The Middle of Somewhere(104)

A man passed by, holding hands with a little girl eating ice cream. Liz remembered what she’d been meaning to ask her mother.

“Russ mentioned the two of you used to hike near here.” Claire gave her a questioning look. “He called me.”

She nodded. “We were roughly your age. He loved to drag me into the woods. Made it hard for me to wander off on my own, as was my inclination. Is.” She stopped short and regarded her daughter. “How long was the backpacking trip you did with Dante?”

“Eighteen days.”

“I always thought you were a loner, Elizabeth. Like me.”

“So did I. But not anymore.”

She brushed the transformation away with her hand. “Either way is fine. You just need to decide what you prefer.”

“Don’t you get lonely?”

“Of course. But that’s the price I pay to get out from under the weight of other people’s perceptions, their judgments. I’m not strong enough to bear them.”

She pitied her mother then, because Liz knew the things that matter most are not borne because of others, but with them.

Late that afternoon, she called Dante from the boarding area. He picked up on the first ring.

“Carina. How is your mother?”

“The same. Older. But fine.” She checked her watch. “My flight’s on time.”

“Good. I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you, too.”

“But Muesli, I’m afraid, feels differently. She has taken up residence on your pillow.”

“Two days and you give her squatter’s rights?”

“She’s persuasive. Especially her claws.”

Liz laughed. “See you in a few hours.”

“Safe travels, carina.”

“Te amo.”

“Te amo.”

She boarded the plane, took her seat at the window and settled in with her book. She looked outside from time to time as they passed over the desert, shadows from the mesas deepening in the canyons. An hour and a half into the flight, Death Valley appeared, glowing like hammered copper. She put down her book. The Sierras came into view, the eastern slopes soaring out of valley, crests dusted white from a recent snow. Row upon row of peaks, stretching northward out of sight. Somewhere below was Mount Whitney. She may have spotted it, but couldn’t be sure. From this vantage point, even the highest mountain in the continental U.S. resembled the others. Somewhere below was Wallace Creek, running to the Kern, and Bubbs Creek and Woods Creek and, farther north, out of sight, the Tuolumne. Someone, quite a few intrepid someones, in fact, were stirring dinner over a tiny stove, or lying huddled in their sleeping bags. Nutcrackers were returning to their roosts. Somewhere below the wind was stealing a treasure of aspen leaves and floating them to the ground. And everywhere pine boughs gave in a little to the snow and granite did not.

The foothills flowed, reaching for the sea. The Sierras were behind her now. She was going home.





AUTHOR’S NOTE


For the purposes of the story, I suggest the park rangers are largely absent, and perhaps not performing their duties. The rangers I have met while backpacking have been universally competent, serious in their duties and extremely friendly. They perform a tough job in a tough environment, and I hope they forgive my license.

The John Muir Trail described in this novel is as close to the actual trail as I could manage, but those familiar with the area may notice I omitted the Crabtree Ranger Station.





QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. How did you feel about Liz when you learned she’d had an abortion and kept it a secret? If your feelings changed over the course of the novel, what caused this change? Did Dante’s ultimate compassion and love alter how you saw Liz?


2. At one level, The Middle of Somewhere can be understood as an allegory, with life as a wilderness and the trail representing the journey through it. The Root brothers, within this metaphor, represent evil. What other elements of the story (characters, events, and places) have allegorical significance?


3. Liz’s marriage to Gabriel began with love and hope and ended in betrayal and disaster. As Dante pointed out, they were very young. Is that the whole story? What is your understanding of what happened between Liz and Gabriel? Do you think Liz has put that behind her?


4. How do you feel about Liz’s affair? Did you feel she had “paid” for her infidelity with the death of her husband? More generally, how do you view Liz in light of her upbringing, her actions (the abortion, the affair, the secrets), and her feelings about herself?