Take a Chance on Me(77)

Indeed, this morning, smoke seemed to saturate the air, as if overnight the wind had whipped it into a new frenzy.

Jed had drawn a red wax line on the fire map, only a small portion of it in blue, where the hotshots had hiked in yesterday and contained the edge. Most of them still camped out on the line. “Last night’s winds caused the fire to surge. Flyovers this morning show the fire hopping across Ball Club Lake, from island to island.” He pointed out the places. “And it’s made land here, twenty miles north of Deep Haven.”

Casper had walked in then, wearing a pair of shorts, his shirt open, his hair on end. He stood beside his father, arms folded over his chest. Darek’s mother was listening in the kitchen, wearing oven mitts, as if waiting for something to finish baking. The house smelled of cinnamon and nutmeg.

“We have a few natural fire breaks between the head of the fire and any residential areas.” Jed pointed to a couple logging roads, a smaller lake, and the larger Two Island Lake to the south that spanned miles. A roadblock to the residential areas of the county. “We’ll get an air tanker in today and see if we can slow the head down, but the forecast calls for wind gusts, and with all the deadfall, the fuel load is thick in this area. We need to be ready for some torching and spotting.” He circled a section of uninhabited forest where he predicted the fire would run.

Beyond the blue line, just down the road, the wilderness became dotted with cabins.

Darek leaned over the map. “I think this part of the line can be controlled by a hand crew. Our best line of attack is to get the crews in here—” he drew his finger along a logging road about two miles south of the flames—“early this morning, while the wind is still at five miles per hour. You may even be able to get a dozer in there. But I’d start a backfire, see if you can’t drive the fire toward Hand Lake.”

Jed seemed to consider it.

“The crew hiked in and posted video at the two fire stations, here—” Conner Young pointed to a mark on the map—“and north, up here. We should have fresh footage this morning that’ll give us a glimpse of how it’s moving.”

“Do you think it will get this far southeast? It’s coming at a pretty good clip,” Darek’s father said. He’d worked crews back in the days of national park fires, had stories of brave men fighting with just Pulaskis and shovels. Today’s equipment included saws, dozers, planes, and torches. But the hard work remained the same.

“It’s a remote possibility. It could hit Evergreen Lake, but we hope to stop it by then,” Jed said. “I’d make sure the place was fireproofed, just in case.” He turned to Darek. “Sure wish you were joining us.”

Him too. Although, after last night . . . “Sorry, Jed. I have to stick around, make sure our resort is ready.”

“Fair enough. By the way, we have a crew from Sacramento coming in today, along with a couple pilots and smoke jumpers out of the Jude County base in Ember. I told them they could stay here. We’re setting up a fire camp on Forest Road 153 for the ground pounders and command central. But I want my pilots and dozer operators fresh. I hope that’s okay.” Jed rolled up the map.

“We’ll make room,” Darek’s father said.

Jed swiped a piece of cinnamon bread that Darek’s mother offered him on a paper napkin. “Thanks, Mrs. C.”

“You boys be safe out there.”

“Videos?” Darek asked Conner. “Really?”

“Technology,” Conner said. “You might want to consider installing it up here.”

“We have indoor plumbing. What more do you want?” his father said, and Conner laughed.

Yeah, well, not a bad idea.

Although, for once, Darek had enjoyed watching the sunset with no Internet, no television, no cell phone to pull Ivy from his arms.

Now he shut off the stump grinder, brushed sawdust from his arms, and worked off his goggles. His stomach roared—he hoped his mother had a sandwich waiting. And Tiger should be returning soon.

Probably he owed Nan a thank-you. He hadn’t been at his best yesterday, and she’d sort of saved him. Although he’d never, in a thousand years, intentionally do anything to scare Tiger.

He looked up as his father emerged from the edge of the forest, gloved, wearing a long-sleeved flannel work shirt, hauling a dead log. He dumped it near the wheelbarrow, then turned to the lake, wiping his forehead with his shirtsleeve. “Sure makes me wish we’d taken the government up on that grant to install a sprinkler system.”

“We couldn’t afford the system, even with the grant,” Darek said. “It’s for . . .” He gestured across the lake toward Pine Acres. Then he walked up to his father. “They’ll stop it before it gets to Evergreen, Dad. Jed knows what he’s doing.”