Free A Perfect Life nd Other Stories by Elaine Burnes

of the Cessna faded
from her bones.
    “Wait’ll you hear the silence,” she said, grinning.
    She helped Alice out of the plane and they walked to the side of
the runway, where a flat tundra of shrubs stretched for several hundred yards
before dropping off.
    “It’s beautiful,” Alice said, her voice quiet with awe. “Is that a
hiking trail?” she asked, eyeing a cut through the blueberry bushes.
    “Animal trail,” Denny said.
    Alice looked at Denny. “Shall we explore?”
    “That’s why we’re here.” Denny grabbed their
daypacks and water bottles. The narrow path meant they walked single file,
Alice in the lead. They wandered among the trails, taking various turns at
forks and stopping often, Alice digging out a guidebook to identify a plant or
jot a note.
    Bending and kneeling to peer under the shrubs, Denny lost herself
in a miniature world as Alice showed her mouse scat, fur, a feather, diminutive
alpine flowers. “I’m used to flying over dramatic landscapes. I never knew it
could be just as dramatic up close.”
    At one point, they’d stopped long enough that birds moved in next
to them. A ptarmigan froze on the path ahead.
    “You don’t see things like this on a group hike,” Alice said
softly. “Thank you.”
    “ I was going to say the same
thing,” Denny said.
    At the far end of the ridge, a flat outcrop of rock beckoned. They
sat quietly, with only the breeze whispering through the grasses behind them.
Denny sipped water while Alice scanned the next ridge with her binoculars.
    Alice lowered her glasses. “Denny,” she whispered. She pointed to
the right. “Over there. I think it’s a wolf.”
    Denny focused her binoculars. “Yes, I see it,” she whispered back.
    Brown and lean, the lone wolf zigzagged back and forth through the
interwoven trails. Soon he dropped over the far edge.
    Goosebumps prickled Denny’s arms as a primal surge of adrenaline
raised her heartbeat.
    Alice lowered her binoculars. Her cheeks were pink, her eyes
bright. “That’s the first one I’ve seen in the wild,” she said, her voice
reverent.
    “Me too,” Denny said. “I’m glad it was with you.” Their eyes
locked for a long moment and Denny’s heart pounded harder.
    Alice cleared her throat and looked away. “Yes, well . . .” Her
flat tone made Denny wonder if she’d said something wrong or if Alice was just
surprised. As surprised as she was. She let a few more minutes pass in silence
then broke it, suggesting they return to the plane for lunch.
    Alice looked at her and nodded, perhaps
relieved.
    On the walk back, Denny again found herself mesmerized as Alice
pointed out flowers and lichens she’d never noticed before.
    “Look,” Alice said, bending to examine a small purple flower. “Do
you know what this is?”
    Denny smiled. Was Alice teasing her? She’d looked it up not two
hours ago. “A forget-me-not. Alaska’s state flower.”
    “It’s so delicate,” Alice said, taking a picture.
    They returned to the plane and ate lunch in
the shade of the wing. For the rest of the afternoon they admired the scenery.
Sparrows flitted among the alder and willow shrubs beside them. Above the next
ridge, a hawk circled, searching for small prey.
    Denny wondered if this momentary collision with Alice would change
anything. She liked Alice well enough. Her body was telling her that as much as
her mind. She hadn’t felt a raw sexual attraction to a woman since Vanessa, yet
this was different. Vanessa had barreled into her life, introduced by friends
with the expectation of something evolving. And it did, although P’town, for
all its glorification of all things homosexual, remained a small town, with a
small, incestuous community of women. For a time they’d been the hot couple.
The avant-garde artist and her muse with the sexy profession. Gradually, the
reality of an artist’s life, of Vanessa’s needs, and Denny’s arduous, unsexy
work schedule intruded. When a canceled flight brought Denny