Stranded

by Alice Sharpe

  “You’re going to go look for his camp, aren’t you?” Sarah asked.

  “Yes. If it were Nate, wouldn’t you?”

  “In a heartbeat. Do you want company?”

  Jessica shook her head. “No, if you don’t mind, I’d rather go alone.”

  “I don’t mind,” Sarah said. “I’ll stay here and make sure their bubbles keep rising to the surface. Do you know exactly where the camp is?”

  “He told me the trail is marked by a forked tree on the lake end. I’ve been looking around and it seems to me that little fir tree right over there has two crowns. But even if it didn’t, there’s an arrow of rocks on the beach. Alex must have made that this spring when the snow melted, hoping a plane would see it.” She stopped talking abruptly as a lump swelled in her throat. He must have felt so alone.

  “Just be careful, okay? If you get eaten by a bear, Alex will kill me,” Sarah said as Jessica took off toward the trailhead.

  As soon as Jessica passed behind the forked tree, the world seemed to disappear. The plants on the path had worn away and the dirt was rutted. It had probably been an animal trail long before Alex started using it.

  As the trees and bushes on either side of it closed in, she imagined Alex stumbling, limping down this path. What would she have done? Looked for a clearing of some kind, but not too far from the lake. The lake meant food and possible rescue.

  The clearing was suddenly upon her as she stepped around a bush covered with thorns into a space about ten feet by twelve. A campfire ring sat under an outcropping of rocks, and across from it, branches had been woven together to create a shelter against the edge of a cliff. The trails between the two spaces paused at a trio of large boulders, the camp version, she supposed, of a dining room.

  And that was about it.

  Oh, there were a few scraps around like fish bones and charred wood stakes he must have used to smoke the fish he carried out with him, even a stack of unburned branches waiting to cook another meal. Half of a small rectangular blue-and-white metal box sat on one rock but it was currently empty. Judging from the rust, she wondered if he’d used it to transport water.

  What was lacking were all the things she’d spent her camping experiences taking for granted. The sleeping bags, the tents, the pots and pans, and water jugs. There were no paper products like newspapers or magazines, no dishes of any sort except for a few pieces of bark stacked on one of the rocks that looked as though they may have been used as plates.

  She stood there in the utter silence of the day, stunned by the paucity of supplies and stimuli. She sat down on one of the rocks, on a spot that seemed to have a natural place for a human haunch, and felt certain Alex had perched here a hundred times while he cooked his fish and dreamed of coming home.

  Had she secretly wondered if he’d really been up in the mountains for three months? Had his reluctance to talk about the details seemed so over-the-top that she’d imagined he might have made some of this up? And wasn’t it odd that glimpsing his plane under the lake and that sad little arrow on the beach wasn’t half a gut-wrenching reality check as this camp and its almost exclusive lack of civilization?

  After a few minutes, she decided to investigate the other structure that lay kitty-corner to the fire. What she found was a small, cozy sleeping area. The floor was covered with branches topped with a layer of boughs, she supposed for softness. A pair of worn handcrafted crutches constructed from tree limbs and tied with plant fiber leaned against the back wall. Alex had told her he walked out with his backpack, clothes, some food and little else, so there wasn’t much there besides what nature could provide. She saw the other half of what she now recognized was the blue-and-white metal medical box the emergency supplies had come in. This half held a handful of what appeared to be cold charcoal pieces from the fire. Hanging from an exposed root above, she found a small array of sticks hanging from a piece of salvaged metal. Additional sticks and cones were tied with plant fiber and dangled from the main structure. She blew on it and the pieces bumped together and made a pleasant sound. He’d made himself a wind chime of sorts.

  Unable to resist the temptation to try to understand better, she crawled inside and lay down atop the boughs. It would never take the place of a good mattress, but it wasn’t bad. He must have used his coat and additional foliage for more warmth or maybe he’d slept closer to the fire at first when the weather was colder. She laid her head back and saw that he’d left a small opening near the top she could easily picture being filled with stars once night came and she remembered that first night he was home and the way he’d paced endlessly until finally ending up outside, under the stars.

  Taking a deep breath she laid her head down and looked up at the ceiling. For the first time, she saw that he’d made marks along one wall with the charcoal, little lines in groups of five no doubt counting off the nights he’d spent in this camp. But it’s what she saw next that literally took her breath.

  Up above the lines, easily visible from a reclining position, was a drawing. It would never hang in the Louvre, but it brought tears to her eyes as she recognized her own face smiling down at her.

  * * *

  ALEX HAD SPENT weeks watching the snow melt and he knew that a hundred little streams ran into and fed this lake before escaping out the other side into a river that eventually wound its way to the sea. He’d followed that river to safety, back to Jessica and his life.

  But now the task at hand was to check out his poor, wounded plane and he was relieved that although the water was icy cold, it was also clear. Visibility was excellent.

  The plane had turned a little as it sank, coming to land on the rocky bottom with the fuselage propped on one of several big boulders. This was a stroke of luck as it meant the engine compartment would be accessible. Beside him, Nate pointed at the area behind and beneath the broken propeller and they kicked their way down.

  Looking at his wonderful plane as he descended brought back a decade of bittersweet memories. He’d inherited the plane from his uncle and would probably never be able to buy another. It was insured, but for nothing like replacement cost. That did remind him to snap a few pictures as they drew closer, including the identification or N-numbers near the tail.

  They soon discovered the engine-compartment door had been damaged when the struts tore free and the plane skidded on its belly. Nate joined Alex in pulling on the handle, but in the end, they used a multitool to pry the door open and pull it up and back on its hinges. It kind of reminded him of opening a can of sardines.

  Things were darker inside the compartment. Nate shone his light where Alex pointed. Tony Machi had told him exactly where the oil-tank plug was located and he levered himself down and around to be able to see if it was still there.

  At first he thought it was missing. He snapped a few photos, sure something didn’t look right, unsure what it was. He signaled to Nate to move the light to a different angle, and with different illumination, he finally figured out what he was looking at.

  The plug was still screwed in place but there was a hole in it. It didn’t make any sense. The engine oil would have easily leaked away within minutes through a hole that size and yet he’d been in the air long enough to get all the way to this lake before the situation became catastrophic.

  He ran a finger across the opening, then moved aside so Nate could take a look. They took a few more pictures before kicking their way to the top of the plane. Alex studied the cracked and broken windshield for a moment, then peered through the open door he’d used to escape what could so easily have been his tomb.

  He noticed his red leather-bound logbook on the Cessna’s floor and signaled to Nate that he was going inside. The space was cramped and difficult to maneuver in with an aqua lung strapped to his back and a million of his own bubbles blocking his view. He was extremely careful not to get tangled up in the wreckage as he reached down a
nd snagged the book.

  Nate tapped him on the shoulder and Alex twisted around to find Nate pointing at the cabin floor. Alex looked. He didn’t see anything noteworthy and attempted a shrug in an effort to ask Nate what he wanted.

  Nate held his hand up to his mouth and made drinking gestures, then pointed at the floor again. All Alex could see down there were three or four unopened bottles of his favorite water. He twisted around to pick one of them up and held it toward Nate who took it from him and moved away from the opening so Alex could exit.

  They swam away toward the surface without looking back. The FAA would pull the Cessna from the lake for their investigation, but Alex knew he might never see it again.

  * * *

  “JESS?”

  Jessica opened her eyes, stunned that she’d actually fallen asleep. Alex was on his knees inside the shelter, right beside her. A wave of guilt washed through her as she looked into his eyes.

  She started to sit up. “I’m so sorry—” she began, but stopped as she caught the look on his face as he scanned his humble sleeping space. “I should have waited for you,” she finished.

  He sat down next to her. He was dressed again, but his hair was still damp and he smelled like cold, fresh water.

  “Where are Nate and Sarah?”

  “Back on the shore. Sarah built a fire. I told them I wanted to come find you by myself.”

  She nodded as she blinked sleep away. When he spoke again, his voice sounded contemplative. “It all seems like a bizarre nightmare,” he said as he looked around the small space.

  “Did you find anything on the plane?”

  He told her about the hole in the oil-tank plug. “I also found my logbook and took that. The FAA might quibble with me about it, but as far as I’m concerned it’s part diary, as well, and I don’t want a bunch of strangers reading it.”

  “I don’t blame you,” she said.

  “Nate had me grab a bottle of my water, too,” he added.

  “Why?”

  “He’s convinced they were tampered with. I don’t see how. I bought a six-pack of them the night before and stowed them on the plane myself. There was nothing about them to suggest they were anything but what they appeared to be. Still, we’ll get it tested. I’ve learned to pay attention to Nate when he has a hunch.”

  They fell silent for a minute until Jessica leaned her head against his shoulder. “I like the way you decorated the place,” she said, glancing up again at her own image, drawn in charcoal on a rock face.

  They both lay down and looked up. She rested her head on his arm. “I can’t tell you how many hundreds of dreams I had about you while I was sleeping right here on this bed,” he said. He kissed her brow and squeezed her. “Some of them were pretty damn erotic.”

  “I bet they were.”

  “Yeah. And some were terrifying.”

  “How were they terrifying?”

  “I’d dream you were in danger and I couldn’t get to you. Once I dreamed you’d fallen through the ice into the freezing water below and I was grabbing for your hand, but you kept drifting further and further away and you never said a word or even struggled.”

  She pressed herself closer to him.

  “But the worst one was when I walked into our house after miraculously getting home and it was empty. No furniture, no nothing, especially, no you.”

  “Oh, Alex,” she said softly.

  “Because you see, I thought for sure I’d blown it and that even if I was rescued or managed to get out of these mountains, you would have moved on with your life...you would have let me go.”

  “But I didn’t,” she said. She closed her eyes for a second before adding, “I want to tell you something.”

  “What? Are you all right? Is the baby okay?”

  “Yes, I’m fine, it’s nothing like that. It’s about something I did while you were away.”

  He looked up at the drawing he’d made of her, then over into her eyes. “I know about the Facebook page.”

  She took a deep breath. “Oh.”

  “Dylan mentioned it.”

  “When?”

  “Days ago.”

  “But you didn’t say anything to me.”

  “There didn’t seem any point.”

  “I could have tried to explain,” she said.

  He pulled her closer. “You don’t have to explain,” he said.

  “Yes, I do,” she mumbled. She took another deep breath. “You can’t imagine what it was like to find out I was pregnant right on the eve of your disappearance. I’d dreamed about telling you that news a million times, but then you were gone, and I couldn’t bear it. Not just because I loved you, but because this was something you wanted as much as I did and you might never know.”

  “I understand,” he said.

  “Do you? I’m not sure I do. It was crazy to think you’d run away from me, but it was also comforting because it meant you weren’t dead. If you’d just gotten sick of me, then maybe you were living somewhere and maybe if you were alive, you would think of me sometimes and then perhaps you’d check out my Facebook page. So I wrote that if you could, you should call me. No questions asked, no problems, there was just something you needed to know. In a way it made a ringing phone easier to handle because it might actually be...you.”

  “I’m so sorry, Jess,” he said, kissing her face.

  She ran a hand over his cheek, smoothing his hair away from his brow. His eyes glowed as he looked down at her.

  “In my head I believed you were dead,” she whispered. “In my heart I wanted you alive, somewhere, anywhere. I told myself you didn’t have to come back to me if you didn’t love me, but you should know about your baby.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me all this when I got home?”

  “I was ashamed of myself.”

  He held her tighter. In a way she wished they could stay in that camp together, just the two of them. “Why were you so reluctant for me to see this place?” she asked after a little while.

  “I’m not sure. I guess I just wanted to forget how miserable and unhappy I was most of the time. Having you see it made me feel like it would all seem too real.”

  “But it is real, Alex, and now that I’ve seen it and shared it with you, it’s more real than ever. And it’s remarkable you managed to survive with so little, that you got out alive, that we have a second chance to be together.”

  He wiped the tears off her cheek. “Until now,” he whispered, “I wasn’t sure we were together, I mean in a way that would last. But we are, aren’t we?”

  She nodded as he kissed her, as he ran his hands over her body. “So, where do we go from here?” he asked, his voice as soft as silk against her neck, warm like honey.

  She put her hands on either side of his face and looked right into his eyes. “We go home. We find out who killed Billy and Lynda Summers—”

  “If they were both murdered—”

  “Of course they were both murdered. We find out who did it and we stop them from killing anyone else.” She paused for a second as she ran a finger across his lips. “Especially you.”

  “Especially us,” he amended, wrapping both arms around her and touching her lips with his.

  His breath was warm and fresh, his kisses intoxicating. She reached up and tugged on his shirt. “How’d you like to make some new memories on this bed of yours?”

  “What kind of memories?” he whispered.

  “This kind,” she said, and slowly started unbuttoning her blouse.

  He took over the unbuttoning process. “Are you sure?” he asked. He followed this question with a dozen kisses along her throat.

  “I’m sure,” she said softly. Those were the last words uttered for quite some time.

  Her clothes came off in a hurry
, and then she helped him with his. There was something so natural about lying in this bed made of boughs with sunlight glinting through the woven branches, the quiet afternoon ethereal and complete. Only their breathing and the rustle of the dried leaves and twigs broke the silence as they touched each other in all the ways they’d learned over the years brought pleasure, pausing once to just stare at each other in a sense of amazement.

  When they were both stripped, he fondled her breasts and kissed them, his mouth hot and intoxicating. She closed her eyes, only to open them when she felt both his hands on her abdomen. He leaned down and kissed her right beneath the belly button, then moved lower. Flames leaped inside her at the touch of his tongue and she frantically reached for him, delighting in the silky smoothness of his body, groaning in pleasure as his fingers ran over her contours.

  He entered her when they both reached the point of absolute no return, when to delay another second would be unimaginable. His thrusts were gentle in a way she’d never experienced from him before, as though he was afraid he would hurt her or their baby, and she quickly dispelled him of such thoughts by pushing down on his rear and raising her hips to meet him. She could tell the moment he was lost to reason and she willfully and gladly followed him, swept up in his responses and her own body’s greedy need for him.

  They lay still afterward, and then dressed each other slowly, with kisses and smiles, both realizing they stood at the cusp of a new beginning in their lives together.

  It seemed to Jessica that all they had to do was survive the present and the future was theirs for the taking.

  Chapter Ten

  By the time they flew back to Blunt Falls and landed on John Miter’s lake, the day was drifting away. John met them at the dock where Alex taxied.

  John was a good-looking guy of sixty or so with a full head of silver hair and a permanent tan. With a knowing glint in his gray eyes, he helped Sarah and Jessica disembark. “You guys find what you were looking for?” he asked.

  “And how do you know we were looking for something?” Jessica asked with a smile.