Chapter 5: Skyline

The print shop on Superior Street had made the poster boards for my parents' party and had them leaning against the counter in brown paper.

My mother had texted me at seven that morning: "Can you and Matti pick up the photo boards? Dad's at the cardiologist and I have the tent people."

She had written his name without a single exclamation point, which wasn't like her.

I had decided not to wonder about that.

Matti was waiting outside the shop with his truck running.

He had been sleeping in the boathouse on old canoe cushions since Sunday night, because I had told him to stay away from my mother.

He had done exactly what I said.

I didn't know why that bothered me.

The clerk slid the boards onto the counter, and I peeled back the paper on the first one.

There was a picture of me at sixteen in a pair of hand-me-down skates, holding an eight-year-old by the back of his coat.

He was scowling at the camera with a gap in his teeth.

"I remember that day," Matti said behind me.

"You fell nine times," I said.

"You told me eleven."

"I was being generous."

The corner of his mouth went up, and he took the boards out to the truck under both arms.

I stood at the counter a moment longer with my hand on the paper.

I had forgotten that boy existed, and I didn't want to be reminded.

We drove up the hill with the boards in the bed under a tarp.

He took Skyline Parkway without asking, the long ridge road that runs above the city.

I didn't tell him to turn around.

He pulled into a gravel overlook where the whole of Duluth fell away below us.

The lift bridge was lit up, and a freighter sat black on the lake with its deck lights on.

Matti turned off the engine and left the key in the ignition.

"We should go," I said.

"Yeah."

"We have the boards."

"Yeah," he said, and he put his arm along the back of the seat.

I looked at his hand, and it was a foot from my shoulder.

The cab was cold, and it smelled of his jacket and cold coffee.

I unbuckled my seat belt.

"Kangas," I said.

"Yeah."

"Put your hand here."

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