Behind the Lines: by David Heiller

David Heiller The Kettle River water flowed along like a big muscle of water last Saturday morning, April 24, and it seemed to welcome our canoes almost as much as we welcomed it. My friend, Dave, noticed it first. “This doesn’t look like the Kettle River,” he said after we set our canoes down below the bridge on County Road 46. The current was strong, the water deep. Usually I don’t get on the river until later in the year, when the water is low and the rocks are high. David and Dave in a quiet canoe, during a different paddle. Not Saturday. The power of the current sent us downstream in a hurry. Dave and I each had our own canoe, which was a new twist, and a good one, because even in high water, the Kettle River will shave aluminum off a heavily loaded canoe, and any canoe with me in it is heavy enough. Saturday was a great day to be alive. Clear sky, temperatures in the sixties. No mosquitoes! The first really nice day of spring. And there couldn’t be a better plac...

David Heiller The sun rose above the clouds on Thursday morning, bringing warmth to the 20-degree March day. Ten inches of snow still lay on the fields from the March 12 storm. Mother Nature had temporarily delayed spring, but the sun rising above the eastern clouds had other notions. “Let’s go for a walk,” I said to the kids. “Yeah, let’s go for a walk, two-year-old Malika answered. She headed for the blue room to get her coat “All right,” four-year-old Noah conceded: He snapped off Sesame Street, and followed Mollie to the blue room. Noah and Malika, as different as they can be. Mollie and Noah are brother and sister, they have been raised by the same set of parents in the same house, and the same way, but they are as different as the sun and the moon when it comes to a walk. Mollie runs to the door when we talk “walk. “ Noah usually gives in after a sales pitch. Binti heard the clamor as we hit the porch, and sat twitching in front of the house. She can sense a w...