Page 94 of Into the Mountains
I’m also scared because when we are finished, the deal we made comes into play. When he first suggested it, I wasn’t sure how to feel and weeks have passed and I’m still unsure. Going back to my childhood home isn’t something I ever planned to doand now it seems it’s staring me straight in the face. A predator staring down its prey before it strikes.
“Charlie? Hellooo?” Eli’s hand waves in front of my face, forcing me back to our present conversation. “Where did you go?”
Somewhere I really don’t want to. “Nowhere.”
“Liar.” He calls me out immediately. “You’re worried.”
“Am not,” I try to deny, but already know it’s pointless. He already knows how I feel about revisiting our home town.
“You are too.”
“My question is, why aren’t you more worried?” He lived there too. Are the ghosts from his past not coming to haunt him too?
“Because I put my ghosts to rest, honey.”
“Why can’t I just let mine haunt me for a little while longer?”
“You could.” He abandons the section of the project we were looking at and comes around the desk until his arms are wrapped around me. It’s weird how fast this position has felt like home for us. Like we’ve been doing it for years.
Leaning my forehead against his chest, I close my eyes and breathe him in.
“But if you do, you’re just stuck where you are now. Battling the things you want to face even though you might feel afraid to face them.”
I sigh. No matter how much I want to deny it, he’s right. “Can you be wrong, just this once?”
“It’s cute you think I’m ever wrong.”
“Then what animal can predict earthquakes?”
“What is this,Jeopardy?”
“You’re not answering the question.” I start singing theJeopardytheme song while I watch him search for the correct answer. Flip through whatever file cabinets he has in that brain of his. At least, I’m assuming it’s file cabinets. That’s the imageI have in my head when I go looking for something. Looking through each file, fingers flying so fast it’s blurry like a cartoon until I find exactly what I’m looking for.
By the time myJeopardysong comes to an end, he looks like he’s about to explode and rushes out an answer. “Axolotl.”
“Definitely not an axolotl. Which makes you one hundred percent wrong.”
“What’s the answer then?”
I lean closer to him until I can practically smell the breath mint he sucked on earlier, wishing it was me the whole time. “One you’re not going to like.”
My lips press to his before he can realize what the correct answer is. I can tell when he does though, because his whole body shudders and he practically jumps away from me. There’s something about seeing a grown man completely freaked out about something that he doesn’t see in his everyday life. Hell, the last time he saw one was probably on the camping trip.
“Why did you have to ask a question about snakes? It literally could have been anything else and you chose snakes.”
“I did,” I say giggling. “I wanted to see you squirm. And see you be wrong twice.”
“You only gave me one question. That’s once.” He holds up a finger while the other hand is planted firmly on his chest like he’s trying to keep his heart in place.
“Well you did say you were never wrong.” I hold up my own pointer finger. “And then you answered the question wrong.” I add my middle finger. “One. Two.”
He’s quiet like he’s trying to figure something out, while we stand here in some kind of weird standoff. After a minute or so, his eyes widen and he straightens up.
“You completely deflected.”
Batting my eyelashes, I pretend I have no idea what he’s talking about.
“No idea what you mean.”
