Nothing Left To Lose:

Not all stories had happy endings. And not all heroes got the girl.

Nome, Alaska in the year 1925 was a crazy place. The Great Depression had yet to hit the world, and the twenties were still swinging, but Nome, a small little town on the Alaskan coast, was scarred and forever changed by the epidemic that had just took hold on it.

The crisis had been averted, by a plucky stray named Balto, but the town was never really the same again after that. After the lives of their children had been put entirely up to chance and were so narrowly saved, many of its residents moved to the states, a country where hospitals came in abundance, and one didn’t have to wait weeks for medicine to be shipped thousands of miles. And unfortunately, one of those families leaving town was the Jones clan, Thomas, Evelyn, and Roslyn, along with their pet husky Jenna.

“The Dream of a Normal Death” by Murray Gold begins.

The move devastated the whole family. Thomas regretted having to leave behind his hometown, Evelyn didn’t want to say good-bye to all their friends and neighbors, and Jenna and Rosie didn’t want to move away from Balto, the half-breed who they owed their lives to.

Jenna was a strong woman. She once helped Balto fight off a grizzly bear, and she rarely ever cried no matter how sad she was. But when she learned she was really going to lose her boyfriend forever, she cried herself to sleep every night, all week.

But no matter how much they all disapproved of it, the women of the household couldn’t do anything to change Tom’s decision. Ultimately, the choice to move away was the best one when it came to Rosie’s health, and Jenna understood that because she would do anything to protect her girl.

So on one cold Monday morning in the middle of January, the Jones packed up all their worldly possessions and loaded them into their jeep, and some of their friends’ jeeps. They were standing in the middle of Main Street now, but soon they would be enroute to the nearest train station.

But while the humans were busy packing, Jenna was forcing herself to do what she had been putting off all week - a parting of ways. “So this is how it ends. We survive blizzards, bears, avalanches, and epidemics, and this is what separates us”, she said tearfully to her half-breed lover.

“This could just be temporary. The world’s a small place, this might not be the end”, Balto said hopefully. The hybrid had been in just as much denial as his would-be girlfriend ever since they learned of the terrible news. But one of them was going to have to face the truth.

Jenna shook her head, tears soaking her reddish-orange fur. “Balto, we need to face facts. You and I both know we’re never gonna see each other again”, she said, voice breaking.

“Don’t say that. I’ll always be here, waiting for you to return”, Balto insisted.

“No, don’t do that”, Jenna said suddenly, taking the wolf-dog by surprise. “I don’t want you to waste your whole life waiting for a girl who’ll never come. I don’t want you to be alone. After I’m gone, I want you to move on Balto, find yourself a new mate, someone who can love you and stay with you like I never could”, she sobbed, rubbing her paw alongside Balto’s furry cheek.

The husky and the half-breed, such an unlikely pair. They had been fighting fate their entire relationship, defying everything just to be together. But those days were gone now. And when he realized Jenna had already made up her mind and had given up, Balto was on the verge of breaking down himself. “Jenna, don’t go. I love you”, he begged. When Jenna shook her head one more time, for the last time, it killed him.

“And I love you too, but there’s someone out there who loves you more. Find them Balto. Find them and hold on for dear life”, she said, before leaning in and gently kissing the town hero.

And then too soon, much too soon, she pulled away from him and ran towards her family’s jeep, not even daring to look back at the broken man she was leaving behind.

Not all stories had happy endings. Some stories didn’t have endings at all. Some stories just started all over again from the beginning, like none of those impossible, world changing events that had transpired ever happened. That’s what Balto felt fate had done to him. Thrust him back into his same old life as an outcast, but this time without Jenna.

((()-()))

The days seemed to last forever now.

It had been three months since the epidemic and since then not a single person had offered to adopt him. Sure they all said they were grateful for his help, but not one of them was grateful to enough to let a wild stray into their homes. Which was why he was still living with Boris in the trawler.

For the first couple weeks, Balto followed Jenna’s advice and tried to go about his life as usual. He talked to Boris, he played with Muk and Luk, and he went exploring in the forest to see new places and things. But it just wasn’t the same.

After a while, he lost the energy to go on nature hikes, and kept mostly to Nome. But then he stopped that as well after a few weeks, since it just felt too depressing for him to go town and for her not to be there waiting for him. So he only went into town to get some food and bring it back to the trawler.

By the time three months had passed since Jenna’s departure, Balto had done the opposite of moving on. He spent most of his days lying under his blanket, counting the hours until the sun set and he would be left alone to his dreams again. Dreams of Jenna.

He knew it wasn’t what Jenna wanted for him, but he couldn’t bring himself to abide her last wishes. Yes, he knew he was clinging onto the past, but it was better than focusing on a bleak future where nothing ever changed.

He had realized he couldn’t keep doing this anymore, not without her. She was the ray of hope that had kept him going every day. She was the one he would always think about whenever he was isolated from all the other humans and dogs. She had been his reason to keep living ever since he was just puppy, but now she was gone and Nome didn’t need his help anymore, so why stay in this rut?

But he wasn’t going to just run off to another town and try to start over there. That wouldn’t do him any good. Jenna’s absence was the reason he was so depressed with this life, and no amount of running away would help him.

Like he said, his reason for living was gone, so why keep on living? It was time for him to face what he had always suspected was coming his whole life. He had faced death with a straight face before and he would do again now. Except this time he wouldn’t fight it, he would submit to it. Nome was safe, and his self-appointed job as its protector was done. The only thing he had left to do was say good-bye to the only people in the world who would miss him.

So one morning, when everyone else was fast asleep, Balto got up from under his blanket and started whispering into Boris’ ear. “Thanks Boris. You were the best dad anyone could ask for. I just wish I could have been a better son”, he said guiltily.

He did the same thing for Muk and Luk on deck, and as quietly as he could, crept off the ship and left his lifelong friends to enjoy their nap; unaware that his story was finally about to end.

((()-()))

“Only Martha Knows” by Murray Gold begins.

Steele had fucked his life completely up. He wasn’t kidding. He had fucked his life up so much, his life’s ass would be sore for weeks. He was no longer leader of the dog sled team, by the way. After he recovered from his head wound and learned of Steele’s treachery, Gunnar Kaasen fired the purebred in a heartbeat. Instead Steele’s old flunky Kaltag became the new face of troop 51, while Steele himself became trash. It was just a miracle one of the townsmen, Richard, took pity on the former champion and took him in. Otherwise he could add homelessness to the list of things he brought onto himself.

Of course, Steele hadn’t always considered his current state of unemployment to be his fault. After Balto returned to Nome with the medicine and the other dogs made him an outcast, the one thought that had filled his mind all week was that Balto had ruined him. Until Nome’s citizens started laying into him (and he thought he was master of insults). The things they said to him did more than sting, it felt like they were stabbing him over and over again every single day, as if they wanted him to keel over and die. Was this what life was like for Balto all the time?

So for the next three months he hid away in his new master’s home, only daring to show his face in public when he absolutely had to. But most days he just sat inside, eating, sleeping, and wondering where he went wrong. And no matter how much he wanted to blame it all on Balto, he kept coming back to the same conclusion - he himself was the reason he was a social pariah.

He had been the one who stubbornly insisted on sitting out in a blizzard and dying. He had been the one to attack Balto and refuse his help, simply so he wouldn’t have to share the glory with a half-breed. And he had been the one who committed an unspeakable act of