Burn Season novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: First Snow

Rory's POV

The first snow came on the second of October, before the aspens had finished turning.

I woke in Verna's cabin to a white square in the window and a silence so thick the stove sounded loud.

Walker had hiked up with me the night before to carry down her boxes.

He was asleep on the porch floor, rolled in a bedroll, and the snow had drifted across his boots.

He had insisted on the porch.

He said it was the only fair place for him.

Verna was already up.

She sat at the table in her flannel coat with her tin cup, and the rifle lay across the table in front of her.

"Coffee's made," she said. "Don't touch my cup."

"I wasn't going to."

"I know. I'm just saying it for the last time."

I poured a mug and sat across from her.

She looked past me, out the window, at the ridges coming up pale in the early light.

"MacLaren, can you see Rattler Ridge from here?"

"Yes."

"How far is it?"

"Six miles."

"I can see a blur." She said it flatly. "I've seen a blur for two summers."

I put the mug down.

"The tenth of September," Verna said. "The night of the east ridge. I smelled it before I saw it."

She looked at me.

"If you hadn't called it, I would have called it late."

"Verna."

"Don't be soft. I'm telling you why I drove off three of them."

She turned the tin cup slowly.

"A young one would have noticed in a week that I couldn't see the far ridges," she said.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Burn Season from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.