Everlasting Love

by Valerie Hansen

  “Okay. You’ll find two red-handled brushes in a footlocker next to the horse pen.” Her grin brightened. “Think you can stand getting that close?”

  “I’ll manage.”

  Megan was watching James’s determined pace, and laughing to herself, when she noticed that Bobby Joe had stepped forward and begun to slowly brush Wiggles. It occurred to her that he might be using his own hairbrush, but so what? It was far more important to let him express himself by caring for the dog than it was to correct him for using the wrong tool.

  Soap and water would fix the brush.

  Only unconditional love and acceptance could mend the child.

  The roar James let out when he returned with the dog’s slicker brush and saw what had happened in his absence would have been frightening…if it hadn’t been so funny. Megan no longer had to wonder whose personal hairbrush had been pressed into service. Everyone knew.

  “I’ll wash it for you later,” she said, giggling. “I didn’t know. Honest.”

  “Never mind. I’d rather use my comb than have to pick ticks out of my hair.”

  “That’s probably wise. Did you say hello to Buckets while you were up the hill?”

  James’s scowl deepened. “Don’t push it, lady.”

  “Sorry. I know it’s not polite to laugh but I couldn’t help myself. You should have seen the look on your face when you got back.”

  “At least you had the courtesy to act surprised.”

  “I was. Believe me. Bobby Joe brought that brush outside with him. By the time I realized he wasn’t just petting the dog, it was already too late.”

  “We agree there.” He glared at Aaron. “I suppose you don’t know a thing about this.”

  The young man shrugged. “Nope.”

  “Didn’t think so. Okay. Everybody can take a turn brushing the dog as long as you’re done by six. When you wash up for supper, make sure you get all the loose hair off you.”

  Even later, after she’d joined the group for their evening meal, Megan had to fight to keep from bursting into giggles. Nearly every time she glanced at James he was frowning and picking or brushing some unseen object off one of the kids or himself.

  She didn’t need a microscope to tell her he thought he saw dog hair and probably one or two seed ticks, too. Chances were very good he wasn’t imagining a thing.

  Several truckloads of volunteer rescuers arrived and trooped into the dining hall just as Inez was serving dessert.

  The men were mostly well seasoned, Megan noted, with a few gangly teens bringing up the rear, apparently in deference to their elders. Everyone wore camouflage clothing of one type or another, hiking boots and a bright orange baseball cap, which they failed to remove, even indoors. The “uniform” was a familiar sight, especially during official Arkansas hunting seasons.

  Megan listened carefully, determined to remember who was who, as James introduced each man in turn. It soon became clear how impossible that goal was. Not only did some of them share the same last name, Inez kept butting in to explain their extended family connections, leaving Megan totally confused.

  In self-defense, she finally resorted to simply smiling and offering a heartfelt “Thank you for coming.”

  James paused and beamed as a late arrival entered. Instead of shaking hands, the men greeted each other with backslapping and a brief hug, much to Megan’s surprise.

  “This is my old friend Graydon Payne,” James told her. “His wife, Stacy, trains search-and-rescue dogs.”

  “Oh, how wonderful!” Megan was filled with relief and thankfulness. “Is she outside?”

  The tall man took her hand, held it and slowly shook his head. “No. She’s on assignment in South America. There was a bad earthquake down there. Stacy took a team of dogs and handlers to help locate buried victims.” He gave James a sober look. “She’d be here if she could.”

  “I know,” James answered. “That’s why I called you. The sheriff swore there weren’t any tracking dogs available. I figured contacting you in person was worth a try.”

  He looked to Megan. “I didn’t tell you what I was doing because I didn’t want to get your hopes up for nothing.”

  Sniffling, she stood tall and managed a smile. “Trying to help is never for nothing, even if it doesn’t work out.” A tear escaped and rolled down her cheek. She dashed it away. “Thank you for calling your friend. It means a lot to me.”

  She turned to face Graydon and the others. “And thank you again for coming. All of you. I know you have jobs and families of your own to think about. I’ll be ready to go in a few minutes. I just need to change.”

  “Not tonight,” Graydon said. “I may not use my nose to sniff out missing people the way my wife’s dogs do but I’ve been on enough searches to have learned some important lessons. Tired rescuers make mistakes. Miss things they’d see if they were rested. Sometimes they even become part of the problem by getting lost or hurt.”

  “I had a nap today,” Megan said.

  James gently took her hand. “That’s not enough. Gray and I talked this over when I phoned him. You and I will stay here and sleep while the rest of them spend the night searching the woods. Tomorrow, they’ll come in and we’ll take their place.”

  “I’m rested enough to go tonight,” she insisted. “I have to. It’s my sister out there.”

  “That’s exactly why you should stay here,” James told her. “If…when we find Roxy, she’ll need you to be at your best, not run-down. You can’t take care of her if you’re in worse shape than she is.”

  “But…”

  Graydon nodded sagely and stood his ground. “James is right. He went through the same kind of thing with me a few years ago. I had to learn the hard way. Almost killed myself packing an injured dog back to camp on my shoulders.” He gave an exaggerated shrug, then stretched. “It still hurts sometimes. Probably always will. If I’d used my head, I wouldn’t have been in that situation in the first place.”

  Megan had run out of valid arguments. She got along with domestic animals just fine but she didn’t possess much wilderness experience. If she chose to defy James and his friend and sneak out on her own, she might very well become another statistic, as they’d warned.

  “All right. I’ll wait here,” she said. “If I can’t sleep, I’ll spend the night praying you find Zac and my sister.”

  “Now you’re talking,” Graydon said with a smile. “I knew you and I were on the same team the minute I met you.”

  James didn’t go to bed as early as usual that night. He had too much on his mind. Instead, he sank into the porch swing he and Megan had shared, gave it a push with his feet and closed his eyes so he could think without distraction.

  Some of the things Megan had been saying about God were starting to make sense. He didn’t like admitting that, even to himself. If he viewed his parents as clueless lost souls instead of saints with tarnished halos, who was there left to hate? Certainly not the brothers he’d tried so hard to best when they were all children.

  Of course, he could always blame God for whatever had gone wrong, assuming He existed in the first place. His old buddy Graydon obviously thought so.

  James pictured himself as a little boy. The only reason he’d accompanied his family to church was because his brothers were always getting praise for their participation. Still, a few random Bible verses stuck in his memory. So did the premise that there might actually be a heavenly Father who cared about him, although why God would bother with a guy like him made no sense.

  As a child, he remembered weeping and praying for his parents to take his side for once. They never did. Yet, looking back, he wondered what his life would have been like if he’d remained in that family. Maybe Megan was right. Maybe they had done him a favor by kicking him out. If he’d stayed in such a destructive home the experience might well have broken his spirit.

  His breath caught. Could his prayers actually have been answered? Was it possible that a loving Father had looked after the soul of
a miserable little boy by not giving him the loving home and parental acceptance he’d begged for?

  That train of thought gave James the shivers. Looking back on his life, he was starting to see a logical progression of events. But what about the future? If God was willing to help a confused kid like he’d been, why wasn’t He doing something for Megan? She didn’t deserve the ordeal her sister was putting her through.

  James knew, if there was any way to ease her suffering, he’d act in a heartbeat. The best search teams in northern Arkansas had already tried and failed to find those kids. What could he, one man, possibly accomplish alone?

  Beginning to pray wasn’t a conscious decision. One moment James was merely worrying about Megan and the next he was interceding with the Lord on her behalf.

  “Well, God, I guess I’ll take a chance You’re really out there,” he said quietly.

  Oh, nice one, Harris. Make Him mad right off the bat.

  “I mean, thanks for taking care of me when I was a dumb kid. As You can see, I haven’t gotten much smarter. But I know Megan needs help and I don’t know who else to ask.”

  That’s better. Not good, but better. Don’t stop now.

  “I’ve done all I know to do. Everybody has. How about it? Where’d Roxy and Zac go?”

  I don’t know what else to say, James thought, filled with disgust at his weak attempt to contact God. His eyes suddenly felt damp. He blinked, staring into the infinity of the starry night sky.

  “I don’t know what You want with the likes of me but here I am. Show me what to do and I’ll do it. Anything. I mean it. Just please, please help Megan.”

  James waited in silence, his breathing shallow, his pulse remarkably even, considering his heightened senses.

  Every nerve in his body told him something momentous had occurred, yet he hadn’t seen or heard anything unusual. No heavenly trumpets had sounded. No moving finger wrote answers or warnings on the walls the way it had in Old Testament days. As a matter of fact, the longer he sat there, the more tranquil he felt.

  Suddenly weary beyond belief, he got to his feet, walked slowly into the dorm and went to bed, hoping for the relief of sleep.

  Chapter Twelve

  Megan had lain down on top of her coverlet, intending to rest a few minutes before showering and getting ready for bed. The next thing she knew, night had fallen and thunder was rumbling in distance.

  For an instant after she opened her eyes she didn’t know where she was. Then lightning flashed, revealing details of the small cabin.

  Her first conscious thought was Roxy’s out in this awful weather. Good thing she took my jacket.

  Rapid pounding at her door brought her fully awake. Wiggles bristled and growled.

  “Who is it?”

  “Me. James. Open up.”

  Megan’s heart was in her throat. She jerked open the door. “Roxy! Have they found her?”

  “No.”

  Any comfort she might have drawn from the man’s presence was counteracted by the unsettling sight that greeted her. James’s dark hair was tousled, his clothing was rumpled and he bore a wild-eyed expression that seemed to intensify every time lightning flashed.

  “What’s the matter, then?” Megan stepped back to admit him. “You’d better come in. Looks like a bad storm.”

  “I know. That makes it worse—I think.” Pacing across the cabin he quickly ran out of room and turned to retrace his steps.

  “Makes what worse?”

  “Everything. Nothing. I don’t know.”

  Megan grabbed his arm and stopped him as he passed. “If you don’t stand still and tell me what’s going on I’m going to have a hissy fit right here and now.”

  “Okay, okay. It was a dream…I think. Only, I’ve never had one like it before. You know how things in dreams are all blurred and vague and confusing? This wasn’t like that. Everything was crystal clear. I was drifting off to sleep when I suddenly remembered.”

  “Remembered what?”

  “A place I came across a long time ago, down by the river. I hadn’t thought of it in years.”

  “You woke me up and scared me silly to tell me that? Why? Did you dream Roxy and Zac were there?”

  “No. I told you it was weird.”

  “You’re what’s weird,” Megan said flatly.

  “I know. And I’m not real crazy about the feeling. All I know is, I need to go there.”

  She frowned and peered out the window. The first wind-driven, quarter-size drops of rain were smacking the panes, merging and starting to dribble down. “Now? In this weather? You must be out of your mind.”

  “Probably,” James answered. “But I’m going anyway. I’ll need four-wheel drive, so that means taking the ATV. The country I’m headed for is way too rough for a truck. Hiking in would take way too long.”

  “What about the searchers? You’re the one who told me we should stay in camp and let them do their job. Won’t they be checking the area you’re worried about?”

  “No. It’s too far away. Too out of the ordinary. I haven’t been there in years, myself. I don’t know what brought the place to mind tonight.”

  “The memory was probably hovering there in your subconscious all the time, waiting for you to acknowledge it,” she said. “If you were drifting off to sleep, your customary defenses were shutting down. That’s how the idea leaked out.”

  “You’re telling me my brain leaks?”

  Megan gave him a patient smile. “In a manner of speaking. The human mind can make imaginary things seem very real, especially when we’re under a lot of stress. I’m not saying you shouldn’t follow up on your idea. I just mean you don’t need to rush.”

  James paused to rake his fingers through his hair.

  “There’s something else. Something I haven’t told you.”

  She could tell he was struggling with whatever he was trying to say so she reassured him. “Go ahead. I’m a trained listener, remember?”

  “I don’t even know where to start. Or where to end.”

  “Well, how about the stuff in between?” Megan asked. She schooled her features to reflect calm acceptance. “Take a deep breath and just start talking. We can sort out the details and make sense of everything later.”

  James arched his eyebrows and almost smiled. “Oh, yeah? I seriously doubt that. You see, it all started when I decided to take a chance and talk to God.”

  Flabbergasted, Megan listened to James’s confusing tale. He didn’t employ commonly used religious terminology or realize what a big step he’d taken, but his story was a familiar one. When he’d consciously offered himself to the Lord and volunteered to be of service, no matter what, he’d begun a new life. That shed a totally different light on his apparent revelation.

  “I don’t get the connection, assuming there even is one,” he concluded, “but I’m positive I’m supposed to go check those caves.”

  “Caves?” Megan’s pulse jumped into high gear. “I thought you said the place you remembered was down by the river.”

  “It is. That’s part of the problem. I remember noticing marks on the inside walls from previous floods. If this storm develops the way I think it will, it’ll dump so much runoff into the Spring River, those cave openings will end up under water. No telling how long they’ll stay blocked like that.”

  “Why didn’t you say so? Let me grab my shoes. I’ll go with you.”

  “No. You stay here. It’s too dangerous.”

  Megan rolled her eyes at him. “Dangerous? Ha! You don’t know me very well, do you?”

  “It’s you who don’t know me,” James countered. “The only reason I came to tell you where I was going was so you could explain to Aaron in the morning—in case I’m not back by then.”

  “You couldn’t leave him a note?”

  “Don’t argue.”

  “Me? You’re the one who’s being unreasonable. Roxy rode double with Aaron on that stupid ATV of yours. There’s no good reason why I can’t do the same with you.�
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  “The best reason I can think of is that I told you to stay here,” James said flatly. “I’m not going on a joyride. There’s no trail, it’s pitch-dark outside and it’s going to be a miserable, wet trip. I’ll make much better time if I don’t have to worry about taking care of you.”

  “Nobody asked you to take care of me. I’ll be responsible for myself.”

  “Like you were responsible for your sister?”

  Megan bit her lip. “That was a low blow.”

  “Yes, it was. I’m sorry it was necessary. But I had to break through that stubbornness of yours and make you listen. If Roxy and Zac happen to be hiding in the caves, which I actually doubt, the sooner I warn them about the danger of rising water, the better. If they’re not there, I’ll turn right around and head for home. Either way, you’d slow me down too much.”

  He strode to the door and flung it open. “It’s that simple.”

  “There’s nothing simple about any of this,” Megan shouted after him.

  The force of the gusting wind nearly tore the door from her grasp. She slammed it by throwing her whole body into the effort.

  Tears stung her eyes. It wasn’t fair. Roxy was family. Her only sister. She’d promised their mother she’d take care of the girl and she’d failed. There was only one way to make amends, and that was to suffer whatever indignities and uncertainties were necessary in order to put things right.

  Filled with a burst of courage and enthusiasm, Megan slid her bare feet into her sneakers and tied the laces rapidly. Wiggles immediately headed for the door, anticipating an outing.

  “Sorry, boy. You need to stay here,” she said. “I’m going to leave two notes for Aaron, one on the table and one tied to your collar. That way, when somebody comes looking for me, they’re sure to spot one of them.”

  Hurrying, she finished the brief notes then tore open a package containing a disposable poncho and slid the thin plastic garment over her head. It wasn’t as durable as a regular raincoat would have been but it was perfect for what she had in mind. If James wouldn’t take her to the river and let her see for herself that Roxy wasn’t in trouble, she’d make like a pioneer and get there the old-fashioned way.