Ignorant of the stew brewing above, Nikki led Cas through the woods to almost exactly the same spot Robert had vacated so hurriedly a short time before. For a city kid, he moved well in the forest. He seemed to have an instinct for the least destructive path. He didn’t bull his way through like most people. He ducked branches instead of shoving them aside, and he avoided trampling anything that looked like it was struggling to live.
At first she wondered if he hadn’t spent more time in the woods than she thought but then it dawned on her that he was moving through the forest the same way he moved through his life – with the intent to remain invisible, to leave no mark of his passing that anyone not looking for it could find. What was he hiding from? Himself? The world? Pain?
She stopped when they came to the clearing. “This is it. The road’s going to come right through here. The river’s over there.”
“Awful close. All the salt they use to keep the road clear in the winter is going to wash right into it.”
She shook her head. “They probably won’t be allowed to use salt this close. Only sand. That’s going to make the curves treacherous as the ice builds up.”
“They’re counting on the sun melting it, I suppose.”
“It won’t. You’ve got mountains on either side, north and south. The sun will only hit the road directly for a couple of hours either side of noon. That won’t be enough.”
“Doesn’t make a helluva lot of sense, does it? There must be more to it than just going around Entwhistle.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know exactly. It just seems to me they’re going to a lot of trouble and expense to cut a few minutes off a trip to Springfield.”
“Juliette Rose says it’s because there’s Federal money available for projects like this and the legislature doesn’t think it’s going to be around forever. They want to grab some of it while they can to do stuff like this they don’t want to pay for with State money.”
“Maybe.”
“But you don’t think so.”
“What do I know?” he shrugged. “Could be. On the other hand, there must be a lot of other projects the same money could be used for. Why is this one such a priority all of a sudden?”
“Who knows? They’ve been trying to do it for years. Maybe they think this is going to be their last chance.” She took his hand. “Come on, let’s go sit by the river while we still can.”
The line of trees and brush along the bank had muffled the sound of the river. When they broke through it into the open, the noise was deafening.
“White water,” Cas said in surprise.
“What?” Nikki shouted about the din.
“White water!”
“The Brewer’s runs right through the middle of the mountain range,” she yelled. “When the snow melts, it all flows down here. People raft it in the spring.”
She sat down where the pine needles were soft. Cas sat next to her, hooked his arms around his legs and rested his chin on his knee. They sat there for awhile and watched the water crash around the rocks without saying anything. At least, that’s what Cas did. What Nikki did was watch Cas watching the river and wait for him to complain about sitting on wet ground. He didn’t. He seemed perfectly content to sit there with her in silence suffering a wet ass while the river pounded away six feet from them.
After a while, she put her hand on his arm and her head on his shoulder. He kissed the top of her head and put a hand over hers. They sat there like that for a long time.
