Chapter 8

After a day of enjoying Denver and each other, Jarrod and Beth boarded their private car on the train that was due to head west just after eleven o'clock at night. They found their bed already turned down, and since they had already eaten dinner and were set for the night, they dove right in.

"I wonder what it's like to make love on a train?" Beth asked.

It wasn't long before they found out. The train pulled out fairly slowly, and continued slowly far up into the mountains. The rocking back and forth made for some interesting sensations. At one point, as Jarrod sighed and rolled over onto his side of the bed, happy and satisfied, Beth said, "I think I like this train."

Jarrod laughed out loud.

"I'll bet you wouldn't do that in a Pullman," Beth said.

Jarrod laughed even more and was back in his wife's arms again.

Despite themselves, they ultimately fell asleep. When dawn broke, they were deep into the mountains, so it was a bit later that the light woke them up. Jarrod opened his eyes first and saw the mountains outside the window, and a river cutting through them down to the right of the train. Holding his wife in his arms, he sat up and turned the two of them toward the view on the right. Drowsily, Beth said, "What is it?"

"Open your eyes," Jarrod said. "Look out the window."

Beth mumbled and did look out – and her eyes opened wide. "Oh, my goodness!" She quickly got up, grabbed her robe and hurried to the window. Jarrod sat on the edge of the bed, watching her, enthralled by the way she was practically pressing her nose to the window to see. She suddenly looked at the back door. There was a platform there but no car hooked on behind theirs. "May we go out the back and look? We could see everything from there!"

"Put your slippers on," Jarrod said, donning his slippers and his robe. In a moment, they both went out the back door.

And the Colorado Rocky Mountains spread themselves out before them like a wedding gift from God. Retreating behind them, they could see the mountains looming high into the air, the tight canyon with the river running through it beside them, the track that marked the way they had come, the deep blue sky.

"Oh – " Beth said. "I never dreamed anything could be this magnificent."

"That's the river that runs all the way through Colorado and south into Mexico where it runs into the ocean," Jarrod said. "If we were on a raft in the water there we would eventually go through what they've started to call the Grand Canyon."

"I've read about it," Beth said. "Will we see it?"

"No, this train line leaves the river when the river cuts south. I've never seen the Grand Canyon but I understand it's like nothing we can see anywhere else in the entire world."

"Take me there someday," Beth said.

Jarrod smiled. "All right. As soon as we can, we'll go. But forget the raft. I understand the river is a monster down there, waterfalls and rapids that can swallow you up. I don't want my beautiful wife swallowed up, except maybe by me." He started kissing and nibbling her neck.

Beth laughed. "What will we see after this canyon?"

"We go through some serious desert area and by the great salts west of here."

"Oh! The place where everything is white with salt as far as you can see!"

"You've read about that, too," Jarrod said, smiling.

"I've read everything I could read on so many things," Beth said. "I wish I could live 500 years so I could read everything."

"But people keep writing things," Jarrod said. "You couldn't keep up."

"Oh, I know," she said. "But it's lovely to think about doing it. After the desert, do we come to the mountains we can see from your ranch?"

"Not quite," Jarrod said, "but close. We see the eastern Sierra Nevada first, very high. They probably still have snow on top of them."

"It's early spring," Beth said.

"Not up where they are," Jarrod said.

They heard knocking at the other door to their car.

"Our late breakfast is here," Jarrod said.

They went back inside, and Jarrod let the porter in. He brought coffee and toasted bread and eggs and ham, and Jarrod and Beth sat down to it and ate up a storm. As they savored the last cup of coffee, Jarrod felt his beard again, and Beth laughed. "Time to shave again. You forgot to last night."

"I was busy again," Jarrod said with a twinkle in his eye.

After they finished eating, they cleaned up and dressed, and then they were back out on the platform again. "It's too bad we don't have the bed out here," Beth said.

Jarrod laughed. "If we did, everyone could see what we were doing."

"And they'd be so jealous," Beth said and kissed her husband for what must have been the millionth time since they met scarcely five days earlier.

Jarrod stole another one, saying, "Come on. Let's relax a bit inside."

They went back in together, and as he closed the door, Jarrod said, "How do you feel about reading to me from one of those books you brought?"

"Reading to you?" Beth said.

Jarrod came closer to her. "I'll tell you a secret. A bit over a year ago, I was hurt in an explosion and for several weeks, I lost my vision. I couldn't see anything but blackness. I wasn't sure I would ever see again. My little sister, Audra, she began to read to me, and I can't tell you how much that meant to me. It wasn't just that I could have the words of a book when I couldn't see that book. It was the sound of her voice, so comforting at a time when I was desperate for comforting. Ever since then, when I'm troubled, or even when I'm relaxed, when I want to feel content, I've asked her to read to me. Will you read to me now?"

Beth nearly teared up. "Words mean that much to you?"

"The written word and the spoken word," Jarrod said. "They feed my soul."

Beth gave him a kiss. She found this part of him so captivating, she couldn't help but find a book. They sat down together on the settee, and he closed his eyes while she began to read Les Miserables to him – in English. Every now and then he reached to touch her hand, her arm, her face, and she would return the touch.

This is it, he said to himself. This is what I've always wanted, this closeness, this sweetness, this joy. This is what life is all about. Beth is what life is all about for me now.

XXXXXXX

It was late in the day when the land north of the train began to turn white. Jarrod knew when they were coming up on it. Beth had fallen into a nap in his arms, but he knew he had to wake her up to see this. He kissed her. "Beth."

"Hm?" she asked.

"Wake up," Jarrod said. "We're at the salt flats."

Beth sat up out of his arms, onto the edge of the settee beside him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to fall asleep."

"It was fine," Jarrod said. "I enjoyed holding you. But now you need to wake up to see the salt flats."

"Oh!" she said and got up. "Where?"

Jarrod pointed to the back door. "Let's go outside."

They went out to the platform together and Jarrod pointed to the north. In the distance, Beth could see the whiteness, and it began to creep closer and closer as they moved along. It wasn't very long before most of the landscape was white – a little colored by the sunset, but noticeably white.

"Oh, my goodness," Beth breathed. "And that's all salt?"

"All salt," Jarrod said.

"The lake – the old sea – is it further away from us?"

"Yes, to the north," Jarrod said.

"And it used to come all the way down here, long ago," Beth mused. "Can you imagine – it just evaporated and left all this salt behind. Can you imagine how long that must have taken?"

"More lifetimes than you and I will ever see," Jarrod said. "I suppose someday the lake will be gone entirely, and all there will be is the salt."

"Amazing," Beth said. She looked behind them and saw the mountains they had come through had practically disappeared. She turned and tried to see the mountains coming up, but the train blocked the view. "How far until we are in the mountains again?"

"Not all that far," Jarrod said, "but it will be dark. We'll feel them more than see them, like when we left Denver."

"Oh, that's too bad," Beth said. "I wanted to see them."

"It'll take a long time to climb up there and get through. Tomorrow we'll cross the Nevada desert, and then we'll climb into the mountains in California. Then we'll get to Sacramento and then change trains for a short trip to Stockton. We should be home late tomorrow evening."

Beth grew quiet. Jarrod sensed she was uneasy.

"Don't be nervous," he said. "My family will love you."

"I hope so," Beth said. She turned toward him. "When I left home, I was planning to be in Denver now, not traveling to my first meeting with my in-laws."

Jarrod chuckled and kissed her. "It'll be fine. They'll be so glad to see me married that they'll worship the ground you walk on."

Beth fell into his arms and held him tight. They snuggled out there for a moment, and then Beth said, "When do we eat?"

"There, you see!" Jarrod said with a laugh. "You have something in common with my brother Nick already!"