Horrified, he realized his voice had become husky and his eyes moist as he had related the memory. But, Brooklyn passed no judgments on him, one way or another. She merely listened, which, of course, was exactly what he needed. He noted she had tears in her eyes also, feeling with him the long buried pain.
“So how did you come to be out here on the mountain?” she asked, moving the conversation away from the raw emotions.
“You know what, you look pretty tired. Why don’t we save that story for tomorrow?”
As he reached for her plate, she flinched. Their eyes met, and she relaxed.
“I’m still jumpy, I guess,” she explained weakly.
Lance set her plate back on the table and went around to her side, where he knelt on the floor and put his hand on the seat beside her. Brook cringed. He thought how small she looked when she was afraid.
“Brooklyn,” he said. “Let’s get one thing clear right now. I don’t mean you any harm. I will NEVER hurt you. Never.”
“I know,” she said, but even to her own ears her answer rang false.
Lance sighed. He figured it might take some time before she could accept his words as truth.
Chapter 33
Morning dawned. Snow fell. Brook lay on her belly, looking out a window and trying to ignore Lance as he worked on her feet.
“We used to get a lot of snow at home when I was a kid, but it seems to have slacked off these past years.” Even as she watched, the huge flakes drifting slowly to the ground became smaller and the snowfall denser.
“So, where did you grow up, Brooklyn?” Lance asked from the foot of the bed.
“Hmm,” Brook asked, deep in thought and then cried out, “Ouch!”
“Sorry, it can’t be helped; there are still a lot of little pieces of foreign matter buried in these cuts. They have to come out or they’ll become infected. Are you sure you don’t want a pain pill, or the last half of the tranquilizer?”
“I’m sure,” Brook gritted her teeth. “Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. I grew up in Newton, Kansas, a small town, although it’s much larger now than it was back when I was a kid.”
“Never heard of it. What’s it close to?”
“Wichita is the nearest big city; you know it?”
“I’ve passed through before, but never stopped,” Lance said. “I do remember three things I liked about Kansas.”
“Only three?”
Lance laughed. “No, no. But there are three that stand out in my mind. First, I love the fields of sunflowers. They always seem to be smiling. Second, the sky is enormous; you just don’t see that much sky here in the mountains. And third, with all that flatness it is so easy to get where you’re going. The roads stretch out forever.”
Brook smiled and then grimaced as Lance dug a little deep, sending tendrils of pain up the back of her leg. She moaned into the pillow and then managed to say, “True, all that is so true. Even our hills are more like bumps on the ground than anything, at least by Colorado standards. And you’re right; it’s pretty much a straight shot from one point to another.”
Lance waited for Brook to continue and when she didn’t he prompted, “Do you come from a large family?”
Brook yanked her foot out of Lance’s hand. “Damn it! That hurt!” She took a couple of deep breaths. “Sorry…I know you’re trying to help me.”
Lance waited a moment and then drew her foot back into his lap. He washed the foot with a soft cloth, dried it gently and applied more drawing salve. After he had wrapped it in gauze he turned his attention to her other foot. “This one isn’t quite as bad.”
“Thank God for small miracles,” Brook mumbled. She took a moment to pick up the thread of their conversation.
“Okay, is my family big? Not really. I have one brother and one sister. Gregg is an attorney in Wichita, unmarried, a swinging single as he likes to put it. Alice is a stay-at-home mom. Her husband, Dean, is an engineer at Boeing, one of the major airplane manufacturers in Wichita, but they live in Goddard. Alice and Dean have twin daughters. Kayla and Kendra are the most adorable little six-year--old blond-haired book-ends you could ever hope to lay eyes on.” She trailed off and her eyes turned to the window.
“Oh god,” she moaned. “My family probably thinks I’m dead! They must be panic-stricken by now.”
“I’m sure they are.” Lance was sympathetic and patted her leg gently. “I’m sorry, Brooklyn. I wish there was something we could do.”
She cried softly for a minute, missing her folks and her siblings, imagining their agony. “I just can’t think about it; it hurts too much. I need to focus on the joy they’ll feel when they find out I’m okay.” She continued to stare out the glass, concentrating on the scene outside the window instead of her inner turmoil.
“The snow is so beautiful. It reminds me of my childhood. My mom didn’t work outside the home, although she did do some volunteer work. When it snowed like this she always bundled us up till we could hardly move. We’d go down to this big hill outside town with our sleds and spend hours sliding down and trudging back up. Dad joined us when he had time.” Brook paused in her story as Lance finished treating her second foot, and helped her sit up. He slipped socks onto her feet and carried her to the table where he placed a cup of coffee in front of her. Moving into the restroom, he returned with two aspirin and she immediately popped them into her mouth and swallowed. Then she continued.
“My dad’s a dentist; note the perfect teeth,” she tapped her front teeth with a jagged nail and then contemplated her fingertip. “Remind me to do something about these atrocities.” She waggled all ten fingers at him. “Anyway, dad wasn’t home much during the week and worked a lot of Saturdays, but whatever time he had off from work, he spent with the family.”
“How’d you get your name?” Lance asked. And then, when Brooklyn gave him a puzzled look, added, “I mean, Gregg and Alice seem ordinary, but Brooklyn Cheyenne is unusual.”
Brook laughed. “You’re right. I was their firstborn. Mom and Dad were still pretty young and I guess they were making a statement when they chose my name. Dad was originally from Brooklyn and Mom from Cheyenne. They met at the University of Kansas and married within a year. I came along eight months later. Mom still claims I was early but I think I was most likely the proverbial love-child. I don’t mind; anyway you look at it I was created from love. My mom and dad sure love each other.” Brook stopped and sighed a deep happy sigh as she thought about her parents. “Gregg and Alice are quite a bit younger than me and I guess by the time they came along my parents had lost their interest in distinctive names. Who knows what triggers someone to choose a certain name. I mean, look, you named a goat Gilbert, and it’s a girl.”
“That is true,” Lance agreed. “But I for one love your name. Brooklyn seems to roll off my tongue. It feels right. And beautiful.”
Brook blushed, let her hair cover her face, and choose to ignore his compliment. “Anyway, that’s about it for us. Both my mom and dad’s parents died when I was small; I don’t remember them at all. Well, except one little memory I have of my grandma, mom’s mom, smelling like grape jelly, and the softest kisses she’d brush across my cheeks.” She smiled a small secret smile at this remembrance.