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The warm lunch in her belly, despite the dropping temperatures, gave Natalie a feeling of cheerful satisfaction. Layered up in her coat, scarf, and beanie, she felt like skipping all the way home, but she had to settle on easing the SUV through white-dusted streets that were layering with snow. The winding highway north of town curved around steep inclines that veered up the mountain or dipped low into hollows where wandering streams cradled fallen logs that had tumbled down the mountainsides. Even the clear rushing waters looked frigid as white bubbles pooled at the bottom of little waterfalls or splashed over rocks.
Natalie turned up the radio, relieved the weeks of Christmas music had passed, and enjoyed a smooth jazz station that put her nerves at ease. She made her way through the worsening weather with caution until she reached the turn for the lane and crunched onto the frozen gravel road. It was already covered with a layer of snow that promised to be heavier by tomorrow.
She couldn’t help but look up the driveway when she passed the Nichols’ place. Leafy tree branches would hide it away during the summer months, but for now, she could make out the outline of the roof in the distance. She tried not to slow down or stare. She didn’t want to be nosey, but she couldn’t help but look to see if she could make out the outline of Jonathan’s truck.
She was lucky to have a decent neighbor, even if she’d have to put up with strangers coming and going during tourist season. The car rolled past the Nichols’ place and around the bend where two meadows sat elbow to elbow and a little creek trickled along on the other side of the road. The snow fell faster now, swirling around in the sweeping wind that gusted down the side of the mountain and rushed across the lane.
Natalie shivered and cranked up the heat, realizing she’d have to get out soon. It was becoming hard to see, but up ahead she could make out a parked car in the gloom of the heavy weather.
She moved over to the side of the road, scrunching her forehead as she passed the familiar dark pickup. It was Jonathan’s, and he was nowhere in sight. “Why are you parked alongside the road out here?” she wondered aloud. The driveway to the cabin was a hop, skip, and a jump ahead, maybe a football field’s length, but he’d parked too far away to be visiting her place. The Richardson’s property was the last mile of the road that climbed into the mountain.
She frowned as she eased into the driveway. Surely he wasn’t cutting down trees and burning them in this weather. She checked the clock on the dashboard. It was almost four in the afternoon. He worked mornings in town and late afternoons at the rec, but today wasn’t a day that he usually had basketball practice. Usually, she knew, he was at home around this time tending to his kittens.
Natalie shoved the car into park and hurried inside. She’d left a low fire in the iron stove that morning, so it was time to get it roaring. The snow continued to fall, and she checked the window every few minutes, straining her ears to hear the old truck start up in the distance. She’d left her coat and gloves by the door. If she heard the loud, old cranky chainsaw start up, she’d march outside, find him, and send him straight home. Of course, she wasn’t his mother, but after spending time with Mrs. Nichols this afternoon, Natalie knew that somebody needed to keep an eye on him if he was going to be up here alone.
In that moment, she realized she was in the same position. She really didn’t have anyone to call if she had an emergency. Besides the Eatons at church, there wasn’t anyone else nearby if she needed help fast, except for Jonathan.
Even after almost a month, she hadn’t gone up the mountain road to see the Richardsons in person, and she hadn’t exchanged numbers with anyone at church. She pursed her lips as she folded a few hand towels from the dryer, gazing out the window at the beautiful new year’s scene. Carrie was only a phone call away, but Atlanta was an hour’s drive.
Determined to collect a few emergency numbers and come up with a plan, Natalie stoked the fire with a fresh log one more time, then pulled on her boots. Curiosity won the battle. Darkness was coming on fast, and she hadn’t heard the truck leave, nor had she heard any power saws or the echo of an ax. Zipping up her coat, she grabbed her keys and hurried back out to the car. It felt like it measured below freezing outside.
As soon as the engine turned over, Natalie did a circle in the yard and pulled out onto the snowy lane. In the distance, she could see the old vehicle still there. She pulled up behind it, shined her lights at the dented license plate, then flipped off the ignition. Leaving her keys, she climbed out and slammed the door shut. It echoed over the trees. The world fell silent, except for the ripple of the nearby creek that made a peaceful accompaniment to the snowfall.
Natalie checked the truck. Through the window, she saw a couple notebooks, gloves, and an empty fast food bag. There was a grocery bag in the passenger seat and beside it, a new, unopened bag of cat food.
She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Maybe he’d gone out to check on some ashes to make sure they were out. It looked like he’d just returned from town. She gazed off through the skeletal trees and saw nothing in the snow-covered meadow. The tree line that ran along the border of their properties looked empty. At least there were no flashes of red plaid or bright orange hunting vests. She groaned. He might have been a smart guy, but this was completely stupid. Not that the southern Appalachians were anything like Alaska, but it was no joking matter to be out without proper clothes and equipment when the temperatures dropped into the twenties and teens.
She hiked up her pants and kicked the toe of her boots in the grass, grateful she’d put on thick socks that morning. Stomping through the narrow tree line in the near dusk, she plodded through the couple inches of snow, making satisfying footprints. After putting in a good ten minutes of effort looking and listening for signs of life, she reached the burn pit where he’d last been working. He was nowhere in sight.
Frustrated, she put her hands on her hips. She glanced up to where the incline began to creep up into the mountain. The new sinkhole wasn’t that far away. To get home, she could circle back down behind the cabin, cross the river, and walk back down the lane which would be safer to get to her car. If push came to shove, she could leave her car there, too. At least he’d know she was out looking for him if he returned.
She imagined an all-night goose chase walking in circles looking for him, and then him finding her car and going back out into the woods to look for her in an insane game of tag. She patted her coat pocket and was relieved she’d remembered to bring her phone, not that she had his number.
Oh, wait. She did. Natalie felt around for the paper she’d torn from the kitten flyer weeks ago, but remembered that she’d left it in her planner for bills and notes. Frowning, she walked on, trying to recognize the small hollow where the sinkhole had formed. At least she could check on it while she was out there. How fast did sinkholes grow anyway? Weeks? Months? Years? She had no idea.
After a few minutes, with her breath steaming the air, her face frozen, and a minor sweat breaking out beneath her coat, sweater, and long sleeve tee, she recognized the steep hill and its ravine.
She pushed her way through the snow, kicking up leaves on purpose, so she didn’t trip over a rock or stumble into the hole. A tree that had fallen over long ago now disappeared into the ground. Natalie realized it had slipped into the sinkhole. Missing foliage on the surface left a dark shadow. Her heart began to thud as she reached the ominous opening. The sinkhole, now bigger, dropped down into a rocky, crag-like cave. It looked like an ominous, dark pit. Animals would have less chance of tripping into it now that it was obvious, but it didn’t mean someone couldn’t get stuck down there.
She crept up to the edge, hesitant and fearful that the earth might crumble beneath her feet at any moment and suck her down into its depths. She glanced around. There’d be no one to help her. The wind made a shushing sound through the trees. The only other noise was her hot, labored breathing.
She shuffled sideways around the edge of the crater until she could see better. Her foot landed on something that was not a rock or a limb. She raised her boot and checked the ground, surprised to see she’d stepped on a paper cup lying on its side. It appeared to be new like it’d just been set down. Beside it, was a pair of leather work gloves that she recognized. They were stained with a dry brown spot that had probably spilled from the cup. She wrinkled her forehead in concern.
“Jonathan?” Her voice sounded odd in the peaceful quiet. She cleared her throat, her heart thrumming now; her gut instinct told her that something wasn’t right. “Jonathan,” she repeated, in a loud, sharp tone. It seemed to bounce off of the naked branches overhead and boomerang off the tree trunks around her. She took a breath, her heart hammering, wanting to call out “Wilby!” but she heard a faint response.
“Jonathan, are you there?” Straining her ears, she heard someone call back. Perhaps he said “Hey,” or maybe it was, “here,” but someone had definitely answered in a low moan. She took a step closer to the sinkhole and peered down.
“Are you down there?” Sliding pebbles and dirt under her feet set off her internal alarm. Natalie reached out to the fallen tree trunk beside her for support. She clung to it with one hand, and then leaned over as far she could and peered into the dark depths.
“Hey,” came the voice again, and Natalie took a deep breath to quell her alarm. She couldn’t see a thing. “Are you down there? Are you hurt?”
After a long pause that made her consider ripping out her phone to call 911, he answered. “Here.” He didn’t sound like himself.
“Are you hurt?” Her heart began to pick up speed again. She did not want to climb down into a hole that appeared unstable. The whole ravine above them could tumble in, or the earth could sink down further like sand through an hourglass.
“Hey...”
Natalie closed her eyes. All she could think to do was to take deep breaths and stay calm; her next instinct was to pray to God that the sinkhole would not crumble around them and that Jonathan wasn’t seriously injured. If he was playing a joke on her, she’d kill him.
Swallowing a lump in her throat the size of an apple, Natalie reached out further along the fallen tree and took a step down onto a chunk of dark, cold earth. There was a large boulder, too, that had dropped down into the pit, and she reached for it to lower herself another few feet. She peered around in nervous wonder, half of her curious, the other half terrified.
It was pretty much a cave now, mostly earthen, but with cavern-like walls and the occasional rock slab. She pulled out her phone, praising technology for inventing a flashlight mode, and clicked on her camera flash. At the bottom of the earthen floor, covered with rocks and leaves, Jonathan was on his back. He squeezed his eyes shut when the light hit them.
“Oh my gosh, are you okay?” Natalie’s voice sounded loud and unnatural. All around them, small dusty crumbs of dirt tumbled down from overhead.
Jonathan answered in a soft, jumble of words that she couldn’t make out. She waited for him to open his eyes, and when he did, he gazed at her with a blank expression.
Forcing her attention on not looking up, Natalie reminded herself that they were only seven or eight feet down and tried to focus on Jonathan. She reached out to brace herself on the walls, but they were unstable and couldn’t hold her weight. Losing her balance, she dropped and stumbled into a pile of debris beside him. Her ankle smarted from where she’d almost rolled it, but she ignored the sharp pain and scooted over beside him.
Crouching, she shined the light around him again and leaned over his face. “Hey,” she whispered. He slowly opened his eyes. “Are you okay?” His face looked streaked with dirt, even his forehead. Staring back, he licked his lips and mumbled, “I’m hurt.”
“Okay, where are you hurt?”
“Natalie?”
“Yes.”
He blinked then stared at her again. She realized it was not a shadow on his left temple, but a raised swollen goose egg. “You hit your head,” she said matter-of-factly.
He lifted his eyelids with great effort. “Where am I at?”
A sudden, inexplicable chuckle rose in her throat. “We’re in the sinkhole,” she said, forcing down a giggle. “You fell into a hole.” A violent rush of affection washed over her, and she realized how much she liked and cared about him.
If he detected any amusement in her voice, he didn’t react. She leaned down and touched the side of his face. “Does this hurt?”
After a pause, he whispered, “My head.”
Natalie looked up. The darkening sky looked barely visible through the opening now, a few scattered snowflakes still tumbled from the clouds. She knew if she had the strength, she could climb up the tree trunk lying in the hole to get out of it. The question was, could he?
“Are your legs okay?”
She scanned him with her phone flashlight. None of his limbs stuck out at any crazy angles.
“I’m going to be sick,” Jonathan whispered.
She leaned over him, concerned he might have a concussion. Things could be far more serious than she thought. “You hit your head hard, and now you’re nauseous?”
He opened his eyes and stared at her again. “What?”
“You’re confused, too. We’re going to have to call an ambulance.” She sighed and wondered if she could get him out by herself.
“Jonathan?”
“Natalie,” he whispered back.
“Can you sit up?”
He studied her in the freezing gloom like they’d never met. “Pretty.”
“Let’s try to get you up, hon,” she said. She reached her arm behind his neck, and working together, he managed to lean forward although he seemed woozy and confused. She pulled off a glove and touched the back of his head. There was no blood, but he winced. She ran her hands down his arms, self-conscious to be feeling him so solid and warm beside her, but he didn’t react to any pain. She checked his legs and ankles, and they appeared to be okay.
Jonathan swallowed then leaned over and was sick. She wrapped her arms around him to keep him from falling over and making a mess. He’d probably die of embarrassment later, but there was no reaction from him now. On the edge of panic for his safety and the time, Natalie laid her phone on its back so it’d shine up toward the surface, and then with his arm around her shoulders, she pushed, pulled, and dragged him up toward the surface, groaning at the effort.
The flashlight lit up the sinkhole and glittering minerals in the rocks flashed all around them. The effect gave her renewed, superhuman energy, and she pushed him up with all of her strength. Her heart raced like a young colt across a pasture; a yearling across the meadows. She no longer felt the cold. One side of her mind calculated how long it would take to get the wounded man to her car and into town. The other side wondered at the streaks of golden light bouncing off of the rocks in ethereal sparkles.
***
THE IRONY OF THE COUNTY name was not lost on her as Natalie drove faster than she should have through the heavy snowfall to the Lumpkin County emergency room. Her passenger, with a lump on the back of his head, had scrapes and bruises coming up everywhere. He calmed down as the heat from the car vents blew over him. She’d belted him in then bundled him up in a blanket she kept in the back seat.
As she drove through the dark, wintry weather, he turned toward her like his head hurt too much to lie straight back. With eyes closed, he dozed off and on, occasionally blinking and studying her like she was an alien. She had to remind him more than once that he’d fallen, and that they were on their way for help. He’d say, “I’m fine,” in a low whisper then drift back into his twilight. Once, she caught him gazing at her in confusion, and he murmured, “You’re beautiful, Nat.”
This alarmed her. He couldn’t mean it. She prayed it wasn’t more serious than it looked.
The flash of brilliant sparkles she’d seen in the cave settled in the back of her mind. She forced the event aside and concentrated on Jonathan. By the time she had him resting in one of the uncomfortable chairs in the emergency waiting room, he seemed to have regained some clarity and only looked tired. She patted his hand on occasion, resisting the urge to hold it, and he shifted uneasily around, finally agreeing to put his head on her shoulder and doze until they were called back.
In a matter of minutes, a nurse whisked him away for a head scan after checking his pupils and hearing the details from Natalie. Unsure of what more to do, Natalie paced the waiting room for half an hour wondering if she should return to the sinkhole, now a cave, or look up his parents’ phone number. It wasn’t that hard to find, and within a few minutes, she was explaining to a frightened Mrs. Nichols that her son had fallen into a sinkhole and taken a blow to the head.
The couple arrived in a matter of minutes, and after assuring Natalie that they could take things from there, she headed home, hoping Jonathan would be alright and that they really would call when they learned more.
It was almost ten o’clock when she pulled into the dirt drive and parked beside the front porch. There were inches of wet, heavy snow on the roads that had made it necessary to drive at a turtle’s pace. With all of the steep ravines on either side of the mountain, anything more than careful would have been reckless.
Natalie scurried inside and locked the door behind her. The cabin felt almost as cold as the air outside. With a grumble, she popped open the door to the cast iron stove and started another fire.
Physically, she was exhausted, but her mind buzzed with questions. Why had Jonathan tried to climb into the sinkhole? What did he mean by calling her beautiful? How serious was his injury? Last of all, why had the feelings she’d had to touch his hand and to hold him been so persistent?
It took almost an hour to get the cabin toasty, but Natalie used the time to warm up some herbal tea and look over her calendar for the rest of the week. If Jonathan needed any help, she’d have to rearrange her morning routine and hopefully still be able to teach her online classes from the rec center. She gave up that she’d hear from the Nichols when the mantel clock chimed midnight, so she changed for bed. There’d be plenty of time to sort things out in the morning.
The next day, she awoke to the silence that only falls over the earth when snow hushes life beneath the ground and through the treetops. Slipping out of bed, Natalie gazed in delight at the winter wonderland outside of her window. The yard was blanketed in white powder; it covered the garden, topped the fence posts like white caps, and left a layer on the hood of the SUV. Movement across the road caught her eye, and she watched a small herd of deer tiptoe unhappily through the white stuff. She imagined they’d left the creek after a morning drink and were heading to the forest to bed back down.
The old iron stove still felt hot. Natalie stirred it up and added the last of the logs she’d brought inside the house. Morning chores would include dragging in more wood from the pile outside; hopefully, it wouldn’t be too wet, although it could dry out on the porch. The serenity of her morning made it hard to concentrate on her word count for the day. Her middle-grade novel, about a boy whose parents were the talk of the town because of their hoarding, had hit the midpoint of her outline. She fiddled with some ways to add symbolism and messages to the story before putting her notes down and draining the rest of her cocoa.
When she shuffled out onto the back porch to check on her stack of damp wood, the cold seeped through her leopard print fuzzy slippers. She shivered, folded her arms across herself, and looked up the mountain. From the back porch, the snowy white landscape dipped low along the riverbed before climbing the mountain. She followed the bare trees that reached with gnarled fists to the gray skies and saw the peak was lost in low-lying white clouds and fog.
The only noise was the gurgle of the river as it splashed along its course. The sound of it made her shiver; a long walk through the snow and beauty of the morning was tempting, but the thought of getting wet reined in her enthusiasm. From inside the door, she heard the shrill tone of her cell phone and rushed back inside.
“Hello?” The number wasn’t familiar. She fully expected it to be Mr. or Mrs. Nichols.
“Natalie?” The deep, sleepy voice of the man on the phone made her heart miss a beat. For a split second, she thought of her ex, but, no, he wouldn’t be calling. Natalie recognized the caller as her heart raced with happiness to hear from him.
“Are you there?
“Jonathan?”
After a moment’s pause, he said, “Yes, It’s me.”
Natalie walked over to the couch in front of the living room window and dropped down onto it. She wrapped a blanket around herself. “Sorry,” she grinned. “I’m just getting used to calling you by your name.”
“I like it, and thanks. I’m sorry to call so early, but I wanted to thank you for driving me to the hospital last night.”
“Are you okay? Are you home now?” Natalie brought the blanket up to her chin and peered out the window. The wandering deer had disappeared.
“No, actually, I’m still here.”
“You sound better.”
“I feel better than I did. They held me overnight.”
“Is your mom there?”
“No.” He hesitated. “She wasn’t feeling well, but my stepfather is on his way to pick me up.”
“They’re releasing you today then.”
“Yes.”
Natalie repositioned her grip on the phone as she stared out the window. I’m really glad you’re okay. Did they find anything?”
“No, nothing,” he said in a husky tone. “There’s nothing up there at all.” He laughed, and Natalie chuckled.
“Whatever. I thought you cracked your skull, you knucklehead.”
“Actually, I came close, but it wasn’t that far of a fall. I only have a mild concussion.”
“You must have hit your head pretty hard.”
“I guess... How did you get me out of there?”
Natalie could almost see him crinkling his forehead with a day’s growth of shadowy beard on his jaw. “You did most of the work,” she assured him. “I just kind of pushed and pulled –
after you threw up.” A moment’s silence made her grin. She imagined his face falling and an expression of horror.
“Did I puke on you?”
“No.” She giggled then burst into laughter. “You felt a little sick when you first sat up. My gosh, do you know it wasn’t dirt you landed on? There are rocks down in that sinkhole, and you smacked your head on one of them.”
He took a long, slow breath. “Well, I don’t remember much, but I do remember walking out there beforehand to take a look at the thing.”
“It’s much bigger now than when I first told you about it.”
“Is it?” He hesitated, thinking. “Oh, yes, I walked out there earlier and saw it then decided to go back later with a flashlight.”
“Imagine your surprise.”
“Yeah, I tried to climb down inside to have a look. Wait, I just remembered that I thought I saw something.”
“China?” she joked.
“No, but something caught my attention.”
Natalie remembered the brilliant shine of her phone’s flashlight when she’d looked around the hole. “It’s more of a cave now,” she said, “and I think there are rocks down there with some quartz because some of them were shiny.
“That’s right,” mused Jonathan. She heard the rustle of sheets and assumed he was lying back to rest his head.
“I shouldn’t keep you. You need your rest.”
Ignoring her polite excuse to let him end the call, he said, “You know, Natalie, I think that’s why I climbed down there in the first place. I saw it was a cave and wanted a better look.
“Well,” giggled Natalie, “you sure got one. You’re going to have to take it easy the next few days.”
He sniffled, and it sounded ominous like he was coming down with a cold. “Yeah, I know. Don’t worry, neighbor. My mother is beside herself. As soon as I get home, I’ll make sure to take it easy.
“Good. Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Yes,” he answered like he already had something in mind. “I probably won’t get home until later this afternoon. Would you swing by the house and feed Griselda and her babies?”
Natalie almost teased him for worrying about them, but she stopped herself. In fact, it was almost cute that all the big, strapping handsome mountain man needed from her was for her to feed his kitties.
“Sure, Wilby. I mean, Jonathan. Now, tell me how to get in.”
***
AFTER HANGING UP WITH Jonathan, Natalie slipped out the front door to scrape the snow off of her car. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure that she’d be able to get out of the yard and down the lane to the Nichols’ old place. There were no tracks in the road which meant her neighbors up the mountain were wise enough to stay put for now.
The deep snowdrifts across the lane kept her nerves on edge as she rolled through the white powder, plowing it up. She made sure to be careful not to drive off into the little creek that ran beside it. The driveway up to the house was slick, and a couple times her SUV slid off to the side. Natalie gritted her teeth in frustration. There was no way she’d be able to drive into town to work at the rec center today. She’d have to find a way to cancel her class.
She pulled up to the quiet house, stomped up the wooden stairs to the front porch, and sifted through empty flower pots until she found the hidden key. When she let herself in, it felt like going back in time.
The Nichols house was decorated in white and green with ivy wallpaper borders and a lot of ceramic ducks. It made her giggle when she saw the collection of 80s figurines on the piano in the front room, and she smiled at the school pictures of Jonathan hanging from the walls in every size and color frame.
The cats met her as soon as she walked in the door. They darted around her feet, mewing and begging as she perused the living room before walking back to the kitchen.
Momma cat, Griselda, was a beautiful, short-haired gray with golden eyes. There were three kittens left, older now, and Natalie recognized the gray tabby with the pine-green stare that Jonathan had handed to her while they’d stood in his backyard. Kitty weaved around her ankles then reared up and put his paws on her shins as if to ask, “Where’s breakfast?”
She grinned and patted him on the head, then forgetting her mission, plopped down cross-legged onto the old linoleum floor and pulled him into her lap. “Hello, handsome. Aren’t you gray as granite?”
The tabby gazed at her with intense interest. She tried to put her nose to his, but he bopped her on the forehead with his own greeting instead. Pleased to be accepted, she whispered, “Well, thank you very much.” She ran her hand down his sleek, dark-striped coat, and he bristled. The other two kittens wandered up, sniffing and then settling down beside her to watch. Griselda paced back and forth, giving her a meaningful stare.
“I know, Momma Cat,” she said with affection. She petted the kitten in her lap. The house was peaceful and quaint. It echoed with the memories of a contented family, one that ate dinners at the square oak breakfast table and worked together sweeping the wood floors and dusting the pictures. They probably watched television at night, too. Maybe MASH, she thought, wondering what kind of shows Jonathan enjoyed while growing up. Definitely Wild Kingdom.
She noted the empty bowls against the wall beside the fridge. Even the water dish was dry. She grinned and forced herself to put the tabby from her lap and stand up. “You’re going to have to let me up if you want to eat,” she said at his disappointed meow. She found the cats’ food under the kitchen sink, filled their dishes, and then re-filled the water bowls. After a quick search, she found the litter box on the enclosed back porch and cleaned it out in case it wasn’t something Jonathan remembered to do. Doctors’ orders would probably be to come home and rest, not chase cats, chop wood, or chainsaw trees.
She played with the cats a few more minutes, then locked up and started back down the driveway. She was relieved the car started up and that her tires were new enough to handle the weather. Despite taking great care, she slid going back down the driveway, but fortunately, not far enough off to get stuck. As she rolled down the lane the last half mile back to the cabin, the sun came blazing out and made the frost-covered trees sparkle like they were coated in sugar. If there was anything more magical than the quiet of the first few flakes of snowfall, it was the brilliant light show of the sun’s rays piercing through the icicles.
The field between her property and Nichols looked like a giant bowl of ice cream. It almost made her hungry, except it was too cold for such stuff. Soup, stew, or chili sounded better. Her gaze wandered up the tree line. The sinkhole was probably covered with snow, making it more dangerous than it had been yesterday when Jonathan decided to climb down inside of it. Then again, maybe the sun would melt off the majority of it.
She squinted in the blinding sunlight. Jonathan’s truck was still parked up ahead, so she rolled over to the side of the road and put the gearshift into park. She was layered up. She’d fed his cats. It’d be later in the afternoon before she’d dare try to go into town to get some Wi-Fi if she dared at all.
The sinkhole and its curiosities beckoned, and since she dressed warmly and it was bright and sunny, why not? She put on an extra scarf and slammed the door after sliding out. She left the car unlocked in case something happened. God willing, she’d be more careful.
Ignoring Jonathan’s handsome frown when he heard about her foolishness, she walked through the snow drifts with determined satisfaction. Her boots left deep prints in the glittery ground as she forged a trail to the clearing in the woods. The crater was dusted with white around the edges, and in the daylight, the gaping hole in the earth couldn’t be missed. That much made her feel better; at least the wildlife wouldn’t fall in.
She circled around the edge until she reached the top of the fallen tree and gazed down into it. The bottom of the hole was visible in the daylight. Earth and large boulders jutted out. The bottom of the tree stump with its frozen tangled roots had clumps of snow on it that looked like frozen fists.
She frowned as she tried to figure out a way down. How she’d managed to drag Jonathan out was a miracle. Her breath misted in the frigid air as she panted from the exertion of her brisk walk. She put her hands on her hips and thought. At that moment, a ray of sunshine shifted its column of light and a brilliant reflection from inside the hole made her squint. There were definitely minerals in the rocks below.
Her mind tried to recall the variety of quartzes and gemstones dug up around the local quarries in town. Rubies, amethysts, emeralds, citrines... They didn’t have much value embedded in the rocks and soil, but sifting them from the sandy earth once they were dug out made it possible to have them cut, polished, and sold. She chuckled to herself at the idea of having her own mining operation like they did down south in Dahlonega. As if building seasonal rentals weren’t bad enough. She shook her head and wondered what Jonathan would think of the idea.
Curiosity got the best of her, and she decided to take a closer look. She took her time, and made sure her boots were planted on something solid before she stepped down. Natalie clung to the fallen tree with her bare hands after removing her gloves for a better grip. She felt nearly frozen when she hit bottom, and her knees took a couple of knocks, but she managed to make it down in one piece.
Assuring herself the ground had frozen enough to hold her weight, she took careful steps from the tree stump across the small cave to touch some of the cold, granite rocks. Veins of white quartz trickled through them like someone had swiped a paintbrush over the surfaces. Here and there, dark brassy spots were embedded into the stone like flaky algae. Natalie squinted and touched one. It felt hard and metallic.
She took a step back and let a ray of sunshine slip past her.
Shiny in the light. Bright in the light.
She shook her head to try to change her mind then pulled out her phone and flashed a beam around on the shiny splotches. The mineral gleamed like gold. She bit her lip and stared. “It’s pyrite,” she said aloud, and her voice echoed. “Right?”
Studying one of the leafy splotches closely, Natalie stuck her fingernail into it. It didn’t scratch, and it left a minuscule spot of golden powder on her finger. She peered closer, and her heart thrummed at the possibilities. The edges of the flaking mineral were smooth, not sharp and angular like fool’s gold. Natalie swallowed.
Could it be? It looked like it. Gold! She’d possibly found it in a sinkhole a few hundred yards away from a river once mined for it, just a few miles outside of Dahlonega, Georgia, the gold mine capital of the South.
Natalie licked her top lip. She recognized that the past year of agonizing over money and dealing with loneliness on a level she’d never experienced might all be over. Finding gold on her land would definitely make her a respected and accepted member of the community – and she could afford to live. She realized she wanted that, she really did. Did she want to live out her days alone like her hermit aunt?
Natalie looked up through the hole at a brilliant blue winter sky. It was streaked with billowy white clouds. She swallowed. It may not be enough to last a lifetime, but if there was gold again in the gulch, it looked like it could be the answer to paying off her bills and setting her up for a year or more to survive.
She smiled to herself, realizing that the troublesome sinkhole might be an enormous blessing in disguise. Then she frowned and looked around because it wasn’t only her sinkhole. By her best estimates, about a third of it fell on the other side of the boundary between her cabin and Jonathan Wilby’s land.