Speakers blasted dance songs from local radio station WRLI, while runners stretched and jogged for their warm up. Porta-Potties decorated the sidelines with their powder blue and white stripes. Vendor tents and tables piled with sunshine-yellow bananas welcomed the participants. Warm light reflected off the shamrock-covered grass. Faces determined, nervous, focused, smiling.
Victoria glanced at the overhead digital clock. Only three minutes remained before the official start to the race. She watched the families gather to support their loved ones.
Heather promised to take her daughters to the fall festival celebration at Red Rooster Farms today. She couldn’t wait to hear about their usual antics. She pictured Catherine beaming at herself in the bedroom mirror after yesterday’s first victory with Jean.
“This is the worst managed race I’ve ever attended. Who’s organizing this?” A voice emerged from behind.
Victoria spun to find a handsome, salt and pepper haired man standing less than a foot away, holding a bouquet of flowers. Her smile returned to its upward position.
“They’re beautiful,” she said.
“Unfortunately they’re store bought. There isn’t much left in my gardens to compliment your beauty.”
She brought the flowers to her nose, breathing in their fresh scent. The mellow-harvest bouquet with its scented geraniums and rustic autumn colors warmed her heart like a bonfire celebration. Amongst a crowd of thousands, she could not thank him as she wished, could not embrace him for his gift. It stung like a yellow jacket, the burn excruciating.
Boom
! Shrieks and applause bellowed from behind as the athletes fired across the start line. She turned to watch throngs of contenders leave their mark – their families cheering them on.
Aiden twisted her back towards him and stole a kiss from her thirsty lips. The hollering continued as spectators ran passed them in hurried leaps. She didn’t care who saw anymore. Didn’t care one bit.
Chapter 37
Heather
Heather and Silvatri travelled up the winding road that led to the rock climbing facility in New Paltz. The two and a half hour drive provided them with various conversations ranging from hospital gossip, his son’s seventh birthday party, Rori losing another tooth and the plan of finding a secluded area with a perfectly shaped rock to throw her against.
They met Jason their guide, hiked for a quarter of a mile on a narrow mountain trail to a flat base and waited while Jason secured the first hold. Heather and Silvatri ate the clementines she brought and then he climbed upon a pile of rocks nearby. Heather took pictures of him posing like the God he was.
The late September weather released the humidity, blessing them with seventy-degree temperatures. At 9:30 in the morning though, under the shade from the tall trees, Heather shivered in the cool air.
“Are you cold?” Silvatri asked.
She smiled, remembering the first time he asked her that six months ago. So much had happened since then. Their sexual trysts blossomed into strong feelings of passion and love.
“Yes, it was warmer when we were hiking in the sun carrying all the equipment.”
He sat behind her, straddled his legs around, then took his fleece-covered arms and insulated her. They rocked back and forth on the granular earth.
“Are you upset Richard and Jenny couldn’t make it?” she asked.
“Not at all.”
Heather’s body warmed from his answer. Every week spent together, she felt closer to him. She thought of Victoria’s romantic relationship and Catherine’s sadistic one and wondered where she fit in.
Jason secured the last of the ropes and looked up. “Who’s first?”
“I’ll go,” Silvatri said.
Silvatri began his climb and made it appear effortless. Halfway up though, he slipped. Jason coached him as to where he should place his left foot. Although strong, his massive frame meant more weight to lift and swing around.
He made it to the top, let out a gorilla wail and hopped down at a fast pace.
Heather held up her hand to high-five him, but wobbled, her locked knees noticeable.
Silvatri hugged her tight. “You’ll be fine, relax.” Then kissed her on the lips.
She smiled at the massive rock. Good fear she thought. Except this wall was real, no cute-shaped holds to dangle from. She completed 5.9 climbs right alongside him at the facility, but this presented all new challenges.
She began her ascent carefully gliding her feet from ledge to crack to crevice. Heather leaped to reach the next hold, fell and swung wide. Her heartbeat quickened and despite the cool temperatures, the sweat mounted on her palms. Large sprays of chalk floated down on the men below.
“It’s only September Heather. There’s no snow yet,” Silvatri hollered.
She quivered at the height she scaled. Seventy feet higher than the indoor place and she only clambered half way up so far. She panicked, rested her foot on a tiny ledge and heaved out breaths.
“You okay?” Jason asked.
“Yes,” she lied. This would be her one and only climb. Just one to say she did it. She would be more than happy to watch Silvatri scramble up the various crags the rest of the day.
Heather reached up to the next hold and saw the flat, smooth surface before her. No fissures, no jagged edges to touch with the tips of her fingers, no slits or openings anywhere.
“You have to lean your entire body into the mountain. Face, hands, arms, against the rock. Use your feet to step up. Once you get your foot where your hand is now, you can push yourself up a few feet and then reach the next level which has a tiny hand hold on the left.”
Was he insane?
“Heather, remember that exercise Richard taught you where you do an entire climb with your hands behind your back? Do that.”
“This is totally different.”
“No, it’s not,” he shouted back.
She rested her chest, hips and face against the cold rock, then extended her arms up the mirror-like surface, spread eagle.
“Oh yeah,” Silvatri said.
“Knock it off.” How could he think of sex at a time like this? She slowly lifted her right foot to where her hand was and stepped up as if skipping an entire wrung on a ladder. With the new height, she searched for the handhold. “Where is it?”
“It was right there.”
“Your arm reach is longer than mine.”
“Excuses.”
Heather brought her other foot up still unable to grasp hold of anything with her hands.
“You’re going to have to jump,” Jason said.
“Never again,” she mumbled. The top ledge an additional twenty-five feet at least. “I hate this, I hate you.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” She peered above and noticed the ridge on her left. The rope pulled her toward the right though. If she missed, her entire body would swing to the right, with no way to get back.
Heather counted to three, pushed off with her left leg and propelled herself up, catching on to the sharp gravelly hold.
“All right!” Jason shouted.
Holy Shit. She did it. Relax, breathe, catch your breath. Heather finished the elevation as quickly as possible, reached the top and smacked it.
“Keep going,” Jason said.
“But I’m done.”
“Climb up and over the ledge.”
“For what?”
“The view.”
“The view? No way, uh uh.”
“No regrets, remember?” Silvatri said.
Heather kicked her foot skyward, rested her heel over the top, and pulled herself higher as if doing a pull-up. She rolled over flat on her back, gasping and looking at the sky. Only one small cloud that looked like Mr. Snuffleupagus floated by. She heard their shouts, disappointed with her stalling.
She rolled onto her stomach, crawled an inch at a time to the edge, peered down at them and felt ill.
Then she looked to her right and beheld nothing but aqua sky and treetops with speckles of orange, red, and yellow feathery-spikes resembling rows of Celosia dispersed throughout the green trees.
Mountaintops surrounded her and the full understanding of how high they were, struck. The road that encircled the area, the quarter mile hike, the one hundred foot climb, brought her to the height of the clouds.
She stood. The sun shone upon her, a breeze fluttered the leaves on the scraggly tree where Jason tied their ropes. She was free. No Lance, no Jean, nobody to restrain or suffocate her. She imagined her daughters standing beside her and breathing in the fresh air.
Heather conquered this, another fear dismantled. Victoria’s 10k success last week had empowered her, and Catherine had laid into Jean. They were strong women and still growing.
Heather took in one final crisp breath and knew she could defeat all her demons.
“Are you okay?” Silvatri’s voice echoed.
“Yes.” Heather beamed, then hitched herself back over the ledge to make her descent.
She touched the earth where her backpack relaxed on its side and then reevaluated the climb she completed. “What’s next?” She pretended to yawn.
After lunch, the three of them gathered their gear and tracked to the next climbing spot. “I meant to tell you,” Silvatri dumped their belongings beside a tree, “that new rock climbing facility they’re constructing near the hospital is supposed to open next month. I drove by yesterday on the way home.”
“How does it look?”
“Huge.”
“We have to check it out.” Heather raised her eyebrows up and down.
The suggestion jolted Silvatri who spun toward Jason. “Where’s the bathrooms?”
“If you go down this trail to the bottom of this section you’ll see a path. Follow it to the right, down about one fifty yards and there’s a Porta-Potty. Otherwise you have to walk back to where you parked.”
“We’ll go back to the parking lot.” Silvatri grabbed Heather’s hand and helped her up and over the boulders spread around them. They strolled down the path until he stopped at the Porta-Potty.
“I thought you said we’d go to the parking lot bathrooms.”
“Nah, that was to give us extra time. He’ll be busy setting up the next climb for at least twenty minutes if not longer. Now’s our chance.” He pecked her lips then dove into the portable facility.
They both used the bathroom and then Silvatri led her off the path into a wooded area. He searched the isolated terrain and then hoisted Heather up on a low boulder. He stood before her, his hands on her shoulders and paused. He peered into her eyes as if never noticing the hazel coloring before. Silvatri’s fingers touched the tendrils of hair and tucked them behind her ears. His eyes continued to stare.
He shifted a few inches forward, hesitated, and examined her lips like a tourist. For the first time, he brushed against her lips with slow silent movements. Lips caressed, grazing and tasting. Gentle and comforting.
He had never kissed her this softly before. Why now? Heather leaned in forcefully and moaned but he pushed her back, and then resumed his unobtrusive movements. His gentle style calmed her. She eased up and let him take control.
The slow discreet manner in which he removed her pants sent tingles up her spine. He entered Heather, gradual nudges, until she felt all of him in her. He slid back and forth unhurried. For once she could feel the full length of him and every inch of her that he rubbed.
This new side of him sparked curiosity. She found herself enjoying it, delighted by his tenderness. She let him operate and maneuver himself while he continued to kiss her in delicate wisps. His blue eyes, wide and inquisitive. Why were they open now? He always kept them closed in the past.
A shiver crawled through her veins and she allowed the love she felt for him to fully emerge. She had fallen in love with Silvatri, and now it was clear he felt the same. The way he studied her, his tender kiss, the gentle lovemaking. Yes, that’s what it was. He was making love to her for the first time. She had felt it and now, so did he.
Months of spending time together, rock climbing every week, deep conversations and stolen kisses in abandoned hallways of the hospital, had cultivated and here, alone in a corner of nature, his love for her had sprung. No longer in a cramped car, struggling to have her. No grunting, no sharp thrusts, no firm pressure of his lips onto hers. At this summit, surrounded by earth’s wild primitive state, he expressed his true feelings to her. Alone, with no one to rush home to, he could reveal it. Should she say
I love you
here, or wait until their drive home tonight?
She experienced freedom on the mountaintop, but now understood which direction her life would go. She would leave Lance, leave him for Silvatri. He would be divorced soon and she would follow. Her daughters would finally have a father that adored them, would take them on trips and play with them in the park. They would have a real role model to look up to when they chose their husbands.
He slid into her one final time, vibrating when he finished. He did not howl, did not move, pressed his eyes tight and squeezed her shoulders in his chest. The powerful way he hugged her confirmed their destined future. She watched his expression and knew it was true. They had fallen in love in this magical scenery. Things were different now, the start of something real and endearing. The first time she loved another man in over fifteen years.
Chapter 38
Catherine
“Bentley, thank you for helping Emily with her homework. I know she looks up to you.”
Bentley ducked his head but the cherry-colored skin shone bright enough for Catherine to catch. Since she attended several of his soccer games, he seemed eager to help Catherine more. She gave him additional responsibilities which lessened her stress but he responded by taking over as the man of the house.
He picked up the lawn mower last month and took pride in carving diagonal strips in the lawn. Of course he held his head high whenever a car drove by, but as long as the arguments decreased and the four of them enjoyed each other’s company, who cared.
Colton entered the kitchen and Catherine glared at him. “What?” he asked. She nodded toward his jacket on the floor, her arms pressed against her chest and waited. “Oh, sorry.” Colton picked up his jacket and hung it over the kitchen chair. “Are we going to that haunted house thing?”