They spent the night in Asheville at the Grove Park Inn, had dinner on the hotel's Sunset Terrace, watching the lights of the downtown fade up through the humid dark.
At first light, they took the Blue Ridge Parkway south into the Pisgah Ranger District, the road winding through primeval forests, green valleys, past rock faces slicked with water that shimmered in early sun. Their ears popped as the road climbed and neither spoke of how empty the car felt.
By late morning, they were pack-laden, sunscreen-slathered, and cursing as they hiked up into Shining Rock Wilderness on a bitch of a path called the Old Butt Trail. Roger let Sue lead, enjoying the view of her muscled thighs and calves already pinked with high-altitude sun, glistening with perspiration. He kept imagining footsteps behind him, glancing back every mile or so, half expecting to see Jennifer and Michelle bringing up the rear.
They crested Chestnut Ridge in the early afternoon, saw that the sky looked cancerous in the west, a bank of tumor-black clouds rolling toward them, the air reeking of that attic mustiness that heralds the approach of rain. They broke out the rain gear. The pack flies. Huddled together in a grove of rhododendron as the storm swept over them, thunder cracking so loud and close that it shook the ground beneath their boots.
They reached Shangri-La a few hours shy of dusk. Sue had named it on their first trip here, thirteen years ago, having taken the wrong trail and accidentally stumbled upon this highland paradise. The maps called it Beech Spring Gap, a stretch of grassy meadows at 5,500 feet, just below the micaceous outcroppings of Shining Rock Mountain. Even the hottest summer afternoons rarely saw temperatures exceed eighty degrees. The nights were always cool and often clear, with the lights of Asheville twinkling forty miles to the north. Best of all, Beech Spring Gap was largely untraveled. They'd spent a week here four years ago and never seen a soul.
By 8:30, they were in their sleeping bags, listening to a gentle rain pattering on the tent.
'Night girls, Roger thought. It would be easy to fall asleep tonight. Too easy. He used to stay up listening to the twins talking and laughing. Their tent would have been twenty yards away in a glade of its own, and he'd have given anything to hear their voices in the dark.
The next two days transpired like mirrors of each other.
Warm, bright mornings. Storms in the afternoon. Cool, clear evenings.
Roger and Sue passed the time lying in the grass, reading books, watching clouds, flying a kite off the nearby peak.
The emptiness seemed to abate, and they even laughed some.
Their fourth day in Shining Rock, as the evening cooled and the light began to wane, Roger suggested to his wife that she take a walk through the meadow with a book, find a spot to read for a half-hour or so before the light went bad.
"Why do you want me out of camp all of a sudden?” she asked. “You up to something?"
When Sue returned forty minutes later, a red-and-white checkered picnic blanket lay spread out in the grass a little way from their tent. Roger was opening a bottle of wine, and upon two dinner plates rested a bed of steaming pasta. There was a baguette, a block of gruyere, even two of their crystal wineglasses from home and a pair of brass candlesticks, flames motionless in the evening calm.
"You brought all this from home?” she asked. “That's why your pack was so heavy."
"I'm just glad the crystal didn't break when I fell climbing up the Old Butt."
Roger stood, offered his arm, helped Sue down onto the picnic blanket.
"A little wine?"
"God, yes. Honey, this is amazing."
He didn't know if it was the elevation or the novelty of eating food that hadn't been freeze-dried, but the noodles and tomato sauce and bread and cheese tasted better than anything Roger had eaten in years. It didn't take long for the wine to set in behind his eyes, and he looked down at the mountains through a haze of intoxication, watching the light sour, bronzing the woods a thousand feet below. It was the first time in a long while that things had felt right, and Sue must have sensed it, because she said, “You look peaceful, Roge."
It was so quiet he could hear the purr of the river flowing down in the gorge.
Sue set her plate aside and scooted over on the blanket.
"Is it the girls?” she asked. “That what's been bothering you?"
He reached his arm around her, pulled her in close.
"Let's just think about right now,” he said. “In this moment, I'm happy and—"
"Evening, folks."
Roger unhanded his wife and rolled over on the picnic blanket to see who was there.
A stocky man with wavy gray hair and a white-stubbled chin smiled down at them through reflective sunglasses. He wore well-scuffed hiking boots, tight blue shorts, and a frayed gray vest, bulging with an assortment of supplies. His chest hair was white, skin freckled and deeply tanned. Roger estimated him to be ten years their senior.
"Hope I'm not interrupting. I'm camped up in the rhododendron thicket and was just on a stroll through the meadow when I saw your tent. Wow, crystal wineglasses. You guys went all out."
"We just finished eating,” Sue said, “but there are leftovers if—"
"Oh, I've got my dinner simmering back at camp, but maybe you two would be interested in a card game later?"
"Sounds lovely,” Sue said.
"Then I'll come back in two hours. I'm Donald, by the way."
"Sue."
"I'm Roger."
"Good to meet you both."
Roger watched Donald march off across the meadow toward the rhododendron thicket at the base of Shining Rock Mountain, and didn't realize he was scowling until his wife said, “Oh come on, Roge, you antisocial party-poop. It'll be fun."
* * * *
No campfires are permitted within the boundary of Shining Rock Wilderness, but the moon would be up soon. Roger and Sue relit the candles for ambience and sat on the picnic blanket, waiting on their guest, watching for the flare of meteors in the southern sky.
Roger never heard his footsteps. Donald was suddenly just standing there at the edge of the red-and-white checkered blanket, grinning.
"Lovely night,” he said.
"We were just sitting here, looking for shooting stars,” Sue said.
"May I?"
"Please."
Donald set some items in the grass and knelt to unlace his boots, stepping at last in wooly sockfeet onto the blanket, easing down across from Roger and Sue.
"I brought playing cards, an UNO deck, whatever your pleasure, and some not too shabby scotch."
"Now we're talking,” Roger said as Donald handed him the bottle. “Ooh ... twenty-one-year Macallan?"
"Roge and I have become scotch aficionados since a trip to Scotland last year."
Donald said, “Nothing like a good single-malt in the back country on a quiet night."
Roger uncorked the Macallan, offered the bottle to Sue.
"I'll drink to that.” She brought it to her lips, let a small mouthful slide down her throat. “Oh my God. Tastes more like a fifty-year."
"Everything tastes better on the mountain,” Donald said.
Sue passed the bottle to her husband. “So how many nights have you been up here?"
"My second."
"You've been here before?"
Roger wiped his mouth. “Goddamn that's smooth."
"Actually, this is my first trip to Shining Rock.” Donald took the scotch from Roger and after a long, deliberate swallow, looked at the bottle a moment before passing it back to Sue. “I usually do my camping up in northern Minnesota, but figured these southern highlands would be worth the drive."
"Where's home?” Roger asked.
"St. Paul."
Roger and Sue glanced at each other, smiled.
"What? No, don't tell me the pair of you are Minnesotans.” He drew out the o in stereotypical Midwestern fashion, and they all laughed.
"Eden Prairie, as a matter of fact,” Sue said.
"You could make a strong ca
se for us being neighbors,” Donald said and he looked at Roger. “What are the chances?"
* * * *
Midway through his second hand of UNO, Roger realized he'd gotten himself drunk—not a sick, topsy-turvy binge, but a tired, pleasant glow. He hadn't meant to, but the scotch was so smooth. Even Sue had let it get away from her. She was laughing louder and with greater frequency, and she kept grabbing his arm and pretending to steal glances at the twenty-plus cards in his hand.
Sue finally threw down her last card and fell over laughing on the blanket.
"Two in a row,” Donald said. “Impressive."
He pulled out the cork and took a slow pull of scotch, then offered the bottle to Roger.
"Oh Don, I think I'm done for the night."
"Come on."
"No, I'm good."
"One more. Bad luck to skip a nightcap."
Roger felt the twinge of something in his gut he thought forty-eight-year-old men were impervious to. He took the bottle and drank and passed it back to Donald.
Sue sat up. “Say, I meant to ask why you had a machete lashed to your back?"
Donald smiled. “Sometimes I like to get off-trail, do a little bushwhacking. I did a few tours in Vietnam, and let me tell you, that was the only way to travel upcountry."
"What branch of the military?” Roger asked.
"Green Berets."
"Wow. Saw some shit, huh?"
"You could definitely say that."
Donald suddenly tilted to one side and squelched out a noisy fart, then chuckled, “Damn mountain frogs."
Roger thinking, Well he's definitely a little drunk.
Donald corked the scotch, said, “You have children?"
"Twin girls,” Sue said.
"No kidding. How old?"
"They'll turn twenty next month. They're in college at Iowa. Michelle wants to be a writer. Jennifer, the more practical of the two, is pre-law."
"How nice."
"Yeah, this trip has been a sea change for Roger and me. Our family's been coming to Shining Rock, God, forever, but this is the first time it's just the two of us."
"Empty nesters."
"How about you, Don? Any kids?"
Donald bit down softly on his bottom lip and looked away from Roger and Sue at the moon edging up behind the black mass of Cold Mountain.
"I didn't pick twenty-one-year-old scotch to share with you two on a whim. This whiskey,” he swirled what liquid remained in the bottle, “was put into an oak barrel to begin aging the year my little girl was born."
He pulled out the cork, tilted up the bottle.
Sue said, “Is she in school somewhere or—"
"No, she's dead."
Sue gasped, and through the gale in his head, Roger sensed something attempting to piece itself together.
"I'm so sorry,” Sue said.
"Yeah.” Donald nodding.
"What happened, if it's not too—"
"She'll have been gone six years this coming fall."
"She was sixteen when..."
"Yeah."
Roger reached for the scotch and Donald let him take it.
The bottom edge of the moon had cleared the summit ridge of Cold Mountain, and somewhere in the meadows of Beech Spring Gap, a bird chirped.
"Was it a car wreck?” Sue asked.
"Tab was a cross-country runner in high school. Captain of her team when she was only a sophomore. Very devoted, disciplined runner. It was just a thing of beauty to watch her run. She made the state championship her freshman year."
Roger noticed Donald's hands trembling.
His were, too.
"Morning of October third, I was on my way to work when I came to a roadblock about a mile from our house. There were police cars, a fire truck, ambulances. I'd heard the sirens while I was getting dressed but didn't think anything of it.
"I was swearing up a storm ‘cause I was late for a meeting and getting ready to do a U-turn, find an alternate route, when one of the EMTs stepped out of the way. Even from fifty yards back, I recognized Tabitha's blue shorts, orange running shoes, her legs.
"Next thing I remember was throwing up on the side of the road. They say I broke through the barrier, that it took two firemen and four cops to drag me away from her body. I don't remember seeing her broken skull. Or the blood. Just her legs, orange shoes, and blue running shorts, from fifty yards back in my car."
Sue leaned across the blanket and draped her arms around Donald's neck.
Roger heard her whisper, “I'm so sorry,” but Donald didn't return the embrace, just stared at him instead.
Sue pulled back, said, “Someone had hit her."
"Yeah. But whoever did was gone by the time the police arrived."
"No."
"This occurred in a residential area, and in one of the nearby houses, someone had happened to look out a window, see a man standing in the street over my daughter. But he was gone when the police showed up."
"A hit-and-run."
"Yeah."
"Oh my God. What about your wife? What—"
"We separated four years ago."
Roger couldn't look at him, turned instead to the summer moon, nearly full, and as large and white as he would ever see it, the Ocean of Storms clearly visible as a gray blemish two hundred thousand miles away.
Donald said, “Sometimes I can talk about it without ripping the stitches, but not tonight, I guess. I better go.” He got to his feet, leaving the scotch and cards on the blanket, and walked off into the dark.
* * * *
They were lying in their sleeping bags in the tent when Roger leaned over and whispered in Sue's ear, “We have to leave right now."
"I was almost asleep, Roge, what are you—"
"Just listen.” The whites of her eyes appeared in the dark. “I want you to quietly get dressed, put your boots on. We'll leave everything here, just take our wallets and keys."
"Why?"
"Donald's planning to kill us tonight."
Sue sat up in her sleeping bag and pushed her brown hair out of her face. “This isn't funny, Roger. Not even a little—"
"Do I sound like I'm joking?"
"Why are you saying this? ‘Cause he walks around with a machete and was in Vietnam and...” Sue covered her mouth. “Oh, Roger, no. Oh God, please tell me...” Sue turned away from him and buried her face in her sleeping bag.
Roger lay beside her, whispering in her ear.
"I was late for a meeting downtown. I turned a corner on Oak Street and the coffee spilled between my legs, burned me. I swerved, and when I looked up...
"At first, I just sat stunned behind the wheel, like I could will the moment away, press UNDO on the keyboard. I got out and saw her on the pavement, half under the front bumper. I looked around. No other cars coming. No one else in the vicinity. Just a quiet Thursday morning, the trees turning, wet red leaves on the street. I thought about you, about Jennifer and Michelle, all the things that could be taken from me because of one stupid lapse in concentration, and the next thing I knew I was on I-94."
Sue was crying. “That's why you sold the Lexus. Why you moved us to Eden Prairie. How'd you keep this from me, Roger? How did you—"
"Live with myself? I don't know. I still don't know."
"Are you sure it's him? That Donald's the father of the girl you hit?"
"This thing happened in early October. Almost six years ago. In St. Paul."
"But what if it's just a horrible coinci—"
"I still dream about the orange shoes and blue shorts, Sue."
"Oh God, baby.” She turned over and pulled her husband down onto her chest, ran her fingernails across the back of his neck. “What do you think he's gonna try to do to us?"
"I don't know, but he didn't come all this way, follow us up into the middle of nowhere just to talk."
"So we just leave? Right now?"
"Yes."
"Can you get us back to the trailhead in the dark?"
"I thi
nk so. If not, we'll just hide somewhere until morning. What's important is getting out of this tent and away from our camp as soon as possible."
"But he must know where we live, Roger.” Sue sat up, faced her husband. “He was able to find out we were coming to North Carolina. What keeps him from doing this when we get back to Minnesota? Or from turning you in?"
"I don't think this is about bringing me to justice in any legal sense of the word."
"We can't just run away, Roger."
"Sure we can. And we will."
"He might know where our girls live. Might decide to go after them. We have no idea what he's capable of."
"So what are we supposed—"
"You wanna be free of this?"
"Of course."
"Have it never come back to haunt you as long as you live? Guarantee the safety of me and the girls? Your own freedom?"
For a moment, there was no sound but the weeds brushing against the exterior of the tent.
"Jesus, Sue. I don't have that in me."
"Well, you had it in you to leave a teenage girl dying in the street. Now if that man came into this wilderness to murder us, he probably went out of his way to make sure no one knew he was coming here, which works out perfectly for us."
He heard his wife moving in the darkness, the separating teeth of a zipper.
The leather case dropped in his lap.
"You have to take the bullets out,” she whispered. “Wipe them down so they don't have our prints. You probably won't be able to find the shell casings in the dark."
"Sue, I can't."
"You're gonna make me handle this? Look, it breaks my heart that that man lost his daughter, and it makes me sick that it's your fault, but I will not live the rest of my life in fear, looking over my shoulder, calling Jennifer and Michelle five times a day to make sure they're okay. That morning, when you drove away, you decided you weren't gonna let a mistake you made destroy our lives. Well, it's too late to change course now."
EQMM, May 2009 Page 9