Wild Fire Read Free Page A

to follow the narrow flight path, or see well enough to land the plane.
    â€œLet’s go get coffee in the pilots’ lounge.”
    Dad said it with a straight face, but Kara laughed. The pilots’ lounge was a tiny, one-room office with a scarred desk, a sofa, and a coffeemaker. She poured two mugs of coffee and handed Ryan change for the Coke machine.
    An hour later the mountain peaks were still obscured by clouds. “What do you say we pop on up and have a look? If it’s too dense on the other side, we can turn around.”
    â€œAll right!” Ryan raced toward the car and started to drag his duffle bag to the plane.
    She grinned and followed. By the time they loaded their gear in the tail and climbed into the “sardine can,” as Tia called the tiny plane, it was almost eleven o’clock.
    The engine turned over. Kara’s stomach fluttered as the airplane coasted toward the runway. Ryan was up front with Dad. She leaned forward and tugged on his seat belt.
    â€œHey!”
    â€œJust checking, Ry.”
    She clutched the armrest as the plane picked up speed. A few seconds later they were in the air.
    When the plane leveled off, she lifted her head from the seat back and watched the scenery below. Grassy fields and ploughed farmland. Small stands of fir trees. Houses and barns lay scattered below the foothills like playing pieces on a brown-and-green checkerboard.
    She held her breath as Dad guided the plane into the clouds above the mountains. This part was always a little spooky, like flying through spun cotton. You couldn’t see the mountains or the sky.
    The plane bumped, then dropped. Kara’s breath came out in a whoosh as they broke through into the sun.
    â€œWe’re in!” Dad’s shout was jubilant. “Hang on, we’re going to make the turn.”
    One minute Kara was admiring the treetops, the next all she saw was the rugged canyon wall.
    Ryan squealed and twisted in his seat. “Oh, Daddy, make it stop. I want to get out.”
    â€œHang on, Tiger, we’re almost there.”
    Kara shouted over the noise of the engine. “Look, Ry, there’s the runway. Remember?”
    Dad chuckled. “Forget it, Sugar Bear, his eyes are closed. It’s okay, Ryan, we’re about to land.”
    They bumped along the strip of hard-packed dirt that ran alongside the Minam River and coasted to a stop just a few feet from the hand-carved wooden sign announcing Eagle Lodge.
    Dad unlatched Kara’s door, then went to lift Ryan out of the plane.
    Kara jumped to the ground and stood staring at the ruined corral. “Whoa! If the rest of the place looks like this, we’ll be lucky to open by August.”
    She tossed her braid over her shoulder, stepped across the flattened wire that was once a fence, and stopped short at the water trough. It was clogged with mud and pine boughs. Next to it lay a large, gray block of what looked like fur-covered cement.
    â€œThis saltlick looks like the deer have used it for an antler rub.”
    â€œThey probably did.”
    Kara turned at her father’s chuckle. Instead of the despair she expected to see, his eyes sparkled with quiet laughter. He patted the back of her Levi jacket. “Don’t worry, Sugar Bear, we’ll have it back in shape in no time.”
    In spite of the winter damage, Kara loved this wilderness paradise. Her parents had bought Eagle Lodge a year ago last spring. Besides the main lodge, there were four log cabins, a spider-infested outhouse, an ancient barn, and what used to be a small corral.
    â€œDidn’t you say the guys are bringing in the stock tomorrow? What are we going to do with a dozen horses and no corral?”
    Greg and Colin were to lead the horses, including Lily and Ryan’s pony, Star, into the valley by way of a narrow switchback trail down from Pine Creek. It was a slow trip and could be dangerous, especially this time of year when parts of the trail