Page 1 of Whispers on the Mountain

1

ZEPHYR

When I moved down to the valley last summer, I thought it was going to be permanent, but Slow River isn't home.

This is.

I stand up straight and roll my shoulders back, stretching my stiff muscles and enjoying the early summer sun on my face.

All around me, the mountains are waking up to the late spring. The snow has melted away this far up, although there's still plenty left on the highest peaks. Everything has turned green and the wildflowers are competing for best in show.

This is my favorite place to be any time of the year, but especially now. I have an impulse to spin around and sing, Sound of Music style.

I pick a song I actually know and throw myself a private dance party right here on the hillside, and when it turns out I don't actually know the whole song, I flop down in the grass and the flowers and laugh at myself for being such a dork.

No wonder I can't get a boyfriend.

Oh well, back to what I was doing.

Picking up my basket and the set of gardening tools I brought up with me, I walk up the hill to a patch of monkey flowers and dig the trowel into the moist soil so I can pull up enough to transplant. These are scarlet monkey flowers, Mimulus cardinalis, bright red flowers that will bring hummingbirds to the garden all summer.

There's just enough room in the basket for maybe one more plant. I'd love to add some elephants’ heads to the garden, but it's too early for them up this high still so I just keep wandering around, keeping my eyes open for something that looks good.

Slow River is okay, I guess. It's a much bigger town than the little mountain community I grew up in. It has more restaurants to choose from, more bars to drink at, more traffic on the roads, and more options. As in, men.

I thought living there for a full year while I did a florist apprenticeship with Callie would get me out of my shell. I thought I'd meet a cowboy from one of the big cattle ranches in the valley and, well...I thought that even if I wasn't married by now, at least I wouldn't still be carrying my V-card.

Seriously? Doesn't this thing have an expiration date on it?

Obviously, neither my heart nor my virginity got claimed by a handsome rancher.

My apprenticeship is almost up and I'm already packing my apartment. Honestly, I can't wait to move back up to Moonshine Ridge. I miss Mom and Gran and-- yeah, I even miss my brothers.

Raine's mellowed out so much since he got married last year, and he and April just found out they're finally pregnant; Cane's still a brooding, control freak, but running the camp keeps him from getting too annoying; and even gran hasn't heard from Hayle in over a year now.

I miss my oldest brother the most, but he left the Ridge almost five years ago and hasn't done much to keep in touch with us.

After my dad and grandpa were killed in an accident when I was just a baby, my oldest brother, Hayle, always promised me he'd be the one to walk me down the aisle at my wedding and I can't imagine it any other way, so I guess it's just as well that I'm not in any danger of getting married anytime soon.

My fingers absently run along the worn fabric of the latest flannel shirt I stole from Hayle's closet. Mom and I have been taking care of his house while he's gone; making sure pipes don't burst in the winter, and that the mice and the bears stay outside, keeping the place ready for him in case he ever does come back.

But it's a beautiful day and the flowers are blooming everywhere I look; a perfect day for filling in the garden so I'll have flowers to keep in stock all summer.

Picking myself off the ground-- literally and metaphorically-- I grab my basket and tools and head farther uphill. Closer to the fence line that marks Turtle Dam Village. Population, one...smoking hot, brooding, mysterious as fuck, Italian electrical engineer that never seems to be around when I'm up snooping for another look at him.

A girl can dream, can't she?

* * *

Augustus

Even when the crews are here on their regular shifts, it's a lonely job, but it comes with a house, it pays well, and I know the company-- and its money-- are legit.

The hydro project went in in the seventies, the state leased the land from the Hart family-- who still owns most of the land I can see out my office window-- Turtle creek was dammed to create Turtle Lake, and the power plant went in and has been in operation ever since.

At some point, the company built an entire town up here at the plant-- houses, a school, a post office, even a general store-- whatever it took to get the employees they needed for the plant. It must have been hard to get people up here, it's an hour from the little town of Moonshine Ridge, and the Ridge isn't much of a town. It's another two hours down to Slow River where you finally start finding big box stores and fast food.

From my understanding, Turtle Dam was a thriving company town through the seventies and well into the eighties but then, I guess the workers started choosing to make the commute up from the valley instead of living so far from the conveniences of civilization. The little village was a ghost town long before I came along.

---