Forbidden Ground (Cold Creek)

by Karen Harper

  “I see they like to draw pictures of Todd up in a tree.”

  “Sure do. I suppose it’s inevitable, but I’d like to think they won’t follow in his footsteps that way. I still worry about him.”

  While the boys played out back, the two of them sat over coffee and peanut-butter cookies until the men arrived. Grant and Brad came together in Grant’s truck, as if he still wasn’t letting Brad drive. Amber evidently loved to have company and served everyone with a smile on her face. It made Kate wish she was better at hospitality, a real gift, but her mother had seldom entertained because money was so tight, once again, thanks to her good man father.

  In the living room, Todd produced a sample harness and proceeded to show the safety features and explain how he climbed. He was so knowledgeable and interesting he reminded Kate of some of the better lecturers she’d heard over the years of entirely too much schooling.

  “If you’ve got an extra rig for me, I’d like to go up with you today,” Brad said. “I know Grant prefers to be earthbound, and he’ll never let Kate climb without any practice, but I’m ready. You got an extra harness and gear around here?”

  “You bet. I was showing Keith Simons how to climb the other day. He’s a big guy, probably too big to try it again, but if this harness can hold him, it can sure hold you.”

  Kate could tell Grant didn’t like Brad showing off today. She could almost hear his thoughts. Brad’s sober right now. I can’t keep trying to control him even if I am his big brother. He’s had a hard time, losing his company. I may be mad at him about hanging out with Lacey, but I’ve got to keep my mouth shut, especially since we had that big argument night before last.

  They all trooped outside and through the woods toward what Todd called his favorite tree. Amber got a call on her cell and dropped back a bit to talk, so Kate took the hand of Aaron, the middle boy, while Grant carried the toddler, Andy. Their oldest, Jason, kept right up with his dad.

  As they got deeper in, Kate saw deadwood had fallen and sprawled over living growth. As if he’d read her mind, Grant explained. “A lot of downed trees from a straight-line wind here two years ago. When nature does it, I don’t mind, but I’m still going to find out who cut down my maple. It’s just that losing Paul took precedence.”

  “I understand,” she said, but she couldn’t really understand why he fought her so hard on further examining Mason Mound. Or did she actually have his long-gone grandfather to blame? Had he made his son and grandson vow never to let someone tamper with their mound? What could have scairt him bad, as Sam had said, inside it? She doubted he’d been scared by a cave-in since the exterior seemed intact. Could he have seen decayed corpses inside—even a horrible mask?

  “Todd can ID types of trees by the texture of their bark and the smell of their leaves.” Grant’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “If it wasn’t for him, Mason Mill probably wouldn’t have branched out—excuse the pun.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Brad said, turning back to get into the conversation. “Here we go with the environment, diversity talk. Okay, you told me to do it, too, with the paper mill and I didn’t listen. Save this green goal stuff to get Lacey to back off.”

  “She’s backed off me. How about you?” Grant shot back.

  Before this escalated again, Kate interrupted them. “What side products does the mill sell wood for besides furniture?”

  “Things made from wood flour,” Grant said, still glaring at Brad, who turned his back on them and continued to cart his climbing gear along behind Todd. “That product is basically wood pulverized to dust, bleached and rinsed, which we don’t do on-site. Bet you didn’t know wood flour’s in such things as nondairy milk shakes—water, sugar, flavoring and wood flour. Yum,” he said with a chuckle.

  “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  “It gets weirder than that. Other items we contribute wood pulp, not flour, to are the cups you get your coffee in at places like Starbucks.”

  “He probably won’t mention tampons,” Amber said, catching up with them. “And I won’t repeat a couple of jokes Todd told me about that. Grant, that phone call—it may be nothing, but a friend of mine says up by where her brother lives on Shadow Mountain, a man keeps a team of big Amish-type horses that come and go in a truck sometimes. Didn’t Todd say that you think a draft team might have hauled off your tree?”

  “Yeah. Can you give me directions?” he asked. “I’m looking for any lead. No Amish live around here, far as I know, so it’s worth looking into.”

  “Sure, can do” was all she got out before Todd stopped under a huge oak and everyone looked up at its lofty height.

  “This is the site of your field trip, boys and girls,” he said with a grin as he clapped Brad on the back.

  “But, Dad,” Jason said, “we only have us boys here, not girls. Mom and Miss Kate are ladies.”

  Todd grinned as he put his gear down then went to Brad and started to hitch him up. “I’ve already got climb lines all over this tree, or else we’d have to throw and secure them,” he said, as he pulled gear from his backpack.

  Again, he demonstrated the Jumar ascenders he’d shown them before, devices with handles a climber could hold and teeth that gripped a rope. Jumars attached to a harness that held the climber around his hips and thighs and kept him from being detached from the rope. Todd then climbed into his harness.

  “Do a monkey hang up there today, Dad!” Jason called to him as the two men walked over to the ropes hanging from the tree.

  “Not today,” Amber chimed in. “Todd, please, no branch-walking, either, even if you have an audience.”

  “Yes, boss,” Todd said and blew her a kiss. “Don’t worry. I’m just going to take Brad up a ways and let him look around. Then if Kate is still game, I’ll give her a couple of lessons before we climb near the Hear Ye compound. Brad, up we go. Let’s convince these groundlings that this is a walk in the park.”

  “I don’t usually watch him climb,” Amber whispered to Kate as the men started winching themselves up separate ropes with the help of ascenders. “At least he’s been doing this for years without a hitch. He says it’s a whole new world up there, but I’ve just never—never needed that. And now with the kids, no way, however sure-footed he is up there. Grant, I didn’t know Brad was such a risk-taker.”

  “You’d be surprised, especially lately,” he said, keeping his voice down and his eyes up.

  “Besides drinking? You mean Lacey?” Amber asked.

  “Yeah, she’s a risk, but he’s welcome to her. You know about that?”

  “Saw them uptown together. Todd told me that he was afraid Brad was after his job, but Brad assured him he isn’t, that the two of them kind of made up for bad feelings.”

  Kate thought Grant looked relieved.

  Amber cried out in a loud voice. “Okay, boys, look at Daddy go!” The two youngest clapped and cheered.

  “Just like I drawed you in the tree, Daddy!” Aaron shouted and ran to the tree.

  Grant shifted Andy into Amber’s arms and retrieved Aaron. “Let’s just watch Daddy from over here,” he said and tugged the boy away.

  “But I can’t see him.”

  Todd, then Brad, had disappeared into the foliage of the tree. Between branches, they appeared again, sometimes standing on them, sometimes—with Brad following Todd’s lead—slightly swinging out from the main trunk with their feet on it, then back in again. “Woo-hoo!” Brad’s triumphant cry came down to them.

  At least this was something Brad could feel good about, Kate thought. He’d finally got something over his big bro, too—literally—high above them all.

  Looking up, she felt almost dizzy. She held her breath. Maybe she’d just let Todd climb a tree above Bright Star’s commune. It didn’t scare her to go underground in small, tight places, but this... She found a new admiration for Brad, despite how
she knew Grant was more logical, more like her. After all, there was nothing wrong with caution—up to a point. But when you wanted something so bad, onward you went.

  Her neck started to hurt from looking up. Like Amber and Grant, she shifted her position to watch the climbers. They were very high. In that moment she made two decisions. It might be exhilarating, but she was not going to climb a tree, even to spy on Bright Star. She was going to get even closer to Grant. She’d convince him to let her help search for his own big tree, starting with checking on some draft horses up on Shadow Mountain. But meanwhile, she had to find out why he kept putting her off about Mason Mound—and somehow get inside it.

  * * *

  In a way, watching like this, hearing Brad cheer in exultation, Grant wished he’d climbed with them, but that was Todd’s realm, like art had been Paul’s. He’d encouraged Brad to do this only because he was hoping he’d find some new strength, a sort of victory, to pull him back from too much booze. And yeah, maybe give him something to do besides lust after Todd’s job and Lacey, no matter what Amber had said about him and Todd mending fences. Brad was welcome to Lacey, except Grant didn’t want her around if they got serious. All he needed was Brad being converted to a tree hugger, turning against the family business generations before them had built.

  “Changed my mind about trying that,” Kate told him. The wind blew her hair; her cheeks looked flushed. At this moment—most moments—she was so beautiful, so desirable.

  “Good,” he told her. “We agree on that, so what’s next?”

  She smiled, but it looked forced to him. She’d seemed a bit wary of him today, almost cool.

  A shout came from above.

  He heard Todd’s voice. “What in the...? Hang on, hang on! No, not to me! Your rope—the branch...”

  Branches snapped, cracked. Very high in the tree, limbs and leaves shuddered and shook. Amber screamed. Grant rushed toward the tree as a body bounced off high branches, hurtling downward.

  16

  Amber screamed again. Kate threw her arms around her as they both stood transfixed. Grant lunged toward the tree as limbs snapped. Another shout came from above. Brad? He must have fallen.

  It seemed an eternity before they saw him—not Brad but Todd—crashing into the branches, clutching at them, bending them. But the last twenty feet were a free fall. Grant ran forward as Todd hit the ground. The two youngest boys started to wail. Kate grabbed them, turned them away while Jason shouted, “Dad! Dad!”

  Grant reached Todd first, Amber right behind. He had not fallen headfirst, but sideways.

  From above, Brad’s panicked voice called out. “Is he all right?”

  No one answered him. “He’s breathing,” Grant said to Amber.

  “Oh, dear God, don’t let him die. How could he fall? Not Todd!”

  “We don’t dare move him. Kate! Take Amber’s phone and the boys. Go back to the house and call 911 as soon as you get a signal. Tell them we need a chopper. They should land in the grassy field southwest of Pleasant Drive, and I’ll meet them there. Amber. Amber! Give Kate your phone.”

  Jason ran forward and wrapped his arms around his mother’s neck where she crouched beside Todd.

  “Jason, listen to me,” Grant told the boy. “You have to go with Kate and your brothers to get help for your dad. We’ll stay with him. I’m depending on you.”

  Her face streaming tears, looking stunned, Amber thrust her phone at Kate. “Come on, Jason,” Kate cried. “I need your help. Come on, right now.”

  Sobbing, the boy let go of his mother and turned toward Kate. “Take Aaron’s hand and try to keep up,” she told him, fighting her own tears. “I’ll carry Andy. We have to get your daddy an airplane to take him to the hospital so they can fix him.”

  “Is his legs broke?” Aaron asked.

  She scooped up Andy. “The doctors will take care of him.”

  Kate stretched her strides, juggling the child and the phone until it stopped searching and took her 911 call. She put Andy down and spoke over his crying. She told the dispatcher what Grant had said, gave Todd’s name and address, explained what had happened, gave them her name and Grant’s. “In the field southwest of their house,” she repeated. “And maybe for a flight to Columbus, not just Chillicothe.”

  She collapsed on the grass with the three boys huddled to her, all crying, while she tried to cuddle them and tell them everything would be all right. But would it? She could not believe it was Todd who’d fallen and not Brad. How could it have happened? And now would Brad get what he wanted at the mill if Todd was too badly hurt to return to work—or never did?

  * * *

  “If you can’t come down safely,” Grant bellowed up at Brad, “just hang on until the volunteer fire department gets here. 911 always sends them, too.”

  “But is he going to be okay?”

  “He’s unconscious, looks bad, so just hang on.”

  “I swear, I don’t know what happened! I don’t like it up here alone.”

  Amber hovered over Todd, but Grant kept her from moving him. Who knew what bones could be broken? Grant’s eyes stung with unshed tears. His friend looked crumpled. His legs for sure must be broken, maybe his back, however skillfully he’d managed to turn himself so he didn’t fall headfirst. But he was unconscious and had a huge bruise rising on his forehead. If it wasn’t his imagination, Grant saw Todd move his left foot about an inch from the grotesque position it was in.

  Time stretched into eternity. Jace Miller arrived, jogging, his equipment bouncing on his duty belt.

  “Got the 911. Saw Kate and the kids on the way in. Can’t believe it,” he said, bending over them, out of breath. “Not Todd from a tree. I’ll have to look at the ropes, his gear. See what happened.”

  “Brad was with him,” Grant said. “He’s still up there, so we’ll need help to get him down.”

  “At least he can tell us what happened.”

  “He says he doesn’t know.”

  What he’d been trying to ignore hit Grant hard. Had someone—surely not Brad—tampered with Todd’s gear? He was always so careful. It would take a while to get that harness off him to examine. It would probably go with him to the hospital, where they’d have to cut it off anyway.

  While Jace shouted up to Brad, Grant kept his hand on Amber’s shoulder where they knelt next to Todd. She was shaking; tears dropped off her chin onto her clasped hands as she kept murmuring prayers.

  The minute they heard the chopper, Grant took off running to bring them in from the field. He saw Kate and the boys huddled halfway to the house. In the midst of his panic and fear, an errant thought hit him—she looked like a mother comforting her kids.

  He raced into the field, waving his arms. A huge wash of wind rippled the grass and ripped at his hair and clothes. The helicopter set down. Two medics jumped out with a portable stretcher and a med bag. Before the rotors stopped, they ran with Grant toward Todd’s favorite tree.

  * * *

  Hours later, still shaken, Kate and Grant slumped at Todd and Amber’s kitchen table. It was dark outside, after nine. Amber’s parents had arrived, put the boys to bed and would stay the night. Kate and Grant had promised to take the three kids for a while tomorrow to allow the grandparents to drive into Columbus, where Todd had been taken to the Ohio State University Hospital. He was alive—for now. That was all they knew until Amber phoned.

  Kate clenched her hands in her lap while Grant got up and paced around the kitchen table. Amber was talking so loud, sounded so frenzied, that Kate could hear her. She recalled how Amber had told her she’d be a basket case if anything ever happened to Todd as it had to Paul. Grant’s second close friend to experience tragedy. She prayed Gabe was safe with Tess on their honeymoon.

  “Broken ribs...both shoulders...both femurs...” Kate could hear Amber telling Grant
. “Spinal cord...not sure but they’re doing MRIs and CT scans before surgery...internal injuries. Grant, I just can’t believe he fell, not Tarzan Todd. Did Brad get down okay?”

  “The volunteer fire guys went up partway and talked him down. Can I help you there? Do you want some company to get through the night?”

  “It won’t do any good here now. Maybe later. Oh, if you could help my parents with the boys tomorrow, because Mom hasn’t been well, and it takes both of them. They’re going to come here, bring me some things.”

  “Listen, you have to take care of yourself so you can take care of Todd while he recovers. And yes, Kate and I already planned to take the boys for a while, no problem.”

  “I don’t know how we’ll make it without his salary.”

  “That’s the least of your worries. He has company insurance, not only for injuries on the job but off. He’ll get his salary—sick leave, too. Don’t worry.”

  “So I guess—I guess Brad can cover for him,” Amber said.

  Kate saw Grant’s head jerk, as if he’d been so focused on Todd’s injuries that he hadn’t thought of how Brad would benefit. But Amber was still talking.

  “Thank Kate for me. Oh, meant to say, the E.R. doctor said it’s a miracle Todd managed to turn himself in the air. You know, falling that far, it’s almost always headfirst. Thank God his skull didn’t get smashed, too.”

  Like Paul’s, Kate thought. Surely, the two tragedies couldn’t be related.

  Grant leaned back against the kitchen counter as his gaze met her wide stare. He must know she could hear because she gasped and covered her mouth with both hands.

  But it was Grant, who had been so strong through all this, who collapsed in a chair and looked agonized. He didn’t even say goodbye, and Amber hung up before Kate could take the phone from his trembling hands.

  “Like their ghosts are after us,” he whispered to himself, before he jumped up and went into the bathroom down the hall. He closed the door but she could still hear a single, sharp sob.