The Simple Wild: A Novel

The story moves forward to July 2018 in Toronto. Twenty-six-year-old Calla has been downsized from her job as a risk analyst at a bank. Though she will miss some coworkers, she admits the job was boring. On the train ride home, a man makes small talk and tells Calla that he once lost a job, but it ended up being the best thing ever happening to him because he could pursue his dreams. She texts her boyfriend, Corey, to give him the bad news, but he’s busy with work.

Calla lives at home with her mother, Susan, and her stepfather, Simon. Susan owns a flower shop, and Simon is a psychiatrist who runs his practice out of their home. Susan comforts Calla while Simon reviews her severance package. Susan doesn’t want to overburden Calla after a bad day but says Calla’s father has called from Alaska. Calla doesn’t have a good relationship with her father and decides to wait and return the call the following day.

Calla goes out with her best friend, Diana, since Corey is working. Calla and Corey fell hard for one another when they first met, but Calla feels their relationship is changing and the romance is fading. Before leaving, she receives a phone call from Agnes, who knows her father. Calla thinks Agnes is Wren’s partner. Wren has been diagnosed with lung cancer, and Agnes wants Calla to come to Alaska to see him.

Wren promised to visit her many times over the last 24 years, like for her high school graduation but never came. Even though Agnes offers to pay for the flight, Calla isn’t sure she wants to go. Agnes adds that one of their pilots, Jonah, can be her personal pilot. Simon advises that it would be healthy for Calla to meet her father. He reveals that Susan never stopped loving him, even after they married. Calla's life in Toronto is easy, and she doesn’t want to give up her routine to spend time in remote Alaska. Simon says she has free time due to unemployment, so she agrees to consider it.

Diana works as a paralegal, but for the last year, she and Calla have been working on a lifestyle blog called “Calla & Dee.” Though Calla calls it “a forty-hour-a-week hobby” (33), she enjoys using her free time to work on the project. Diana’s boyfriend, Aaron, recently collaborated with them on a sponsored post on barbering male facial hair, which was popular with their readers. Diana encourages Calla to go to Alaska to find answers to all her unanswered questions about her father. She also thinks it would benefit their brand because Calla could generate interesting content in Alaska.

Aaron joins them at the bar, and Calla is partly jealous of their close relationship because it reminds her of the early days with Corey. Calla spots an attractive man across the club looking at her. She briefly loses herself in his desirous gaze and realizes this isn't the first time she’s completely forgotten she has a boyfriend. Diana spots Corey, who’s come to the bar with coworkers but doesn’t tell Calla. She sees Corey put his arm around a woman, Stephanie Dupont, a recent addition to the advertising agency. Once she realizes what is happening, Calla admits she’s surprisingly relieved. Diana wants Calla to hook up with the attractive man or throw a drink in Corey’s face, but Calla decides to go home and prepare for a trip to Alaska.

After Calla leaves, Diana bumps into Corey and tells him what Calla saw. Corey texts Calla a half-hearted apology, and she suggests they take a break while she travels to Alaska. Corey readily agrees. She recognizes that their relationship has been fading, especially when he stopped sending flowers, but she’s avoided dealing with it. Susan helps Calla pack all the new clothes she purchased for the trip. Calla contemplates how Wren’s coming back into their lives could change things, but Susan assures her she would never leave Simon to reunite with Wren. Susan warns her about becoming bored in Alaska and falling in love with a bush pilot. Calla laughs, but Susan cites their adventurous allure, calling them “sky cowboys.” Susan loves luxury and comfort, and Calla struggles to imagine her mother falling for someone like Wren, and she knows she won’t.

Calla lands in beautiful Anchorage, and she wonders if her mother was wrong about Alaska being a wasteland. At a smaller airport, Billy, the grounds crewman, directs her toward her small plane so small that Calla doesn’t see how she will fit, especially once she sees Jonah, who is tall and broad-shouldered and looks like a “yeti.” Jonah acts annoyed at having to take care of Calla. He asks how much she weighs, which offends her, but he needs to know for the plane. Since weight is crucial, Calla can’t take all her luggage, so Jonah hands her a small bag to put the essentials in. The rest of her luggage will be flown by a cargo plane later. Annoyed by Jonah’s brusqueness and having to leave behind her luggage, Calla reluctantly boards the tiny plane.

Calla fights nausea during the cramped, turbulent flight, which annoys Jonah. When they land in Bangor, Calla looks at Jonah better as he hoists her from the plane. Though a thick beard and sunglasses cover most of his face, she notices he has perfectly white, straight teeth. Agnes meets her on the tarmac, and Calla instantly notices she is the opposite of her mother. She is small, dressed in plain clothes, has a short haircut, and is Indigenous Alaskan.

Wren is called away on business, and Calla is disappointed he isn’t there to greet her. Calla learns that Agnes has worked at Alaska Wild for 16 years, which means Agnes and her father have been together since she was 10 years old. He never mentioned her to Calla. When Calla asks if they are married, Agnes says their relationship “is complicated.” Agnes apologizes for Calla’s luggage being left behind and isn’t sure why Jonah took a small plane. As she leaves the tarmac, Calla poses for a picture for Instagram and looks again at Jonah, hopeful she won’t have to see him again during her visit.

Wren’s home is spare, with outdated finishes and little decoration. There are no groceries, and Wren hasn’t prepared for her visit. Agnes admits she only told him Calla was coming the night before. Agnes doesn’t live with Wren but rents the house across the street. Wren begins treatment for his cancer the following week, and Jonah will fly him to Anchorage. Jonah’s father died from cancer, and he’s taken Wren’s diagnosis hard. Calla stays in her childhood room with the walls her mother painted with Calla lilies while she was pregnant. Seeing that her father hasn’t changed the room warms Calla’s heart. Wren arrives home, and Calla prepares to meet her father for the first time since she was two.