Book Of Days_ A Novel Part 43

"Why?"

"Forgiveness." Taylor eased over to a boulder and sat. "For Kirk."

"Are you kidding? You're okay with what he just did to you?"

"I'm letting it go."

"What if he tries to come after-?"

"He won't. Grange will keep an eye on him. And once they trace Jason's murder to Kirk, the mayor's schedule will be full for a very long time."

Forgiveness.

Cameron stared at the craggy top of the highest peak surrounding the lake, locked his hands behind his neck, and paced back and forth.

Could he do it? Right here, right now? Could he forgive Taylor for telling him the book was real and bringing him here only to shatter his hopes? He'd believed. Taylor had convinced him the Book of Days existed.

But he'd felt G.o.d. He was real. Maybe it was enough.

"So the book is a place of beauty and solitude." Cameron spoke it more to himself than Taylor. "And a place of holiness. A place of G.o.d's presence. But not a place of memories and not a place where the future can be seen."

Taylor gazed at Cameron the way his dad used to. With joy, pride, and love shooting out of his eyes like lightning. "You are a good man, Cameron. We will talk about the book in a bit. But first the lake and I need to do some business."

CHAPTER 47.

Taylor walked to within a few paces of the water and squatted. A moment later tears fell from his cheek and dropped onto the dirt at his feet.

"Do you want to be alone for this?"

"No. I'd like you to be here." He motioned Cameron to join him and waited till they crouched together on the edge of the pond.

Taylor reached into his pocket and pulled out an oblong object wrapped in a powder blue handkerchief. He motioned to it. "One of Annie's handkerchiefs from when she was a little girl." He unwrapped the object slowly, as if to lend some antic.i.p.ation to what was inside. But Cameron already knew.

Taylor twirled the window crank around his fingers to catch the reflection of the sun, but he closed his eyes as the sunlight flashed off it, flared against his face. He let it settle into his palm. He sighed, and without opening his eyes brought the handle to his lips and kissed it.

Then in one quick motion he flung the crank out over the water like a discus thrower, tiny swooshes of air echoing back at them as it floated through the sky. Time seemed to slow as the handle spun clockwise, perfectly horizontal with the water's surface.

Then it was gone, the ripples fading fast, as if time had sped up, and silence filled the air. A silence of peace. Of forgiveness, of hope.

"Good-bye, Annie."

Taylor stood and nodded. "Take a moment, my friend, more than one, and let this place talk to you. Soak it in."

"Who is doing the talking?"

"Often I find that depends on who is listening."

"It was never real, was it?"

"The book? We will see. I want to give you the time you need. The time to possibly do some business with the pool of your own."

Cameron sat back on the turf that ringed the edge of the lake, listening to Taylor's fading footsteps as his friend thumped along the sh.o.r.eline to his left, leaving him with his thoughts.

When Taylor reached a spot directly across the lake from him, Cameron decided his friend was right. He'd known it since the night before, maybe longer. It was time.

He took Jessie's stone out of his pocket, held it in his palm. It felt lighter than it usually did. Then heavier. A few seconds later he couldn't tell how it felt.

He held it out over the lake, his palm up and open, stretching his hand out till his arm ached and still he pressed harder.

Letting go wasn't letting go of her. It was releasing himself to live whatever life he had left, with whatever memories he could hold on to. Even if there wasn't a Book of Days, it didn't matter. Even if there was no direct portal into the mind and heart of G.o.d, telling of the past and what the future would bring, it was still the perfect place to choose freedom.

The lake was gla.s.s. No ripple, not a hint of wind. The mirror image of the surrounding peaks and wispy clouds was so brilliant, the images seemed more real than what it reflected.

Cameron glanced across at Taylor, then back into the lake. He saw why Taylor had convinced himself that the pool gave visions of what was recorded in the heavens. The presence he'd felt in this valley was real, and it was a place he could imagine G.o.d speaking.

Cameron drew back his arm-held it still for a moment-then flung the stone toward the center of the lake as hard as he could. It arced across the sky, a black dot against the sun, then fell in slow motion toward the water, almost seeming to stop before it melted into the deep and disappeared.

Once again the ripples faded almost instantly, and the lake returned to its reflection of a perfect mirror image of the craggy peaks and cobalt sky above him.

"Always love, Jessie. Always and forever."

Suddenly an image appeared on the surface of the water. Cameron's heart surged.

What?

The clouds and mountains vanished, replaced by a 1965 Mustang driving along a wet street, its lights ramming into a pounding rain. It was daylight, but the rain buried the scene in a blanket of gray.

Cameron staggered forward and braced himself against a tiny pine tree.

It seemed so real. The clarity was better than HDTV could ever hope for.

Jessie?

But it wasn't her Mustang, was it? No, Jessie's was different.

"Taylor, get over here!"

The view zoomed in from a wide shot where Cameron saw the street and the car to a close-up of the driver who seemed to be singing.

It wasn't Jessie.

It was...

Ann?

It couldn't be. The driver wore a tie-dyed T-s.h.i.+rt with every color of the rainbow and a scarf straight out of the seventies. Not Ann, the hair was too dark. But the eyes, the nose, the shape of her mouth, so similar...

He glanced at Taylor jogging toward him, now only ten yards away. Cameron kept his eyes on the image as he heard Taylor's footsteps thud up to him. "Look."

Taylor struggled for air, would have sprawled onto his backside if Cameron hadn't steadied him.

"Annie," he whispered. "It's my Annie."

Annie's diamond ring flashed as she took a corner, her hands smoothly turning the wheel, then reaching to adjust the radio. She flipped her hair back and joined in with whatever song she'd switched to. The light ahead of her was green and the car sped up.

As she reached the intersection, the scene slowed and the view pulled back. A station wagon plowed into the intersection to Annie's left.

She looked to her left-her face full of fear-and slammed on the brakes, but it was too late.

The scene slowed further as the look on Annie's face turned to one of wonder.

Her smile seemed to fill the lake, then her head fell back and laughter poured out of her.

She nodded once to whatever she was seeing and turned to look up, seemingly out of the lake as if searching for someone, light radiating from her face.

"It's time. Don't hold on. Let me go."

Cameron could read her lips. He didn't hear the words, maybe Taylor did. It didn't matter. They were as clear as if they'd been shouted.

Annie smiled, closed her eyes, then slowly opened them. "I love you, Taylor Stone." "I love you, Taylor Stone." She closed her eyes for a second time and didn't open them again. She closed her eyes for a second time and didn't open them again.

Just before the station wagon smashed into the Mustang, the image faded back into the surface of the water.

"Taylor?"

Taylor looked through him, as if he was still seeing Annie talking to him, and staggered backward, his eyes watering, his hands groping out behind him as though he might fall at any second.

He turned and found a pine tree to lean against as he gasped for air, and words sputtered out of him, too soft for Cameron to make out. But the peace in his eyes as he looked back said enough.

Movement out of the corner of his eye made Cameron whirl back to the lake.

He gasped as a new image formed on the surface.

Jessie and he sat on top of Mount Erie in northern Was.h.i.+ngton, gazing at the lush green farmland five hundred feet below them.

"What if I told you something you'd never believe?"

"I'd believe it."

She tickled him. "G.o.d is real."

"You have proof?"

"I've seen something He made. Something amazing."

The scene faded into the time they sat on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Chelan, the remains of barbecued salmon on plates to their right.

"You know how you always said you couldn't live without me?"

"True."

"You can."

"Uh-oh. This is where you tell me you've fallen in love with your old high school tennis coach and you're about to leave."

"You'd make it without me." Jessie gazed up at him, eyes sad.

"I'm not going anywhere and neither are you."

"Okay." Jessie buried her head in his chest. "I want to believe that."

"Why wouldn't you?"

"It's still years away. I'm not going to think about it."

She nuzzled in tight to his chest and he stroked her hair. "I love you, Jess."

"Always, Cam-Ram. Always and forever."

He glanced at Taylor who sat at the base of the tree, legs crossed, smiling. Cameron turned back to the lake.

The scene s.h.i.+fted and Jessie and he were sailing in the San Juan Islands.

"How old were you when the fantastic happened?"

"Ten. I saw something about us. About me."

"So that's how you knew to accept my invitation for that first date."

"This is serious, Cam."

"I'm being serious. I'm just ... You have to admit it sounds a little woo-woo that you saw us when you were ten."

"I saw someone die." She drew a quick breath. "Someone we both know."

"It was a dream from a ten-year-old. Let it go."

The surface of the water s.h.i.+fted again.

"What's going on? Are you b.u.mmed because Pirates is shut down for the night?"

"Maybe G.o.d writes our memories down, hmm?"