Page 99 of His One True Wish

If he was gone, I had a feeling that Axl was a man who left forever. He thought he wasn’t good enough for me. I’d done a damn fine job of convincing him he was right. I needed him to know that he was wrong.

What would Gran do?I wondered.

I finally whispered words out loud. “I wish I knew where he was, Gran. I wish I could find him.” I closed my eyes and tried to calm my beating heart. Gran didn’t answer. Instead, I heard the rustle of the wind moving through the trees, the quiet of the south field, and in the distance, the white noise of the distant river.

Walking back to my truck, I heard a single bark in the distance. I froze.

Another bark cut through the quiet of the outdoors.

“Cam?” I whispered, standing totally still.

Another bark followed, then another. Heart pounding, my eyes scoured the trees for a flash of black-and-white fur. Seeing nothing, I walked toward the sound.

“Cam?” I called. Walking faster, I followed the path along the south field toward the woods.

I heard another bark, louder this time. I broke out in a run, cutting across the uneven south field. She barked again.

“Cam!” I shouted. “Where are you, girl?”

My feet thudded across the gray snow in the back field. I almost lost my footing on the slope before the trees. The roar of the river grew louder. The water was much higher than before. Cam’s barking increased. She did not sound like she was playing. Cam sounded alarmed.

I ran through the trees. My breathing short, legs pumping. I wasn’t cold. I wasn’t hot. I was focused on one thing. Finding Axl. Finding Cam. Something was wrong. I just knew it.

I wove along the muddy path that Axl and I had walked days before. Water dripped off the tree canopy. Sagging branches intruded onto the path, heavy with snow.

Cam’s barking was closer, but I still hadn’t caught sight of her. I reached the edge of the woods and stopped where the path reached the steep bank of the river. A flash of black-and-white jumped by the edge of the river.

“Cam!” I yelled, clapping my hands. I maneuvered down the slope. Cam looked back at me and continued to jump and bark at the edge of the river. Her fur was wet and muddy. I followed her gaze. Axl clung to a rock just below her in the icy water.

Fear gripped me. The water was deep and cold. “Axl!” I shouted. I sidestepped carefully, inching my way to the snow-covered boulders at the edge of the river.

Axl was wedged between rocks, his big arms gripping the edge of a slippery boulder. He tried to raise himself up, but there wasn’t enough traction for him to get out of the water. He heaved himself up,then sunk back down into the white water. His eyes darted to shore and met mine.

“Hold on!” I shouted, looking around the shore for a branch, for something Axl could hold onto.

“Billie!” he gasped, pointing behind me. “There! Right there!”

Cam faithfully dashed back and forth marking Axl’s spot in the water. I knew that dog wasn’t moving until I had her master out.

Behind me, I saw a big log stuck in the snow and the mud. I moved to pick it up and saw Axl nodding. We both had the same idea. My arms shook, but I managed to lift the log and drop it between the boulders above Axl’s arms. It locked into place.

“It won’t move!” I shouted, my voice shaking. I walked over and thumped it with my foot. My body was hot and pumped full of adrenaline.

Axl nodded as he looked up at me. He didn’t speak. I figured he was saving all his energy for climbing out of the river. His face tense, Axl held onto the rock with one hand, and as I stood on the log to make sure it didn’t move, he lifted his other arm, and with a heavy thud, gripped the branch.

“Hold. On,” he grunted, raising himself out of the river with a roar.

His jacket was gone; he wore only a long black shirt, pants, and boots. Hand-over-hand, he pulled himself slowly up onto the rock before rolling off and onto the muddy bank of the river.

“Axl!” I jumped off the log and dropped to my knees. I grasped his face with my hands. Tears racked my body.“What were you doing?” I shouted. “You almost died. You almost died, you idiot.”

He smiled and put his hands over mine. He looked pale and tired and he coughed a bit. “I was making a goddamn wish,” he said, looking up at me.

“You what?” I whispered, rocking back on my knees.

“I promised your gran,” he gasped, his breath coming out in spurts. He’d propped himself up on his elbows. “I promised her that I’d make a wish in this damn river. Cam fell in. I got her out.”

“Oh, my god,” I said, laughing and crying. I pressed my face to his quivering chest. He was damp and cold. “You are such an idiot.”

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