Walnut Pass. The Uber driver known as Ted stopped his Taurus on the side of the road. From the backseat, I saw beaming lights in the blurred and snowy distance, beyond the Uber’s windshield. Bright yellow. Flashing. Caution. The Mercantile Phone and Communications Company (MPCC) utility truck (all white with three blue stripes running horizontally around its center) semi-blocked the road. A lush pine had fallen across the pass just beyond the utility truck. From inside the Uber, I saw two female MPCC workers in blue hardhats and a third person, a man, chatting it up with the two, big-boned ladies. The man wore a familiar red-and-white flannel shirt, work boots, and ball cap. Underneath the brim of the hat was a familiar, handsome face, a rugged jaw line, and…
“Is that the lumberjack?” I a
