Chapter 38 - Today He Wonders
Sam wakes up to find that the day is perfect. He makes coffee like he's used to and sits on the porch to get in his quick breakfast before he heads out. Charlie is waiting.
Sam is delighted he has something to do so early in the season. It's not hot yet, it's cool in the mornings, enough to wear a light jacket. Maybe it'll be chilly on the water when they both head out fishing. He packs the cooler with a few beers, and leaves room for the catch. He's had a hankering for some rainbow trout these past few weeks. If they're lucky, they'll be feasting on salmon tonight. It'll be good for the girl and the baby to eat.
He makes his hike down toward the lake, and there they are again. They're far away, but Sam can see them. Barely anyone in sight this early. Seeing any movement anywhere is like spotting a hawk up above tree-tops so easily. Question is, why would they be hiking this early? And why would a mother to be, about to give birth as it seems, be hiking up trails in her condition?
He saw them yesterday, and the day before that. So many reasons why a couple would be hiking up these grounds, he thought nothing of it. Maybe she needs her exercise, doctor's orders? Maybe they love the sights; it's their way of passing time? He looked away and moved on to get to Charlie's cabin.
But today he wonders. It guts him just enough where it makes his steps falter. He's curious now. Something is up. Something is afoot.
They hike every day at the same hour—no earlier, no later—and it's always around the lake, farther, beyond it. He never sees where they end up.
Sam looks over at Charlie's cabin, then he looks at Bella and the boy—her boyfriend? God knows these days. These kids are all different with complicated or colorful relationships through modern behaviors. He doesn't know what's really between them. If you asked him, he'd say the hug the other day when Bella went to him after he arrived, looked off. There wasn't love behind it. Not the kind of love he felt for his Emily. Kids these days have no idea what love truly means.
A shame.
Sam takes a step toward the lake, not Charlie's cabin. Charlie's car isn't parked, maybe he has time to investigate before Charlie wonders where he is. So, he takes another step, and then they quicken. The couple is far now, and he must catch up.
He weaves through trees. He stops. He watches them take a break. She needs the breath.
Sam worries his lip; he shakes his head. This is not the place for a young girl in her state. He wants to shout to show himself, to reprimand. But something tells him to wait.
Sam keeps following, just a good distance away. He adjusts his pack and the cooler, and now he regrets not leaving it by the cabin door. He must move fast. He can see their backs, but he loses them at times.
When they disappear through a slight hill, an unpaved path, he rushes as fast as his old creaky legs would take him. The cooler clatters to the ground behind him as he lets go. But there's no time to turn back. He'll definitely lose them.
With his breath caught, and his heart going a mile high, he thinks he's still got it—the endurance. He definitely doesn't need to go walking on his exercise day tomorrow. He's done enough for the entire week. He huffs out the fatigue.
Boulders appear. The sight to the left is clear, so is the right, so, through them is probably where they must have gone, nowhere else. He tries it. He walks through the cracks.
And, boy, does this day get better than he ever thought it possibly could.
….
Sam's eyes haven't bothered to stop on Bella or Jameson. He turns this way, then that way. He chuckles.
"Now, why in Christ would you two bring all this stuff…" His voice trails off. What he was about to finish saying was the unthinkable, the impossible. His astonishment dumbs him. Of course, they didn't bring all of this. This would take years to accumulate.
"Sam ..." Bella begins to stutter.
Sam chuckles again. He racks his brain; he rubs his peppered chin. "Well, I'll be damned."
He spreads his arms, finally looking at them. "Who would do all this?"
Bella shakes her head. She glances at James. James is not going to jump in.
Sam wanders. His hands skim the trees as he ducks under a branch to walk into the space a little more. He touches a barrel as if it'll disappear. He bumps another to watch it sway.
Bella nervously laughs. "How did you …? Did you follow us?" she asks, looking panicked at James.
Sam stops in the dead center. "I've been watching you two walk past the lake for a couple of days now, but you'd walk through an unpaved path, and … I thought it was odd."
He looks at them, at Bella, like he's realized something monumental. Like the light has finally reached a bulb deep in his mind. It has clicked on. It brightens by the nanosecond. Brighter and brighter.
"This is where he lived, isn't it? The boy."
Bella shakes her head slightly. "Uh … who?" She shrugs.
Sam narrows his eyes at her. He gets closer and points. "You know who I'm talking about. You were there that day with Charlie. You saw him, too."
Bella is frozen.
"You found him, " he adds, matter of fact. He watches her expression. Her unblinking stare; scared. Trembling hand finds her middle, a slow graze over the bump; a mother protecting her child. A mother doing the impossible to do what needs to be done. Determination comes in many forms, but hers comes in hikes along the lake every day, early in the morning, without fail. She would do just about anything for her child. Even find its missing father.
The weight of the world finds Sam's shoulders as the bulb in him clicks another on. His mind is a sparking lightning storm.
Sam pulls in a sharp breath. "Girl, what have you done?" His eyes wide, taking her in with new meaning this time.
A tear escapes down Bella's cheek.
The confirmation.
Sam bends at his waist. He turns, hands on his hips. The same reaction a worried father would make, the same Charlie has done many times before.
"Oh, child," he says exasperatingly. He scratches his head; he runs that hand down his suddenly tired face. "And Charlie doesn't know, does he?"
No response from Bella, not an uttered affirmation. She doesn't need to. This wise man has figured it all out.
Sam turns in circles. He stares at all the things. "This will kill your father. If nothing else, this will."
"Please … Sam, please. Let me tell him."
He knits his brows, taken. He pauses from the absurdity. "You think I would intervene in something like this?" he says, shaking his head. "I am a man with a simple life. This is too much for me," he says with a pointed finger. "This is yours to tell, and to endure. What I'm deeply regretful of is that no one ever does listen to an old man." He waves a hand. "He was bait that day; I should've known."
Bella sucks in more tears.
"You had to go and find him, didn't you?" He says, but his eyes are saddened. His lips turn into a smile to match. "I told you he shouldn't be bothered."
"So, where is he?" Bella asks bluntly. Anger bubbles up. "If you know so much, where has he gone? Tell me." She asks this desperately.
He knows exactly where. He shakes his head, remembering. "I'm afraid you won't like my answer," he says.
"Any answer. I'll take any!" she shouts.
Jameson goes to her side, a calming hand over her chest.
Sam looks down. His bushy, dark brows expressive. They're saying this is going to be heartbreaking. "I saw him myself. I thought it was rare, like watching a blue bear make it slowly across the woods. I thought I was lucky that day." He blinks with the memory. "Backpack, bin and all, dragging behind him. I knew it would be the last I would see of him."
Jameson's eyes crinkle up. "A bin?" He turns his eyes toward the same type of container beside him, the same he saw just a week ago. It dragged along behind a hiker, too.
"I saw him," Jameson says to Sam. "I saw a bin just like this behind a hiker." He gestures toward said bin. Sam quirks a lip.
Bella collapses to her knees. The cold, dry leaves beneath her palms crush to pieces, like her heart feels.
Edward is gone.
Definitely.
Her screams take up the campsite—laments of loss, but suddenly of a deep-rooted pain.
Bella's hand again finds her side.
This time, Jameson notices.
…