Rings of Ice

ALASKA was hot and steamy when John arrived in Juneau on May 28, 1970. It had been raining for three days and the sun had only started to shine that morning. The day had been a scorcher. Jim and Maggie had met the plane at Juneau International Airport and it was a happy reunion, with Jim, Maggie, and John all glad to be reunited once again. The flight up from Sacramento, California had been smooth to Seattle. John had changed to an Alaska Airplane and the flight to Juneau had been a bit turbulent.

"John, you look different," Jim remarked. John laughed and said, "I had my braces off. Man, what a relief."

John then grinned and showed Jim and Maggie his straight, white teeth. All three of them laughed then.

Maggie commented that he looked more handsome and told John, "I bet the girls will be pleased."

John blushed and gave her and Jim a big hug. John grabbed his duffel bag and they headed for Jim's car.

"Still looks the same," John said.

"Why bother to change?" Jim replied, smiling as he helped John lift the duffel bag into the trunk as it was very heavy. "What in the hell do you have in there, Johnny?" Jim asked in his slow southern drawl.

John replied, "The two Ruger 44 magnums, the Winchester 44 and 500 rounds of special silver tip bullets."

"How much ammo do you need?" Jim asked.

"After last summer and all those bears, I have made some very special ammo," John told him, "They are loaded to the top of the ballistic table and they are hot! I have been practicing at home and man, do they fly and what a punch."

John had been practicing at his home in the exclusive country club outside of Davis. There was an old air plane runway on the edge of the 15th and 16th holes of the golf course. Most weekends, John would be found practicing; shooting into the irrigation creek that ran right next to the airplane strip and the adjacent farmland. Some of the neighbors whose homes bordered the golf links had complained about the noise of his guns going off. John was now an expert with both pistols and his rifle. His speed with the pistols was so good he could draw and fire twelve rounds in under ten seconds and hit his target 95% of the time. John's mother had been very angry with him when he had arrived home unannounced. At first they could not believe his tall tales of Alaska, bears and the salmon spirit queen, but John's mother had called Jim and Maggie and they had confirmed that John had been there all summer and that the stories were true. He was quite a hero in Southeast Alaska now. Everyone knew the story of John defeating White Cloud but they did not know what he had found out from her. John had vowed to Jim not to tell a soul and had sworn Jim to secrecy too. It was their secret. Jim had not even told Maggie about the beautiful salmon princess, as it was twenty-four years into the future.