The Way of Women by Lauraine Snelling Read Free Book Online Page A

it’s my time to go, I can’t think of any other place on this whole earth that I’d rather be. This is my home. Why, you know I even own the top of The Lady. Went toe-to-toe, me and Burlington Northern.” He stared into the glass in his hand. “You can’t make me go, Frank.” His voice softened. “Don’t try to make me go.”
    Frank took a deep breath. “Just doing my job, old man. They tell me to go up and reason with old Harry, so now I can say I’ve done so. Again. I didn’t expect you to change your mind and besides, Jenn and I”—he brushed her arm—“we were really hoping The Lady’d be out. The sky was clearing in Toutle.”
    Jenn flinched at his touch. He was as changeable as spring weather. Who—where was the real Frank McKenzie?
    The sheriff continued. “This city gal here needed to get out and get her boots dirty. Sight her camera on our mountain, ’stead of some idiot walking bundle of bones.” He slurred his words only slightly.
    “Sight all you want. I’m not leavin’, but you come on back any day. We’ll all still be here, me’n the cats and coon. And of course, St. Helens. She sure is making it hard to sleep at night. Those earthquakes giving me a crick in my neck.”
    “Earthquakes?” Jenn joined back in the conversation.
    “Yeah. All that rockin’ and rollin’ even knocked some stuff off my shelves. Lost a brand-new bottle the other night. Smashed all over the floor. What a waste.” He ran his fingers through his thinning hair, making it stand even higher. “Shame.”
    “Have the quakes done any more damage that you know of?” Frank asked.
    “Not down here, but I know that’s what opened those two craters at the summit. Keeps all the geologists hyped up too. They got tracking equipment scattered all over the place. Talked to a couple up by Dog’s Head. They say that there bulge to the subpeak happened in the last eruption, ’bout a hundred years ago. Now it’s swelling again. Been avalanches, too. ’Course, everyone you talk to has a different theory.” Harry shook his head. “Near as I can tell, they’re all guessing what’ll happen next, just like the rest of us.” He picked up a half-grown black cat and cuddled the animal under his chin, all the while stroking the soft fur. “The only thing I know for sure is that I sure ain’t leaving.”
    “I get the point, Harry.” Frank pulled himself upright. He hadn’t felt so relaxed in a long time, a mighty long time. “But we’d better get ourselves back down that road. I’ve done my duty, the most pleasurable part of my duty. Next time I come, you need anything?”
    “Na. When you coming?”
    Frank switched his gaze to meet the questioning look in Jenn’s eyes. “The next time the mountain decides to show herself. She’s what this photographer friend of ours came to see. You don’t suppose she made the trek clear across the continent to have a drink or two with a couple of old has-beens like us, do you?”
    “Speak for yourself, you young pup. I gotta lot of living yet in this old hide of mine. You just get yourselves up here, and I’ll walk your legs rightinto the ground. You’ll get some real pictures, gal, you stick with old Harry.”
    Jenn laughed as she shook her head. “I’ll look forward to it.”
    “I’ll bring in those cases of Coke.” Frank slipped his down vest back on.
    “You think I can’t carry in my own drinks?” Harry puffed up like a bantamweight prizefighter.
    “Stow it, Harry. Sig would chew you in pieces if you opened that door. You know that.”
    Water beaded and ran in rivulets down his vest by the time Frank set the two cases of Coke on the counter. He shook the drops off his felt hat. “Pouring harder than ever. Keeps up very long, and we’ll have more flooding. The Toutle’s a mess already. Come on, lady, let’s hit the road before it washes away.”
    “Thanks, Harry. These have been the best hours I’ve spent in a long time.”
    “Don’t wait so long,