Behind the Seams

by Betty Hechtman

  I was surprised when he led us to the parking lot. “You won’t believe where they’re having it. Those celeb types are so jaded, they had to come up with something bordering on ridiculous.”

  We got in his black Scion and he drove out of town and turned onto a road that said Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. I’d heard about it but never been. Neither had Adele. Both of us said we’d always wanted to go.

  The mountains were already cutting off the late-afternoon sun and the parking lot seemed dark after the brightness of the desert floor. The cool shade felt good. Even though it was dry heat, ninety degrees was still hot. D. J. walked ahead and said he’d use his badge to get us passes on the tram.

  By the time we caught up with him, he had tickets and ushered us into the waiting area. There were only a few people waiting to go up. When I seemed a little uncertain, he smiled. “I told you it bordered on ridiculous.”

  I followed the wires that carried the tram up the mountain with my eyes. They seemed to go almost straight up.

  Our tram arrived and the small crowd got on. As we began our ascent, there was a running taped commentary talking about how the tramway was built and how everything that went up or down the mountain, including trash, went via the tram. The gondola kept turning, giving us a view of the desert floor below that looked golden in the fading afternoon sun, and then the changing vegetation on the mountain side.

  It was amazing; in the short ride we’d gone up to 8,900 feet above sea level. The tram door opened and we walked directly into the station. D. J. led us through it quickly, and I barely noted that there were a few shops and some busy food places. I got a brief view out the window and saw that the station was situated on the edge of the mountaintop and there was a panoramic view of the desert below.

  We had to rush to keep up with D. J., and Adele’s hat flew off, but luckily she had attached a tie to it like those on cowboy hats, and it hung on her back. D. J. opened the door, and we stepped out onto a concrete deck. What I saw totally surprised me. Snow! He waved for us to follow. I looked at my linen top and slacks and hesitated.

  “Don’t worry, it’s not that cold up here now. They have tents set up with heaters and sweatshirts on every seat.” He wore only jeans and a dress shirt himself. “What kind of gentleman am I?” he said, taking my tote bag. I’d stuffed everything in there and it was kind of heavy and a relief to let it go. He offered to carry Adele’s as well, but she insisted the way it was strapped across her chest, it was easy to carry. My bag grazed his fanny pack as he slung it on his shoulder.

  We went down a zigzagging concrete ramp and then out onto the snow. It was a little chilly, but we were moving so quickly, we built up body heat. I guessed it was close to sixty degrees. Still, I was looking forward to the heated tents he’d promised. We passed some other people dressed in open jackets, heading in the opposite direction, and they nodded in greeting. Two kids lagged behind, stopping to throw snowballs.

  Walking through the snow wasn’t easy. It appeared to have frozen and melted and frozen again so it was packed down but still slippery. Occasionally we hit a soft spot and snow got in my shoes.

  I questioned the lack of a path and wondered about the pampered celebrity types walking through the snow.

  “They’re ferrying them up by helicopter. I thought it would be easier to sneak you two in if we came up this way.” I noticed he’d glanced at his watch a number of times, and I supposed he was trying to get there before the crowd started arriving and security might be tighter.

  I glanced around as we rushed on. In one direction, the land sloped up to a peak and it was covered with snow and pine trees. I looked back, expecting to see the tram station, but all I saw was snow, more pine trees and an occasional boulder.

  “Are you sure you’re going the right way?” Adele said, stopping for a moment to catch her breath. “This doesn’t seem like a very good plan.”

  I leaned against a boulder, my feet were wet, and even with the built-up body heat, I was getting cold. The sun had disappeared behind the mountain and the temperature was dropping quickly. “Maybe we should just go back,” I said.

  D. J. stepped next to me. “I’m sure we’re almost there. Why don’t I run up ahead and pick up a couple of sweatshirts for you,” he said.

  I turned to Adele to say something, and when I’d turned back, he had disappeared in the trees ahead.

  “Why did I ever listen to you, Pink” Adele said, hugging herself to keep warm.

  “Listen to me? You thought it was a great idea.”

  “Right, when we were down in Palm Springs and it was warm and sunny. Nobody said anything about snow.”

  I stepped closer to Adele and she stepped closer to me until our arms were touching. The snow made it seem brighter than it was. I was pretty sure the sun had gone completely down by now. “I say we give him five minutes and then we head back,” Adele said with a shiver.

  I suddenly regretted not having my bag but was glad when I felt my BlackBerry in my pocket. I wasn’t so glad when I saw that the battery meter was down to two bars. The cord had fallen behind something and I’d forgotten to charge it overnight. Adele rummaged around in her bag and found some mints. Just what we wanted, something to cool our breath.

  She asked for my BlackBerry and started fiddling around with it. “Pink, technology is so wasted on you.”

  She showed me the screen and on it was a picture of one of the trams we’d be on. Then she took it back and began reading and making little squeals as she read.

  “Okay, what’s the matter?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” Adele said in a tone that said it was anything but nothing. “Except that it says at least once a month somebody gets lost up here. Some couple got lost up here for three days. But that was summer, no snow and it was much warmer.” I heard her suck in her breath. “But some other guy died up here. All they found was his skeleton and his backpack,” Adele said as her teeth began to chatter. We both looked in the direction we thought D. J. had gone and there was nothing.

  “Something doesn’t feel right about this,” I said. “You don’t think that D. J. got us up here with the plan of ditching us?”

  “Don’t say that, Pink.” I could barely make out Adele’s features in the low light. She looked like she might cry. Not a good idea, because it was getting colder fast and I thought her tears might freeze. She still had my BlackBerry and was online.

  “Give me that. You used up most of the power,” I said, grabbing the BlackBerry. “Okay, let’s look at this logically. Why would D. J. ditch us?”

  “Maybe because he wanted your tote bag,” Adele said, pointing out that he’d taken it supposedly to ease my way.

  I went over what was in it. I couldn’t imagine why he’d want any of it. “What would he want with Robyn’s old doll?” I said. “Unless it was the media card stuck in her undies. He was standing next to us when we found it.”

  “Yeah, Pink, that has to be it.”

  “But I heard you say there was nothing on it.”

  “No, I said all I got was a blue screen. There could be something on it my camera couldn’t read.”

  “What could be on it that could be so important to him?”

  “Sherlock Pink, and you call yourself a sleuth. How about Robyn had some secret information on him?”

  I hated to admit it, but I realized Adele had something. I’d been so busy thinking Robyn’s plan had to do with the show her parents were on, I never thought about D. J.’s program. What if he was the one she was going to reveal something about? “What information could she have had?”

  “News flash, Pink, whatever it was, he killed her over it.”

  “Oh my God,” I said as I began to remember things. I thought back to Salute to Chocolate. “D. J. was right there when Miles called the bookstore.” I wanted to kick myself as I remembered how I’d told Talia who Miles was and said he might have some information about who killed Robyn. And D. J. was standing right next to her. He could have been worried a
bout what Miles knew.” I stopped while it sunk in. “And he could have been the person someone saw at the halfway house. If anybody would know about drugs, it would be a former addict.”

  “Great that you figured it out, Pink. I think it’s a safe bet he isn’t coming back, and in case you haven’t noticed, we’re in the middle of nowhere, and I mean nowhere. When I looked online, I saw there isn’t a road up here for miles and miles and that people use cross-country skis to get to them.

  “By the way, the reason people get in trouble up here is because, like us, they come up unprepared for the wilderness. I mean, who expects snow when you’re coming from the hot desert?” Adele added. None of it was reassuring.

  I took my BlackBerry and punched in 911, but nothing happened.

  We argued about who to call. Adele thought we should look up the number for the ranger, and I didn’t want to waste the last of the power on trying to find it. Adele took out her cell phone, but it was useless up there. She was with Fred’s Friendly Mobile Service, which was cheap, but you only got a signal if you were practically in their store.

  “Pink, do something. I don’t want to be a human icicle.” Typical Adele. As soon as there was trouble, Miss Know-It-All expected me to fix it.

  I suggested we try walking back the way we’d come. She had the idea we could follow our footprints, but between having walked on packed down snow and the darkness, we couldn’t find them. “We can’t just stay here, Pink,” Adele said, picking a direction and starting to walk. She brought up how the mountain ended at a ledge, and if we could find that, we could follow it back to the tram station.

  Adele stepped on something and skidded. I tried to grab her and we both fell into the snow. Great, now we had wet feet and wet clothes. Adele felt around for what she’d stepped on and picked up something round and metal.

  “It’s one of those flying saucer sleds. Somebody must have left it,” I said. Adele dropped it and we stood up, looking around for some little hint of the right direction. “We’ve got to keep on going,” I said, trying to keep the panic out of my voice. I picked a direction and we started to walk toward some trees. A few minutes later, Adele slipped again, though this time I caught her. We both gasped when we saw that the cause was the same sled. We had walked in a circle.

  “It’s hopeless. With no path, nothing to orient ourselves with and nothing as far as I can see but trees and snow, we’ll never find our way,” I said. “Maybe we can make a snow cave or something. If we can make it until morning, at least we’ll have the sun.”

  Adele had my BlackBerry again and had gone online. She shrieked. “You can have hypothermia if your body temperature goes down to ninety-five degrees.” She felt her forehead. “I think there’s frost on my forehead. Pink, we can’t go to sleep, no matter how tired we get. That’s what happens just before you die.”

  I pulled my phone back. How could I have missed it? “We can send an e-mail.” But the idea didn’t go any further when I realized I’d never gotten around to putting in any e-mail addresses and my one big move had been to clear the mailbox, so I couldn’t even reply to one. The power was dwindling. I thumbed through the contacts. I’d been meaning to put in everyone’s phone number but not gotten around to that, either. I was embarrassed to admit that I still relied on a paper address book. And my mind blanked when I tried to think of the numbers I called all the time. Hallelujah! Mason must have put his number in when he gave me the phone. I pressed call and hoped for the best.

  I heard the phone begin to ring. I crossed my fingers he would answer. Just when I thought it was going to go to voice mail, I heard him say hello. As soon as he heard it was me, he started to joke about me missing him. The low battery warning started to beep and I had to interrupt him.

  “We need help,” I yelled. “We’re stuck in the snow at the top of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.” I waited to hear him respond, but there was only silence. Somewhere as I was talking, the battery had gone out and the phone cut off. There was no way of knowing how much he’d heard.

  I lost it and told Adele if she hadn’t been playing around online, the battery would have lasted longer. “He was our only hope,” I said.

  Adele looked down as what I had said sank in. “We’re going to die. We’re going to die,” she shrieked.

  I had to calm her down, which was hard because I was feeling a little panicky myself. I was hoping that even if Mason didn’t hear everything, he’d heard enough. But who knew? We leaned against a huge bolder and tried to share our body heat. Adele got the idea we should keep moving, so we started jiggling and shimmying.

  “This could be the last night of our lives,” she said. As we kept gyrating around, she talked. “Pink, I have a confession to make. You probably never realized this, but I was pretty upset when you got hired as event coordinator. I thought I was going to get the job. I might have been a little mad at you and tried to make things difficult,” she said. If I hadn’t been shivering and so cold that it hurt, I might have rolled my eyes.

  “But, the thing is,” Adele continued, “you turned out to be okay. And you might be my best friend,” When she said that, my eyes got watery and I had to pinch myself to keep from crying. I should have waited. “But the reason I only said might be, is because you’ve never invited me over to your house. A real best friend would have invited just me over to brunch or something.” She turned to look at me with a question in her eyes.

  I jiggled my arms as I put them up in capitulation. “I promise, when we get back, we’re on for French toast.” I made a point of saying when rather than if.

  “Pink, you shouldn’t have mentioned the French toast. It made me think of food and that I’m hungry.” She rummaged in her messenger bag and came up with an open bag of almonds that seemed to have a higher ratio of lint. I was touched when she offered it to me first. We huddled together and tried to share our body heat as we blew white bits off the stale nuts.

  It seemed to get darker and colder, and every breeze that rustled the trees made us shiver more. I thought I heard something in the distance, but I was afraid it was just my imagination. Then Adele heard it, too. As it got louder, there was no mistaking the thwack of a helicopter. It was so cold now it burned, but with the hope of being rescued, my heart felt lighter.

  It was too soon to celebrate. The helicopter began making a sweep and shone its powerful light down, but it was nowhere near us. I jumped up and down and waved my arms as if it would help, but the helicopter didn’t alter its course.

  “We have to do something to get their attention. I don’t suppose you have any reflective tape in your bag or a flashlight.”

  Adele rummaged around and came out with the tiny flashlight that projected a heart and the word love. “That’s not going to help,” I said.

  “People always make fires to get attention,” Adele offered.

  I was going to mention the fact that any wood on the ground was wet and wouldn’t the snow just put a fire out anyway, when I had an idea.

  The saucer sled was sitting where we’d left it. “We could make a fire in this.” The helicopter seemed even farther away now.

  “Give me your bag,” I demanded. Adele held back and said something about me being jealous because I didn’t have mine.

  “Are you nuts? We could die here and you think I want your bag because I don’t have mine?”

  “I’m sorry, Pink. Me saying that was just a symptom of hypothermia. It’s supposed to make you irrational.” I rolled my eyes to myself and thought maybe Adele was always suffering from hypothermia.

  She handed over her bag and I started to take out all the receipts and scraps of paper. I piled them in the sled. I went through her crochet stuff and took out the wooden hooks.

  “You can’t take those,” Adele protested. “They’re handmade and one of a kind.”

  “You think your skeleton is going to be crocheting with them?” I said, taking them from the bag. I found a couple of skeins of cotton yarn and the pad of Post-it notes she use
d to keep track of her work.

  Adele started to say she needed the yarn to show Barbara how to crochet, but even she realized she was being ridiculous and stopped herself midsentence.

  “Now we just need to light it,” I said.

  “Isn’t there something about rubbing two rocks together,” she offered.

  “Give me that little flashlight you have. Maybe I can use it to find some rocks, though I’m not sure just any rocks will do.” She took out the love light. Seeing a heart with the word love projected on the snow was pretty, but not helpful.

  “Give it to me,” I said. For the first time, I noticed the other end. “Adele this is a lighter.”

  “Really?” she said, completely surprised. I flicked it, and we both jumped up and down before I touched the flame to the pile of stuff. The paper flared and then the cotton yarn and finally the wooden crochet hooks caught. Then we hugged each other and crossed our fingers the helicopter would see the fire.

  I was afraid to look. This was our only chance. If the fire went out, we’d have nothing else to burn. Was it my imagination or was the thwack getting louder? Then I was sure. Adele and I looked up and were bathed in the spotlight. We started jumping up and down again to make sure they saw us. It circled and lowered and set up a huge wind. Finally it hovered just above the ground. I saw someone in a bright-colored helmet leaning out. I didn’t stop to think about being scared, but just grabbed Adele’s hand and we ran toward it.

  I felt a pair of arms pull me inside. Adele came in after, and we both fell into seats. A voice barked for us to buckle in and the helicopter took off.

  You could say we’d been saved by a hook.

  They dropped us off on the desert floor. Several police cars and an ambulance were waiting. They wanted to take us to the hospital, but I insisted we were fine and had to get to the benefit. I told the cops about D. J. abandoning us and the doll with the media card in her underpants that I was sure had some crucial evidence in a murder. I was pretty sure I convinced them we weren’t delirious from the cold. Reluctantly, two of the officers agreed to give us a lift.