“Cassidy?” It was Strict.
“I have a request. You can turn it down. It’s not really a search and we don’t think the man is lost. I’ve got a mom asking that someone go down a trail and look for her son. He’s been out there four days, with camping gear, trying to get from a campground to a trailhead.”
“So, are we dealing with an over protective mom? A medical condition? What’s the problem?”
“Hopefully nothing. The guy’s blind.”
“But he may be fine.”
“Yeah.”
“So it’s just a look see.”
“Yeah.”
“How old’s the kid?”
“Twenty.”
“Fit?”
“Yeah.”
“Leave him alone.”
“What?”
“Lou, the guy just wants to go camping. So he’s blind, he wouldn’t go out there if he didn’t feel capable. There’s no reason a blind person can’t backpack. I’ve backpacked blindfolded just to see what it’s like. I didn’t last long with the blindfold but it is possible. He’s got a cane or a dog, right?”
“A cane. So you’re going to let this guy feel his way through the mountains?”
“Yeah. How many days did he pack for?”
“A week but it wasn’t far, unless he got off the trail somehow.”
“He’d know if he was off the trail. It’s hard to walk without sight off trail. The cane would get hung up on everything. He’s on a trail except to find camping spots.”
“You want to give him more time?”
“I’ll talk to Rusty, but I’m for letting the guy backpack by himself. He may be trying to prove something to himself. Sending out a rescue party isn’t exactly going to boost the guy’s confidence.”
“There’s such a thing as overconfidence. If anybody should know that it’s you.”
“Rusty? I’ve got a call from Strict. He’d like me to go check on a blind hiker. I told him to let the guy hike in peace.”
“But?”
“But he didn’t seem too keen on the idea. This isn’t the best time.”
“There is no good time.”
“He’s probably fine. If he wants to go camping alone I think he should be able to.”
“So, why tell him you’re there? You could check on him and pretend to be another hiker and just keep going.”
“You think I should go?”
“What’s wrong, Cassidy? There’s something going on here besides a blind hiker. I thought you’d jump at the chance to track a blind person. You’ve never tracked a blind person before.”
There sure was, but I didn’t want to admit I was more worried about a blind wife than a blind hiker. He was right, though, I would like to track a blind person. But it sounded a little like he was trying to get rid of me. I was imagining things. I had to be. He wasn’t really trying to get rid of me.
“Okay, I’ll go in the morning. I should be able to catch up pretty fast.”
I sure would, too, I’d have Misty Montague on my mind the whole time. That would push me. A blind person with a cane should be easy to track.
“Hey Strict, I’ll go out at first light, just give me a starting point and an ending point and I’ll do my best.”
“Atta girl, I’ll call Landon.”
“No! I want to go alone. And if this hiker is doing fine I’d rather he not even know I’m there. I still think he has a right to camp by himself if he wants to.”
“What if he’s not okay?”
“Do I have to take Landon?”
“Has Landon been giving you problems?”
“No, Landon’s been fine. I’d just like to get in and out with as little gear as possible and if Landon goes I have to pack a tent and…and I’d rather just rough it quickly than pack everything but the kitchen sink. There’s going to be no base camp, right? It’s just a look see. So why take Landon?”
“Because if Grey took a fall off the trail you’re going to need help.”
I met Landon at the trailhead at first light. He seemed a bit skeptical.
“I told Strict this was just a quick checkup. I’m hiking in and finding the guy and hiking out. I told Strict I was packing minimally. Get used to it. And don’t make a fuss over the lack of a tent. I have what I need.”
He still looked at me oddly so I forked over the cookies. That didn’t help.
“What?” I asked him.
“Something’s bothering you.”
“Let’s go.”
It wasn’t hard finding Grey’s tracks. Even when I couldn’t see his tracks the swish of his cane was plain. It brushed the trail in front of him and went ever so slightly over the side, telling him where his boundaries lay. I hiked as fast as I could and still read. When the reading was good I took note of how his feet came down. Each stride was exactly the same length. He walked confidently as long as he had a clear trail. I read the rhythm of his footsteps and cane strokes and it was like watching a metronome. Step swish, step swish. When he got puzzled about the trail it was easy to tell. His feet spoke volumes.
“Cassidy, you’re running from something but it won’t work.”
“I am not. I’m running to something. I’m getting this over with.”
“Why? Usually you like being on the trail. Usually you’d jump at the chance to follow a different type of trail. Something is eating at you.”
If there was one person I didn’t want to talk about Rusty to it was Landon, so I hiked faster. Landon gave up but then he started dropping farther and farther behind. He knew as long as I was in sight we were okay but he didn’t like the separation. It gave him time to regroup and think about the goings on at the station. Just like Hazel had connections through the seniors, Landon had connections at the station. He knew what went on there. He jogged up and confronted me. “You’re letting that air headed bimbo worry you,” he declared finally.
“I know how she works. She’s from back home. She moved down here specifically to target Rusty. I doubt she’s here to stay but she’s here until he proves to her that she’s wasting her time.”
“You find more ways to get into trouble than anybody I’ve ever met,” he said laughing.
“This isn’t trouble,” I said.
“Then what is it?”
“It’s annoying. It’s frustrating…it’s…okay it’s trouble. The trouble with this trouble is there is nothing I can do about it.”
“Send her packing.”
“That’s just like challenging her to a duel. She would just get more determined.”
“Then have Rusty send her packing.”
“I’m not going to tell Rusty anything. If he wants her gone he’ll choose to do it but I won’t tell him to.”
“You’re either very brave or very stupid. You think a guy is going to tell a girl like that to get lost?”
“He knows the score. He knows she will drop him like a lead balloon as soon as the novelty wears off. I think he’s smart enough to distance himself from her. The problem is Misty loves a challenge. The more he puts her off gently the more she likes it.”
“Well, hiking my feet off isn’t going to solve it. We should have no problem catching up with a blind hiker, so calm down. Do you know how Rusty handled pushy women before he met you?”
“No, and I was not a pushy woman. I didn’t even encourage him.”
“Much to the chagrin of those watching. He was charming and polite and always declined their advances. He just wasn’t interested. He’s not interested in this Misty character. He’ll do the same with her as he’s always done.”
“Then she’ll be around for a long time. As long as she thinks there is hope and she can annoy me she’s only going to get worse.”
“Then don’t let her annoy you. Pretend she doesn’t exist.”
It was easy for Grey to feel his way over this part of the trail. It sloped up to the left and down to the right. All he had to do was stay in the middle. When he came to rocky places his cane felt its way through, followed by his feet. He was used to feeling his way with his feet. He did stumble a few times but he felt his way over the obstacle and continued on his way. On days with a clear trail he made a few miles a day. On days that he had obstacles or confusing places in the trail it slowed him down a lot. Switchbacks took time to navigate. Wide-open spots in the trail were almost as confusing as the obstacles but in a different way. He needed boundaries. As long as there were boundaries he walked around just fine. When he needed to camp he seemed to watch for one of those confusing wide open places. If he could find one he found the perimeter of the area, located the openings that indicated the trail and marked the trail by scoring a deep line down it, then he triangulated to find a tent spot. He seemed to pitch his tent haphazardly and then sleep with his head pointed uphill. It worked. One thing I worried about was him starting up a stove to cook. It was too easy to have flare ups and many times he was camping in close proximity to dry weeds and grasses. What was he eating on the trail? A guy could take only so much granola bars, trail mix and beef jerky.
At one point in the trail deer tracks crossed the trail and Grey’s footprints went right over the top of them. I wished he could have seen them. He probably didn’t even know they were there.
We caught up to Grey late in the afternoon. I saw him off in the distance and called a halt. We used the GPS to find ourselves on the map and saw we were only three miles from where the trail hit the pickup spot. If Grey had made it this far he’d have no trouble finishing the hike in the morning.
“I say, just let him finish,” I insisted. “We’re only friendly hikers. You can ask questions that curious hikers would ask but we are not searchers. Got it?”
Sigh, “Got it.”
“We can report to Strict when we get to the pickup spot.”
I purposely scuffed my feet as we came up behind him.
“Hikers behind,” I announced.
Grey stepped aside.
“Hi! How are you?” I asked.
“Tired, but well. I didn’t know how hot and dusty this trail was when I started out,” he answered.
“How far are you going?” Landon asked.
“Only to where the trail meets the highway.”
“How long have you been on the trail?”
“Five days. It’s a little slower going when you only have a cane to tell you the way.”
“I bet. You have everything you need? Plenty of water?”
He shook the water bottle in his hand and said, “Hmm,” then he removed his pack and unzipped a compartment and felt around. He took out two more bottles, shook them to make sure they were full and answered, “I’ll make it, no problem. It’s nice how folks have been watching out for me. One person marked camping spots for me. They asked what kind of a mark I’d recognize and when they saw a good place to camp they drew a line down the middle of the trail so my cane would hit it.”
So that’s where the lines came from, I thought.
“Okay, well, we’ll be moving on. Have a good afternoon,” Landon said.
“Will do,” Grey answered.
“Three more miles to go,” I said to Landon, though it was more for Grey’s benefit. “You ready to hike it?”
“Yeah, though we don’t have to hurry. We’ll have a ride whenever we get there and we don’t have to stop as soon as the sun sets. I think if I were blind I’d prefer hiking at night when it’s cool. We only hike in the day so we can see.”
We put some distance between ourselves and Grey before we resumed our conversation.
“So,” I said. “Mission accomplished?”
“Mission accomplished.”
“That was a good day’s work.”
“I only ate three cookies.”
“Keep the rest.”
“Cassidy, don’t worry about Rusty. He’s so stuck on you. I’ve spent the past year wishing he wasn’t. He took a lot of flack from me. He put me in my place more than once. He can handle himself. For a while I thought I’d ruined our chances to work together, but he’s patient, too.”
“Yeah, he is.” I remembered a time not so long ago when Landon and I were not friends. We kind of got off to a rocky start. “Landon, I’m sorry I slugged you.”
He felt his jaw and smiled, “It’s okay. It’s the closest I’ve come to getting a kiss.”
I was tempted to slug him again, but I couldn’t. We were fast friends now.
“Besides,” he continued. “I deserved it. I was a jerk.”
“It’s been a long time,” I observed. “I’m glad we got things straightened out. I couldn’t have asked for a better search partner. You know, we’re not tracking any more. You’re allowed to go in front.”
“Nah, if I go in front then all I have to look at is the trail. If I follow I get to watch you.”
“You’re worse than Misty Montague,” I told him.
“So why are you worried about her?”
“Because she takes her little hobby very seriously. She graduated one year before me and she’s looking for husband number four. Specifically she is trying to break up me and Rusty. So far she has just done it by coming on to Rusty but she’s been known to fight dirty.”
When we had put some distance between Grey and us and we were about a mile away from our goal Landon called Strict for a pick up.
“Ten sixty-five found. He’s doing fine. We left him three miles from the trailhead. He’ll be arriving tomorrow morning at the latest.”
“That’s good news. I’ll be there in a half hour.”
“Ten four.”
Landon turned to me. “Why didn’t you want Grey to know we were searching for him?”
“Would you like it if you were out for a nice camping trip in the woods and searchers converged on you and told you your mother sent them out?”
“No, I can say I definitely wouldn’t like that.”
“Well, neither would he. Just because someone is missing one of their senses doesn’t mean they are incapable. Grey was just as capable as any other hiker. Maybe more so. He had to take precautions, but who doesn’t? Let people show you what they can do and they will surprise you.”
“I know, you surprise me all the time.”
Strict picked us up at the trailhead and took us back to our cars.
“I need to tell Grey’s mom something. Tell me what you saw,” Lou said.
Landon answered, “He was in good spirits. We didn’t tell him we’d been searching for him. We just talked a little bit and made sure he had the supplies he needed to complete his hike. He told us how helpful people had been. So we left him to finish his hike. Let him tell his mom about the hike himself. Just tell her the guy we found was doing fine, appeared very capable and in good spirits. He should be at the trailhead in the morning.”
“Okay, will do. Thanks for going out.”
“It’s okay. We did some talking. I’m glad we went,” said Landon.
When I got home Rusty appeared to still be at work but when I entered the house I quickly realized he was working in his office and the Explorer was in the garage.
“Are you hiding out?” I asked.
“You don’t want to know.” He answered shortly. He reached into his shirt pocket and tossed a keycard onto the desk. “Here, if you ever want to visit Misty any time of the day or night…” Then he thought better of it and shredded it. He knew I just might pay her a visit if I got mad enough.
“You might want that back if she ignores her restraining order,” I said sarcastically.