Epilogue

The next day there came word that Steel, with a small band of followers, had tracks Balto to the far river. From there they split up in different directions. The other dogs came back to town in a matter of hours without finding anything but cold and hunger. But Steel stayed out past sunset. When Steel returned to town he told a story on how he had tracked Balto to a cave above a waterfall, where Steel beat Balto by throwing him into the river. At first Jenna thought Steel had caught Balto and thrown him into the river. But she knew better than to believe another one of Steel's lies, and so she didn't; even though everyone else did.

Jenna refused to speak to her mother and father about what happened with Balto and Steel, or why she was out on the boat She knew if she did they would only assume she lied, or was afraid to tell the truth because Balto had threatened her. So she let them assume the worst.

She also refused to speak or even walk on the same side of the street as Steel. Steel seemed to sense this and stayed away for a while. Eventually he came around to talk to Jenna, and Jenna made sure to tell Steel what was up, and assert herself by bringing Steel to the ground with one terrible hit to his wounded leg. Steel got he message for the time.

For a while the town became awash in stories about Balto and Jenna. Most of the stories said Jenna had been kidnapped by Balto, but a few said Jenna had run away with Balto. Jenna refused to acknowledge or deny any of the stories. After a few week the stories went away. Dogs no longer feared the night, and life returned to normal.

All except for Jenna, who wanted nothing more than to see Balto. Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. The weather became worse, the nights became longer, and winter passed into summer. Soon even Jenna forgot about Balto and began to believe he would never return. Her life returned to other forms of happiness. She went out with friends, gabbed about this or that, and occasionally speculated in boys. Yet she had a vague sense everything about her was hollow.

Occasionally when the hollowness grew Jenna would stray to the west of town where she could look out at the boat. And every time she did she expected to see his distant ghostly form standing on the rail. But it never happened. He was never there.

Summer passed into winter again. Jenna grew out of her teenage body and into a fully blossomed adult. In a few weeks the Nome 500 was set to begin again, and this time Steel was to be a prime contender. Steel's father had passed away over the summer, and had passed the golden collar on to him by default. Now he wore it wherever he went, showing it off for all the ladies. Jenna made the mistake of taking pity on Steel for his loss. Which made Steel's face showed up more often in her life – which looked to be perpetuating her eventual fall into his life.

But then one night Jenna took a walk with Dixie to try and unwind her recent encounter with Steel. But Dixie wanted to talk about Steel and the upcoming race and the collar on his neck and nothing else. Jenna tried to ignore her. Eventually they made their way, quiet by accident, to the west end of town near the telegraph office. And then Jenna looked towards the boat, thinking about him, wondering if he would ever return.

At first Jenna thought her mind deceived her. It couldn't be. It had to be some trick of the light to cast that shadow. Yet she knew it was him standing on the bow of the boat looking at the town. She watched his distant form move down off the rail, and she knew it wasn't a trick. Jenna's heart leapt in her chest, for he had come back like he said he would.