Letter-to-Mandy

Dear Mandy, It's been twenty-two years since we last sat here together, talking over routes and arrangements for your work trip to the Yukon. You were so excited, and I was secretly longing that you would stay.. Knowing how much I would miss you. I always knew in the back of my mind when you flew into my life, that the free spirit I was so attracted to wasn't one I could ever try to cage, and the time we spent apart just increased the longing to be together once again, but it was never easy. The night of the explosion, when your cabin, this cabin, was shattered and I found you unconscious in the snow, I thought I had lost you. And of all worlds, it was this shadow world of the BayMOO that saved your life. And in this world that the memory and the places still exist in the way they were some 22 years ago.. A moment preserved in time. I could hardly wait until our summer trip to Denali. Crossing the ice flows, setting the routes, and hoping to make the summit again together. Keeping all our finges and toes. Talking about what we'd write on the register and what we couldn't wait to eat when we got back after weeks of TVP and oatmeal. We sat here on the sofa, reading each other chapters from Don Sheldon's Alaskan flying stories.. Laughing, and pondering how much of them were fish tales. And some of the close calls we had ourselves. But, that summer never came. That winter's lasted 22 years. Longer than any of Don's ever did, and I wish it were a fish story. I miss you so much Mandy..

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