Part 14 (1/2)
She folded her hands and looked at the sky.
”Are you going to tell me about it?”
”I want to try to find information on someone who lived here in the sixties and early seventies.” She tapped the tips of her fingers together.
”Who?”
”My mom.”
Interesting. ”Okay.”
”Jessie never told you my history?”
”Not much.”
”I'm an only child and I have no idea who my dad was. He was gone before I was two. When I was seven, my mom hooked up with a loser from Shelton, Was.h.i.+ngton, and we lived there with him till I was eleven.” Ann pulled at the thin band of silver in her right ear. ”That's when my mom abandoned me for good.”
”It was a drug overdose if I remember right.”
Ann nodded. ”I was so angry at her I refused to go to the funeral.” She closed her eyes. ”I'm still angry.”
She shook her head. ”Two months later I came home from school one day and found all my things on the front lawn. The guy was gone. Ten minutes later it started raining just like in some sappy movie.
”But for me it wasn't sappy. In that moment I realized I was alone in the world. I cried nonstop till Mrs. Carie next door came over and took me in for the night. The next day I was baptized into the foster-care system. As you probably remember, that's where I met Jessie. She's the only family I had.”
Wow. She was an orphan.
Ann leaned forward, head down. ”Once I was in college I never looked back. Until now. I don't know if I have any uncles or aunts or cousins, and at this stage of life-you know, turning thirty-two, thinking about having kids of my own-I'd really like to know something of my family history.”
In that instant Ann became utterly human. It didn't matter that she'd never liked him. She knew pain, loneliness. The same pain he carried, the same loneliness. Cameron started to speak, then thought better of it. A disclosure of that nature needed a moment to settle.
Ann stood and brushed nonexistent dirt off her climbing shorts. She walked over to her pack and grabbed two PowerBars. She tossed one to Cameron and unwrapped the other in a swift motion.
”Both sets of my grandparents died before I was born. What are the odds of that? So I have no family. Period. Now you'd think someone in the media would be able to find the story of who my grandparents were and some history on my mom, but it didn't turn out that way. She wasn't exactly what you'd call a record keeper. But I've kept digging and finally a bit of luck led me here.” She wiped her nose with a tissue. ”I'm hoping to find someone who knew my mom before she left for Was.h.i.+ngton.”
Cameron stole a quick look at her profile as she watched a white-throated swift flit about the ground, searching for anything the climbers might have dropped. Ann's lack of makeup allowed her freckles to stand out and it made her more beautiful than he'd ever seen her.
As Ann asked questions about the town, the sensation of knowing exactly what she looked like as a little girl immersed him. The innocence that growing up pushes out of most men and women still flitted behind her eyes and into her smile.
Cameron told her what he'd learned so far about the town and when he'd finished, she sat back and pulled one knee up to her chest and simply said, ”Thank you.”
”You're welcome. I hope you find what you're looking for.”
Ann turned and leaned in toward him. ”Now, it's your turn.”
”Mine? For what?”
”To tell me about your plan for finding the book and what you've discovered already.”
When he finished she said, ”So you think Jason is the key?”
”No.” Cameron rubbed his kneecaps and smiled. ”Taylor is. With him it feels like I've made progress, and with you here I'm hoping we'll make even more.”
”I used to read Taylor Stone's syndicated column in The Oregonian. The Oregonian.”
”He's a writer?”
”He ran the Three Peaks Post Three Peaks Post for years.” for years.”
That's right. Cameron knew that.
”You don't really think there's anything to this Book of Days story, do you?”
”It depends on the moment you ask.” Cameron sniffed a laugh. ”Sometimes I can't believe I'm doing this; other times I think there actually might be something to the legend.” Cameron whapped himself on the head with both hands. ”Am I crazy? What do you think?”
Ann shrugged. ”I believe what I said at the party last night. It's gotta be a legend.”
”Even with Jessie saying she saw it?”
Ann stood and folded her arms across her chest. ”You and I both know Jessie occasionally saw visions from G.o.d.”
”But you believe all the G.o.d-things that Jessie and my dad believed.”
”Jessie wasn't a full-out Christian mystic, but she liked reading them and that's the way her faith leaned. I've never gone down that path.”
Cameron rubbed the ring finger on his left hand. ”She was always asking me to go down that road with her.”
”Why didn't you?”
”I've never had anything against G.o.d. It was great for Jessie, great for my dad, probably good for you too. I've just never seen how He could exist.”
”What about now?”
It was an excellent question. ”Maybe He's out there. But I wouldn't know where to start looking.”
Ann cracked her knuckles and smiled. ”I could offer some suggestions.”
The fights they'd had over his marrying Jessie raced into his mind.
”You're a good guy, Cameron, but you don't follow Jesus so you shouldn't marry Jessie.”
”All you're going to do is hurt her.”
Cameron turned and raised his eyebrows. ”Like the suggestions you used to give me all the time when Jessie and I were dating?”
Ann clasped her hands. ”I see some of your memories from the past are still crystal clear.”