Denali Dreams (2 page)

“You’re spoiling him, Karon, but you’re the first person he wanted to ride to. Don watched him from the garage.”

“So, that’s a yes?”

Lisa laughed. “You bet, as long as he brings one home to his mom.”

“Of course.”

“Thanks, Karon. His dad is coming down there to walk around the block with him.” Her voice quieted. “How are you feeling?”

The dreaded question. Everyone asked it. All the time. “Great. I feel great. The doctor has cleared me for everything.”

“Oh, that’s awesome! Just don’t overdo it, okay? Let me know if you need anything.”

“Sure thing … let me get back to B. I think he might start drooling soon.” She tried to keep her tone light.

“Thanks for being so sweet to him. I’ll talk to you later.”

Karon hung up the phone. Would no one ever see her as whole again? Wasn’t it enough she felt broken? Did they have to keep reminding her?

Braiden tugged on her jeans. “Miss Karon, did ya see my new knee pads and elbow pads?” He ripped the Velcro apart to show her his prize.

“Those are super cool, B.” She handed him a soft cookie. “Your dad is coming to take you around the block, so I’m going to put a few in a bag for you to take home, okay?”

The treat disappeared in seconds. Chocolate ringed his lips and a large smudge graced one cheek. “Thanks, Miss Karon. I sure do love you.”

She grabbed a paper towel and wet it down. “I love you, too. Let’s get this chocolate off your face before your dad gets here.”

As they walked toward the front door, Braiden turned and headed to a corner of the couch. “Hey, what’s that?”

She glanced to where he pointed. A new pair of crampons and an ice axe lay next to the rope she’d just purchased. Oh boy.

A knock on the screen door saved her from explaining. But as Lisa’s husband entered the living room, he spotted what caught B’s attention. Don narrowed his eyes. “Please tell me that’s not what I think it is.”

She smiled. Maybe she should leave
now.
Not tell anyone where she was going.

“Karon?”

“Look at this, Dad!” Braiden held up the book she’d left on her coffee table. “It’s all about climbing tall mountains.”

Ratted out by a six-year-old.

Braiden’s dad cocked an eyebrow at her and crossed his arms.

Great. If her friends and neighbors reacted this way, how would her brother react?

Y
ou want to do
what
?”

Even worse than she expected. Karon braced herself for the rest of the tirade.

“You’re out of your mind. There is no way I will allow you to do this.”

Karon’s ears rang from the shouting. Her brother, her
only
brother—the one who stood by her side through thick and thin, the one who was there for every chemo treatment, the one who encouraged her to get on with her life after cancer—was treating her like a child. Well she wasn’t one. At thirty-two, she could very well make her own decisions.

She’d been prepared for a mild scolding. The “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” or even possibly “Maybe you should wait a while before you try it.” But she had not expected Clint to pitch a fit in the middle of her living room. Granted, she’d just dropped a pretty large bomb at his feet, but he’d always been supportive. Why couldn’t he just suck it up and go with it? Karon clenched her fists as she listened to him rant and rave. She allowed the rage inside to burn, let her temper flare.

So baby brother thought he could be her parent? News flash—their parents died sixteen years ago. The overgrown two-year-old would
not
tell her what to do with her life.

Deep breath. She could do this. With or without him. “I don’t just
want
to do it. I
will
do it.”

“Karon, this is crazy.” Hands on his hips, Clint towered over her. “Do you have any idea what it takes to climb a mountain? Good grief! You’re a kindergarten teacher. What will the parents of your students think? And you’re so tiny…. You’re still recovering.” He stuck a finger in her face. “And don’t you roll your big brown eyes at me. When I told you I had lots of paid vacation I needed to take, I was offering to take you to Hawaii or something. You know, to celebrate your one-year remission—but this?”

Karon stood and mustered up all the fight she had left. “Let’s get one thing straight right now. This has nothing to do with your offer of a vacation. It’s something
I’m
doing. With
my
vacation time. You are
not
part of this decision-making process. You are
not
in charge of my life. And you will
never
speak to me that way again.”

Clint’s eyes grew round, his eyebrows raised. “What are you saying?”

Hardheaded little punk. “You heard what I said, Clint. I’m not going to repeat it like you are one of my five-year-old students. Get over it, and move on.”

He had the nerve to laugh. His eyes met hers again. Holding up his hands in submission, Clint wisely stopped laughing. “Wow. I guess you have the right—”

“You
guess
?”

“All right, fine. You
have
the right to make your own decisions.” He turned toward the window. “You’ve been through a lot. Maybe this is just some weird desire you have right now, and you’ll change your mind after you’ve had time to think about it and go through all the training. Until then, I will support you.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “I’ve never seen you so riled up before. Maybe you should sit down.”

Ooh, he made her so mad. She flung off his hand and straightened her shoulders. “Get out, Clint.” Mr. Know-it-all thought he could boss her around. What did he know anyway? She’d already started the training.

He swung around. “Karon, you can’t be serious.”

“Oh, I’m serious. In fact, I’d like nothing more than to punch you in the nose right now. Get out.” This felt entirely too good. Maybe she needed to vent more often. She felt so … alive.

He turned those puppy dog eyes on her. “I’m sorry—”

“Too little, too late.” She shoved him toward the door.

“Wait, Karon, be reasonable.” He back-stepped to keep his feet under him.

“I’m done being reasonable. Don’t you get it?” She yanked open the door. “I almost lost my life. Yes, you were there for me. You’ve always been there. But you’re smothering me.” She pushed him through the opening. “I am not fragile. I don’t want to live in a bubble. And I definitely don’t want to sit here for the rest of my life wondering if or when the cancer’s going to come back.”

“Karon—”

“Don’t
Karon
me. I want to live, Clint. I want to experience life in a whole new way. I want to take risks. I want to enjoy myself. I want to fall in love and get married and have a family. And I want to climb the tallest mountain in North America.”

His mouth dropped open. He closed it.

Their eyes locked in a stand down.

Silence. Blessed silence. Maybe she’d finally gotten through to him.

Clint placed a hand on her shoulder again. “Okay.”

“Okay? Okay what?” She crossed her arms and stared him down.

Mirth replaced the shock in his eyes. “Okay, you win.”

Karon allowed a smile to reach her eyes. “Denali, here I come.”

“Here
we
come. I’m coming with you.”

Y
ou did
what
?” The voice crackled over the line.

“Mom, I need you to let this go.” Zack Taylor rubbed a hand down his face. So much for an innocent Mother’s Day call.

“Let it go?” She huffed. “You haven’t called me in six months, and you have the gall to call me on Mother’s Day and tell me this?”

Okay, so he stunk at being a son. “I’m sorry, Mom.”

“Sorry?” Her voice sounded teary.

Great. Now he’d made her cry. Again.

“I worry about you all the time. You never let us know where you are. I check in with the rangers just to make sure you’re still alive.”

Oh, the guilt trip. “Mom, I’m alive. I’m calling.”

“Zack, I know that. Don’t get smart with me. But I just don’t understand why you insist on doing all these crazy things.”

“They’re not crazy—”

“Don’t start, Zack. They may not be crazy to you, but to us
normal
folks, let’s face it. They’re crazy.”

Maybe she had a point.

“Every time you climb that insane mountain, I worry. Every time, you’re gone for weeks at a time …” Another sigh.

Great. She was gearing up for the rampage. He braced himself against the kitchen counter. Stared out the window to his mountains. If only he could get out there today and do some serious climbing.

“… You always have an excuse for why you don’t call. You always have an excuse for why you won’t settle down. You always—”

“Mom, please—”

“Don’t interrupt me, young man. Why can’t you just do something normal like your father? Get a real job?”

Now she’d crossed the line. “Mom”—he grit his teeth—“I
have
a real job.”

“Don’t talk back to me.”

His mother continued to rant in his ear. “Mom, I wanted to wish you a happy Mother’s Day.”

She stopped. Great. Now the silent treatment. Guilt trips or the silent treatment—his mother was the queen of both. While there was a pause, he continued. “I have a real job.” Would she ever listen to him? “I love what I do. But I wanted more of a challenge.”

Mom grunted.

“I’m trying to share with you how I feel, Mom.” That should get her attention. How often did he get letters saying he never shared his feelings with her?

“All right, Zacky. Go on.”

He let the nickname slide. He wasn’t four anymore. Would she ever realize
that
? “I needed to do this. I’ve trained a long time for it.” He played his trump card. “I was hoping you’d be proud of me.”

“Oh, of course I’m proud of you!” The ooey-gooey mom voice took over for a moment. “But isn’t that the most dangerous job?”

“It’s not about danger, Mom. It’s about saving people’s lives.” He’d never tell her the truth of the matter. Flying the rescue helicopter into one of the most dangerous places on the planet was his choice. His friends all told him he had a death wish—going from one extreme thing to the next to get his thrills—but he’d never tell his mom that. He needed her to think he was doing something noble. Saving lives was noble, right?

“Fine.” He imagined her pressing her lips together and shaking her head. “As long as I don’t see you one day on a crazy reality show where they follow you around with a camera and show how incredibly stupid you are doing the job you’re doing.” She paused for a loud breath. “I don’t want all my friends to be asking why I let my son do something so wild and foolish.”

Let him? Incredibly stupid? Good grief. “Mom, why don’t you say how you
really
feel.” She’d be sure to take him to task for his sarcasm. On Mother’s Day, to boot. But he’d already crossed the line and, besides, she’d riled him up. So it was
her
fault. “I’m thirty-six years old. Seriously—”

“Don’t take that tone with me, young man. I carried you for nine months and then had a forty-eight-hour labor trying to bring you into this world. I know exactly how old you are. It wouldn’t hurt you to take your mother’s advice every once in a while. It might keep you out of trouble.”

He doubted it. For ten years, he’d been conquering Denali—the tallest mountain in North America—the High One. With weather extremes that far exceeded Everest, Denali was also taller from base to top. He’d climbed it fifteen times. Summitted twelve of those. He tried the West Buttress, the West Rib, Cassin Ridge, and Muldrow several times a piece. He’d even conquered Sultana—The Wife—one of the steepest and worst climbs in the world.

His appetite for extremes only grew; he couldn’t seem to satisfy it. So he became a mountaineering ranger for Talkeetna Ranger Station, the headquarters for climbers in Denali National Park. When that failed to fill the hole in his gut, he trained to be a rescue helicopter pilot. Once the job was confirmed as his, he’d finally told his mom. Not that he’d expected enthusiasm, but Zack always hoped one day she’d understand him. Even though he didn’t understand himself.

“Zack?” his mother’s voice cut in. “Zack, are you even listening to me?”

“Sorry, Mom.” He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and middle finger. “Look, I know I ruined your day, but my intent really was to wish you a happy Mother’s Day. I love you.” He hung up before she could say anything else.

A twinge of guilt filled him. His mom would never understand him, and he’d just hung up on her. Good job.

The radio on the table crackled to life. “Ranger Taylor, you’re needed at the station ASAP.”

So much for being a good son. Well, at least he had his job. He grabbed his jacket and headed out the door to do what he did best.

K
aron shifted her weight to her left foot and breathed in the brisk Alaska air. She’d done it. Traveled all the way to Alaska by herself without anyone breathing down her neck about her health. No one on the flight knew her. No one knew that she was a cancer survivor. No one knew the battles she’d faced. And won.

A new person. With a new life in front of her. That’s who she wanted to be.

Clint would be joining her for the trek up Denali, but she’d left early to do her own thing. He wasn’t happy about it, but too bad. He had his job to worry about. That was the great thing about being a teacher, since it was summer she didn’t have to take any time off for her adventure.

The time exploring Anchorage had been fun, but the drive out to Talkeetna took her breath away. This was where she belonged—she could feel it the moment she saw those mountains.

As she headed to the ranger station in Talkeetna, she took in the views around her and the quaint little businesses. Denali, still a good distance away, stood tall and immovable to the northwest. Snow covered the High One, and his shoulders were draped with clouds like a regal robe. She ventured farther into the tiny town and spotted Tsosie’s Café. Her stomach rumbled. Might as well try it out.

The door creaked and a small bell rang above her head as she stepped in and inhaled. Wow. Whatever this place served smelled great. And it was packed. Always a good sign. A young native woman behind the counter waved her in.