"Scared?"
"Terrified. I didn't even realize it until now," she said quietly, her words taken away with the breeze.
Chris moved around the fire and sat next to Jessie, their knees touching lightly as she settled beside her. Jessie's amused smile and quick nudge with her shoulder surprised her.
"I'm not scared of the dark, McKenna."
"I just..."
Jessie's hand reached out and squeezed Chris's thigh.
"No. Stay."
Chris relaxed, trying to ignore the burning of her skin where Jessie's hand still rested. "What are you scared of?"
Jessie searched the blue eyes across from her. She saw understanding, compassion, concern. Things she wasn't used to seeing. Not even when she paid for it.
"I don't know what it is. I feel like there's something here, something watching me maybe. I don't know," Jessie said, her voice turning almost to a whisper.
"Let's talk, then," Chris suggested. "Your therapist told you to come back. It's been what? Sixteen years you said? Why now?"
"To see her. Annie Stone."
"Your mother," Chris stated.
"She gave birth to me," Jessie said. "She was never my mother."
Chris had to bite her lower lip to keep her words to herself. She knew that soon, she would be getting in over her head.
"You said you did everything with your father but nothing with her," Chris prompted.
"For as long as I can remember, it was always him. I mean, Chris, I have no memories of her at all, other than just this figure in the house. As a kid, it was just him. Hiking, camping, dinner. Everything was with him."
"As a kid? What about when you got older?"
"Older?"
"Yeah. Like a teenager."
Jessie stared into the fire, trying to remember. Her memories were always so vivid, like it was only yesterday. But in her memories, she was always a child.
Did they still camp? Fish? Had she still followed him around? She must have. So why couldn't she remember?
"Jessie?"
"I don't... I don't remember," she whispered. "I can tell you about my eighth birthday. My ninth." She rubbed her eyes, a headache suddenly forming. "I remember... I remember camping. We would hike for miles, it seemed. I was always so tired when we got back. I remember riding my bike from the house to the ranger station, I must have been all often."
"And at that age, your mother just let you do as you please?"
Jessie laugh was bitter, short. "Let me? Like I asked her? Chris, she wasn't a part of my life. She was just this silent figure in the house. She never really talked to me, you know."
"Did you talk to her?"
Jessie thought back, trying to remember a time they had actually talked about something tangible. The few times Annie had tried to discipline her, teach her something, Jessie had simply run to her father and that was that.
"I just remember silence. There was always a feeling of resentment there," Jessie said.
Chris frowned. "Resentment? By your mother? Or you?"
Resentment by Annie, of course, Jessie was about to say. But... why did Jessie carry that feeling with her all these years? Yes, she resented her mother... Annie. But why? For not being a mother?
"I've always blamed her for his death."
"Why?"
"He fell off of Ridge Trail into the canyon."
"Why do you blame her?" Chris prompted.
Jessie sighed. She was getting weary of this discussion. Chris's questions were becoming too much like Dr. Davies's questions and soon Jessie would revert to the practiced lies she'd told all her therapists over the years. It was just so much easier than delving into the truth. A rotten truth, she suspected.
"Jessie?"
"I'm tired. How about a walk? The moon's nearly full."
Chris nodded, instinctively knowing that Jessie had reached her limit for the night. "Sure. We can walk back along the stream, might see some wildlife."
Jessie grinned. "As long as it's not something that'll want to eat us."
"Have no fear... SAR is here," Chris teased.
Jessie took Chris's offered hand and let herself be pulled to her feet. She didn't release the warm hand holding her own. Instead, she leaned closer.
"Well, I feel completely safe now."
The sudden jolt of desire caught Chris completely off guard. Jessie was too near, her lips far too tempting in the moonlight. Only inches separated them and Chris fought with herself to close the gap, to take what was obviously being offered.
Jessie captured Chris's eyes, watching as warring emotions crossed her face. It would be so easy, she thought. Just a little more temptation, a little more teasing. Then what? Another conquest?
Jessie finally pulled her eyes away. She didn't want a conquest tonight. Instead, she squeezed Chris's hand and smiled gently.
"Come on, McKenna. Show me the sights."
It was with difficulty that Chris dropped the warm hand clasping her own. She broke up the fire, then brushed away any pine needles that were too close. The embers would catch easily enough when they returned. Then she rummaged in her pack and found the small flashlight. She shoved it into the front pocket of her sweats before motioning with a slight toss of her head.
"Let's go."
They walked in silence as moonlight bounced off the water, enough so that Chris could forgo the flashlight. They followed the stream until they met up with the trail.
"We can hike up the trail," Chris suggested. "There's an overlook not too far from here. Ought to be pretty with the moon shining over the mountains."
"McKenna, I meant to tell you this earlier," Jessie said as she followed Chris. "There's a trail not far from the tent, it goes along the ledge and ends up behind the waterfall."
Chris stopped short. "You're joking?"
Jessie shook her head. "We camped up there before. Jack took me behind the falls."
"I've walked all around there. I've never seen anything resembling a trail," Chris said.
"It was hard to find, I remember. You have to squeeze between two boulders and you think you're going right over the side of the mountain, but there's a ledge there and the trail snakes down, right behind the falls."
"Maybe we'll look for it in the morning. Any more secrets you want to share?"
Jessie grinned. "You found the caves yet?"
"Caves? What caves?"
"Guess not."
"Roger's not said anything about caves, Jessie."
"Roger Hamilton may not know about them. They were already closed to the public when my father started working here. He took me there many times," Jessie said. "Not any big deal, McKenna."
"Where are they?"
"I'm surprised you haven't found them, as much as you like to hike the streams."
"Quit teasing me. Where are they?" she asked again.
"After you meet up with the Nevada Trail, past the South Rim, you cross that little creek. At least, it used to be little."
"It still is. Little Bear Creek. You can hop across it."
"That's the one. Follow it upstream into the mountains, only about a mile, I think. You come to a really flat area, all smooth rock. On the left is some outcropping of granite. There are two caves in the rocks there."
"Real caves?"
"Well, not underground or anything like that. One of them is pretty large, probably one hundred feet deep, maybe eight feet high. That's the one they were afraid of. Too many loose rocks. The other one is just a cozy room. Jack took me there once when it was raining. We always kept firewood inside, just in case. We had a campfire right there and cooked the fish we had caught earlier. Stayed totally dry. They're easy to find, if you know what you're looking for, McKenna. If not, you'll walk right past them."
"So when the mountain collapsed, these are just cavities that formed from the fallen rocks?"
"Probably." Jessie shrugged. "I was just a kid. They may have just seemed huge to me. But Jack called them caves."