It wasn’t. Not yet, anyway. The next morning the sun came out and melted away the thin traces of snow on the ground. When I got to the cabin site, I was surprised to see he wasn’t there yet. An hour later, I started wondering. I was doing as much of the work as I could on my own, but it was getting harder and harder to set the logs. Without Vinnie to help me, I’d have to set up the skyline. Of course I wasn’t even paying him, so what right did I have to complain?

By lunchtime I thought I’d head down the road and check on him. His truck was gone. I couldn’t help but think of another day, when I had sat in this exact same spot, looking at his empty driveway, wondering where he was. It turned out he had spent the night in jail, having taken a hockey stick to the face of a Sault Ste. Marie police officer. That was the beginning of a very bad week.

Good God, Vinnie, I said to myself. I hope to hell you weren’t out finding trouble last night.

I went down to the Glasgow for some of Jackie’s beef stew and a Canadian. “Where’s your man?” Jackie said as he served me.

“You got me. He didn’t show up today.”

He gave me a look. “Whattsa matter, trouble in Paradise?”

“No trouble. I just don’t know where he is.”

“Last time, you ended up in the hospital.”

“Jackie, he’s been helping me all week, okay? Don’t you think he deserves a day off?”

“If that’s all it is, fine,” he said. “I’m just saying, the last time Vinnie got in trouble, you’re the one who ended up almost getting killed.”

“Okay, I hear you.”

“Okay, then.”

“Okay.”

Vinnie walked in just then and saved us. He came to the bar and sat down next to me.

“Give the man some beef stew,” I said.

“No thanks,” he said. That’s when I knew something was wrong. If you have any appetite at all, you don’t turn down Jackie’s beef stew.