“Yeah,” she said, wanting it more than she had ever wanted anything. “We’ll be normal kids in Anchorage.” It was what they said to each other all the time.

Leni walked beside him to the door, mumbled goodbye to Ms. Rhodes, who gave her a fierce hug and said, “Don’t forget the graduation party at the saloon tonight. You and Mattie are the guests of honor.”

“Thanks, Ms. Rhodes.”

Outside, Leni’s parents were waiting for her, holding a sign that read HAPPY GRAD DAY! She stumbled to a stop.

Leni felt Matthew’s hand at the small of her back. She was pretty sure he gave her a push. She moved forward, forcing a smile.

“Hey, guys,” she said as her parents rushed at her. “You didn’t have to do this.”

Mama beamed at her. “Are you kidding? You graduated at the top of your class.”

“A class of two,” she pointed out.

Dad put an arm around her, drew her close. “I’ve never been number one at anything, Red. I’m proud of you. And now you can leave that pissant school behind. Sayonara, bullshit.”

They packed into the truck and headed out. Overhead, a plane flew low, making a dull putt-putt-putt sound.

“Tourists.” Dad said the word as if it were a curse, loud enough that people heard. Then he smiled. “Mom made your favorite cake and strawberry akutaq.”

Leni nodded, too depressed to force a fake smile.

Down the street, a banner hung across the half-finished saloon. CONGRATULATIONS LENI AND MATTHEW!!! GRAD PARTY FRIDAY NIGHT! 9 P.M. FIRST DRINK FREE!

“Leni, baby girl? You look sad as a lost dollar.”

“I want to go to the graduation party at the saloon,” Leni said.

Mama leaned forward to look at Dad. “Ernt?”

“You want me to walk into Tom Walker’s damn saloon and see all the people who are ruining this town?” Dad said.

“For Leni,” Mama said.

“No way, José.”

Leni tried to see past his anger to the man Mama claimed he used to be, before Vietnam had changed him and Alaska’s winters had revealed his own darkness. She tried to remember being Red, his girl, the one who’d ridden his shoulders on The Strand in Hermosa Beach. “Please, Dad. Please. I want to celebrate graduating from high school in my town. The town you brought me to.”

When Dad looked at her, Leni saw what she saw so rarely in his eyes: love. Tattered, tired, shaved small by bad choices, but love just the same. And regret.

“Sorry, Red. I can’t do it. Not even for you.”

Chapter Nineteen

NINETEEN

Evening.

The sound of a chain saw whirring, sputtering, going silent.