CHAPTER 3
Maple
Three days later
I wasn’t about to wait another four or so days for him to come back down from those cold, isolated hills. I couldn’t.
I had two choices. Live down here surrounded by people that think differently than I do and who I have no time for, or blaze my own trail.
And my trail could only go one direction. Up that windy mountain pass looking for him.
It was a fool’s errand, and I was the perfect fool.
Young. Naive. And with an itch that needed to be scratched more than anything.
But more importantly I was feeling things for him that I’d never felt for anyone before. I had to acknowledge that and at least give myself a chance to meet him where it seems he’s most comfortable. Up in his own element.
I’d gone hiking up that way once or twice as a little girl. I knew it was a long ways up to the top, but I also knew there was only one house up there. I checked Zillow.com and some other real estate sites and couldn’t find a recent title transfer. That didn’t mean much though. The owner had passed away long ago and the family was looking to sell. The problem was there were no buyers in this part of the world. Who wants to live like a hermit up in the middle of nowhere? And those who do probably don’t have the Internet speed or Google skills to locate the kind of place that will do the job.
It’s possible that describes him as well. Maybe he built something up there. The only thing is that I would have noticed trucks carrying up the lumber, unless he chopped the trees down himself. And I never saw him go next door to the hardware store to gather any building supplies.
The odds said he was up in old man Farnsworth’s house, so that’s where I’d start first.
I stepped outside of the modest home I inherited after my mother passed. It was all we had and now it’s just about all I had, next to the rust bucket of a car sitting underneath the tarp underneath the snow covered pine trees in my front yard.
I prayed it would start. I wasn’t about to ask Cory to help me if it didn’t, and I’d never met my dad so I was pretty much out of luck considering I didn’t exactly have many guys in my life…even as friends.
I spent the next fifteen minutes removing snow from the top of the tarp. First with a shovel and then with a broom. I didn’t feel the cold or even consider the absurdity of what I was doing. I was only focused on the end goal…finding him.
I’d move hell or high water to do so and in this case that was precisely what I’d need to do.
The more snow I removed the faster I worked until I finally opened the door and sat down in the driver’s seat.
Time for the moment of truth.
I put the key in the ignition and turned it. Nothing. Just a clicking sound. The engine was fast asleep.
I tried again and I heard a light gurgle. It wasn’t much but it was progress.
A third time and ol’ Bessie shook a bit. I laughed to myself, remembering my mom naming her car. She was quite a character and a fighter. If she could battle cancer as courageously as she did for three long years then I could surely battle a little cold weather and a ton of metal, a battery, and some gas.
She hadn’t even told me the first couple years. One day when I was at work she drove all the way into the capital to get checked out at a free clinic. Fortunately they sent her over to a doctor who ran some tests and confirmed her worst fears. She hoped it was just an infection, but it turned out to be much, much worse.
We didn’t have the money to treat it so she just kept it her secret. It was her way. Why raise a fuss if it’s not going to do any good?
I admired that woman more than she ever knew, and I wanted her to admire me now. At least I was going to take a chance and try to leave this small town. She made me promise her I’d leave as soon as I could. Well…today was the start of that journey.
I laughed under my breath thinking that I was finally taking the first step to leave, but in doing so I was going to an even more secluded and remote location. Out of the frying pan and into the fire I guess.
But this wasn’t any frying pan and the fire he’d put inside my belly, and other places, was burning white hot.
I kept turning over the key like a woman possessed. It seemed like the car wanted to come to life a little more with each attempt.
My only fear was flooding the engine.
I stopped and took a deep inhale. Surely I was close to flooding her and then I’d be out of luck for some time.
“Come on ol’ Bess. Just one time for me, girl.”
And then I pulled out the ultimate ask.
“Mom. I know you’re up there watching me. I hope you’re laughing too, because I’ve absolutely lost my mind here. But I’m trying to do what you made me promise to do, so if there’s anyone you can ask…well…it would mean a lot to me.”
I felt the tear stream down my face. I miss her so much. So much that I was talking to her and asking her favors. Was I crazy? Yeah…I definitely was.
But sometimes it takes a little crazy to make you sane again.
“One…two…three!” I said as I turned the key one final time.
Old Bessie coughed, and gurgled, and basically made about every sound you would expect a bear to make if you woke it on the coldest day of winter in the middle of its hibernation.
But when you poke the bear you better watch out.
And apparently I poked Bess one too many times because the engine turned over and she sprang to life!
I beat my hands on the steering wheel and buried my face in the horn, causing it to go off.
I laughed and then pulled my face back. I looked up.
“Thank you, momma. I’m going to go up there and see what I can do about taking that journey out of here.”
I waited a few minutes for Bess to get warm, using the time to shovel a path out to the road.
A few minutes later my little house was in the rear view and I was on my way to track down the Mountain Man.