Part 40 (2/2)
Suddenly the memory of his climb two days before surged into his mind. ”Grange!”
The image of Grange studying the stone just as Taylor had filled his head. The questions about why Cameron wanted to go to the place of stories. The directions ... He'd told Cameron exactly how to find the place. What was it called? Time Stories? The Stories of Time?
”He told me how to find it.” His heart beat picked up.
”He must have liked you. And trusted you. He's probably been watching you since you got here.” Taylor nodded. ”Grange is a good man.”
”You know, don't you? You know what they are. The Stories of Time and the Book of Days are the same thing, aren't they?”
”Yes.” Taylor handed the stone back to Cameron.
”Why did you lie to me?”
”I'm sorry, Cameron, forgive me. I had no choice.”
”We always have a choice.”
”What did Grange tell you?”
”He said few are chosen to see the stories.”
”True.”
”And you were one of the chosen.” Cameron tossed a rock into the swirling water.
”Yes, to my eternal regret.”
”Do you care to explain that?”
”After I found the book, I used it.” Taylor slid his reel down to the river rock at his feet. ”I used what I saw.”
”You're telling me the Stories of Time truly do tell the future?”
Taylor nodded.
”Why didn't you tell me the truth?”
”I wanted to tell you. I did.” Taylor rubbed his face and sighed. ”I did try to tell you in my own way.”
”When?”
”In the park, when I showed you the arrowhead shadow pointing the way to the book. I've wanted you to find it for a while now.”
Oh, wow. The memory swished through his mind. That's right. Taylor had tried to show him.
”But I couldn't go any further than that. I swore I wouldn't ever put someone in the position to go through the regret I've lived with for thirty-three years.”
”It all comes back to Annie, doesn't it?”
”I found the book when we'd been married for two years. We had the same type of relations.h.i.+p you and Jessie had.” Taylor shook his head. ”Perfect. Even after we were married, I loved backpacking through the mountains around here by myself for days at a time. A part of me has always been built for solitude.
”One early morning in July over thirty years ago, I explored an area of the mountains I'd never been to. I came to an opening in the rocks and somehow I stumbled through them to the prettiest slice of earth you'll ever find.
”There it was lying out in front of me like a mirror. As I gazed at it I saw the past, saw the present, then I saw the future. A future where my dad would lose his legs in a logging accident the next afternoon.
”Annie was out of town and I couldn't reach her so I came home and told my sister-in-law about what I'd seen and she never doubted me.”
”Ann's mom?”
”Yes.”
”She told me I had to save my dad. I agreed.” Taylor rubbed his face with both hands. ”I was supposed to wait for Annie to get home the next afternoon, but I left her a note saying I'd gone to see my dad.
”So I tried to stop the accident. And I did; my dad never lost his legs. People wondered for years how I knew that tree would fall the wrong way. But what I set in motion...”
Taylor stopped and swallowed as tears seeped onto his cheeks. ”What I did caused Annie's death in the moments after my father lived.”
”Because she didn't go to Bend with you.”
Taylor nodded.
”So you made a book and created a series of clues-”
”I realized if I could create something that people would have to work to find, I could end it right there. In the case of Jason, it worked. I don't think he'll ever figure out ... But you, it seems you're one of the chosen.”
Cameron didn't know what to believe. Was it real? Was it another part of Taylor's game?
Taylor turned to him. ”You didn't tell me your wife asked you to use the stone to find the book.”
Cameron frowned at him.
”You're wondering how I knew?” Taylor said. ”Grange told me.”
Taylor tossed a rock into the river. ”Don't you think it's time to come clean?”
”About what?”
”About why you're forgetting pieces of conversations. About why you didn't start your search for the book right after Jessie died. About why you didn't think her story was more than the jumbled thoughts of a dying woman until three weeks ago.”
”Because...” There was no spin he could put on an answer that would satisfy Taylor.
”Why didn't you remember what Grange told you?”
Cameron watched the river rush around and over the rocks, as if it knew exactly where it wanted to go. Where it needed to go.
”I'm losing my mind. My memories flit in and out of my brain like sparrows. Eight years ago my dad died of the disease, and the last thing he asked me to do was to find the book for him. His dying wish. I thought he was talking nonsense.
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