Surf's up! The sand feels good on your toes as you dig them in, scanning the horizon for just the right wave. When you see it, you'll paddle out to meet it, not knowing what kind of ride you'll get back to shore. It might be smooth, like a Caddy on a new-paved road.
Or, as in the new novel "First Frost" by Craig Johnson, it might be the roughest ride you've ever had. Rachael hadn't wanted him to leave. Truth be known, he really didn't want to go, but Walt Longmire had a date with Uncle Sam.
It was 1964, he'd just graduated from college, and he'd have rather had a summer of surf and sand, but Vietnam called. With hopes of being deployed stateside, Walt and his friend, Henry Standing Bear, had enlisted , and in a few days, Henry needed to be in Louisiana, while Walt was supposed to have been in South Carolina, and Rachael would be a memory of love left. The afternoon before they left, though, the sea had one last thing for Walt and the Bear: a small boat capsized during a storm, and Walt saved a few lives, including Henry's.
The authorities arrived with ambulances, but the police were more interested in learning about the drugs that washed up in the aftermath. Walt and Henry knew nothing, so they drove off, leaving behind their old lives and questions they couldn't answer. But somewhere near Albuquerque, while Henry slept, Walt took a wrong turn and ended up in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by sand and cacti in an all-but-ghost town called Bone Valley.
The locals were not h.