That Song in Patagonia

by Kristy Tate

  “I know he’s not like Seb.”

  “You should have married Nick,” Aubrey said.

  “He was just a kid when I met him.”

  Aubrey arched her eyebrows. “He’s not a kid anymore.”

  “I know that.”

  “So don’t toy with him.”

  “Toy with him?”

  “Don’t break his heart.”

  Adrienne clicked her suitcase closed. “This trip isn’t a romantic getaway. It’s business.”

  Aubrey stood, gave her sister a parting glance, and stomped back into the living room. “You’re not even listening,” she grumbled.

  Adrienne gathered up her bag, double-checked her purse for her passport, phone, and credit cards, and deposited everything by the front door. She glanced at her watch. Nick would be arriving in just a few minutes. “Nick knows I’m married.”

  “He also knows you’re unhappy.”

  “I’m still married.”

  Aubrey wrinkled her nose as she pinched spent blooms off an African violet. “Are you still married if your spouse has broken his vows?”

  “Yes. That’s his choice, not mine. His behavior shouldn’t dictate or excuse my own.”

  Aubrey nodded as if she understood this logic. “You wouldn’t have an affair with his cousin for revenge.”

  Aubrey’s words stung. “Of course not. You know me better than that.”

  Aubrey didn’t look up from the violets, but she bit her lip as she always did when concerned. “I really like Nick. He’s a sweet kid.”

  “As you said, he’s no longer a kid.”

  The doorbell rang.

  “He’s here,” Adrienne whispered before opening the door to let Nick in. She studied the planes of his face, the set of his broad shoulders, the strength in his hands. She could still see traces of the boy she’d first met all those years ago, but Aubrey was right. He was a man. A good one.

  “Ready to go?” Nick asked.

  She nodded.

  He glanced across the room. “How are you, Aubrey? It’s good to see you.”

  Aubrey put down her trowel and swept a glance over Nick. She was almost fifteen years Nick’s senior, but her frank assessment sent a warning shiver down Adrienne’s spine. With a start, she realized that she’d never known Nick to have a girlfriend. Why was that?

  “It’s good to see you, too,” Aubrey said with sly smile.

  Adrienne flashed her gaze from Nick to Aubrey. It was as if they were communicating a secret that only they shared. Adrienne mentally shook herself. “I have something for you,” she told Nick.

  He quirked an eyebrow at her and she answered by pulling a red and white striped shirt out of her bag. Her heart lifted when he laughed and she waved it at him like a flag.

  “Now you’ll look like Where’s Waldo. I thought about getting you the hat, but that seemed like a bit much. Do you want to try it on?”

  “Later,” he said, checking his watch. “Right now, there isn’t time.”

  “You two be good,” Aubrey said with a smirk.

  Adrienne crossed the room in a few strides and hugged Aubrey goodbye. “You are totally misreading the situation,” Adrienne whispered in her sister’s ear.

  “Am I? Or are you?” her sister quipped back.

  #

  Once settled on the plane, Aubrey’s insinuations settled like an itch between Adrienne’s shoulders and refused to be ignored. Nick couldn’t be interested in her like that. He was more Catholic than she was. She’d converted shortly before her marriage. Her parents, both scientists, had little use for religion and joked about their heathen status. But despite her agnostic upbringing, Adrienne had immediately fallen in love with the Catholic services. She enjoyed attending mass and loved the heavy choral music and liturgy. When she’d married Seb, she had thought she had made a commitment before God that bound them beyond the grave.

  She had thought he had shared her commitment.

  Now, she stared out the window at the clouds and endless blue sky and wondered why Seb hadn’t honored his promises and why God hadn’t heard her prayers.

  Nick sat beside her with earbuds tucked in his ears. She could tell he was listening to music because his fingers tapped to an inaudible rhythm. He caught her glance. “Excited?” he asked with a smile.

  She nodded. “I’ve been thinking about seeing a priest.”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “About a divorce.”

  Nick’s expression sobered. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “Still, I’m sorry you’re going through this.”

  “I know we said we weren’t going to talk about Seb,” Adrienne said.

  “Mr. Bean,” Nick corrected. “And we’re not, or at least we weren’t. We’re talking about you consulting a priest.”

  “I know divorce is still really frowned upon.”

  “The church has a more lenient view of divorce than it does of adultery.”

  “That’s good to know.” Adrienne fingered her wedding ring, wondering if she should remove it. “You don’t think God would judge me for leaving Seb?”

  Nick thought for a moment. “God loves you,” he said. “He wants you to be happy. If you can be happy with…Mr. Bean, I know He would want you to stay and honor your vows.”

  “I can’t be happy with the way things are,” Adrienne said.

  “Of course not.”

  “You wouldn’t think less of me if I divorced…Mr. Bean?”

  “I wouldn’t want to, but the truth is, I would think less of you if you stayed. I’d try to understand and support your decision, but…” Nick shook his head. “If you stayed in a marriage that allowed Mr. Bean to continue his affair, that wouldn’t be good for you or Mr. Bean and the bimbo.”

  “Therese isn’t a bimbo,” Adrienne said. She wrinkled her nose. “I sort of wish she were.” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “I really wish I could hate her.”

  “I’ll hate her for you,” Nick said.

  “That’s not fair. Do you even know her?”

  “I know she’s hurt you. I know she’s going to hurt Mr. Bean.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Someday, Mr. Bean is going to wake up and realize his mistake. Losing you will be the biggest regret of his life, and he will die a broken man.”

  Adrienne blew out a small laugh. “Maybe he’ll be happier with Therese, happier than he could have ever been with me. Maybe we were just poorly matched and we’re better apart than we could have ever been together.”

  Nick gazed at her. “Do you really believe that?”

  She wilted beneath his scrutiny. “I don’t know what I believe anymore.”

  A stewardess appeared beside Nick. “Anything to drink?” she asked.

  Nick ordered a Pepsi and Adrienne a water. They both waited for the stewardess to hand them their drinks before resuming their conversation.

  “Is that why you want to meet with a priest?” Nick asked.

  “I want someone to tell me what God wants me to do,” Adrienne said.

  “You don’t need a priest to tell you that. And you don’t need to make any decisions right now.”

  “No?”

  He grinned at her. “Right now, we have an amazing trip planned through South America. We don’t need to think about anything other than chasing monkeys in the jungle, running with llamas in the Andes, and counting penguins in Patagonia.”

  #

  The air cloaked Adrienne like a warm, wet, heavy blanket and smelled of rain and jungle. Strange animals that looked like a mix between a cat, a raccoon, and a monkey swung in the trees.

  “Coatis,” Nick said, answering her unasked question.

  “They look like cartoon animals,” Adrienne said, glancing around at the long lines forming around the park’s entrance. “And there are so many people here. How will we ever find a private place for you to sing?”

  Nick consulted the map on his phone. “The park is supposedly hug
e with several trails cutting through the jungle to the water’s edge. We’ll be fine.”

  “Everything’s so green,” Adrienne said. “Like Seattle, but different.”

  “Do you miss it?” The tone of his voice made her wonder if he was asking about Seattle or Seb.

  She squeezed his arm. “I’m glad I’m here. There’s really no other place I’d rather be.”

  Her answer softened the concerned wrinkle between his eyebrows and he briefly put his hand over hers.

  She waited while Nick bought the tickets to the park, her worry mounting. After he returned, she said, “The price tag of this trip is climbing.”

  He gave her a smile that seemed full of secrets. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He raised his eyebrows. “What are you saying? We came all this way! You want to back out?”

  “Of course, we have to see the falls now that we’re already here, but…” She paused before adding, “There are a lot of cool places where we can take videos in Buenos Aires. We don’t have to—”

  “Stop.” He placed his finger on her lips. “I know what I’m doing, okay? Don’t worry about the money.”

  She stared at him. He looked so much like Seb, but despite the fact that they’d been raised as brothers, they were so very different. Seb never said don’t worry about the money, even though he had plenty of it.

  “Where’s your guitar?” she asked, noticing for once that he was empty-handed.

  “I checked it.”

  “But the whole point of our being here—”

  “Stop! Please.” He sighed. “We’ll see the falls, explore the park, and after we’ve found a private place, I’ll retrieve the guitar.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. I’m surprised we can’t hear the falls from here,” Nick said, clearly in an effort to change the subject. “We have to take a tram to the trailhead.”

  They shuffled through the line with all the other passengers waiting to board the tram. Sweat beaded on the back of Adrienne’s neck and rolled between her shoulder blades. Nick’s damp shirt clung to his chest. She had to look away as memories of them playing at the beach, and guilt, swamped her. She chided herself for being attracted to her husband’s cousin. What would Seb—or any other members of his family—say if they could read her thoughts?

  “What are you thinking about?” Nick asked.

  Adrienne started. “You don’t want to know.”

  He touched a spot between her eyebrows. “You get a wrinkle right here when you’re concentrating on something.”

  Had Seb ever looked at her the way Nick was looking at her right now? For the last few years, he’d hardly noticed her at all. It was as if she were invisible.

  “It’s back,” Nick said. “It disappeared for a second, but—oh, it’s gone again.”

  Adrienne laughed. “You’re making me self-conscious.” She wanted to ask him to stop looking at her, but she didn’t know how. Instead, she tucked her hand around his arm and whispered, “So, which of our fellow passengers will be the first to try and feed the coati-creatures?”

  Nick scanned the people in the crowd as they filed onto the tram. “The man wearing the cravat?”

  Adrienne settled onto the seat. “Hmm, that’s a good guess.”

  Nick sat beside her. His thigh briefly touched hers before he scooched away. “Why? Because he looks ridiculous?”

  “Yes. It’s a hundred degrees out here.” Adrienne lifted her hair off the back of her neck and longed for a hair-tie.

  The tram’s engine rumbled and barked before lurching into gear, then gathered speed as it pulled away from the park’s entrance.

  “Maybe he has a good reason for covering up his neck.”

  “Like what?”

  “A rash? Scars?”

  “Hickies,” Adrienne put in. She rolled her hair into a long cord and attempted to tie it up as she watched the jungle flash by.

  “I cannot believe you just said that,” Nick said in a mock self-righteous tone. “Besides, this man is probably the sort who would want to flaunt his hickies. Who is your choice?”

  Adrienne glanced around at the few children. They were the obvious choices, but because she really hoped it wouldn’t be one of them, she nodded at a woman with a mane of chestnut-colored hair wearing a pair of silver stilettos.

  “She’s pretty,” Nick said.

  “Yes, but she didn’t make a wise footwear choice.”

  Nick fell quiet. After a moment, he said, “I can feel the falls.”

  Adrienne listened and a quiet thunder vibrated in her chest. “So can I.”

  The sound grew heavier and more distinct once they disembarked from the tram.

  “Amazing,” Nick said as they followed the crowd. “Should we take the upper or lower falls trail?”

  “Both?”

  “Are you interested in riding the boat?”

  Nick’s grin deepened as his stride lengthened. After a few moments on the trail, the fall’s roar drowned out all other noise. Nick stayed directly beside her, and sometimes his shoulder brushed against hers, but he didn’t try to speak to her. They followed the path to the water’s edge.

  The boat service was nothing like Niagara Falls’ Maid of the Mist, where people wore ponchos and stood on the deck of an enormous and sturdy ferry. The Iguazu Falls tour included an inflatable boat and lifejackets. A man with a bullhorn encouraged them to quickly find their seats.

  “Welcome, everyone. My name is Jorge, and our captain here is Leo.”

  Leo, who manned the engine, smiled and waved.

  “We are your escorts today,” Jorge continued.

  Adrienne’s attention wandered to Nick’s muscles that seemed to be bursting out of his lifejacket during Jorge’ lecture on safety precautions, but she tuned back in time to hear about the legend.

  “Folklore claims a big snake called Boi lived in the river,” Jorge said. “To calm its vicious hunger and lust, the natives sacrificed a virgin every year as an offering. But once a brave guarani aborigine kidnapped the woman and saved her from the traditional rite. They escaped through the river. Boi burst in anger, literally exploding the river into the cascading waterfalls that forever separated the man from the woman.”

  Interesting that both the Iguazu Falls and Niagara Falls legends had snakes, virgins, and human sacrifice, Adrienne thought. She wanted to ask Nick if he was familiar with the Niagara legend, but since she didn’t have a bullhorn, she knew he wouldn’t hear her. She tucked it away to share with him later.

  When everyone was settled in, the boat sped across the water. The closer they came to the falls, the choppier the waves grew. Jorge ditched his bullhorn and began recording the boat’s passengers with a large video camera.

  The water sloshed over the sides and the fall’s spray soaked the passengers. Repeatedly, the tossing tide threw Adrienne against Nick’s side. Every time, he responded with a smile. Water droplets glistened in his dark hair, clung to his eyebrows, and ran down his face.

  The power of the falls shook through Adrienne, making her feel small and insignificant. In a good way. Yes, her marriage wasn’t what she’d thought it would be. Seb wasn’t who she’d thought he’d be, but then she wasn’t who she’d thought she’d be either.

  In the courtroom, she was strong. In law school, they had called her Audacious Adrienne. So why was she such a sniveling coward with Seb? Why did he make her feel like she was something stuck on the bottom of his shoe?

  A wave of shocking cold water washed over her. She was too surprised to even scream. After she blinked, her sight returned. Jorge had his camera pointed at her and a grin on his face, waiting to see what she’d do.

  She plastered on a smile and leaned against Nick, trying to absorb some of his warmth. Nick draped his arm across her shoulders and pulled her closer.

  A few minutes later, the boat returned to quieter waters. Adrienne eased away from Nick and tried to tame her hair.

  Once t
hey were on solid ground and away from the roaring falls, Adrienne asked Nick if he’d ever heard of the Niagara legend. He hadn’t, so she tried to recall it as best she could as they followed the path up the steep bank.

  “A young bride was so distressed over the death of her husband that she paddled into the middle of the roaring Niagara River. Singing a time-honored death hymn, the girl allowed the canoe to be caught by the rushing current, and soon she and her boat were thrown over the edge of the enormous falls.”

  “And she died?” Nick asked.

  “No. She wanted to, but the god of thunder caught her mid-descent. He brought the girl to his home behind the falls, where she and the god’s son nursed her back to health. The girl fell in love with and married the god of thunder’s son, and together the family lived behind the falls.”

  “Aww, a happy ending,” Nick said.

  Adrienne pulled at her wet clothes. The sun had warmed them, but, given the humidity, she worried that they’d never dry and she’d be soggy for the remainder of the trip. “You would think, but no. The girl, although happy in her magical life behind the thundering water, missed her people. The god of thunder, knowing how much she still loved her family, warned her that a giant snake planned to poison the river, hoping the people from the girl’s village would drink from the water and die so he could feast on their bodies.”

  “Oh, grisly.”

  A woman shrieked somewhere ahead on the path.

  Adrienne paused her story while Nick sprinted up the path and disappeared around a corner. Following at a slower pace, Adrienne came across Nick and the woman in the silver stilettos a few minutes later. The woman sat on the road with her legs splayed out, cradling her bleeding hand in her lap.

  Adrienne bit back the I told you so on her lips and instead asked, “Is there anything I can do?”

  The woman ignored Adrienne, gazed into Nick’s face, and stuttered in Spanish, “The c- critters, they looked so cute and h-harmless.”

  Adrienne answered in Spanish, “Even cute things can be dangerous.” She tried to dismiss the mental image of Seb flickering in her mind.

  “Come on,” Nick said, taking the woman’s elbow and helping her to her feet. “I bet they have bandages at the ranger’s station.”