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March 2003
Marble Lake Lodge
Silas spent the rest of the winter with an acute case of cabin fever. The mishap at Willow Lake kept him on his best behavior, biting his tongue every time he felt the urge to suggest another cold-weather expedition. He distracted himself, and Jessica, with what she called “cozy winter time” in his dormer lodge room, tucked away from the parental eyes of Les and Mary, apart from the random “check-ins” to see if they wanted snacks or to coax them into chores. Danny and Meg still came up on weekends, too, and they all watched movies until the sun dipped below the crest of the ever-present peaks and shadows cut across the floor, or buckled down to their homework, stretching out across the worn rug that ran wall-to-wall in Silas’s bedroom.
As soon as the snow melted from the higher elevations, he was back to studying his maps and plotting routes through the wilderness but managed to organize only one hike—a short ascent to Little Bear Lake on the Lakes Loop—before the next freak spring blizzard came in.
“I need wheels,” he complained to Danny, spreading his map of Forest Service roads that had already been opened for the season.
Danny glanced over his shoulder and scoffed. “Those roads are all along the river. They’re rutted and steep as hell, man.”
“You might as well relax, Silas,” Meg added. “This is just how it is in March.”
“Mud season,” Jessica added agreeably.
But Silas didn’t really hear her. He was still eyeing Meg across the room. “Nothing is ‘just how it is’ unless you let it be,” he argued. But then something wonderful occurred to him, and he sat up fast, chucking a pillow at Danny. “Plus, Ihavewheels. Four-by-four ones!”
Danny, Meg, and Jessica shared awhat-the-helllook over his head, but for once, Silas didn’t care. “C’mon, I’ll show you.”
He’d discovered the 1960 Jeep buried in the lodge utility garage last fall, rusting on three wheels under a frayed tarp. Now he kicked away the last of the frozen slush around the garage doors and yanked them wide open, pulling off the tarp for the big reveal. “She’s gorgeous, right? Les said I could have her if I can get her running again.”
Meg and Jessica both just stared, so Silas waited for Danny to offer up his usual caution. But he had just passed the first of his fire-science written exams for the volunteer department and was apparently feeling generous. “Dude. Cool.”
The girls weren’t quite as easily swayed. “But it’s totally ... it’s a piece of ... I mean, surely it can’t handle those Forest Service roads?” Meg ventured.
So of course Silas had to make sure it could do just that.
At least eventually. Upon investigation, the Jeep seemed to be missing an entire side of the floor panel and doors, not to mention a hood and a coat of paint. The current color could perhaps be described as a dull dirt brown, and one wheel axle had nearly rusted out, but it screamedchallengeandfreedom,two things Silas couldn’t say no to.
Uncle Les traded a full day’s work clearing the remaining snow from the rec-building roof in exchange for mechanic services, and by the first week of April, Silas eased down Marble Lake Road with one foot pressed hard on the accelerator and the other braced on the sticky clutch, all the while straddling the gaping hole in the floorboard. The steering wheel proved stiff and difficult to turn, the windshield wipers didn’t work at all, and the transmission ground with every gear shift, but rolling out onto the pavement, Silas felt alive for the first time since January.
He drove directly to Danny’s, honking in celebration and laughing at the looks of bewilderment on his and Meg’s faces as they emerged from the house to investigate.
“I can’t freaking believe it,” Danny said with a grin, clearing the three porch steps in one long leap.
“This Jeep,” Silas called in triumph, “is going to get us everywhere we want to go!” He gripped the rusty roll bar above his head and swung down to the ground.
Meg approached with significantly less enthusiasm. “Will it even get you up the hillhome?”
A valid question, though Silas wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction of admitting it. “How about a joyride?”
Danny hopped in without hesitation, and even Meg was agreeable enough, as long as she got the narrow back seat that had, in her words,a freaking floor, and they ground their way past the high school at a whopping twenty miles per hour that felt more like fifty without the unnecessary constraints of doors or windows. They took side streets—even Silas’s confidence had its limits—over to Jessica’s house, where she hopped in the back with Meg. The four of them weaved their way slowly toward the rarely traveled A14 highway, where Silas pressed the accelerator again, this time all the way to where the floorwouldbe, topping forty-five. When Jessica shrieked, he chuckled at his success, turning to waggle his eyebrows at her.
“Eyes on the road!” Meg begged. An edge to her voice had him complying.
A sharp wind hit them at an angle as they drove; in the back seat, the girls’ hair whipped around their faces, and out of the corner of his eye Silas could see Jessica trying to wrestle hers into submission. Beside her, Meg leaned her head back and laughed, letting her auburn strands fly through the air like fire. Riding shotgun, Danny stuffed his bare hands into the pockets of his jacket. A few miles down the road, Jessica leaned forward in her seat, her face inches from Silas’s ear.
“Remind me what’s fun about this?” she called, nearly shouting to be heard.
“Ask her,” Silas shouted back, nodding his head toward Meg. He chanced a look back at her, her cheeks bright pink with cold, her eyes sparkling.
“I love it,” she called back, misunderstanding the question, and his eyes watered as they snagged hers for a fraction of an instant too long. The steering wheel jerked under his hands of its own accord—he’d have to look into that—and on Danny’s shout, he faced forward again, the wind full-on in his face until tears came. When Danny finally quit griping, he could still hear Meg laughing.
Silas didn’t yet dare try out the rutted Forest Service roads until Les helped him replace the axle, but on the afternoons Danny wasn’t volunteering at the station and Jessica didn’t have cheer practice, they continued to test out the limits of the Jeep on the highway and around town, stopping at the Frostee for shakes or a greasy cardboard basket of fries.
On the days Danny did work, Silas continued to swing around for Meg en route to pick up Jessica, to whom Meg, she assured Silas, had warmed, though she didn’t have him quite convinced. There were just too many times Silas noticed her being almost too nice, like she wastrying to make up for something, or maybe that was just Silas projecting, a word he’d recently learned in psych class. Because he definitely gave Danny more than his share of fries when they dropped some by the station, and he hadn’t given him any shit for taking on extra hours, or called him Captain Dan, or anything like that lately, though it wasn’t to make up for the fact that he was spending so many afternoons with Meg, because after all, they weren’t doing anything wrong. Even Jessica agreed, laughing when Silas asked if she minded Meg tagging along.
“Meg and Danny are practicallymarried,” she’d declared.
