“You sure you don’t want to sit down?There’s a bench up ahead—”
“It’s okay,” Corinthia said.“I’m okay.”
Stevie looked at her friend with concern.“All right, then,” she said, slowly.“You say you found him?”She gestured to the trail, as if to say,Prove it.
The sunset light made everything pink and surreal.Corinthia moved through the maze like she’d built it herself, movable walls and all.The birds cheered her on.Stevie hurried to keep up.
Past the Ephemeral Wetland.Off the main trail to a branch angling south-southwest.Sneakers squeaking on clean white sand touched with sparkles, trees shivering in the wind as it changed direction.
How wonderful it felt, howright, to finally know what to do and be able to do it.They walked and walked until at last they turned a corner—
And there was Mr.Thriller, crouching to examine a blueberry bush.
“Where were you?”cried Stevie.
The author stood up and dusted his hands.“I don’t know how I got here,” he said, “but I think I got turned around a bit.”
“You think?”Stevie said.
“I was with the group, and then I walked off on a side trail—thought it might add some flavor to the scene I was working on—and then I looked around and everyone was gone.So I’ve been circling around, I guess, trying to find my way out.”
“What about your phone?”Corinthia said.“Why didn’t you call someone?”
Mr.Thriller put his hands on his hips and looked down at the ground, briefly, before meeting her gaze again.“After telling everyone I was a great hiker?Ha!A right fool I’d look, calling for help from a little old nature preserve.No, I figured I’d wander out eventually.”
Not if the little old nature preserve didn’t let you go, Corinthia thought.But a small gray cloud of lingering guilt made her bring him out of himself as the three of them walked back.She asked him questions about his next book—authors loved that sort of thing—and kept him talking aboutHigh Mountain Hazarduntil they had him safely back in the parking lot, loaded up with his books and his banner, seemingly none the worse for wear.
He apologized for being a bit “salty,” as he put it, about romance novels, and confessed to a recent tough time of personal problems that he was working to overcome.He asked Corinthia and Stevie for romance novel recommendations, and Corinthia pressed cash on him for a copy ofDark Mountain Danger, which he signedTo Corinthia: Thanks for the hike!
Corinthia laughed weakly.
He got in his car.The palm trees outside the library carved shadows from the dim yellow streetlights, and the tips of the palm fronds wiggled in the breeze, looking like nothing so much as someone showing off freshly polished fingernails.
They waved until he drove out of sight.
“Are you sure you didn’t pick up any of those crystals?”Stevie said.
“No crystals.”
“You want to explain what’s going on?”
“I want to figure out what’s going on.”Corinthia had only the fact of what she had experienced, and no explanation for it whatsoever.“I’m fine,” she said.“Everything is fine.”
“Is it, though?”
“It is,” Corinthia said, severely.“And tomorrow I shall fix my fence.”
“You shouldn’t be fixing a sandwich, let alone a fence.”
“Drewshall fix my fence,” Corinthia amended.
Stevie perked up.“Does she need help?”
“Probably not—”
“Snacks!I’ll bring… homemade cupcakes!”
“Stevie, you can’t cook to save your life.”
