Bears
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Hot Towel
Read fullI had the sign flipped to CLOSED and the broom halfway round the second chair when the co-op truck pulled up out front and sat there with the engine running. It was ten after five…
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Middle Cut
Read fullThe spirit was still coming off the foreshots when the headlights swept across the still house windows, and Dougie Macrae didn't need to look to know whose car it was. He looked…
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Cut-Out
Read fullThe last ewe went down the chute at twenty past four, and the whole shed let out a cheer like somebody had kicked a goal. I was at the classing table with my hands full of fleece…
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Ridge Road, Chapter 2 · The Last Three
Read fullThe text sat in Sam's head for a hundred and forty miles. He drove with it through Colby and on to Goodland, where the last lights of Kansas thinned out to nothing, and he crossed…
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Highway Eleven
Read fullI have plowed Highway 11 between Hearst and Longlac for twenty-two winters, and I can tell you it does not get prettier. That night it was minus thirty-four with the wind, and the…
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Moving Day
Read fullThe van pulled away at ten past six, and Simon stood on the front step of the new house with his hand still half raised, waving at two men who had already stopped looking back. It…
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Ridge Road, Chapter 1 · Hank’s Rules
Read fullThe Tulsa yard at four-forty in the morning smelled like diesel and wet gravel, and Sam Ortega had been standing in it for twenty minutes because he'd been told five and didn't…
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Boiler Night
Read fullDanny knew the boiler had died before he got his key out of the lock, because the hallway of the flat was cold enough that he could see his breath. "Frank?" "Kitchen," came the…
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Last Sailing
Read fullThe board in the ferry terminal flipped the six-forty to CANCELLED while I was still reading it, and a man two seats down from me said, "Well, that's a shame," in the voice of…
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Hall Light
Read fullJude Earlier that evening Jude had stood in the kitchen over the Dutch oven pretending the chili needed stirring, when what it really needed was Nolan's keys in the bowl. He'd…
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Outer Wharf
Read fullThe storm that was supposed to blow past by noon parked itself over the channel instead and wouldn't leave. By four the outer wharf was a gray smear of wet rope and cold iron, and…
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Thursday Thermostat
Read fullVance Thursday light came in flat through the living-room blinds, the kind of late-day gold that made the radiator look honest. The apartment held the week’s quiet: mail stacked on…