Train Dreams (2025)

1. There were once passageways to the old world,

2. strange trails, hidden paths.

3. You'd turn a corner and suddenly find yourself face-to-face

4. with the great mystery, the foundation of all things.

5. And even though that old world is gone now,

6. even though it's been rolled up like a scroll and put somewhere,

7. you can still feel the echo of it.

8. We're clear.

9. His name was Robert Grainier,

10. and he lived more than 80 years

11. in and around the town of Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

12. In his time, he traveled west within a few dozen miles of the Pacific,

13. though he'd never seen the ocean itself,

14. and as far east as the town of Libby, 40 miles inside Montana.

15. When he was sent by himself to the town of Fry, Idaho,

16. he was six, or possibly seven.

17. He never knew for sure the year or day of his birth.

18. How he had lost his original parents,

19. nobody ever told him.

20. One of his earliest memories was that of observing the mass deportation

21. of 100 or more Chinese families from the town.

22. Grainier was baffled by the casualness of the violence.

23. Come on up here.

24. Please, young fella.

25. I've been cut behind the knee by this fella they call Big-Ear Al.

26. And I have to say, I... I know he's killed me.

27. There were other memories that he pushed from his mind

28. any time they arose.

29. He quit attending school in his early teens,

30. and the next two decades passed without much direction or purpose.

31. He felt that nothing much attracted his interest

32. until, that is, he met Gladys Olding.

33. Gladys introduced herself

34. as if women did things like that every day.

35. Hello.

36. And maybe they did.

37. Hello.

38. I, uh...

39. I... I haven't seen you here before.

40. Oh, no, I've never, um... Uh...

41. - First time? - My— My cousin, yeah, brought me.

42. Well, his wife is very much—

43. I'm... I'm Robert.

44. I'm... I'm Gladys.

45. - Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.

46. He found he suddenly had more interest in church

47. than he ever had before.

48. fail you He promised

49. Believe Him, and all will be well

50. Not three months later, they were inseparable.

51. Right now, I could just about understand everything there is.

52. What are you thinking about?

53. Well...

54. I was thinking that we ought to get married.

55. What?

56. We are married.

57. All we need now is a ceremony to prove it.

58. And our cabin should have a window looking out towards the river.

59. Okay.

60. - We'll need a dog. - Mmm.

61. - I always wanted a dog. - Mmm.

62. Okay.

63. Open the door. Come on.

64. Okay.

65. - Hello. Come in. - What an amazing house you have here.

66. Can I come in?

67. Look at this place.

68. - We'll have the bed right here. - Facing here. And...

69. - Window? - Yeah, here.

70. Another here.

71. I want you to say my name one more time.

72. I just love it when it comes from you.

73. The sound of it.

74. Robert.

75. All of a sudden, life made sense to Grainier,

76. as if he'd been pulling hard the wrong way

77. and was now turned around and headed downstream.

78. The couple built a cabin on an acre of land,

79. and there, alongside the Moyie River,

80. began a little life together.

81. In those years, Grainier's work took him far from home.

82. He worked alongside men who came from faraway lands

83. he'd never even heard of,

84. places like Shanghai and Chattanooga.

85. It was a comfort to him how easily they all fell in with each other,

86. became temporary families.

87. But then, in the summer of 1917,

88. he worked a job building the Robinson Gorge Bridge

89. for the Spokane International Railroad.

90. He'd never taken up with a railroad crew before,

91. and he wished he'd never had.

92. All right, boys, he's right over here.

93. - That young boy working on that beam. - There he is.

94. Go on. Get him.

95. Bring him on up here.

96. Hey, come on.

97. Bring him on up.

98. What'd he... What'd he do?

99. Come on up. Come on up.

100. - Hold on. - Hey, you.

101. Yeah, but wha... what's he done?

102. Hey!

103. One, two...

104. Get him up here! That's it.

105. Bring him up. Take him on out.

106. What'd he actually do?

107. I don't even know.

108. What? Hey.

109. - Holy... - Yo, what is he doing?

110. You boys have shown this old river valley who's boss.

111. You helped save Spokane International.

112. Eleven miles it used to take to get around this gorge.

113. And you opened up a new part of the country.

114. I know it ain't the Great Pyramids of Egypt,

115. but I think you boys have done something pretty darn incredible.

116. Many years later, a bridge made of concrete and steel

117. would be built ten miles upstream,

118. rendering this one obsolete.

119. Now,

120. let's see if she holds.

121. Whoo!

122. I missed you.

123. Hello.

124. Oh, Gladys.

125. - Oh God. - God, yes.

126. Oh, shh. Shh.

127. I just got her to sleep.

128. Is she...

129. Go see her.

130. - She's just gotten so big. - Mmm.

131. She's starting to look like you.

132. Mmm.

133. At least she's starting to favor one of us.

134. No broken fingers this time?

135. I don't think so.

136. I didn't think you'd be home this soon.

137. I just couldn't stop walking until I got here.

138. - Look at that. - Oh.

139. I didn't expect that much after what you already sent.

140. We hit a soft stand at the end there.

141. Whoa, whoa.

142. Let's have a big dinner tonight.

143. Well, don't go to too much trouble.

144. No, come on. Let me show you something.

145. You see any of the same old guys?

146. Yeah. I saw a couple from the Oregon job.

147. They got good stories?

148. Yeah. They got good stories, whether any of them are true or not.

149. She's watching the candle. Look.

150. Look at that. Can you see?

151. Isn't that nice?

152. Hey, honey.

153. Yeah.

154. Mmm.

155. You want me to feed you?

156. Hmm?

157. - Give me some of that chicken. - Mmm...

158. Mmm...

159. - Oh, come on. - Mmm.

160. - She need to sleep? - Yeah.

161. Oh.

162. Yes.

163. What do you think?

164. It's a pretty funny-looking bassinet.

165. It's a fish trap.

166. Oh.

167. Bassinet.

168. Uh...

169. Did she, uh, wake up?

170. Was she crying?

171. Not too bad.

172. She just woke up hungry.

173. Mmm.

174. Do you know what all her cries mean?

175. Most of them, I guess.

176. How much does she know, do you think?

177. I don't know.

178. Hmm.

179. As much as a dog pup?

180. Well, a dog pup can live on its own after its mama weans it away.

181. A baby couldn't just go off and live after it was weaned.

182. A dog knows more than a baby till the baby knows its words,

183. and not just a few words.

184. A dog raised around the house knows some words too...

185. as many as a baby at least.

186. What words?

187. I just want to hear your voice.

188. Well, fetch

189. and come.

190. Lay and sit

191. and roll over.

192. Whatever it knows to do, it knows the words.

193. Do you think that she knows that I'm her daddy?

194. Of course she does.

195. Deep down, she knows it...

196. even if she doesn't know she knows it yet.

197. Don't worry.

198. You'll have plenty of time to be her daddy.

199. Nice having you home.

200. Hmm.

201. - I don't want you to disappear. - Mmm.

202. There you go.

203. Yeah.

204. - No. Don't eat it. - Does it smell nice?

205. Sorry. Just one more minute.

206. Should I put my hand in my pocket?

207. What do you think?

208. Oop.

209. It seemed that as soon as Grainier felt used to being at home,

210. logging season would come back around, and it was time to leave again.

211. His work was populated with itinerant men,

212. most without homes, without families.

213. They moved from job to job, state to state, as the work dictated.

214. And though little note was made of them in this world,

215. they left a lasting impression on Grainier.

216. He once worked alongside a man two full months

217. without exchanging a single word.

218. So I said, "Buddy, I wasn't looking for that kind of gold."

219. What about you, mister? You ever been down to California?

220. Ain't there any place in this world a man can get some peace?

221. Those were the only words Grainier ever heard the man say.

222. They remained with him always.

223. Another was Hank Healy, who made his home in the trunk of a tree.

224. And it comforts me, you get what I'm saying?

225. I got a problem...

226. There was Apostle Frank,

227. a faller who spoke about the Bible with such familiarity

228. as to suggest he'd been there when it was all written down.

229. It's like that old boy Balaam in the Bible.

230. Sometimes God has to find strange ways to tell you what you need to hear.

231. Sometimes it's a donkey talking to you, sometimes it's a who knows.

232. I was in Nebraska once.

233. The Lord spoke to my heart, told me to go to Omaha.

234. When I got off the train, the sign said "Opelika."

235. I said, "Opelika?"

236. And that's when I knew my eyes were busted.

237. Praise God and hallelujah.

238. I think that's it.

239. - You get what I'm saying in general? - Mm-hmm.

240. So he touched his hip, God did.

241. And for the rest of Jacob's life, he walked with a bad limp.

242. See, Jacob was an all-rounder.

243. Handled his affairs with no help from nobody.

244. But in the end, that's not what the...

245. Who's that?

246. Excuse me, gentlemen. I'm sorry to interrupt you.

247. Is one among you called Sam Loving from New Mexico?

248. Alternatively known as, um...

249. Buckskin Sam

250. in southern Arizona and parts of California.

251. I've been trying to find this man for a very long time

252. to deliver a message to him.

253. - Oh. - Oh, shoot.

254. Jeez! Come on.

255. Goodness.

256. The hell?

257. That man shot my brother,

258. Martin Brown, in cold blood in Gallup, New Mexico,

259. August 5th, '93.

260. He killed him only because of the color of his skin.

261. If any of you take offense to what I've just done here,

262. let's have it out before I leave this place.

263. I do not intend to spend the rest of my days looking over my shoulder.

264. Very good, then.

265. I'm sorry to have interrupted your work.

266. Big trees. Never knew trees could get this big.

267. At the heart of the cut was a man named Arn Peeples,

268. a gadabout of unknown origin

269. whose real use was occasional but specific.

270. You Minnesota boys might want to close your ears.

271. - Uh, kaboom. - Told y'all it wouldn't work.

272. - Don't touch that. - Yeah. We won't.

273. - Don't even look at it crossways. - Not even looking.

274. He was the oldest man on most jobs,

275. always yammering, staying out of the way of hard work.

276. You let me at that hatchet if you boys need a break.

277. I get to chopping, you come to work in the morning,

278. the chips won't yet be settled from yesterday.

279. I'm made for this summer logging.

280. I don't get my gears turning smooth till it's over 100.

281. That's good.

282. All this over a little rain.

283. In my day, we worked around the whole clock,

284. not just when it suited you.

285. Back then, we'd riddle a bole with auger holes.

286. Sometimes we had to wait a week for a good wind to topple them behemoths.

287. And then they all came tumbling down at once.

288. Trees twice as big as any you're cutting around here.

289. I worked on a peak outside of Bisbee, Arizona,

290. where we was only 11, 12 miles from the sun.

291. A hundred and sixteen degrees on the thermometer.

292. And every degree was a foot long.

293. And that was in the shade.

294. And there weren't no shade.

295. He's coming up. Here he comes.

296. Oh!

297. Whoo!

298. If the Lord was a redwood

299. Would you try to cut Him down?

300. Or climb up His loving branches And look around?

301. If the river was the tears Of those who have passed...

302. Quit your singing! I'm trying to sleep over here.

303. - Arn, go to bed. - Stop singing!

304. Hey, Arn.

305. I won't... I won't sing no more.

306. No, no, no.

307. You told Adrien that these tents are from the Civil War?

308. That's right. Union infantry.

309. After that, they went to the US Cavalry for the Indian campaigns.

310. These old things have served longer than the people they sheltered.

311. Rough canvas, but they'll probably be here long after we're gone.

312. Hmm.

313. What's keeping you awake over there?

314. Oh, uh...

315. Arn, do you... do you think that...

316. the bad things that we do follow us through life?

317. I don't know.

318. I've seen bad men raised up and good men brought to their knees.

319. I reckon if I could figure it out,

320. I'd be sleeping next to someone a lot better-looking than you.

321. What was that song that you were singing?

322. Uh, it... it don't have a name. It just come to me.

323. Why don't you sing a little more?

324. No, no. I... I don't want to upset the Minnesota boys.

325. Well, wait a minute. I...

326. Here.

327. The crews began to move deeper into the forest with each job.

328. There seemed to be no end to the world's appetite for lumber.

329. So they worked from sunrise until suppertime,

330. felling spruce, cedar, and tamarack, Doug fir, and white pine,

331. utterly changing the face of the mountainside in the process.

332. And while a good sawyer might correctly judge 99 times how a fall would go,

333. the hundredth time might take its toll.

334. Tree! Hey!

335. - Help! Help! - Look out!

336. Help!

337. - Get help! - Help!

338. Help!

339. There.

340. Now they won't just pass out of this world without nothing to show they was here.

341. Well, hell.

342. I wish I could let us all lay off a day, but it's the company.

343. The war don't stop needing spruce just on account of a bad day for us.

344. Grainier worried more and more that something terrible was following him,

345. that death would find him out here,

346. far away from the only place he really wanted to be.

347. Hey...

348. What do you got?

349. I got a pine cone.

350. You got a pine cone?

351. Oh!

352. I got a pine cone.

353. Should we go get the chicken?

354. Oh, look, there's one.

355. Chicken right there.

356. Come here, chicken.

357. - They're going inside. - They're going inside.

358. - They're going inside! - Chicken!

359. - Chicken! - Chicken!

360. Chicken!

361. They're gonna sleep in your bed, and they're gonna eat your food.

362. She's like a different person every time I see her.

363. Feel like I'm missing her whole life.

364. I feel it too.

365. It's all going by so fast.

366. - You want to shoot? - No.

367. Only the deer want me to shoot.

368. Gladys.

369. Don't shoot.

370. Don't shoot me.

371. Keep making noise, and I will.

372. There he is.

373. Good shot.

374. What if we came with you?

375. Hmm?

376. Out to the cut.

377. - To the cut? - Mmm.

378. What...

379. Well, I... I'd be helpful.

380. I... I could make some money washing clothes.

381. Now she's not so much to keep up with.

382. Well, I know you'd be helpful.

383. You told me some of the others have had their wives out there.

384. No, not some of the others, just that one old man.

385. What, and that young couple from California?

386. Dick Clinton disappeared after a week.

387. And then, besides, they didn't even have a little one.

388. It's, uh...

389. It's really dangerous.

390. I'm just trying to find a way, is all.

391. I know.

392. I know. I know. I know.

393. Grainier tried to find work closer to home,

394. picking up odd jobs where he could.

395. But the war was over, and good-paying work was hard to come by.

396. - Sorry to keep you waiting, Robert. - Yeah, that's okay.

397. All right.

398. There you go.

399. All right. Appreciate it.

400. - Thank you. - Thank you.

401. Uh, if you need anything, you know where to find me.

402. Mmm.

403. Money was tighter for them than it ever had been.

404. And though he didn't know it then,

405. he would always look back on this time in his life as his happiest.

406. What do you got there?

407. Eggs.

408. Eggs.

409. Yeah, that is kind of an egg.

410. There you go.

411. There you go.

412. - Tired, Katie? You ready for bed? - Yeah.

413. You're getting so big.

414. You're gonna be carrying me soon.

415. Maybe there's a better way.

416. Maybe we turn our acre into a farm.

417. I could grow double what I do now.

418. And if we did that, and we saved up enough to start a little sawmill,

419. maybe you could be home more.

420. Get a horse or a mule on credit, I guess.

421. Yeah, on credit for sure.

422. The sawmill would take a bit more doing, you know.

423. It's not so cheap, but...

424. Yeah. Well, I didn't say it wouldn't be.

425. No, but it's a good idea.

426. It is a good idea.

427. Yeah.

428. Come on, Katie. Will you say bye-bye?

429. Katie, watch this. Ready?

430. I'll just go.

431. - Okay. - Love you.

432. I'm gonna miss you.

433. I love you too. All right.

434. Come on, Kate. Say goodbye to Daddy.

435. Kate. Come on.

436. Katie, can you put that down?

437. Excuse me. Looking for the foreman.

438. Just keep going that way.

439. Thank you.

440. He earned four dollars a day on most jobs,

441. minus expenses for what the company provided.

442. He and Gladys figured that after one more long stint in the woods,

443. they'd have enough money to start building a sawmill back home.

444. Y'all going on to another job, or you quitting for the season?

445. Mmm.

446. I can't decide.

447. I ain't never happy when the job ends for some reason.

448. I just feel itchy inside.

449. That's 'cause it's rough work, gentlemen, not just on the body but on the soul.

450. We just cut down trees that have been here for 500 years.

451. It upsets a man's soul whether you recognize it or not.

452. I'll have $200 in my pocket tomorrow morning.

453. Don't bother my soul. Not one damn bit.

454. That's 'cause you Minnesota fellas don't know nothing about history.

455. These trees are really that old?

456. Why, some's older even.

457. This world is intricately stitched together, boys.

458. Every thread we pull, we know not how it affects the design of things.

459. We're but children on this earth, pulling bolts out of the Ferris wheel,

460. thinking ourselves to be gods.

461. That's horseshit. I've been to Washington too.

462. Cut all up through Canada and back down again.

463. There's enough logs for us to cut for 1,000 years.

464. And then when the last one's cut,

465. well, first one will be growed up as big as anything around today.

466. I remember thinking the same thing when I was a young man...

467. the very same thing.

468. You moving along, Robert? Or packing up for home?

469. I'm packing it up, going home.

470. I miss my wife and my little one.

471. What's her name? Your missus?

472. Gladys.

473. Mmm.

474. Welsh. That's a highborn name.

475. That makes sense, if you knew her.

476. Those old names have power.

477. The ones that have them are blessed.

478. Hmm.

479. You got family somewhere?

480. My family is...

481. everywhere there's a smiling face.

482. Never been somewhere I didn't have some family there.

483. Except for Kansas.

484. That state is a collection of savage lunatics.

485. It's good having you around.

486. Not too many folks I cross paths with more than once in this life.

487. I see it as a blessing when they're brought back around.

488. Ah.

489. I don't know where the years go, Arn.

490. Well... if you figure it out, let me know.

491. I'd like to ask for a few back.

492. It looked certain Arn Peeples would exit this world in a puff of smoke

493. with a monstrous noise.

494. But he went out quite differently.

495. - Somebody get some help! - We need help!

496. - Who is it? - We got a man down!

497. Hey, Arn!

498. Arn?

499. - Widow-maker got him. - Arn?

500. Hey, Arn? Can you hear me?

501. I'm all right. I just...

502. Help me sit up. Help me sit up.

503. All right. Slowly.

504. - Can we get a little water? - I saw my sister and her husband.

505. They was just here. You know which way they walked to?

506. Arn...

507. He had a number of dizzy spells

508. and grew dreamy and forgetful over the next few days,

509. forgetting even his own name before it was all done.

510. You hear that?

511. Beautiful, ain't it?

512. Just beautiful.

513. What is, Arn?

514. All of it.

515. Every bit of it.

516. Arn Peeples was my friend.

517. He... He said that a... a tree was a friend...

518. if you let it alone.

519. But the second the blade bit in, you had yourself a war,

520. and the tree was a killer.

521. But he wasn't messing with that tree.

522. It was... It was just a snag.

523. So, I...

524. I... I don't know what meaning to take from that.

525. In Jesus's name...

526. - Amen. - Amen.

527. Though Grainier had seen death often,

528. he'd never lost someone so close to him.

529. He began to feel a dread

530. that the snag had been meant for him,

531. that some punishment was seeking him.

532. Robert?

533. What is that?

534. Oh dear God.

535. - Come look at this. - Where is that?

536. - Are we heading over there? - That's not far off.

537. - Wow. - Wow.

538. Hey.

539. What is that?

540. Mary!

541. Mary, have you... have you seen Gladys?

542. No?

543. Gladys!

544. Gladys!

545. For nearly two weeks, he searched every town in the region,

546. looking for Gladys and Kate.

547. Four-fifty.

548. Finding them nowhere,

549. he went back to his acre to await their return.

550. Hey... Oh, hold on.

551. This is for you.

552. Thank you.

553. Water!

554. Water?

555. You gonna water the plants for Mama?

556. Don't you think it's too much?

557. How did... How did they deserve that?

558. Mmm?

559. Why?

560. Why?

561. Hello, Robert.

562. You hungry?

563. I didn't know what I'd find out here.

564. You wouldn't believe the stories they're telling about you in town.

565. I'll pay you back for all this. I promise.

566. I didn't ask you to.

567. Well, I sure do appreciate you coming up

568. to check on me.

569. Let's take a walk.

570. Ooh, ooh, ooh.

571. This is a good spot for a cabin.

572. Do you like how I say your name?

573. Robert.

574. They're...

575. Th—

576. They're...

577. They're just not coming back.

578. I'm sorry.

579. I'm... I'm sorry.

580. I don't know what came over me.

581. Skin him.

582. Grainier raised a lean-to at his homesite,

583. and there he lived through the rest of the summer,

584. fishing for speckled trout

585. and hunting for a rare and flavorful mushroom

586. the Canadians called morel,

587. which sprang up on ground disturbed by fire.

588. Though he confessed it to no one,

589. he held some faint hope that Gladys and Kate might somehow return.

590. And he wanted to be ready for them if they did.

591. Hey!

592. Get out of there.

593. Where'd you all come from?

594. Who do you belong to?

595. Hello?

596. Shouldn't y'all be in town? You look like town dogs.

597. Come on.

598. I hope you all like fish.

599. All right. Close your eyes. Ready?

600. All right, you're free. Come on.

601. Are these puppies really yours?

602. What are you doing all the way out here?

603. Huh?

604. How much do you know?

605. You roll over?

606. And sit?

607. Fetch?

608. Katie!

609. See that?

610. What kind of dog do you think they are?

611. I don't know.

612. They appear quite wolfish.

613. Aren't they?

614. I mean, maybe, uh...

615. maybe Red Dog got with a wolf out there

616. somewhere on her own, you know?

617. No, that's impossible.

618. Why not?

619. Only a he-wolf ever mates.

620. And that's the chief of the wolf pack.

621. Uh-huh.

622. And the she-wolf he chooses to bear his litter

623. is the only one that ever comes into heat.

624. What... What if

625. Red Dog was in heat?

626. He chooses only one.

627. Well, what if... what if she encountered the chief wolf

628. at the exact moment?

629. You know what I mean?

630. Would he not take her just for the newness of the experience?

631. "Newness of the experience"?

632. Yeah.

633. What?

634. "Newness of the experience."

635. Can you howl? Huh? Can you howl too?

636. Huh? Can you howl?

637. Hey, buddy.

638. Hey. Hey, little one.

639. Hey.

640. With Ignatius Jack's help, he raised the four walls of the cabin

641. precisely where the old ones had stood.

642. Red Dog?

643. He could not bring himself to rebuild the bedroom.

644. In that year, a great comet appeared in the sky,

645. which many said signaled the end of days.

646. But after two weeks, it faded away as quietly as it had come.

647. The rebuilt cabin looked much like the first one.

648. But the emptiness of the place at times overwhelmed him.

649. Years passed, and he found himself still waiting.

650. Though at this point, he couldn't say for what.

651. Get your asses up on that stand of white pine!

652. I want every one of those trees down this mountain

653. before I wake up on the Lord's day!

654. After that, I'm docking each one of you one dollar a day!

655. Let's go!

656. Let's go!

657. Hey. Watch out, old man. Let me see that thing.

658. Go get a crosscut or something.

659. I just don't know what—

660. Look out! Look out! Look out!

661. Look out, boys!

662. Hey, let me know if you want some water.

663. You'll be okay.

664. Need some help up?

665. You mind if I warm up a minute?

666. Mmm.

667. - Billy? - Yeah.

668. Is that you?

669. Yes. Do I know you?

670. Yeah, we cut together in Salmo-Priest a few years back.

671. I'm... I was a friend of Arn Peeples.

672. I'm Robert.

673. Oh, yes.

674. Hi, Robert.

675. It's good to see you.

676. You too.

677. I mean, I can't believe you're still out here.

678. I can barely keep up at my age.

679. Ah, well, I just look after the steam donkey

680. and keep it watered and greased.

681. Not much else I can do, but it's a living.

682. - Mmm. - Mmm.

683. Say, Billy, do you think it's a little different now out here?

684. I don't know if it's different or if it's always been this way.

685. Maybe I was rougher and just like these boys.

686. I, uh, just don't remember it.

687. Well, uh, that is the age-old question,

688. ain't it, friend?

689. That is the question.

690. Yeah.

691. Say, how is... how is Arn?

692. How... How is—

693. I ain't seen him in, gosh...

694. at least a year, maybe longer.

695. Yeah. Uh, no.

696. Yeah. I... I ain't seen him either.

697. Ah. Ain't that how it goes?

698. Let me help you.

699. Here.

700. My hands are not working today.

701. Here.

702. I got you.

703. - Thank you. - Yeah. No problem.

704. And with that, Grainier was finished as a logger.

705. The last few years,

706. he expected some great revelation about his life would descend upon him.

707. What's that?

708. Can you do that?

709. But as of yet, none had.

710. And he was beginning to doubt that one ever would.

711. Hey.

712. Not been doing the weeding, huh?

713. These days, there was plenty of work in town

714. for anybody willing to get around after it.

715. He came into possession of a pair of horses and a wagon,

716. by a sad circumstance, however.

717. Avery?

718. Avery Pinkham's heart condition would have been easily diagnosed and cured

719. had he been born a generation later.

720. Mr. Pinkham!

721. Grainier contracted with the Pinkhams

722. to buy the horses and wagon for $300 in installments.

723. And he kept himself busy as a freighter of sorts.

724. The hauling itself was a ticket to a kind of show,

725. composed of the follies and endeavors of his neighbors.

726. Y'all comfortable back there?

727. Yes.

728. The work put him in closer contact with them

729. than he had been in years.

730. And yet, he only felt more alone.

731. No?

732. Be gentle with the rabbits.

733. They don't know you're not gonna hurt them.

734. Katie.

735. Miss, uh...

736. Miss Thompson?

737. Claire. You must be Robert.

738. Uh, yes, ma'am.

739. Nice to meet you.

740. Yeah. You too.

741. Nice to meet you. I was looking for you at the train station.

742. Oh yeah, I waited a few minutes for you before I decided to start walking.

743. Yeah, I'm really sorry.

744. It took me a little while to get these ladies going this morning.

745. And, uh...

746. would you still like me to take you up to your lookout?

747. - Oh, if it's not too much trouble. - No, of course. Jump up.

748. - You wanna...? - Yep.

749. Oh, okay.

750. All right.

751. All right. Ready?

752. All right.

753. What parts are you from?

754. Oh, I've been all over.

755. But I lived a long time over in Montana. Noxon.

756. I've never seen Montana.

757. Oh, beautiful country. Yeah, worth the trip.

758. They told me about you, you know?

759. Who's they?

760. People who recommended you.

761. Mmm.

762. And what did they say?

763. That you were different.

764. Ain't everybody different?

765. No.

766. Mmm. Hmm.

767. It's a good thing to be different.

768. As far as I see it, anyway.

769. I'm so happy to be here. This valley is special.

770. Used to all be under a glacier, you know? Three thousand feet of ice.

771. When it broke, it just flooded the whole region.

772. Carved out all these valleys.

773. That's where all those lakes come from.

774. Can you imagine if you were back here then?

775. This big block of ice, thousands of feet tall,

776. and just the cracks and the freezing-cold water.

777. It must have felt like the world was coming to an end.

778. Hmm.

779. That's where all those myths come from, you know?

780. All those flood stories.

781. All those different religions all over the world.

782. It's just the same story, different slants.

783. Hey, I didn't mean to be disrespectful

784. to anything you believe or anything like that.

785. I just, you know...

786. No, no, no.

787. I just find it fascinating.

788. Can't help it when I'm in a place like this. It's just...

789. The world's an old place.

790. Yeah.

791. Probably nothing it hasn't seen by now.

792. Claire had worked in Europe as a nurse in the Great War.

793. Now she was employed by the newly created US Forest Service

794. as part of an effort to manage timber cuts and prevent forest fires.

795. Oh, uh, thank you.

796. It was nice to meet you, Robert.

797. - Thank you for the ride. - It was very nice to meet you too.

798. Yeah. Okay.

799. Uh...

800. Oh.

801. - There you go. - Thank you.

802. You don't need a hand?

803. - Nope. - No? Okay.

804. Take care now.

805. Did I scare you?

806. Oh boy.

807. Robert.

808. Katie!

809. It's all right.

810. Just gonna put a blanket over...

811. Mama...

812. Miss Thompson?

813. Are you up there?

814. Robert?

815. Oh.

816. What a surprise.

817. How are you?

818. Good.

819. Yeah. I hope I didn't startle you.

820. No. Not at all.

821. I was just heading out for an afternoon survey,

822. and... and I heard you call.

823. Oh, yeah.

824. - Yeah, I— - Did you...

825. I was just passing through

826. and thought I'd just, you know, check on you.

827. Doesn't get spooky up this high?

828. No. I think it's peaceful.

829. I watch the clouds form and the light change,

830. and I get paid to do it.

831. It's a gift.

832. Mmm, yeah, I can see that.

833. How'd you come to this?

834. I saw a flyer for the job opening

835. just when I needed it.

836. Here, fireweed.

837. Oh, thank you.

838. I had to get a recommendation from a family friend.

839. In his words,

840. "Claire Thompson is absolutely devoid

841. of the timidity normally associated with her sex."

842. "She possesses more than adequate work ethic..."

843. "... and is unafraid of anything that walks, creeps, or flies."

844. Hmm.

845. How is it?

846. Mmm.

847. It's good. Thank you.

848. Everything looks so small from up here.

849. Yeah.

850. You want to take a look?

851. - Everything grows so fast. - Mm-hmm.

852. You can barely tell a fire came through here.

853. It's like it didn't even happen.

854. Were you here when it came through?

855. No.

856. I wasn't.

857. But, uh...

858. my wife and... and my baby, uh...

859. Yeah. They, uh... They didn't make it out.

860. Oh, Robert.

861. Yeah. You see, sometimes it... it...

862. It feels like the sadness will just eat me alive, but...

863. sometimes it just... It feels like it... it happened to somebody else.

864. But no, I wasn't here.

865. Uh, not when, uh...

866. Not when... when I should have been, I guess,

867. and when... when, uh, they needed me the most.

868. I hear them sometimes.

869. Out there in the woods.

870. Just talking and laughing.

871. Yeah.

872. I don't even want to turn my head because I'm afraid...

873. that I'll scare them away.

874. So I just listen...

875. until they fade away somewhere else...

876. wherever those things go.

877. Never told anybody else that.

878. You think that makes me sound crazy?

879. Yeah. I lost my husband too, a little over a year ago.

880. It took him a long time.

881. And when it was over, it was like there was a...

882. a hole in the world.

883. I had more questions than answers,

884. like no human had ever died before.

885. When you go through something like that, nothing you do is crazy.

886. You just go through what you go through.

887. Mmm.

888. In the forest, every least thing's important.

889. It's all threaded together,

890. so you can't tell where one thing ends and another begins

891. if you really look at it.

892. The little insects you can't even see, they play a role as vital as the river.

893. The dead tree is as important as the living one.

894. There must be something for us to learn from that.

895. What if you got nothing left to give?

896. Hmm? What then?

897. Mmm...

898. The world needs a hermit in the woods as much as a preacher in the pulpit.

899. Yeah. Yeah.

900. Is that what I am?

901. A hermit?

902. Well, I mean, I believe we both are, in our own ways.

903. Just waiting to see what we've been left here for.

904. Though he knew it must be impossible,

905. the thought overwhelmed him that his daughter had returned.

906. Katie?

907. Kate.

908. Katie?

909. Oh, Kate.

910. Okay.

911. Okay.

912. Okay.

913. Oh my God.

914. Honey, your leg's broken.

915. This is gonna hurt, just for a moment.

916. Okay.

917. Katie.

918. No.

919. Okay.

920. You want to get some water, honey?

921. - Yeah. - All right.

922. Up.

923. Wow.

924. What did you do?

925. What did you do that for?

926. Water!

927. Bye-bye.

928. Bye-bye.

929. Bye-bye.

930. Katie?

931. Kate?

932. Kate!

933. Kate!

934. Seeing Kate again felt as real as anything else in his life,

935. even as he wondered if it had really happened to him.

936. He spent many days and evenings wandering the forests and fields of the region,

937. looking for any sign of her.

938. Though he found none,

939. he spent the rest of his days waiting

940. so he would be there if she ever came back.

941. In his later years,

942. Grainier rode the Great Northern from time to time into Spokane.

943. He wandered the city without much direction or purpose,

944. as if looking for something he had misplaced a long time ago.

945. Roger, zero G, and I feel fine.

946. Capsule is turning around.

947. Oh, that view is tremendous.

948. What is that fellow doing?

949. Roger, capsule...

950. He's in outer space.

951. I could see the booster during turnaround just a couple of hundred yards behind me.

952. Huh.

953. Roger...

954. So is that...?

955. That's us.

956. Roger. Understand go for at least seven orbits.

957. Huh.

958. a camel spit gold from his teeth.

959. Gold!

960. Witness Sun Tzu, the holy man from the far, far east.

961. Sun Tzu, the holy man, will read your dreams.

962. Experience the world-famous Bittler Sisters,

963. or better yet, pay you a dime to see a monster.

964. You. You.

965. Come here. Come here. Yeah. Cast the stone aside.

966. Inside this theater,

967. the mysteries of the world flit about like bats and insects.

968. Here, all the answers to everything. You buy a ticket...

969. That night in the theater, he took in a curiosity show

970. that promised a vision of a monster

971. but was only a boy in a costume.

972. He saw his face in a mirror for the first time in nearly a decade.

973. He could see now the toll that the years had taken.

974. He felt that he was only just beginning

975. to have some faint understanding of his life,

976. even though it was now slipping away from him.

977. Just four dollars, see the world as only the birds do.

978. Hey, you'd better hold on to something.

979. Huh?

980. Robert.

981. Beautiful, ain't it?

982. Just beautiful.

983. When Robert Grainier died in his sleep

984. sometime in November of 1968,

985. his life ended as quietly as it had begun.

986. He'd never purchased a firearm or spoken into a telephone.

987. He had no idea who his parents might have been,

988. and he left no heirs behind him.

989. But on that spring day,

990. as he misplaced all sense of up and down,

991. he felt, at last, connected to it all.

992. I seen a grizzly big as a house

993. Walk across an open plain

994. Heard of a boy called Elvis something

995. His voice could drive Young girls insane

996. I've seen a man from a mile away

997. Shoot a bobcat through the brain but

998. Lately I've been having dreams

999. Crazy dreams I can't explain

1000. A woman standing In a field of flowers and

1001. A screaming locomotive train

1002. Crazy dreams that go on for hours

1003. And I can't begin To tell you how that feels

1004. I've seen an elk with twisted antlers

1005. Throw bright lightning across the sky

1006. Seen a man with a broken curse

1007. Leap from a bridge and try to fly

1008. Seen a boy who was a dog

1009. Who became a man who forgot to die

1010. Lately I've been having dreams

1011. Crazy dreams I can't explain

1012. A woman standing In a field of flowers and

1013. A screaming locomotive train

1014. Crazy dreams that go on for hours

1015. And I can't begin To tell you how that feels

1016. The space that connects me Where I am now

1017. To the place where I'll one day be

1018. It's measured in the words That we speak

1019. And the strange and wondrous things I've seen

1020. It's measured in truth, It's measured in love

1021. Measured in a tendency to pain

1022. Measured by a girl In a field of flowers

1023. A screaming dream of a midnight train

1024. This has been going on for years

1025. Years and years and years and years

1026. I can't begin to tell you How that feels

1027. If the Lord was a redwood

1028. Would you try to cut Him down?

1029. Or climb up His loving branches And look around?

1030. If the river was the tears

1031. Of all those who've passed

1032. Would you try to dam it up

1033. Or let it pass?