Title: Cabin Fever
Author: MindyH
Chapter: 13 Lost
She's there one minute and gone the next. I was watching from the kitchen window as she wandered around the yard for a long while doing I know not what. The last thing I saw was her fiddling with the rope of the row boat, which floats at the edge of the lake. When I look back, the boat is floating freely in the middle if the water and there is no sign of Kate.
My heart jumps into my throat without warning. Did I look away for two minutes or too many?
I scan the area quickly from the left to the right, and back to the left again. No Kate.
I stride to the door and step outside, checking the porch and steps where she likes to sit and sketch. No Kate.
I bound down the steps and down the dirt path towards the water, stopping to search the yard frantically and squinting off into the distance in confusion.
"Kate!" I yell and strain to hear a response. No response. Shit.
I belt towards the lake and scan the surface of the water for any sign of distress or disturbance, but all is quiet. I reach the edge, panting roughly more from fear than exertion, but all I see is her jacket in the reeds.
"Kate!" I holler, my heart pounding in panic and my mind already racing with the worst possibilities. This can't be happening, my lips mumble mutely of their own volition, this can't be true. "KATE!"
"What!" comes a startled voice from my left and I turn to see her ducking out of the scrub and making her way towards me.
I curse under my breath and turn away for a moment. My entire body relaxes, my spine crumples like jelly and my eyes close over for a moment in extreme relief.
She gave me a real scare. Years of my job have trained me to expect the worst in every situation and to react accordingly on impulse. But it had been a hell of a long time since I'd had a scare like that. It had been a hell of a long time since I cared enough to get scared.
I turn back to her as she approaches, her brow creased with worry and her eyes filled with concern.
"What's wrong?" she asks softly, brushing dirt from her hands
I let out a breath and shake my head at the hills: "Nothing. You scared me is all. I thought--" I look at her expression and hesitate -- I've scared her now. Never mind what I thought. "Nothing. Doesn't matter," I smile weakly and feel my heartbeat return to normal.
"C'mere," I beckon with one arm and she steps over immediately, still scanning my face with distressed eyes. I draw her into my arms and feel her hug me about my middle, with her cheek pressed into my shirt.
I take a deep breath and kiss her hair: "What are you doing out here anyway?" I ask quietly and she tilts her head up to look at me.
"I'll show you, "she says, her eyes lighting up as she takes my hand.
She leads me in the direction she came from, wading through some brush, following the edge of the shore and ducking under a willow tree on the left bank of the lake. On the ground, by the root, is a collection of sticks which she has ground to pulp and discarded while carving into the tree truck the jagged figure of a love heart.
She smiles brilliantly at me and I can't help but chuckle tenderly as she picks up her instrument again, blowing on the wooden tip playfully, before retracing with a perfectionists eye the inscription she has etched into the core: "JETHRO + KATIE".