Read Online Young Mr. Keefe by Stephen; Birmingham - Free Book Online

return when you file in April.”
    And Helen? He tried to remember Helen’s face, her reactions, through all of this. But of course, he thought, even by then, it had begun.
    Jimmy climbed on close behind Claire. The straps of his knapsack burned into his shoulders. “Oh!” Claire gasped. “Let’s stop!” They stopped and he looked down. For a moment, he imagined that he could see the world below turning. A blue sliver of Lake Tahoe had appeared between the mountains—the same sliver they had seen from the summit in the car. Beyond the lake lay the wastes of northern Nevada. He wondered wildly if that odd little wayside chapel was somewhere in that expanse. Directly below, the white roof of Squaw Valley Lodge looked like a pale linen handkerchief that had been tossed down. Next to it, the swimming-pool was a vivid blue rectangle that caught the sun. “Looking down makes me dizzy,” he said.
    Dizzily, though, he continued to look down. With the nerve, with the right persuasion, he thought, he would go down himself. He would tumble his troubled frame down, and the rocks would spring up to catch him, to cradle him …
    As though she sensed his thoughts, Claire said amicably, “Death wish?”
    â€œUh-huh,” he said. “Will you jump with me?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œAll right, then.”
    â€œAll right.”
    She laughed at him, and reached for his hand. In the effort, suddenly she slipped and fell face forward across the rocks. She screamed and clutched at a stone. It came loose and she slipped farther. He went to his hands and knees, tried to reach her, and lost his own footing. Then they were both motionless. A clatter of stones loosened, fell, and echoed below them. “Don’t move,” he said. “For Christ’s sake, don’t move!”
    â€œI can’t!” she sobbed.
    â€œIf I move, I’ll slip on top of you, and we’ll both go down. Don’t move until I think of something.”
    â€œOh, God!” said Claire.
    He tried to steady himself, and when he thought he had, he tried to reach down to her again. Blazer was far ahead, out of sight.
    With his fingers, he groped for her hand. “Don’t touch me!” she screamed sharply. “Don’t touch me!”
    â€œLet me try to get your pack off.”
    â€œDon’t touch me!” And suddenly she said, “I’ll get out of this myself, without your help. You only want to make me grateful!”
    Stung, he drew back his hand. “All right,” he said. Slowly, he inched himself forward, placed his knee against a rock, and stood up. He stood, looking down at her, watching her as she crawled painfully up. Tears streamed down her face. She had cut her chin, and the tears mingled with blood. He watched as she slid upward across the shale until her toe found a firm place. Then she stood up.
    â€œI’m sorry,” Jimmy said quietly.
    Her face was still white. She laughed shakily. “Blazer would never forgive me,” she said, “if I couldn’t make it up this little mountain by myself.” She reached in her pocket and removed a handkerchief. She dabbed at her chin. “Just a scratch,” she said.
    They went on in silence, and after a while, the worst of it was over, and they reached a high level stretch where Blazer was sitting cross-legged, waiting for them. The westward side of the mountain sloped off gently. They started down, and suddenly there was a low clump of trees, and, in a hollow, a spring that bubbled out of nowhere into a pool. They walked to the edge of the pool, turning the rocks over carefully with their toes.
    â€œThis is a large arrowhead,” Blazer said, kicking over a stone.
    â€œA particularly large arrowhead,” Jimmy said.
    â€œProbably a deadly weapon.”
    â€œA blunt instrument, anyway,” Claire said.
    â€œAnd look at this curious fossilized dingbat,” Blazer said.