Her Wildflower paintings usually featured an array of blossoms full of color and life, with one of them being unceremoniously trampled beneath a hiking boot. Then there were the Forest paintings, which featured stumps of huge trees just a few inches tall, with a sawdust-covered seedling struggling for life in their shadows. There were Hughson paintings hanging in the National Gallery of Canada and eight of the country’s provincial art galleries. Her work had even been shown beside the paintings of several members of the Group of Seven at the McMichael Gallery.

Donna Hughson’s walks with Daisy were always quiet outings. They both knew that a sound from either of them could scare off an animal or disturb a scene that might make for an excellent painting somewhere down the road.

That’s why when Daisy began to bark, Donna knew something was very, very wrong.

“What is it, girl?” she asked.

Daisy barked and did a sort of half-leap in the air, rising up on her hind legs like a puppy might do to get at a ball held in its master’s hand. But Daisy was no puppy, and there was nothing in Donna’s hand. There was however, an unusual sound coming from somewhere off in the distance—a low rumble that was growing louder with each passing second.

Donna moved to the side of the road and turned in the direction of the sound. Daisy continued to bark and her leaps became more frenzied.

“Daisy!” Donna called in a commanding voice.

The dog kept on barking as she moved to Donna’s side.

Donna squinted her eyes, then put a hand over them to shield them from the sun. She couldn’t see anything other than an odd dark cloud rising up over the road. Her first thought was of smoke, except if the forest was on fire, the smoke would be over the trees, not the road. Perhaps it was a swarm of black flies, or mosquitoes. She’d never seen such a cloud of insects before, but she’d heard others swear they had.

And then all at once the mystery was solved as a bright red Peterbilt crested a rise in the roadway. Its chromed front end gleamed in the sunlight and its bright twin exhausts belched out a fresh cloud of blackish smoke that hung in the air between the trees on either side of the road.

“Get back, Daisy!” Donna said, grabbing the dog by her collar and moving them both off the road.