They turned again at Large Marge’s driveway and drove to the end of it, honking the horn. “You keep her safe and away from me,” Mama said to Matthew, who nodded.
Leni stared at her mother. The whole of their lives—and all of their love—was in that look. “You won’t go back to him,” Leni said. “You’ll call the police. Press charges. We’ll meet up in twenty-four hours. Then we’ll run away. You promise?”
Mama nodded, hugged her fiercely, kissed her tears away. “Go,” she said in a sharp voice.
After Mama got out of the truck, and they drove away, Leni sat there, replaying it all in her mind, crying quietly. Every breath hurt and she had to fight the urge to go back, to be with her mother. Had she done the wrong thing by leaving her?
Matthew turned at the Walker gate, rumbled beneath the welcoming arch.
“We can’t go here! He’ll look for us here!” Leni said. “Mama said we needed to disappear for a day.”
He parked, got out. “I know. But it’s low tide. We can’t use the boats or the float plane. I only know one place to disappear. Stay here.”
Five minutes later, Matthew was back with a backpack, which he tossed into the bed of the truck.
Leni kept looking behind them, down the Walker driveway.
“Don’t worry. He won’t find the distributor cap for a while,” Matthew said.
And they were off again, turning onto the main road, then left, toward the mountain.
Turns. Switchbacks. River crossings. Up and up they went.
Finally, they pulled into a dirt parking lot and stopped abruptly. There were no other vehicles. A sign at the trailhead read:
BEAR CLAW WILDERNESS AREA
ALLOWABLE USES: Hiking, Camping, Rock Climbing.
DISTANCE: 2.8 miles one way.
DIFFICULTY: Challenging. Steep climbs.
ELEVATION GAIN: 2600 feet
CAMPING: Sawtooth Ridge, near marked Eagle Creek crossing.
Matthew helped Leni out of the truck. Kneeling, he checked her wafflestompers, retied her laces. “You okay?”
“What if he—”
“She got away. Large Marge will protect her. And she wanted you safe.”
“I know. Let’s go,” she said dully.
“We’ve got a long hike ahead of us. Can you make it?”
Leni nodded.
They headed for the trail, with Matthew leading and Leni following along behind him, struggling to keep up.
They climbed for hours, saw no one. The trail snaked along a sheer stone cliff. Below them was the sea, waves crashing into rocks. The ground trembled at each wave’s impact, or maybe Leni just thought it did because life felt so unstable now. Even the ground felt unreliable.
Finally, Matthew came to what he’d been looking for: a huge, grassy field, thick with purple lupine. Snow whitened the peaks; below lay folds of rock, dotted here and there by the white dots that were Dall sheep.
He dropped his pack into the grass and turned to face Leni. He handed her a smoked salmon sandwich and a can of warm Coke, and while she ate he set up a pup tent deep in the grass.
Later, with a fire crackling in front of the tent and the orange flaps pinned open, Matthew sat on the grass beside her. He put an arm around her. She leaned into him.