The Orange Bandana

This could be called a companion novel to ‘Secret of the Past’. Ever wondered where Jenna got her bandana in the first place? Well, hold on, because you’re about to find out…

Jenna slides a bit reluctantly off Balto’s slowly warming body and steps into the cold, crusty snow. The wolf-dog seems alright now after defeating the grizzly bear and barely escaping a near-death experience under the ice in freezing water. The red and white husky half-listens as Balto makes a sly, witty remark to Muk. Jenna gingerly tries to walk as Muk answers Balto.

“Yes, of course we were, we were in the water, we were moving, we got wet, didn’t we, we…Luk! We were swimming!”

Balto laughs, but looks up quickly when Jenna collapses in the snow. “Ah! Clumsy!”

“No you’re not,” Balto says, coming over to stand beside Jenna. “You’re hurt.”

Jenna doesn’t want to admit it. She heaves herself back up, saying, “I’m fine.” Tentatively she takes another step with the same foot, and falls forward again. “Ah! Well, maybe I’m not so fine,” she relents. She turns her face up to look at Balto. “You should all go ahead without me.”

Balto’s forehead creases. “Jenna…”

“No, no, I’ll be slowing everyone down,” Jenna insists. Then, in a quieter voice, “Rosy can’t hold out much longer.”

The mention of Jenna’s sick owner throws Balto silent, and the husky hopes that Balto will agree to her request. Going on would be pointless, she reasons. It wouldn’t help Rosy; if they went too slow it could kill her. As if coming to a decision, Balto suddenly lifts his head.

“Muk? You and Luk carry Jenna back to town on this.” He darts into the foliage and drags out a large broken pine tree branch. He pulls it along until it rests near Jenna.

“And this time, don’t take time out for a swim! Hee hee!” Boris butts in after an unusually long period of silence.

“You can make sure of that, Boris. You’re gonna lead them home,” Balto says firmly, turning to his Russian snow goose friend.

Boris slaps his forehead at the news. “Oy!”

“Just follow my marks,” Balto continues, ignoring the grumpy goose’s reaction. Jenna feels a sudden pang of guilt and concern.

“You’re going on alone?”

“Won’t be the first time,” Balto replies. Jenna hears the hint of sadness tainting his remark, and after a moment she knows exactly what to do.

“Here.” Slipping off her orange bandana, the husky gently pulls it over Balto’s neck. The bright color seems to darken the brown-gray of the wolf-dog’s fur, and Balto looks surprised. “I’m afraid it won’t keep you very warm,” Jenna says apologetically. She watches Balto’s eyes as he looks at her, adjusting to the unfamiliar feel of cloth around his neck. With Jenna, her neck feels bare and conspicuous without the piece of old cloth covering it. But she knows the sacrifice is worth it when she sees the warm light in Balto’s eyes.

“Yeah it will,” he assures her.

Standing there, looking at Balto wearing her precious bandana, Jenna feels a whole swarm of old memories bubble up inside her. These memories she had tried to put to the grave long ago, but they were still there, and she had been unconscious of their presence until now. That bandana wasn’t only hers; it had had one other owner, a dog Jenna had loved. The red and white husky has to stop herself from closing her brown eyes as the memories come flooding back of her older brother, Lake.

A one-year-old Jenna sat up, panting hard, but the nightmare was still before her eyes, darkening her mind, and she half-screamed.

“Jenna!” In a moment a familiar figure was at her side. Jenna stopped her shriek and peered up with brown eyes still glazed with visions of her sleep to look into another pair of brown eyes. They were concerned and comforting at the same time, and the red and white husky slumped down onto the carpet.

“Oh, Lake,” she sighed, and couldn’t stop herself from whimpering one last time. She shivered. Her brother immediately lay down beside her and pushed her a bit to the side to get to the warm spot his sister’s body heat had made.

“Budge over.” Jenna obliged, and the brown and white husky settled into the soft red carpet. He laid his head on top of hers, and she shivered again. But this time the shiver was in cold, not fear. He rubbed one of her silky red ears with his chin. “Another nightmare?” Jenna nodded and pushed back salty crystal tears beginning to form in her eyes. Lake’s forehead creased, and he rubbed the fur on her back with one paw. “Jen, you’re sweating like heck! What was it in that nightmare that scared you so much?” His alto voice paused, and the red and white husky let her brother draw his own confusions. Finally he realized. “It was about Dad, huh?” Lake said quietly.

Jenna nodded, and before she could stop herself she buried her face into Lake’s orange bandana and sobbed, her voice cracking as she tried to talk. The brown and white husky held her while she explained. “It was so awful…Dad was walking with Mom on Main Street in town, and they were laughing and it sounded like Dad was teasing Mom…And then the whole town disappeared and Dad and Mom were just standing out in the wilderness. There was all this snow, and…and a whole pack of wolves, hundreds of packs of wolves, came out of nowhere and started biting Dad and scratching him…There was all this blood, so much red blood, the exact color of Mom’s fur, the exact color of MY fur…and Dad called out for Mom, but she just stood there like she was a frozen statue!” Jenna was crying without realizing it, until she tasted the salt on her tongue from the tears dripping off her cheeks. She remembered Ranger’s, her father’s, call for her mother, and she mumbled the exclamation. “Jewel! JEWEL!”

“Jenna!” Lake was looking her in the eyes, and he jolted his body to shake her. “Snap out of it! It was just a stupid nightmare! Now forget about it!” He shook his head and groaned. The unfamiliar noise was enough to surprise Jenna into stopping her hysterics. “You’ve been having these nightmares for too long now! When are they going to end?”

Jenna sniffed, and she tried hard to forget Ranger’s terrified face, his desperate calling. But it was too difficult. As much as she didn’t want to see murder, she did want to see her father again. She tried to explain it to Lake. “I don’t know when they’re going to end…but some part of me wants to keep having them.”

Lake was busy studying his white paws, but at that statement he looked up. “Huh? Jen, what are you talking about? Are you saying you WANT to keep seeing Dad being…?” He couldn’t say the word ‘killed’, but he stared at Jenna as if she was nuts. She hurriedly tried to clear it up for him

“Lake, I can’t remember anything about him. I only know stuff about Dad because of Mom telling us, and I can only imagine what Dad looks like. I know I saw him, along with all the rest of our litter, before he went on that mail run, but I just can’t remember him. My nightmares are the only time I can ever see him!” She stared hopelessly at her brother, who stared right back, but in a thoughtful way. Finally, he snorted and got up from the floor, shaking out his coffee brown coat as he stretched.

“Don’t go all dramatic on me, Jen. You’ve already put enough on my mind.” He kept on stretching, arching his back, then cracked his right back leg and finally stood up straight. “Aaaah!” he sighed happily. A single ray of sunlight dropped through the window to play along the floor. It danced along Lake’s chocolate brown coat, making it shimmer. Lake grinned and furrowed a brow at Jenna. “The day’s young. Wanna go catch a sunrise?” Jenna had to stop and think at the sudden change of atmosphere. Lake saw her hesitation and the grin left his face. “C’mon, Jen. It’ll get your mind off that nightmare.” He glanced out the window. “Mine too.”

Jenna saw his worry and decided to go along with it. “Alright…” She got up and stood next to her brother. “…But only if we race!”

She charged off before he could react. With a surprised “Hey!” he raced off after her and easily caught up in a few seconds. Jenna watched as Lake sped by her like a nut-brown rocket, but was pleased when he slowed down a bit to run a few yards ahead of her.

“C’mon, Jen, speed it up! You’re running like an old dog on an icy pond!”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” she snapped back.

His laugh echoed mockingly ahead of her. “That you should speed up, stupid! C’mon, Jenna! I’m gonna go run ahead if you don’t pick up the pace!”

‘Oh, no, you don’t,’ Jenna thought determinedly, and forced her thin legs to move faster. She gained a bit, and Lake stayed where he was. The two pounded on out of the town and into the wilderness surrounding it. Jenna yelled to her brother, “Where are we going? I thought we were just racing around town!”

“Well, we’re not. And you’ll see where we’re heading when we get