-c- 2008 Mcgraw-hill Ryerson Limited

August closed his eyes. “I know.”

And every year after, on the anniversary of that summer, Elias would walk to the tree and sit for a while. He never heard the loon again. But sometimes, just at dusk, he thought he felt a needle turning in his chest—pointing not north, not northeast, but simply home . -C- 2008 mcgraw-hill ryerson limited

It sank without a splash.

“So is a ninety-year-old map turning up in a pile of rocks.” August’s eyes were the pale blue of glacial meltwater. “But there it is.” August closed his eyes

But that was a question for another summer. But sometimes, just at dusk, he thought he

The first three days were easy. He took a floatplane from Cochrane to Churchill, then a rattling bush plane north to a nameless lake. The pilot, a Cree woman named Delilah, dropped him on a gravel beach. “Last plane until September,” she shouted over the engine. “You sure?”

He looked at the open journal. At the words It looks like my mother. At the date: 1932.