My brother Brady seemed way too excited about my broken hand. He ran outside to meet me when we arrived back at the Stevens’ resort, and then he guided me inside the main lodge where the gang was all waiting. “Wow, wait till Sunday sees your orange cast! Dad, can we drive down there tomorrow and show him?”
“I don’t know, Buddy. Riley needs her rest. She’s pretty scraped up, and I’m sure her hand really hurts.” Dad knelt down and gave me a long hug.
“Nah, I’m good,” I said. “I want to go see him.” The truth was that my hand throbbed, and I was exhausted. But I really wanted to see Sunday before his bone marrow transplant.
“We could all go,” Rusty said. “Now that I’m staying for a couple more days.” She was all smiles. “You keep a good secret.” She gave me a hug.
“It’s a two-hour drive to Missoula,” Mom said. “Are you sure you’re up for that?”
“I think it will be a lot easier than going down a waterfall without a raft.”
“Yeah, that was a burly ride,” Flip said. “Nice cast, though. It matches the Sole Fire.”
“The what?”
“The orange running shoe — Sunday’s favorite. It’s been one of our top sellers, so we gave it a cooler name, and we’re making it the focus of our next marketing campaign. Good thing only your hand’s hurt. It’d be hard to train for a 5K if you had a broken foot.”
“A five what?”
Flip ignored me and turned his attention to my mom. “Mrs. Hart, I need to talk to you ASAP. Got something to show you.” Then they both took off somewhere. Flip had his camera. Great. He was probably going to show her that crazy cannonball picture.
Matt limped over with Fawn to check out my cast. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you from that rock.”
“That’s okay,” I said. “You saved me from the Thrill-and-Kill. How’s your knee?”
He pulled off the big bandage to show me. “Eight stitches.”
“That’s gonna leave a mark,” I said.
“Yep. I could tell you my life story by my scars.”
“Most people do that through scrapbooking,” Fawn said.
We all laughed.
“We could scrapbook it,” I said. “Wait till you see some of the pictures Flip took.”
“Maybe we could get him to put together a slide show for after dinner tonight,” Fawn said.
Dinner. The mention of it made my mouth water. The last thing I remember eating was a Tylenol at the hospital. Before that, all I could remember was sucking water out of the river.
Matt must have read my mind. “Right now I need to eat a predinner dinner. You think there’s any meat in the kitchen?”
I followed Matt on the hunt for food. I never thought a roast beef sandwich could taste so good. Or potato salad. But the pickle to top it all off was the best.
“This is the most delicious predinner dinner I’ve ever had.” It was actually the only one I had ever had.
Matt laughed as he piled the beef on his second sandwich. “I don’t know about you, but riding the rapids without a raft makes me hungry.”
Flip crashed through the double-doors leading into the kitchen. “Has anybody seen Eric?”
“Eric?” I had to think. Last time I had seen him was dinner the night before.
“Not since we’ve been home,” Matt said. “Come to think of it, he never showed up to help us with the raft this morning.”
Fawn crashed through the doors next. “His room is empty!”
“What do you mean?” Flip said.
“His stuff is gone. He’s gone.”
Another crash. Mom this time.
“We’ve got more trouble. I finally got through to Tyler. Seems Eric lied to us about the plane.”
Matt looked as confused as I was. “Are you talking about the landing gear malfunction?”
“Yep. Someone tampered with it,” Mom said. “Tyler confirmed it.”
Flip shook his head. “But Eric said that Tyler said —”
“Eric lied,” Mom said.
“Why would he do that?” Fawn asked.
“That’s a good question,” Mom said. “Too bad he’s not here to answer it.”
Fawn paced back and forth in the little space between Matt’s and my sandwiches. “There has to be a good explanation for him being gone.”
“There is,” Flip said, “but you’re not going to like it.”
Fawn stopped pacing and stared intently at Flip. “NO. Don’t say it. He’s our brother! I won’t believe it.”
“Then I won’t say a thing. I’ll just let you see for yourself.” Flip placed his camera in Fawn’s hands. She plunked down on the barstool and pressed her fingers into her forehead.
Mom grabbed the camera from Fawn. “Flip, can you put these pictures on a CD? We need to see them on a bigger screen.”
“Sure. Meet me in the game room in ten minutes.”
Fawn cried as Flip picked up the camera and limped out of the room.