The setting sun rested its crimson rays behind snow capped mountains. Soft breezes rustled the aspen leaves creating whispers on the wind as embers floated gently on the evening air rushing skyward as the camp fire dimmed. Rick pulled the blanket close. “You can’t be serious. It’s freezing.”
“Don’t you want to see the world from a mountain top? Imagine the colors we’ll see, the shapes of the trees, the rocks forming a rugged floor beneath our feet. It will be like climbing to heaven, the thin air filling our empty breasts.” Maggie’s throat was tight with urgency. “We aren’t equipped for a hike, if I had known that was your plan we would have stayed below.”
“We have feet, how much more equipment do we need?” Maggie unwrapped herself from the blanket and stood facing the mountain. “If I can make it to the top I can do anything, survive anything.” She whispered. Hugging her chilled arms she turned to face Rick, her eyes filled with excitement and pleading. Kneeling beside him she rested her head on his knee. Rick gently stroked her curly brown hair. He didn’t want to lose her, not this way, lost on a mountain, frozen to death. He didn’t want to lose her to disease either. If she thought climbing a mountain was the cure who was he to say differently? Maggie seemed to have a line to a God Rick had never met. Silent tears fell, dampening Maggie’s soft hair. “Don’t you think we should at least wait until morning?” Maggie didn’t answer and Rick hoped she had fallen asleep. He covered her with the blanket pressing his body to hers until he could feel warmth return to her chilled bones.
“Oh how I love you,” He whispered.
“If we leave now we can greet the morning sun. I know we can make it, I know it.” Maggie looked deep into his eyes, searching, begging. “Please let me go.” Her silent heart pleaded.
Rick held her face in his hands memorizing each curve, kissing her pale freckled cheek.
“Such an innocent. You are so sure about everything. Even when you got sick you were sure God would heal you. When He didn’t you knew He wanted something from you, wanted you to do something, be something you weren’t. Do you really think He is telling you to climb a mountain? Risk your life? Possibly die? How can you be so sure?”
Rick had been pleading for two years. “Please have the Chemotherapy.” Rick knelt beside the hospital bed pressing his fists deep into the rough sheets.
“It’s too late. I won’t survive the treatment. Maybe if we had caught it sooner, I don’t know. I do know my body couldn’t take it.”
Rick thought about the deals and promises people make with God. Did the ones who bargained for their lives or the lives of a loved one, keep their end of the deal? Or once the tragedy passed, whether by miracle or medicine, did they forget the promise to God and go on with their lives? He wasn’t going to bargain, but he would plead. Plead with a God he wasn’t sure existed. Plead with the saints his mother prayed to. He would plead with a rock if he thought it would save his wife.
Maggie tapped his knee. Rick looked across the camp to see a wolf sitting, panting, waiting. His saw his rifle leaning against the log, right where he left it, now beside the wolf; he would never get to it in time. Rick pulled Maggie in close; he knew one of them wasn’t going to make it. “Isn’t he beautiful?” Maggie whispered. Rick held the wolf in his stare. Maggie stood, her clothes hung loose on her thin body. Rick followed holding tightly to her arm. She tried to pull away, he held fast. “He isn’t here to hurt us; he’s my guide.” Rick shook his head in wonder. Maggie sat down to tighten the laces on her boots. She wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck and buttoned her jacket. “Please let us go.” Maggie spoke softly as though the moment were sacred.
“Us? This wolf is going to lead you up that mountain?” He kept his eye on the rifle.
“Of course, why else would he be here?” Maggie pried his hand from her arm lifting one finger at a time until she was free. Rick knew he had to let her go; this was her journey, her life, maybe her destiny. His stomach ached; he knew it would be her beginning… or her ending.
Maggie’s faced glowed as she walked slowly toward the wolf.
“I’m ready.”
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