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lakes—Monocle Lake, a single flat oval, and Spectacle Lake, looking more like a pair of lenses. Beyond them both, the part of Lake Superior that narrowed from Whitefish Bay into the St. Marys River. The night was clear enough for me to see all the way across to Canada. I saw a dozen of the great wind turbines, each one with a blinking red light to warn away any aircraft.
    When Vinnie was done with his visit, he came up behind me and stood looking out over the edge. His hair was still wet and plastered to the side of his face.
    “My sisters want me to move back here,” he said. “To the rez. They want me to take my mother’s house.”
    “Are you going to?”
    “I was just talking to my mother about it.” He nodded back toward the graveyard. “I told her I couldn’t. I told her I needed to stay in my cabin.”
    “You built that place,” I said. “With your own hands.”
    “Yes,” he said, pushing my shoulder. “Exactly. Right?”
    He started to lose his balance then. I caught him and held him up straight until his head cleared.
    “You do realize,” I said, “that tomorrow morning’s gonna be a little rough.”
    “My first day back at work, too.”
    “Ouch. Take the day off, eh?”
    He shook his head. “No, I’ve been away long enough. I’ll get through it.”
    I took him home then. He went to his cabin and I went to mine. I dried off and went to sleep and he tried to do the same.
    A few brief hours of rest before Vinnie Red Sky LeBlanc began the longest day of his life.

 
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
    When I got up the next morning and went down to the Glasgow for breakfast, I didn’t see Vinnie’s truck parked outside his cabin. That was a surprise. I figured he’d be down for at least ten or twelve hours. You’re a younger man than I am, I said to him in my mind as I passed by, but you’re not that much younger. I know you wouldn’t lose your job at the casino if you slept in one morning, so you must have some kind of attendance streak going. Either that or you’re completely insane.
    Jackie gave me two seconds after I walked in the door. Then he was all over me. “So what the hell happened last night?”
    “What do you think happened? We drank a bottle of Jim Beam and talked about life.”
    “An entire bottle?”
    “Half a bottle, two-thirds, I don’t know. He’s the one who drank most of it. Did he stop in on his way to work?”
    “He’s actually working today?”
    “Yes,” I said. “It’s his first day back. His truck is gone, so I just assumed…”
    “And you had to go get him wrecked the night before. What’s the matter with you?”
    “I didn’t get him wrecked, Jackie. He got himself wrecked. I just made sure I was the one driving.”
    “Driving where? I thought you guys went back to your cabin.”
    “We went up to Whitefish Point. You wouldn’t believe how warm the water was.”
    “I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” he said, slapping down his bar towel. “You guys got drunk and went swimming? What are you, a couple of high-school kids?”
    “I told you, I wasn’t drunk. And he’s the one who jumped in the water. I was just the lifeguard.”
    “Madness,” he said. “Absolute madness. You should have your head examined.”
    “Are you sure he didn’t stop in? Just for a quick bite or something?”
    “I think I would have noticed him. Are you sure you even brought him back last night? He didn’t drown in the lake?”
    “No, he did not drown in the lake. Now can you make me an omelet, please?”
    “Unbelievable.” He picked up his towel just so he could throw it back down on the bar. “You’re a piece of work, you are.”
    “He’ll be fine,” I said. “Although I’m sure he’ll be having a tough day. You better have a good hangover cure ready for him. You got some Bloody Mary mix?”
    “You really are trying to kill him, aren’t you.… You don’t give a man with a hangover a Bloody Mary. You give him gin with lemon and a little Tabasco