0:00At 80, Frank Dombrowski stood in his own
0:02kitchen and listened [clears throat]
0:04while his son Jim showed the new tenants
0:06which burner ran hot.
0:08Then Jim held out his palm for the house
0:10key, the truck key, and the garage key,
0:13and called it only fair.
0:15Frank walked into the Michigan January
0:17with one bag, his pension, and $40
0:21and his son never looked back.
0:24Three hours north stood the lumber camp
0:26cookhouse where he once peeled potatoes,
0:29empty for decades, 30 below at night,
0:32firewood stacked against its walls.
0:35On the first night, the stone under the
0:37iron stove stayed warm long after the
0:40fire died, and his old hands found a
0:43loose hearthstone.
0:44Someone had built a passage under that
0:46floor in the one place his son had never
0:49once asked about.
0:51What lay beneath would outweigh
0:53everything Jim had taken.
0:55And by March, a snowplow stopped on the
0:58empty road outside.
1:00The kitchen in Escanaba smelled of
1:02coffee and of a lemon cleaner Frank had
1:04never bought. On the windowsill stood
1:06his three orange pill bottles in a row,
1:09the way Helen had lined them up the last
1:11winter she was alive.
1:13The young couple from downstate stood by
1:15the stove in their good coats, and Jim
1:18had his hand on the knob of the front
1:20burner.
1:21This one runs hot, he said.
1:23Dad always said you could fry an egg on
1:25it before the pan was warm.
1:27The woman laughed politely.
1:29Frank stood by the back door with his
1:31hands in the pockets of his work jacket
1:33and watched them look at the ceiling, at
1:35the floor, at the cupboard where Helen's
1:38good plates sat behind the glass.
1:40The plates stay? The woman asked.
1:43Everything stays, Jim said. It's
1:46furnished.
1:47She had already hung her own mug on the
1:49hook by the door, a white mug with a
1:51cartoon moose on it on the hook where
1:54Frank's brown one had hung for 30 years.
1:57When the tenants went out to warm up
1:59car, Jim held out his hand. House key,
2:02dad.
2:03Frank worked the key off the ring with
2:05his thumbnail, slowly, because his
2:07fingers did not bend the way they used
2:09to.
2:11key, too,
2:12said.
2:13title's in my name, same as the house.
2:15did that after your fall, remember? So
2:17there'd be no fuss later. Later, Frank
2:20said. I'm still here, Jim.
2:23And I'm glad, but the house has to pay
2:25for itself now. Taxes, the roof, the
2:28furnace. It's only fair.
2:30I'll grab the garage opener off your
2:31visor.
2:33Frank looked at the gray coming in at
2:34his son's temples.
2:36Where am I supposed to go?
2:38Jim looked at the window instead of at
2:40him.
2:41There's the senior place on the north
2:42side. They have a list. You always land
2:45on your feet.
2:46Dad, the lease is signed.
2:49Frank packed one canvas bag in 10
2:51minutes. Three pairs of wool socks, the
2:54pills, his razor, a wool shirt, his
2:57folding knife, and the photograph of
2:59Helen on the beach at Marquette with the
3:01wind across her face.
3:03In his wallet were two $20 bills and his
3:05bank card. The next check would come on
3:08the 3rd of February.
3:10Jim drove him to the bus depot in the
3:11truck, Frank's truck, with the radio
3:14playing the farm report. And at the
3:16curb, he left the engine running.
3:18Call me when you're settled. The tenants
3:20are back at 10 for the paperwork.
3:23Frank set the bag on the salted concrete
3:25and closed the door carefully, the way
3:27you close a door on a sleeping house.
3:30He watched the truck to the corner.
3:32Jim did not look in the mirror once.
3:36In the depot, on a bench under the
3:37schedule board, Frank thought about the
3:40senior place and the list and a young
3:42woman with a clipboard asking him to
3:44spell his name.
3:46Then, the way an old smell comes back,
3:49he thought of a long log building in the
3:51pine country north of the Seney Swamp
3:54and a cook stove the size of a car.
3:57He thought of 40 men coming in off the
3:59cut at dusk with frost in their beards
4:02and a big Swede named Arvid Lindquist in
4:04a cloud of steam. Frankly, the potatoes
4:07don't peel themselves.
4:10Frank had been 40 then, laid off from
4:12the paper mill, and he had gone north as
4:14a cook's helper because it paid cash and
4:16fed you three times a day.
4:18He had promised Arvid he would come back
4:20the next winter.
4:22The mill called him back instead, and
4:24the next winter turned into 40 of them.
4:27He went to the counter.
4:29One north to the Lake Superior shore, he
4:31said, as far as the highway crossing
4:33past the river.
4:35The girl looked at him.
4:36In January? Is somebody picking you up?
4:39Somebody will, Frank said, and paid with
4:42his card and kept the two 20s folded in
4:45his shirt pocket.
4:46If stories like this one matter to you,
4:48give this video a like and subscribe to
4:50the channel with the bell turned on so
4:52you don't miss the next one. And now,
4:55let's continue.
4:56The bus dropped him at a crossroad store
4:59with one gas pump and a sign that said
5:01bait, groceries, propane. Behind the
5:04counter sat a heavy woman of 60 with
5:07reading glasses on a beaded chain and a
5:09crossword in front of her.
5:11Frank set his things down one by one.
5:14A 10-lb sack of flour, a block of lard,
5:17a can of coffee, matches, fishing line,
5:20a card of hooks, salt.
5:23$38.60,
5:26she said, and looked at him over her
5:27glasses.
5:29Where are you headed with all that, hon?
5:31Tamarack Creek, the old camp.
5:34She put the pencil down.
5:36Nobody's lived out there since the old
5:38Swede passed, eight years now.
5:41Arvid, Frank said.
5:43He was my boss once.
5:45She looked at him a long moment, then
5:47went into the back and came out with a
5:49red plastic kid sled.
5:51I'm Marlene. Take this. County plows to
5:54the bridge and the camp's 2 miles up.
5:57Bring the sled back in spring, and if
5:59you're dead, I'm going to be very upset
6:01with you.
6:02The The road was plowed down to gravel
6:05between walls of snow higher than his
6:07head. He pulled the sled with his neigh
6:09complaining and his breath freezing in
6:12his mustach and it took him an hour and
6:14a half to reach the gap in the snowbank
6:16where the old two-track went into the
6:18trees.
6:19The last quarter mile he went in snow to
6:21his knees putting each boot into the
6:24hole of the last one.
6:26The cook house stood in a clearing among
6:28snow heavy pines and white birches
6:31exactly where he had left it.
6:33A long low building of dark logs gone
6:36almost black with age, a big field stone
6:39chimney at one end, a shallow roof of
6:41cedar shakes under a foot of snow and
6:44the wide door at the gable end facing
6:46the clearing.
6:47Against the long wall under the overhang
6:50firewood was stacked in neat rows split
6:53and dry higher than a man.
6:56A rusted steel barrel stood at the
6:57corner with a lid on it.
6:59Drifts reached the window sills.
7:02Nothing was broken, not a pain, not a
7:05shake.
7:06Somebody had stacked that wood. Somebody
7:09had kept that roof.
7:11The door was only latched with a wooden
7:13peg on a leather thong. Inside it was
7:16dark and dry and colder than outside,
7:19the cold that lives in empty buildings.
7:23The long tables were there, the benches
7:25pushed under and at the far end on a
7:27base of fitted field stone stood the
7:29range, a great black iron cook stove
7:33with six lids and two ovens.
7:36Frank put his hand on the cold iron.
7:38Well, hello, he said.
7:41He did it the way Arvid had taught him.
7:44Damper open first.
7:46The stove has to breathe before it eats,
7:48Frankie.
7:49Birch bark, kindling split thin with the
7:52hatchet still hanging on its nail.
7:54Three sticks of maple laid like a little
7:56cabin,
7:57one match.
7:59In a few minutes the old range began to
8:01tick and groan as the iron warmed and
8:04Frank sat on a bench and held out his
8:06hands and they were shaking,
8:08and it was not from the cold.
8:10Behind the kitchen, through a narrow
8:12door, was the little room where Arvid
8:14had slept, with a low bunk, a cedar
8:17chest, and a floor of flat field stones,
8:20fitted and smoothed. In the chest were
8:22three heavy wool blankets, gray, red,
8:26and green, smelling of cedar, without a
8:28moth hole.
8:30He boiled coffee, ate bread with lard
8:32and salt, banked the fire with a chunk
8:35of oak and the damper half shut, and lay
8:38down in his clothes under all three
8:40blankets with his wool hat on.
8:42He woke after three.
8:44The fire would be low by now,
8:47but his hand had slipped off the bunk
8:48onto the stone floor, and the stone was
8:51warm,
8:52warm like a loaf an hour out of the
8:54oven.
8:56He moved his palm along it,
8:58warm by the wall that backed onto the
9:00kitchen,
9:01warm in a line running toward the window
9:03under the bunk, cooler on either side.
9:07Stone doesn't stay warm by itself, he
9:10said quietly.
9:11Somebody built you that way.
9:14In the morning, with the coffee on, he
9:16went down on both knees in front of the
9:18range and tapped the hearth with the
9:20poker, the wide apron of flat stones
9:23where the men had stamped the snow off
9:24their boots.
9:26Dull and solid.
9:28Dull and solid. Then one long stone,
9:32nearest the base of the stove, gave back
9:34a hollow sound, like a knock on a cellar
9:37door.
9:38And when he pressed one end with the
9:39heel of his hand, it rocked.
9:42He worked the short pry bar from the
9:44wood box into the crack and leaned on it
9:47with what weight he had.
9:49The stone came up an inch, then two,
9:52and he got his fingers under it and
9:54walked it over onto the floor.
9:56Warm air came up out of the hole and
9:58touched his face.
10:00Underneath was a chamber of old brick,
10:03the size of a bread box, and from it a
10:06brick channel ran away under the floor
10:08toward Arvid's room.
10:10A branch of the flue built off the base
10:12of the range to carry heat under the old
10:15man's floor.
10:16In the far corner of the chamber where
10:18the heat would be gentle lay a bundle
10:21wrapped in oilcloth and tied with
10:23kitchen twine.
10:24He untied the twine with stiff fingers,
10:27folded back the oilcloth, and the first
10:29thing he saw was a cook's notebook with
10:32a black cardboard cover and his own name
10:35on it. The letters were in pencil, in
10:37Arvid's big square hand, the hand that
10:40had written the menus on the board every
10:42Sunday night.
10:44For Frankie
10:45when he comes back for the winter.
10:47Frank held it a long time without
10:49opening it.
10:51Under the notebook, still in the
10:53oilcloth, was an iron cash box the size
10:56of a family Bible, painted dark green,
10:59the paint worn to bare metal at the
11:01corners.
11:02It had a keyhole in front and it was
11:04locked.
11:05He tried the lid with his thumbs.
11:07It did not move.
11:09He shook it gently and something inside
11:12slid, flat and light, papers maybe,
11:16nothing that clinked.
11:17He sat down on the bench by the stove,
11:20put on the reading glasses that hung on
11:22a shoelace around his neck and opened
11:24the cover.
11:25The first page was a list of what was in
11:27the root cellar and the woodshed, dated
11:29in the fall of the year the timber
11:31company had shut the camp for good,
11:33almost 30 years back. The second page
11:36said, in the same square pencil,
11:39Frankie
11:40the company is selling off the camp.
11:42I bought the cookhouse and 40 acres
11:44around it with my savings.
11:46Somebody has to keep the stove.
11:48If you are reading this, you came back
11:50like you said.
11:51Good.
11:52The coffee is in the blue can.
11:54Read slow.
11:56Read slow, Frank said, and he heard
11:59Arvid saying it, impatient and fond, the
12:02way he said it about recipes.
12:04You read a recipe slow, Frankie, or you
12:07make soup out of the cake.
12:09He read slow.
12:11The The was half recipes and half
12:13something else.
12:15There was bread on lard, the way they
12:17made it for the cruise, with the ratio
12:19of flour to water underlined twice.
12:22There was pea soup with salt pork and a
12:24fish chowder.
12:25And between the recipes, on pages headed
12:28with the month and the year, Arvid had
12:30written down how he had made the place
12:32to live through the winters alone. I
12:34took the flu off the base of the range
12:36and ran it under my floor in brick, two
12:38turns and out to the chimney on the far
12:40side, one page said.
12:43The stone holds the heat till morning.
12:45You bank the range at night with oak,
12:47damper half shut. Never all the way
12:49shut, Frankie, never, or the smoke comes
12:51back on you and you go to sleep and
12:53don't wake up. The stone under the bunk
12:56will be warm till five.
12:58Frank laughed and wiped his eyes with
13:00his thumb.
13:01Till five, he said.
13:03It was.
13:04Another page told him where things were.
13:07The woodshed behind the building had a
13:09second door to the woodpile, so you did
13:11not have to dig out in a storm.
13:13The barrel at the corner was for ashes,
13:15and hot ashes went nowhere else.
13:18There was an ice auger and two tip-ups
13:20in the shed, perched by the big rock,
13:23pike off the creek mouth. Fish in the
13:25morning, home before the light goes. Old
13:28men die on the ice in the afternoon.
13:31And a page about the roof.
13:33Tommy Lahti comes in the fall and checks
13:36the shakes and stacks the wood. He is a
13:38good boy. He has the other key.
13:41Frank read that line twice with his
13:43finger under it.
13:45Tommy Lahti.
13:47A skinny kid of 14 with a cowlick and a
13:49cough. The chore boy who hauled water
13:52and swept the dining hall and who cried
13:54the first day because the loggers teased
13:56him about his boots.
13:58Frank had taught him to peel potatoes
14:00with the blade going away from the thumb
14:02and to bank the stove and to keep quiet
14:05when Arvid was in a mood.
14:07That boy would be past 50 now.
14:10The other key, Frank said, and looked at
14:13the green box beside him.
14:15He went through the rest of the notebook
14:17looking for the first key and did not
14:19find it.
14:20He went through the shelf, the cedar
14:22chest, the knife drawer in the kitchen.
14:25Nothing. On the last page there was one
14:27more line written later than the rest in
14:30a hand that shook.
14:32Frankie,
14:33what is in the box is for you.
14:36I locked it so nobody else would open it
14:38first.
14:39Ask Tommy.
14:41Frank sat a long while with that.
14:44He had a pry bar and a hatchet and he
14:46had opened worse things in his life.
14:49He picked up the bar, turned it over in
14:51his hands and put it down.
14:53No, he said to the empty hall.
14:56Arvid locked it.
14:58Arvid gets to say when.
15:00He wrapped the box in its oil cloth, set
15:03it back in the warm chamber where it had
15:05stayed dry all these years and laid the
15:07stone over it.
15:09The notebook went on the shelf over the
15:11bunk next to Helen's photograph.
15:14That night, under the three blankets
15:17with his hand on the warm stone, he
15:19thought about Jim.
15:21Jim had been 12 that winter.
15:24Every Sunday Frank had called home from
15:26the pay phone at the crossroads and Jim
15:28would get on and talk about hockey. When
15:31Frank came home in the spring, Jim had
15:33never once asked where he had been or
15:35what it was like
15:37and Frank had never told him because
15:39there had not seemed to be a reason.
15:42Now he thought that if his son had asked
15:44even once, Jim would know there was a
15:46place in the north woods with a warm
15:49floor and a stove kept for his father
15:51for 30 years by a man who was no
15:54relation at all.
15:56And maybe then he would not have said
15:58that it was only fair.
16:00In the morning, Frank made a plan the
16:03way Arvid would have on a page torn from
16:05the back of his little address book.
16:08Wood, plenty if he split the big rounds
16:10in the shed a little every day.
16:13Flour, 10 lbs, 3 weeks if he was
16:16careful. Then the check.
16:18Pills,
16:19two months of the white ones, less of
16:21the blue.
16:23Fish, the lake.
16:25He found the ice auger in the shed, a
16:27hand auger with a crank, rusted at the
16:29joint, and he oiled it with lard and
16:32worked it until it turned.
16:34Morning only, he said, as if he were
16:36promising somebody. Home before the
16:38light goes.
16:40The lake lay white and smooth behind the
16:43cook house, a few hundred yards across,
16:46with a big gray boulder standing out of
16:48the ice near the far shore like the back
16:50of a sleeping animal.
16:53It took him most of an hour to crank
16:55through the ice by the rock, resting
16:57every few turns, his knee complaining
16:59each time he leaned on it.
17:02When the black water welled up into the
17:04hole, he was breathing so hard he had to
17:06sit on the overturned bucket.
17:09He baited a hook with a bit of salt
17:10pork, dropped the line, and sat in the
17:13white silence with the smoke from his
17:15own chimney going straight up into the
17:18cold blue sky.
17:20In 20 minutes, he had a perch.
17:23In an hour, he had five.
17:25He fried them in lard on the front lid
17:27of the range, the one Arvid had always
17:29called the hot one, and ate them
17:32standing at the stove with a heel of
17:34bread.
17:35Frankie, you're a cook, he said in
17:38Arvid's voice, and then in his own,
17:41cook's helper, Arvid
17:43always was.
17:45The days found a shape. He woke when the
17:48stone under him started to cool, around
17:50five, and built up the fire.
17:53He made coffee and drank half and saved
17:55half for noon.
17:57He split wood for half an hour, never
17:59more, sitting on the chopping block
18:01between rounds because he knew what an
18:03old back did when it was asked for too
18:05much in the cold.
18:07He fished in the morning.
18:09In the afternoon, he baked, following
18:11Arvid's ratios to the letter, and the
18:14first loaf came out flat and hard as a
18:16hymnal, and the second was better, and
18:19the fourth was so good that he sat at
18:21the long table and ate a quarter of it
18:23plain.
18:24There you go, Arvid, he said. There you
18:27go.
18:28At dusk he banked the fire with oak,
18:31left the damper half shut, and lay down
18:33with his hand on the stone.
18:36On the third of February he walked the
18:38two miles out to the crossroads with the
18:40red sled because the check had come and
18:42the flour was down to the bottom of the
18:44sack.
18:45Marlena saw him through the window and
18:47came around the counter before he was
18:49through the door. Well, look at you, she
18:52said. Alive and everything. Alive and
18:55everything, Frank said.
18:58He rode the noon bus to the bank in the
19:00next town and back and bought flour and
19:02lard and coffee and a sack of dried peas
19:05and a slab of salt pork.
19:07And when Marlene rang it up he paid her
19:10and then put $2 on the counter for the
19:12sled.
19:13She pushed the $2 back at him. Keep it.
19:17Tell me something instead.
19:18Who's been stacking that wood out there?
19:20I always wondered.
19:22A man named Tommy Lottie, Frank said.
19:25You know him?
19:26Marlene frowned and tapped the pencil on
19:28her crossword.
19:29There were Lotties up the river road
19:31years back. They moved down state, I
19:33think, or out west.
19:36I couldn't tell you which one was Tommy.
19:38He'd be past 50. Honey, half the county
19:41is past 50. She tore a page out of a
19:43spiral notebook. Here.
19:46Anything you need between checks, you
19:47write it down and I'll put it on this
19:50and you pay me when you can. Don't argue
19:52with me. My mother would come up out of
19:54the ground.
19:56Frank took the page and folded it into
19:58his wallet behind Helen's old library
20:00card.
20:01Before he left he asked to use the phone
20:03on the wall by the bait cooler and he
20:05dialed Jim's number from memory.
20:08It rang four times and went to the
20:10recording, Jim's voice saying he was
20:12busy making something happen.
20:15It's your dad, Frank said after the
20:17beep. I'm up north. I'm fine. I've got a
20:20stove and a roof. You don't need to
20:22worry.
20:24He stood holding the receiver a moment
20:26longer, as if there might be more to
20:27say, then hung it up.
20:30Your boy? Marlene asked without looking
20:32up from her crossword.
20:34My boy, Frank said.
20:36He'll call back, she said. They always
20:39call back eventually.
20:41Frank pulled his hat down over his ears.
20:44Eventually is a long word, he said, and
20:48went out to the sled. He read the rest
20:50of the notebook in the evenings by the
20:52light of the oil lamp he had found on a
20:54hook above the long table, a little
20:56every night, the way Arvid had told him.
20:59Between the recipes and the
21:01instructions, there were shorter
21:02entries, one for each December, and he
21:05had not noticed them the first time
21:07because they were so plain.
21:09December. Stove is good. Roof is good.
21:13Frankie did not come. Maybe next year.
21:16And the next December.
21:18Stove is good. Put new shakes on the
21:20north side. No Frankie. Next year.
21:24And the next.
21:2622 Decembers in a row, written in a hand
21:29that got bigger and shakier as the years
21:31went on. Always the stove first, always
21:35the roof, and always the same short line
21:38at the bottom.
21:39The last one said only
21:41Stove is good. Tommy did the roof.
21:45I am tired, Frankie.
21:47Frank closed the notebook and sat with
21:50his hands on the cover.
21:51The fire ticked in the range.
21:54Outside, the wind moved in the tops of
21:57the pines with a sound like a long
21:59breath let out. I'm sorry, Arvid, he
22:02said. The mill called. Then Helen got
22:05sick the first time. Then the boy needed
22:08braces.
22:09Then it was just the way things were.
22:12He listened as if the old Swede might
22:14answer him from the kitchen with a ladle
22:16in his hand and tell him to quit whining
22:18and peel something.
22:20Nobody answered.
22:22The stone under the bunk was warm.
22:25He put Helen's photograph on top of the
22:27notebook and lay down.
22:30The cold got worse in the second week of
22:32February.
22:33The thermometer nailed outside the
22:35kitchen window, an old enamel one with a
22:37beer company's name worn off it, read 20
22:40below in the mornings, then 25.
22:44The lake ice groaned at night with long,
22:47low booms, like somebody moving
22:49furniture in a room far away.
22:52Frank learned the woodshed the way Arvid
22:55had built it.
22:56The second door opened straight onto the
22:58stacked rows under the overhang, so that
23:00he could fill the wood box without ever
23:02going around the building through the
23:04drifts. He kept a count on the wall by
23:06the stove with a stub of pencil,
23:08a mark for every armload.
23:1112 armloads a day when it was very cold,
23:14eight when it eased.
23:16He split the big rounds sitting down
23:18with the maul resting on his knee
23:20between swings,
23:21and when his shoulder started to burn,
23:23he stopped, even if the round was half
23:25split, because a man of 80 who keeps
23:28going after his shoulder tells him to
23:30stop does not go anywhere for a week.
23:33He took the blue pills with his coffee
23:35and the white ones with supper, and he
23:37counted them on the windowsill every
23:39Sunday, setting them out in rows on a
23:42clean dish towel.
23:44The white ones were fine.
23:45The blue ones, for the heart, were going
23:48faster than he wanted because the
23:50pharmacy in the next town had only been
23:52able to give him a half refill until the
23:54doctor's office called back.
23:5622, he said one Sunday, and wrote it on
23:59the wall next to the wood count. 22
24:02days. Check comes on the third.
24:04I can make the third.
24:06The storm came on the 14th.
24:09In the morning, the sky over the lake
24:11went the color of an old nickel,
24:14and the air got so still that he could
24:16hear a chickadee on the far side of the
24:18clearing.
24:19Frank knew that stillness.
24:21He had grown up on the north shore, and
24:24he had seen it come before a blow every
24:26winter of his life.
24:28He brought in 20 armloads of wood before
24:30noon and stacked them along the wall of
24:32the dining hall in a long row.
24:35He filled every pot he had with snow and
24:38set them on the back of the range to
24:39melt.
24:40He brought in the ice auger and the
24:42tip-ups and the minnow bucket so they
24:44would not be buried. And he checked the
24:46latch on the door and wedged a folded
24:48blanket along the bottom of it.
24:51All right, he said, standing in the
24:53middle of the long room with his hands
24:55on his hips.
24:56Come on then.
24:58It came on at 3:00 in the afternoon, all
25:00at once, like a wall.
25:03The windows went white. The wind hit the
25:05long side of the cookhouse so hard that
25:08the old logs creaked and snow sifted in
25:11fine as flour through a crack above the
25:14door frame and lay in a little drift on
25:16the floor.
25:17The chimney roared.
25:20Frank fed the range and sat on the bench
25:22in front of it with a blanket around his
25:24shoulders and listened to the building
25:26take the wind.
25:28It held.
25:29The logs had been laid by men who knew
25:31what a Lake Superior winter was and they
25:34had been laid well. And Arvid had
25:36chinked them every fall for 20 years and
25:39Tommy after him.
25:41Good work, boys, Frank said to the
25:43walls. Good work.
25:46The first night was all right. He slept
25:49in his clothes on the bunk with all
25:50three blankets and his hand on the
25:52stone. And the stone was warm.
25:56The second day was worse.
25:58The wind did not let up at all. He could
26:01not see the woodshed from the kitchen
26:03window and he could not see the lake.
26:05When he opened the second door into the
26:07wood pile, the snow had blown in under
26:10the overhang and buried the stacked rows
26:12halfway up. And he had to dig with the
26:14coal shovel to reach the wood, a little
26:16at a time, resting on the shovel handle
26:19with his heart going hard in his ears.
26:22He counted his marks on the wall.
26:24The wood inside would last two more days
26:27if he was careful.
26:28The flour was down to the last few cups
26:31because he had meant to walk out to
26:32Marlene's the day after the storm
26:34started.
26:35The blue pills were down to ten.
26:38He wrote it on the wall in a column.
26:40Wood, two days. Flour, three loaves.
26:44Pills, ten.
26:46Ten, he said. That's plenty.
26:49That's ten days.
26:51The mistake came the second night.
26:54The temperature dropped with the dark
26:56and the wind came straight down the
26:57chimney in gusts that made the fire in
26:59the range flatten and gasp. The dining
27:02hall was cold even with the fire going
27:05full, and the room behind the kitchen
27:07was cold.
27:08And for the first time, the stone under
27:10the bunk was only lukewarm.
27:13Frank lay under the blankets with his
27:15teeth chattering and thought about the
27:17heat going straight up the chimney and
27:19out into the storm, wasted, all that
27:22good maple.
27:24At midnight, he got up, went to the
27:26range, and pushed the damper all the way
27:29shut to hold the heat in the iron.
27:31He knew it was wrong while he was doing
27:33it.
27:34Arvid's voice was right there in his
27:36head.
27:37Never all the way shut, Frankie. Never.
27:41But he was so cold and so tired, and it
27:44would only be for an hour, he told
27:45himself, just to take the edge off.
27:48He lay back down and the room did warm
27:51up a little, and he fell asleep.
27:54He woke with his head pounding like
27:56somebody was hitting it with a mallet
27:58from the inside.
27:59His mouth was dry and there was a sweet,
28:02flat taste on his tongue. And when he
28:04sat up, the room swung around him like a
28:07boat. He was sick on the floor beside
28:09the bunk.
28:11For a while, he did not understand
28:13anything.
28:14Then he smelled it,
28:16the thin, bitter edge of smoke that had
28:18nowhere to go.
28:20And he heard Arvid as clearly as if the
28:22old man were standing in the doorway in
28:24his apron.
28:25The smoke comes back on you and you go
28:28to sleep and don't wake up.
28:30Damn fool, Frank said out loud, and his
28:33own voice sounded far away.
28:36Damn old fool.
28:38He did not try to stand.
28:40He knew his legs would not hold him.
28:43He rolled off the bunk onto the stone
28:45floor and crawled on his hands and his
28:47good knee through the narrow door into
28:49the kitchen.
28:51And the kitchen was worse. The air thick
28:54and gray in the light of the firebox.
28:56He reached up and found the damper
28:58handle by feel and pushed it open, and
29:01the range gulped and roared.
29:03Then he crawled the whole length of the
29:05dining hall, past the long tables with
29:08the floorboards freezing under his
29:10palms, to the big door at the gable end.
29:13He pulled the folded blanket away from
29:15the bottom of it and reached up and
29:17lifted the latch, and the wind tore the
29:19door out of his hand and slammed it back
29:22against the wall, and the storm came in.
29:25He lay in the doorway with the snow
29:27blowing over him and breathed.
29:30Cold air, sharp as broken glass, as much
29:33of it as he could get.
29:35He breathed until the mallet in his head
29:37slowed down and the room stopped
29:39swinging.
29:40Then he dragged one of the benches over
29:43and sat, wrapped in a blanket beside the
29:45open door, half in the storm, breathing
29:48for what was left of the night,
29:50while the fire in the range ate through
29:52his wood with the damper wide open and
29:55the heat poured out the door into the
29:57dark.
29:59If you've come this far with Frank, give
30:01this video a like and subscribe, because
30:03what comes next is the part of the story
30:05this whole thing was for.
30:08By the gray light of morning, the price
30:10was plain.
30:11The door had stood open for 5 hours. The
30:15dining hall was full of snow in a long
30:17tongue that reached halfway to the
30:19stove.
30:21The wood he had stacked along the wall
30:22was gone, burned, every stick, and the
30:26fire was down to coals.
30:28His right knee had locked up from
30:30sitting in the cold, and it would not
30:32straighten all the way. And when he put
30:34weight on it, the pain went up into his
30:36hip like a nail.
30:38The stone under the bunk was cold for
30:40the first time since he had come.
30:43He had used up two days of wood in one
30:45night to save himself from his own
30:47mistake.
30:49He stood at the range, holding on to the
30:51warming shelf and looked at the column
30:53on the wall.
30:55Wood, none inside.
30:57Flour, three loaves.
30:59Pills, nine now.
31:02Wind, still blowing.
31:04All right, he said.
31:07All right.
31:08You made your bed.
31:10He had to dig.
31:11There was no other way. He took the coal
31:14shovel and went out through the second
31:15door into the woodshed and started
31:17digging down into the drift that had
31:19buried the stacked rows.
31:21And his knee would not bend, so he dug
31:24standing straight with his weight on his
31:26left leg, a shovelful at a time, the
31:28wind pulling at his coat.
31:31Every few minutes he had to stop and
31:33lean on the wood pile with his eyes
31:34shut.
31:36He got four armloads in that way,
31:38splitting the frozen pieces on the block
31:40in the kitchen because he could not
31:42stand outside long enough to do it
31:43there.
31:45He built the fire back up.
31:47He mixed what was left of the flour with
31:48lard and snow water and baked one loaf
31:52because a man has to eat something solid
31:54when he is working.
31:55He sat down at the long table with the
31:57loaf and his hands were shaking so badly
32:00that he could barely hold the knife.
32:03That was when he heard the engines.
32:06At first, he thought it was the wind
32:08changing pitch in the chimney. Then it
32:10was clearly two motors, high and ragged,
32:13coming and going in the white. Then
32:15closer, then right outside, and then
32:19cutting off.
32:20Somebody pounded on the big door.
32:23Frank got up, holding on to the table
32:25and limped down the length of the hall
32:27and opened it.
32:29Two figures stood in the snow, in
32:30snowmobile suits and helmets.
32:33One big and one bigger, covered in white
32:36from head to foot.
32:38Oh, thank God, said the first one,
32:40pulling off his helmet.
32:42He was a man of sixty with a gray goatee
32:45and his eyelashes frozen together.
32:47We saw smoke. We've been lost since
32:50yesterday afternoon.
32:51I'm Dale. This is my son Kyle.
32:54We came up from Saginaw for the weekend,
32:56and the trail just disappeared on us.
32:59The son pulled his helmet off. He was
33:01maybe thirty with a face red and raw
33:04from the wind.
33:06Sir, are you alone out here?
33:08I am, Frank said.
33:10Come in before you let all my heat out.
33:12What's left of it.
33:14They came in stamping and blowing. Kyle
33:17looked down the hall at the drift on the
33:18floor, at the empty wall where the wood
33:21had been,
33:22at the old man holding himself up on the
33:24door frame with one leg bent.
33:27What happened here? he said.
33:29I did something stupid last night, Frank
33:32said. Shut the damper.
33:34Should have known better.
33:35I did know better.
33:37Dale looked at his son and then at
33:39Frank.
33:40Is that wood out there under the snow?
33:43Under the overhang on the long side,
33:45Frank said. Through that door, half
33:47buried.
33:48Kyle was already pulling his gloves back
33:51on.
33:52Show me where you want it.
33:53For the next three hours, Kyle dug out
33:56the wood pile and hauled in arm loads
33:58until the wall of the dining hall had a
34:00row of wood on it higher than it had
34:02been before the storm.
34:04Then he went back out and split the big
34:06rounds on the block in the shed, steady
34:08as a machine, while his father shoveled
34:11the snow out of the hall and back
34:13through the door with Frank's coal
34:14shovel. Frank sat on the bench in front
34:16of the range because they would not let
34:18him do anything else.
34:20Sit, Dale said, the third time Frank
34:23tried to get up. I mean it. You sit.
34:27So Frank sat and did the only thing he
34:30could.
34:31He soaked the last of the dried peas,
34:33which he had been saving, and put them
34:35on to boil with the salt pork, the way
34:37Arvid had written it out.
34:39And by dusk, the long room smelled of
34:41pea soup and wood smoke and wet wool.
34:45They ate at the long table in the
34:46lamplight, the three of them, with the
34:48storm still going outside, but tired
34:51now, the gusts coming farther apart.
34:54Dale ate two bowls and wiped the bowl
34:57with the heel of the bread.
34:59Where did you learn to make soup like
35:00this?
35:02Right here, Frank said. 40 years ago.
35:0540 men a night at these tables.
35:08I was the helper.
35:09The cook was a Swede named Arvid. That's
35:12his recipe.
35:13And you live out here now, by yourself?
35:16Kyle asked.
35:17Since January.
35:19Why?
35:20Frank thought about it.
35:22My son needed the house, he said. That
35:25was all he said, and the two men looked
35:27at each other over the lamp and did not
35:29ask anything else.
35:31They stayed the night on the benches in
35:33the dining hall, wrapped in their
35:35snowmobile suits. And in the morning,
35:37the wind was gone and the sky was hard
35:40blue, and the snow lay over everything
35:42in long, smooth waves.
35:45Kyle went out at first light and split
35:48another hour of wood without being
35:49asked.
35:51Dale found a red plastic can of kerosene
35:53and a bag of coffee in the cargo box of
35:55his sled and set them on the table.
35:58Don't argue, he said when Frank started
36:00to.
36:01You saved our lives and you know it.
36:04We'd have been out there another night.
36:06You saved mine, Frank said. I'd have
36:08been digging that wood pile till
36:10Tuesday.
36:12Dale shook his hand for a long time.
36:14Is there anybody we should call for you?
36:17Your son?
36:18Frank looked at the window. There's a
36:20store at the crossroads, Marlene's. Tell
36:23her the old man at Tamarack Creek is all
36:25right and needs flour. She'll know.
36:28That's it? That's plenty, Frank said.
36:32They went off down the two track in the
36:33bright cold, the engines whining away
36:36into the trees. And Frank stood in the
36:39doorway until he could not hear them.
36:41Then he went back in and looked at the
36:43wall.
36:44He took the pencil stub and crossed out
36:46the column and wrote a new one.
36:49Wood, five days.
36:51Flour, none.
36:53Pills, eight.
36:55Tuesday, he said. Marlene's by Tuesday.
36:59Marlene came on Monday.
37:02She came in an old pickup with a plow
37:04blade on the front as far as the bridge.
37:06And then a neighbor kid on a snowmobile
37:08brought her up the two-track, sitting
37:10sideways on the seat behind him with a
37:12box of groceries in her lap.
37:14She marched into the cookhouse in her
37:16parka and set the box on the long table
37:19and looked at Frank, at his knee, at the
37:21column on the wall. Two strangers from
37:24Saginaw, she said, came into my store
37:26yesterday and told me an 80-year-old man
37:29saved their lives with pea soup and a
37:31wood pile. And then I had to hear from
37:34them that he's out of flour.
37:36She started taking things out of the
37:37box. Flour, lard, a bag of oranges.
37:42Oranges in February, Frank said. You'll
37:45take them and you'll eat them, Marlene
37:47said.
37:48She looked at the pills on the
37:49windowsill.
37:51And what's this?
37:52Heart pills, Frank said. Eight left.
37:55She picked up the bottle and read the
37:57label through her glasses on the beaded
37:59chain. I'm taking this to the pharmacy
38:01tomorrow and the kid is bringing it
38:03back. Don't argue with me. I'm learning
38:06not to, Frank said.
38:08Marlene put the bottle in her coat. Then
38:11she sat down at the long table and
38:13looked around the dining hall a long
38:15while. At the range, at the benches, at
38:18the old photographs of crews that still
38:20hung on the wall, gone yellow behind
38:23their glass.
38:24My dad ate here, she said. Back in the
38:27'60s, before your time. He used to say
38:29the Swede made the best bread on the
38:31whole shore. He did, Frank said. He
38:35still does. I've got his book.
38:37The rest of February went by in short,
38:39gray days and the ache in his knee eased
38:42off a little at a time.
38:44The The brought the pills on Wednesday.
38:47Frank fished in the mornings again when
38:49the cold [clears throat] let him, and he
38:51was home before the light went every day
38:53without fail.
38:55He did not shut the damper again.
38:57He did not even think about it.
38:59Every night when he banked the fire, he
39:01put his hand on the damper handle and
39:03set it at half and said, Half Arvid, out
39:07loud like a man saying grace.
39:10March came in with sun.
39:12The days got longer so fast it surprised
39:15him.
39:15And at noon the snow on the south side
39:18of the roof went soft and dripped off
39:20the shakes in a silver line.
39:23On the third, the day the check came,
39:25Frank set out for the crossroads with
39:27the red sled. He went slower than he had
39:29in February because of the knee.
39:32And he went on the shoulder of the
39:33county road where the plow had left a
39:35hard bank to walk on.
39:38He was a mile out from the turn on a
39:39long straight stretch through the pines
39:42when he heard the engine behind him, the
39:44big diesel and the scrape of the blade.
39:47And he stepped up onto the bank to let
39:49it by.
39:50The plow was a yellow county truck with
39:52a wing blade on the side and chains on
39:55the tires.
39:56And it went past him in a wave of noise
39:58and snow.
40:00Then the brakes hissed.
40:02The truck stopped 50 yards up the road.
40:05It sat there, the engine idling, the
40:08orange light on the cab turning around
40:10and around.
40:12Then the driver's door opened and a big
40:14man in a county jacket climbed down and
40:17stood on the step holding on to the
40:19mirror bracket and looked back at him.
40:22He had a gray beard and a stocking cap
40:24and he was squinting into the sun.
40:27Frank? He called.
40:29His voice came thin across the snow.
40:31Frankie Dombrowski?
40:34Frank stood very still on the snow bank
40:36with the sled rope in his hand.
40:39Nobody had called him Frankie in 40
40:41years except a dead man in a notebook.
40:45The big man came down off the step and
40:47started walking back toward him along
40:49the plowed road.
40:51And then he was almost running, heavy in
40:53his boots, and he pulled off his
40:55stocking cap as he came.
40:57Underneath the gray hair stood straight
41:00up in front in a cowlick that no amount
41:02of years had been able to flatten.
41:04Tommy, Frank said.
41:07It's you, Tommy Lottie said.
41:10He stopped an arm's length away,
41:11breathing hard, his face red.
41:14It's really you.
41:16I saw the old guy on the bank and I
41:18thought that's how Frank used to stand
41:20with the one hand on his hip.
41:22I almost didn't stop. I'm not even
41:24supposed to be on this run. Pete broke
41:26his wrist on Tuesday and they gave me
41:28his roads.
41:30He put out his hand and then seemed to
41:32change his mind and put both arms around
41:34Frank instead and held on. Where have
41:37you been? He said into Frank's shoulder.
41:40Where have you been, Frank? Escanaba,
41:43Frank said. Mostly.
41:45Tommy let go and looked at him, at the
41:47sled, at the knee.
41:50Where are you staying?
41:51Frank tipped his head back toward the
41:53turn.
41:54Where do you think?
41:55Tommy stared at him.
41:57At the camp? Since when? January.
42:01January.
42:02Tommy put his cap back on and took it
42:04off again.
42:05I've been plowing the other end of the
42:07county all winter. I didn't know. Nobody
42:10told me there was smoke. I'd have come.
42:13I'd have come in a second, Frank. I know
42:15you would, Frank said. Arvid said so. He
42:19said you were a good boy.
42:21Tommy's face did something complicated.
42:24You read the book, he said.
42:26They sat in the cab of the plow with the
42:28heater going and the engine idling and
42:31the orange light going around on the
42:32snow.
42:34Tommy poured coffee from a thermos into
42:35the cap and gave it to Frank.
42:38And Tommy told him
42:40Arvid had lived at the cookhouse alone
42:42for 22 winters after the company sold
42:45out. In the summers he took in a few
42:47fishermen and fed them.
42:49In the winters he kept the stove.
42:51He talked about you all the time, Tommy
42:54said. Frankie this, Frankie that.
42:57Frankie washed the pots without being
42:59asked. Frankie never once burned the
43:01bread.
43:02He said you'd be back.
43:04Every fall when I came to do the roof,
43:06he'd say,
43:07maybe this year.
43:09Tommy looked at the windshield.
43:11Eight years ago he got sick.
43:13They took him down to the hospital in
43:15Marquette.
43:16I went to see him.
43:18They gave me an envelope of cash for the
43:19taxes on the place, and he made me
43:21promise to keep the roof and the wood
43:24and pay the county every year until you
43:26came.
43:27I said, Arvid, he's not coming. It's
43:30been 30 years.
43:32He got mad. He said, you keep it, Tommy.
43:35You just keep it.
43:37Then he died on a Thursday.
43:40Tommy wiped his nose with the back of
43:41his glove.
43:43The envelope ran out three years ago.
43:45I've been paying it since.
43:47It's not much.
43:4840 acres of pine way out here. It's not
43:51much.
43:52Tommy, Frank said, it's fine. I promised
43:55[clears throat] him.
43:56You keep your promises to a guy like
43:58that.
43:59Frank held the coffee and did not drink
44:01it.
44:02He said you had the other key.
44:04Tommy reached into his jacket and pulled
44:06out his key ring, a big jangling ring
44:09with county keys and truck keys and
44:11house keys on it, and he worked one off,
44:13a small old brass key with a square
44:16head, dark with handling.
44:18Eight years, he said.
44:21I carried this thing eight years.
44:23I never knew what it opened.
44:25He said I'd know when.
44:27They did not go to the crossroads.
44:29Tommy turned the plow around in the next
44:31wide spot and plowed the two track in
44:34all the way to the clearing, the whole
44:36quarter mile, the blade throwing snow up
44:38over the birches in a long white wave
44:41and parked with the wing blade almost
44:43touching the wood pile.
44:45In the kitchen, Frank knelt on his good
44:47knee and Tommy knelt beside him, and the
44:50two of them worked the long stone up
44:52together with the pry bar and set it on
44:54the floor.
44:55The warm air came up into their faces.
44:58Frank lifted out the oil-cloth bundle
45:00and laid it on the bench and unwrapped
45:02the green box.
45:04Tommy held out the brass key.
45:06Frank shook his head. You do it. You
45:09carried it.
45:10Tommy put the key in the lock.
45:12It was stiff.
45:14He turned it slowly with both thick
45:16fingers, and something inside gave with
45:19a small, dry click.
45:22He lifted the lid and stepped back so
45:24Frank could see.
45:26There was no money in it.
45:27Frank had known there would not be, and
45:29he was glad.
45:31On top lay a photograph in a cardboard
45:33frame.
45:34The whole crew of 40 years ago, standing
45:37in front of the cookhouse door in the
45:38snow.
45:39Men in wool coats and caps with their
45:42arms folded.
45:43In the middle of them stood Arvid in his
45:45white apron, huge, with one hand on the
45:48shoulder of a dark-haired man of 40 who
45:51was laughing at something outside the
45:53frame.
45:54And in front, a skinny kid with a
45:56cowlick.
45:57That's me, Tommy said in a strange
46:00voice. Look at me.
46:02Under the photograph was a long envelope
46:04from a law office in Marquette.
46:06And inside it were several typed pages
46:09with a blue cover sheet.
46:11Frank put on his glasses and read the
46:13first page.
46:14And then read it again.
46:16It was a will.
46:18It said that Arvid Lindquist, being of
46:20sound mind, left the building known as
46:23the Tamarack Creek cookhouse and the 40
46:26acres on which it stood to Frank
46:28Dombrowski, formerly of the Tamarack
46:30Creek camp.
46:32If Frank Dombrowski could not be found
46:34within 10 years of his death, it went to
46:36the county for a public campground.
46:39At the bottom were Arvid's big square
46:41signature and two witnesses.
46:44One of them was a lawyer.
46:46The other was Eino Lahti.
46:48That's my dad, Tommy said.
46:51That's my dad's name.
46:53He never told me.
46:54He never said a word.
46:56Under the will there was one more thing.
46:59A single folded sheet of lined paper
47:01from the same notebook.
47:03And Frank unfolded it and saw the same
47:06square pencil hand. He read the first
47:08lines to himself and his throat closed
47:11up. And he folded it again and held it
47:14against his chest.
47:15What does it say? Tommy asked. Later,
47:18Frank said.
47:19I'll read it out loud later.
47:21He'd want it read slow.
47:23Tommy looked from the will on the bench
47:25to the old man holding the letter, and
47:28then at the date on the will, and
47:29counted on his fingers.
47:3110 years, he said.
47:34He died 8 years ago.
47:36Frank, if you hadn't come this winter, 2
47:39more years and it would have gone to the
47:40county.
47:41He sat down hard on the bench.
47:44What happens now?
47:46Frank looked at the range, at the fire
47:48behind the iron door, at the damper
47:50handle set at half.
47:52Now, he said.
47:54I guess we go to town.
47:56They went the next morning in Tommy's
47:58own pickup, an old blue one with a dog
48:01blanket on the seat and a coffee can of
48:03bolts rattling on the floor. Frank wore
48:05his clean wool shirt and shaved at the
48:08kitchen basin with snow water heated on
48:10the range.
48:11And he put the will and the photograph
48:13back in the green box and carried the
48:15box on his knees the whole way, both
48:18hands on the lid.
48:20The county building was a square brick
48:22place with a flag out front and salt
48:24crusted on the steps.
48:26Inside, at a counter with a sign that
48:28said probate, a young woman with her
48:31hair in a clip took the envelope and
48:33read the cover sheet and then looked up
48:35at Frank over the top of it.
48:37Arvid Lindquist, she said.
48:40I remember the name.
48:42We had a file on that parcel.
48:44Taxes paid every year by a Thomas
48:46Lachti. No estate ever opened.
48:49That's me, Tommy said. I'm Thomas.
48:53And you're Frank Dombrowski?
48:55Last I checked, Frank said.
48:58She took the papers into the back and
49:00was gone a long time.
49:02Tommy sat on the wooden bench and
49:04jiggled his knee. Frank sat beside him
49:06with the empty green box on his lap and
49:09looked at a framed map of the county on
49:10the wall, the old townships and the
49:13rivers, and found the little blue dot of
49:15the lake behind the cookhouse with his
49:17finger in the air.
49:19When the young woman came back, she had
49:21copies of everything with a stamp on
49:23them and a printed sheet.
49:25Here's how it works, she said. We file
49:28the will. There's a notice in the paper
49:30for a few weeks, so anybody with a claim
49:32can come forward.
49:34Then the judge looks at it.
49:35Nobody has ever filed anything on this
49:38estate in eight years, so I don't expect
49:40any surprises. But I'm not the judge.
49:44No surprises, Frank said.
49:46That would be a nice change.
49:48She smiled at him.
49:50[clears throat] You were in that
49:50picture? She asked, nodding at the box.
49:53The one he left you?
49:55The tall one, laughing, Frank
49:57[clears throat] said. I don't remember
49:58what at.
50:00Probably the kid, Tommy said. Everybody
50:03was always laughing at the kid.
50:05Marlene had it all over the crossroads
50:07by noon. By the next week, the two men
50:10from Saginaw had heard it because Kyle
50:12called the store to ask after the old
50:14man, and Marlene told him, and Kyle told
50:17his father, and his father told half of
50:20Saginaw.
50:21The notice ran in the county paper on a
50:23Thursday, three lines of small type at
50:26the bottom of the legal page with
50:28Arvid's name and Frank's name and the
50:30words 40 acres, more or less.
50:34Frank did not see it. He was on the lake
50:36that morning, pulling a pike through the
50:38ice off the creek mouth, a big one, as
50:41long as his arm. Its green sides spotted
50:44like sunlight through leaves. And he sat
50:46back on the bucket and laughed out loud
50:49at it, alone in all that white.
50:52Jim called on a Tuesday.
50:54He called the store because the number
50:56on the court papers for Frank Dombrowski
50:58was the number of the store. And Marlene
51:01sent the neighbor kid up the two track
51:02on his snowmobile to get Frank.
51:05Frank rode back sitting sideways behind
51:07the kid with his hat pulled down and
51:09took the receiver by the bait cooler.
51:11Dad? Jim's voice was loud and fast. Dad,
51:15what's this about 40 acres? Aunt Carol
51:18saw something in a paper up there. Your
51:20name's in a probate notice. What did you
51:22do?
51:23Frank held the receiver and looked at
51:25the frost on the window of the store.
51:28Hello Jim, he said. I'm fine. Thanks for
51:31asking.
51:32There was a silence on the line.
51:35I left you a message, Frank said, in
51:37February. I said I was up north.
51:40I know. I know you did. I've been busy.
51:43The tenants had a thing with the water
51:44heater.
51:45Another silence.
51:47Dad, where are you? What is this place?
51:50It's where I worked the winter you were
51:5212, Frank said.
51:54You never asked about it. I'm asking
51:56now. You are, Frank said.
51:59Come up and see it. Come on a Saturday.
52:02Come at noon.
52:03When he hung up, Marlene was watching
52:05him over her crossword with her pencil
52:07in her teeth.
52:08That's the boy?
52:10That's the boy.
52:11He going to come?
52:12He's going to come, Frank
52:14[clears throat] said. He heard 40 acres.
52:16He'll come.
52:18Marlene took the pencil out of her mouth
52:20and set it down very carefully.
52:23You want me there?
52:24Frank thought about it.
52:26Arvid used to feed the road crew every
52:28spring when the plowing was done, he
52:30said. He did it every year. Tommy told
52:33me. A big lunch the last Saturday they
52:36ran the trucks.
52:38I thought I'd do it again. Soup and
52:40bread.
52:41You could come. Everybody could come.
52:43Everybody, Marlene said, and the corner
52:46of her mouth went up.
52:48I'll bring pie.
52:50April came in gray and wet and the snow
52:53went to slush and then to water and the
52:56two track turned to mud so deep that
52:59Tommy laid planks across the worst of
53:01it.
53:02The lake ice went dark and soft at the
53:04edges and Frank stopped going out on it
53:07because Arvid had a page about that too,
53:09and Frank read it slow.
53:12Green shoots came up along the south
53:14wall of the cookhouse where the sun hit
53:16the logs.
53:17In the mornings, he heard geese going
53:19over high up, honking, heading north to
53:23the big water. He split wood in his
53:25shirt sleeves for the first time.
53:27His knee had come back almost all the
53:29way, and the column on the kitchen wall
53:31said, wood plenty,
53:34flour plenty,
53:36pills 30,
53:38because Marlene had made the pharmacy
53:39fill the whole thing.
53:42Jim came on the second Saturday in
53:44April, a little before noon.
53:46Frank heard the truck long before he saw
53:48it, the old engine he knew like his own
53:51cough, laboring up through the mud.
53:54And then it came out of the trees into
53:56the clearing, his truck, mud to the
53:58doors, and stopped.
54:01Jim sat in the cab a while with the
54:03engine running.
54:04Frank was by the wood pile with the maul
54:06in his hands.
54:07He leaned the maul against the block and
54:09stood there and waited.
54:12Jim got out.
54:13He was wearing the good wool coat and
54:15city shoes that sank into the mud to the
54:17laces,
54:18and he stood by the truck and looked at
54:20the long log building, at the big stone
54:23chimney with smoke coming out of it, at
54:25the wood pile higher than a man, and
54:28then at his father. Something went
54:30across his face that Frank had not seen
54:32there since Jim was a boy.
54:34Something surprised and unsure.
54:38You look good, Dad, he said.
54:40You look better than you did at home.
54:42I eat better, Frank said. Come in. Wipe
54:45your feet.
54:46Inside, the long tables were set.
54:50Frank had found the old enamel bowls in
54:52a crate in the shed, white with blue
54:54rims, chipped, and scrubbed them with
54:57sand. And there were 12 of them laid out
54:59on the oilcloth with a spoon beside each
55:01one.
55:03The range was going, and on the back of
55:05it the big soup kettle was steaming. And
55:07on the warming shelf four loaves of
55:09bread sat in a row under a dish towel.
55:12Jim stood in the doorway and looked at
55:15all of it.
55:16Who are all these bowls for?
55:18The road crew, Frank said, and some
55:20friends.
55:21You're early.
55:22I thought we'd talk first. Jim reached
55:25inside his coat and took out a long
55:27envelope.
55:28Just the two of us before anybody comes.
55:32They sat at the end of the long table
55:34nearest the stove. Jim put the envelope
55:36down between them and squared it up with
55:38both hands, the way he did with
55:40everything.
55:41Dad, I talked to a lawyer, he said.
55:45I want to help you with this.
55:4740 acres, a building way out here.
55:50There's taxes, there's liability.
55:52Somebody falls through the floor, they
55:54sue you.
55:55You're 80. You can't run this.
55:58He opened the envelope and slid out the
56:00papers.
56:01This is a power of attorney.
56:03It just means I can handle things for
56:05you. Sign the paperwork, pay the bills,
56:08deal with the county.
56:09And this, he slid out a second sheet, is
56:12from a timber outfit up the highway. I
56:14called around. They'd pay $90,000
56:17for the standing pine. 90, Dad. They cut
56:21it, they haul it, you don't lift a
56:23finger.
56:24You'd have money. You could get a place
56:25in town, a real place.
56:28Frank looked at the papers without
56:30picking them up.
56:3290,000, he said.
56:34That's a lot of money.
56:36It's a lot of money, Jim agreed.
56:39And who'd hold it? Frank asked. With the
56:42power of attorney?
56:44Jim looked at the table.
56:46I'd hold it for you.
56:47Dad,
56:48you know what I mean.
56:50Frank nodded slowly.
56:52He did know what Jim meant.
56:54He had known it since the kitchen in
56:55Escanaba and the moose mug on the hook.
56:59He did not say anything about it.
57:01He got up instead because he heard
57:03engines out in the clearing, and he
57:05said,
57:06let's eat first. You came a long way.
57:09They came in all at once, stamping the
57:12mud off their boots on the hearthstones,
57:14the way the loggers used to.
57:16Tommy came first, in his county jacket,
57:18with a pie in each hand from Marlene.
57:21Behind him came Pete with his wrist in a
57:24cast, and two other drivers from the
57:26county garage, a lean old man named Walt
57:29and a young woman named Rita with her
57:31hair in a braid.
57:33Marlene came in with a cooler of
57:35coleslaw and her reading glasses on the
57:37beaded chain.
57:38And last, to Frank's surprise, came Dale
57:41and Kyle from Saginaw,
57:44Dale with a bag of oranges, Kyle
57:46carrying a case of root beer on his
57:48shoulder. We heard there was soup, Dale
57:50said and grabbed Frank's hand. We drove
57:53up last night. Wouldn't miss it.
57:56The long room filled up with coats and
57:58voices and the smell of wet wool and pea
58:01soup.
58:02And for a moment, Frank stood in the
58:04middle of it and could not move
58:06because it sounded exactly the way it
58:08had 40 years ago at dusk.
58:11This is my son, Jim, he said
58:13[clears throat] when they had all found
58:15places.
58:16Jim, this is Tommy Lottie.
58:18He kept the roof on this building for 8
58:20years so I'd have somewhere to come.
58:22This is Marlene, who sold me my flour on
58:25credit.
58:26These two gentlemen got lost in the
58:27February blow and dug out my wood pile
58:30when I couldn't.
58:31Jim shook hands all around and smiled
58:34the smile he used for the tenants and
58:36sat down at the end of the table with
58:38his envelope beside his bowl.
58:41Frank served. He ladled the soup into
58:43the enamel bowls one by one, thick and
58:46green with the salt pork cut fine in it.
58:49And Kyle carried them down the table and
58:52Frank cut the bread on the board with
58:53Arvid's long knife and Marlene passed
58:56it.
58:57For a while, nobody said much.
59:00Then Walt, the lean old driver, put his
59:03spoon down and said,
59:05Well, I'll be.
59:07That's the Swede soup.
59:09Everyone looked at him.
59:11I ate here, Walt said.
59:13Spring of the year I started with the
59:14county.
59:15Arvid fed us every spring.
59:18I'd know that soup in the dark.
59:20It's his, Frank said. His recipe. I'm
59:24just the helper.
59:25When the bowls were empty and Marlene
59:27was cutting the pie, Jim cleared his
59:29throat.
59:31He had waited, Frank could see, for the
59:33right moment, the way he waited at
59:35closings, and he had decided that this
59:38was it.
59:39Dad, he said, loud enough for the table,
59:42while everybody's here, I think it would
59:44be good to settle the paperwork so
59:47people know you're taken care of.
59:49He slid the papers down the oil cloth
59:51toward his father. Power of attorney and
59:54the timber offer.
59:55Just so it's all in the open.
59:58The table got quiet.
1:00:00Tommy put his fork down.
1:00:02Marlene's pie knife stopped in the air.
1:00:05Frank looked at the papers in front of
1:00:07him and then at his son.
1:00:09And then he reached into the pocket of
1:00:11his wool shirt and took out the folded
1:00:13sheet of lined paper from the green box.
1:00:16He unfolded it on the table and smoothed
1:00:18it flat with both hands.
1:00:20He put on his reading glasses.
1:00:23Before I sign anything, he said, I want
1:00:26to read you something.
1:00:27The man who left me this place wrote it.
1:00:30I haven't read it out loud yet. He told
1:00:32me to read things slow, so I'm going to
1:00:35read it slow.
1:00:37He read it slow. Frankie,
1:00:40if you are reading this, Tommy kept his
1:00:42word and you came back.
1:00:44Good.
1:00:45I knew you would.
1:00:47You were 40 when you came here and you
1:00:49peeled potatoes like it mattered.
1:00:52All the men came for the money and you
1:00:54did too, I know,
1:00:55but you stayed late every night to wash
1:00:57up and nobody asked you
1:01:00and you never once looked around to see
1:01:02who was watching.
1:01:03That is a cook.
1:01:05A man who keeps a stove for other people
1:01:08should have a stove of his own one day.
1:01:10This one is yours now.
1:01:12I I the floor warm so an old man could
1:01:15sleep.
1:01:16I am an old man now, and I sleep warm.
1:01:19You will be an old man, too.
1:01:21Don't sell the pine to the first fellow
1:01:23with a saw.
1:01:25The pine keeps the wind off.
1:01:27Keep the stove going, and keep it for
1:01:29whoever comes in off the road cold.
1:01:32That is the rent.
1:01:33That is the only rent.
1:01:36Arvid.
1:01:38Frank folded the letter.
1:01:40Nobody at the table said anything.
1:01:42Outside, a jay was screaming somewhere
1:01:45in the birches.
1:01:46Rita had her hand over her mouth.
1:01:49Kyle was looking at his bowl. Jim sat at
1:01:52the end of the table very straight, with
1:01:54his face gone a dull red from the collar
1:01:56up.
1:01:57Jim, Frank said gently, the way you talk
1:02:01to a horse that is about to bolt.
1:02:03The house in Escanaba is yours.
1:02:06I signed it over to you, and I'm not
1:02:07going to take it back.
1:02:09Keep your tenants. I hope they treat
1:02:11Helen's plates right.
1:02:13That's done, and I don't hold it against
1:02:15you.
1:02:16He picked up the power of attorney and
1:02:18the timber letter, squared them together
1:02:20with his thumbs, the way his son had,
1:02:22and slid them back down the oilcloth
1:02:24until they stopped against Jim's bowl.
1:02:27But this place isn't for sale, and it
1:02:29isn't for rent. I've already got a lease
1:02:31on it. You just heard it read.
1:02:34Dad, Jim's voice came out hoarse.
1:02:37I was trying to help.
1:02:39I know you were, Frank said. In your
1:02:41way.
1:02:43Jim looked down the table at all of
1:02:45them, at Tommy and Marlene and the
1:02:47county drivers and the two strangers
1:02:49from Saginaw, who were all looking
1:02:51anywhere but at him.
1:02:53And Frank saw his son understand all at
1:02:56once how it looked from where they sat.
1:03:00The man who had taken the keys and the
1:03:02truck and the house in January had
1:03:04driven up in that same truck in April
1:03:07with papers for the pine.
1:03:10Nobody said it.
1:03:11Nobody had to.
1:03:13I called the senior place, Jim said,
1:03:16very low, so that only Frank hear him
1:03:18over the scrape of chairs
1:03:20in February,
1:03:22after your message.
1:03:24They said you never came in.
1:03:26I thought
1:03:27He stopped.
1:03:29I thought you were dead, dad.
1:03:31I thought you'd gone off somewhere and
1:03:33died,
1:03:34and I didn't come looking.
1:03:36I didn't even come looking.
1:03:39You came now, Frank said,
1:03:41for the pine.
1:03:43Still, Frank said,
1:03:45you came.
1:03:47He got up, went to the range, and ladled
1:03:49what was left in the bottom of the
1:03:50kettle into a clean bowl, the thickest
1:03:53part, where the peas had gone soft. He
1:03:55cut the heel off the last loaf.
1:03:58He set them both in front of his son.
1:04:01Sit, he said. Eat.
1:04:03You drove three hours in the mud. Nobody
1:04:06leaves this table hungry. That's the
1:04:08rule here.
1:04:10Jim looked at the bowl a long time.
1:04:13Then he picked up the spoon and ate.
1:04:16He ate the whole bowl without saying
1:04:18anything, with all of them talking again
1:04:21around him, carefully, about the roads
1:04:23and the ice going out and Pete's wrist,
1:04:26and he wiped the bowl with the heel of
1:04:28the bread, the way Frank had taught him
1:04:30when he was small.
1:04:32When he was done, he put the spoon in
1:04:33the bowl and sat with his hands on the
1:04:35table.
1:04:37Why didn't you ever tell me about this
1:04:38place? He asked quietly.
1:04:41All those years,
1:04:43you never said one word.
1:04:45You never asked, son, Frank said.
1:04:48Not once.
1:04:49I'd have told you everything.
1:04:52Jim nodded slowly.
1:04:54He folded the papers and put them back
1:04:56in his coat without looking at them. He
1:04:58shook [clears throat] Tommy's hand at
1:04:59the door, and Marlene's, and he said
1:05:01thank you for the soup to the room in
1:05:03general, and he went out to the truck.
1:05:06Frank stood in the wide doorway at the
1:05:08gable end and watched him go.
1:05:11Jim got in and started the engine and
1:05:13sat there a moment.
1:05:15Then he turned the truck around in the
1:05:17clearing, slowly, through the mud,
1:05:19and at the edge of the trees, where the
1:05:21two track went into the pines, he
1:05:23stopped and leaned out the window and
1:05:26looked back.
1:05:27He lifted one hand off the wheel.
1:05:30Frank lifted his.
1:05:32Then the truck went on into the trees,
1:05:34and the sound of the engine went down
1:05:36the hill toward the county road and was
1:05:38gone.
1:05:40Well, Marlene said behind him.
1:05:43Well, well.
1:05:45She put a hand on his shoulder.
1:05:47You all right, hon?
1:05:48I'm all right, Frank said.
1:05:51Is there pie left?
1:05:52There's always pie left, she said.
1:05:55That's the whole point of pie.
1:05:58The letter from the court came at the
1:05:59end of April in a long envelope to the
1:06:02store.
1:06:03And Marlene sent the kid up with it on
1:06:04his dirt bike because the snowmobile
1:06:06season was over.
1:06:08The judge had looked at everything.
1:06:10Nobody had come forward.
1:06:12The Tamarack Creek cookhouse and the 40
1:06:15acres around it were Frank's.
1:06:18Frank read the letter twice at the long
1:06:20table and then put it in the green box
1:06:22with the will and the photograph and set
1:06:25the box back in the warm chamber under
1:06:26the hearth and laid the stone over it
1:06:29and sat back on his heels for a while.
1:06:32The ice went out of the lake on the last
1:06:34day of April.
1:06:36He heard it in the night, a long, soft
1:06:38groaning.
1:06:39And in the morning, the lake was black
1:06:41water with gray slabs turning slowly in
1:06:44it.
1:06:45And loons had come from somewhere and
1:06:47were calling across the open water in
1:06:49their long, crazy voices.
1:06:52He stood on the shore by the big boulder
1:06:54with his coffee and listened to them.
1:06:56Then he went in and sat at the long
1:06:58table and opened Arvid's notebook to the
1:07:01first blank page after the last December
1:07:03entry,
1:07:04the one in the shaking hand.
1:07:06And he took the pencil stub off the
1:07:08shelf and licked the point the way Arvid
1:07:10used to.
1:07:12April, he wrote.
1:07:14Stove is good.
1:07:15Roof is good.
1:07:17Frankie came.
1:07:19He sat looking at that for a while.
1:07:21Then he turned the page and wrote more
1:07:23in his own smaller hand, slowly, because
1:07:26he wanted to get it right.
1:07:28He wrote down how to bank the range and
1:07:31the damper at half, never all the way,
1:07:33and he underlined never twice.
1:07:36He wrote down the ratio for the bread
1:07:38and the pea soup with the salt pork.
1:07:41He wrote down where the wood was and how
1:07:43to reach it through the second door when
1:07:45the drifts were high, and that old men
1:07:47should be home off the ice before the
1:07:49light goes. On the last page, he wrote,
1:07:52To whoever keeps this stove after me,
1:07:55the building and the land go to the
1:07:57county for a campground, like Arvid
1:07:59wanted if I never came.
1:08:01But Tommy Lathie keeps the key and keeps
1:08:04the stove as long as he wants it.
1:08:06The rent is the same as mine.
1:08:08Feed whoever comes in off the road cold.
1:08:12He signed it.
1:08:13The next time Tommy came by with the
1:08:15county truck, he had him witness it, and
1:08:18Marlene too. And the following week,
1:08:21Tommy drove him down to the lawyer in
1:08:22Marquette to make it proper, and Frank
1:08:25bought the lawyer a coffee afterward
1:08:27because the young man looked like he
1:08:28needed one.
1:08:30When they got back to the cookhouse that
1:08:31evening, Frank took the small brass key
1:08:34with the square head off the nail by the
1:08:36stove where he had hung it after the
1:08:38court letter came and held it out to
1:08:40Tommy.
1:08:41Tommy looked at it and did not take it.
1:08:44Frank, that's yours.
1:08:47It's yours, Frank said. You carried it
1:08:50eight years for a man who wasn't coming.
1:08:52You carry it a while longer.
1:08:55You'll know when.
1:08:56Tommy took the key and turned it over in
1:08:58his big fingers,
1:09:00and then he worked it back onto his ring
1:09:03between the county garage key and the
1:09:05key to his own front door
1:09:07and put the ring in his pocket and did
1:09:09not say anything at all.
1:09:11The county drivers took to stopping at
1:09:13the cookhouse when they ran the roads
1:09:15that way for coffee in the morning or
1:09:17soup at noon, the way Walt said they had
1:09:20in Arvid's time.
1:09:21Rita brought him a box of books.
1:09:24Pete brought him a used radio that the
1:09:26station from Marquette when the weather
1:09:28was clear.
1:09:29Marlene came on Sundays and sat at the
1:09:32long table doing her crossword and
1:09:34asking him for words he did not know.
1:09:37Kyle sent a postcard from Saginaw with a
1:09:39picture of a lighthouse on it that said,
1:09:41Coming up for opener. Save me a bowl.
1:09:44Jim called the store once in May and
1:09:47asked Marlene to tell his father the
1:09:49tenants had planted tomatoes in Helen's
1:09:51old bed by the garage and that they were
1:09:53coming up fine.
1:09:55Frank listened to that message twice,
1:09:57standing by the bait cooler,
1:09:59and then he walked home slowly through
1:10:02the pines with the red sled empty behind
1:10:04him
1:10:05because he had decided to keep it and
1:10:07Marlene had decided to let him.
1:10:11On a night near the end of May, it
1:10:13turned cold again, the way it does on
1:10:15the Lake Superior shore when the wind
1:10:17swings around to the north, a last bite
1:10:20of winter coming in off the big water.
1:10:23Frank built up the range with birch and
1:10:25then laid a chunk of oak at the back,
1:10:27the way Arvid had taught him at 4:00 in
1:10:29the morning 40 years ago.
1:10:31He put his hand on the damper handle and
1:10:33set it at half.
1:10:35Half, Arvid, he said. He took off his
1:10:38boots and set them by the stove with the
1:10:40toes pointed toward the fire.
1:10:43Then he went into the little room behind
1:10:45the kitchen and lay down on the low bunk
1:10:48under the three wool blankets, the gray
1:10:50one, the red one, and the green one,
1:10:53with his wool hat on, the way he had
1:10:55lain the first night in January with $40
1:10:58spent and nothing in the world but a bag
1:11:01and a sled.
1:11:03Outside, the wind moved in the tops of
1:11:05the pines.
1:11:07Out on the lake, a loon called once and
1:11:10then was quiet.
1:11:12Frank let his hand slip off the edge of
1:11:14the bunk and rest on the stone floor,
1:11:17and the stone was warm, warm like a loaf
1:11:20of bread an hour out of the oven,
1:11:22warm in a line from the kitchen wall to
1:11:24the window, the way an old cook had
1:11:27built it so that another old man could
1:11:29sleep.
1:11:30It would stay warm till five.
1:11:33Frank knew that now.
1:11:35He closed his eyes.
1:11:37Right now, there are three links on your
1:11:39screen.
1:11:40On the left, our newest video. In the
1:11:43middle, a link to our channel. On the
1:11:45right, a whole playlist of stories just
1:11:48like this one. Give the video a like,
1:11:50tell us in the comments what you think,
1:11:52and stay with us. Thank you for watching
1:11:54all the way to the end.

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