Crossing the Deep (13 page)

Asher pulled away before she could, and studied her pretty face. Her eyes were still closed and her lips red from the force of his kiss. Her pale face contrasted with the blush in her cheeks. He had affected her. It made him happy.

She swallowed hard and slowly opened her eyes. Asher had no idea what to do next. Every other girl he’d kissed hadn’t meant anything to him. It had just been something to do. He’d never felt the tug in his heart over the physical aspects before.

“I’m sorry,” he said, not sure if he meant it or not.

“Don’t be. It was… nice.”

He had to laugh. “Nice is a good word.” He’d never taken the time to notice how pretty she was before. Never. Even after being in class with her for years, he’d never given her a second glance. Well, he was looking now.

Rachel shook her head as if to clear her own cobwebs and started pulling her coat off again, making Asher wonder if she was going to strip and jump him. Once it was off, she handed it to Asher. “You need this more than me. Please.” Underneath, she had on a long-sleeved, body hugging teal shirt with three buttons at the top. She shivered as the cool air hit her, and Asher took his coat off and handed it to her.

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” he said.

“I know, but you need it more than me. You’re gonna be the one in the rain. I’m here in this nice, semi-dry gazebo.”

“Okay,” he relented, putting her green coat on. It was almost too small, but he wouldn’t harp about it. She was being nice, so would he.

“How do I look?” He struck some silly pose he’d seen on a magazine once.

“Very fashion forward. It matches the beard you’re getting.” She smiled.

“That’s me. Mr. Fashionista. And speaking of beards, couldn’t your mom have packed a razor or something?”

“Guess she figured my legs wouldn’t need it.”

“What horrible planning.” He laughed.

Her laugh rang his ears in a good way. That laugh would give him the motivation to get back to her in record time.

“I feel stupid, you know?”

“But you’ll be oh so dry.”

“Sid will never let me live this down.”

He bent down to her and put his fingers under her chin. “I’ll come back for you. I promise.”

“I’ll be praying,” she said back. Her cheeks were still as red as her hair.

“I know you will.” He grabbed his water bottle and walked down the steps. He wanted to turn around and kiss her again but didn’t do it. If he did it again, he might not find the strength to leave. The rain hit him like icy needles as he cut through the fog, and he hoped toward help.

****

Rachel watched as Asher jogged away from her and disappeared into the fog. She hated more than anything that he had to go. Her fingers touched her lips, which were still warm from Asher’s. Kissing him had brought up so many feelings that she couldn’t explain. Needing to talk to someone, she wished Carly was there with her.

Carly had experience with such things, way more than Rachel had ever thought of having. Of course, most of her experience had been with Sid, but still, it was more than Rachel had to go on.

All she knew was she hoped Asher still felt the same way when they got back home. She laid back on the cold concrete, leaving her shoeless foot propped up on their one backpack, thinking.

As the morning dragged on, the fog lifted, but the heavy rainclouds hindered the sunlight from reaching its full capacity. With nothing but time, she opened up her worn, purple Bible and started reading. The pages were damp, and it made her sad. She knew it was just a thing and that there were other Bibles in the world. But that didn’t mean she loved it any less.

No other Bible could ever compare to her trusty little purple one. It hadn’t always been that way though. The book had been a gift from her father for her fourteenth birthday — the day he died trying to make his ungrateful daughter happy.

She pulled Asher’s jacket around her tighter and fought back tears. Now the e-reader her father had bought as a replacement present for the Bible she once hated lay as dead as he was. Nothing had gone the way she had thought it would.

Trying to find a comfortable sitting position was a chore itself. If her ankle felt okay, her back hurt. If her back felt fine, her ankle pounded. When she found a position that worked, she felt something in Asher’s jacket poking her chest. It felt hard with at least one sharp point.

She remembered the hotel snack machine on Friday morning. Asher had put something in his pocket when he’d seen her coming around the corner. At the time, she had accused him of hiding drugs or cigarettes or something. That conversation felt like a lifetime ago. Could the Asher who kissed her, the one she’d grown to… love… be the same one who hid things from her?

“Don’t jump to conclusions again,” she told herself. Deciding it was best to get all doubts out of her mind, she reached in and pulled the rectangular thing out. It was small, no bigger than the palm of her hand. The black coloring made her first think it was one of those little black books she’d heard about. A bit heartbroken, she opened the book not to find names but scriptures.

Asher had hidden a Bible.

Chapter Eleven

Miserable would be a nice word for how Asher felt. The rain kept pelting him without any sign of stopping, and the thick, muddy path slowed him down. Most miserable of all, he was alone.

Usually he liked to be alone. He preferred it. The solitude was one thing about his living arrangement with his aunt that he liked except when Jason was in the picture.

Despite missing Rachel, Asher knew he couldn’t have dragged her out in this weather. Not again. Her foot was beyond anything he had ever seen before. There was no way she should be up on it. Her little shelter, pitiful as it was, suited her best.

He tried not to think as he walked, though there was little else to do. With nothing to keep it occupied, his mind wandered to the kiss.

Giving in to the fact that he couldn’t forget about her, he decided to take the time to think about something useful — how to let Rachel down easy. There was no way he could be her boyfriend in the real world, not that he didn’t want to be.

He had an overwhelming desire to kiss her again, hold her hand, go on a real date, and walk through the halls at school with her at his side. But they were too different. She was way too into church, and he… wasn’t.

And above all else, he believed he was her first kiss. That held a lot of weight. He’d never had anything in his life that he didn’t screw up one way or another. How could his relationship with Rachel be any different? He’d had girlfriends before and knew himself well enough to know that when he got bored, he broke up with them. It hadn’t been fair to them, but it had been easiest for him. How could he do that to someone as special as Rachel? How could he ruin her reputation by being with her in public? People would talk about what they did alone in the woods. He liked her too much to make her go through that.

Breaking it off before they got down the mountain would be the best plan, he decided. Not that there was anything really to break off. One kiss… who didn’t kiss besides her? She’d understand… hey, she probably felt the same way. When he got back to her, she’d likely tell him something like, “Hey, Asher. Great kiss and all, but I’m too good for you.”

He wiped the rain from his eyes, knowing that she’d never say anything like that. Part of him wished she would. It would make it easier on him.

The path sloped down and wound to the right, or so he guessed. With all of the mud, puddles, and decaying leaves lying around, the trail all but disappeared. He would have to decode his feelings later. He put them aside and focused on the task ahead. Now that he paid attention, he could hear a faint rumbling in the distance. Not thunder. More like running water. A waterfall maybe?

A few yards ahead, he saw a sign. The mud made it impossible to run, though he felt like it. Squinting, he made out what the sign said.
Deep Creek
Trail.

Asher couldn’t believe it at first. After everything he had been through, he’d found it! He couldn’t wait to go back, get Rachel, and tell her, but first he had to get help. This was it!
A nice, warm hotel room, here he
came!

He was on cloud nine when he turned onto Deep Creek Trail and started descending the mountain. Even through the rain, he recognized some of the woods from Friday, and the knot that had been holding his stomach hostage began to unravel. In a few minutes he’d be at the footbridge and after about an hour, he’d be to the main road.

The sound of rushing water roared louder the farther he walked down Deep Creek Trail, and when he reached the sign at the footbridge he realized why there had been no rescue party. A river flowed where the small creek had trickled a few days before. The footbridge they had gone over on Friday was no longer there. All that was left of it was one post sticking out a few inches above the water, which meant the water had to easily be over five feet deep.

Asher walked up as close as the roaring rapids let him and stared. On Friday, the water had been so shallow it could have been crossed by foot and not even gotten the tops of boots wet. He remembered thinking how silly the name “Deep Creek” was when it was barely a trickle. The big river flowing in front of him didn’t even look like the same body of water.

They were cut off… literally cut off from the rest of the world.

Asher couldn’t move; couldn’t think. He felt numb. Now what were they supposed to do? There was nothing to use to cross to the other side. And the worst part was no one was on the other side waiting to help him.

Dazed, something near the water’s edge to the right caught his attention. It was hard to see at first, just a hint of red against the muddy ground. At first, he thought it might be blood. He cautiously walked toward it, keeping his eyes out for any sort of hurt animal that might be around waiting to attack. If his luck held out, that’s exactly what would happen. As he got closer, he realized that it wasn’t blood but a red baseball cap.

Asher’s pulse raced, and he sloshed through the grass and mud puddles to pick it up. He recognized it immediately.

“Sid!” he yelled into the air. “Sid, where are you?” Asher stood holding the cap, scanning all along the forest floor. “Sid, can you hear me? Are you hurt? Sidney!”

Nothing.

No answer.

Frantic, Asher clutched Sid’s cap as all the worst scenarios raced through his mind. His friend never went anywhere without his hat. Sid had even told him once that they had finally accepted it at church. He wouldn’t just leave it.

A few feet away, Asher saw Sid’s backpack lying next to the creek bank. There was no way Sid would be stupid enough to try to cross that swift a current, was there? Sid was reckless, but not with his life. Besides, Sid had left long before the rain had swelled the creek. He should have been down the mountain way before the flood. So why were his things around but not him?

“Sid Andrews!” he yelled again, shaking. “Where are you?”

The only thing Asher knew for certain was that he and Rachel weren’t getting down this way. He slung Sid’s pack across his rain soaked shoulder and started back to the cemetery.

****

A Bible?

Why did Asher have a Bible?

And why had he hidden it from her?

He’d admitted himself that he didn’t really believe in God.

No, he had said that he didn’t think God believed in him, or that God had left him and allowed his aunt’s boyfriend to attack him. Maybe he didn’t know what to think about God? In any case, why did he have a pocket-sized Bible hidden in his jacket? It didn’t make any sense.

Her mind went back to the hotel snack machine, and how he’d rushed to put the little thing into his pocket when he saw her coming. How could she have misjudged him so much?

She quickly felt the other pocket for the cigarettes she had accused him of having. They had to be somewhere. She had seen them. No, she
thought
she had seen them.

Resigned to the fact that she was a horrible judge of character, she sat back and flipped through his Bible.

It was a simple black book, new by the looks of the unworn binding. She flipped to the first page, looking for some sort of inscription. There was nothing. No words written under “This Bible Belongs to” or a date. Where did he get it? Sid maybe? Or David before their trip?

As she read a few of the scriptures, she started feeling guilty, as if she was reading someone else’s diary. Rachel slammed the book and put it back in the coat pocket where she had found it. She twiddled her thumbs and sighed, wishing time would speed up and Asher would get back with some help.

Not long after that, her wish came true. Asher came through the gate, slumped over, and running through the pouring rain. It surprised her to see him coming back so soon. He didn’t look like a very happy man. Her heart fell. No way could there be another setback.

When he got closer, she noticed he carried something on his back and something else clutched in his hand.

“What happened?” she yelled through the rain. She pulled herself up by pushing her back to one of the gazebo’s columns.

“Sit back down,” he demanded so forcefully that it startled her. “You’re gonna hurt yourself.”

“I’m already hurt. Where did you get that?”

He was trembling when he entered the shelter, and Rachel could tell it wasn’t just from the cold and rain.

“Is that Sid’s?” she asked, pointing to the cap. “Where is he?”

Asher didn’t sit. He paced the few steps he could across the gazebo, making her nervous.

“I don’t know. I found this next to the creek.”

“And you’re sure it’s his.”

“Who else’s could it be?” he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“I don’t know. It’s a trail, Asher. Other people use it.”

“Not this one. Not now. It’s Sid’s, all right.”

Rachel’s mind couldn’t comprehend what he was saying. She understood the basics, but it didn’t make sense. “Wait, what creek? I don’t remember any creek.”

“That little foot bridge we went over on our way up. You know, before you decided to go off on your own? Well, the rain turned it into a wild, raging river. It washed the bridge out.”