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peace and quiet has given me plenty of time to work on the concept presentation for Ninja Shifters. All in all, my visit has been like a workcation.
    Except Aunt Wilma keeps asking me about my future plans, before intoning, “Your father isn’t going to put up with this mess for long. You know that, right?”
    Yes, I do know that. But now I follow Uncle Ford to the pier, fully prepared to go through the pantomime of acting like my head’s full of unicorns and rainbows.
    Most days, our conversation on the pier involves both of us staring at our feet and saying something like this:
    Ford: You ready to go home now?
    Me: Nope. Just finishing up a project.
    Ford: Your dad keeps calling your aunt. Telling her to send you home.
    Me: Mmm-hmmm. I better get back to work.
    Mumble, mumble, and so on and so forth.
    By the time we get to the pier on New Year’s Eve, it almost feels like a tradition.
    So I’m shocked as shit when Uncle Ford opens with, “You need to leave.”
    I blink, a little surprised he wants me out so bad, especially when Aunt Wilma hasn’t made any moves to kick me out. I’m so surprised, I tell him the truth. “I can’t leave yet.”
    Uncle Ford shakes his head, “Look, I don’t know what went down between you and your dad. But I grew up with him. We…” He cuts off and seems to reset. “He ain’t just going to let you stay here.”
    “He might,” I say hopefully. “He really hates the outdoors, so the chances of him coming up here—”
    “He’s already threatening to send Yancey up here after the next full moon. And you know Wilma ain’t going to be cool with Detroit drama coming to Wolf Lake.”
    I inwardly curse. That much is true. Despite her less than civilized upbringing, I’ve watched the former Detroit princess swan around the Alaska kingdom house like she was born “old money.” She was the kind of woman who insisted on a family hug before each party, grandchildren included, only to whisper inside the circle, “If any of you embarrass me tonight, I will end you.”
    “You her niece. But we Detroit through and through,” Ford says, as if co-signing my thoughts. “If Wilton send somebody up here, she will put your ass on a plane before she lets you embarrass her in front of her kingdom. So you need to go. Only question is, do you want me to call for a plane now or after the New Year’s Eve party?”
    I shake my head, bitter disappointment stealing over me. “Wow,” I say. “As welcoming as you and Aunt Wilma have been to all these snooty Alaska wolves, it looks like you don’t have any kind of feelings about your actual family at all.”
    Now, and only now, does Uncle Ford’s expression change, his face shifting from awkward confrontation mode to troubled frown. “No, no, that’s not what I’m saying. You’re my family. I…I…care about you. I’m on your side. Always. But I know my brother and my Pop.”
    A shadow crosses over his face, hinting at a still locked backstory interstitial that I’ve never heard. But even without hearing it, I’m getting loud and clear that something happened when Uncle Ford was still living in Detroit. Something that makes him think I cannot possibly win this battle with my father. That I might as well give in now, because any form of resistance will only cause him and Aunt Wilma more pain.
    “Okay, well I’m going back to my room now.” I turn away then. Not because I’m disappointed in him, but because I know he’s right.
    I’ve run away to Alaska, but the truth is, there’s no escape. Not from my father.
    I expect Uncle Ford to run after me as I start back to the kingdom house. To demand I agree to get on the plane, like my father wants.
    But eventually I hear footsteps, and when I look up, he’s headed in the other direction. Presumably back to the cottage he shared with his mate before she died in childbirth a couple of years after my mother. Geez, no wonder the guy isn’t so sold on happy endings for us Detroit