we?”

Trixie nodded.

“Well actually,” Jenna continued. “I didn’t understand at first, see, I’d been “in love”, or thought I had anyway, and I’d never felt like this before. I was almost afraid, my pulse sped up and I found myself incapable of taking a breath, but then I told myself that this was Balto, and I didn’t need to be afraid of him. I guess it was about that time, that I opened my eyes, and realized our noses were maybe an inch apart.

Then the light was shut off, and just like that, the moment ended.

I don’t know who looked more embarrassed and confused, myself or Balto.

We just kind of looked away from each other for a moment, and a very awkward moment of silence followed.

Then I heard Doc’s voice. He told Rosy Goodnight, and she answered him by saying she was cold.

Her voice was somewhat distorted, and I could tell she was tired and in pain.

Doc walked into the next room, and Balto and I followed, again concentrated on Rosie, the moment before forgotten.

Rosie’s father asked Doc how his daughter was doing, and Doc sat down in a chair near a big stack of human medications.

He said she was exhausted from her coughing, and that she had a bad fever. He said it was Diphtheria, and that my Rosie wasn’t the only one, there were eighteen cases in that week alone.

Then he dropped a bomb on us.

He said he was out of anti-toxin for the diesese.”

Jenna sighed. “Immiediatly I thought I was going to lose little Rosie, and I ran back to the boiler room, tears filling my eyes.

Balto hurried to catch up with me, and finallly did so in the middle of the boiler room.

He apologized, and said that he shouldn’t have taken me down there.

I told him I was glad he did, after all, knowing something, even though it was bad, was better than not knowing at all.

For a moment, I looked into his eyes, and the feeling from back under the hospital came back, but I shrugged it away this time, too preoccupied with the fate of my little girl to even begin to sort that mess out.

There was a crash at the door, and Steele stumbled into the boiler room.

Trixie interjected again. “Steele, again? Doesn’t he ever learn?”

Jenna sighed. “It would take much more than that to convince him. You can ask your father about that one, it’s a different story, and I don’t want to get off track.”

Trixie nodded.

Jenna continued.

“Now, as I said, Steele stumbled into the boiler room, a strand of sausauges from the butcher’s hanging from his mouth.

He said something to me, but I don’t really remember what it was. Then, he asked me to join him for dinner, that I could start at one end, he on the other, and well, you can use your imagination to figure out the end product he was hoping for. Well that was most certainly not going to happen.

Balto started to bark at Steele, and snapped at the sausauges. I told him to stop, because I didn’t want to see him get hurt.

I acted like I thought Steele’d want me to act, how the other females acted around him, I melted for him.”

“What!” Trixie cried. “Why?”

Jenna smiled.

“Oh I had my own agenda, believe me. I talked to him so he’d listen, doing my best to sound alluring. I’m afraid I wasn’t very good at it, but my performance impressed Steele. I backed up as I talked, and eventually, as I came to the close of my little conversation, Steele backed straight into the boiler door.

Jenna laughed and Trixie joined in.

“I know it sounds mean, but you’ve got to keep in mind who this was when I say that that has got to be one of the funniest things I’d seen in a while. I don’t know how Balto kept from laughing.

Steele howled and jumped in the air, at which point Balto and I seized the opportunity to run out of the boiler room.

Balto shut the door behind us, but an enraged Steele leapt through it, throwing the door against the wall with a crash.

Steele landed on top of both of us, and all of a sudden, this wasn’t funny at all, it had become very, very dangerous.

I was afraid Steele might kill the two of us.

Then we were saved by a pair of human voices and a light coming our way.

Balto and I ran again, but I heard Balto fall.

I turned to see Balto on the snow, a flashlight beam bathing him in bright light. The pile of sausages were tangled up in his legs.”

“Hold on.” Trixie said. “So this Steele made Balto take the fall for him?”

Jenna nodded.

“…as was his character to do, yes, Balto received the blame for the stolen sausages. The butcher even gave them to Steele as a reward for catching him.”

“I don’t believe it.” Trixie said.

Jenna nodded.

“I know.” I tried to follow Balto, but Rosie’s dad grabbed me by my bandanna and hauled me back and toward the hospital.”

Jenna stopped, sensing Trixie’s need to say something.

“What is it my dear?”

“Well…” Trixie said, pausing as she wasn’t quite sure how to word her question.

“…why didn’t anyone like Balto?”

Jenna sighed. “Trixie, some people, and dogs as well, have prejudices that they must overcome in order to accept someone… and some just don’t want to give those prejudices up. It may be how they were raised, it may be fear too.”

She sighed again.

“See… wolf-dogs have a bad reputation for being aggressive and sometimes violent. I don’t know why I wasn’t scared of him.”

She laughed softly.

“I guess if I were smart, I should’ve been, but… I never saw myself in danger with Balto… he never hit me out of anger, not once in seventeen years.”

“So they were scared?” Trixie asked.

Jenna nodded and sighed.

“Some of them… but anyway, after that, at the worst possible time, a huge storm blew in, one of the worst I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot.”

“Oh no…” Trixie said.

Jenna nodded.

The storm kept the ships and planes from being able to deliver the lifesaving anti-toxin to Nome, which meant that Rosie and all the other children were going to die, and they’d just be the first. The adults would follow. Diphtheria is a very contagious disease.”

“So what did you do?” Trixie asked.

“A few days later, we got a telegram that offered some hope, if only a little. It said that the governor was shipping the anti-toxin by train to the small town of Nenana, where the rail line ended.

Nenana was over four hundred miles away from Nome.”

“Four hundred miles!” Trixie exclaimed in a raging snowstorm?”

Jenna nodded. “Yes, I know it sounds impossible, but it was done.”

“…by Balto?” Trixie asked.

Jenna sighed.

“…no, not at first.”

“The humans held a race the day after receiving the telegram to find the fastest team. This race wasn’t done by teams though, each dog raced on his or her own. It was an individual effort. See, they needed the best team in the town, and that meant the best dogs from each team… the medicine had to get here fast, so speed was a definite factor here… though not the only one, well, that’s why they were hacing the race.

I was sitting at the sidelines, watching as usual with my friends Dixie and Sylvie. They were prattling on about Steele, as always...”

Here, Trixie cut her grandmother off.

“What is it with this Steele character? He seems mean and awful full of himself. Why did everyone worship him like they did?”

Jenna sighed.

“Nome has always been a racing town, in fact, long ago, the first dogsled race in Alaska was held here… Steele was a very good racer, so it followed that he was also very popular… see, the world rarely looks at the true nature of a person, especially if they are popular like Steele was. Steele’s heart was as cold as ice, and everyone knew it, they just didn’t care… he was a god in racing, so he was a god to them… well, certainly not me, but most of them anyway.”

Jenna smiled.

“…but enough about Steele, let’s get back to the story.”

Jenna paused.

“I’m sorry child, but my memory is getting worse and worse as the days pass, where was I again?”

Trixie smiled.

“You were talking about the race grandma, about sitting on the sidelines and your friends talking about Steele.”

Jenna smiled.

“Oh yes, I remember now, I’m sorry dear, now, back to the story. I remember telling them that the race for the medicine wasn’t a one dog show, but that there was going to be a dogsled team. Dixie seemed to be shocked at my reply and asked me, yet again, why I didn’t like Steele.

Then Sylvie said something that made my blood run cold. She said that the reason I didn’t like Steele was because I was running with Balto now.

Instantly I could see my friends turning their backs on me, my hard won popularity in the town falling away from me… and then my blood turned hot, as I got about as angry as I’d ever been. See, I realized that if my friends did turn their backs on me because of my friendship with Balto, they weren’t true friends anyway, and I didn’t need them.

Sylvie said someone saw Balto and I in the Boiler Room, and that this someone was a very reliable source, and that I couldn’t even try to deny it.

I was so angry I really couldn’t see straight, but I smiled and