The Mountain Between Us Read online

  “Folks, if we can load quickly, we might beat this storm. There aren’t too many of us, so all zones, all passengers, please board Flight 1672 to Atlanta.”

  The eight gates around me read DELAYED. Frustrated faces populated the seats and walls. A mom and dad ran the length of the terminal hollering over their shoulders at two boys dragging Star Wars suitcases and plastic lightsabers.

  I grabbed my pack and my food, and then followed seven other passengers—including Ashley—toward the plane. I found my seat and buckled in, the attendants cross-checked, and we began backing up. It was the fastest load I’d ever seen.

  The plane stopped, the pilot got on the intercom: “Folks, we’re in line for the deicer, and if we can get them over here, we might beat this storm. By the way, there’s plenty of room up front. As a matter of fact, if you’re not in first class, it’s your own fault. We’ve got room for everyone.”

  Everyone moved.

  The only remaining seat placed me next to Ashley. She looked up and smiled as she was buckling her belt. “Think we’ll get out of here?”

  I stared out the window. “Doubtful.”

  “Pessimist, are you?”

  “I’m a doctor. That makes me an optimist with realistic notions.”

  “Good point.”

  We sat for thirty minutes while the attendants served us most anything we asked for. I drank spicy tomato juice. Ashley drank Cabernet.

  The pilot came on again. His tone did not encourage me. “Folks…as you all know, we were trying to beat this storm.”

  I heard the past tense.

  “The controllers in the tower tell us we’ve got about an hour’s window to make it out before the storm closes in….”

  Everyone breathed a collective sigh. Maybe there was hope.

  “But the ground crew just informed me that one of our two deicing trucks is inoperative. Which means we have one truck attempting to service all the planes on the runway, and ours is the twentieth in line. Long story short, we’re not getting out of here tonight.”

  Groans echoed around the plane.

  Ashley unbuckled and shook her head. “You got to be kidding me.”

  A large man off to my left muttered, “Son of a…”

  The pilot continued, “Our folks will meet you at the end of the gate. If you’d like a hotel voucher, please see Mark, who’s wearing the red coat and flak jacket. Once you reclaim your baggage, our shuttle will take you to the hotel. Folks, I’m really sorry.”

  We walked back into the terminal and watched as each of the DELAYED signs changed to CANCELED.

  I spoke for everyone in the terminal. “That’s not good.”

  I walked to the counter. The female attendant stood staring at a computer screen, shaking her head. Before I opened my mouth, she turned toward the television, which was tuned to the weather channel. “I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do.”

  Four screens over my shoulder showed a huge green blob moving east-southeast from Washington, Oregon, and northern California. The ticker at the bottom of the screen called for snow, ice, single-digit temperatures, and wind chills in the negatives. A couple to my left embraced in a passionate kiss. Smiling. An unscheduled day added to their vacation.

  Mark began handing out hotel vouchers and ushering people toward baggage claim. I had one carry-on—a small daypack that doubled as my briefcase—and one checked bag in the belly of the plane. We were all headed to baggage claim whether we liked it or not.

  I walked toward the baggage claim and lost Ashley when she stopped at the Natural Snacks store. I found a place near the conveyor belt and looked around. Through the sliding glass doors, I saw the lights of the private airport less than a mile away. Painted on the side of the closest hangar, in huge letters, was one word: CHARTERS.

  The lights were on in one of the hangars. My bag appeared. I hefted it atop my free shoulder and bumped into Ashley, who was waiting on hers. She eyed it.

  “You weren’t kidding when you said you got in some climbing on the side. Looks like you’re climbing Everest. You really need all that?”

  My bag is an orangish Osprey 70 backpack, and it’s got a few miles on it. I use it as a suitcase because it works, but its main function is best served hiking and it fits me like a glove. It was stuffed with all my overnight and cold-weather hiking gear for my climbs in the Collegiate Peaks. Sleeping bag, Therm-a-Rest pad, Jetboil stove—maybe the most underappreciated and most valuable piece of equipment I own, next to my sleeping bag—a couple of Nalgene bottles, a few layers of polypropylene, and several other odds and ends that help me stay alive and comfortable when sleeping above ten or eleven thousand feet. There’s also a dark blue pin-striped suit, a handsome blue tie that Rachel gave me, and a pair of Johnston & Murphy’s, which I wore once, for the panel.

  “I know my limitations, and I’m not made for Everest. I get pretty sick above fifteen thousand. I’m okay below that. These”—I hefted the pack—“are just the essentials. Good idea to have along.”

  She spotted her bag and turned to run it down, then turned back, a pained expression on her face. Apparently the idea of missing her wedding was starting to sink in, bleeding away her charm. She extended her hand. Her grip was firm yet warm. “Great to meet you. Hope you can get home.”

  “Yeah, you—”

  She never heard me. She turned, threw her bag over her shoulder, and headed toward the taxi lane where a hundred people stood in line.

  CHAPTER TWO

  I carried my bags through the sliding glass doors and flagged down the airport shuttle. Normally it would be busy taxiing people between terminals and the private airport, but given that everyone was trying to leave the airport, it was empty. The driver was thumping his fingers on the steering wheel.

  I stuck my head in the passenger window. “You mind giving me a ride to the private airport?”

  “Hop in. Got nothing better to do.”

  When we arrived in front of the hangar he said, “You want me to wait?”

  “Please.”

  He sat in the van with the engine running while I ran inside. I pulled my collar up and tucked my hands into my armpits. The sky was clear, but the wind was picking up and the temperature was dropping.

  Inside I found a red-hot space heater and a white-haired guy standing next to one of three planes, a small single engine. On the side of the plane it said Grover’s Charter, and below that, Fishing and hunting charters to remote locations. The ID number on the tail read 138 GB.

  He was facing away from me, shooting a compound bow at a target against the far wall. Maybe forty yards. As I walked in, he released an arrow that whistled through the air. He wore faded blue jeans and a shirt with snap buttons, with the sleeves rolled up. Grover was stamped across the back of his leather belt, he carried a Leatherman multi-tool in a holster on his hip, and he’d walked the heels down on his boots, giving him a bow-legged appearance. A Jack Russell terrier stood at his heels, sniffing the air and sizing me up.

  I waved at the man. “Hi.”

  He relaxed, turned, and raised his brow. He was tall, handsome, had a strong, square chin. “Howdy. You George?”

  “No, sir. Not George. Name’s Ben.”

  He raised his bow and returned to his target. “Shame.”

  “How’s that?”

  He came to full draw and talked while staring through his peep site at the target. “Two guys hired me to fly them into the San Juans. Land them at a small strip down near Ouray.” He released the arrow, sending it whistling downrange. “One of them is named George. Thought you might be him.” He nocked another arrow.

  I came up alongside him and stared at his target. The evidence around the bull’s-eye suggested he’d spent a good bit of time shooting that bow. I smiled. “You look like you’re new at that.”

  He laughed, came to full draw a third time, let out half a breath, and said, “I do this when I’m bored and waiting on clients.” He released his arrow, and it slid into the target, touching the o
ther two. He set his bow down on the seat of his plane, and we walked toward the target.

  He pulled out the arrows. “Some guys retire only to chase a little dimpled ball around somebody’s backyard only to beat the white off it with an expensive piece of metal.” He smiled. “I fish and hunt.”

  I eyed his plane. “Any chance I could convince you to fly me out of here tonight?”

  He lowered his chin, raised an eyebrow. “You running from the law?”

  I shook my head and smiled. “No. Just trying to get home ahead of this storm.”

  He checked his watch. “I was fixing to close up shop, head home myself, and climb into bed with my wife.” He noticed my wedding ring. “I ’magine you’d like to do the same.” He smiled a broad smile, exposing white teeth. “Although not with my wife.” He laughed. It was easy, and there was great comfort in it.

  “Yes, I would.”

  He nodded. “Where’s home?”

  “Florida. Thought if I could get ahead of this storm, maybe I could catch a red-eye out of Denver. Or at least get on the first flight out tomorrow.” I paused. “Any chance I could hire you to fly me to anyplace east of the Rockies?”

  “Why the hurry?”

  “I’m scheduled for a knee and two hip replacements in…” I checked my watch. “Thirteen hours and forty-three minutes.”

  Grover laughed. Pulled a rag from his back pocket and rubbed the grease around his fingers. “You might be a bit sore tomorrow night.”

  I laughed. “I’m performing them. I’m a surgeon.”

  He glanced through the hangar doors at the airport in the distance. “Big birds not flying tonight?”

  “Canceled. One of their two deicing trucks broke down.”

  “They do that a lot. I think the unions got something to do with it. You know…they can reschedule surgeries.” He chewed on his lip. “I’ve done that a few times myself.” He tapped his chest. “Bum ticker.”

  “I’ve been gone a week. Medical conference. Sort of need to get back…. I don’t mind paying.”

  He stuffed the rag into his pocket, fed the arrows into the quiver hanging on the side of his bow, and then slid the bow into a foam-lined compartment behind the backseat of the plane. He snugged the Velcro straps. Alongside the bow were three tubes extending back into the body of the plane. He tapped the ends. “Fly rods.”

  A hickory-handled something had been fastened alongside the rods. “What’s that?”

  “Hatchet. I fly into some remote places. Ain’t much I can’t do with what’s right here.” He tapped a stuff sack beneath the seat, compressing a sleeping bag. “Where I fly, it pays to be self-sufficient.”

  Behind the seat hung a vest covered with flies, small scissors, and a net that hung from the back collar. He waved his hand across all of it. “My clients take me to some wonderful places. I couldn’t afford to get there on my own, so I use them as an excuse to do the things I love. My wife, she even goes with me from time to time.” He looked early seventies with the body of a fifty-year-old and the heart of a teenager.

  “You own the plane?”

  “Yep. It’s a Scout.”

  “Looks a lot like Steve Fossett’s plane.”

  “Real similar. Powered by a Locoman zero-three-sixty that generates 180 horsepower. Top speed is 140 at full throttle.”

  I frowned. “That’s not very fast.”

  “I gave up speed a long time ago.” He put his hand on the three-bladed propeller. “She can land at thirty-eight miles an hour, which means I can put her down in a space about the size of this hangar.”

  The hangar was maybe 70 feet by 125.

  “Which”—he smiled—“means I get to hunt and fish some rather remote places. Makes me rather popular with my clients.” He sucked through his teeth and stared at a large clock, calculating the time and hours. “Even if I get you to Denver, you may not get out of there tonight.”

  “I’ll take my chances. Folks at the counter say that storm may dump enough snow to ground everything out of here tonight and tomorrow.”

  He nodded. “Won’t be cheap.”

  “How much?”

  “One-fifty an hour, and you’ve got to pay my way going and coming. Cost to you is about $900.”

  “You take a credit card?”

  He sucked in through his teeth, squinted one eye, and considered me. Like he was having a conversation with himself. Finally he nodded, smiled out the corner of his mouth, and extended his hand. “Grover Roosevelt.”

  I shook it. It was callous and firm. “Any relation to the former president?”

  He smiled. “Distant, but they don’t claim me.”

  “I’m Ben Payne.”

  “You really wear a little white jacket that says Dr. Payne across the front?”

  “Yep.”

  “And patients actually pay you to look after them?”

  I handed him my business card. “I even cut on some of them.” Across the bottom, the card read:.

  KNOW PAIN? NO PAYNE

  KNOW PAYNE? NO PAIN.

  He tapped the card. “Jesus might get kind of pissed at you for stealing his slogan.”

  “Well…as of yet, he hasn’t sued me.”

  “You operate on Jesus?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  He smiled, pulled a pipe from his shirt pocket, packed it, and then pulled out a brass Zippo lighter from his front pocket. He flicked it open and sucked in on the pipe, drawing the flame downward and into the tobacco. Once the center was glowing red, he flicked the lighter shut and slid it back into his pocket. “Orthopedics, eh?”

  “That…and emergency medicine. The two often go hand in hand.”

  He dug his hands into his pockets. “Give me fifteen minutes. Need to call my wife. Let her know that I’ll be late, but that I’m taking her out for a steak dinner when I get back. Then…” He thumbed over his shoulder toward the bathroom. “I need to see a man about a horse.” He walked toward the phone, talking over his shoulder. “Throw your bags in the back.”

  “Has this place got wireless?”

  “Yep. Password is Tank.”

  I flipped open my laptop, found the network, logged in, and downloaded my e-mail, which included my business and personal voice mail, which had all been forwarded as audio files into my e-mail account. Because so much of my time was accounted for, I responded to most everything via e-mail. That done, I synced my recorder with my computer, then e-mailed the dictation file to our transcription office while copying two other servers in the event we needed a backup, or a backup of our backup. It’s a CYA thing. Then I closed my laptop, figuring that I’d respond to all my unanswered e-mail during the flight, allowing them to automatically send when we hit the ground.

  Grover reappeared a few minutes later, walking from the phone toward the bathroom. The picture of Ashley Knox, trying to get home, flashed across my eyelids.

  “How many people can you carry?”

  “Me and two more if they don’t mind sitting hip-to-hip.”

  I stared at the airport over my shoulder. “You mind waiting ten minutes?”

  He nodded. “I’ll be working through my preflight.” He stared outside. “But you need to hurry. Your window of opportunity is narrowing.”

  My friend in the shuttle van returned me to baggage claim and, as I was his only customer, once again offered to wait. I found Ashley standing on the curb waiting on the next taxi. She had zipped up a North Face down jacket over her suit coat.

  “I’ve hired a charter to fly me to Denver. Maybe get ahead of the storm. I know you don’t really know me from Adam’s housecat, but there’s room for one more.”

  “You’re serious?”

  “Should take a little less than two hours.” I stuck out both hands. “I know this can look a little…whatever. But I’ve been through the whole wedding thing, and if you’re anything like my wife you won’t sleep for the next two days trying to make sure every detail is perfect. This is just an honest offer from one professional to an
other. No strings.”

  Skepticism shaded her face. “And you don’t want anything from me?” She looked me up and down. “Because…trust me.” She shook her head. “I’ve fought bigger people than you.”

  I spun my wedding ring around my finger. “On the back porch of my condo, where I sip coffee and stare out across the ocean, my wife placed three bowls to feed all the Dumpster cats that hang out in the parking lot. Now they drink coffee with me every morning. I’ve got names for them, and I’ve gotten used to that little purring thing they do.”

  A wrinkle appeared between her eyebrows. “You saying I’m a stray cat?”

  “No. I’m saying that I never noticed they were there until she pointed them out. Started feeding them. Opened my eyes. Now I see them most everywhere. It’s sort of spread into the way I look at people. Which is good, ’cause us doctors tend to get a bit jaded after a while.” I paused. “I don’t want you to miss your wedding. That’s all.”

  For the first time I noticed she was kind of hopping around like she had nervous feet or something.

  “Will you let me split the fare with you?”

  I shrugged. “If that’ll make you feel better about going—but you’re welcome either way.”

  She stared down the runway, shifting from foot to foot. “I’m supposed to take my six bridesmaids to breakfast in the morning, followed by a few hours at the spa.” She looked at the shuttle and the hotel lights in the distance. She took a deep breath and smiled. “Getting out of here tonight would be…fantastic.” She glanced back inside. “Can you wait three minutes?”

  “Sure, but…” The green blob inched closer to the airport on the screen behind us.

  “Sorry. Too much coffee. Was just trying to make it to the hotel. Figure the bathroom here is bigger than the one on that plane.”

  I laughed. “Chances are good.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Grover was sitting in the plane, headphones on, clicking buttons and turning dials in front of him. “You ready?”

  “Grover, this is Ashley Knox. She’s a writer from Atlanta. Getting married in about forty-eight hours. Thought maybe we could give her a lift.”