Mountains Between Us

by Jenny Proctor

  When she rounded the corner into the kitchen, she found Kate standing tensely at the counter, her hands gripping the edge of the worn tile countertop. Andrew sat at the table with his wristwatch lying flat on the place mat in front of him.

  “Here we go,” Kate said. She leaned forward and took slow, deep breaths, her eyes closed and her face tense. Eliza stood transfixed as she watched the couple. Andrew looked at his watch, then picked it up and moved to his wife’s side.

  “Four minutes apart.” Andrew placed his hand gently on his wife’s back. “Eliza,” he said, acknowledging her presence in the kitchen doorway, “I think it might be time to wrap things up with the missionaries. Kate and I should probably head over to the hospital.” Andrew’s words were calm, but there was a nervous tremor in his voice that made Eliza want to smile.

  “Oh, don’t make them go, Andrew,” Kate said, having breathed her way through another contraction. “Let them finish. They can just lock the door on their way out.” She turned to Eliza. “I’m so sorry we didn’t join you tonight. I wasn’t feeling well all afternoon, but I really didn’t think it was labor. Guess the baby fooled me, huh?”

  Eliza laughed. “Don’t apologize. I thought you were ridiculous for wanting us to come over tonight in the first place! Don’t worry about us. You should go.”

  Eliza watched as the couple looked at each other, anxious smiles of anticipation on their faces. This was their first baby, and the excitement in the air was palpable. She followed them out of the kitchen and into the hall, where Andrew had already placed their bags, packed and ready for the hospital.

  “Andrew,” Kate said. “Can you go tell the elders we’re leaving? You should say good-bye.”

  “Kate, I’m sure they’re fine. We’re having a baby. We can just leave—”

  “Eliza’s going to walk me to the car. Just say good-bye. I don’t want to be rude.”

  Andrew gave his wife an exasperated look. “Fine, but you go straight to the car.”

  “Here,” Eliza said, reaching for their bags. “I’ll take these and make sure she gets there.”

  “‘Go straight to the car’? Does he think I was planning a detour through the garden? You’d think it was him going into labor.”

  Eliza laughed. “I’m guessing you aren’t the first wife to make that observation.”

  The women walked into the cool night air, pausing on the steps for Kate to breathe through another contraction before making it the rest of the way to the Porterfields’ car.

  “Distract me, Eliza,” Kate said. “Tell me about your sister. Have you heard from her yet?”

  Eliza had confided in Kate after Gina’s disappearance, but there was no news to share. Gina still hadn’t been in touch with anyone. “I wish I had something to tell you. I still haven’t heard from her.”

  Kate’s eyes were sympathetic. “Ugghh—I’m sorry, Eliza. I wish she’d just call you. Will you tell me when you hear from her?”

  Eliza agreed to, amazed that her friend, as preoccupied as she was, had two spare thoughts for her missing sister.

  “Talk to me about something else,” Kate said. “What about you and Flip?”

  Eliza shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. We had dinner together once, but I was pretty clear I wasn’t interested in dating someone who didn’t share my faith.”

  Kate looked skeptical. “Is that why he’s here?”

  “I don’t think so,” Eliza said. “I told him he would be an idiot to consider something this serious if it wasn’t for the right reasons. I think his interest is sincere. He’s read a good bit of the Book of Mormon, and his questions are pretty detailed. But . . . I don’t know. I’m not sure it even matters, really. I mean, he’s a good guy. I like him, but I don’t think we could have a relationship. I could have, at one point, but now . . .” Eliza trailed off.

  Kate raised her eyebrows in question. “What changed? Is there someone else who’s piqued your interest?”

  Eliza looked up and met Kate’s gaze. “No . . . I mean, yes . . . I don’t know. I don’t think it’s going to work out.”

  Kate smiled. “Eliza, I see the way Henry looks at you. Knowing Henry, he might not realize he likes you, but trust me, he likes you.”

  Andrew came up behind the women, a look of shock and disdain on his face. “What are we doing?” he asked. “We’re having a baby! Why are we still standing around talking?”

  Kate laughed. “See? I just told Eliza you’re acting like it’s you having the . . . ohhhhh!” She leaned against the car.

  “In the car,” Andrew ordered. Kate held up a finger, breathing through the end of her contraction.

  “Okay,” she finally said. “Let’s go.” She smiled at Eliza, then willingly took Andrew’s hand as he helped her into the passenger seat.

  “Good luck!” Eliza called. “Send me a text when baby comes.”

  Flip and the elders had left the house with Andrew and now stood at the bottom of the porch steps having what Eliza quickly realized was a rather charged discussion on whether skiing was better in Colorado or Utah.

  Elder Barker, a Utah native and avid skier, was giving it his best shot, but Flip argued pretty strongly for the virtues of Breckenridge as the best place to ski. They looked to Eliza and the other missionary, Elder Gerratt, to cast deciding votes.

  A Southern California native, Elder Gerratt had little to offer. “You want to talk surfing, I’ll weigh in with an opinion, but the ski slopes are all you.” He slapped his companion good-naturedly on the back.

  “Eliza?” Flip asked. “Care to weigh in?”

  Eliza shook her head. “I’ve never been farther west than Kansas. You two are going to have to duke this one out on your own. Some other time though,” she added. “I’m exhausted and need Flip to drive me home.”

  And . . . I need to find Henry.

  “Thanks for coming with me,” Flip said as they drove back to Rockbridge. “It was nice to have you there.”

  “I wish you could have gotten to know the Porterfields a little better,” Eliza said. “They’re wonderful.”

  “A bit busy tonight though, aren’t they? That was exciting.”

  “Yeah.” Eliza could tell Flip was trying to keep the conversation going, but her heart wasn’t in it. She was consumed with worry for Henry—worry that he wouldn’t listen when she tried to explain, worry that her snooping had completely undone their friendship.

  * * *

  Eliza slipped inside her apartment only long enough to drop her purse on the couch and wait for Flip to make it inside his own apartment. She had every intention of going to see Henry. It was just past nine thirty, and Eliza hardly cared what others thought, but she didn’t feel like explaining to Flip why she was going to see Henry so late.

  Moments later, she stood outside Henry’s door and knocked softly. There weren’t any lights on inside. Surely he hadn’t gone to sleep already. She knocked again. After a few moments of waiting, she was about to turn away when the sound of shuffling inside kept her standing there just a bit longer. Henry opened the door and turned on the porch light. He looked at her, his face passive through the rickety screen door that graced every housing unit on campus.

  “Hi,” Eliza said. When he didn’t respond, her words rushed out fast and steady until she’d said all she had come to say. “Henry, I didn’t call him. I didn’t contact him in any way. I would never do that to you. I would never go behind your back or involve myself in your personal affairs so obtrusively. Please believe me. Save the one search that I told you about, I never looked him up again. It was his caller ID,” she continued. “He saw the school’s name on his caller ID and looked it up on the Internet. When he saw you listed as a teacher on the school’s website, he hoped you had been trying to get a hold of him. I don’t know who called him, but I promise you, it wasn’t me.” She looked at Henry expectantly, not knowing what he might say but hoping, nonetheless, that he would say something.

  “I called him.” His voice rose wit
h a quiet intensity as he spoke. “I called him because I was still living under the delusion that maybe I should try to be more like you.” He stifled an angry laugh. “Well, live and learn, I guess. And that’s exactly what I did today. I learned that your way of living is reckless and stupid and only leads to people getting hurt. You can’t open doors just to see what’s behind them or talk to people because you think they might be nice. You can’t get in the car and drive five hours to pick up a drunk without the slightest clue as to what you’re going to do with her when you get there.”

  “Now you’re just being mean,” Eliza said softly. She bit her bottom lip, hoping the pain might stop the tears she felt building beneath her eyes. She shook her head. “I’m sorry if I’ve caused you any pain, Henry. It was never my intention.”

  She turned and hurried down the porch steps. Before she reached her own apartment, she heard Henry’s door click closed. When she looked back, she saw the light on his porch go dark.

  Chapter 17

  For Henry, the rest of the week seemed interminable. When the weekend finally arrived, he was anxious to get away from Rockbridge and clear his head. Saturday afternoon, he took AJ hiking. They had a good time, but it didn’t provide the head clearing Henry sought. Every time he looked at AJ, all he could see were those eyes—William Harrison’s eyes looking out from his son’s face.

  It made him colder, more distant than he wanted to be, certainly more than AJ needed him to be. This only heightened his frustration. He’d had a breakthrough with Daniel by taking a risk and reaching out to him in a more personal way. And yet he felt incapable of making that same connection with his own son. He hoped church would prove a distraction, but, then, church was more complicated because he’d have to work on avoiding Eliza. He’d managed at Rockbridge pretty well, but the branch building was small. It would be hard not to pass her in the hallway at least once or twice.

  On Sunday morning, Henry drove slowly down the mountain into Rose Creek. Heavy sheets of rain were falling from an iron-gray sky, forcing Henry to drop his speed to half the normal limit. The rain was making his trip near treacherous.

  After rounding a sharp curve, Henry slammed on his breaks and swerved in order to avoid hitting a navy-blue SUV parked on the side of the road. It was obvious the driver had pulled over as far as possible—flush up against a steep bank that rose into a thick forest of trees—but the car still butted heavily into the road. With such poor visibility, it was sure to get hit. As Henry passed the car, he thought it looked familiar. A small decal in the back window confirmed his suspicion. The car belonged to Eliza.

  Henry felt a knot of dread growing in his stomach. Where was Eliza, and why would she leave her car in such a dangerous location? He picked up his cell phone and confirmed what he already knew. He was still a few miles away from the nearest cell signal. If he didn’t have cell reception, she didn’t either.

  If she’d run out of gas or had car trouble—the most likely scenarios—she wouldn’t have been able to call for help. Henry shook his head. If he knew anything about Eliza at all, he knew she wasn’t the kind of person who would simply sit still and wait for someone to find her. She would have left her car and tried to walk for help. But in this weather? The rain was heavy enough that Henry couldn’t see more than ten or twenty yards in front of his car. The only thing easier than hitting Eliza’s car by accident would be hitting her.

  Please, God, just help me find her.

  Henry pulled around the SUV and slowly crept forward, glancing off to either side of the road as frequently as he could safely manage in search of Eliza. A half mile later, he breathed out a sigh of relief as he saw her walking on the side of the road. He pulled up beside her and rolled down his window.

  “Eliza, what happened?” He motioned for her to get in the car. “Come around and get in.” He had to yell for her to hear him over the rain, but she must have heard or at least understood how ridiculous it would be for her to keep standing in the rain. She crossed in front of Henry’s car and climbed into the passenger seat.

  “Oh, I’m so wet, Henry! Your car will be ruined.”

  “Don’t worry about the car. What happened?” he asked again. “Here, put this on.” He reached into the backseat and picked up his suit coat. “You’ll freeze just sitting there like that.”

  “No, Henry, not your nice suit coat. I’ll be fine.”

  “I insist,” Henry said. “Please, take it.” She begrudgingly took his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders.

  “Thank you.” She sniffed and wiped her face with her hands. She was soaked head to toe. “I ran out of gas. Did you see my car? With no cell reception, I figured I had little choice but to try to walk into town. You never see anyone on these roads this early on a Sunday. I figured I’d wait all day if I just sat still. But then the rain started, and I’m wearing heels and—” She stopped and looked at Henry. “I’m so glad you stopped.”

  “Of course,” Henry said.

  “I feel so foolish. I knew it was going to be close, but I really thought I had enough gas to make it into town.”

  “It happens to the best of us,” Henry assured her. He drove in silence for a few minutes, allowing the tension of their last conversation to creep into the car.

  The fact that Eliza hadn’t been the one to contact William Harrison directly did little to alter Henry’s feelings. In his anger, he’d been foolish to look past the simplicity of caller ID and a little bit of online research—a very logical way for William Harrison to have discovered his whereabouts. But it was still Eliza’s fault. The entire situation never would have come about had she not felt the need to stick her nose into his personal business.

  Of course he wouldn’t leave her stranded in the rain on the side of the road—stopping to help was the decent thing to do—but that didn’t mean he had to go out of his way to be her friend. She’d shaken up his life quite enough. Henry slowed the car and turned into the driveway of Allison’s childhood home.

  “Are we not going to a gas station?” Eliza asked. “I thought you’d want to be rid of me before you picked up AJ.”

  “You’re not going to a gas station,” Henry said. “You can’t go to church as soaked as you are. I thought you could stay here, dry off, and warm up, and I’ll go take care of your car. I’ll take AJ’s grandfather along; he can drive it back to the house for you.”

  “Why does it seem like every time I need to be rescued, you’re the one who shows up?”

  “It’s nothing. It’s what anyone would do.”

  “It is not what anyone would do. You’ve been so kind to me. With all you did to help Gina, and now you’re helping again this morning. I . . .” She thought a moment, then said, “I really am sorry for what happened, Henry. I’m so sorry that my actions have caused you pain in any way.”

  It wasn’t something Henry wanted to talk about again. He’d replayed the moments of that afternoon over and over in his mind, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remove Eliza from the middle of his frustration. He realized she hadn’t meant to hurt him, but an apology couldn’t change what had happened.

  “Let’s get you inside. I’m sure Allison has something you can borrow while your clothes dry.”

  They got out of the car and hurried up the concrete walkway and onto the porch.

  “I hate that you’re going to miss church as well,” Eliza said as they waited for someone to answer the door. “You should at least be able to make it in time for Sunday School.”

  Henry glanced at his watch and only nodded.

  Allison answered the door. Henry had to give her credit. If she felt surprise over finding him standing on the porch with a dripping wet redhead, she did a fine job of concealing it.

  Henry hurried to explain, and Allison was gracious, inviting Eliza in and readily agreeing to Henry’s plan.

  When he and Jim left to get gas for Eliza’s car, he had no doubt she would be well cared for. He expected that Lila, true to her grandmotherly nature, wa
s already doting on Eliza, fixing her something warm to drink, making sure she was happy and comfortable.

  There was an element of awkwardness to the idea of Eliza spending time with his ex-wife and ex-mother-in-law, but with her soaking wet and cold, it seemed the most reasonable option. Once her car was gassed up and ready to go, she could be on her way, and Henry could spend the rest of the day with AJ, as planned.

  He still didn’t know what he would do with the boy once church was over. The rain made their Sunday afternoons together difficult. He didn’t mind just staying at Jim and Lila’s house and visiting with him there, but it was easier for AJ to get distracted when he was home. When Henry had tried it in the past, he’d often found himself visiting with Jim and Lila while AJ had played video games or read in his room.

  Fortunately, Allison at least made herself scarce whenever Henry had plans to hang around. Their relationship was civil, friendly even, but it had only just begun to not be a painful experience for Henry to be around her.

  By the time he and Jim made it to a gas station and back to Eliza’s car, the rain had stopped. Henry stood, his hands shoved deep into his pockets, as Jim slowly poured gas into the SUV’s tank.

  “She seems like a nice girl,” Jim said.

  Henry looked up. “Who, Eliza?”

  “No, the other redhead you brought to the house this morning. Do you like her?”

  Henry took the empty gas can from Jim. “No. I mean, I don’t know. I’m sorry, Jim. This just feels like a weird question for me to be getting from you.”

  Henry watched as Jim turned and looked him right in the eye. “Son, I’m goin’ to tell you something man to man, all right? I expect Allison will tell you herself before too long, but I don’t want you to be blindsided.” He shifted his weight and ran his fingers through his sparse gray hair. “Robert and Allison are getting married. He just asked her last night, and she said yes.”