September 28th: My last night

In the early afternoon the heavy rain finally stopped. I just looked at a calendar, and it has been raining for almost six weeks now, with just a few breaks of sunlight.

I started packing my things in the car, while Squirrel took my Wheaties, crackers, and Cheerios, and packed them away in his house under the roof. This kept us both busy for a few hours. When we finally finished, the skies had mostly cleared.

"I'm going to go for a walk down by the river", I said to Squirrel.

"Al, can I come along with you?", Squirrel asked.

"Sure, come on."

Squirrel got very excited at this, and ran down from the deck to join me in walking down the driveway and out to the street.

"Al, you know, I've actually only heard about the river. I've never there before. Is it very far?"

"It's about a 15 minute walk for me." Squirrel looked concerned, and we stopped walking. "I'm sorry, is that too far?" I asked. Squirrel looked very sad, and nodded yes.

"Hmm, well I guess you'll just have to climb on board little buddy." With that I leaned down, and for the first time since I've known him Squirrel jumped up on my back, then climbed onto my shoulder. "How's that?", I asked. "Great", Squirrel said with a big smile, and we headed off for the river.

We took the back roads through the town and down to the river. Squirrel looked around in amazement as he saw all sorts of new sites, including the post office, a few restaurants, a small softball field, and then a few horses and other strange looking creatures. "What are those?" Squirrel asked. "Reindeer" I told him. "Wow, they sure look different", he said.

As we approached the river there was nobody in sight, and when we came to the bed of rocks, Squirrel jumped down, and ran across the rocks to the river. "Here I come river!", he yelled, running way ahead of me.

For a long time it seemed like we were the only two at the river, and Squirrel ran around, looked at all the unique rocks, and even put his feet in the river. "Wow, that's cold", he said.

We stayed there for a little while, looking around at all the beautiful scenery, including the huge mountain known as Denali. But then Squirrel smelled some smoke and came running over to me. "Fire, fire!", he yelled as he ran towards me.

"Come on board little buddy, let's go check it out." Squirrel climbed up, and I walked down the river front to an area where I knew campers liked to build small fires to keep themselves warm at night. Squirrel was very anxious, but I calmed him down, telling him that most people were very safe with fires.

"Hello", I said, as we approached a few campers around the fire. "Hello to you" they said. I introduced Squirrel, and then we sat down on some large logs that were placed around the fire. Squirrel was worried about the fire, but he sat next to me, and the campers told us long stories about their adventures hiking across Alaska. They were from Kansas and Missouri, and had been in Alaska all summer, just like me.

Over time we were joined by a few other strangers from countries like Spain, Italy, and England, and then some of my local friends, and they all sat down by the fire with us. We talked and talked for more than three hours.

Every once in a while as everyone told their stories I'd look over at Squirrel, and his eyes were always really big with amazement. He had never heard of states like Kansas, Idaho, California, and countries like Italy, England, and Spain, and he seemed more amazed with each story about how people live in their own land.

All during this time the sun stayed very low in the sky, but then a little after 7 p.m. it started getting even lower, and much cooler. I told Squirrel we'd have to leave soon, so we said our goodbyes to everyone, and headed home.

Squirrel was tired after all the stories, and I thought he might fall asleep on the way home. But I I took the main street through town, and when he saw the town his eyes grew big again, and he asked to get down. Once he hit the ground he was off running again. He loved that each store was built like a log cabin, and he moved quickly from one store to another, jumping up on their front porches and then onto their window ledges.

Squirrel looked in each store with wide-eyed amazement, often asking me to come over and explain what each thing in the store was. "You mean they just keep food in there, and you walk in and get whatever you want?", he asked. "Yes, something like that. But you have to give them money for each thing." I'm not sure he understood, but he kept looking in and around every window. He wanted to go in the stores, but other than the grocery store they were all closed.

When we came up to the small, red grocery store in the middle of the town known as Nagley's, I found a few more local friends sitting on the benches in front of the store. I introduced them to Squirrel, and we all began talking some more. Every once in a while when it got slow the store owner would come outside and talk with us, and she even gave us a little coffee to keep us warm. Squirrel looked at me at one point, and I nodded "okay", and he ran into the store to look around.

After a while Squirrel came back out of the store. We said our goodbyes, and I hugged a few friends, as I would probably never see them again. After a few more long hugs we turned and headed down the road to our little cabin, Squirrel now carrying a small piece of a dog bone that the grocery store owner had given him.

As we walked along the road we came to a stretch where many large potholes and low-lying areas had been filled with water from all the rain. When I looked into one of the big puddles I saw a beautiful reflection of the orange leaves from a tree being reflected in the pond. "How beautiful" Squirrel said. "Yes", I agreed, "how beautiful." Squirrel hopped down, and I took out my camera, and took a few pictures of the tree's reflection in the water.

"Al, I'd like to share a saying with you that has been passed down from one squirrel to another in my family for as long as any of us know", Squirrel said.

"What's that?", I asked, sitting down on the ground next to Squirrel.

"It's a simple saying, but I like it", Squirrel said. "The saying is, 'The reflection is not the tree'", Squirrel said. After a few moments he said, "Do you understand?"

I continued thinking about it for a few moments, and looked at the reflection of the tree in the water, and then looked at the tree itself. "I think it means that the reflection of the tree is not the tree itself. Is that right?", I asked.

"Yes", Squirrel said. "It also means other things, like stories about Alaska are not quite the same as living in Alaska. They are wonderful things, and I loved hearing about Italy and Spain tonight, but to really understand them, you have to go there."

"I agree, Squirrel."

With that Squirrel again hopped onto my shoulder, and we walked back to the cabin, both of us still looking wide-eyed at the scenery, including the small, propeller airplanes at our nearby airport. Squirrel's eyes were wide open because he had never seen much of this before, and mine were wide open because I might see these things only once or twice more myself.

When we got back to the front porch of the cabin Squirrel jumped off my shoulder and onto the railing. "Gosh, Al", Squirrel said, "That was incredible. Thanks for carrying me!"

"It sure was Squirrel. I'm going to miss this place very, very much."

"That's okay", Squirrel said, "It's a part of you now", he said, pointing at my heart. "It's a part of you, and you're a part of it", he said, opening his arms up wide.

"Thanks Squirrel", I said, with tears welling up in my eyes. "You know, I'm also going to miss you very much. You've been a great friend, and a great guide."

"I know", Squirrel said, "I'm going to miss you too, big guy." It's hard to hug a squirrel, because they're much smaller than human beings, but I picked him up, and held him close to me for a long time.

Some time later we finally quit hugging each other and crying. "Good night, Squirrel", I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. "Good night, Al", Squirrel said. With that we both turned around and started on our own ways.

I started to open the cabin door when Squirrel stopped, turned, and said "Al, can we do a 'high-five' once more, for old time's sake?"

"Sure", I said, and with that Squirrel came running down the rail, then stopped, jumped in the air, and we gave each other a high-five with everything we had.

"Woo-hoo", Squirrel yelled. He then turned around, ran along the railing and up the side of the house to his new home under the roof of the cabin. "Good night, Alaska!", he yelled as he scurried under the rooftop.

"Yes, good night, Alaska", I said too, looking out into the forest one last time.