The Dark Road Series Collection

by Bruno Miller

  “I guess so,” Joel said.

  “Well, we might just have to come and see for ourselves. Maybe we’ll see you guys up there.” Allie gave Joel a quick little smile as the girls turned and walked way.

  Joel’s heart beat faster in his chest as he realized that the stakes had just been raised on an already daunting challenge.

  “Dude! Snap out of it! You look like you’re in a trance. Be a little more obvious why don’t you?” Brian laughed as he gave his friend a hard time.

  But Joel knew it was no secret he’d taken an interest in Allie since she’d moved here. It was no secret either that he’d never worked up the nerve to talk to her or ask her out. He changed the subject.

  “Come on, let’s get going. I need to stop and fuel up, and you’re giving me ten bucks for gas this time,” he said, trying to put the focus on his friend.

  After putting gas in the Blazer and grabbing a couple energy drinks, which Brian insisted would help them get up the nerve to jump, they headed out of Durango on Route 240 towards Lemon Reservoir.

  It was about a twenty-minute drive that slowly ascended into the San Juan Mountain range at about ten thousand feet. The last several miles were dirt road. Lemon Reservoir was a manmade feature with a surface area alone of over 622 acres. It was surrounded on all sides by reddish limestone cliffs eroded into the sides of the mountain valley in which it sat. The water level in the reservoir could change by as many as sixty inches depending on the amount of snowmelt from the previous winter. It had been a cool spring this year so the winter snowmelt and subsequent runoff had been a little slow and the reservoir was close to winter levels.

  The dirt road around the south side of the reservoir wound along the edge for about four or five miles ending at a campsite and more dirt roads that meandered up into the mountains. When the water was low, one end of the reservoir had a lower side that resembled a beach and was a popular spot for fishing as three or four small streams converged and dumped directly into it. Joel had been there fly fishing many times for rainbow trout and brown trout, and in the right season there was a Kokanee salmon run.

  Being up here got him thinking about the upcoming backpacking trip with his father tomorrow. It had become a tradition of theirs ever since his mom and dad had divorced. It was a good way for him and his dad to bond and share their common interests for the outdoors.

  Joel was quickly reminded why they were there as he pulled around the bend in the road and saw Allison’s blue Jeep parked at the trailhead. “She must have passed us when we stopped to get gas,” Joel said. He and Brian hopped out of the truck and started the half mile hike into the spot where they would be jumping. The trail ran along the edge of the reservoir and as they approached, they could see down to the water from several spots on the path.

  “Water’s pretty low, man,” Brian remarked.

  Joel had already noticed that on the drive in. The trail was a narrow dirt footpath that led to what was originally known as a great photo opportunity spot with an almost panoramic view of the entire reservoir. It was actually a large boulder that stuck out from the mountainside, creating the overhang.

  From there, a slender stream ran across the trail and around the boulder making a small waterfall that dropped straight down from the rock, exaggerating the erosion and causing a deep pool at the bottom directly under the boulder.

  “We were beginning to think you weren’t coming.” He heard Allison’s voice as they came into view.

  “We had to make a quick stop at the store on the way,” Brian said.

  Joel wandered over to the edge and glanced down into the deep pool below. Brian followed him over and looked, too. Joel figured the drop was about fifty feet down in reality, although it sure looked a lot further.

  The dark reddish-brown water that was probably in the upper forty-degree range at best didn’t make it any more inviting.

  Brian let out a sigh and was about to say something when they heard a clucking noise that turned into laughter coming from the bushes behind them.

  Danny Whitman strutted out of the woods and asked, “What’s a matter, chicken?”

  Joel shot back, “We just got here, Danny.”

  Danny Whitman was a boy that Joel didn’t particularly care for. He was a showoff and a loudmouth as far as Joel was concerned, and he was a constant annoyance on the lacrosse field.

  Joel had really been hoping he wouldn’t come to the reservoir today. Having Allie here was nerve-wracking enough. The last thing he needed was “Danny the Instigator” in the mix. Now he probably wouldn’t get a chance to talk to Allie like he had hoped.

  Allie rolled her eyes, visibly irritated at Danny’s antics. “I don’t see you jumping, Danny!”

  “Oh, I will. Don’t you worry about it,” he said. “As a matter of fact, why don’t you jump with me?” Danny said, grabbing Allie by her arm and pretending that he was going to pull her over the edge.

  “Knock it off, that hurts!” Allie scolded, swatting at where his hand had grabbed her arm. Danny pulled away too quickly to avoid being struck, causing Allie to shudder backwards toward the edge. Joel lunged at Allie, catching her already outstretched hand, and pulled her back away from the edge to safety.

  “You’re an idiot, Danny!” Joel shouted.

  “Oh, relax. She was fine, she was nowhere close to falling. I was just fooling around,” Danny said, looking a little worried himself at how close she had come to the edge but trying not to show it.

  “Yeah, well that was really stupid,” Joel said.

  Allie was rubbing her arm where Danny had grabbed her. A red mark in the shape of Danny’s fingers was slowly appearing on her forearm.

  Joel’s anger rose up inside him, making his hand close into a fist. Maybe what Danny needed was a punch square in the jaw.

  Chapter Three

  Brian, in hopes of defusing the situation, interjected, “So Danny, did you come here to jump or just to irritate everyone?”

  With that, Danny took his keys and phone out of his pockets, rolled them up in his towel and tossed them under a nearby tree. He turned around immediately and took a few long strides past the others that launched him off the rock and up a couple feet. As he jumped, he spun around in the air and extended his right arm and shot everyone the finger as he began to fall.

  Joel’s dad had once explained this gesture to him as an indication of one’s IQ, and Joel certainly agreed in this situation. Danny was a moron. All the same, Joel, Allie, and Brian ran to the edge to watch Danny’s plunge.

  “He better pull his arm in tight before he lands—” Joel wasn’t finished talking before Danny hit the water with the offending arm and finger still extended. A loud smacking sound echoed up the rocks.

  Danny surfaced seconds later howling. “Ow! Help, I’m hurt.” He grimaced in pain. “Seriously, I’m hurt, something’s wrong with my arm!” he shouted up.

  The others thought he was kidding around at first, trying to play them all for fools. As they watched, though it became apparent that Danny had in fact hurt himself and was having trouble swimming to the edge of the pool and safety. Joel couldn’t believe it.

  “Are you kidding me? Unbelievable,” Joel said.

  “What are you going to do?” Allie asked.

  “I guess I’m going to have to help his sorry butt.” Joel sighed.

  He tossed Allie his keys and phone from his pockets. “Hold those.” She nodded, and with that he turned and took a big step off the jutting rock. Joel was sure to tuck his arms in tight to his body and keep his legs straight with toes pointed downward.

  He hit the near freezing water like a knife. It instantly overloaded his senses like a thousand cold needles stabbing at him. He opened his eyes a little before he made the surface, but in the dark cold water he couldn’t see a thing.

  Two good breaststroke-style pumps and he broke the surface. With an audible gasp, he took a big breath. Danny was about ten feet away and still struggling. Joel made his way over to him and grabbed
Danny under his good arm, across his chest and brought his hand up to the opposite shoulder.

  “Be careful, my arm hurts bad. I think it’s broken.” Danny was shivering and starting to look pale.

  Joel worried he might be going into shock. He had to get them both to the bank fast. As Joel swam toward the pool’s edge, a loud splash erupted behind them.

  Joel glanced back. Brian had followed Joel over the edge as soon as it was clear to jump. Brian caught up to them and helped Joel get Danny to the edge and drag him out onto the bank.

  They all sprawled in the sand for a bit panting and trying to catch their breath. Danny coughed up some water he had swallowed. He rubbed his injured arm, holding it bent at the elbow tight against himself, moaning a little.

  Just as they were getting up and composing themselves, Allie came running down the trail that led down in a switchback pattern from the top where they had jumped.

  “Are you guys all right?” She panted, half out of breath herself.

  Brian looked at Joel and then at Allie and said, “We’re fine.” Then they looked at Danny, who was sitting on an old log near where he had been lying.

  “But I don’t think he’s doing too good,” Joel said. He had a feeling they were all thinking the same thing. That Danny had gotten a taste of karma. But just looking at him, sitting there in pain, no one wanted to call him out on it.

  “Sorry guys,” Danny said sheepishly.

  “Did you break it?” Brian asked.

  “I don’t think so, I can still move it. Maybe it’s sprained.” He extended his arm out a few inches, bending it at the elbow while he grimaced a little.

  “I need to get home,” he muttered. “My dad is going to kill me.”

  “I think you’re pretty lucky that’s all you did,”Allie said.

  “It doesn’t feel very lucky,” he whined as he started shuffling in the direction of the path back to the top.

  The others shook their heads and followed him up the trail. Nobody spoke much on the way to the trailhead and when they got there, Danny gathered his things and headed to his car without saying another word.

  “Hey!” Joel shouted, stopping him.

  “What?” Danny asked.

  “You okay to drive?”

  “I’ll survive.” With that, Danny slinked out of sight, down the path towards the parking area.

  “That was really nice of you guys to help him out like that.” Allie was looking at Joel.

  “Well, the guy’s a jerk, but I couldn’t let him drown. No choice really.” Joel shrugged.

  “You know, just your average everyday hero stuff,” Brian quipped.

  They all laughed a little.

  Allie held out Joel’s phone and keys. “Here’s your stuff, Joel. I took the liberty of putting my number in your phone in case you want to get together sometime over the summer.”

  Excited, embarrassed heat rushed through Joel’s muscles. He hoped his nerves didn’t show. He did his best to act calm. “Yeah, that’d be great, I’d like that a lot.”

  Allie twirled a strand of blond hair around her finger. “If you’re working at your dad’s store again this summer, you could always stop by and say hi after work sometime. My house is only a few blocks away over at 401 East Seventh Street.”

  “Cool,” was the best response Joel could manage.

  Allie turned and walked away slowly spinning around once more for a second to face Joel. “Hope to see you around, Joel. Bye, guys.” Then continued her spin and headed towards her car.

  “Bye.” Joel wanted to say something more, but he was tongue-tied and kept quiet for fear of saying something that might sound stupid.

  “Well, I guess I won’t be seeing much of you this summer.” Brian rolled his eyes.

  “Oh, shut up, man. She’s hot and you know it. But seriously, come on. I’ve got to get going.” Joel tried to change the subject. It was getting late, and the sun was shifting behind some of the taller mountains, casting a shadow on the boys.

  Suddenly, they realized how cold and wet they were and raced for the truck. On the ride home they made small talk about summer plans. Brian was going to visit his aunt and uncle in California for a few weeks. He’d be flying out super early on Sunday so Joel wouldn’t see his friend again until almost July. They made some loose Fourth of July plans before Joel dropped Brian at his house.

  Joel said goodbye, only half paying attention. He was still in disbelief at how the afternoon had unfolded. He felt like his truck was floating on a cloud or maybe it was him. It had turned out to be a great afternoon. Much better than he ever could have hoped, actually.

  Allison Young had asked him out more or less, he was leaving on a backcountry fly fishing trip with his dad in the morning, and his brother and sister would be there in a week or so. This was going to be a great summer.

  No, this was going to be the best summer. Nothing could ruin these next few months.

  Chapter Four

  Joel pulled into the driveway around seven. He had about an hour to himself before his dad got home a little after eight. As he parked his truck, he could see Gunner waiting at the glass French door that led into the mudroom off the kitchen. His tail wagged so hard his whole body shook.

  “Hey, dog!” Joel was greeted at the door with wet kisses from Gunner and some jumping. He wasn’t supposed to greet people by jumping on them, but training had proved useless and they’d given up long ago. Gunner quickly ran to the bottom of the steps and relieved himself before he raced back up to the deck to continue his greeting.

  Gunner was ready to love just about everyone, but occasionally there would be someone that he wouldn’t take to. He showed his distrust by grumbling about it just loud enough to let you know. He was very protective of Joel and had earned the nickname, Velcro-dog from Ben because he seemed to be stuck to the boy whenever possible.

  Joel rummaged through the fridge for leftovers and found some pizza that would make do for dinner tonight. He knew his dad would stay at the store until closing, wanting to make sure everything was taken care of before they left for their trip.

  With Gunner in tow, Joel jogged upstairs to his room to start organizing his pack. As he was going through his camping and fishing gear, his mind kept wandering to thoughts and feelings about Allie.

  He had already talked himself out of texting her several times, not wanting to seem too desperate. He turned up the music in his room a little as if it was going to help him focus on the trip.

  He went through his fly boxes and took inventory. He tied some of his own flies off and on, but it was delicate work. Besides, it was too easy to grab them out of the bins at his dad’s shop where there were hundreds of sizes and styles to choose from.

  Continuing through his checklist, he made sure he brought his MSR Guardian Military-Grade Water Purifying hand pump. This device was one of his prized possessions, given to him as a Christmas present last year from his dad.

  With it, Joel could turn any water source into clean potable water. The siphoning tube had a weighted end that you could toss out into deeper water that led up to a lever style pump handle. The whole thing resembled an old-fashioned well pump, but in a miniature version. You mounted the contraption to a 32-ounce Nalgene water bottle, and it would fill with clean drinkable water in about thirty seconds. That made it possible to only carry the water you wanted and save room in your pack while reducing weight.

  Other items he made sure to include were his sleeping bag and pad, and a lightweight two-man tent. His dad would pack his own two-man tent, that way they each had their own, allowing plenty of space to pull their gear in with them at night. Gunner always ended up in Joel’s tent anyway, so it was nice to have the extra room.

  As he was putting the last few items in his bag, he noticed Gunner’s head come up off the floor and look in the direction of the driveway. Dad must be home. The dog always knew when either Ben or Joel was approaching even before they could be seen or heard coming.

  * * *

/>   Ben steered his Jeep onto the last section of gravel road that led to their house, startling a fox in the road with his headlights as he rounded the turn. He slowed to let the animal cross.

  Satisfied that he had prepared the staff to handle anything that might arise in his absence, he finally started to feel himself relax a little as he turned into the driveway. Now he could focus on the trip tomorrow and spend some quality time with Joel. They didn’t get to fish or hunt together as much as they used to, so Ben treasured these trips where they could tune out the world and escape the day-to-day responsibilities they had both become accustomed to.

  “I’m home!” Ben called out as he entered the house. He survived Gunner’s wet and wild greeting and headed into the kitchen. He unloaded his work bag onto the counter with a contented sigh and put his coffee mug from the morning in the sink.

  Ben called again, up the stairs this time. “I’m home, Joel!”

  Sometimes Joel would have his headphones on if he was playing with Bradley on the Xbox. Ben wasn’t crazy about him playing a lot of video games but didn’t mind at all when Joel included his brother in an online game. He was grateful for this aspect of modern technology that allowed them to stay connected. The thought reminded Ben that he wanted to try to FaceTime the kids tonight before it got too late.

  “I already ate and I’m just finishing putting my pack together!” Joel shouted from upstairs.

  “Okay, well I stopped at Bread on the way home and got some of those big oatmeal cookies to take on the trip, but I thought you might want one tonight. Maybe later?”

  Joel popped his head around the hallway at the top of the stairs. Bread was the name of a bakery and deli in town that was one of his favorite places to eat. Their soft chewy thick oatmeal cookies were about the size of Joel’s hand, and he couldn’t pass them up especially if they were fresh. It was big enough to be practically a meal by itself and was more of a cross between an energy bar and a cookie.

  “I’m coming, hang on,” Joel said.

  Ben smiled a little. He could always get Joel’s attention when there was food involved.