31, Three, 15

Consistent to his era of West Coast camp logger, institutionalized to the monoculture from extended stays, timber faller Nils 'Nellie' Olson faced the reality he, too, had succumbed to the eventuality - warehoused between a younger, hippy influenced, '60s floatplane generation and the fixed lifestyles of the traditional, old-school loggers who had spiraled to lost souls, locked in a camp to skid row bar rotation. Conditioned to resist change, a letter delivered on the eve of the logging division's Christmas shutdown was the first in a series of plots to move him into position for a later letter received at sea, where his reaction to its contents would be solely his. Deliberate that the news would find him mingled to a range of shipboard backgrounds and nationalities, by voyage end, Nils realized he'd never go back to the same woods again. Easier to go ahead than back, continued in the direction he'd been posed returned to his prairie roots for a new start, and to keep an eye on the prize.

Author's note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, sects, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. All proceeds will go directly to animal rescue.