Touching Stars (47 page)

Mind made up, he went back to the truck and took out the backpack, plus a long-handled shovel that would come in handy both as an ersatz walking stick and at the dig itself. Then he retraced his steps.

He waited until no large chunks of debris were in sight; then he started across in earnest. He was fine until the middle of the bridge, when his foot slipped as something moved beneath him and he nearly fell. In the time it took for him to regain his footing, he wondered if he had underestimated the strength of the current. But in a moment he was stable enough to take another step. Before long he was climbing along the opposite riverbank and heading to the dig site.

Although he had expected flooding, he was still surprised to see how far the water had crept up on this side of the river. The campfire site would be underwater soon, and Travis’s carefully laid units would be puddles. Eric slogged toward the site, his hiking boots squishing noisily, and searched for Travis. Just as he was beginning to believe Travis hadn’t come after all to see what he could rescue, Eric spotted him coming out from behind the trees that hid the unit they had worked on together.

Eric put two fingers in his mouth and gave a sharp whistle, hoping he would be heard over the river and the grumbling of distant thunder. Travis looked up, then responded with a quick wave. Eric started toward him.

He was surprised at how long it took to reach the other man. Rain had begun falling steadily again, and mud sucked at his feet. He used the shovel to propel himself along, and was more than a little glad when he and Travis were finally eye to eye. Travis wore a rain hat with a circular brim, and he had removed his glasses. He looked like a hunter on safari. In monsoon season.

“I thought I’d find you out here.” Eric stuck out his hand.

Travis grabbed it for a perfunctory shake. “I’ve been watching the water. It’s rising faster than I expected. If we’re going to get anything out of there, we’d better get right to it. How did you get over?”

“I walked across the bridge.”

Travis looked surprised; then he nodded. “Great. Glad that worked out for you.”

“Yeah, well, it was touch and go at one point, but I managed.” Eric peered over Travis’s shoulder. “Have you made any progress?”

“We’ll make more together.”

“Are we going to observe the niceties?”

“There are no niceties. This has ceased to have any relation to archaeology. It’s about folklore now.”

“And treasure hunting.”

“Afraid so.”

Eric followed him back through the trees. “How much time do you think we have?”

“Not long. We don’t want to be here if the water starts to rise suddenly. I’ve seen that happen, too. At the first indication, we’ll have to get out.”

Eric thought of the bridge and what it would be like if the water rose even a little. He had made it across, but a few more inches would make crossing back impossible. They would have to act fast.

“Let’s see what we can do and get out of here.” Travis stopped and stooped, and Eric looked down.

“How long have you been here?” The hole they’d been digging yesterday didn’t look much deeper.

“Not long.”

Eric took his shovel and began to loosen the dirt in front of the stones. Travis had brought a shovel, too. Both men were careful, doing a cursory examination of each shovelful of mud, but for all Eric knew, he could have been discarding Confederate gold.
Cursory
was unfortunately the operative word.

They stopped when the hole, which rapidly filled with water, was deep enough.

“Let’s see if we can get those rocks out of the way.” Travis stooped again, and Eric positioned himself on the other side. Together they tugged at two rocks that had once held up hardwood logs. Tons of logs, Eric estimated, although he didn’t really know. The rocks had been here for centuries and had little motivation to be coaxed out of their home.

He sat back on his heels and rested. Rain poured off the bill of his cap and down the back of his neck. He was already exhausted, but he felt wonderful anyway. He was excited in a way that was completely familiar, though he had almost forgotten how it felt. He didn’t even care what he and Travis discovered. The challenge was the thing that mattered. Pitting himself against the odds and, yes, taking risks to do it.

This was what Jared needed, too, he realized, and this was why his son had chosen to spend the next years of his life in the marine corps. Eric felt that revelation to his very bones. In this way his oldest son was just like him. Jared couldn’t and shouldn’t be talked out of being who he was, and Eric had been wrong to try. In the same way that Eric wanted to bring information and news, Jared wanted to bring justice and freedom. And both of them were willing to take the necessary risks to do their jobs.

“You okay?” Travis asked.

Eric gave a rueful grin. “Maybe I’m going to be.”

“Glad to hear it. I think this stone’s beginning to give.”

Eric balanced his weight and leaned forward. He saw that Travis had indeed moved the stone. Now there was a slight gap that Eric could utilize.

Minutes passed, but in the end, the stone gave way.

“Yep, there’s something behind it.” Travis reached in, but the rusted black metal object wouldn’t give. “We’ll have to get the stone beside it, as well.”

“Hey, Dad!”

Eric turned so fast he nearly lost his balance. “Noah?” He put his hand over his eyes, and tried to see through the rain and mist. Two shapes were coming toward them.

“Damn!”

Travis was peering through the rain, as well. “I don’t think they should be here.”

“Welcome to the club.” Eric got to his feet and started toward his sons.

“I thought I told you not to come.” He stopped Dillon with a firm hand on his shoulder; then, for good measure, gave him a hard shake. “Is this the way you listen?”

“I know, I know.” Dillon looked genuinely sheepish. “But we, well, we were worried about you and Mr. Allen!”

“Great, and now we can worry about
you.
How’d you get over?”

“The bridge, of course.” Noah looked perplexed. Clearly he thought the question was strange.

“You can still get across?” Eric didn’t want to imagine that. If Dillon had been swept over and into the water…

“Yeah, the only time the bridge is ever spooky is when the wind’s blowing real hard. It was just spooky enough to be fun.”

Eric realized then that Noah wasn’t talking about the low water bridge that
he
had crossed. Noah meant the suspension footbridge a bit farther up river. Eric hadn’t considered using it. He would just as soon hurl his body into the rushing waters of the Shenandoah as climb those steps. But the boys had been crossing it since they were small children.

Travis hadn’t interfered, but now he spoke from behind them. “Eric, if you give me some help here, I think we can move this and get to whatever’s back there. Then we can all get out of here.”

The wind was picking up, and so was the rain. Eric peered down at the river and wondered how quickly it was rising.

“Boys, you wait.” He didn’t want them going back alone now. Not with the storm picking up. Unfortunately, they were all going to have to stick together.

“We can help,” Noah said. “That’s why we came.”

“Let them,” Travis said. “It’ll be faster.”

Noah flanked Travis, and Dillon flanked his father. There wasn’t enough room for four sets of hands to pull out the stone, but the boys grabbed trowels and shoveled dirt away from the edges to give Eric and Travis more room to maneuver. They were so busy working that Eric didn’t register the cracking sound behind them. It was already too late to do anything when a limb from the nearest tree came hurtling toward them. Travis grabbed Noah to pull him out of the way. He almost succeeded, but the limb grazed Noah’s arm as it fell.

“Are you okay?” Travis sent the limb rolling away from them with his heel; then, despite Noah’s protests, he peeled back the boy’s sleeve. A gash was bleeding freely.

Travis stripped off his windbreaker and tied it around Noah’s arm as a bandage. He did it so quickly that Eric had no time to help.

“How does that feel?” Travis asked.

Noah looked pale. “I’m okay.”

“You were lucky.” Travis pointed toward the footbridge. “Okay, we’re going back. That’s all the warning we’re going to get. It’s not safe here. And we need to clean and dress that gash. You may need stitches.”

Noah shook his head. “No, I’m okay.”

“You’ll be better when we get you home.”

“Noah?” Eric asked. “Can you make it home?”

“I’m okay. I really am!”

“Right.” Eric looked at Travis. “Do you want to go with him, or shall I?”

“We should all go.”

“This stone’s nearly out. If you’ll be okay with Noah and Dillon, I’ll stay and finish the job. But we’ve done this much. What do you think, boys?”

The boys looked at each other. “How will you get back?” Noah asked.

“I crossed the low water bridge before. The water wasn’t that deep.”

“You did what?” Travis looked grim. “I thought you came across the footbridge.”

Now Eric realized why Travis had seemed surprised. Apparently he knew heights frightened Eric, and the suspension bridge wasn’t only high, but, even under the best circumstances, it felt unstable, swinging and sagging with every step. Even the thought of it made Eric turn cold.

“The low water bridge was perfectly safe,” Eric said. “I was careful. I’ll go back that way. But you take the boys across the footbridge. As long as you think it’s safe in this wind.”

The two men stared at each other. Then Travis shook his head again. “It’s too easy for you to get swept away.”

“Then don’t keep me here talking about it. Let me finish and get going.”

“What if it’s too deep?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll just stay on this side and see if somebody will give me shelter.”

“That’s unlikely. The closest farm is for sale, and nobody’s living there. You might have to walk as much as a mile to find somebody to take you in.”

“Well, the water’s definitely going to be too deep if I don’t get moving.”

Travis looked at the boys, then back at Eric. “I’m going to get them home. Then, if you’re not on your way, I’m coming back for you.”

“Dad, let me stay,” Dillon said. “I can help.”

“Go. Now. Before I do something a father shouldn’t. You’ve disobeyed me once already. Get out of here.”

Dillon looked as if he was going to cry, but Eric armored his heart with visions of his son in the swiftly moving current. “Now!”

Travis put his arms around both boys, and they started upriver toward the suspension bridge. The moment he was sure they were really going to leave, Eric went back to the hole. This time he didn’t squat. He knelt, his knees and legs sinking into the muck. He had sounded more optimistic than he felt. The stone still didn’t move.

He got up again and went for his shovel. Then he wedged it into the thin slit between the stone in question and the one to its left. He tried to force them apart, but the shovel slipped out, and he fell. He scrambled up, wedged it in again, and this time the stone seemed to shift. He wiggled the shovel, thrusting it in deeper and deeper, until the stone was at a new angle. Then he got down on his knees one more time and, with every bit of strength, hauled the rock out of the way.

Victory was his. He felt such a rush of pleasure that his hands shook. Or perhaps they were shaking from the unaccustomed labor. Whatever the reason, they were still plenty steady enough to grip the object the stones had hidden. And when he tugged it out, slowly and carefully, he saw that he was now in possession of a small rusty metal lockbox, exactly as Travis had guessed.

“Yes!” He was jubilant. He unzipped his jacket to see if the box would fit in the inside pocket, but it was too large. Instead, he stripped off the jacket and tied it around the lockbox to protect it. Then he slipped the box inside his backpack, removing some of the supplies to make room. The Thermos had a strap, and he slung it over his shoulder. Work gloves were tucked into the waistband of his shorts. He was ready to leave, and one glance at the river told him it wasn’t a moment too soon. The water appeared to be rising. Soon the unit would be covered, and after that, perhaps the entire dig.

He grabbed his shovel and started back toward the bridge, hoping the water was still low enough that he could cross safely. But before he even got close, he saw that his luck had run out. The water was so high now that he couldn’t even see the bridge, and when he was almost on top of it, he knew if he tried to walk across, he would be swept downriver.

The road behind him rose above the river and into the mountains. He tried to envision exactly what was on it. Travis had said the first house, the old farmhouse on multiple acres that Eric remembered, was vacant. And Eric couldn’t visualize another house beyond that one. He knew that if he followed the road, eventually he would probably find someone to help or something he could use for shelter. But a new complication was on the way.

As they’d worked, thunder had steadily rumbled in the distance. Now lightning split the horizon, and the wind began to pick up. Getting to shelter immediately was critical, and there was no time to search for a house or barn on this side of the river. He thought of his boys and was glad Travis had taken them back. But that was his only consolation. Because there was only one choice left now. The suspension bridge.