T.B. drove the Toyota Hilux along the paved road to the top of a small hill on the riverbank, quite far from Mount Susitna. The scene in front of the windshield surprised him.
A beautiful, vast, and breathtaking mountain landscape. It included gentle hills, high jagged rocky mountains with white peaks against a vast, endless steppe background, lush with grass and flowers, and ravines with rivers. It was getting darker and darker. The last rays of sunlight on a very late summer afternoon were like movie lights shining down on the viewers in the theater. The silver hairs on the viewers' heads were the mountains covered with an eternal snow layer that had not melted for thousands of years due to altitude. The dark green patches were vast steppes. And the white moon patches with purple light, sparkling as if spreading a layer of silver under the sun, were lakes and rivers.
The river was not a straight line. The river meandered and zigzagged, drawing streaks like a snake's body to the horizon. Sometimes it disappeared behind the edge of the forest where the trees were in their budding season. Sometimes it wove between two high cliffs. The river flowed around the foot of the hill, and then there was a time when it suddenly bloomed like a green scarf. At the end of the scarf was a deep blue lake.
The sky was deep blue, and the sun was a bright orange, reflecting off the ice- and snow-covered peaks. Standing on the top of the hill, one could see for miles. The air was fresh, and the whole scene was quiet and calming. A surprisingly relaxing feeling that could only be experienced when standing in the middle of a mountain panorama.
Layla Smith asked T.B. to stop the car. She held the iPhone 15 Plus in her hand and got out of the Toyota Hilux. She walked back and forth, trying to take pictures. Anderson Jr. Seely and T.B. also got out of the car. The two of them stood silently, admiring the beautiful scenery before their eyes. No one could resist feeling relaxed in front of that scene. A beautiful girl with a wonderful smile in front of the majestic nature of Alaska.
And then, a series of bells suddenly rang out from a church somewhere in the distance. The ringing of the bell suddenly evoked an indescribable emotion in everyone's hearts. No one said a word to each other. They were all immersed in private and sacred thoughts, such as the love of a couple.
T.B. felt it the deepest. The bells struck something inside him, something buried beneath the years, beneath the layers of civilization, discipline, and violence. It was as if the sound vibrated through his bones, waking up a part of him that had been asleep for so long. He had spent years in cities, moving through the world of men, speaking their language, wearing their clothes, learning their rules. But standing here, before this raw, untamed land, he could feel something stirring inside him—a whisper, a call from the past. The land was speaking to him, and he understood it in a way he did not need words for.
For the first time in years, he felt truly small—just a man standing before something eternal. The wind carried the scent of pine, wet soil, and distant snow, filling his lungs with something more than air. It was memory. It was blood. It was instinct.
The bell rang again.
It was not just the wilderness that spoke to him. The sound of the bell struck through him like a blade, sharp and sudden, cutting through the haze of longing. It was the same sound he had once heard in the temple, the same sound that had once called him to prayer, to discipline, to stillness. It reminded him of the years spent in the Buddhist temple, where he had tried to tame the chaos within him, where he had tried to strip himself of desire, of violence, of everything that made him feel like an animal. The bell had been his guide back then, pulling him toward something greater, something beyond himself.
And now, it was pulling him back again.
"So beautiful," T.B. suddenly let out a whisper, as if to himself, not to Anderson Jr. Seely standing next to him. For some reason, his heart suddenly became soft and sweet as cake. This feeling was different from his usual character. Something indescribable was rising and rising in his heart, making him suddenly emotional. The need to share these emotions and feelings that he had been suppressing inside his mind for so long forced him to let them out in whispers.
"The sky and the river. Mountains, forests, and steppes. The feeling of wet and cold. A little bit of wetness is cold but warm in my heart."
He stopped for a moment and placed his hand on his muscular chest, which was trembling with emotion.
"Just like she stretches out in bed in the morning."
Anderson Jr. Seely didn't look at T.B. at all. He didn't even glance in T.B.'s direction. He was sensitive and tactful enough not to show any action or gesture to indicate that he heard T.B.'s whispers.
Of course, he couldn't know who T.B. was thinking about. Was it a woman from his past? Or was it Alaska herself—wild, beautiful, and untouchable?