The day was absolutely gorgeous. The sun shone bright as a gentle breeze stirred the mountain air. The cooler temperatures had tipped the leaves with a hint of the approaching fall, giving onlookers a glimpse of the beautiful colors that would soon explode over the entire valley. Maggie reveled in the fresh mountain air and the clear blue sky as Bill led her up the stone steps toward the monument’s entrance.
When they reached the top of the steps, Maggie stood and stared, amazed by what she was viewing. Bill hadn’t been kidding when he’d said things had changed. The sight before her would have done a tourist trap like Disney World proud. But here, in the majestic quiet of the Black Hills, it seemed ostentatious and extreme. She turned to Bill, stunned.
“They’ve commercialized it,” she whispered.
Bill looked at her, nodded slightly, and shrugged. She could tell by the resigned look in his eyes that he felt the same way she did. Giving her a small smile, he took her hand in his, and they walked up the stone path.
Where once there had been only a stone-lined viewing terrace and a single gift shop and restaurant, there was now a flag-lined walkway, immense viewing terrace, and an amphitheater. And as impressive as the Avenue of Flags and Grand View Terrace were, Maggie couldn’t help but feel saddened by the extreme changes to this once quietly dignified monument. The changes proved to her, once again, that progress and change weren’t always for the best.
It wasn’t busy, unlike on summer days when tourists flocked everywhere for that one special picture of the monument. This left Maggie time and space to snap photos of the granite faces, undisturbed, against the rich blue-sky backdrop. She and Bill stood on the main terrace for a while, then, after a little exploring, they came upon the old viewing terrace.
“Now, this I remember,” Maggie said appreciatively as she began snapping a whole new set of pictures. Bill watched her, amusement in his eyes.
“What?” Maggie asked when she noticed him grinning at her.
“I’ve never seen anyone appreciate a little sun and a view as much as you do,” he told her. “It’s nice for a change.”
Maggie turned back to her picture taking, a smile on her lips.
Bill wandered up to the stone wall, pressed his palms against it, and stared up at the monument. Maggie watched him, and then began snapping pictures of him. Wild Bill, a national treasure in his own right, standing in awe of Mount Rushmore. It was a great portrait, and Maggie was elated at being here, with this man she barely knew yet knew so well already.
After a time, Bill offered Maggie his hand again, and they followed the Presidential Trail, another new feature Maggie hadn’t experienced. The winding trail led them along a tree-lined path that allowed for different views of the monument. In one section of the trail, Maggie stood on a stone wall to get a great side view of the presidents. Some changes were actually nice, she decided. Finally, she stopped taking pictures and enjoyed the rest of the trail walk with Bill.
He bought her lunch at the restaurant, and they sat at a table by the window that overlooked the monument.
“So what do you think of our Mount Rushmore now?” Bill asked between bites of his burger.
Maggie smiled and reached across the table with her napkin to brush crumbs from his mustache. “I guess some change is okay,” she relented. “The trail is beautiful.”
“Change is inevitable,” Bill said matter-of-factly. “It’s a part of life.”
“But not always a good part,” Maggie added, her eyes distant.
“Tell me, Calamity Jane, what changes are you running away from?” Bill asked.
Maggie looked at him and sighed. “Honestly, I didn’t even know I was running away until I found myself miles from home and not wanting to turn around and go back. I’ve been ignoring things that have happened over the years, putting them on the back burner, so to speak, for so long that I think my mind just had one too many problems to deal with and snapped.” She gave a small, nervous laugh. “The worst part is, now that I’ve started this journey, I can’t seem to stop. I have no idea what I’m doing here instead of being home doing what’s expected of me. Yet now that I’m here, I know I can’t go home until I figure out a few things.”
Bill smiled and reached across the table, taking Maggie’s hand in his. “Well, Calamity, whatever the reasons, I’m glad you’re here.”
Maggie returned his smile, feeling warmed by the fact that someone actually appreciated her company. She hadn’t felt this way in a very long time.
The ride back to Deadwood was just as pleasant as the ride that morning had been. Maggie felt alive on the back of Bill’s Harley. She couldn’t believe how riding along the curvy mountain road could lift her spirits so high.
When they returned to Deadwood in the late afternoon, Bill surprised her by driving up to Mount Moriah Cemetery, which looked down on the town from a plateau in the mountains nearby. “The town has spruced up the cemetery recently, so I thought you might like to see it,” he explained as they stepped off the bike and put their helmets away. They walked over to the graves of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane, and stood silently for a moment, the only two people there.
After a time, Maggie broke the stillness. “Doesn’t it seem a little weird standing at your gravesite, Bill?” she asked, smirking.
Bill grinned. “I die daily,” he said. “Seems only fitting to visit my grave every now and then.”
Maggie shook her head and smiled. Their pretense of names should have worn thin by now, should have been downright annoying, but here, in this town that thrived on make-believe and tall tales, it seemed fitting.
As evening approached, Bill pulled up in front of Maggie’s hotel and cut the engine. She stepped off the bike, handed Bill her helmet, and retrieved her camera from the saddlebag. Finally, standing there in her black leathers—feeling so comfortable, as if she dressed like this every day—she smiled at Bill for the last time.
“Thanks for the sightseeing tour, Bill. I had a great time.”
Bill nodded, his helmet off and in his lap. “Pleasure’s all mine, ma’am,” he said, using his best Hickok accent. “Will I be seeing more of you in the next few days?” he asked hopefully. But Maggie shook her head.
“I’m leaving tomorrow,” she said.
Bill’s eyes showed disappointment. “Home, or farther west?”
“West, I think,” Maggie answered. “I have some more thinking to do before heading home.”
Bill nodded. Taking her hand again, he kissed it lightly in a most gentlemanly fashion. “It’s been a pleasure, Miss Calamity,” he said, smiling up at her.
Maggie looked into his soft brown eyes, feeling warmed by this stranger she felt she knew so well after only two days. She was going to miss Wild Bill, and that surprised her.
“It’s Maggie,” she told him.
His eyes danced as he looked her over with fresh eyes.
Still holding her hand, he winked at her. “Maggie. Now, that’s a fine name. See ya, Maggie.” He let go of her hand and pulled on his helmet.
Maggie waved as he drove down the street. “See ya, Bob,” she said quietly, using his real name for the first time. Then she turned and walked into the hotel.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Kaia and Kyle stared at their dad as he explained that he’d spoken with their mom the night before and she wasn’t coming home yet. “She’s fine, but just needs a little break from everything,” Andrew said, by way of explanation. Kaia continued staring at him through narrowed eyes, as if trying to extract the real truth from his words.
Maybe he killed her, Kaia thought, and disposed of the body. His eyes were just a little bit shifty, after all, if you looked close enough. Just because everyone thought her dad was good-looking and personable didn’t mean he didn’t have it in him. Wasn’t it always the least likely person who ended up disposing of his wife, or even his whole family? And he looked
nervous, as if he wasn’t telling the entire truth. And what about all the tension that had been in the house over the past year? Had he finally snapped and done her in? Her stare turned into a glare, and her father finally gave her a confused look.
“What?” Andrew asked.
Kaia snapped out of her murder fantasy and back to reality. “Nothing.”
“Fine,” he said. “Make sure you don’t miss your bus.”
Grudgingly, Kaia didn’t miss her bus, but she fumed all the way to school thinking of a few murder plots of her own.
Okay, she thought as the bus rolled on and on, stop after stop. So her father probably didn’t kill her mother, but what was this bit about needing a break? Why would her mother need a break? And how selfish of her, to take off and not tell anyone, leaving Kaia under the reign of her dad, who knew absolutely nothing about running a house or being with kids. The more Kaia thought about it, the angrier she became. “Well, maybe I need a break, too,” she said under her breath. “What if I just stopped doing what I’m supposed to do and did whatever I felt like?”
Kaia liked her new way of thinking. She’d never skipped school before, but she knew a few kids who did, on occasion, and she knew she could hook up with them. By the time the school bus stopped in the school parking lot to unload, she was ready to put her plan in motion.
All day, Andrew’s thoughts kept returning to his conversation with Maggie. What exactly had she meant, she needed more time? Time for what? He refused to believe that she’d even consider a divorce. Sure, they’d had a rough patch over the past year, but he’d fixed his mess and had thought they were over it. Or were they? Thinking about Maggie disrupted his work, which only aggravated him more.
Walking through the back door at the end of the day, he was nearly tripped by Bear as he rushed outside to do his business on the back lawn. From inside the house, Andrew heard a voice say, “You’re supposed to put Bear on his leash, or he’ll run all over the neighborhood.” He poked his head around the corner and saw his daughter leaning over a book at the kitchen table and eating a banana.
“Why didn’t you let Bear out when you came home?” he asked as he put his briefcase on the back counter.
Kaia rolled her eyes. “No one told me I had to,” she said. “Am I supposed to do everything?”
Andrew wanted to ask exactly what she’d done since she’d come home, but refrained and headed out to the yard to catch Bear and put him on his leash.
Andrew changed into a sweatshirt and jeans. He tried calling Kyle several times to find out when he’d be home but gave up when he didn’t answer. He suggested pizza to Kaia.
Kaia wrinkled her nose. “We’ve had junk food three nights in a row. Can’t we have something good?”
“I thought teenagers liked junk food,” Andrew said.
Kaia rolled her eyes in response.
Andrew inventoried the food in the refrigerator. There wasn’t much. Apparently, Maggie hadn’t stocked up before running away. It seemed to Andrew that was the least she could have done.
He settled on grilled cheese sandwiches and salad that hadn’t gone brown yet. Kaia, at least, was agreeable to eating this, but she made sure to inform him that the milk was almost gone as well as the fresh fruit. He knew he’d have to make a trip to the grocery store soon.
Andrew cleaned up after dinner, threw some towels in the washing machine, and panicked when he saw the basket of clothes that needed washing. He knew that Maggie dried some items, hung others, and took some to the dry cleaner. But which ones? The pile that stared back at him looked more complicated than he thought it should.
The cats whined to be fed, Kaia whined that she needed help with an algebra problem, and the whining sound coming from the dryer frightened Andrew. The last thing he needed was for it to break down. Who did Maggie call for repairs? Oh God, he just wasn’t cut out for this. And he blamed Maggie for going off and leaving him with all her unfinished work. It wasn’t fair. Just as it hadn’t been fair to wait for almost two days to call and tell him she was okay.
Earlier that day, he’d called Derrick to tell him he’d heard from Maggie and that she was fine. Not wanting to go into details, he’d lied and said that Maggie had a family emergency in Seattle and had left a note that somehow had fallen between the stove and the counter. It sounded legitimate to Andrew, but there had been a long pause on Derrick’s end of the line that made Andrew nervous. He was certain Derrick didn’t believe him, but the sheriff finally thanked him for calling and quietly hung up. Andrew felt like a criminal. And he hadn’t done anything wrong. It was Maggie who’d run off, and Maggie who’d put him in the position of having to lie to his friend. He didn’t care what had gone on between them in the past, she was being selfish and immature, and he was going to tell her that the next time she called.
Maggie sat on the bed in her hotel room, reflecting on her day with Wild Bill as she loaded the day’s photos onto her computer. It had been an incredible day. She felt lighthearted and alive for the first time in months. The photos she’d taken had turned out beautifully, too. The sunny day, blue sky, and lush scenery had exploded with color in her pictures, and she was thrilled.
As Maggie continued to go through the photos, her mood slowly changed to melancholy. Wild Bill had been attentive to her the entire day. He’d listened intently when she spoke, and smiled warmly at her for no reason at all. And when he’d taken her hand during the trail walk, that had felt nice. It had been such an innocent gesture, but one she hadn’t experienced in a long time.
When was the last time Andrew had held her hand or looked into her eyes with any hint of tenderness? He hadn’t done either in a long time, and it filled her heart with sadness that they had lost the loving and affectionate feelings their marriage had been founded on. She didn’t understand where those feelings had escaped to, or why. But she knew that those lost feelings were part of the reason for her sudden escape. She had to make sense of where their lives were now, and where they were headed. With a heart now so heavy compared to the happiness she’d felt only minutes before, Maggie dialed the number for home.
It was a few minutes past ten o’clock and Andrew was exhausted. He’d just finished folding one load of towels and had thrown another load into the dryer. On her way past the laundry room, Kaia glanced in to make sure he wasn’t doing anything wrong and saw her jeans in a pile of clothes on the floor.
“Don’t shrink my jeans,” she warned in an ominous tone, to which Andrew replied with a sharp, “Then do them yourself.” Kaia ignored him and headed off to bed.
Andrew had just thrown himself on his bed, contemplating how he’d fit grocery shopping into his day tomorrow, when the phone rang. He picked it up with a short and sour, “Yeah.”
“Hi, Andrew. It’s me.”
Andrew sat up, taken aback by Maggie’s melancholy tone. His initial reaction was to ask her if she was okay, but then he remembered how angry he’d been with her earlier that evening and stopped himself before expressing his concern. “Hello, Maggie.”
“How are the kids?” Maggie asked.
“Smart-mouthed and absent, as usual,” Andrew shot back. “Kaia does nothing around here to help out, and Kyle isn’t even home yet. Since when is he allowed to be out all hours of the night without calling to let us know where he is?”
“He’s almost twenty years old. Who did you check in with when you were twenty?”
“That was different. I was away at school. He’s living at home and we’re still paying his bills. He has a responsibility to follow our rules, not make up his own.”
Maggie sighed. “I didn’t call to argue. I just wanted to check on you and the kids, and make sure everything is okay.”
“Well, everything is not okay, Maggie. You’re off to God knows where, and I’m stuck here doing all your work. You need to come home. And if you don’t, well, I’m not going to be held responsible for what
happens to our marriage.”
“You’ve never taken any responsibility for our marriage before,” Maggie said calmly. “So why should I expect anything different now?”
The long pause hung heavily in the air as Andrew contemplated what Maggie had just said. Finally, in a calm, controlled voice, Andrew asked, “Maggie, how much longer do we have to keep going over the past? When will it finally be over?”
“When I’m finally over it, I guess,” she said. “I just need more time.”
“And what will that time do to us, to our family?” Andrew wanted to know. “We’ll never be the same, will we?”
“I hope not,” Maggie said quietly. “I hope we’ll never go back to the way we’ve been these past few years.” Without another word, she hung up the phone.
CHAPTER EIGHT
It was Kaia’s second day of going AWOL from school, and she didn’t feel at all guilty about it. She’d simply stepped off the school bus, walked to the parking lot, and slid into Lance’s car along with Allie and Jessie, her skipping buddies. They weren’t actually good friends of hers, but she knew them from classes, and they were more than happy to include her as long as she helped pay for the gas. Yesterday, she’d had them drop her off at home before her dad got there, and she’d deleted the message from the school inquiring why she’d been absent. Her poor, clueless dad had no idea she’d been running around all day instead of sitting in class. It was so easy. She didn’t know why she hadn’t tried it before. Except if her mother were home, she’d know. She had a sixth sense about both Kaia and Kyle, and always seemed to know instantly if something was wrong. But her mother wasn’t home, so it was working out perfectly. Why not take advantage of it?
They drove about fifty miles out of Woodroe to another small town where no one recognized them, and shopped at the mall and played at the arcade all day. Kaia sometimes helped at her mother’s work during the summer, so she had a little money to spend. It wasn’t until they passed the earring shop that Kaia got a great idea. No, a fabulous idea. And with her new friends urging her on, she knew it was going to be the best idea she’d ever had.
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