Hearing Brian on their cabin steps, Hailey stopped putting on her sweater, certain something wonderful had happened. Brian stepped across the threshold, bouncing on his shoes’ famous air cushion.
Immediately beside her, he murmured “Ah. Um,” and arranged the orange V-neck over her head and pulled her arms through the sleeves. He smoothed the soft wool along her hips and Hailey sank back on the freshly made bed.
“Good news?”
“Nothing special. Trevor took off into the woods mid-run again. But of course he’s fine.”
“That’s good, Brian. It’s good you're not worried about him. And you shouldn’t be—don’t get me wrong. It’s just that ever since Trevor started his following, nobody questions him.”
“Well, how often is he wrong?”
Hailey smiled because Brian’s unrelenting anxiety had never helped. And when she learned this newly conquered, carefree realm extended to her, too, she had celebrated with him. “Here’s to happiness! Here’s to liberty!”
[Click here to read the first episode, or here to read the previous one.]
But Trevor meditating in the woods aroused Hailey’s suspicions. The food he trucked up there certainly wasn’t for him. Dried apricots and boxes of Parmalat milk? What were Angelina and the rest of them thinking? Hailey appreciated Trevor’s remarkable personality. But the Black Mountain community loved Trevor so much they couldn’t see straight.
Why didn’t anyone except Hailey care that this great lover of women and friend to men would always live apart? Fun, funny, fantastically attractive, Trevor knew perfectly well how alone he was.
He could calm and even carry anyone—except himself, and often said so. But except for Hailey, it seemed nobody heard him.
She hesitated to mention this to Brian because only recently had he overcome his anxiety about Trevor.
The brothers ran together every morning. And Brian told her that besides all the camping food, Trevor had brought into the woods, smocks, hats, mittens, and leggings.
Which to Hailey sounded very weird. While Brian hadn’t thought twice about it. He had been so busy trying to dismiss Marc Swift. The consortium was buying up Marc’s contract, but the man still raged. “Carla gains like what, a hundred pounds? And I’m getting fired? My lawyer will call you.”
“Fine,” Brian told him.
Angelina invited Carla to stay in the main cabin, which sparked Kaya’s jealousy. No more mooning over Trevor, who was now paying Carla private visits; no more teasing Alec.
So once Carla was settled, Hailey asked Brian to check on Trevor’s off-trail journeys. They agreed he couldn’t follow the all-knowing Trevor without asking him first. “Just tell him I’m nosey.”
“Except you’re not.”
No lag time: the next day, Trevor decided to run through the woods instead of along the trail. “Mind if I join you?” Brian asked.
“Dun know. The ignorant spirit up there? Might bring me crosses maybe.”
Brian nodded, yes, a spirit. “Ya must step screechy. Stay quiet an promise—it’s a secret.”
Several feet from the top, Brian hid behind a boulder. Trevor crouched by a tree. From which came a guttural, “Caw! Caw!” Pulling a harmonica from his shorts, Trevor sang “Mellow Mood.”
“…I’ve got love, darling…I’ll play your favorite song, darling…”
And his plea sounded so private, so sacred, that Brian crept away, his spirit heavy.
(Click here for the next episode)
