Crossing the Deep (19 page)

Her body screamed at her to lie back down. Rumbles cried from her stomach, begging for food. If she had some, she’d devour it. Since she didn’t, she ignored her frustratingly weak body and the annoying rumbles.

She limped over to where she had last seen him sitting the night before. There was no sign of him. The backpack sat alone next to a rock, and he panicked. Being lost in the woods scared her enough, but lost alone terrified her.

“Asher! Are you still here?” she yelled again, looking all around for some sort of tracks.

“Calm down, girl. I’m right here.” His voice came from the direction of the creek, and she crawled over the rocks to see down there. Sure enough, Asher sat on one of the bigger boulders, throwing rocks into the roaring water. The sight of him made her relax. He hadn’t left her.

Rachel limped toward him, using the thinner trees as crutches. Her first instinct was to give him a huge hug for being there and not leaving her. But the closer she got, the more she questioned it. He had been so angry with her the night before, rightfully so in her opinion. She hoped that in time he could forgive her, but she didn’t see how he could overnight.

“Did you sleep good?” he asked. It surprised her that he even spoke, much less inquired about her night.

“Yeah, well. I guess so. No nightmares.”

“Those do suck.” His jaw was set, and Rachel could tell he’d had bad dreams of his own.

“Did you sleep?”

“Some.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Talk about what?”

“The nightmare you had.”

His lip quirked up, and he threw another rock into the water. “Never said I had a nightmare.”

“You didn’t have to. It’s written all over your face.”

He bit his bottom lip, and his nose flared. “I dreamed about Sid.” He said it like it hurt. She imagined it did.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know you are.” He sighed. He didn’t say it snarky.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Nothing to talk about.” He tossed a smaller rock in the water. It disappeared in the strong current.

After a few minutes of sitting with him, watching the creek in silence, Rachel asked, “So what are we going to do?”

“I don’t know.”

That didn’t raise her spirits any. “That’s not good.” She took a deep breath, feeling the icy air fill her lungs. November in Georgia was cold, but the Smokies felt colder. Her nose ran, and she wiped it away. Of course she’d get sick in this weather — who wouldn’t? Her luck, she’d die of pneumonia before a bear could get her.

She coughed into her elbow, solidifying her theory. “I’m sorry about all of this.” She sniffed. “I hate that I caused it.”

“You give yourself too much credit.”

“I mean it.”

“I know you do.” He tossed his last rock. “But it doesn’t change anything. It’s not like you meant for any of this to happen, did you?”

“No, but—”

“But nothing. Look, Rachel, I’ve had a lot of time to think. I can’t be mad at you anymore.”

She was confused. “Why?”

“Because it doesn’t do any good. We're in this together, and we have to work together. It’s just you and me now.”

“Wow…” she shook her head and looked down at her feet: One with a boot and one with a wet, dingy sock. “What happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“You were mad enough to skin me last night, and now you want to bury the hatchet. Why?”

He shrugged. “I can’t do anything for Sidney, but I can do something for you. I can help you get out of this mess.”

“So you can hate me when we get back?”

He laughed and put his arm around her, pulling her close. Her mind raced, unsure of what was going on. Not twenty minutes before she was sure he’d left her, and now she was snuggled into his chest.

“When the sun came up this morning,” he said, “I was still mad. Not just at you, at everything. At why Sid had to die… at being out here… at God… I thought about leaving last night, taking the flashlight and going out until I found a way home.”

So she had been right. He had thought of leaving her.

“But I couldn’t do it,” he went on. “I couldn’t leave you. It wouldn’t be right. When the sun came up this morning, I watched you lying there sleeping. Even in the mud and leaves and sticks, you looked so peaceful — a total one-eighty from last night when you kept tossing around. It was like something had calmed you somehow. Your face looked like you were having good dreams. I sat for a while and just watched you — not stalker-ish, but I couldn’t figure out how you could be so calm and at peace lost in the middle of the woods with no idea if you’ll ever get home again.” He sighed and shook his head.

“Then I dug through our backpack and found this.” He reached back behind him and pulled out her Bible. She sat up when she saw it, her eyes wide. “I figured this was why you were so at peace. You believe that God will take care of you no matter what. So I took your Bible. I came over here next to this creek, and I started reading.” He flipped through the damaged pages as Rachel watched. Her heart started beating a mile a minute, wondering if this conversation was headed where she hoped it was — that Asher had found God next to that creek.

“Now don’t get your hopes up. I didn’t pray or commit to anything,” he said, bursting her bubble. “But I do know why you find comfort in this book. It’s a good story.” He flipped through the pages one last time and handed it back to Rachel.

“It’s more than a story, Asher. It’s—”

He held his hand up to stop her. “I appreciate it. I really do, but I’m not ready. And just because I picked up your Bible to read during a long, lonely morning doesn’t mean I’m ready to start praying. I’m still pretty ticked at God for doing this to us.”

“At least you believe there is a God. That counts for something.”

He looked at her with a raised brow and then smiled. Light filled his eyes, a light Rachel had been afraid she’d never see again. “You’d have me in the choir if you could, wouldn’t you?”

“Maybe.” She laughed. He put his arm back around her and pulled her to his chest. It felt good to be there. She could have stayed there forever. When he kissed the top of her head, she couldn’t hide her smile.

“We’d better go,” he said as he got up. He held out his hands and helped her up as well. “Let’s get out of these woods today, shall we?”

“Fourth time’s a charm, I say.”

****

Asher helped Rachel off of the rock and back to their makeshift camp. They got the backpack and started again down the creek, hoping to find either some way to cross it, or find another trail leading home.

Despite what he might have told Rachel earlier, he hadn’t found much comfort in her Bible. All he could find to read about were laws on animal sacrifice and lots and lots of proverbs. He had meant to ask her what verses she recommended for comfort, but when the time came, he chickened out.

Knowing her, he figured she’d take it as an invitation to talk all things God, and he wasn’t ready for that. What he did know was that she had slept, and he hadn’t. He was just delirious enough to… maybe… start looking into the Bible as something to calm his nerves.

Asher knew if they didn’t get back today, they wouldn’t. Flurries floating in the breeze could turn into a full-blown blizzard at any minute. The food was long gone. They could get water from the creek, but it wouldn’t be enough to keep them alive.

The realization that this was all or nothing hit him hard. Maybe he could hunt something in the woods if need be, not that he knew how to do that. A more plausible scenario was that something would hunt and eat them. He shivered in his ruined leather jacket and hoped Rachel didn’t feel it.

As they kept walking, he wondered if maybe they should have stayed put and not gone off Harrison’s Trail. They could have waited it out, fixed a shelter, and hunted food while the creek dropped low enough to cross.

This way, they were just walking aimlessly, following a creek that may or may not lead them home.

He helped her over the rocks and tree stumps all morning. They didn’t talk much. He figured they were both too tired and weak to speak. After walking for what seemed like forever, he saw something that looked promising. Well, more promising than anything else had. “Look over there.” He pointed toward the creek.

“What?”

“Do you see it?”

“No.”

“Over there. Those boulders. See?”

****

Rachel couldn’t see what he was talking about. It all looked like it had before. Water. Rocks. Problems.

“There.” He pointed again, a little downstream from where she was looking. She saw nothing but rocks, but rocks not covered with water. Rocks they could potentially cross. “You aren’t thinking of crossing that, are you?”

“Not me. We.”

“I can’t cross that. I have a hard enough time walking on flat ground.”

“It will be fine.”

“It’s snowing.”

“Just a little.”

“And it will be slick.”

“Rachel,” he took her face in his hands, “stop freaking out. See those rocks? They are a good thing. They are going to get us home. Your foot will be fine. You’ve got God on your side, remember.” He smiled at that last part.

“Don’t mock.” She didn’t take her eyes off the rocks.

“I’m not,” he said, taking her hand and leading her toward the creek. Once they got there, Rachel sat down on a stump, and Asher retrieved her hiking boot from the backpack. “Here,” he said and tossed it to her. “You can’t cross that in just your sock.”

“Whoever said I was going to cross it in the first place?”

“Well, it’s either cross it or sit here and look pretty by yourself, because I’m getting out of here. What’s it gonna be?”

Scared, she didn’t know how she was going to jump, but she did know that God had answered her prayers and put those boulders there for her. Letting Him down wasn’t an option.

Then came the issue of the shoe. She dreaded putting it on. As swollen as her foot felt, she wasn’t entirely sure she could get the thing back on, anyway. Snowflakes tickled her nose as she bent to attempt the unthinkable.

“Let me,” he said, taking the boot from her. He slid the boot onto her injured foot. She almost felt like Cinderella getting her shoe back from the prince, only instead of a glass slipper, hers was an old, worn hiking boot. Life wasn’t always a fairytale.

The boot slid on after a little bit of a fight but wouldn’t tie due to how big her ankle had swollen. “It’s going to fall off when I walk,” she told him.

“No, it won’t.”

“It will, and I’ll fall into the water. That doesn’t sound fun.”

“Guess not.” He took the laces and strung them through the top two holes in her boot. He wrapped them around her leg and pulled. The pressure caused Rachel to scream and bite her lip. She couldn’t do this.

“I’m sorry,” he told her, cringing. “I wish there was another way. I can’t leave you here, and I don’t think I can get back before tonight. You’d either starve or freeze or...” He never finished his thought, and she didn’t want him to.

She sucked in a breath and closed her eyes. He tied her shoe string just enough that she wouldn’t trip over the laces, and she was grateful for that. The pain didn’t stop though.

The creek had gone down a little over the past two days, and the lower level meant more available rocks to use to jump across. The downside was those rocks were damp from being covered with the water and the falling snow. Some even glistened like they had ice on them.

There was a little cliff they had to scoot down before getting onto the first boulder. Rachel shook as she stared across the water. It wouldn’t be a walk in the park.

Six bigger boulders and a few smaller ones littered across the creek, forming a kind of natural bridge. The rocks zigzagged across the fast-moving water, meaning it would be hard to navigate across. But once on the other side, home wouldn’t be far away. Home was all of the motivation she needed.

“Look at me,” Asher said, breaking her out of her thoughts. He bent down a little so his eyes were level with hers. “We are going to do this, Rachel. We are going to take it slow, and we are going to be careful. I’ll go first to find the easiest route for us. You jump behind me. Let’s take our time and do this right.” He must have seen the doubt and worry in her eyes because he squeezed her hands reassuringly and said, “It will be fine. I promise.”

She forced a shaky smile and nodded. There were so many things going through her mind, but she tried to push them all down. This is what they had to do. After all, she’d prayed for this, and God had provided a way. She couldn’t chicken out. It reminded her of when God told Joshua to
“Get up!”

“Ready?” he asked.

“As I’ll ever be.”

“Good. Be careful.”

“I’ve got this, Asher. Let’s go.”

****

Asher nodded and turned back to the creek. He dreaded trying to get over it, but he didn’t know what else to do. They couldn’t wander forever.

As long as they were safe and careful, they would make it. Part of him wished God was on their side as Rachel seemed to think. He wished he had her faith, but he couldn’t. Not yet.

With a burst of nervous energy, he took the first step into the icy water. Then he hopped up on the boulder and turned to Rachel with a big smile. First obstacle complete.

When it was her turn, she lowered her head to pray. “God, please protect us. Please make this trip worth something. I know that we can’t see it now, but something good will come out of this.”

Something
good will come out of this?
His best friend was dead. What
good
could come out of that?

He bit his tongue before he could say something he would regret later. If she needed to pray to get motivated to cross the scary water, then fine. She had her faith. He’d lost his.

“In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.” Rachel finished her prayer. Rubbing her hands together, she counted to three and stepped in the water with her bad foot. She screamed and Asher hurried to pull her up onto the first boulder. “I got ya,” he said, holding her close.

“It’s cold!” she said through chattering teeth.

“Can’t argue with that.” And he couldn’t. “You’re doing great! We can do this, Rachel. One down.”