One is a blonde and the other has an abundance of deep brown hair. The distance is too great to see individual features but who needs to? "Isn't that—?"
The spouse nods before I can say more and continues to stare. There are only two females in all of Gravers Bend who used to take on the trestle with regularity.
Well, actually, once there had been three. I shoot another glance at the driver. Not that the third really counted, because she had done so timidly, reluctantly. I would have discounted her as one of the two up there now even if I didn't know exactly where she was at the moment. Heaven knew, she had never possessed the guts these women displayed.
I appreciate their daring for a few silent moments, but begin to grow disturbed. This transmutes into anger, which I just as quickly suppress. Anger is never an acceptable solution. "Come on, we have to get going. We still have a lot to do today."
But for God’s sake. Hayley and Kurstin are no longer high school girls. They have responsibilities now, to themselves, to others. Dangerous stunts like this are juvenile and it is past time they are left behind. Anger threatens to surface once again and the effort to keep it buried leaves me with a sense of pressure almost too large to contain. Accidents happen in a matter of seconds. A tragedy could so easily befall them.
And if something happens to Hayley--I glance back one last time as the spouse pulls onto the lake road once again--what the hell am I supposed to do then?
When Hayley and Kurstin were down on the lake earlier in the day it had had a slight chop to it. The breeze had since died, however, as it did most evenings around this time. The surface far below, which Hayley eyed now between the slats of the trestle, was mirror-flat. Enjoying the heat of the sun on her hair and shoulders, she glanced up at Kurstin, picking her way across the trestle in front of her. "You have anything left to eat?"
Her friend glanced at her over her shoulder. "An apple and a box of raisins."
"Oh yummy," she said glumly. "Good-for-you food. I was thinking more along the lines of a chocolate bar."
"You ate that an hour ago."
"Fine, toss me the apple. The raisins are all yours."
"You mind if we get off the trestle first? It's getting close to five forty."
"What a chicken! Don't you want to see me do my famous death-defying Granger hand-stand?"
"Tomorrow, okay? Feel the vibrations? The five o'clock is right on schedule." Kurstin reached the end of the trestle and followed the tracks a few feet further onto solid ground, where she jumped off into the woods.
"Well, okay," Hayley said in a her best you-don't-know-what-you're-missing tone as she trailed behind, "but Patsy would have waited around to watch me do my trick." The vibrations underfoot had grown stronger by the time she, too, leaped clear of the tracks and she stood without unblinking until her eyes had a chance to adjust to the sudden gloom of the forest.
Catching Kurstie's glance, she grinned crookedly and her best friend grinned back. Patsy's fear of the trestle was an ancient standing joke. She had crossed it with them in the old days, but she had done so inch by creeping inch, fretting about it every step of the way.
They had always allowed extra time when she was along to avoid being mowed down by the five o'clock.
It came hurtling out of the woods across the gap now, hitting the trestle with a horrendous rattle of wooden struts and iron rails. A moment later it thundered past the spot where they stood in the woods. Then it was gone, roaring beyond the lake to the other side of the highway, its whistle trailing a mournful wail.
Hayley shouted with laughter and threw an arm around Kurstin's shoulder. Her friend rotated her arm so Hayley could see her wrist watch.
"Five forty-five," Hayley said complacently. Then the two of them completed the old refrain together. "Right on time."
They smiled at each other in satisfaction. No one else ever found it as funny as they did, but there was comfort and amusement in the shared history of an old joke.
She sighed. "This is great," she said. "Thanks, Kurstie. I really needed a day like today." They climbed back up on the track and, looking at her friend, she debated her options as she made minor adjustments to her balancing act atop one of the rails. Should she tell her about last night with Jon-Michael or not?
"Is it starting to worry you, Hayley, that the date of Wilson's execution is growing nearer?"
With her mind elsewhere, the question caught her off guard. "No," she said. "Well, yes." She looked at her friend helplessly. "That is, sort of."
Kurstin's smile was wry. "Your decisiveness is a trait I have always admired about you."
"I used to be decisive," she replied seriously. "Once upon a time I knew exactly what I believed in."
"Like when you believed that capital punishment was wrong?"
Hayley jerked. "Oh, God. You remember that?"
"Of course I remember. Not in an expecting to see you on the eleven o’clock news picketing a penitentiary on execution night way. But you had strong feelings on the subject." She shot a glance at Hayley as they picked their way down the tracks. "What I don’t know is how you feel about it now."
Stomach rolling queasily, Hayley tore her gaze away from the compassion in Kurstin's eyes. "I don't want to talk about it," she said flatly.
"Hayley, for Cri'sake! I’ve been waiting a good year and a half for you to introduce the subject."
"And the fact that I never did wasn’t your first clue?" She knew she was being unfair. But she simply could not talk about all the mixed messages the capital punishment topic raised—and the many ways in which they messed with her head.
"Fine." Kurstin rammed her hands deep inside her pockets to keep from reaching for a fistful of Hayley's hair, which she would love to give a satisfyingly hard yank. She felt rebuffed and angry. More than that, however, she felt massively frustrated, because she knew her friend.
Hayley did not bare her soul easily. She retreated deep inside with the problems that mattered to her most and refused to let anyone follow. Kurstin had faith that sooner or later she could beat down the wall her bestie had constructed around this particular dilemma. Seeing the stubborn set of Hayley's pointy little chin, however, she had to accept it would not be today. So for a while she simply observed her lifelong friend in silence.
Then finally asked, "What is bothering you, then, if it isn’t the execution?"
Hayley's head shot up. "Who said anything was?"
"Your heartfelt tone when you said you really needed a day like today."
"Oh.” For a couple heartbeats, Hayley considered trying to hold it in. Then she blurted, “This is embarrassing." Still, it was easier to talk about last night than the other, and God knew she had been thinking about it before Kurstin blindsided her with the capital punishment thing. Her feelings about the upcoming execution always hovered in the back of her mind, knocking to make their presence known. At this moment, however, last night's debacle was a fresher issue.
"No kidding? Now you really have my attention. Dish. What is embarrassing and why?"
"Well it's pretty shallow, for one thing, compared to the issues of life and death. And it’s something I shouldn't even allow to bother me."