River’s End

everything,” he said with some dignity, then crawled out of bed. “
    But it buys me.” He tripped over something in the dark, cursed, then limped to the bathroom while his wife snickered.
    She was sound asleep when he came back, gave her an absent kiss and stumbled out.
    Light was filtering through the windows when the shakes and whispers woke her. “
    Huh? What?”
    “Aunt Jamie? Are you awake?”
    “Not until I’ve had my coffee.”
    “I brought you some.”
    Jamie pried one eye open, focused blearily on her niece. She sniffed once, caught the scent and sighed. “You are my queen.”
    With a laugh, Olivia sat on the side of the bed as Jamie struggled up. “I made it fresh. Grandma and Uncle David are gone, and Grandpop left for the lodge. He said he had paperwork to do, but he just likes to go over there and talk to people.”
    “You got his number.” Eyes closed, Jamie took the first sip. “So what are you up to?”
    “Well... Grandpop said that I could have the day off if you wanted to go for a hike. I could take you on one of the easy trails. It’s sort of practice for being a guide. I can’
    t really be one until I’m sixteen, even though I know all the trails better than mostly anyone.”
    Jamie opened one eye again. Olivia had a bright smile on her face and a plea in her eye. “You’ve got my number, too, don’t you?”
    “I can use my new backpack. I’ll make sandwiches and stuff while you’re getting dressed.”
    “What kind of sandwiches?”
    “Ham and Swiss.”
    “Sold. Give me twenty minutes.”
    “All right!” Olivia darted out of the room, leaving Jamie to take the first two of that twenty minutes to settle back and enjoy her coffee.
    It was warm and bright, with a wild blue sky of high summer. A perfect day, Jamie decided, to think of what is rather than what had been.
    She flexed her feet in her ancient and reliable boots and studied her niece. Olivia had her hair tucked up in a fielder’s cap with the River’s End Lodge and Campground logo emblazoned on the crown. Her T-shirt was faded, the overshirt unbuttoned and frayed at the cuffs. Her boots looked worn and comfortable, the backpack brightly blue.
    She had a compass and a knife sheath hooked to her belt.
    She looked, Jamie realized, supremely competent.
    “Okay, what’s your spiel?”
    “My spiel?”
    “Yeah, I’ve hired you to guide me on the trail today, to show me the ropes, to make my hiking experience a memorable one. I know nothing. I’m an urban hiker.”
    “Urban hiker?”
    “That’s right. Rodeo Drive’s my turf, and I’ve come here to taste nature. I want my money’s worth.”
    “Okay.” Olivia squared her shoulders, cleared her throat.
    “Today we’re going to hike the John MacBride Trail. This trail is an easy two-point-three-mile hike that loops through the rain forest, then climbs for a half a mile to the lake area, which offers magnificent views. Urn . . . More experienced hikers often choose to continue the hike from that point on one of the more difficult trails, but this choice gives the visitor . .. um, the chance to experience the rain forest as well as the lake vistas. How was that?”
    “Not bad.”
    It was, Olivia thought, almost word for word from one of the books on sale at the lodge gift shop. All she’d done was to focus on bringing the page into her head and basically reading it off.
    But she’d fix that. She’d learn to personalize her guides. She’d learn to be the best there was.
    “Okay. As your guide, and the representative of River’s End Lodge and Campground, I’ll be providing your picnic lunch and explanations of the flora and fauna we see on our tour. I’ll be happy to answer any questions.”
    “You’re a natural. Ready when you are.”
    “Neat. The trailhead begins here, at the original site of the first MacBride homestead. John and Nancy MacBride traveled west from Kansas in 1853 and settled here on the edges of the Quinault rain forest.”
    “I thought rain forests were in the tropics,” Jamie said and fluttered her lashes at Olivia as they moved toward the trees.
    “The Quinault Valley holds one of the few temperate rain forests in the world. We have mild temperatures and a lot of rainfall.”
    “The trees are so tall! What are they?”
    “The overstory of trees is Sitka spruce; you can identify them by the flaky bark. And Douglas fir. They grow really tall and straight. When they get old, the bark’s dark brown and has those deep grooves