River Deep, Mountain High
Standard disclaimers apply to this piece of Christy fan fiction.
This story continues where the TV series left off.
Any similarities to other works of Christy fan fiction are purely coincidental and unintentional.
Chapter 35
During the ride to Doctor MacNeill's cabin, Christy felt an odd mixture of apprehension and anticipation coursing through her veins. It brought a strange sense of warmth to her body even as the wind whipped past her face and sent loose strands of her hair flying. She had not seen Neil since that night he lashed out at her over two weeks ago. Christy had thought and prayed about the situation daily, even after the breakthrough she had during the conversation with Miss Alice when she realized that she loved him. She had a general plan for loving Neil until the hurt went away, but she was still anxious about it, not exactly certain how she might actually react and what she would say when she saw him face to face for the first time.
Christy slowed Prince to a halt and tied the reins to a low tree branch at the bottom of the cabin steps. The horse whinnied when he saw Charlie also tethered nearby, signaling that Doctor MacNeill was home. Christy took a moment to smooth back her hair, sucked in a deep breath, and headed up the stairs to the front door. Gloved hand reaching out from beneath her clock, she knocked loudly and waited, trying to quiet her conflicting emotions.
Seconds later, Neil opened the door. His expression was one of pure surprise. Christy was the last person he expected to come to his cabin after the way he had treated her. But there she stood only a few feet away, and although he was infinitely glad to see her, Neil was caught off guard, unsure what he should say to her. He found his words caught in his throat as his mind raced with confusion.
The sight of Neil unexpectedly took her breath away, casting away any notion of what she thought she might say to him. A puzzled look was plastered on his face, and he looked as though his lips were starting to form some words but they stopped midway, making his mouth appear fuller than usual. His hair looked especially coppery today with the way the afternoon sun glinted off the tips of his unruly curls. He wore a pair of dark brown pants held up by tan suspenders with a light green line passing through the middle, and his shirt sleeves were rolled up. Christy could tell from the open laboratory door behind him that he had been working on his research. She took another moment to muster her courage and finally spoke.
"Good afternoon, Doctor MacNeill," she greeted him warmly, smiling. Internally, she fought hard against the still fresh memories of his verbal assault in order to keep a pleasant expression and demeanor. Love him until the hurt goes away, she reminded herself, repeating the mantra over and over again.
"Christy," Neil finally managed to get out with a slight croak. "You're the last person I expected to see here."
"I came to see if you could replenish some of our supplies at the Mission's dispensary," she explained.
A bit disappointed that she only came by out of medical necessity rather than for a social visit, Neil tried his best to conceal his feelings and opened the door to let Christy into the cabin. At least she had come, he thought to himself, instead of sending Fairlight or Ruby Mae on the errand. Christy handed him a piece of paper with the list of requested items, and Neil went into his laboratory to gather the necessary supplies with Christy following behind him.
"How is the health of the Cove these days, Doctor?" she asked, attempting to fill the uncomfortable gap of silence.
"Oh, as well as can be expected this time of year," he remarked casually. "The influenza season seems to be over, so it's just the usual ailments. Nothing too serious."
"We've missed you at the Mission, Neil," Christy said with sincerity after another brief pause. Neil looked up at the comment and thought he saw something different flicker across Christy's eyes, something he could not fathom, but then it quickly faded again as she averted her gaze shyly.
"As you can see, we've run dangerously low on camphor and willow bark tea." She almost bit her tongue after the words came out. Christy wanted to say so much more, not just that Neil's absence from the Mission meant that the dispensary was short on supplies. She wanted to tell him that she missed him, honestly and truly. And that she cared for him deeply. But she found her words were failing her at the moment as a sudden but familiar nervousness gripped her.
Why did Doctor MacNeill always make her feel this way, she wondered in irritation. Confident one minute, and then timid and insecure as a schoolgirl the next. Christy quickly reminded herself it was because she loved him. She wondered if those butterflies she felt in her stomach when she was close to Neil would ever disappear. She realized that she would just have to get used to the idea that she loved him. Having only recently come to such a realization, the feelings were all still so new to her.
Scooping the powered camphor into a burlap sack, Neil responded a bit warily, "I did not think you wished to see me under the circumstances."
The conversation was not quite going how Christy planned. Of course, she was not really certain what she really expected. The air between them still felt quite nervous and stilted, and Neil was definitely treating her with extreme caution. Christy then decided that the best approach for the time being was to simply pretend that nothing ever happened. She had something else up her sleeve, but that would have to wait. For now, she simply wanted to break the ice and ease the tension between them. She wanted him to know that she was reaching out to him.
"Now that school is back in session," she began, seemingly unaffected by Neil's previous comment, "I wondered when I could put you on the schedule for a science presentation."
Neil finished filling her sack with the essential items. He looked up and gazed into Christy's eyes before responding. He was surprised to see that there was no hurt or anger in them, only the same intense blue that made him want to drown in their depths and left him feeling weak in the knees. She looked lovely standing there. He wondered for a moment if perhaps he had only imagined that night when he was drunk and told Christy that he wished she'd never come to Cutter Gap. Neil promptly shook free that notion.
"Is next Tuesday soon enough?" he asked.
Christy smiled brightly and nodded, and her whole face came alight. "That would be wonderful. I'm looking forward to it, Neil."
Neil's lips turned up in spite of himself. Her enthusiasm was truly contagious, and he began to feel the dark shroud lifting from his body at her simple joy. He handed her the burlap sack and walked her out the front door of the cabin. He followed her down the stairs and helped her mount the big mustang. Before she rode off, Christy turned back and called out to Neil.
"We'll see you at the singing at the Mission after church Sunday, won't we?"
Neil nodded. "Yes, of course. I wouldn't miss it."
Christy flashed him a broad grin and then clicked her tongue and kicked her heals to urge Prince forward into a full gallop. She left Neil smiling heartily and scratching his head at the same time, quite delighted by the encounter yet thoroughly bewildered.
***
Chapter 36
Christy sat by the fire in the parlor of the Mission reading up on the next day's lessons for school when she felt a long shadow fall across her book, causing her to look up. It was David. He had been especially quiet these past few weeks, though his bitterness toward her seemed to have faded into something else…something Christy could not yet comprehend. She was relieved that he was no longer shooting daggers at her with his expressions, but now he seemed very serious and contemplative, and even a little melancholy. While she was glad that the fight and anger seemed to have gone from his eyes, she was also concerned by what took its place. It was as if he was giving up somehow.
Breaking the silence, David finally spoke, moving to sit beside her on the settee. "Christy, I was hoping we could talk."
She smiled faintly at him, his simple gesture and calm demeanor obvious signs that he was ready to make peace. The olive branch was being extended.
"Certainly, David," she replied, pulling herself more upright. "I'd like that."
David dropped his gaze from hers for a moment and clasped his hands together, taking a deep breath while he gathered the words he wanted to say. Then bright blue eyes filled with earnestness met hers. "Christy, I wanted to tell you that you were right about me. Right about everything. I was jealous and angry at the close friendship you share with Doctor MacNeill."
Christy listened silently to David with an open heart as he started to unburden his soul and confess his wrongdoings. The words began to come easier for him seeing that Christy understood. Her eyes gently pleading and encouraging, she urged him to continue.
"Before the holidays, I learned that Sissel was engaged to an old friend of mine who lives in Boston," David told her. "I started to regret having not pursued a relationship with her. I blamed you for that. I blamed you for leading me to think that we would be together someday. I know now that I was wrong, and I am deeply sorry for that."
Placing her hand on his reassuringly, Christy shook her head slightly. "David, you don't need to apologize. I understand how difficult that must have been for you. I know you cared for Sissel a great deal."
"Not long after I heard about Sissel's engagement, I received a letter from Ida that she and Clarence are expecting their first child in the spring." David paused for a moment to collect his thoughts and reign in the remnants of those lingering pangs he felt when he heard the news. "Christy, I began to feel as if I would never find anyone who would want to marry me…never have a family of my own. I'm almost twenty-nine years old, and I thought I would end up preaching to love thy neighbor without ever knowing what it felt like to have someone love me like that. I felt trapped here," David admitted, "and I resented you for moving forward with your life and being happy when I wasn't."
"David, I'm so sorry," Christy said sympathetically. It hurt her so much to know that David was in such pain, that he was struggling so. "You should have told me about this. Maybe I could have helped and spent more time with you. I never meant for my friendship with Neil to hurt our relationship."
"It isn't your fault, Christy. Or Neil's," he confessed. "I realize now that I allowed my judgment to become clouded. Everything I saw was tainted by feelings of self-pity and loneliness. You've never been anything but a kind and true friend to me, Christy Huddleston, and I treated you very poorly. Please forgive me."
David peered into Christy's eyes beseechingly, his countenance reflecting heartfelt honesty and humility. She could see facets of the old David she knew and loved as a good friend and brother begin to return to his face. She felt as if a shadow was lifted from her heart, though the hints of defeat that remained in his expression still troubled her.
"Of course I forgive you, David," she told him. "I can't tell you how much it means to me that we can be friends again, like we were before." David's reaction puzzled her. "Why do you still look so sad?" she wondered.
Unable to meet her gaze, David rose from the couch and paced the room for a minute before stopping and turning back to face her. "Miss Alice reminded me that I didn't come to Cutter Gap to find a wife," he explained while Christy listened intently. "I came to serve God and this mission. And while I agree with her, I also began to come to terms with the fact that I could not serve in a place where there was no possible chance of finding a woman who I could marry."
"David? Does this mean you're leaving the Cove?" she asked, stunned by the implication in his words. Her brow wrinkled in confusion.
"I had a long talk with Miss Alice a few weeks ago, and she helped me recognize how wrong I was to behave the way I did towards you. Since then, I've been doing a lot of thinking and self-examination. And praying. I even went to God's Fist, hoping to separate myself from all the distractions around me so that in the silence, I that might learn what God's plan was for my life. With the Lord's help, I finally saw what I was meant to see."
A pregnant paused passed between them as the unanswered question hung heavy in the air all around. The room was so quiet except the rhythmic flickering and popping of embers in the fire. Christy waited for David to continue, not realizing that she was holding her breath. She was dreading what he might say, though her heart already told her what the response would be.
"Yes," he stated plainly. "I am leaving." David started at her with tremendous intensely, hoping to draw strength from the young school teacher, a woman he had grown to love and admire more than anyone else. "I plan to continue to serve out the remainder of my assignment in Cutter Gap, but I have already written to Doctor Ferrand telling him that I do not plan to renew my term here. He will find someone to take my place, and at the end of the summer, I will be transferred to another congregation."
"Where will you go?" Christy asked, deeply distraught by the news.
He shook his head. "I don't know yet. I plan to contact the seminary in Boston to see if they might know of another assignment in a less rural area. I will also contact my parish from back home to ask if they could use me."
Christy felt her spirits sink into the pit of her stomach at the news. She remembered all that David had done for her over the years. He was the first person she met when she arrived at the Mission house that dark and rainy night following the arduous trek with Ben Pentland from the El Pano train depot. It seemed so long ago, and they had been through so much together. The tears began to sting at the back of her eyes when she thought that David would be gone in only a few months.
Though they had their share of relationship difficulties, Christy never imagined her life at the Mission without David. She knew he never felt the same way about Cutter Gap that she did. He did not share her connectedness with the natural environment, and that always kept him at arms-length from the people of the Cove. He was always the Reverend Grantland to them – their preacher – but rarely their friend. Christy only hoped that David would be happier in the end, wherever he went.
"I know it hasn't always been easy," Christy said, rising from her seat to stand beside him, "but you have made a true difference in these people's lives. You will be sorely missed, David. I will miss you tremendously, but I know you will succeed wherever your path takes you," she said. "And I know that someday you will make the right woman a very fine husband. It just couldn't be me," Christy added sadly. She reached up to touch her hand to his cheek, feeling the magnificent softness of his skin and the long, lean planes of his jaw line beneath her fingers. It reminded her of the first time she laid her hand upon his face in the moonlight and marveled at smoothness of his skin and the color of his hair. Yes, she would miss him deeply, Christy thought, no longer able to fight back the tears that began to spill freely down her face.
"I know. And I will always love you, Christy Huddleston," he confessed. He moved her hand from his cheek to his lips, kissing it tenderly. "I hope one day you have someone special to share your life with. He will be a very lucky man indeed." David gazed at Christy knowingly, his shining orbs silently communicating all the things he could not bring himself say but wanted her to recognize. She smiled at him in return, grateful that he understood what was in her heart.
Christy and David embraced and held each other tightly, the feeling of true and lifelong friendship enveloping them in its love. The past was gone. They had the future to look forward to.
***
TO BE CONTINUED