14 The Road
Route 12 wound through the Nez Perce National Forest along the Lochsa River as it descended the western slopes of the Rockies. Our audiobook was off to a slow start. Cussler needed several chapters to get his story moving. Day was fading by the time we came across a rest area with picnic tables. Signs warned against feeding or otherwise socializing with the animals. No problem. They stayed away from us.
We walked a couple of laps around the perimeter and stretched. I worked on Warrior Postures and lunges. Kate took 10 minutes to do a full-body workout.
She went back into the kitchen and came out with ham and cheese sandwiches, a bowl of nuts, and a couple of beers. Eight-ounce cans. I looked at our dinner and then up at her. “That’s it?”
Kate grinned. I popped a handful of nuts in my mouth. “Unsalted.”
She laughed. “You can wash them down with your beer.” She sat and picked up her sandwich. “But take it easy. You’ll need it for the sandwich too.”
When we had finished eating, Kate brought out a couple of more beers, and we moved over to the bank to watch the river. She broke the silence. “I have a question.”
“Okay.”
“When you look back over your life, what are the best and worst decisions you’ve made?”
“Marrying Anne was the best.”
“And the worst?”
“I’m thinking.” I surveyed the tree line on the other side of the river as I ran through my life. “There’s a saying in the Tao Te Ching: The good and the bad arise together. Without the one, you could not know the other.”
She pressed her lips together, arched her brows and tilted her head. I took a swig of beer. “I can’t say whether the decisions were good or bad. Sometimes I had to take what was offered. Sometimes I took my chances with something that didn’t work out.” She watched me with her laser stare. I sipped my beer. “A while back, I went to work with a friend in a start-up. I walked away from a good job with an established company.” The thought of that move brought an involuntary shudder. “The new job looked promising. We broke some new ground and accomplished some amazing things. But the company folded after two years. I worked temp jobs and sank into debt for the next four years. When I did get a permanent job, it was with the best company I ever worked for.”
“What about Anne?”
“She took temp jobs as a programmer. Her skills were out of date, but she caught up pretty quickly. It wasn’t her thing. She quit as soon as I found a job.”
Kate finished her beer. “What’s the takeaway? A bad decision that nearly ruined your life or a good decision that led to the best job you ever had?”
“I’d probably make the same decision today. I wanted out of the situation I was in. I had a lot of confidence in my friend, and it was an opportunity that could have paid off big time.”
Kate started to get up. I said, “Question.”
She sat. “Okay.”
“Would you have come on this trip if you had known we were going to be in this situation today?”
She took a deep breath and sighed. “Probably. You obviously needed help. I saw an opportunity to get out and travel. I’d say overall it’s meeting my expectations.”
“For a hundred dollars a day?”
She laughed. “I’m not doing this for the money, Mac.”
“Why are you doing it?”
“Adventure. Besides, I like you.”
I tried my beer. The can was empty. I looked at her and shook my head. “Tell me about Katherine Graham.”
“I was a nerd. I loved science. I actually enjoyed cutting up frogs and arthropods.”
“Any Sports? You seem pretty athletic.”
“I was gangly. They recruited me for basketball. I made the team, but I wasn’t good enough to get a lot of playing time.”
“One season?”
“I stuck it out through high school. There were social benefits.”
I pressed my lips together and nodded knowingly. She said, “I found my niche in tennis. I could cover the court and I had a wicked serve.”
“Sally Ride was a tennis player.”
“She was better than me.”
“Why aren’t you a doctor?”
“I liked boys more than science.”
Her gaze focused on me as if she was gauging my reaction. I looked directly into her eyes. “Is that how you ended up with a guy who put you in the hospital.”
Anger flashed across her face. “Yes. Not that it’s any of your business.”
I chuckled. “Come on. We’re sleeping together.”
Kate stood abruptly and snarled, “We’ve got to get back on the road.”
I reached out for her hand, but she wheeled and stalked back to the RV. I struggled to my feet and followed her. Once we were seated, she backed out and pulled onto the highway. Her actions were sharp. Explosive. She was venting her fury on the camper. We rode in silence for several minutes before she felt like talking. “A mutual friend introduced me to Mark at a party. Charming, witty, good-looking. He was a grown-up version of the guys I dated in high school. The problems were harder to spot.”
We rolled along the highway through lush, green mountains. Kate relaxed. She seemed to be caught up in the memory. “He sold used cars. That gave him plenty of opportunities to polish his act. You were his best friend as long as he got what he wanted.” She looked over at me and smiled wanly. “I moved in with him. We had a great honeymoon until I started back to school for my Nursing degree. School was never hard for me. But I had a job, classes, and tons of homework. Our sex life suffered. It pretty much died. He started drinking. That brought out his ego-centric, childish, demanding side. I figured we could hold out until semester-break. He didn’t see it that way. He started bullying me. Sometimes he was violent. One night he beat the shit out of me. I woke up in the hospital. I don’t remember how I got there. I’ve been told a neighbor rescued me.”
Wise, fatherly advice raced through my mind. I managed to keep it to myself. Kate was staring straight ahead fighting back tears. I rested my hand on her thigh. She reached down and gave it a little squeeze. Night was taking over. She turned on the headlights. I noticed a road sign at an intersection. It read, “Cedar Springs, Idaho. Elevation 1300 feet.”
I said, “It looks like we are almost out of the mountains.”
She looked over at me with a tight-lipped smile. I said, “Do you think we should start that book back up?”
She nodded. “Yeah.” Her voice was husky, but she turned on the Cussler story.
We were still over an hour from Lewiston.