“Congratulations, Mr. Nelson.” Rebecca’s smile carried genuine warmth as she aligned the final documents with practiced precision. “You’re officially a property owner in Park County.”
That morning, I had authorized a cashier’s check for one hundred eighty-five thousand dollars. Four decades of my life compressed into that single transaction. Forty years of accepting overtime shifts when my body begged for rest. Forty years of packing lunches in brown paper bags instead of joining colleagues at restaurants. Forty years of postponing vacations, deferring pleasures, accumulating savings one paycheck at a time. All of it converted now into eight hundred square feet of timber construction and profound solitude, situated twelve miles from the nearest town.
“Thank you.” My voice emerged steady as I pocketed the keys and extended my hand. My fingers didn’t tremble the way I’d half expected them to.
The drive west from her office carried me along Highway 14, past service stations where American flags snapped violently in the persistent wind, past modest motels advertising special rates for hunters. The roads narrowed progressively with each turn I navigated. Smooth pavement transitioned to loose gravel. Gravel gave way to packed dirt. My cell phone signal diminished from four bars to two, then one, before vanishing entirely.
I stopped at a small general store that appeared frozen in time, its weathered exterior suggesting it had occupied this exact spot since the Eisenhower years. Inside, I selected coffee, bread, eggs, butter, and other essentials. The woman behind the counter wore a sweatshirt bearing the local high school mascot.
“Visiting the area?” she asked while scanning my items.
“Living here,” I replied.
She nodded as though I’d shared something profound rather than stating a simple fact.
The final two miles climbed through pine forest so dense that afternoon sunlight barely penetrated the canopy. When the cabin materialized in its clearing, I pulled my truck to the shoulder and killed the engine.
Four elk grazed approximately fifty yards beyond the porch, their winter coats thick and dark against patches of lingering snow. They lifted their heads in unison, studied my vehicle with apparent curiosity, then resumed grazing. One flicked an ear at some invisible irritation.
I remained motionless for five full minutes, simply observing them. No traffic noise. No sirens wailing in the distance. No voices bleeding through thin apartment walls the way they had in Denver. Just wind moving through trees, animals pursuing their ancient routines, and my own breathing.
The cabin matched the online photographs exactly. Weathered cedar logs formed the exterior walls. A green metal roof crowned the structure. A stone chimney rose along one side. A modest American flag had been tacked beneath the porch roof’s edge, where it stirred gently in the mountain breeze. The building was small, certainly, but it belonged to me.
I unlocked the entrance and stepped across the threshold. The interior air carried scents of pine resin and old wood smoke. The main room incorporated a compact kitchenette. The bedroom offered barely enough space for a double bed. The bathroom featured a shower stall I would need to enter sideways given my frame.
Perfect.
I unloaded my truck with methodical precision, approaching the task the same way I’d approached every construction project during four decades of professional work. Tools found designated spots on the pegboard mounted above the workbench. A hammer here, wrenches arranged by size there, a handsaw positioned within easy reach. Books formed neat stacks on the shelf, organized by subject matter. Engineering manuals occupied one section, history texts another, plus three novels I’d been postponing for a decade. The coffee maker claimed its position on the counter where morning sunlight through the east-facing window would illuminate it first each day.
Every item placed with deliberate intention, transforming moving chaos into functional order.
By the time I finished arranging everything, the sun had begun its descent behind the Absaroka Mountains. I brewed coffee despite the late hour, no longer constrained by schedules or sensible bedtimes, and carried my mug outside to the porch.
The rocking chair I’d purchased specifically for this moment creaked under my weight as I settled into it. The elk had moved deeper into the clearing. A hawk traced lazy circles overhead, riding invisible thermal currents. Somewhere far in the distance, a truck engine hummed along the highway, faint as a half-forgotten memory.
I extracted my phone and dialed my daughter.
“Dad.” Bula’s voice arrived bright and immediate, Denver civilization on one end of the connection, Wyoming wilderness on the other. “Are you there? Did you actually do it?”
“Signed the papers this morning,” I confirmed. “I’m sitting on my porch right now watching elk graze.”
“I’m so incredibly proud of you.” The warmth saturating her tone made my chest constrict. “You earned this. Forty years of hard work.”
I sipped the coffee. “Forty years I spent dreaming about mornings where I’d drink coffee while watching wildlife instead of highway traffic crawling along Interstate 25.”
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