AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My aunt is leading us through North Pole on our way into Fairbanks and then home to Ptarmigan Falls, which is about twenty-three miles north of the city. The plan was to always come home, but not this soon. I had a two to five-year plan in motion. But after the call I got two weeks ago, I couldn’t leave my mother alone.
My mind replays that fateful call.I was tuning up the motorcycle in front of me when the phone in my pocket rang. The beautiful beast sounded amazing, and the paint job I had put on it made it look like the beast it was. There was a dragon on the fuel tank blowing fire toward the ape hanger handlebars. I loved what Mercy came up with for the artwork. She’d been working with Jinx on designs. I planned on talking her into coming with me to Alaska when I was ready to sell and move out of state in a few years.
I was so focused on my task of making the engine sound and run like a dragon that I ignored the phone ringing in my pocket. I tweaked an adjustment and started it up again. Everyone knew if they wanted to talk to me, they needed to call the business line. The phone started up again, and this time I was frustrated. I shut off the engine, pulled the phone from my back pocket, and answered it.
“What?” I yelled into the phone as I ripped off my gloves and threw them on the bench, my anger getting the best of me.
“Scout, baby.” I heard my mom’s tear-filled voice. She and my father both flashed through my mind as I moved toward my office. Maybe something happened to Uncle Joel.
“What’s a matter, Momma?” I had picked up some twang from living here so long.
“It’s your daddy. He was found murdered this morning.”
I dropped the phone as a pain-filled scream ripped from my throat. My eyes blurred and I couldn’t see anything through the tears. Not my daddy. He was the man I measured all to. Most have been found lacking because he was so amazing. But he was everything. He visited me. He didn’t make me feel guilty for the choices I made. He sent me money in the beginning to help until I got out of school and went to college. He was the one who gave my daughter her nickname, Little Bear. How was I going to tell her Papa wasn’t going to be there for her? Everything I had done to stay away from Ptarmigan Falls rolled through my mind. I could have been there with him. If I had been there, would he have still been alive?
“Scout.” I heard my name yelled and reached for the phone as the door to my office shut.
I looked up and saw River standing there. She had been with me for everything. She moved here shortly after I did, after losing her parents horrifically. She never questioned my decisions, just followed me. She was even my business partner. She reached for the phone and put it to her ear. I watched it all in a trance, not sure I’ll ever be the same again.
“Hey, Momma Violet. Oh my God.” Tears began to roll down her face. I cried too, the sobs racking my body now. “Okay. Let me get her under control and we’ll call you right back.” She hung up and dropped to the floor next to me where I rocked like a small child. She wrapped her arms around me. My daddy had been there for her too since losing his best friends in a head-on collision.
“My daddy is gone.” I cried on her shoulder as she held me tighter.
“I know, Scout, but you have to pull yourself together. Your mom needs us.”
I nodded and together we called her back.
“Momma, is that where Santa Claus lives?” Skyler’s voice breaks me from my thoughts. Her soft Southern accent is laced with sleep from napping. This morning I woke her up early to get on the road. She’s still in her unicorn jammies.
It took us almost two weeks to get ready and out of Widow’s Creek. I left Mercy in charge of my shop down there. The president of the motorcycle club I’m in asked me to be the charter president here, another thing in the works that got moved up. A few of the girls came with me.
My aunt, Vixen, as she’s called, is my charter treasurer. She was adamant about coming and said she needed to be with her sister. River, better known as Jinx, is my vice president. I couldn’t think of anyone more qualified to help me. My best friend told me she couldn’t let me go into the den of lions without her. I laughed at that one. It was the first laugh I had since I heard the news about my father. Minuet, or Frenchie, adopted me as her older sister and doesn’t let me get far, so she came with us. Plus, she’s been close to Skyler, and they are best friends. She wouldn’t let Sky go far from her either. Frenchie is also our club secretary. When she decided to prospect to the club, I wasn’t sure she could handle it after everything she went through. But she told me she had to do it to help other girls. I rescued her four years ago from a trafficker who was physically and sexually abusing her. She’s been by my side since. Rounding out the crew who came with me are Keys, our hacker, and Ginger, my enforcer, who at this moment is in our tail gunner position, bringing up the rear and making sure no one sneaks up on us without letting me know.
“Yeah, baby girl.” I chuckle as I look over at the almost fifty-foot-tall Santa Claus.
“Can we go?”
I look in the rearview mirror at her buckled into her booster seat. She hates the thing, but she still isn’t quite tall enough for the adult seat belt to fit her correctly. I’m in my Super Duty F250 Crew Cab, pulling my fifth wheel toy hauler trailer. My business in Kentucky was thriving and I needed this setup to haul gear when we would go to races or car-motorcycle shows.
“Not today, we have to get to Grammy. She needs us.” I reach up and finger my necklace as I think of my dad. The nut is from the first engine I worked on with my dad when I was a little girl. I stripped it, and he had it made into a necklace for me. The memories bring a burn to my eyes. I can’t cry right now.
“Saturday.” Skyler’s voice again breaks me from my thoughts. I look over at Minuet, who is riding in the truck with us, she got tired of riding her bike.
“No, baby. How about the next Saturday?” I only look at her when I’m sure I don’t have tears in my eyes. She smiles and holds up her hand with her pinky stuck out.
“Pinky promise.”
I reach back and she hooks my pinky with hers. “Deal.”
The smile I give her is completely forced because I can’t show her how much pain I’m really in. I don’t think it has fully hit her yet, but Saturday it will when we have the funeral.
“Did you hear that, Rufus? We are going to go see Santa Claus.” Skyler hugs our big red and white Alaskan Malamute. He licks her face, and she laughs out loud.
I fight the urge to get off the highway and take the long backroads to Ptarmigan Falls just so I can avoid Fairbanks. I’m shaken from that thought when I hear a Harley’s loud pipes. I look in the side mirror and see a biker who isn’t Ginger.
“Hey, Prez, we got a welcoming committee,” Ginger says through the radio system.
As we pass through the last part of North Pole, more bikes move into position around my truck and trailer, leading us home. It causes a lump to form in my throat and my eyes to tear up again.
