Down the Hidden Path (30 page)

David’s body stopped shaking, sending panic through Caleb. “You okay there?” He shook the boy, causing water to come up onto his cheeks. They were riding lower in the cold water. Caleb knew his body was giving out with each sharp pain that shot through his limbs; eventually his body’s distress would take over, he’d go numb and that would be the end.

“I . . . can see the star.”

“Good, David. You keep looking at it.”

There had been other times in his life when he’d considered the possibility of dying. Once, in a firefight gone wrong, he’d made a call to run into a building under fire to get to a guy in his unit who had been shot. He’d made a choice. He’d been at peace with it. If he died, it was to protect another human being. It was to give all he had to make sure someone else came home. He’d thought over his life, most of it spent on foreign soil, and he hadn’t been sorry or filled with regret. And he’d supposed that it was an all right time to check out. But this was different.

David wasn’t just some kid who deserved a future. David was his own blood, his nephew. His brother’s child. If Caleb had to die for him, that’d be better than okay. Caleb looked at the sky. He knew his thoughts were getting cloudy, the icy water of the lake stealing his equilibrium and creating the sensation of needles shoving deeper and deeper into his flesh. Off in the distance, he saw a flash of light. Sounds, muffled, but coming closer. A voice.

Caleb knew he was losing his grip on David. “When I push,” he said, “I want you to climb with all you’ve got, David. We get one shot at this. Don’t you dare let me down.”

David’s breathing increased. He was readying to climb.

“Don’t worry. It’s all gonna be okay.” And with that, Caleb took a deep breath and shoved David up out of the water as his own head went under. Legs and tennis shoes above him scurried onto the glassy white surface. Caleb smiled, his body giving up the last bits of energy it held.

He sank deeper and deeper, the water feeling warm now, not cold, and a peace fell over him unlike anything he’d ever known. The last thing he saw was the Eye of God.

CHAPTER 15

Miah was screaming Caleb’s name. Gray’d never heard a more horrified sound. They’d made it to the water’s edge and Miah had snagged David just as he was coming up. He deposited David in her hands and ran back, yelling for her to get him into the truck and bring him the rope from the back. She tried to obey, but her thoughts were on David. He was pale, shaking, and soaking wet.

He pushed away from her. “I’m okay. I’m okay, Gray. Go! They need you.” And with more strength than her son should have, he shoved her into motion.

Gray grabbed the rope and tied it off on the front of the four-wheeler.

Her hands were shaking, mostly from fear, partly from the icy water that now drenched the front of her clothing where she’d pulled David into her arms. They’d already called an ambulance, but knowing David was in the truck with the heater on helped her to do what Miah needed. She jerked on the rope to test its knot and ran out toward him. He’d stripped from his coat and boots and just as she got the rope in his hands, he disappeared into the water. First she thought he’d fallen or that more of the ice shelf had broken off, but she looked at the boots and coat and realized, this had been his plan.

He came up once, slinging water and pulling a deep lungful of air, then, he was down again.

A dead silence rose from the water where she stared down at the rippling waves, perched on her hands and knees. “Please,” she pleaded for them to appear as icy wind smacked the side of her face. From behind her, the truck’s headlights cast a yellow-tinged glow on the hole where Miah and Caleb had disappeared.

She searched the water, her body frozen, and breathing white puffs of air that dissolved into the atmosphere. Her shadow darkened one section of the water, so she shifted until her shadow lay across the bumpy snow of the frozen cove and she scanned the black abyss again. When she saw nothing, Gray stretched her body out on the snow-blanketed ice. Should she reach in? Just before she made the decision to, the rope moved. She grabbed it.

This time, two heads came up out of the water. She began frantically pulling the rope that gathered at her feet with each tug. Miah shoved Caleb toward her and she gripped him by the shoulders, digging her fingers into his water-soaked clothing. She pulled with all her strength until she felt something tearing in one shoulder blade. Adrenaline spiked through her system and she clamped her hands deeper into his coat and this time when she pulled, she screamed. The sound bounced off the rocky cliffs and snowcapped hills around them. She squeezed her eyes shut, releasing all her energy, all the power she possessed, into her arms and shoulders. Her back curved and provided an anchor for the task. Her legs spread and she forcefully dug her heels into the ground like two ice picks. When Caleb was on solid ground, she shoved him off her. Miah was still in the water.

She dropped to her knees. Miah shook from the cold and she could tell he was barely hanging on, his hands shaking and trying to maintain their grip on the icy ledge. His flesh was bright red and as she dropped to help him, gripping his body like she had Caleb’s, she felt him slip. “No!” she screamed and the sound fortified her strength.

His golden eyes met hers above the blackened water. For a moment, he stayed right there and she had to wonder if the power they needed to get him out was already gone, used up on saving David and Caleb. But something shifted in his gaze and suddenly, he was pulling himself up. Gray grabbed him by the shoulders and jerked. From her periphery, she saw one of his legs, water covered, flop up onto the snow and ice. She readjusted her grip, clamping her hands around his midsection and rolling him up onto the ledge.

He was on his feet in no time. “Go to the truck. Check on David. The
ambulance can’t make it down here. We have to get back to the house.”

It was only then that she realized Caleb hadn’t moved. His lifeless body lay on the white snow. Stunned, Gray turned from him, using the headlights as a guide and forcing herself not to focus on the possibilities.

Miah dragged his brother to the edge of the lake and deposited him on the bank. He rolled him onto his back and stripped the coat from his chest.

David opened the truck door for her and she climbed in.

There before them in the yellow glow of the truck’s headlights, Miah gave his brother CPR.

Gray had watched as a helicopter airlifted Caleb to the hospital. David had been allowed to go in an ambulance so she’d insisted on riding with him. She remained at his side while Miah followed in the truck, still in his soaking wet clothes. She’d had the foresight to grab him a change at the house and had called Charlee and Ian to meet them at the hospital.

Once there, time drifted by slowly, as if in some distorted fun house where mirrors made monsters of normal people. Gray was tired to the bone and knew Miah must be as well. His face was twisted into a frown that seemed as though it would surely stick and remain there for the rest of his life.

Caleb was alive. That’s all they’d tell them.

Ian and Charlee met them, and the four of them paced the waiting room while Caleb was being worked on and David was being put into a room. They’d keep him for observation for the night, but the doctor said he thought the boy would be fine.

Gray still felt shell-shocked by the incident and ran the whole thing over and over in her mind as if at some point, she could magically change the outcome. But here they were, once again in a hospital, and this time, they were waiting to hear if Caleb would make it. David would be okay. No permanent damage done, still, she couldn’t imagine the psychological ramifications if—God forbid—Caleb didn’t pull through.

When the doctor gave the okay, Gray and Miah entered David’s room quietly in case he’d fallen asleep.

Gray was breathing hard, and the sound must have roused David. “Is Caleb okay?”

Miah crossed the room and patted his arm. “He’ll be fine. Are you okay?”

David closed his eyes. “Yes. I’m sorry.”

Gray came around the bed and brushed dark spikes of hair from his face. At least there was color there, on his cheeks, instead of that deathly white he’d been earlier in the evening when she’d watched the paramedics trying to encourage warmth into his stunned system. “It’s okay, honey. The only thing that matters is you getting well.”

“I lost the snowmobile.”

Miah sniffed. “I don’t care about that, David.”

“Caleb saved me. And half the time, I didn’t even think he liked me, but he saved me.”

Miah’s chin quivered. “He’s a real hero, David.” She could see that Miah’s hands itched to grab David up and hold him in his arms, but Miah restrained his emotions, probably to help keep any panic over the incident at bay.

David nodded. “Are you guys mad at me?”

Miah let a long breath escape from his mouth. “You could have died. You almost died. What was in your head that made you want to go over that water?”

“You said all your friends had done it. If I’m gonna be one of your friends, I just thought . . .”

“David, you don’t have to do anything to earn my approval. You’re my son. I love you. And driving over the cove was stupid of me but it was when the cove was frozen, not half thawed.”

“So, this didn’t have anything to do with the camping trip?” Gray asked, because she’d assumed that David had somehow learned the details and was mad at them when he’d left the house.

“Yeah, at first it did. I called Stacey while Caleb was outside and found out why the trip was canceled.” He turned away from them. “I figured her brother and the others would blame me. That’s okay. I’m used to not having any friends. But I was mad at Miah. Then I was just wanting to prove I wasn’t a little kid. Sometimes you guys treat me like I am.”

Gray brushed his hair back. He was right. Sometimes they didn’t give him the credit he deserved. At twelve, he’d been through more heartache than many people twice his age. “I’ll try to be better about that, okay? And you don’t ever do something like this again.”

His eyes widened, stark against the bed. “I won’t.”

When his lashes became heavy lines half covering his eyes, he yawned. “Pretty tired.”

Gray turned down the light and kissed his forehead. “Get some rest, David. I’ll be right here if you need me.”

But David didn’t answer. A light snore slipped from his mouth and Gray motioned for Miah to follow her out of his room so they could talk without disturbing him. “I’m going to stay with him tonight,” she said.

He nodded.

She waited for him to lean toward her and kiss her cheek, or squeeze her shoulder, but he didn’t. Just stared, blankly, as if he wasn’t sure what to do or say. “You okay?”

His chin dipped again. “Sure. Listen, Caleb will probably be in for a few days. Could David stay with you? I need to be available in case he needs me.”

“Sure.” But there was something in Miah’s tone she didn’t like. She brushed it off. It had been a long night for all of them.

He sank his hands into his pockets. “I’ll bring him some clothes over tomorrow morning. I can pick you up here and take you home.”

“Okay.” But a strange detachment floated in the air, creating a cavern between her and Miah. It was a sensation powerful enough to cause the hair on her neck to prickle. Still, she waited for a touch, a hug, anything. But Miah’s shoulders were square, his elbows out, hands firmly planted in his jeans.

He motioned with his elbow behind him. “I’m going to check on Caleb.”

She nodded and watched as he walked down the hall.
It’s been a long, hard night
, she told herself over and over again. But that didn’t settle the apprehension in her stomach. As Jeremiah disappeared around the corner, she had to wonder if tonight had changed everything for them.

Miah was at Caleb’s side when he first opened his eyes. He got the chance to give his brother’s hand a firm squeeze just before a nurse ushered Miah into the hall. “We’ll let you know when you can come back in,” she’d said.

So Miah waited. His fingers finding their way together, one hand grasping the other, remembering the sensation of holding his brother’s hand moments ago. He could have lost him. He almost did lose him. A lump rose in Miah’s throat; his nose tingled. He made his way down the hall to a restroom and ducked inside. Without bothering to turn on the light, he locked the door and anchored his hands on the edges of the sink. He didn’t stop the tears from coming. Tears were a release, something he understood from the army. Tears cleared the mind after elevated stress; it was the body’s way of rebalancing.

At the lake’s edge, he’d held his brother’s lifeless body in his hands. He knew that feeling . . . when life left. He’d carried a dead soldier once. Life was so much more than a beating heart. It was more than nerves and neurons, muscles and brain matter. It was a soul and a spirit. It was magical. And once it was gone, it was gone.

Miah’s eyes had adjusted to the darkness. He studied himself in the mirror, barely a shard of illumination, but it was enough, the shine on his cheeks catching the light and holding it. Right there, he made a promise. Do whatever he needed to do to protect Caleb. To protect David. Regardless of the number of tears it might cause him.

Miah made his way back to his brother’s room. The doctor spoke with him briefly in the hall, then held the door open so Miah could go inside.

Caleb was hooked up to a variety of machines that made strange beeping noises. He played with the end of a piece of surgical tape that held an IV in place. Miah went to him, a half smile on his face, and dropped a hand on Caleb’s arm. His skin was pale and to the touch he still felt cold, as if they were having to thaw him from the inside out.

“Doc says you’ll be fine.” Waves of relief continued over Miah. He supposed that would happen each time he repeated those words.

Caleb nodded. “Yeah. He told me that, too.”

“You could have died, Caleb.”

Caleb mumbled, “I’m not sure I didn’t.”

Miah swallowed hard.

Caleb attempted a smile and met his gaze. “I didn’t mind the idea of dying. It would have been to save David.”

Miah pressed his lips together. The night’s disaster had stolen every bit of his own energy. He wanted a long shower—where he could lean an arm against the cold tile and thank God this had turned out the way it had—and he wanted a good night’s sleep. But Caleb needed to talk through this. Miah understood, but didn’t love reliving it. He did love the fact that his brother was going to be okay.