Eight years passed. They were long years, with long winters and short summers, but all in all, they were good years.

Although Gil Evachevski still watched the new Spearfish Lake Appliance and Furniture store from time to time, and still made service calls, it was Danny’s business now. Danny no longer worked regularly as a brakeman, although he filled in for the C&SL once in a while as needed. Once Sally Szczerowski’s kids were all out of college, she decided she was a little tired of working full time, so she went back to being a part-time sales person, and Debbie was made Advertising Manager. Between them, Danny and Debbie didn’t make lots of money, but they were comfortable, and didn’t have much room to complain; they’d both by now settled into the quiet middle-class life they’d long dreamed of.

They did have some other activities. In the slow winter following their commitment ceremony, Danny happened to be reading a particularly difficult part of Reverend Carter’s journal, and was having trouble picking the meaning out while struggling with the handwriting. Just as an experiment, he went over to the computer and keyboarded the passage in question. He shared with his mother the ability to type things without thinking about them, just concentrating on the copy he was working from, and the passage went quickly. Once completed, he read it back over and it made a lot more sense. It was a darn shame, he thought, that someone didn’t keyboard the whole thing. Maybe it could be burned onto a CD or something, and it would then be easier to study than the hard-to-read handwriting. And within seconds he realized that there was no one better to do it than he.

It took four years, with both he and Debbie annotating and editing, and he did burn some CDs. It was still an awful lot of stuff to wade through. When the Navajo woman who had worked with Ellen and Ruth on the Shakahatche language stopped off at Three Pines on one of her occasional visits, she commented that if a lot of the routine happenings were edited out and the important observations left in, it would be a lot more useful -- and something that she could take to her university press. The editing took another year, but "Man of Memory -- the Journal of the Rev. Dr. Robert Carter among the Shakahatche, 1858-1892" was a modest success. It probably had done more than any one thing in recent years to heighten awareness of the people of Three Pines to their own heritage. Fifty-two people now spoke Shakahatche fluently, and Danny was considered by many to have the purest accent of all -- so now, he was teaching it.

In most other respects, though, they were a pretty normal couple. Danny and Debbie were fairly active in the affairs of Spearfish Lake, as business people in the town should be; both of them were members of the Chamber of Commerce. In fact, Danny made the mistake of whispering to John Archer when officer nominations were going on, and before he realized what had happened, he was Chamber President.

One of the major concerns in any small, relatively isolated northern town is having adequate physician coverage. Dr. Metarie -- Shovelhead -- had been working with a couple physician’s assistants for some years, and had the majority of the business, partly because old Dr. Paltow, who had been a physician in Spearfish Lake for roughly forever, was slowing down a lot. He’d kept some patients for years out of habit, but even he finally realized that it was time to be giving it up. That set off a crisis, because Shovelhead was already busier than he wanted to be, and it’s always difficult to draw young physicians to small northern towns, especially when they have huge college and med school bills to pay. For some months, the Chamber had been working with the city council and both the doctors, trying to find someone to take over Dr. Paltow’s practice, with more cooperation from Shovelhead than Dr. Paltow had in the past.

It took a long time and several incentives, but finally, mostly through Shovelhead’s work, a young woman physician by the name of Trishia York out of The University of Wisconsin and with an internship and family practice residency at Milwaukee General agreed to come to town. It was a huge relief; Danny and Debbie and many other people organized a reception for her out at the Spearfish Lake Inn to welcome her.

Danny -- and most of the rest of the town -- had not previously met Dr. York, who turned out to be a petite brunette with a pert smile, in exquisitely tailored clothes. When they first arrived at the reception, Danny thought she looked somewhat familiar, but couldn’t put a finger on it, and couldn’t place her.

Since Shovelhead knew her, at least a little, he took Dr. York around the room, introducing her to some of the locals, who were standing around, most with drinks in hand, gossiping about important local issues like how sorry the high school football team was doing. When he got around to Danny and Debbie, Dr. York got an inexplicable expression on her face, and just said in a low voice, "Hi, Danny."

Danny looked at Dr. York again -- and with the sound of her voice his mind took an amazing leap. Yes, she did seem familiar; it had been many years, and he’d never figured on hearing anything from her again. Fortunately, Shovelhead got Debbie into a discussion at that instant, so Danny just leaned over and said in a whisper, "Hi, Patty. I see you did it."

"I did," she smiled. "Danny, we have to talk sometime, but not here."

"Yeah, sure," he said. "Drop by my store some time; I’m usually alone in the mornings." He stood up and raised his voice. "Welcome to Spearfish Lake. It’s a small place, but there are those of us who like it."

Danny was not surprised to see Dr. York walk into Spearfish Lake Appliance early the next morning, looking just a bit nervous. And she had every right to, he conceded. "York Peppermint Patty?" he grinned, trying to put her at ease. "I never thought of that. I always figured Charles Schulz."

"Danny, I swear," she shook her head. "I never even made the connection between you and Spearfish Lake; it’s been that long. I about shit when I saw you last night. Is this going to louse things up?"

"No need to," he told her. "And we do need a doctor that badly. Pat . . . er Trishia, I’ve kept the secret about Amelia all these years. I see her folks now and then, and my folks know them real well. There’s no reason I can’t keep this secret, too."

"Thanks," she said. "It’s just goddamn embarrassing to get caught like that."

"Hey, look," he said. "I’ve seen your resume. It looks to me like you kicked ass all the way through college and med school. I’m just pleased as hell and proud as hell for you. I doubt you’re real happy that you did what you had to do, but the results were worth it. Congratulations, and like I said, welcome to Spearfish Lake."

"You won’t tell, then?" she said dubiously.

"No reason to," he grinned. "I mean, I will admit to telling the odd story about my Redlite Ranch days over the years, but not much for years now. There’s no reason to associate you with it, and those days are long in the past. Dr. York, your secret is safe with me, and if you ever need to talk about it, I’m available."

"All right," she said. "But Danny, since you know about it, I do need to talk about it. Those days aren’t all the way in the past. I’ve become sort of like Jennlynn."

"You’re still active?" he frowned.

"Not very," she said. "I worked a two-week shift a couple months ago, my first in quite a while. Danny, I went through my last year of med school, went right into my internship and right into residency after that. You work the kind of hours we were on duty out there, except you’re busy all the time, not sitting on your ass, and it never quits." She let out a sigh. "In fact, I don’t think I could have made it through my internship if I hadn’t had to work those kinds of hours, so I was sort of used to it. But I got done with the residency, and I still had to study for boards, and I needed a break, just to get away from it and be busy with something else. So, I called up George."

"That’s a little different vacation," he smiled.

"It was the vacation I needed," she replied, and let out another sigh. "Danny, I said I’ve become a little like Jennlynn, although I could never be as up front about it as she is. I think I understand her a bit better, now. I spent six years just pounding the books, really focused on what I was doing, and it wasn’t easy. The only way I could get through was by maintaining that focus. I, uh, I didn’t have much time for relationships, and I got to the point where I hated being interrupted from my studies. I mean, really snappy, just like she is. But, Danny, I do like a reasonable amount of action once in a while, and I took my cue from her. It cuts out the messing around, it’s safer, and it avoids possession issues."

"Yeah," he smiled. "I always thought the way she went about it always made a lot of sense, at least for her."

"That’s what I thought," she grinned. "I’m not going to say that I’m not going to do it again, but I hope that now I can finally develop a real relationship with someone. If I don’t, I still have the option open to me."

"Well, no skin off my fanny," he said. "That’s one thing I learned out there, and a lot of it from you. You have to do what you have to do."

"Thanks, Danny," she sighed. "I was hoping you’d take it that well."

"Of course I do," he smiled. "You remember what I told you the last time I saw you, that I wanted to call you Doctor whatever-the-hell-it-was? Congratulations, Dr. York. You did it, and like I said, I’m proud of you."

"Thanks," she smiled. "I didn’t get much chance to talk to your wife last night, but she seems pretty neat."

"She is pretty cool," Danny smiled. "Pat . . . damn, I don’t ever dare call you that! Trishia, it’s been as good between Debbie and me as it was bad between Marsha and me. That surprises me just a little, but I am not complaining. We’ve got two kids now, one in kindergarten, one in first grade. It’s just as neat as I ever hoped it could be."

"Good," she smiled. "I was hoping things would work out for you."

"Hey, there’s going to be a little digging in, but let’s have you over for dinner some time. We don’t have to mention anything about Nevada, and as Chamber president I should invite you, anyway."

"Well, thanks," she said. "Give me a few days to get used to the idea, though. It’s going to involve a little changing in mental gears about you."

"You need to do it anyway, if you’re going to practice in Spearfish Lake," he said. "Maybe we’d better get the gossip out of the way now, then bury it. But I am curious about what happened with some of those people. You’ve always headed that list. George is still out there, I take it?"

"Oh, yeah," she laughed, comfortable now. "He’ll be there till they carry him out. You’re going to have to name names, I don’t remember who you knew."

"Shirley, for example." he smiled. "I owe her a lot."

"I know you do," she smiled. "After you left, she came clean to me about what the two of you had been doing. That’s got to make Debbie a lucky woman. She’s still there, still a shift manager, she’s 76 now, I think, and doesn’t seem a day older."

"How about Frenchy?" he asked.

"She’s still there, too," she smiled. "It went sour between her and her husband a couple years ago, and George needed another shift manager, so she’s running the place nights now, lives in one of the trailers over behind the Inn. That’s good, she was burned out about to the point where she needed to give up being active, and she’s like Shirley, there’s a hell of a lot she can teach."

"Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me," he said. "She was a big help to me, and she always struck me as a pro, by which I mean professional."

"That she is," she grinned. "She’s still pretty cool, too."

"How about Jennlynn, for that matter?"

"She got married to Shirley’s grandson, would you believe it? I mean, it surprised everybody. That was several years ago, and they’re still together. She hasn’t been real active lately, but she keeps a finger in the business."

"I have to ask about Amelia," he said. "I don’t hear much from her folks about her anymore, but the last I heard, she was supposed to have some kind of a summer job in a park out there, or something. I figured it was a cover story."

"She does," she smiled. "Assistant manager at an RV park, and she’s there four days a week in the summer. Of course, it’s partly a cover story for her weekends at the Ranch."

"Figures," he snorted. "I don’t need to go into the details, but after I left there, I spent some time and agony thinking that I ought to do something about that. I decided not to, and Debbie had a lot to do with that. Just as well, I guess. I figured the odds for it working were a hell of a long shot, at best."

"I could see you thinking about it all the time she was there that first time," Dr. York admitted. "I wanted to tell you to do the right thing, but I didn’t know what the right thing was. I guess I do now, and you did it."

"I like to think so," he said. "I felt a little guilty about it for a while, but I think I did the right thing in the end."

"Danny, I had some real doubts that I was doing the right thing when I went out there the last time," she sighed, "But it proved to be the right thing. I was partying with this client pretty good, and all of a sudden the emergency alarm went off, and a girl started yelling that this guy had a heart attack. I sort of threw the client off, grabbed my medkit, and raced into her room stark naked, to find this guy in full arrest. I won’t go into the details, but he would have died if I hadn’t been there. They transported him into Vegas, and it was touch and go for a while, so they had to call his wife and the whole story came out. Danny, she was real embarrassed about it, and especially to find out where he’d been, but she came out to the Ranch and thanked me. She said that she thought it was unbelievable that I could be a doctor and still be a prostitute. I had to tell her that I liked what I was doing, it didn’t keep me from being a good enough doctor to save her husband’s life, and that was how I financed becoming a doctor in the first place. And, you know what? While I want you to be the only person around here who knows it, I’m proud to have been lucky enough to be both."

"One last time, and I won’t call you this ever again," he said. "But you’re a hell of a woman with a lot to be proud of, Peppermint Patty. Now, welcome to Spearfish Lake, Dr. York. I hope you have a long and rewarding career here, and if you ever need household appliances or furniture, you know where to come."

-- 30 --

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