Page 32 of Leave No Trace
‘What?’ I glanced in the rearview mirror.
‘That’s what those signs said the other night. That’s who those people are.’ Lucas looked behind us, but Congdon was already out of sight. ‘They want you to let me go.’
Sighing, I tried to explain the situation, the controversial celebrity he’d become, but the more I said, the more agitated both passengers became. Jasper whined and tried to pace, hitting me in the face with his tail, rubbing his head nervously against the seats. I steered the car over the cracked and potholed pavement, climbing higher up the hill until we reached the Enger Trailhead.
‘Look, it’s complicated.’ I checked the parking lot to make sure it was empty before pulling into a spot. ‘These people don’t understand the legal system or the mental health system.’
‘Neither do I,’ Lucas muttered.
Jasper and I got out and then let Bryce and Lucas out of the backseat. Bryce immediately lit up a cigarette.
‘All you need to know is that they love you,’ Bryce puffed. ‘They hate me, they hate Maya, and they love you, all right?’
‘Bryce.’
He rolled his eyes and turned away, scanning the perimeter. ‘I can’t even log in to Twitter anymore, I’m getting tagged on so many posts. I had to cancel my Facebook account. One of my cousins is out there protesting and texting me every day. Every freaking day. She thinks I’m the reason he got sent to St Mary’s.’
‘Bryce, we can talk about this later.’ We could talk about how I sided with his cousin on that one, but right now Lucas was absorbing every word, his gaze shifting between the two of us.
‘Yeah, right.’ Bryce took another drag. ‘So what are we doing here?’
I pointed out the Superior Hiking Trail that led into the woods at the south side of the Twin Ponds. It wound up through the park and toward Enger Tower, the five-story bluestone observation building. ‘And if you try to run or incapacitate Bryce or me in any way during this walk, Jasper is going to have you for lunch. Understand?’
I said it mostly for Bryce’s benefit, but Lucas still shifted uneasily.
‘I understand.’
‘Okay, then. Let’s hike.’
The four of us set off. Enger Park was situated on the peak of the bluff overlooking Superior. Below us to the east, Victorian houses and brick buildings stood in varying degrees of disrepair from the constant punishment of the winds. To the west the land flattened out into college campuses, strip malls, and suburban housing before giving way to forests and the Iron Range beyond. The temperature on top of the hill was always at least five degrees warmer than downtown at the water’s edge. Sometimes ten. Today that meant we were flirting with fifty degrees and only traces of the blowing snow from a few days ago remained, swept into the crevices underneath rock ledges and gathered at the base of evergreens. I led our strange little troop on to the trail and up toward the summit.
Jasper led the pack with Lucas and me following and Bryce bringing up the rear. The path was littered with dead and decaying leaves and I sensed Lucas looking around, trying to gauge the extent of the forest. He stared at the tower on the hill and seemed surprised when we descended into a parking lot in the middle of the trees. I kept walking, moving away from the cars and the few people milling near the tower, directing us up a set of stone steps to a giant gazebo with pergolas on either side. A slope of exposed rock – anorthosite gabbro dotted with scrub bushes – provided a perfect outcrop in front of the gazebo to get a panorama of the largest freshwater harbor in the world.
Lucas stared at the horizon of blue. ‘Where’s the other side?’
Bryce huffed out a laugh and shook his head.
‘It’s out there,’ I shrugged. ‘I’ve never seen it.’
‘Your dad has.’
I nodded, scanning the blur where clouds met water. ‘He’s out there somewhere, too.’
After examining the drop-off around the outcrop and eyeing Jasper’s position – within biting distance of the meaty part of Lucas’s leg – Bryce wandered back up to the gazebo and lit another cigarette. I watched him pull out his phone and start texting people, apparently too wrapped up in his unwanted Internet attention to worry about our patient escaping. Leading Lucas and Jasper over to a bench, I wrapped my coat around my middle and curled up on the iron slats. After a beat, Lucas sat down next to me.
‘What is it?’ I asked.
He shook his head, refusing to respond even as he glanced back at the trees again.
‘Don’t even think about it. Jasper is much faster than you.’
He heaved out a sigh and crossed his arms, staring sightlessly at the vista. ‘Why should I tell you what the matter is?’
The retort, an angry teenager’s reply, sent my brain stumbling back. I thought we were beyond this. Keeping my tone casual, I reached down to scratch Jasper behind the ears. ‘Well, I’m glad you asked. This is what we call therapy. The modern form of psychoanalysis was developed ages ago by a guy named Freud, who incidentally could have used some of his own medicine, but informally the idea of communicating to resolve conflict dates back to—’
‘I didn’t ask for therapy, I asked for your help,’ he interrupted. ‘All those people outside Congdon want me to be free. You said you were going to help me, but here we are. In Duluth. Not. Going. Anywhere. Do you know how frustrating it is when someone you love is suffering and you can’t get to them?’
I swallowed and stared at the fractures in the rock where the weeds kept growing even with the nightly frost freezing their leaves. They would be back next year and the next, never flourishing, never giving up.
