enough to take me out of the fight for a few moments anyway.”

“What happened grandma?” Trixie asked.

“Well,” Jenna said. “By the time I got back up the bear had backed Balto down the hill and onto a frozen lake. As I got to the top of the hill, the bear plunged through the ice and drowned.”

“Yea!” Trixie cheered.

“I told you Balto was smart.” Jenna said. “He’d counted on the bears weight to do it in, what he didn’t count on was that the hole the bear left would weaken the ice to the point that he was too heavy as well.”

“Oh no!” Trixie said. “He fell in?”

Jenna nodded.

His two polar bear friends jumped in the lake and found out from Boris then that they couldn’t swim.”

“Polar bears who can’t swim?” Trixie asked.

Jenna smiled.

“That’s exactly what I said. Well then, Balto, he didn’t come up for a while, and I thought he was gone. Then I saw him under the ice, trying to breathe through it. For only a brief moment, I put my paws on top of his and looked into his frightened eyes.”

Jenna paused.

“I think that was the first time that it occurred to me that Balto might be more than just a casual friend to me… I mean, he’d saved my life, taken care of me… he was always there when I needed him… and never there when I didn’t.”

“What do you mean by that grandma?” Trixie asked.

“Well,” Jenna said. “I’m sure he realized as I did that my popularity in the town would be in jeopardy if anyone knew we were friends, and he also saw that my popularity meant a lot to me… see, I wasn’t concieted or stuck up, I just… I’d lost my mother only a few months prior to that, we moved away from her, and in many ways my popularity was my security blanket, the thing that fillled the hole in myself that losing my mother had caused… anyway, Balto understood most of that, and he kept his distance from me in public.”

Jenna paused.

“It… It sounds really bad now, but that was the way things were then.”

Trixie nodded.

“So anyway, I had about thrity seconds for all of this to pass through my mind before a current swept him away from me. Then came the longest silence I’ve ever heard; nothing moved.

Then Muk and Luk burst out of the ice a short distance away, dragging a very wet and unconcious wolf-dog to the surface.”

“Balto!” Trixie said.

Jenna nodded.

“I was so happy I started running to the other side of the lake, where the two polar bears had put Balto on a rock and were trying to wake him up.

Boris was running alongside me, and then he tripped and went sliding across the ice and into the big polar bear, Luk, who fell on Balto’s back. A fountain of water shot out of Balto’s mouth and he started coughing.

I kind of pushed Boris away as I got there, and Balto stood up, laying down in the snow beside the rock, shivering.

I laid down on top of him and…”

Jenna stopped as she saw the smile that spread across her grand daughter’s face.

“So he was only a good friend huh?” Trixie said.

“Oh no.” Jenna said. “It wasn’t like that, it really wasn’t. I was just trying to keep him warm.”

“Uh-huh.” Trixie said. “Sure.”

Jenna smiled.

“Anyway, I told him then about Eagle Pass and we decided to take Mountain Trail.”

“We?” Trixie asked.

“Well yeah.” Jenna said. “I’d made it this far, I just figured I’d stay with him.”

“Oh.” Trixie said,

“…but it wasn’t to be.” Jenna said. “I got up and started to walk toward the forest and I fell. I thought I was just clumsy, and said so. Balto said I was hurt and I responded that I was fine, but then I fell again. It was then that the pain started.”

“From the fight?” Trixie asked.

Jenna nodded.

“I’d pulled a muscle in my right shoulder or something, I can’t remember exactly, but Balto insisted on taking me back home. I told him that Rosie couldn’t hold out much longer, and he decided that the bears would pull me back on bough of pine that he found nearby, and Boris would lead us.”

“So he was going on alone?” Trixie asked. “In that storm?”

Jenna nodded.

“I know, I didn’t like it either. I decided that I had to do something for him, and I gave him my bandanna.”

“The red one?” Trixie asked.

Jenna nodded, a confused look on her face. “How do you know about that?”

“Dad told me you used to wear one, he never would tell me why, or why it was so important though.”

“Oh.” Jenna said. “Well, yes, it was the red one. My mother had worn it as long as I’d been alive, and when Rosie’s family and I left Shishmaref she gave it to me. I hadn’t ever taken it off until that point, and it felt extremely weird not to have it on.”

“So what happened?” Trixie asked, eager to get back to the action.

“Well, the bears pulled me home as they were told to, I went to the hospital, was told that there was really nothing they could do for my leg, and I spent the next few days at the window of the hospital, as before. That was the end of my adventure.”

“So what about Balto?” Trixie asked. “What about the town, what about Rosie, what about the team? You can’t leave off like that grandma!”

Jenna laughed.

“I said it was the end of my adventure child, not the story.”

“Oh.” Trixie said.

Jenna smiled.

“So I gather you want to hear the rest then.” Jenna said.

Trixie nodded.

“So, a few days later, Dixie was walking by and saw me limping. She was all worried about me and asked me what happened, and the next thing I knew I was sitting in the old mill telling the rest of the dogs about what had happened.”

“When I got to the part about Balto setting off to find the lost team the other dogs laughed. They thought he was insane.”

“That wasn’t very nice of them.” Trixie said.

Jenna shook her head.

“No it wasn’t, and I was about to tell them so when the door opened and a dark shape stood in it.”

“Balto?” Trixie asked.

“I thought so.” Jenna replied. “…but no, it was Steele.”

“Steele?” Trixie asked. “What was he doing back without the medicine? Or the team?”

“Well,” Jenna said. “He started into this story about all of them freezing to death, and then he said that he’d been dragging the medicine all alone, and then Balto appeared and demanded that Steele let him take the medicine. Then Steele said he grabbed the crate, but he couldn’t handle it, and he slipped, falling off a cliff.”

“That doesn’t sound like Balto to me.” Trixie said. “Steele made that up.”

Jenna nodded.

“I thought the same thing, but then he pulled out my bandanna and told me that Balto told him to take care of me.”

“That doesn’t sound right either.” Trixie said.

Jenna nodded again.

“I know, but how did he get my bandanna. I’d given it to Balto… two really horrible thoughts crossed my mind then. One was that Steele had been coming back and found Balto dead somewhere and taken the bandanna, the other was that Steele had found Balto alive and killed him, then taken the bandanna.”

“Oh no!” Trixie said.

“I stood up, took my bandanna, and ran out of the old mill. See, I’d just realized that what I’d suspected back at the lake was true, Balto was more than a friend to me, much more. I realized then what that fear-like feeling I’d felt under the hospital was… it was love. I loved Balto… and it had taken me losing him to realize it.”

Trixie sighed.

“Now I know why you never talk about him.”

Jenna smiled.

“I know my memory is bad child, but I don’t remember saying “the end” yet.”

Trixie looked confused.

“You mean…”

Jenna smiled.

“Anyway, I was crushed. I truly thought Balto might be dead, murdered by that foul creature Steele.

As I was sitting outside the hospital I saw the telegrapher walk out of his office, shake his head and take down the lamp he’d left lit to guide the team back to Nome.

Though I thought Balto might be dead, I hoped he wasn’t, and I walked down to the dumpster to get what I needed.”

“The dumpster?” Trixie asked.

Jenna nodded.

“It took several trips to get all the broken bottles and thee lantern onto the hill outside the town, and I fell a lot, my leg was still injured remember, but I did it anyway, for Balto, on the off-chance that was still alive.”

“You recreated the northern lights, just like he did under the hospital… huh?” Trixie asked.

Jenna nodded. “Mine were somewhat bigger and brighter, but yes, I could think of no better signal to Balto.”

“That’s pretty cool.” Trixie said.

“I suppose it is.” Jenna said.

She paused.

“Well, a few hours passed and I was let back into the hospital. Rosie’s father had retied the bandanna around my neck, but now it felt strange, only a reminder that Balto, the dog loved, would never come home again. I gave serious thought to throwing it away, and probably the only thing that kept me from doing that was my need to be with my girl, whom I was now sure I would soon lose as well…”

Jenna paused and