Cinderella in Overalls

chapter Nine



Catherine thought she’d never sleep, but she must have because the next thing she knew she felt his hand on her shoulder.

“The Island of the Sun, remember?” he whispered.

Her eyes flew open and she swung her legs over the edge of the straw mattress. She gazed into his blue eyes, which contrasted with his tanned face. Running her hand through her tangled hair, she managed to smile in the semidarkness.

“I hope you remember how to paddle that boat,” he said, returning her smile as if they’d never had that conversation last night.

She nodded reassuringly and pulled on her long pants and sweatshirt over her nightshirt. Silently, as the gulls swooped overhead, they walked across the reed-lined path once again. They pushed off in the balsa boat they’d borrowed from Miguel under stars that shone in the thin mountain air, much brighter than in La Luz, brighter even than in Catherine’s backyard.

Seated single file, they quietly dipped their paddles in the water and headed out of the lagoon toward the Isla del Sol. She didn’t ask him where he’d slept or if he’d slept. She wanted to forget about last night. And it was easy, as they paddled in perfect harmony, to believe their hearts and souls were also traveling on the same wavelength.

She couldn’t see Josh, who was sitting behind her, but she imagined his muscles flexing as he pulled his paddle through the water. And she pictured his body bending forward and back in time with hers. When the moon set, it was a ball of gold in the dark sky. Catherine gasped at the sight and dragged her paddle for a moment.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Josh said, his voice so close and so deep she could only nod in agreement.

She reached over her shoulder, and he took her hand and held it tightly for a moment. She felt tears prick her eyelids at the sheer beauty of the sky and sea. She would never forget they had shared this moment together. Then they turned the boat in the direction of the island.

In a half hour they reached their destination and climbed a steep slope to the first of the ancient terraces that rose like huge steps to the top of the island. In the darkness Catherine stumbled and slipped backward into Josh’s arms. Leaning against a large rock, he held her while she caught her breath. She closed her eyes and let him support her, feeling the muscles in his chest through his jacket.

“Take it easy,” he murmured in her ear.

“I don’t want to miss it,” she said breathlessly. “This is our only chance.” She reached for the rocky ledge above her, and with a boost from Josh she pulled herself up. In a moment he was beside her. “Thanks for being there to catch me,” she said.

“I’ll always be there,” he said, his warm breath on her cheek. And he hoisted her to the next level.

Always. Forever. Those were just words. If anything was forever, it was her farmland, as close to a sure thing as there was in this world, and yet it was gone forever.

Near the top of the slope the outline of a rectangular pile of stone stood against the sky, the remnants of the House of Inca. One doorway was left. Out of breath and caked with dirt, Josh pulled Catherine up to stand there. Framed in the doorway, their shoulders touching, they stood waiting silently.

Suddenly the sky in the southeast lightened and the sun burst forth in golden splendor just as it had for the Incas. Just as it had for centuries. Catherine breathed a sigh of pure delight. She looked at Josh, and he tightened his arm around her shoulders.

“So Old Pedro changed his mind,” he said. “I wonder why.”

Catherine stared straight ahead, watching the sun and the sky, not daring to believe that Josh, too, might change his mind. “He had a dream,” she explained, “where the padrón told him not to be afraid anymore.”

Josh shielded his eyes from the dazzling sun. “If I go, will you come along?”

“Of course.”

Without another word they climbed down over rough stones from terrace to terrace until they reached the shore below and their boat. This time the sun and the wind were at their backs as they paddled to the village. The boat seemed to fly effortlessly over the waves.

The wind ferry took them to the mainland. They carried their bags to the train station, over the cobbled streets, still feeling the motion of the boat beneath their feet.

“When would we go to the mine?” she asked cautiously when they settled into the lounge car for the return to Castillo. She was afraid to ask, but more afraid not to.

“As soon as I can get away,” he said.

The words came easily, but Catherine noticed creases in his forehead. She imagined that his decision to pursue his father’s dream wasn’t an easy one. She wondered how and when he had changed his mind. Maybe during the night when he went out for a walk.

Josh changed the subject and it occurred to Catherine as they ate their lunch in the dining car that Josh could talk about other things besides banking, like farming or lost civilizations, and he was always interesting. She’d always assumed that bankers’ wives must be bored out of their minds talking to their husbands about the prime rate and variable interest mortgages. But being married to Josh would never be boring.

She felt the color rise in her face. How could she even think such a thing? What would the people in Tranquility say if they knew what she was thinking? That she must be lonely or depressed or homesick. But she wasn’t any of those.

But when they got off the train and drove back to the valley she felt something that bordered on loneliness. Maybe it began when she saw her small house sitting there in the rain, looking as sad and neglected as a person who’d been deserted. Maybe it was when she said goodbye to Josh and watched him drive away. That was when she faced the emptiness of the house and the void in the pit of her stomach.

She’d lived alone in this house for eighteen months and never felt it before. But she’d never spent every minute of two days with someone before. She made a fire in the cook stove and Jacinda, seeing the smoke from her chimney, came by to tell her it had been raining since she’d left. She put on her jacket and they went out to inspect the soggy fields. They unplugged drainage ditches, but it was too wet to plant. The tomato plants were sitting in pools of water.

For two days she watched the rain come down from inside her house, feeling more and more restless. The only reason she ventured out was to make arrangements with Old Pedro for the trip to the mine. When they settled on a date, she sent a message to Josh and he came by the market to tell her Tuesday was fine.

Catherine was ready at dawn. She had packed her boots and her down vest, her binoculars and her oldest jeans the night before. Then she had rolled up her sleeping bag and put it by the front door. Now she paced back and forth, wondering what else to take. She’d never been prospecting before, but she felt the excitement rise as she pressed her face against the rain-spattered window. Where was he? Would he never come?

At midmorning a Jeep with rain flaps and a spare fuel can on the back pulled up in front of her house. Josh got out and came to the front door. “All set?” he asked, his eyes gleaming with anticipation.

She nodded and her heart skipped a beat. Was it the idea of discovering a lost silver mine, or the thought of going there with Josh? Whatever it was there was electricity in the air, and she knew he felt it, too. She grinned idiotically, unable to contain her excitement. He smiled back and she peered over his shoulder. “Where’s Pedro?”

“In the back. He wanted to bring his burro, but I told him we didn’t need one. We have four-wheel drive.”

“Where did you get it?” she asked, impressed by its rugged exterior.

“I borrowed it from a customer who has a ranch in Callajita.”

He picked up her duffel bag and sleeping bag. She looked around the room. “I hope I haven’t forgotten anything. I have warm clothes. I found someone to drive the women to market....”

Impatiently he beckoned to her, and she closed the door behind them. In the Jeep she stowed her basket in back next to Pedro. She said hello, but he only gave her a brief nod. She hoped he hadn’t changed his mind. Still, he was there, and she felt a sudden surge of confidence that they would find the mine.

After they left the valley, the rain tapered off. An hour later Pedro leaned forward to speak to them.

“He says you should leave this monster behind and pick up some burros to carry the equipment,” Catherine said.

“How long would it take by burro?” Josh inquired.

“Longer than the Jeep, but he knows they’re surefooted.”

“Tell him this monster will take us farther faster. Like this.” Josh turned abruptly off the road and onto a rocky riverbed. Catherine braced her feet against the floor and Pedro’s eyes widened in surprise. “That’s four-wheel drive,” he explained, heading toward a mahogany tree where he parked under its gigantic branches.

As they got out of the Jeep and stretched, dozens of brightly colored birds emerged from the branches of the tree and took flight above them. Catherine tilted her head back as they flew in a pattern against the morning sky.

Pedro exclaimed and Catherine translated. “He says it’s a good sign. Parrots and toucans bring good luck.”

“I hope he’s right.” Josh shielded his eyes from the sun. “We’ll need all the luck we can get.”

Catherine opened her basket and spread a cloth on the ground. “We also need lunch.”

“You brought lunch? I thought we’d drive straight through. I want to get to Santa Cruz tonight and pick up our supplies.”

“Josh. You’ve waited all these years. Can’t we take a half hour for lunch?” She looked around at the mountains in the distance. “This is a beautiful spot for a picnic, and I made empanadas from Jacinda’s recipe.”

He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Fine,” he said. “Just so we get to the site tomorrow. If Pedro remembers where it is.”

She handed him a meat-filled pastry. “And if he doesn’t?”

He shrugged as if it didn’t matter. “We’ll come back and forget the whole thing.”

Relieved at his change in attitude, she poured lemonade into metal cups for all of them. It didn’t matter if he was acting casually for her benefit. She could see he was more relaxed lounging on the ground with an empanada in his hand than he’d been a few minutes ago.

As it turned out, they got to Santa Cruz with plenty of time to buy supplies—oil for their lantern, fuel for their camp stove and some food. Encouraged by their progress, Josh pressed on to the road to Tochabamba with night falling around them. He seemed driven by an inner force to get to the mine that night instead of the next day.

With her nose pressed to the window Catherine heard Josh ask Pedro if he remembered the route, but there was so little daylight that he said no. The road twisted upward, narrower and narrower until it was only one lane and dropped off steeply to one side. Catherine closed her eyes and pressed her lips together to keep from protesting.

Suddenly Josh swerved and stopped abruptly. Catherine’s eyes flew open. In the dusk she made out the words on a wooden sign: Lookout Point. They were in a clearing shaped like a semicircle and rimmed with rocks to prevent vehicles from driving off into the valley below.

One glance at his white knuckles and clenched jaw told her he’d been almost as worried as she was and that they weren’t going any farther that night. Slowly she got out of the Jeep.

Pedro followed cautiously. The older man obviously would have preferred his slower, safer burro ride.

“Great view,” she said with all the enthusiasm she could muster. She tried to ignore the twinge of vertigo that hit her when she looked down at the white ribbon of road they’d just taken. “We’ve come a long way,” she remarked.

“But we’ve still got a long way to go,” he said with a worried frown.

Impulsively she wrapped her arms around him as if she could somehow ease his worries that way. “Maybe not that long,” she murmured, her cheek against his soft flannel shirt. “Tomorrow, when it’s light, things will look different. More familiar.”

She felt the muscles in his chest relax as he leaned over and buried his face in her hair. “Did I tell you I’m glad you came with me?” he asked in a deep, muffled voice.

She looked up at him, her arms linked around his waist. “I’m glad, too. This is the adventure of a lifetime. Your adventure. Thanks for sharing it with me.”

He gave her a quick, fierce kiss. He wanted to share everything with her. Adventures, disasters, whatever came. But she’d made it clear that wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted to share her adventures with farmers in South America, helping them have better yields and better lives. As for him, he had to put his dream to rest, once and for all, so he could get on with his life. A life that didn’t include Catherine Logan. Suddenly that prospect seemed so bleak that he kissed her again, harder and with more intensity as if he could change things that way.

Catherine stood very still, absorbing the pressure of his kiss, wanting it to go on forever. But she straightened and turned so that her back was to the steep drop-off. “Looks like a good campsite,” she said, still breathless from the kiss.

“As long as no one else decides to camp here, too,” he remarked with a smile. Her relentless good humor cheered him up, gave him hope.

“We haven’t passed a single car for miles. I think we’ll have the place to ourselves.”

He looked around. “No place to attach a tarpaulin.”

She shrugged. “We’ll sleep under the stars.”

Josh nodded. He opened the door to the Jeep and folded the front seats down so that Pedro could sleep inside. Catherine lifted her wicker basket from the rear, glad she’d brought plenty of food and wine, glad that the worry lines between Josh’s eyebrows had disappeared.

They all sat cross-legged around the tablecloth. This time there were no trees, no birds, only the stars overhead and, if one looked, the lights of the houses in the valley twinkling below. Catherine didn’t look. Instead she looked at Josh eating a sandwich of bread and cheese by starlight. He leaned back on one elbow and looked at her.

“Do you remember the Fourth of July?” he asked.

“We had hot dogs and champagne.” She looked up at the stars.

“You wore a short skirt and a T-shirt,” he recalled. “It was the first time I saw your legs.”

She smiled in the dark. “You wore a blue shirt. It was the first time I saw you without a suit.’’ It was the first time she’d thought of him as anything but a banker. Maybe it was the first time he’d thought of her as anything but a farmer. There was a long silence. With a friendly good-night Pedro retired to the Jeep.

“You missed the fireworks,” he said. “I owe you a sparkler and some rockets. I owe you a whole night of fireworks.”

Her hands shook as she folded the tablecloth and put it in the basket. In the stillness of the night his words hung in the air. He went to the Jeep, took out their sleeping bags and placed them on the ground next to each other. She pictured their bodies locked together under a starry sky, making fireworks together, but she knew she couldn’t let that happen. Not tonight. Not any night.

She brushed her teeth behind the Jeep with mineral water. Then she removed her shoes and slid into her down bag. He was lying next to her with his arms crossed under his head. A shooting star sped across the sky.

“There you are. Natural fireworks,” she said.

“That’s not what I meant,” he growled.

She sighed and turned her back to him. If she looked into his eyes, she’d be lost. She didn’t want to hear him breathe or imagine his arms around her. This was a discovery trip, an expedition with no room for runaway emotions. No time for indulging in passions they’d later regret.

Despite the hard ground, despite the nearness of Josh, she slept. She slept so well that only the sun shining in her eyes and the smell of coffee woke her up. Surprised, she blinked her eyes and sat up, the sleeping bag at her waist. Josh smiled down at her from behind a cup of steaming coffee.

“Wait a minute. Where did you get that? I thought you couldn’t cook.”

He tilted his head in the direction of Pedro bent over the camp stove, stirring fried potatoes. “I can’t, but Pedro can. Good thing. If we’d waited for you, we’d starve.”

She got up and tied her sleeping bag into a tight roll. After breakfast they stood next to the Jeep. The deep crease was back between Josh’s eyebrows.

“Would you ask Pedro,” he said, “if anything looks familiar today.” Pedro shook his head. Josh nodded curtly. “We’ll go on a little farther.’’

Back in the Jeep Catherine closed her eyes so that she couldn’t see the sharp drop-off to the right. Around the next bend Pedro leaned forward and squinted into the distant hills that undulated under a bright blue sky.

“The sleeping maiden,” he said slowly in Spanish.

Josh met Pedro’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “Is that where it is?” He’d never heard of the sleeping maiden. Still, it was possible.

“The mine is to the east.” Pedro pointed to a barren, rocky mountain. “That’s Tochabamba.”

Josh slowed to a crawl as Catherine translated for him. “Fine. We know where it is. We just don’t know how to get there.”

Pedro put his hand on Josh’s shoulder and spoke.

“He says you can get burros from the ranch ahead, then follow the trail to the mine.”

Josh’s eyes widened. “Is it possible that the ranch is still here after all these years?”

Another twenty miles up the road was an arrow pointing west. The sign had fallen onto its side, but the letters were still legible: Rancho del Cielo. They drove down a rutted road and followed tracks made by the wheels of a cart until a ramshackle house came into view. It looked deserted, but when they cut the engine, the silence of the mountain air was broken by the braying of burros and the clucking of chickens. Catherine gave Josh a look of surprise.

An old man came around the corner of the house more astonished to see them than they were to see him. Pedro tipped his hat. Catherine didn’t know if they were acquainted or not, but Pedro was able to borrow three burros and buy more food for the journey. They filled their saddlebags and tied their sleeping bags onto the burros. Catherine rubbed her hands against her pants and looked inquiringly at Josh.

His eyes were on the distant mountains. “Are you sure you’re up to this? It must be a long walk. With Pedro on a burro we’ll need the other two to carry the equipment.”

She laced up her boots. “I wouldn’t miss it for anything.” It was true. She was willing to go farther than the Tochabamba Mines to share Josh’s dream.

Pedro showed no emotion as he mounted his burro and led the way down the trail. Josh wished he could control his emotions, as well. He was afraid there would be nothing at the end of the trail. But he wanted desperately to find something, anything. He tried to empty his mind and enjoy the walk through the long valley, knowing there would be a steep climb ahead.

The sun shone down, warming his head and shoulders, easing the tension. Ahead of him he heard the clip-clop of the burros and he watched Catherine, admiring her hips swaying slightly in her loose-fitting pants. She wore a soft canvas hat that protected her head from the sun. She’d braided her hair that morning while he’d drunk his coffee, but soft tendrils had escaped and curled at the nape of her neck.

He imagined how soft her hair would feel wrapped around his fingers. He knew how her skin would taste if he kissed the back of her neck, like sage and sunshine, like all outdoors. He caught up with her where the trail widened and he fell into step.

“Are you getting tired?” he asked.

She shook her head. Tiny flecks of hazel lightened her eyes. “This is the best trip I’ve ever had. I feel as if we’ve come to another world. Everything’s different here, the sun, the earth, everything.” She gazed off at the wide alkali flats and the eroded mountains streaked with red in the distance, then turned back to him. “Even us,” she said softly. “We’re different, too.”

He stopped and drew her to him, running his hand up her neck to caress the soft curls that escaped from her braid. “You’re the same,” he protested, “still beautiful, still desirable. I wouldn’t be here without you. I wouldn’t want to be here without you. I don’t want to be anywhere without you,” he said with a quick kiss before they continued along the trail.

This time he took the lead. Catherine ran her finger across her lips, feeling the warmth of his kiss still lingering. Later they stopped for lunch at the entrance to a steep canyon. Above them were names carved in the stone wall. Josh read the names and the dates, but his father’s name wasn’t there.

Catherine removed her boots slowly and stretched out her legs. Josh sat opposite her and took her feet into his lap. Starting a massage at her heel and working his way under the arch, he made her bones turn to liquid. She arched her back and let her head fell back.

“That feels so good,” she moaned softly. “Where did you learn to do that?”

“I make it up as I go along,” he confessed, his fingers unleashing a fire that would be out of control if she didn’t stop it. Reluctantly she pulled away.

“I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to get up again,” she said in a shaky voice.

But when Pedro cooked an omelet on the stove, she managed to get to her feet and take her plate. She and Josh ate next to each other with their backs against the wall, feeling the sun-warmed stone through their shirts.

Pedro stood and scanned the canyon while Josh followed his eyes. Finally he spoke. “He says we’ll be there by tonight,” Catherine said, standing and tying her jacket around her waist. Her eyes glowed, and Josh worried that she was counting on finding silver. He could handle his own disappointment, but not hers, too.

Pedro tied the three burros together with a rope and they began to climb. On every slope they saw telltale signs of old workings, piles of stones marking a strike or a rusted tobacco tin. Narrow trails led off to remote areas, to God knew where.

Pedro stopped for a long moment and looked around. Josh’s heart sank. It was clear to him they were lost. It was too late to go back. They’d have to find a place to stay along the trail and go back tomorrow. But Pedro kept going. And they followed. Followed him down a salt-encrusted draw and turned around. They watched him look up at the sky, either to get his bearings or to ask God for help. They weren’t sure which. Josh’s spirits dropped and his feet felt heavy.

He noticed that even Catherine’s step had lost its spring. She wiped the perspiration off her brow with the sleeve of her shirt. “Does he know where he’s going?” Josh asked from behind her.

“It’s been forty years,” she explained in a tired voice. “Things change. Landslides. Earthquakes.” She reached for his hand. “Don’t worry. If he says we’ll be there tonight, we’ll be there.”

At dusk they were crisscrossing the side of a barren mountain, the burros’ hooves sending loose stones down hundreds of feet. Catherine stopped and clung to a boulder. She kept her eyes fastened on Pedro. Her feet were numb, her breath short and her hands clammy. She couldn’t move.

Josh came up behind her. “Are you all right?” he asked anxiously.

She didn’t turn around. “As long as I don’t look down.” Her voice was taut with tension.

Carefully he stepped in front of her, took her hand and pulled her forward across the loose stones. “Just keep your eyes on me and don’t let go. This is a hell of a place for a person with vertigo.”

Her eyes latched onto his and didn’t let go. The intensity of his gaze gave her the strength to follow him. She didn’t allow herself to think of the canyon below. She thought of him, only of him and put herself, quite literally, into his hands. His grip was warm and strong, and be pulled her steadily as the switchbacks took them higher and higher.

Suddenly Pedro and the burros disappeared over the top of a ledge, and the only sound was the wind whistling through the canyon. Despite his hold on her hands, Catherine’s step faltered and she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment.

“Look at me,” he ordered, and she obeyed. His blue eyes reflected the sky above, and in his gaze she found the courage to go on. “It’s only a few more feet. Pedro’s already there,” he assured her.

At the top she fell forward into his arms and he held her tightly. His shirt was cool and dry against her cheek. She was embarrassed by her vertigo, but he patted her on the back as if she’d just climbed Everest. She wound her arms around his neck and wished she could stay there forever. Forever. That word again.

She dropped her arms and slowly looked around. They were standing in an amphitheater ringed by rocky and barren mountains in air so clear that the Cordera Range, more than two hundred miles away, was a blue-purple mass. In between lay green fields and willows. To the west was the sun setting on the Esquinas River.

She was so intent on the view that she almost missed the rubble at their feet. Huge stones and rocks lay in heaps as if a giant had tossed them about. Pedro was right. The God of Thunder had surely been there.

“Where’s Pedro?” she asked, and they looked around. Suddenly he appeared from an opening in the side of the mountain, his small body dwarfed by the rock that had blocked him from sight. A smear of mud covered his forehead.

“The shaft has opened again,” he said flatly, but his eyes betrayed his emotion. “Somewhere inside are the bodies of the miners, my friends.” He shook his head and tears filled his eyes.

Josh put his hand on the old man’s shoulder, able to understand his sense of loss and realizing what the words meant. “We won’t stay long,” he promised. “Just long enough to take samples and bring them home.”

From a saddlebag Josh dug out his lantern. He knelt on the ground and carefully filled it with gas, pumped it up and lit the mantle. In the dusk it cast a dim light on the expectant faces of Catherine and Pedro. He wanted to tell them now what he knew in his heart. There was no silver there. There were only lost dreams and lives. Failure and disappointment. But he couldn’t say it. They’d have to see for themselves.

“Let’s go,” he said, walking to the entrance.

“Now?” Catherine looked around at the vast emptiness, the cold rocks and the darkening sky. Pedro shook his head and backed away. Josh didn’t see him.

He was only dimly aware of the apprehension in Catherine’s voice. His heart was pounding, his pulse racing. Was this the feeling that drove men to leave their families and sail for California in 1849? Was this what made his father leave his family to travel the four corners of the globe? Was this what they called gold fever?

“Now,” he said, and she followed him to the opening of the tunnel. Suddenly it was dark and cold. She shivered and he grabbed her hand. The lantern cast its beam down a narrow tunnel, caked with black mud. The clammy walls seemed to close in on them, and the mud oozed at their feet.

“If the mine caved in once, couldn’t it happen again?” she asked, tightening her grip on his hand. A spider scuttled across the toe of her boot while she watched in fascinated horror. When it disappeared from view, she bent down to pick up a chunk of gray rock with a streak of red running through it.

“Do you want to wait outside?” he asked.

“No,” she assured him, slipping the rock into her pocket. “I’ve already found something. Maybe it’s valuable. Who knows?”

“The avalanche seems to have been much farther back.” He shone the lantern on the slats of wood that braced the walls and the ceiling. “I think we’re safe here.” He scraped a blob of mud from the wall and held it in his hand.

“What is it?” she asked, her pulse quickening.

“Probably just mud, but we’ll take it and have it analyzed.”

“It doesn’t look like silver.”

“Silver weathers and oxidizes. It’s hard to identify by sight.” In his mind he saw the gleam and felt the smooth surface of the precious metal, and he knew deep down there wasn’t any in this mud. “Tomorrow we’ll go farther, as far as we can. If it’s there, we’ll find it. But silver is tricky. Sometimes it’s found with lead or zinc.”

Surprised by his knowledge of mining, she followed him out into the fresh night air. Inhaling deeply, she asked, “How do you know all this? From your father?’’

He shook his head. “I’ve been doing some reading.”

The sight of Pedro roasting a chicken over the open fire made her realize how hungry and tired she was. Her knees buckled under her, and Josh caught her under the arms.

“Whoa,” he said, lowering her gently next to the fire. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she told him, holding her hands out to warm them by the hot coals. He knelt behind her and massaged the tired muscles in her neck until her head fell forward and a sigh escaped her lips. “Still making it up as you go along?” she murmured.

Instead of answering, he kissed the back of her neck while his hands continued to work their magic on her shoulders. If there was heaven on earth, it would feel like this, she thought Gradually his palms moved to the small of her back, and just when she thought she couldn’t stand another moment of this exquisite pleasure, Pedro coughed loudly to get their attention. Dinner was ready.

They ate around the fire, tearing the chicken off the bones with their fingers. When they finished, Pedro placed his bedroll as far from the entrance to the mine as possible, while Catherine and Josh put theirs next to the fire.

She pulled her sleeping bag up to her chin, a thousand questions on her mind. She watched the firelight play on Josh’s face, turning his eyes into fathomless holes, his jaw to chiseled rock.

“What if there isn’t any silver?” she asked at last. “What will you do?”

“Walk away from it,” he said. “What else can I do?” He lay back and looked at the sky. “I didn’t come for the silver, not really. It would just be a bonus.” He didn’t say what he had come for, but she knew. He had come to find himself. To find the dreamer within himself and make room for that part of himself in his life. If he couldn’t do that, there wouldn’t be room for her, either.

If Josh had come to find himself, what had she come to find? Had she come to find out what kind of a man he was? If so, the trip was a success. He was strong, but not macho. He was tender, but not weak. He could make her laugh and make her cry, too. He could make her want him in a way that made her feel worse than she’d ever felt before. But he could make her feel happier than she ever thought possible. What if it doesn’t work out? she asked herself. And she knew the answer. Walk away from it, she told herself. What else could she do?

She brought her arm out of her sleeping bag and reached for Josh. He rolled over and faced her. Taking her hand in his, he pulled her close to him and put his arms around her sleeping bag. She sighed, buried her head on his shoulder and felt the warmth of his body through the thick padding of her sleeping bag until she fell asleep.

The air was cool in the morning. They stood around the fire in their down vests, drinking coffee, their eyes drawn involuntarily to the entrance to the mine. Josh set his cup down and rubbed his hands together. He studied Catherine’s face, noticing the lines etched between her eyebrows. Cupping her chin in his hand, he smiled reassuringly.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I don’t need the silver. Neither does Pedro. Whatever happens our lives will go on.”

She nodded automatically, but he didn’t think he’d convinced her. Maybe he hadn’t convinced himself yet. It was true he didn’t need the silver. But he needed something else. What it was he didn’t know. He wouldn’t know until he found it.

“Are you ready?” he asked, a shovel in one hand, the lantern in the other, and a pouch attached to his belt for samples.

Catherine grabbed the pickax, and with Pedro watching from a safe distance, they entered the long tunnel to the mine again. She shone her flashlight on the rocks, and a scorpion crawled out and ran from them. She clamped her lips together to keep from screaming. Particles from the ceiling showered them as they walked. Catherine shook her head and captured some in her hand.

When she spoke, her voice was a whisper. “Silver dust?”

Dubiously he looked at her palm. “Put it in the bag,” he instructed. When they reached the end of the tunnel, Josh leaned against the loose dirt wall. Looking down where his lantern cast its light, he saw an old rusty hand drill and next to it two pole picks.

He set his lantern down and knelt in the dirt. Bracing his hand on the ground, he felt something solid under the dirt. “Catherine, over here. Shine your light this way.” He dug into the soft dirt with his fingers. His heart pounded with excitement. Was this what treasure hunting was all about, this feeling that the world had stopped spinning and everyone was holding their breath waiting... ? After digging for a moment, he held up a soft, worn leather case in the palm of his hand.

Catherine shone her light on it. “What is it?” she asked in a hushed voice.

He held the case up and pressed his fingers over the letters. When he tilted the case, a heavy object slid into his hand. “My father’s magnifying glass,” he said in a hollow voice.

He handed it to her and dug deeper into the soil before he found a compass, its cover cracked, its needle swinging wildly from north to south. “And his compass.” He knelt for so long studying it that the lantern began to dim.

“Josh.” Catherine’s voice sounded worried. “Let’s take the things out and get some air.”

He stood stiffly and put the objects safely in his pocket. With the picks and the drill under their arms, they made their way back to the entrance. Squinting in the bright sunlight, Josh felt as dazed and shaken as if he’d been caught in the avalanche of forty years ago. When his eyes grew accustomed to the light, he sat on a rock and took the magnifying glass out of his pocket.

Pedro approached cautiously, relieved to see than again. Josh held out the magnifying glass for him to see.

“My father’s,” he said in Spanish, and Pedro’s eyes grew round in his narrow face.

“El padrón,” he said. “Your father was the padrón.” Then he turned and went back to the mine, keeping watch for his old friends once more.

Catherine traced the initials JB on the leather.

“James Bentley,” Josh said. “I knew he’d lost it. He had others, but they weren’t the same. When he lost these things, he lost the silver mine, too. He thought there would be other mines, other ways to make a fortune, but you know what happened. He died broke.” He turned it over in his hand. “Well, we found the glass, but not the silver.” Disappointment settled over him like a dark cloud.

Catherine knelt at his side. She leaned forward, her dark eyes intense. “You said you didn’t need the silver. You said it didn’t matter.”

“It doesn’t matter, not to me. But it mattered to him. I wanted to find it for him. So he could be a success. At last.” Josh stuffed the magnifying glass back into his pocket and stared across to the mountains beyond the valley without seeing them. “I didn’t realize how much I wanted it.” Bitterness, hurt and disappointment filled his throat and choked off his words. Catherine rose and stood at his side.

“Can you believe my father spent his life thinking about this place?” he asked her, looking around at the barren outcroppings. “What a waste.” He shook his head. “That’s the part that gets me. That a man could waste his life looking for lost treasure.”

Catherine’s heart ached, for Josh, for his father and for herself. For Josh, finding the treasure would have meant finding himself. For herself it would have meant finding a man who allowed himself to have both dreams and goals. Her eyes filled with tears.

“There are worse things,” she said with a catch in her throat. The sun was straight overhead, but she shivered.

He shoved his hand into his pocket and fingered the magnifying glass, then looked at her inquisitively.

She struggled to find the right words. “I mean, at least he followed his dream. He didn’t spend his life working in an office, wondering what it would be like—”

“You can say that again. He never had a steady job in his life.”

“I understand that. But he never had second thoughts. He knew what he wanted to do and he did it.”

“Oh, Catherine,” he said in exasperation. “You didn’t know him.”

“Did you?”

“Of course I did. I’m the one who listened to his stories. He almost made a believer out of me. He was Paul Bunyan and Peter Pan and Daniel Boone. The man who never gave up. The man who never grew up. I’ll never forgive him. But I’ll never forget him, either,” he added undo his breath. Then Josh lifted his arms and stretched them toward the sky. “Okay, Dad, I’m here,” he shouted. “Where’s the treasure?”

The word echoed off the purple mountains and mocked him. Treasure... treasure... treasure.

Catherine turned and met Josh’s gaze. “Where should I look?” he called again, and the voice came back. Look... look... look.

Josh looked down at the compass in his hand. The needle swung around and pointed to Catherine and to the mine entrance behind her. He felt his heart speed up. He was on the brink of a discovery. Maybe even on the threshold of finding the answer. Just look, his father’s voice seemed to say. Look around you. The gap that led to the mine was there ahead of him. Tantalizing him with its promise of riches. Empty promise. Empty mine.

He stared into the black depths of the cavern. The compass needle swung again and pointed back to himself. And suddenly he understood. “You’re right,” he said, sliding the compass into his pocket so he could put her hands on his hips. “I didn’t know him. I didn’t know why he left me the shares to the mine. Not until now.”

“I don’t understand. There was nothing in there but his tools. The shares are still worthless.”

“That’s what I thought, but I was wrong. I said he didn’t leave me anything, but he did.” Puzzled, Catherine looked into his eyes. He drew her to him and savored the warmth of her body after the cold, damp air of the mine. “I think he left me the mine so I could see for myself what it’s like to be on the brink of the unknown,” he said slowly, “to make a discovery of my own.”

“What did you discover?” she asked.

“I discovered that I’m part dreamer like my father. That I’m drawn to the unknown just as he was. I wasn’t supposed to come to Aruaca. I was scheduled to go to Panama, and then Colombia, but I turned them down and put my career in jeopardy, not knowing what would happen, hoping something here would open up. This job turned up, I turned up and you turned up, all at the same time.”

“So your father was a success, after all. He got you here.”

“He got us both here.”

“And now you know what he wanted you to know. How do you feel?”

His answer was to lift her in the thin mountain air and spin her around. Her hair fell around her face in a cloud of waves. Her cheeks reddened and she laughed out loud. It was joy. It was relief. It was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard. When he set her down, he smiled.

“How do I feel? I feel good for myself, but sorry for my father. I wish he could see me now.”

Catherine looked off at the clouds massing over the mountains in the distance. “Maybe he can. Maybe he knows. Maybe that was his voice you heard.”

“That was an echo,” he said, but there was a hint of doubt in his voice that made her smile. He traced the outline of her upturned lips with his finger. “All right, maybe it was his voice. Maybe he knows I’m here. And he knows you’re here with me. Maybe he planned the whole thing. Today I believe anything’s possible.”

“Like your promotion?”

“Yes. No. I wasn’t thinking about that. In fact, I haven’t thought about it for days, maybe weeks. It doesn’t seem so important anymore. What’s more important is what I found here. I feel like I found the piece to a puzzle that I didn’t even know was missing. Does that make sense to you?”

She wiped her dusty hands on her pants. “I think so. What’s next?” Her words hung in the still mountain air. The silence was broken only by the buzzing of bees near some wildflowers growing in a crack in the rocks.

A jolt of elation hit him. A weight had been lifted from his shoulders, freeing him to do whatever he wanted. To be whatever he wanted to be. He was no longer afraid of poverty or insecurity. The only thing he was afraid of was losing Catherine.

In answer to her question he kissed her, tenderly at first, then passionately. He pulled away to look into her face. “I feel like anything’s possible... you... me... anything.”

“Yes,” she agreed breathlessly, “but...”

Whatever it was he didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want to hear her say she didn’t love him or that there was no future for them because of her five-year plan, or her determination not to return to the States. Not now. Now when they were on top of the world, the only two people in the world. So he kissed her again to seal her lips.

She lifted her arms and hugged him to her, returning his kiss, deepening and lengthening it until they staggered backward toward the mine together, their shoes scraping across the stones and gravel. He caught her around the waist and stared into her eyes, looking for a sign that she believed in them, in their future.

Catherine felt as if her body was on fire. It wasn’t fair of him to ask her what she thought when she couldn’t think at all. She could only feel, and what she felt was that whether it was his father or fate, something had brought them together to the top of this mountain. And she wouldn’t, she couldn’t, cast a shadow over his dreams.

“It.. .it’s been quite a day,” she stammered, avoiding his gaze, knowing there were questions there she couldn’t answer. She felt a rumble of laughter in his chest at her understatement.

“And it’s not over yet,” he said, looking down at her. “I want to go back inside. I want a sample of every kind of rock there is. I don’t know why, but I do.”

She picked up the shovel and leaned on it to support her shaky knees. “Okay.”

Together, with Pedro watching and helping when he could, they made many trips in and out of the mine, carrying small samples. Catherine was at Josh’s side, sharing the elation of discovery. She wondered what would happen when they got back to sea level. Would this euphoria disappear when he found the rocks were worthless and things didn’t seem so simple? Anything was possible for them. But probable? No. He said he hadn’t thought about his promotion, but he hadn’t said he didn’t want it. He was still going back to become a vice president someday.

They spent their last night at the mine, stretched out next to the fire. He tucked her body next to his to protect her from the cool night air and buried his face in the fragrance of her dark hair. He wanted to tell her how he felt now, so she could get used to the idea that he loved her. But he was just getting used to it himself and he wondered if she was ready to hear it yet. Her steady breathing told him she was already asleep, so he lay awake and watched the embers of the fire, his mind spinning with hopes, dreams and plans.

After they packed their saddlebags the next day, they headed down the mountain. Josh helped Catherine down the steep, rocky grade just as he’d helped her up. She kept her eyes fastened on his, her hands tightly gripping his. He willed her his strength and her feet found the path. He almost told her then, as they paused to get their bearings, the hot sun on their shoulders, the sound of the burros’ hooves ahead of them, what he’d decided to do about her and about them, but he didn’t.

He walked behind her across the valley, his eyes on the curve of her hips, and resolved not to say anything to spoil the magic of this trip. Walking in his father’s footsteps, he thought about success. Success could be measured in other ways besides money. His father knew that. Catherine knew it, too. But he was just learning.

At the ranch they paid for the use of the burros, unpacked, thanked the old man and climbed into their Jeep for the long ride back to Palomar. It was still raining in their valley when they arrived the next evening. The skies were leaden and the ground was saturated. After leaving Pedro at his tin shop, Josh took Catherine to her house. When he unloaded her things, he found the rock she’d collected on the front seat.

“Don’t forget your souvenir.”

She ran her fingers over the vein of dark red that ran through the dull gray. “Have it analyzed with the other samples. Maybe I’ve got myself a ruby.”

He smiled at the thought. “I’ll do that. As soon as I get the results of the tests, I’ll let you know.” They took shelter from the rain on her front porch. “I have to get the Jeep back tonight, but I want to see you. We have to talk.” Instead of talking, Josh bent down to kiss her lips, long and hard. He didn’t want to leave. There was a nagging fear in the back of his mind that things would never be this good, this perfect again. He was afraid that if he left now something might come between them.

“I’ll come by your stall tomorrow,” he promised. He ran his hands down her arms and held her tightly. The dust from her shirt mingled with his. He kissed a smudge on her nose. A feeling of certainty replaced his doubts. Certainty that they belonged together, on a farm, or in a bank, along a trail or in a wobbly canoe.

Wherever she was, that was where he wanted to be. If he didn’t feel so sure, he never would have left her on the steps, tired, dirty and disheveled. But it was only temporary. He’d bring the Jeep back, take a shower, leave the rocks to be analyzed and then tell Catherine what she already knew deep down in her subconscious: that their love was strong enough to overcome any obstacle. He kissed her long and slowly and left her standing on the steps looking dazed.