Rick Bass, a Texas native, lived in Arkansas and Mississippi before moving to northwest Montana’s Yaak Valley. A former petroleum geologist and wildlife biologist, and a leading force behind climate aid, he is the author of more than thirty books, including the short story collections The Watch and For a Little While; the memoir Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had; and the novel All the Land to Hold Us. An active environmentalist, Bass is a member of the Yaak Valley Forest Council, working to protect as wilderness the last roadless lands in the Yaak Valley.

Snowy

A Story

by Rick Bass

Eight months into his separation, Russell found himself back along the coast of Maine, teaching: giving, when often he felt like he had nothing left to give. Teaching students who had the appetite of wolverines and who daily, he felt, tried to climb inside his mind and scoop out anything good or useful that might reside there. Whether he wanted to hold on to it or give it to them was irrelevant—they came and took it anyway, stormed the burning fences to get to it. The gig went for ten days, and, knowing he would be in deep need of R&R afterward, Russell had made plans to visit his friends Sam and Sarah, who lived in Wells, farther down the coast. Sam and Sarah loved to cook, loved to eat, loved to feed him and hang out. Time will heal all wounds, they told him.

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