'What?'
'Well.' Julie looked at him, and shrugged. 'If we weren't up here in this godforsaken armpit of a wilderness, we wouldn't… I wouldn't have got to know you. I mean, I'm glad about that anyway.
The words made Nick's heart pound fast. 'Maybe when we get back, we could — I don't know — go to the movies or something.'
She met his eyes. She smiled slightly. 'By then, you'll be sick of me.'
'Maybe,' he said.
Julie laughed.
'I doubt it, though.'
Karen called, 'Where's the top?'
'Up there someplace,' Julie answered.
'That's the rumor,' Nick added.
'You guys are really burning up the trail,' Scott said.
Julie nodded. 'Regular roadrunners.'
Scott and Karen took off their packs. Scott looked as if the strenuous hike had barely fazed him. He wasn't even breathing hard. Karen looked just as good. She fluttered the front of her plaid shirt, then opened the three lower buttons. She gathered up the shirttails and made a knot just below her breasts. 'Nice breeze,' she said. She lay down against her pack, and fanned her face with her floppy hat.
'We thought,' Julie said, 'that this'd be as good a place as any to have lunch.'
'Sounds good,' Scott said.
After a lunch of gorp, dehydrated fruit slices, shortbread cookies, and Tropical Chocolate bars, they resumed the hike. At first, the weight of his pack felt unbearable to Nick. His shoulders and back throbbed with pain, and his legs seemed barely capable of supporting him. He felt like collapsing, but forced himself to take one step after another. Slowly, the torment faded, as if his body were giving up its rebellion, accepting its role as a beast of burden.
He walked behind Julie and matched his stride to hers. Her boots were powdered with trail dust. One sock was slightly lower than the other. The seat of her white shorts had two half-moons of yellow-brown dirt from sitting down, and he could see the outline of her panties through the thin fabric. The panties were very brief. Like a bikini bottom. 'Did you bring a bathing suit?' he asked.
'Sure. You?'
'Yeah.'
'Water's so cold, though. We'd freeze our butts.' 'Those girls swam.'
'Must be polar bears.'
'Probably not bad, once you're in it.'
'Depends. Some lakes aren't so bad.'
'Warmer if they're shallow,' Nick said.
'Depends on the runoff, too.'
'Way I feel, I'd swim in ice cubes.'
'We get to Wilson in time, I'd give it a try.'
They trudged along in silence. Looking up the slope, Nick could see where the mountainside ended. It didn't seem far above them, but he realized that the view might be deceiving. The area that appeared to be the top from here might turn out to be a shelf, the rest of the mountain farther back and out of sight. He tried not to let his hopes get too high.
He and Julie were still a distance below the apparent top, however, when the trail, instead of switching back, continued forward and curved around the slope. A strong, cool wind blew against Nick. Julie stopped. He moved up beside her. She smiled at him. 'What do you know,' she said.
'Didn't think we'd ever make it.'
Ahead of them, the trail wound over a flat, barren area between two bluffs. Then it dropped out of sight. In the distance, Nick saw peaks shrouded by clouds. A few minutes of hiking took them across the level area. They shed their packs and sat on a block of granite. From there, the trail started gradually downward along a narrow ridge. To the right of the ridge was a deep ravine. To the left was a shallow valley with two lakes. The lower lake, no more than a hundred feet below their perch, was larger than the other, bounded by rocky slopes except for a small stand of pine at its western shore. The upper lake, just above its southwest end, looked treeless and even more desolate.
'Must be the Mesquites,' Nick said.
'The ranger was right. They're the pits.'
'I don't see anyone down there.'
'The Madwoman of the Mesquites?' Julie asked.
'She's probably moved on. I mean, who'd want to camp there? Looks like the backside of the moon.'
'I hope Lake Wilson's better than these.'
'The ranger said it was nice. Besides, it's about a thousand feet lower.'
'What is it, three or four miles?'
'Something like that.'
Nick followed the trail with his eyes. It passed above Lower Mesquite, and vanished behind a steep wall of granite. 'At least it'll be downhill,' he said.
'Sometimes that's worse.'
'Yeah. Gets you in the toes.'
'And everywhere else.'
Scott and Karen arrived. They took off their packs, and settled down on a nearby boulder. Karen lifted her blouse again and tied it in front as she'd done when they stopped for lunch. 'Ah,' she said, 'that wind's terrific.'
'I don't like the looks of those clouds,' Scott said.
The clouds hugging the distant peaks were thick and gray. Nick figured that they must be at least ten miles away.
'I don't think I'd mind a little rain,' Karen said.
'It'd put a damper on dinner.'
'Maybe it'll miss us,' Julie said.
Scott shook his head. 'Looks like they're coming our way. These mountain storms are unpredictable, though. Could pass over us without leaving a drop. Or we might be in for it. Only time will tell.'
'Time wounds all heals,' Karen said.
'Time's like hiking, then,' Scott added.
'Like Benny,' Julie said. 'He's the greatest heel wounder of all time.'
Scott looked pained. 'Why don't you ease up on that? Benny feels bad enough without your help.'
'He's not here.'
Scott ignored the remark and stared out over the valley. Karen leaned back against her pack. She folded her hands on top of her head, mashing the soft crown of her hat. 'I wonder,' she said, 'if Heather can make it as far as Wilson.'
Ettie watched with despair through a crevice in the rocks. Luck had sure turned against them. Maybe the Master was dishing out punishment, paying them back for what Merle did to those other two campers — claiming he offered them down when he did no such thing, but just went at them for his own need and then laid it on the Master.
Then again, maybe Ettie wasn't judging the matter right. Could be a test. Maybe even an offering. She'd have to find out for sure, so she'd know what to do.
One thing was sure: the campers were fixing to stay. They were down in the clearing by the trees, setting
