Bayview Heights Trilogy (73 page)

He swore. After a tense silence, he flipped
on the boom box. The most godawful heavy metal blared from the
speakers.

But it precluded any more conversation.

o0o

“ALL RIGHT, who’d like to explain to our
adult participants what ‘reaction sheets’ are? You’ve all done them
in class with me.”

Shelley raised her hand. Zoe nodded to her.
“They’re open-ended statements where you fill in the blanks. Their
purpose is to get a discussion going about what’s on your
mind.”

“Thank you, Shelley,” Zoe said. “Tonight,
we’ll start out with small-group discussion. We’ll work first in
our volunteer groups. Day-care people together, elementary-school
people together, et cetera.”

“Where’ll you and Mr. Ransom be?” Erica
asked.

“Mr. R will work with the peer helpers, since
Rob and Evan aren’t coming up until tomorrow.” The boys had a
soccer game tonight and were driving to the site with Barb Sherman
in the morning. “I’ll drop in and out of groups this first time to
see how you’re doing.”

Zoe distributed the sheets to group leaders.
“All right, ten minutes to fill these out. Remember, you have to be
honest or it won’t work. And don’t worry, if you write something
that you don’t want to share, you don’t have to.”

Everyone smiled at that.

“But at least half of your answers should be
shareable.”

After the kids got to work, Zoe sank onto a
pillow in the corner as far away from Kurt as possible. He’d taken
a seat at the picnic table and was hunched over his reaction sheet,
his face a study in intensity. Left-handed, he scribbled on the
paper. His forest-green thermal shirt stretched across his broad
shoulders, and she tried not to notice the muscles in his forearms
and chest.

She forced herself to concentrate on her
reaction sheet.

The five most important people in your
life are…

Zoe swallowed hard, heard herself admonish
the kids to be honest. She wrote Cassie, Lacey, Seth. Who else was
she really close to? Erica.

Be honest. She wrote,
Kurt
.

Next question.
One professional goal you
have is
…

That was easy. Keep the electives
going
, despite the Jerry Boscos of the world. He’d made an
appointment to observe some of her classes next week, and she
groaned inwardly at the thought.

One thing I’d change in my life
is
...Unfortunately that was easy, too.
Forget Kurt. Get on
with my life
. Damn, she’d been doing a good job with that
until he’d come back to Bayview Heights.

Ten minutes later after everyone had filled
out their sheets individually, Zoe directed them to form groups.
When assembled, she wandered around as they talked about who was
important to them.

“My mother.”

“Evan, of course.”

“My little brother.”

The kids’ most important people echoed
through the room.

“Mitch,” she heard when she passed Kurt’s
table. In spite of her resolve, she wondered who else he’d put
down. His daughter, Lauren? Was Elizabeth on his list? Was
she?

Finally Zoe joined a group. She smiled at
Alex when he asked, “What’s one thing you think is a waste of time,
Ms. Caufield?”

She glanced down at her paper. “Regrets.”

“We should live life for today,” one of the
students said.

“Yes,” she said glancing in Kurt’s direction.
“We should.”

o0o

BLINDFOLDED, KURT STUMBLED on something in
the yard. A surprisingly strong hand gripped his arm.

“Don’t like this, do you, Doctor.” Erica
sounded amused.

“Not one single bit.”

A pause. They moved in baby steps to the
campfire. “Is it ‘cause of me or the activity?” Amazing what you
could hear in a person’s tone when you couldn’t see her. Erica’s
question held a quiver of insecurity.

“It’s the activity, Erica.”

“You mean you trust me not to let you fall
flat on your face?”

“Absolutely.” He hoped, anyway.

She held on to him. “Hmm.”

He smiled. Her response reminded him of Zoe.
Whom he was glad he couldn’t see. Luck of the draw paired her with
Ransom. He bet the guy had his hands all over her.

Kurt could feel the heat of the campfire as
he neared it. Mid-October nights in the woods were cold, and though
they’d dressed in heavy layers, he was glad for the fire’s warmth.
He heard the director’s voice. “For those of you who can’t see, I’m
roasting marshmallows now. They’ll be ready for s’mores in a
minute.”

Every blindfolded person groaned. Kurt heard
the good-natured quips: “Just wait, Starr. You’re gonna smear that
sucker all over that pretty face.”

“Not on your life, Caruso. I played Helen
Keller once.”

He was beginning to see why Zoe liked working
with kids so much. They were both refreshingly young, yet
astonishingly astute. And they could be very funny.

Erica said, “Okay, open this.”

His fingers fumbled on the cellophane of the
graham crackers.

“For a doctor, you’re pretty clumsy.” This
time her tone was teasing.

“Wait till it’s your turn.”

He repeated the process with the
chocolate.

“Hey, no sneaking a piece,” Erica chided.

Kurt laughed.

“You got it on your face.”

“Where?”

She giggled her way through the directions as
he tried to clean it off.

“All right, now I’ll put the marshmallows
on,” Erica told him. “Wouldn’t want you to get burned.”

He could smell the marshmallows. Feel the
dessert squish when he added the top cracker. Eating a s’more
without seeing it heightened the taste—gooey, ultra sweet and
crunchy.

“All right,” the director said minutes later.
“Take off the blindfolds.”

Kurt’s eyes stung when he removed his
bandanna. Squinting, he scanned the circle. As he’d expected, Zoe
sat too close to Ransom. The guy was cleaning off her fingers with
a napkin, and he looked as if he might even take a lick. Kurt’s
chest hurt with the effort to contain his feelings.

Quietly Erica came up behind him. “Leave her
alone, Dr. Lansing.” Gone was the gentle teasing of just minutes
earlier. An aggressiveness, a sense of control, replaced it.

Oh, Lord, Zoe would hate the kids getting
involved in her problems. She was a private person in so many
ways.

“Now,” the director announced, “let’s switch
blindfold partners.”

His back to Zoe, Kurt raised his brows at
Erica. “Your turn to trust me, Red Riding Hood.” He did a fair
imitation of the wolf.

She glanced over his shoulder at Zoe.
“Maybe,” she said, and accepted the blindfold.

o0o

“THIS IS THE OBSTACLE COURSE that each group
member will navigate. Teams are not in competition.” The Down to
Earth director eyed the kids and adults assembled at nine o’clock
Saturday morning. “Your team of four has several activities to
complete. Each person must do each activity. If someone has
difficulty with one, it’s the rest of the group’s job to help
them.”

Barb Sherman, who’d arrived an hour ago with
Evan and Rob, said brightly, “That’s the objective of this morning,
kiddos. Cooperation, problem-solving as a group and
trust-building.”

Good-naturedly the kids moaned. Already they
were tired of hearing why they were here. Zoe knew that, but it was
important to reiterate that they weren’t just out for fun.

“Which group would like to go first?”

Kurt stepped right up. He looked rested today
and sexy in a Georgetown sweatshirt, worn jeans and boots. “We
do.”

Julia, Shondra and Dan rolled their eyes.
“Why do the adults always volunteer to go first?” Julia asked.

“Who knows?” Shondra answered. “God, I’m
going to be so embarrassed.”

Kurt faced them. “It’s best to go first. Get
it over with.” When they frowned at him, he said, “Where’s your
sense of adventure?”

The three kids smiled and crowded around the
director for instructions on the first activity. Hoffman held on to
a ten-foot rope that was suspended from a sturdy tree limb far
above their heads. “This is called the ‘swing obstacle.’ Grab on to
the rope like this—” he clasped his hands as high on the rope as he
could reach “—take a running leap, or have your peers push you off,
and swing over the grass past that marker on the ground. You have
to get on the other side of it. Once there, stay and catch your
partners.”

After the explanation, he demonstrated the
task.

Then Dan said, “I’ll go first.” Grabbing the
rope, he stepped back several feet. “Me Tarzan!” he yelled as he
took the leap and crossed the grassy area, easily clearing it.

Julia rolled her eyes. “How cute.”

Shondra went next. She missed on her first
try. And her second. “I’m a klutz,” she told the others.

“All right, let’s help her.” Kurt grinned as
he showed her how to grab the rope; then he and Julia swung her
back and forth three times and gave her a final shove; she made it
over. Dan grabbed her on the other side and hugged her.

“Help me,” Julia said to Kurt.

Again he grinned. “Be glad to.”

With Kurt’s assistance, she made it to the
other side. His turn now, Kurt grasped the rope, stepped back
several feet and took some running steps; he flew over the grass,
well past the marker. With so much momentum behind him, when the
kids tried to catch him, the four of them toppled over in a
heap.

Giggles and masculine chuckles emanated from
the ground as they gathered themselves up; Dan dusted dirt off the
back of Kurt’s clothes and Shondra picked leaves out of Julia’s
hair. Zoe smiled.

An hour later they got to the next activity.
The kids crowded around as the director indicated a log suspended
horizontally about ten feet above the ground by a chain on either
end. “Each person has to crawl up onto the log, sit on it, then
come down on the other side.”

“Nobody can reach it,” Shelley said. “It’s
too high.” Her group, along with Zoe and Rob and Barb Sherman went
first this time. Ashley, who’d gotten dizzy on the swing obstacle,
had been excused from this one.

“Right,” Hoffman said. “The group has to
boost each person up, and then get them down on other side. It’s
called cooperation.”

Rob mumbled, “No fair. Some groups got the
short stuffs.”

Zoe marched up to Rob and poked him in the
chest as she looked up at him. “No short jokes, buddy. I can hold
my own.” Her height didn’t matter on the Tarzan thing, Zoe thought
five minutes later, but it clearly was a drawback on the “log
mount.” Her diminutive stature necessitated several more tries than
the other participants. Twice, her group fell to the ground,
laughing. But finally Zoe was perched on top of the log. “Hey,” she
said, raising her arms. “I made it.”

They completed two other obstacles—a
mechanism called the “traverse,” where, ten feet above the ground,
they crossed a tightrope holding on to another horizontal rope,
which was chest high. For the second, they had to crawl on their
bellies or hands and knees through big pipes and square boxlike
objects. Finally came the last and most complicated obstacle. It
involved pulleys, safety harnesses and tightrope lines, all of
which they’d used in other exercises, but this thing was higher
than the others, and more precarious.

Kurt’s group went first again.

“Okay, Dr. Lansing,” Julia said; Zoe noticed
the girl was smiling. “Since you’re such a hotshot, you start us
off.”

Kurt stepped right up.

“I’ll walk you through it,” the director said
after he’d demonstrated the four part obstacle. First—” he held out
a rope ladder “—climb this. Your group will anchor it.”

“Cooperation,” Kurt mumbled under his breath
as he whipped off his sweatshirt, revealing a gray cotton T-shirt
underneath. Muscles bulging, he ascended the rope ladder. The kids
let it sway a bit to tease him, but mostly held on tight. When he
reached the first platform—all platforms were attached to huge
trees—he punched the air and shouted, “Yes!”

“Now, lock one end of the safety harness to
the overhead safety line. Check that the other end is tight at your
waist.” Kurt followed the directions. “The best way to get over the
tire bridge—” the director pointed to the molded-together tires
that looked like a rubber cylinder suspended between two platforms
“—is to walk. But you’re allowed to crawl, too, if you can’t get
your balance. You can hold on to the horizontal anchor rope over
your head.”

Zoe swallowed hard, suddenly uncomfortable
when Kurt chose to walk. He got his balance easily and stepped over
the tires like a Barnum and Bailey pro, lightly hanging on to the
stretched overhead line until he reached the other side.

“This is freakin’ scary,” Julia said,
scowling as she watched Kurt.

“I’m not gonna be able to do that,” Shondra
put in.

“Wow!” Erica’s comment came from behind her.
“I wanna fly like that.”

Erica’s was an odd comment, especially for a
girl who’d refused to go on the roller coaster when they’d gone to
Six Flags last year.

Zoe’s stomach clutched when Kurt reached the
last part of the obstacle. Though she’d done this very course
before, it was different watching Kurt do it. He seemed
inordinately high up. And the final obstacle was the toughest. The
object was to cross the last space by stepping on a series of three
tiny swings; Zoe herself had had trouble with this part.

“Okay, Kurt, make sure the harness is secure
to the overhead line. And don’t grab on to the caribiner if you
fall,” Hoffman said, referring to the harness attachment. “Now grab
the ropes of the first swing and step out into it.”

Standing on the platform, Kurt grasped the
two ropes of the small swing. He stepped out with one foot, then
another to stand fully on the first board. The thing swayed back
and forth with his weight. “Jeez,” she heard him say.