Alex didn't move.
Faith didn't move.
They simply stared at each other.
"I want to finish this," Faith said. "I want to end it today if we can."
"What about your head?"
"It's fine." Faith turned to Jimmy. "How much further will we have to go?"
"Three or four hours walking from the windmill up ahead," he said, pointing to a structure in the distance. "Follow a compass heading fifty-five degrees from the windmill down an old coal-mining cut. You'll come to a narrow chute of loose sand that leads to a trail below. You should pass by a very strange looking rock formation they call 'the ghost.' From there you'll have to figure out which of the side canyons you want -- there are many to choose from. The wind can be very strong. Be careful."
"We'll wait until help comes for you," Alex said.
Jimmy shook his head. "No. Absolutely not. It will be too late then."
"We can't just leave you like this," Faith said.
"You must go now. I will be fine. Please. I feel this is very important. Go." He pressed the phone into Faith's hand.
She gave it back to him. "You need this, Jimmy, just in case they can't find you."
Jimmy considered her words. "All right. I will send a friend back for you tomorrow. He will be here at ten in the morning. He will wait until four. If you have not come back by then, he will call for help. There is room for the pot in that backpack," Jimmy said, pointing to the larger pack.
Alex did as Jimmy suggested and finally they were ready to go.
"Thank you, Jimmy," Faith said, shaking his hand. "I hope you'll be all right."
"I wish the same for you."
Faith took a deep breath as she looked up the trail. Alex put his hand on her shoulder, following her gaze. "Scared?"
"Terrified. And you?"
"I'd rather be getting a root canal."
"We can do this," she said, as much to garner her courage as his. "After all, you're wearing your Top Flight tennis shoes. You said you could do anything in those shoes."
Alex glanced down at his feet, then sent her a slow, confident smile. "You're right. I'd forgotten. Come on, let's go find ourselves a canyon."
Faith shook her head in disgust as Alex charged ahead. "Well, at least you believe in something," she called out after him. "Even if it's only your shoes."
* * *
They found the windmill and checked their compass heading, then took the winding path down to the canyon floor. They found themselves walking under 150-foot rim rocks, shaded from pink to gray with streaks of black coal at the top. They passed two springs that were completely dry, and as the day wore on they stopped several times to take refreshing sips of water.
The wind that had blown their Jeep onto its side seemed oddly quiet now. They saw no one during their journey. Faith couldn't imagine why anyone would have chosen to live in a place like this, so dry, so desolate, so frightening. As the afternoon shadows fell across the canyons, some of the rock formations took on monstrous appearances, and Faith began to feel distinctly uneasy.
They were all alone and yet she felt as if someone were watching them.
Alex stopped a few minutes later to wipe some sweat from his face. He looked back at her, his face a picture of grim determination. "Have you ever seen such a place?"
"No."
She glanced over her shoulder, trying to make mental notes of the way they'd come. She'd hate to get lost in this maze of canyons and rocks. She had a feeling it would be days before anyone would find them.
"Shall we keep going?" he asked.
"We've come this far."
"We won't get out of here before dark, Faith. We'll have to spend the night, unless we turn back now."
"Let's keep going. I feel like we're getting close." In the past few minutes, the canyon walls had begun to look familiar. She could almost remember running through them once before.
Alex continued to lead the way, and Faith slowly followed. Fifteen minutes later she looked up to the sky to see how far the sun had gone down and saw the rocks, the butterflies. They had run toward those rocks. They had believed that love, freedom, happiness, lay just beyond. "Alex, stop!"
Alex came to an abrupt halt. "What's wrong?"
She pointed toward the sky. "Look."
"Is that it?"
"I think so." She saw a path off to the side. "That way. Let's go that way."
As they followed the path, the sandstone earth began to crumble, leaving Faith to wonder if they could actually make it to the top. And what if they got there and there was no cave?
She paused and shaded her eyes, hoping to catch a glimpse of some type of crevice, but the rocks went in and out of her view, hiding the landscape above until she was almost on top of it. That was probably why they'd gone there, hoping to stay hidden, away from the angry eyes of those searching below.
As they climbed, the wind began to blow stronger. Faith had to stop to pull her hair away from her eyes. Alex shot her an occasional worried look, but they were both too tired, too tense, to speak. The cliff path grew steeper, but they were getting closer to the butterflies, and Faith felt an impatience to reach the top.
Just then her foot slipped and she began to fall. She cried out for Alex and tried desperately to grab on to something, but the loose dirt slipped through her fingers.
"Hang on, Faith." Alex reached for her, slipping and sliding himself as they rolled partway down the side of the cliff. Finally he caught her hand and held on, steadying her until the rush of pebbles and rocks stopped.
Faith felt absolutely terrified as she saw the sharp, pointed rocks below. If Alex let go, if her hand slipped...
"Look at me," Alex commanded. "Look at me, dammit."
Faith struggled to turn her gaze. Finally she looked into his stark blue eyes and saw determination, courage, strength, so much strength she felt reassured. He would not let her go. He would not let her fall.
"Don't think about what's down there. I'm going to pull you up, okay?"
She gave him a small nod, too terrified to move. Alex slowly set his feet on more solid ground and began to pull. She kept her gaze on him, trying to think calmly, to believe. He strained against the weight of his backpack combined with her weight and her backpack. She'd never seen a man so determined to succeed. This was the man who had built a shoe empire. This was the man who had battled his own insecurities to rise to the top. And this was the man of her dreams -- the warrior. She had the sense they had played this scene before.
In fact, she knew what was about to happen. As Alex pulled her back to the path, to safety, she fell backward against the side of the cliff and her hand came down on a --
"No!" she screamed. "Get it away."
"What?" Alex yelled.
She shifted ever so slightly and looked to the right where she had almost put down her hand. It was there -- the snake.
"Don't move, Faith. There's a rattlesnake right next to you."
"I know," she whispered. "Do something, Alex. Please, do something!"
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Alex picked up a heavy rock the size of a brick and weighed it in his hand. "The snake is about a foot away from you, Faith," he said calmly, as if he were talking about a book or some other inanimate object. "I'm going to nail it with this rock. And then we're going to run like hell up the path."
"Do you think you can hit it?"
"It's just like a free throw," he muttered. "I can do this. I know I can."
Faith stared at his face and prayed that he was right.
Alex lifted the rock, took aim, and heaved it at the snake. Faith jumped to her feet and ran. Alex followed her down the path, and they didn't stop running until they were twenty yards away.
Faith stopped, breathless, adrenaline surging through her body from the near fall and the near snakebite.
Alex stopped, too, his own chest heaving with ragged, triumphant breaths. "We did it!"
"You did it." Faith slipped out of her back
pack and flung her arms around Alex's neck. "You saved my life."
"I wouldn't go that far. I'm not even sure I hit the damn thing."
"You did. Oh, Alex." She stared into his eyes and felt so much love for this man that it completely overwhelmed her.
Their mouths met in a hungry, passionate kiss that knew no boundaries, no barriers. The fear of the past few minutes had heightened every emotion. His mouth gave her exquisite pleasure, and she took everything he had to give.
Alex lifted his head and looked into her eyes. "Damn, Faith. What have you done to me?"
"The same thing you've done to me."
"I want to make love to you -- right here, right now."
Her heart caught at his words. "There's a cave not far from here. It's just around the next bend." She stopped, seeing the question in his eyes. "I know because--"
"Because you've been there before."
"Yes." She paused, taking a deep breath. "The last time the warrior had to carry me because I'd been bitten by a snake, and the poison was sweeping through my body."
Alex's mouth tightened grimly. His eyes darkened. "You knew there was a snake. You said..." He shook his head. "I don't understand. This can't be happening."
"It is happening. I don't know why or how, but it's real to me. I know now why I felt sick in my dreams. I'd been bitten by a snake. I think I was dying." She turned toward the trail, suddenly impatient to see the cave.
Alex followed closely behind her, steadying her when she stumbled. Finally they saw an opening before them, almost completely covered by brush.
"It's there," Faith said in bemusement, stunned they'd actually found it. "Right there."
"Are you sure?"
She nodded, setting down her backpack in the small clearing in front of the cave.
"There's a flashlight in my pack," Alex said. "Let me get it out so we can see what's inside."
Alex retrieved the flashlight and they crawled in through the mouth of the cave. Once inside, he focused the light on the walls.
It was a small cave, barely six feet by eight feet. There wasn't enough headroom for a man to stand. Faith followed the light with wary eyes, not sure what they would find in the cave. If two people had died here, their skeletons might still remain. But she didn't see anything but dust and dirt and some carvings on a distant wall.
She'd seen them before. She'd watched as the warrior had carved out the symbols, knowing that one day they would be read by the people following them, and they would know that they had died for love.
"Faith? Is this the place?"
"Yes. This is it."
"I'll get the pot. Hold the flashlight."
Faith did as Alex asked, crawling deeper into the cave while he went to retrieve the pot. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting the images come into her head.
The warrior soothed her with his kiss and his touch. He promised her an eternity in his arms. And that was where she would soon be. She could feel the poison killing her slowly, inch by inch, the pain so excruciating she wanted to die now. Only that would mean leaving him so much earlier.
She still wanted him to go, to escape. He could be free just over the cliff. They had seen the butterflies dancing on the rocks. They had heard the stories of another land, one green with grass, wet with water, filled with harvest.
She looked into his eyes, imploring him to go. She did not want him to die.
He would not leave her, he told her. And he would not let them take joy in killing him. He held the stalk of a plant in front of her eyes and placed it against his lips.
Her heart stopped. The plant would kill him as surely as the snake had taken her life. She used every last ounce of her strength to stop him. And finally when he was looking at her, she tipped her head to their pot, the symbol of their love, which would surely be smashed to bits when they were found.
He understood and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. He set down the stalk and picked up the pot. He walked over to the farthest, darkest corner of the cave. Digging through the loose rocks, he placed the pot in the corner where it could not be seen. Then he went outside and brought in more rocks, more shrubs. He covered up the entrance to their cave, shutting out the last bit of light, the last bit of air. When he was done, he came back to her and took her in his arms. She thought he ate the plant then, but she didn't want to watch.
She knew the end was near, but with his heart beating steadily beneath her cheek, she felt strong and brave, as if she were the warrior. The sun filled her heart and lifted her to the sky. The pain faded away, and she danced toward the butterflies, feeling gloriously free. He followed her minutes later and together they found a new world.
Faith felt the tears dripping down her cheeks, the heart beating beneath her cheek, and when she opened her eyes she was wrapped in Alex's arms.
"Over there," she said with a small sob. "He put it over there."
Alex's eyes met hers. "They died here."
"Yes. They were running away from the man she was supposed to marry. When she couldn't go on, they knew they would be found and murdered. So the warrior boarded up the cave as best he could. He hid the pot over there." She pointed to the most distant part of the cave. "Then he ate a poisonous plant, deliberately killing himself, because he couldn't bear to live without her."
Faith was almost afraid of what she would see in Alex's eyes, mockery, amusement, sarcasm -- all of those would have been in character, but instead she saw kindness, compassion.
"Let's put the pot back," he said.
Faith nodded and helped him place the pot carefully behind some rocks, hoping it would stay untouched for centuries to come.
"Be happy," she whispered, then followed Alex out of the cave. The air was refreshing, and she took long, deep breaths, relieved to be out of the cave, away from the haunting memories of a tragic past.
While she was trying to calm her shattered nerves, Alex began to pile rocks and brush in front of the entrance to the cave. At first he could find little to work with, then the wind began to blow, harder and harder until rocks crumbled and the earth began to shake. Alex gave up his efforts, grabbed their packs, and shouted at her to run.
She went up instead of down, toward the butterflies dancing, toward freedom. It wasn't far, she realized with stunning clarity. Another fifty yards and they would have reached the top. They would have seen...
She stopped abruptly. She'd expected a lush green valley, fertile land, water, rivers, colors, but the land ahead of her was a maze of canyon peaks, gargoyle rocks, sharp spires painted red and brown. It was a shockingly brutal vista. She'd heard of the Badlands, but she'd never seen any land so desolate, so frightening, so sad. "Would you look at that? They had nowhere to go," she murmured. "They thought this was the way out, but it wasn't."
"Maybe it's better that they didn't know," Alex said. He dropped their packs on the ground and put his arms around her waist, pulling her against his chest. They didn't speak for several minutes, caught up in the sight before them.
"I've never seen anything like this," Alex said. "It's almost ghostly."
"They would have been horribly disappointed to see this, believing their freedom lay just on the other side of these rocks. They don't look like butterflies anymore. They just look like rocks."
"Sh-sh," he whispered.
"Their love was such a tragedy." She turned in his arms. "What are we supposed to learn from this?"
"I don't know, Faith. Does there have to be a lesson?"
"She followed her heart, and look where it took her."
"They're together now, wherever they are. And they're no longer bound by these canyon walls. They're free, Faith. That's what you have to focus on."
"I know, but I wanted a happy ending."
"And you got one. They're resting in peace now. Besides..." He swung his hand across the vista in front of them. "There is a certain beauty here, a mystical, ghostly beauty."
Faith looked at him in surprise. She'd never expected to hear such a
romantic statement from such a cynic. And as the sun streaked over the horizon, painting the rocks in various startling pastel shades of color, she saw the beauty he spoke of and she shivered.
They stood there quietly, watching the last lingering traces of the sun.
"It will be dark soon," she said.
"Yes. Afraid?"
"Not with you here by my side. You've already saved my life twice."
"Let's not go for three."
"Let's not," she said.
"We should celebrate our victory. We found the canyon. We put the pot back. We broke the curse. Hell, we're standing on top of the whole damn world. It's unbelievable."
Faith grinned at him. "You're finally happy."
"Deliriously happy."
"So how are we going to celebrate? I don't see any fancy restaurants, any bottles of champagne or plates of caviar."
"That could be a problem. Hold on a second." Alex dug through his backpack and pulled out two bottles of water and a box of crackers. "Champagne and appetizers."
"Not bad. I didn't think you had this much imagination." She took a swig of water, the cool liquid easing the parched feeling of her throat. She felt better now. The wind had died down. The sun had set and she was standing on this incredible windswept peak with the man of her dreams.
She turned to Alex and caught him watching her in a way that made her toes curl and her stomach tumble. She didn't just see the desire in his eyes, she felt it in every nerve ending, every breath.
"Well, we're finally alone," he said. "Just you and me and the universe. What do you think we should do now?"
She answered him the only way she knew how. She ran toward him and he met her halfway. Their mouths met in a hot, passionate kiss. Their hands wrestled with buttons and zippers. Stripping down to nothing, they tumbled to the ground, eager, impatient, the need to be one overwhelming their sense of propriety.
When Alex parted her legs with his, when he slipped into her body, Faith welcomed him, feeling like she'd just recaptured a part of herself that had been missing for a very long time. She clung to him, matching him move for move, stroke for stroke, until she couldn't think straight. She could only feel him inside of her, on top of her, surrounding her with love and warmth, burning the ice away from her heart and the loneliness from her past.
The Sweetest Thing Page 31
