Behind the Lines: by David Heiller

David Heiller Dear Grandma: Α funny thing happened last week. Cindy was driving to work, with me next to her. She had on her gloves, jacket, stocking cap and mukluks. I was two layers lighter, as usual, just wearing a shirt and pants, and feeling hot at that. We came to the stop sign by Banning Junction. My window was frosted over. Cindy couldn’t see the on-coming traffic. I pushed the button and down came the window, all the way down. Cindy has asked me not to lower it all the way down, but I forgot. The window hasn’t been working all the time lately. It sometimes gets stuck in the open position. I have to open and close the door. Then it works again. Guess what happened last week? When I pushed the button to make the window go up, it wouldn’t budge. I opened and closed the door, and it still wouldn’t go up. It was 16 degrees below zero outside. The window was all the way open. So we drove the last four miles into Askov going 55 miles an hour, which created a win...

David Heiller Mike was working on his 1970 Polaris snowmobile when we drove up Saturday morning. He was using a hair dryer to thaw the frozen fuel pumps. Our 11-year-old son looked at it in disbelief. He’d never seen anything so old and beat up. Mike didn’t see it that way. “It’s the best one I’ve owned,” Mike claimed. He bought it five years ago for $50, and it runs if you take a hair dryer to the fuel pump every winter. Mike and Donna at our house, petting MacKenzie. Mike and Donna live seven miles southwest of Willow River. Donna had told us we could cut a Christmas tree on her land. She was working Saturday, so Mike led us out to the woods. Actually, their two big Labradors did the leading. We found a beautiful tree right away, a nine-foot white spruce. It wasn’t perfect, but it was close. Towards the top it tapered in a bit, then spread out again, like a crown on the three Wise men. It was too nice a morning to just cut the tree  ...