The late summer sunrise was just beginning to peak over the edge of the horizon, lighting the town of Point Hope with a light blue glow. The people who lived there, easily less than a thousand, were still mostly asleep, their warm houses insulating them from the cool sea air. In the silent early morning you could hear the sound of the waves hitting the rocky shore of the point the town was named for. And just north of that town, surrounded by the edge of a forest of evergreen and tamarack, was the biggest house in over 100 miles. It was a modern two-story cabin with thick windows facing the sunrise and an attached garage. If you were to look through the east-facing window and look into the kitchen of that cabin, you would see a woman who looked 10 years younger than her age and a man who looked old enough to be her father, drinking coffee around a granite countertop.
Regan Mills brought the ceramic coffee cup up to her lips. Her eyes looked exhausted, her hair was disheveled, and the hoodie and sweatpants she wore stank of salty sea air, but she had a smile bright enough to power a soul at the brink of exhaustion. Regan looked across at her companion, an elderly man, plump with a grey beard. Theodore Beauchamp laughed deeply and hooked his thumbs in his patterned suspenders, adorned with a dog and cat faces. His empty coffee cup sat between them and he looked at her, eyes sparkling.
"When will your nephew arrive?" he asked, grasping the coffee pot with his cracked and weathered hands, pouring himself another cup and smiling at the liquid lovingly. His hands were stained from years of physical labor and hard use.
"About five more hours, if Jacob is to be believed." She picked her phone up from the counter and checked the text from her brother for the hundredth time that morning. "Yes, he should be arriving around 11. It's a long way from Philadelphia, so he took a late night flight. Apparently," she poured some more creamer into her coffee, "he can sleep on a plane just fine. Just like you on a boat."
"You just need practice!" he laughed, sounding like a French Santa Claus, before drinking more of his coffee. "And Pearl is already with your brother, you said? I remember you telling me about that last month."
"That's right, she'll be back in Juneau at the end of August. This way," Regan lifted her hand up and held up two fingers, waggling them back and forth, "she gets to visit both Paul and Jacob, and Paul gets to visit me here and see Pearl before he flies back."
"And Paul's mother is a non-factor right? She is your sister?" Theodore set his cup down, asking the question carefully. Regan stiffened, ever so slightly.
"
Was
my sister. 20 years ago." She answered flatly, sparing no emotion. Theodore had partnered with Regan for years now and he didn't even know the name of Regan's sister. The situation was never explained to him, but the details wouldn't have mattered. Theodore nodded warmly, stood up, and clapped a hand on her shoulder.
"I hope you have a great time with your nephew. I should get going - my family is waiting for me. Are you taking time off again, like you did, couple years back?" He stood up, pushing himself away from the counter.
"Not with the twins just born in Barrow. It's ok, we will still be in town Thursday through Sunday, just like usual. That's plenty of time. Maybe Paul can even join us on the boat!"
He stood up and smiled again. Theodore's jovialness must have come from working with animals all day. His patients never argued with him because of something they read on Facebook. He nodded to her and left out the front door, starting the walk back towards the town.
It was midday before Paul knocked on Regan's front door. She jumped up from her living room couch, running across the carpeted floor as the door flew open and her 22 year old nephew opened the door, carrying two rolling suitcases. They clattered to the floor as she threw her arms around him, nearly knocking him over.
"Jesus Aunt Regan, it's like coming home to Dad's pitbull. Every day, it's like he's never seen me before." He hugged her back, tight as he could. He wasn't particularly muscular. In fact, Regan was in better shape than him due to her work.
"Shut up, it's been lonely around here." Regan said quietly, hugging him for a moment before letting him go. "When did Jacob get a pitbull? Why have I not seen pictures yet!"
"How are you doing? I haven't seen you since - " he trailed off, gesturing his head back and forth as if to say "you know, but I don't want to say it."
Regan's face fell for a moment. Every day that passed she thought about him just a fraction less - never nothing though. But today was a less-often day.
"Yea, I'm ok. Well, we had the funeral and then that next year it wasn't safe to leave home so - I haven't seen you since Jude's funeral, no."
Paul nodded, giving her a sad smile. Regan quickly reached out and grabbed his face by his chin and cheeks.
"No, you stop that ok? It's been two years. It sucks, but I'm fine. It took a long time to get fine. Now, you're here until the end of September, so we are going to enjoy your time here!
Capiche
?" She nodded his head up and down with her hand and said in a very deep voice "Yes, Aunt Regan,
capiche
. You're the best Aunt ever, and you look young enough to be my sister!"
He pulled his head back and batted her hand away, laughing. "Ok, ok. I just - I care. Dad told me not to mention it. But I love you too much not to make sure."
She gasped and placed a hand on her chest and spoke with a phony Spanish accent in her voice now, taking one of his bags and bringing it through the living room towards the stairs. "You love me?
Te amo
, why did you never call me after the Mexico game?"
They got upstairs and Regan threw Paul's luggage onto the guest bedroom. Her master bedroom was in the south facing corner of the house, the guest bedroom was next to hers, and Pearl's was downstairs off the living room, to give her privacy while she still lived at home and if she ever wanted to come back. Now it was mostly used for storage of her late-husband's things in plastic crates. But the guest room had new curtains, a squishy double-bed, and a bookshelf full of some of Regan's favorite books that people maybe would want to read, on the rare occasion that she had guests. Paul, Pearl, and Jacob all were at her late-husband's funeral, with Jacob's ex-wife nowhere to be seen of course. But Paul staying here now was the only time anyone other than Regan had slept in this house since then.
All of this flashed through Regan's mind as Paul took the suitcases off the bed and placed them against the wall. "So what's first thing on the agenda?" He said, shaking her wandering thoughts back to reality.
"Well," she clapped her hands. "I can't take time off work this time. So, I thought you could come with Ted and I as we make our weekly rounds up the coast. Feel like being on a boat?"
"Sure, sounds fine - who's Ted? Are you dating again?" he looked at her, his eyes flashing up and down her body for a second, appraising her.
"Ted is the vet that I partner with. Monday we go to Point Lay, Tuesday we go to Wainwright, and Wednesday we go to Barrow. Thursday and Friday in town, weekends by emergencies only. Since there aren't a lot of doctors up here, the state pays for me to service all 4 towns. Ted tags along and keeps me company on the boat. And no, I'm not dating him. He's married with two kids."
"Yea but it's 2021. Lots of people are poly these days." Regan threw her head back and stomped, dramatically, out the door, groaning loudly at him. She turned around several seconds later, from the hallway peaking in.
"We leave first thing Monday morning. Like Ted gets here about 5:30am and we leave less than an hour later. You sure?" Regan asked, leaning halfway into the doorframe.
Paul's eyes widened at the early morning hour that she described. It was much earlier than he normally got up. But he was a good sport and he wanted to spend time around his Aunt. "I can handle it. Let's get it on." He said, nodding firmly. She looked at him and cocked an eyebrow. "I mean," he stuttered and stumbled over his words. "What do we do until Monday morning then?"
"Tonight you just rest. Tomorrow is chore day, we'll figure out the rest later. Haven't had a routine for a while now, so whatever we want!" She smiled and called from the hallway as she walked away. "I'll be in the office if you need me! Just knock. Patient files!"