Down the Hidden Path

by Heather Burch

  “He can’t wait. He’s been asking Caleb all about building a campfire, and he’s raided your pantry for marshmallows and graham crackers.”

  “Gray, there’s not going to be a camping trip.” Miah filled her in on the situation, his reaction and Earl’s response. “Luckily, I’m not banned from the hardware store. I’m also not in jail for assaulting a minor. So, on those fronts, we can call the incident a success.”

  She dropped her head into her hands, then let her fingers glide through the strands of hair that had fallen forward. She made two fists at the back of her head, holding her hair off her face. “How do we tell him?”

  “Tell me what?” David closed the lodge door behind him and stepped out onto the porch.

  Miah’s mouth hung open. He knew all the words were in there, they just weren’t working their way forward. The phone rang, its sound muffled through the door, and David bolted. “I’ll get it.”

  Miah and Gray stood to follow him in. Gray slipped her hand into Miah’s as they walked.

  David listened as they both watched his face go from young excitement to utter disappointment. Even his posture seemed to curl under the news. When he sat the phone on the kitchen counter, he said, “Trip’s canceled.” And with that, he sighed and trudged past them. “I’m going up to my room to read.”

  Caleb stepped into the kitchen. He did a quick scan of Gray and Miah and said, “Who died?”

  “Not helping, Caleb.”

  Caleb shrugged and went to the refrigerator to stare inside.

  Gray checked the kitchen doorway to make sure David was gone. “His trip was canceled because Miah found out the older boys were planning to take beer along with them.”

  Caleb grinned. “Dude, he is so gonna hate you.”

  Miah braced his hands against the butcher-block counter of the kitchen island. “Not. Helping.”

  Caleb popped the top on the root beer he’d grabbed from the fridge. “You’re not going to tell him, are you?”

  Miah looked at Gray, who looked at Miah, then they both looked at Caleb. The younger man shook his head. “Don’t admit anything. It’s bad enough the trip went south. But for it to be his fault . . .”

  Gray shook her head. “It’s not David’s fault.”

  Caleb’s shoulder tipped up. “Sure it is. His dad is the one who found out.”

  Miah buried his face in his hands. His fingers smelled like Gray, but he forced the quick, hot image from his mind. Through his digits he muttered, “This is a disaster.”

  “David will be fine.” Caleb drained the drink and spun on his barstool to toss it into the trash. “Let it rest for a day or two. Then, if you have to tell him, do it. But not now; it’s all too raw.”

  Was he actually considering taking parenting advice from his twenty-five-year-old brother? Then again, Caleb was almost as close to David’s age as he was to Miah’s. Maybe he had a point.

  He looked to Gray for her thoughts on the subject, but the blank stare said it all. She was as clueless as he on how to handle this.

  Caleb rolled his eyes. “Look, I’ll put the phone on silent, so no one can call him tonight. You guys go have your date and I’ll hang here with the science geek. I’ll corrupt him with the new RPG game I bought.”

  Gray’s eyes narrowed. “Rating?”

  Caleb shook his head. “E for everyone.”

  She did her mom-nod and settled into her seat waiting for Miah to make the call. Man, this stuff was tough.

  “That’s nice, Caleb, really. And I know you only bought that game because you know it’s one David likes, but I think it would be better for him to go out with us tonight.”

  Gray perked up. “Yes. I agree.”

  Caleb lifted his hands and dropped them. “Whatever, but he’s not going to want to go.”

  “Then we’ll stay here.”

  “Yeah,” Caleb smiled. “Make it worse for him. He’s been working like a dog to get you two together.”

  Miah tapped the counter. “We’ll let David decide.”

  Caleb hunched over a hunting magazine on the counter. “Okay, but when he turns you down, let him know I’m ordering cheeseburger pizza.”

  Miah stopped at the door and faced his brother. “You’re bribing him.” Then, his face split into a smile. “Thanks, Caleb. You’re the best.”

  “I know I am.”

  Thirty minutes later, and after Caleb was exceedingly right about . . . everything, Miah and Gray sat down to dinner at the Neon Moon.

  Caleb stood motionless, his attentions drifting to the good deed he’d done earlier in the evening by offering to babysit David. They’d eaten an entire pizza and David had slaughtered him at the new video game. He’d be inside right now requesting an opportunity for payback, but he’d been drawn to the front yard when he heard something rustling against the trashcan. A furry little thief entered his line of vision. It was dark, but he easily identified the family of raccoons that had learned a delicious buffet of food awaited them in the trash bins by the side of the house. Caleb spotted one just as it trekked through the yard on the scattered water puddles and remaining snow. Everything had still seemed frozen solid until the sun peeked out in the early afternoon and started melting the world around. He’d take the snowmobile out tomorrow if it was cold. Since they were pushing the end of February, who knew if he’d get another chance. He placed a block on top of the trash and went back into the house.

  Just inside the doorway, Caleb stopped. The hair on the back of his neck prickled, and he’d been in combat long enough to know something was off.

  He took a couple steps deeper into the lodge where he waited, listening. Could someone have slipped in while he was outside? His eyes scanned the room. If it was an intruder, he’d better have either a big gun or combat training. Though Caleb’s right side still wasn’t up to par with the rest of him, he would be lethal against an unarmed assailant. Then, he remembered David was upstairs and a new set of scenarios shot through his mind. “David?” he yelled, hoping the kid would hear him and come to the top of the stairs. As he waited, eyes still working the room, he made his way to the fireplace and pretended to poke at the embers while testing the handle of the wrought-iron poker. It was good. Now, he had a weapon. He turned with it in his hand. “Hey, David, come down for a minute.” The boy would be safer by Caleb’s side.

  He counted one second. Two. Three. No answer from upstairs. Fear and adrenaline worked through him, heightening his senses. “David!” This time, it was a stern warning, but still, no answer.

  Then, he heard something outside. A deep rumble, then a hum, and he knew there was no intruder in the house. Someone hadn’t snuck in; David had snuck out.

  Caleb loped to the door and swung it open just as he saw the flash leaving the edge of the property headed for the lake.

  Gray scooted a little closer in the seat of the truck as Miah pulled out of the Neon Moon. They were holding hands and to Gray it felt like things were beginning to be the way they should have been all evening. It had been a good night. They’d made the best of it knowing they had an upset twelve-year-old at home to deal with. But relationships couldn’t be based solely on the one thing that bound them together, and she knew that. They both did, and were working hard at keeping proper perspective. David was the center of her universe. But Miah was the center of her world, and they both needed to take up a certain amount of real estate in her heart. They needed to do this, needed to be a good, solid couple. Because if David was the only thing that brought them together, he could easily rip them apart, and though Gray was no expert in the relationship department, she knew that was an unbalanced path to tread. For all of them. So, she and Miah had gone on their date as planned. She hoped, she prayed they hadn’t made the wrong decision.

  Miah’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He’d kept it handy all evening in case Caleb called. He stretched back, pulled the
phone from his hip, and answered. “Caleb, calm down. What’s going on?”

  Miah listened and Gray watched the horror spread across his face. Something was wrong. “Follow him. Take the four-wheeler. We’ll find your tracks.” Miah hung up and placed the phone in his jacket pocket.

  Gray clutched his hand as he pressed his foot onto the gas pedal and the truck leapt forward. She couldn’t ask, couldn’t even get a coherent thought to form in her mind.

  “David took off.”

  Gray tried to sort the words. “What do you mean? Ran away?”

  Miah’s eyes were a strange glow in the dashboard lights. “He left on the snowmobile.”

  Gray’s heart stopped and when Miah reached for her, she clung to him.

  “Caleb’s on the four-wheeler. We’ll find him, Gray.”

  Caleb stopped the four-wheeler and cut the engine. Two snowmobile paths stretched before him, and in the dim light, it was impossible to tell which one was fresh. The first led up the hill toward Stacey’s house. The second went down to the cove. Caleb closed his eyes and listened. Snow could easily bounce sound around, making it difficult to track, but if he got lucky, he’d be able to tell which way the snowmobile was headed. Above him, an owl howled. The water lapped along the frozen coastline of the lake; wind whispered through the pine trees. And nothing else. He should be hearing the snowmobile’s engine. Scenarios shot into his mind. Could David have made it to Stacey’s house? Maybe. He wasn’t more than four or five minutes behind him. If he was at Stacey’s house, he was safe. Caleb hopped back on the four-wheeler and started the engine. He did two donuts in the cove path, making it obvious for Miah which way he’d gone, and opened the throttle to full bore, bouncing and jostling with every hidden rock and root on the trail.

  He skated the edge of the lake following what he now knew to be the right tracks. Powder-white snow mixed with mud along the water’s edge, where a snowmobile had recently cut into the soft ground. This was fresh; he had to be getting closer. What scared him was that beyond the next turn, there was no more trail to follow. The rocky coastline rose into a hillside that surrounded the cove. The snowmobile would never make a slippery climb like that. Since the four-wheeler sat higher, Caleb had to plow through snow-dusted vegetation. The chill in the wind burned his face as overgrown tree limbs sliced into his cheeks. He dodged as much as possible, trying to keep his eyes focused ahead to catch a glimpse of David or the snowmobile. When he rounded the last turn that opened up to a C-shaped cove—usually one of Caleb’s favorite places—he realized things were much worse than he could have imagined.

  There was no sign of David or the snowmobile anywhere. And the tracks ended.

  He jumped off the four-wheeler and did a quick 360. Nothing. Could he have missed him? He cut the engine and was just deciding to go back up to Stacey’s house when he saw that the tracks didn’t end. They curved and headed straight out onto the cove.

  Caleb ran to the edge of the water. “David?”

  A tiny voice met him. “I’m . . . here.”

  He took two steps out onto the ice and spotted the boy’s head. David was in water up to his chest and he was clinging to a broken edge of ice. Between them was a snowmobile-size hole.

  “Hang on!” Caleb instructed, forcing his mind to calm, forcing his body to go into survival mode, combat mode. When the ice chunk David was clinging to broke off, Caleb pushed all his training aside. And dived into the frozen lake.

  His face hit the cold water first and he had to fight the urge to suck in air at the shock. The water was an unforgiving ice bath, soaking into his clothing, weighing him down. Already, his limbs were burning with a freezing sensation. His face came up out of the water, and he kicked, half expecting his legs to refuse to work. He swam the distance to David, yelling for the boy to hang on. Fear froze David’s features. One arm was up out of the water, one shoulder, his head. The rest was beneath. Caleb grabbed him, and just having David in his grasp made the situation better.

  “Are you injured?” Caleb said.

  David’s body was quaking, his ungloved hand red and trying to grip the ice beside him. His fingernails had dug in until they were bleeding.

  “N-n-no.”

  “David, I want you to listen to me.” Caleb judged the distance to the other side of the cove, still ice covered, and decided that was their best option. He drilled his fingers into the snow and found the ice beneath it. His left hand clamped down, his right pressed David into the ice at the edge. “I’m going to lift you and I want you to climb out.”

  “So . . . cold.” David was terrified and possibly going into shock.

  Caleb needed him to focus. “David!” He fisted his right hand into the jacket David wore. “Do what I said.”

  David rallied at the stern order. He braced himself against Caleb and tried to climb.

  Caleb pushed, but the boy only moved a few inches higher. David had no strength to pull himself up and Caleb was quickly losing his own strength in the frigid water. If only he could hold on to the ice with his right hand and hoist David with his left, but he knew releasing the ice was a dangerous proposition. He had a good grip on the only solid thing around. Plus, he’d have to let go of both David and the ice to make the switch and that didn’t seem smart. If David went under again, he wouldn’t come back up.

  Caleb maneuvered his body until he was lying as prone as possible. “David, use my body like a ladder and climb out onto the ice. Can you do that?”

  David nodded, lips pressed together and turning blue. Caleb’s eyes had adjusted to the dark, but the terror coming off of David’s body was palpable. Caleb had to get him onto solid ground.

  When David began to climb, digging his shod foot into Caleb’s leg, Caleb bit back the pain. He grunted, trying to shove David up. They were face-to-face and David burrowed his fingers into Caleb’s shoulders in a desperate attempt to escape the icy water. But when his foot slipped, he slid off Caleb’s body. Hands groped in the air and Caleb lashed out and grabbed him just before he went under.

  Caleb held the boy close and realized trying that again might be the end of both of them. David’s cheek was cold against his and the boy’s shivering was as constant as any drumbeat he’d ever heard.

  David tucked his head deeper into Caleb’s coat. “I’m so sorry.” At that, Caleb felt the boy release his grip.

  He tightened his arm around him. “David, we’re gonna get out of this. Okay? Your dad’s coming. He’ll be here any minute. We just have to hang on for a little while.” Caleb’s body had begun to shake, too, making it more difficult to hold on to both the ice and David.

  “I . . . drowned the . . . snowmobile.”

  In spite of their circumstances, Caleb found the humor in that. “Yeah, you really did.”

  “Is my . . . dad . . . gonna be mad at me?” Big, round eyes searched his in the moonlight. Caleb was reminded that kids viewed the world through terms of getting into trouble. This was life or death. Getting into trouble or not made little difference. Surviving was what mattered now.

  “No. He won’t.”

  David searched his eyes. “You pr-promise?”

  “I swear it. He won’t get mad at you. I won’t let him.”

  David’s head nodded, but the force of his body shaking made it almost imperceptible.

  Caleb’s limbs were screaming, his legs, constantly in motion beneath them, were getting hard to feel. He might not be able to hold on much longer. Then, an idea struck him. If it got bad enough, if he knew he couldn’t make it out, maybe he could use one solid shove to get David onto the ice. It would be a gamble, but if he was going down anyway, it was worth the risk. He just hoped it wouldn’t come to that. But just in case, he’d go ahead and position David for it.

  “I want you to turn over so that your back is against my chest. Try to keep your lungs as full of air as you can; it will help you float.”

/>   Caleb released his grip just enough for David to pivot. “I . . . won’t be able to h-hold on.”

  “That’s okay, David. I’ll have you.”

  Once in position, the two were on their backs, heads bobbing in the icy water. David whispered, “Are we gonna d-die?”

  Caleb’s heart squeezed; it seemed the only heat still left in his body surrounded the muscle that kept blood moving through his blood vessels. “Look up, David.”

  He felt the boy angle, his neck tipping back.

  “You see that bright star that twinkles?”

  “Yes.”

  “My brother Isaiah once told me that star is the Eye of God. And as long as you can look up and see it, He’s looking down at you.”

  When a hard wind slammed against them, David’s quaking intensified. A few moments later, he calmed and Caleb got a better grip on the boy. He could feel his body going lax.

  “David! Listen to me; I’ve been in far worse situations than this one. I’ve been in combat where there was no way out, you hear me?” He shook him a little.

  “Y-yes.”

  But Caleb could hear it in his voice; he was giving up the fight.

  “As long as you can look up and see the Eye of God, you’re not going to die. Understand?”

  No answer.

  He shook his shoulders again. “Can you see it?”

  David’s head tilted. “Yes.”

  “What’s it mean?”

  “It means we . . . we’re not going to die.”

  “That’s right.” Caleb needed to keep him talking. This was quickly getting dire, and if David released his grip on the ice and Caleb was supporting his entire weight, he didn’t know how long he would hold out. He was really grateful Gray had been a tyrant about his therapy, though. If he hadn’t been working so hard to strengthen his right side, they’d already be dead.

  David’s body stopped shaking, sending panic through Caleb. “You okay there?” He shook the boy, causing water to come up onto his cheeks. They were riding lower in the cold water. Caleb knew his body was giving out with each sharp pain that shot through his limbs; eventually his body’s distress would take over, he’d go numb and that would be the end.