The Reunion (21 page)

* * * *

Ethan hung up the phone and looked at the clock. Eight sharp. He turned to Jenny with great consternation. “Father Thomas finally got hold of the mission agent. Ebony didn’t go with him. Her suitcases are in the church. She had tucked them under the back pew.”

“Where is she then?” Doc asked with a searching look. “We know she decided against Africa, but where is she?”

“I don’t know,” Jenny returned, shrugging. “She hasn’t been home. Millie’s been watching and promised to call if she returned.”

Rebecca shrugged. “Where else could she be? Think.”

“By the way, Ethan,” Jenny said with a deflated look, “happy birthday.”

He suddenly brightened, as if a light bulb had been switched on in his mind. “I have to call Mrs. Hurst,” he said. He immediately dialed the number. “Mrs. Hurst, you didn’t see Ebony today by any chance, did you?” His eyes narrowed as he listened. “Thank you.” He hung up and turned to the others. “She walked by this morning.” The excitement in his voice was unrestrained. “She was heading toward the Nine Mile River. She must have walked right past this house.”

“We were out,” Rebecca said, “so it’s quite possible.”

“Why would she go up the Nine Mile River?” Ron asked.

“I asked her if she wanted to go there today. She may be there. She may not—I don’t know.” Ethan looked out the window at the driving rain. “I hope to God she is somewhere else, but there’s a chance she’s up there. Ron, do you have a raincoat I could use?”

“Sure,” he said, quickly getting it out of the closet. “I’ll come with you.”

“No, I’ll be all right. Call Search and Rescue. If a different scenario comes up, you take the lead. Jenny, keep working the phones. Call everyone you can think of that might know something. Hopefully she’s somewhere else.”

Ethan put on the raincoat.

Rebecca fidgeted in near panic. “What do you need, Ethan?”

“A flashlight with extra batteries and a couple lighters in sealed plastic bags. Maybe a few first aid items.”

“Okay,” she assured him nervously, quickly gathering things.

He put on the raincoat, took the things Rebecca gave him, then opened the door. It was pouring rain, and as it drained from the gutters, it hit the ground with a loud rush.

“God, I hope she’s not back there,” Jenny said, hugging her brother.

“Me too.” He smiled at his friends. “No matter what happens, it will be pitch-dark by the time I reach the Stillwater, so I can’t see me coming out, especially in such a driving rain. Apparently Bern Baxter built a camp just below Shad Bay Lake. I’m praying that if Ebony is in there, she is sitting in that camp with a fire on. Either way, I’ll stay the night. Considering the weather, Search and Rescue will almost certainly wait until morning. I’ll keep looking until I find her or until someone comes in and tells me she’s safe elsewhere.”

“Good luck,” Doc said.

Ethan nodded, then hurried out the door, into the driving rain. Rather than walk the west side of the river as he figured Ebony had, he gambled. He jogged down the road past the Crane Rock, the Pyramid Rock, then along the path that led to the Stillwater. This side of the river was much denser and more difficult to negotiate, but it was a much shorter distance. Ethan pushed through the brush, branches slapping him in the face. Though the light was quickly fading, his hopes increased with each step, so sure was he that they would be reunited.

You are in here. I can feel it
, he thought as he hurried through the woods.
My birthday, the proposal—that’s why you went. But what happened? Why didn’t you come out?

He glanced heavenward, then ran through open sections, jumped over fallen trees, scrambled up hills. By the time Ethan reached the bridge, he was gasping for breath. It was now almost pitch-dark, and he had seen no sign of her, not a footprint, broken branch, nothing. If she was here, she had obviously not crossed over to the east side. Perhaps she had walked out on the west side and was now at Rebecca’s. Or maybe she was lost, shivering, freezing to death.

“No!” Ethan exclaimed, terrified, looking at the sky, rain driving into his face. “No, Ebony, don’t leave me now. Please, don’t leave me now.”

As he approached the bridge, he took out the flashlight and turned it on. Though he was conscious of wisely using his batteries, it was now so dark he could not find his way without the light. He scanned the light across the underbrush. On the opposite side of the river was a piece of torn material from Ebony’s jacket hanging on a branch. The bank was broken away as if someone had fallen into the river. He stopped dead in his tracks, his mind numb with fear.

* * * *

Lightning flashed, and Ebony’s whole body dripped in the torrential downpour. She shivered and looked up at the sky, thunder booming and echoing in the hills like a death knell summoning mourners to a funeral. With great effort, she climbed out of her makeshift shelter, stood up after realizing it was useless in the rain, paused for a moment, and took a deep breath, then limped markedly, trying somehow to get home. Soon she was reduced to crawling like a wounded animal. She shivered, and her teeth chattered, yet the rain and wind would not abate, sapping heat from her body.

Exhausted and unable to go any farther, Ebony pulled herself under a tree, hot tears rolling down her cheeks. “Ethan,” she stammered, her face contorted, “help me. Hold me.”

She thought of her house and how Ethan used to dance with her in front of the stove. But now she was in the forest, wet, shivering, alone. A lost hunter from Shad Bay had died of hypothermia the previous year, and it had taken them a week to find his body. How long would it take them to find her? Would she die this very night, think her last thoughts, breathe her last breaths? She started to cough, and a dull cold penetrated her very core. Though it seemed impossible to comprehend, Ebony knew she might die, knew she would die. But how cruel life had been to her. Maybe it was better to give up and go on to something better, a world without pain. She lay down and trembled, wanting to close her eyes and drift into a numb sleep.

Then she caught herself. No, she would not give up without a fight. She had to keep her mind working. Yet with the onset of hypothermia, her thoughts were unclear, her judgment irrational. Lightning again ripped open the sky directly above her, and the rain fell in driving sheets, dripping off the trees and swelling the river by the minute. She was so cold. So cold.

Suddenly, Ebony thought she saw a flash of something in the woods. She froze, wondering if it was a hallucination. She craned her head forward and stared, eyes wide open. There it was again. Something was moving in the trees. It looked like a flashlight, but how was that possible?

Then, in a small opening, the form stopped, and a light scanned side to side. Ebony was about to call out when the man shone the beam directly on her. There was a moment of hesitation as she squinted in the light, her hand in front of her face. Ethan suddenly ran toward her, jumping over fallen trees and pushing his way through branches and bushes. For a brief moment, Ebony thought he was a figment of her imagination, a mirage brought about by the onset of hypothermia. But the sound of him rushing toward her, the sight of him, the wildly flashing light moving in his hand—she knew that it was him, her man, the one she loved. He fell at her side, chest heaving. His face was alive with excitement and tremendous relief. He hugged her, and it seemed he might literally burst with emotion.

“You came back,” she stammered through hot tears, holding her head to his chest. “You came back to me, Ethan.”

“I will never leave you again,” he promised, taking off his raincoat and wrapping it around her.

“How did you find me?”

“My heart led me to you.”

They embraced, clinging together as if letting go meant certain death. The wind, the rain, all the trials they had endured, it all disappeared in a deliciously exquisite moment of joy, a moment Ebony would have given anything to savor for all time. She felt a tremendous love for him, a bond that surpassed meaning and could not be expressed in words.

Ethan held her tightly and kissed the top of her head. “I love you, Ebony Evans. God, how I love you.”

Ebony was going to ask him something when she suddenly started to cough. It was a deep, hoarse cough that persisted for several seconds and robbed her of breath. When it finally ended, she was shaken. Her breathing was labored, and Ethan had to help her stand.

“Where were you?” she asked, clinging to him for support and covering her mouth to cough.

He told her the whole story as quickly as he could. “But I don’t want to talk about her.” He touched Ebony’s forehead. “You’re hot. And why can’t you put any weight on your foot?”

“I sprained my ankle when I fell into the river.”

He gathered his bearings. “Everything looks different at night, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, very different.”

“We’ll keep walking along the river. Bern Baxter built a camp just past the Stillwater. It’s our best hope. It will be tough going, but at least we won’t get lost.” He looked at her. “Are you ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

At first, Ebony tried walking, holding on to Ethan’s shoulder for support, but her ankle was too swollen and sore. She glanced at him with frustration, the wind tossing her long, matted hair, branches dipping and swirling all around them.

Ethan bent at the waist. “Climb up on my back.”

“I’m too heavy.”

“Get on my back,” he insisted. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. If you try to walk, it will just slow us down. We have to get you warm and dry as soon as possible.”

His tone left no room for argument, so Ebony climbed onto his back and held tightly. With a powerful movement, Ethan stood and started to walk through the dark forest. They could barely see, but the river gushing past acted as their guide. The rain poured down in cold torrents, and the wind howled, bending trees and flinging water off their branches. Lightning flashed with greater frequency, and the roaring thunder, trapped by the hills, boomed menacingly. Ebony clung ever more tightly to her man, reveling in the strength of his masculine body. She held so firmly that they began moving like one living form, and she was conscious of the sweet, blissful sense of union. If he stumbled, she felt it. If she moved, she knew he felt it.

Ebony enjoyed the warmth of Ethan’s body, the moist heat radiating from his back and flowing into her. As they moved quickly through the nearly impenetrable tangle of alders, gently rocking with each step, Ebony could not help thinking that they were united in one body, one mind, one heart. They were one body. But eventually Ethan began laboring for breath.

“Rest,” Ebony said, wiggling off his back.

Ethan was reluctant to stop, but Ebony would not continue until he regained his breath. They rested and held each other. The rain, falling with incredible intensity, hissed as it drenched the forest floor all around them and frigid drops fell down the backs of their necks. The night had a bluish-black tinge, so ominous it seemed intent on swallowing them forever. As the storm raged, she felt freed and trapped at the same time.

“Ethan?” Ebony whispered.

“Yes?”

“I just want to say I feel safe here with you.”

He kissed her hand.

Ebony smiled strangely. “I feel like I could die in your arms tonight.”

“Don’t even talk about death.”

“I knew you’d come back to me.”

“It couldn’t have been any other way,” he said, pulling her more tightly to himself.

Lightning flashed and illuminated their faces. That second would be forever frozen in her memory. The wall between them—once a mountain—came crumbling down. Everything, even their very life forces, merged and melted together in that violent storm. But then Ebony coughed deeply and wheezed, straining to pull air into her lungs.

“Time to go,” Ethan said, kneeling beside her. “We have to get to the camp.”

“Okay.”

* * * *

The bank gave way, and Ethan slipped into the river. He frantically grabbed some branches with both hands, straining to stay upright in the frigid, gushing water. Though the river was running hard, Ebony clung tightly to him, never wanting to let go. With a mighty heave, he pulled them onto the bank, and they fell side by side, glancing at each other but not knowing what to say. Ethan caught his breath, and they continued their journey in the darkness. The rhythmic motion of his body reminded Ebony of being rocked in her one of her foster mother’s protective arms when she was a little girl sick in the night. She felt safe and whole. But then she coughed hard again, almost gagging, and struggling to breathe. Ethan winced at the sound and walked as fast as he could.

“We’re here!” he exclaimed after an arduous walk, the camp’s silhouette barely visible in the darkness.

“Looks like a castle under these conditions,” Ebony said.

Ethan carried Ebony inside, closing the door behind them. Suddenly there was no wind or rain, just a welcome silence, though the camp was damp and cold. He gently let her down and took a lighter from his pocket, fumbled with wet fingers to unwrap it from the sealed bag, then flicked it. The dim light illuminated a stove with cut, dried firewood beside it, a candle and containers on the shelf, and a single bed in the corner. They looked at each other, their faces, hair, and clothes dripping on the plywood floor. Ethan lit the candle and put it on an old gray metal table. He gathered newspaper and made a fire, kneeling in front of it and adding sticks as soon as he could.

“We owe Bern thanks for building this cabin,” Ebony said as she handed him hardwood from a pile.

“He wanted to kill me,” Ethan said, “but I could just about kiss him right now.”

Ebony laughed. “God works in mysterious ways.”

“Never have truer words been spoken.”

Ebony wanted to continue speaking, but she felt so cold and miserable that she just sat on a wooden chair with her arms around herself, shivering. Ethan stoked the fire again, and the wood crackled. Then he opened a crude wooden box near the bed.

“Just what I was hoping for,” he said, taking out plastic bags filled with three flannel blankets and a pillow. “We’re in luck. Everything is bone dry.”