Queen (39 page)

"Oh, God," Cody said. It was both an expletive and a prayer.

"I know, buddy, I know," Dennis said, and rolled over and doused the light.

Darkness engulfed them. Soon all Cody could hear was the constant howling of the wind outside the tent and the soft, gentle sound of Dennis's snore. He swept his hands across his face, wiping the tears that ran in profusion, and wished that he had Queen to hold him, to tell him that everything was going to be all right.

He needed her strength and courage now, more than he'd needed water in the Saudi desert. Then it had been his own life at stake; now it was a child's… his child's.

Will hurt… and he couldn't see. At first he thought he was blind. And then he realized that it was just night that had changed his world. He vaguely remembered being able to look up and see a sliver of sky above him, but now he could see nothing, not even moonlight or stars. He covered his face with his hands and, as he did, for the first time realized how truly cold he was. His fingers were numb, the ends tingling and burning as if they were asleep. As he traced the angle of his aching leg, he realized that it was all wrong. He knew that it must be broken.

"That means I can't walk," he whispered to himself, and then shivered uncontrollably.

It was at that moment that bits and pieces of what led heard his father say about surviving in below freezing temperatures came back to him.

"Body heat escapes through the top of your head. Your face, hands, and feet are the first to suffer frostbite. Move around to establish a good flow of blood to your body."

And then his heart pounded, skipping beats as he listened to his own voice echoing back at him from the depths that held him captive. He jerked with fright, even though he knew it was only himself that he heard. The pain that shot through his leg made him cry aloud, a wild shriek that frightened him even more than the pain that that caused it.

"Daa… dee…! Help! Someone… help!"

He tried to still his own breathing enough to listen, praying that he'd hear a familiar voice calling back an answer. But all he could hear was the blood rushing
in his eardrums. He groaned, closing his eyes and trying to think of something besides the pain in his leg. The thought of Queenie and the fun they'd had only hours ago while baking and decorating cookies came instantly.

A sob tore up his throat as he thought of her… and home… and the soft, sweet smell of his own bed. Of how warm the covers would be and how safe he would feel knowing Dad and Queenie were there to protect him. Now his grandmother's threats seemed silly compared to the fact that he was cold and lost. He couldn't even contemplate the possibility that he might not be found.

He moaned and shifted, trying to find a comfortable spot between the small rocks upon which he'd fallen. Then he pulled his coat up around his ears, stuffed his hands inside its arms, and tried not to think of his numb feet and empty belly.

Queenie! Come and get me! Please come and get me!

He fell into a fitful doze with that thought on his mind and the image of her in his heart.

Queen sat slumped in the chair she'd pulled in front of the fire, sleeping in fits and starts, awakening now and then with a jerk only to find that everything that had happened wasn't just a bad dream, but a horrible reality.

J.J. lay on the couch, wrapped in Donny's arms, where they'd finally collapsed hours ago into an exhausted sleep. Queen hadn't had the heart to move them to a bed. She sensed their need to be as close to her as possible.

Queen sighed in her sleep and reached down to pull up a blanket that wasn't there. And then her hand stayed, and her breathing became rapid and shallow. Her eyelids twitched and jerked as she traveled through the course of her dream.

Suddenly she woke, sitting straight up in the chair and gripping the arms with her hands until the knuckles on her fingers turned white. Her blank, wide-eyed stare saw nothing of the dying embers of the flame into which she looked.

Instead she was looking into the heart of her dream,  the truth of what was really there. And when it  over, she shuddered and blinked, suddenly aware of her surroundings, finding it difficult to distinguish where she was from where she'd been.

"Oh, my God," she muttered, and staggered to her feet. "I've got to tell Cody! I've got to tell Cody."

She ran through the house, trying to remember where she left the two-way radio after the arrival of Sheriff Miller and his men. She entered the kitchen, where the dim night-light over the stove shed a weak yellow glow across the corner of the room. And then she saw it lying on the end of the counter and grabbed it with shaking hands, aware that what she was about to do would take more trust from Cody than he might have to give.

She closed her eyes and said a prayer, then took a deep breath and punched the send button on the radio. The static was a loud, unwelcome presence in the silence of the room.

"Queen to Cody. Queen to Cody. Cody… please come in!"

Cody thought he was dreaming. He heard her voice so clearly above the wail of the wind that for a moment he imagined she was here beside him. Then he remembered his surroundings and realized that he must be hearing her voice over the radio.

He dug for it beneath his covers, unintentionally waking Dennis, who swore as he tried to unzip his sleeping bag and then fumbled in the darkness for the lantern switch.

A luminescent glow filled the tent just as Cody's fingers curled around his radio.

"Cody here! What's wrong?" The question was instinctive. At this time of night, after everything else that had happened, it couldn't mean anything good.

"Cody… I had a dream. Over."

He sighed. "I'm having some bad ones, too, honey," he said quietly, aware that Dennis and probably every man in camp whose radio was on was listening to their conversation. But he didn't give a damn. In his shoes they would be doing the same.

"No!" she said, almost shouting into the receiver. "You don't understand. In my dream… I saw Will. I heard him! I think he was trying to tell us something. Over."

Cody frowned. "I don't get it. What do you mean? Over."

This was where his trust would be imperative, and Queen knew it. But there would be nothing gained if nothing was lost, and she was willing to lose a lot to get Will back.

"Cody… I think you've been looking in the wrong places. Over."

"Hell… there are no places left to look!" he shouted, and then buried his face in his hands and took a deep breath, trying to calm the sudden spurt of anger and fear that nearly gutted him. "Sorry. Please explain what you mean. Over."

"I heard Will calling. It echoed. His voice sounded far away and hollow. And it was so dark. I couldn't see him. But I could hear him cry… I could even hear him breathe. Over."

"Hell," Dennis muttered as goose bumps skittered across his skin beneath the cover of his shirt and coat. She was even getting to him.

"What are you trying to say, Queen? Over."

"I'm telling you that when morning comes… don't look on the mountain… look inside. Cody… I think Will's inside the mountain. Over."

The radio fell from Cody's hands. He swallowed twice, trying to talk, and then started to shake. Dennis reached out and picked it up, pressed the send button, doing what Cody could not.

"Hey, angel. Dennis here. We heard you loud and clear. And what the heck… we have nothing to lose and a lot to gain. Thanks for the call. See you soon. Over and out."

When there was nothing between Cody and Dennis but the faint lantern light and the shadows, they stared into each other's eyes, unwilling to admit even to themselves that finding the exact place on this mountain where a child might fall… or crawl into… was nearly impossible.

"What do you think, buddy?" Dennis said.

For a long moment Cody didn't move… didn't speak. His eyes narrowed, and the skin on his face seemed to shrink across his bones from the tension inside him. And then he turned and looked at Dennis.

"I think she hasn't been wrong yet. That's what I think. Turn out the damned light. I've got to get some rest. Tomorrow's going to be a bitch."

Queen laid down the two-way radio and walked to the stove, turning on the gas beneath the kettle to heat some water. She was freezing. Maybe if she made some coffee, she wouldn't be so…

She stopped, reached out, and turned the gas off with a jerk, then walked out of the room, the tears so thick in her eyes that she had trouble finding her way out the door.

It was the thought of how cold she felt that made her realize she wasn't feeling her cold… she felt Will's. And being warm when he wasn't seemed selfish, even obscene.

She went back into the living room, pulled the comforter back over the boys, who still slept in a tangle on the couch, and then bent down and put another stick of wood on the fire.

The wind rattled a window on the other side of the house as she crawled into her chair and sat, watching as the dying embers took on new life at the fresh fodder, licking and eating their way into the heart of the wood.

Queen stared at the flames and never knew when her eyes closed. Her head slumped against the arm of the chair, and she slept. And when she woke, it was morning.

By morning the wind that had buffeted them all night had calmed. They broke camp before dawn. The search started at daybreak to the tune of a cloudy sky with alternate glimpses of sunshine. The men had nothing but coffee and cold rations for sustenance, but not one of them voiced a complaint or wished for warmer clothes and a full belly. No matter how uncomfortable they were, they knew that somewhere there was a child who was in much worse straits.

Also to their credit was the fact that not one man had blinked an eye at Cody's announced change in procedure. And when he told them of the possibility that Will might be underground, or had crawled injured into a cave, unable to travel, not one of them asked why.

It didn't take Dennis long to realize that the whole search party had heard Queen's frantic radio call to Cody last night. No matter what their opinions on the subject might be, ultimately it was Cody's son who was lost. If he believed it possible, who were they to question him?

Spaced some fifty yards apart, with two-way radios as the communication of choice, they began a wide, fanlike sweep down the mountain. Only this time they would pause at the designated signal, shout Will's name aloud in unison, and then stop and listen before moving on.

The process was agonizingly slow. Cody wanted to scream with frustration at the snail's pace with which they were moving, yet he knew that going any faster might mean the difference between hearing Will's cries for help and missing them. There was no doubt in his mind that Will was still alive, because Queen had told him so. All he could do was go on as planned.

Two hours passed, with the searchers moving, stopping, calling, listening, and then starting all over again.

Dennis saw Cody's intensity increasing. And at the same time he felt the same agonizing disappointment each time they called Will's name and received no answer.

Cody focused entirely on what he might hear, not what he saw. The farther down the mountain they moved, the more convinced he became that Queen had to be right. If Will was alive and aboveground, he would already have been found. There was no other explanation for the fact that his son seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth—or, in this case, the face of the mountain.