Chapter 35

Saturday morning, October 14, 2028

I watched our new van with my wife driving turn the corner and pass out of my sight. I wasn’t kidding her when I said I was terrified. This situation is so different than anything else we’ve done, sending her off, encouraging her to fall for another guy, a young, probably good-looking, eligible guy. Stupid, stupid, stupid! But I know I couldn’t have stopped her or even myself from wanting this. Maybe I’m totally sick, but I was hard as a rock thinking about Addie with this other guy.

I couldn’t stand there staring down the street all day. Besides, it was getting cold outside. It had rained the night before and the weather report had been snow in the high mountains above six-thousand feet, the first snow of the season.

Which gave me an idea for something to do with the kids that day. I went back in the house and both kids were getting up after we’d woken them a few minutes earlier. I called them out in the living room and asked, “You guys want to go for a ride, up in the snow?”

The ‘snow’ word got their attention. They live for snow. Katie surprised me when she asked, “Can Livvy go?” I guess with our ‘babysitting’ duties, Katie and Kevin have gotten pretty close to their new friend, Livvy.

“We’ll have to call her mom, but I don’t see why not if it’s okay with Nicki. Why don’t you guys get dressed and we’ll get some breakfast at Mickey D’s,” I suggested. “While you’re getting ready, I’ll call Livvy’s mom and ask her.”

The kids ran to their bedrooms all excited, about the snow, about maybe spending the day with Livvy.

I called Nicki and explained to her what we were doing and asked about Livvy going with us. “Sure, I don’t see why not,” Nicki said.

Then another thought crossed through my mind. “What about you? You working today?”

“Nooo, I was planning on just staying home with Olivia.”

“I guess you know that Addie’s off doing her own thing today, so how’d you like to go with us, too, then? It’ll be fun.” I added quickly, “Kids would love to have you with us.”

She hesitated, “You sure? I wouldn’t want to put you out or anything.”

“Don’t be silly, we’d all love to have you. Maybe you’ll see some new country, too.

“Okay, if you’re sure ... you want me to come to your place?”

That made sense. That way we wouldn’t have to run her home to Mountain Home when we get back. “Sure, we’ll leave when you get here. Don’t worry about breakfast, we’ll stop at McDonald’s and grab something on our way.” Then I remembered what I was going to tell her, “Oh, bring some boots for you and Livvy. It might be snowy where we’re going.”

She said she’d be at our house in about an hour. She’s nice. She’s pretty, and from what I’d seen so far, fun to be around. Maybe this could turn out to be a fun day after all ... and take my mind off of Addie, at least off-and-on.

The kids scrambled to get ready and I packed an ice chest and some snacks and put them in the back of the Jeep. When Nicki and Livvy got there, we realized we had a small problem. All three kids wanted the outside seats. None wanted to sit in the middle. We finally convinced them that we’d trade them off, so they all got equal time on the outside and because she cut the low card, Katie had to start in the middle.

She pouted, said it wasn’t fair, the other two cheated. But I told her that we’d trade at Farewell Bend, where our road left the freeway to go along the Snake River.

At McDonald’s, Nicki insisted on paying for all our breakfasts, said it was only fair since she was getting a free tour. Nicki performed the ‘wifely’ duties of passing the food and drinks out to all of us. Then, while we were eating and a little more relaxed, she said, “Thanks for inviting us, Matt ... it gets lonely at home sometimes.”

I glanced over at her, “No boyfriend?”

She laughed, “No, have you noticed, Matt, I’m black. White guys aren’t interested in black girls ... and do you how many black guys there are in Mountain Home? Or even Boise, for that matter?”

Yeah, I’d noticed that Nicki was black. I never had thought of it mattering, but I guess it did. She’s so nice and pretty, though, that I couldn’t imagine that little detail putting off a decent guy. And, yeah, this part of Idaho is definitely predominately white and Hispanic, very few blacks.

“I hope you how much I enjoy working for you and Adriana,” she told me.

I took that as a compliment, “Well, actually you just work for Adriana. The stores are hers. I’m just a paperwork guy, another hired help ... except one that doesn’t get paid.” Technically, that wasn’t true, the business is in both our names, but in reality, it’s Addie’s. She’s the business brain; like I said, I’m a paperwork guy. Not that I’m complaining. I love working with Addie’s business.

“You do know, I hope, that Addie thinks about you as a friend first and an employee second.”

Katie started squealing that it was her turn to sit on the outside. Nicki laughed at our dilemma. We were about a half mile from crossing the bridge across the Snake into Oregon. “About fifteen more minutes, hon,” I told her, “remember I told you we’ll trade at Farewell Bend.”

“How far, Daddy?” she pouted.

“I just said, about fifteen more minutes.”

The kids went back to chattering with each other, crisis averted for another few minutes.

“You wouldn’t be having that problem if Olivia and I weren’t here.”

“But the trip would be about a tenth as much fun, too. A pretty small sacrifice,” I reassured her.

“Nicki, tell me if I’m getting too personal, but what about Livvy’s dad. Is he still in the picture?”

She laughed, “Yeah, he spends time with her. Not as much as I’d like him to, but at least he hasn’t abandoned her.”

She said that with some sadness. I picked up that it probably wasn’t the case with her. “Like he did you?” I asked her.

“Uhuh, you could say that. I thought we were in love ... at least I was. We were going to get married. Until he found a pretty blonde. He married her instead. I was pregnant with Olivia, at least he left me with that little treasure.”

Ooh, that had to hurt! I almost took her hand and squeezed it, but realized it wouldn’t be appropriate.

Then she asked me, “Matt, how’d you guys meet? Adriana has hinted that it had something to do with the stores, but never told me.”

I laughed, thinking back to that first meeting. “I was selling expensive knives at ‘Here Comes Summer’ in Ontario. Adriana stopped at my booth and was going to buy a set of knives for four-hundred dollars. She was so pretty and I was already in love with her after just a few minutes talking to her. When she told me she wanted a set, I told her she could buy better ones a lot cheaper at Costco.

“I guess that impressed her because she invited me to have lunch with her ... then after we married and she decided she wanted to open a store, her whole premise was being honest to her customers, like I had been with her ... it still is.”

“Dadddddy!” Katie started yelling. “Time to switch.” I’d just turned off the freeway at Farewell Bend. It’s called that because it was where the pioneer’s wagon train trail left the Snake River. Farewell to the River.

I pulled over and put Kevin in the middle seat. “We’ll switch again in Richland,” I told him. It’s gravel road along the Snake River for about the next forty miles or so until it comes into Richland, Oregon.

It’s a pretty drive along the River. This time of year, they’ve let most of the water out of Brownlee Dam for irrigation and it looks so weird with the small river winding through the mud-flats of the normal water level. It has to be discouraging to the homeowners along the river that have their little piers with boats sitting in the mud, several hundred yards from any water. They’ll be in the water again, though, by late spring.

There was no snow, which didn’t surprise me as we never got over a couple thousand feet elevation and the snow elevation was closer to 6,000 feet. It made me think briefly about Addie, hoping she didn’t run into snow across the Blue Mountains. I doubted it because she wouldn’t be more than about 4,500 feet.

Speaking of Addie, I figured she should be just about to the Oregon-Washington border by then. With Nicki along and showing her the sights along the way, I hadn’t even thought about Addie’s upcoming night. Not until right then, anyway.

Damn, I had to think about her date. Up to then, I’d been happily oblivious to the actual day’s events. I had a stroke of sanity, looking across the Jeep at Nicki beside me and thinking that it should be Addie there. What the hell was I doing? I almost had a brief spell of mild panic, wanting to call her and call the whole thing off, have her come home. I probably would have, too, except there is no cell phone service way out there in the middle of nowhere. We were only a few miles from the town of Halfway. It’s appropriately named, Halfway to nowhere from anywhere.

Then my brief few moments of sanity faded and I thought about Addie coming home tomorrow, and with my cock deep inside her, telling me how she’d been seduced, how he’d invited her to his house and they’d made love all night. I was embarrassed by the sudden swelling tenting my pants. Nicki had the impression that I was a normal guy, probably even a nice guy. I didn’t want her to see the extent of my depravity. I took a deep breath and pointed out to her some inane scene we were going past and my hardness gradually dissipated, hopefully without her having noticed either it or my heavy breathing.

At Oxbow on the Snake, I had a decision to make; either stay on the Oregon side, down the river and up Hess Road to the top or down the Idaho side and up the Kleinschmidt Grade. We’d been up Hess Road just last June, the day after Addie and Kayla’s fashion show, but not up Kleinschmidt for a long time. I don’t think we’d ever taken the kids that way.

The Kleinschmidt grade is an old copper mining road from a mine just past the town of Cuprum, down to the Snake. It’s actually not a bad road, fairly wide and graveled for heavy trucks, but a lot of sharp switchbacks as it winds up the mountain. Hess Road is rough, narrow and steep, following Idaho Power’s power line. I decided, given the snow situation, that Hess Road wouldn’t be very smart. The Oregon summit is a lot higher than in Idaho and I could just see us get into a couple feet of snow and have to turn around, back down the slippery, steep road. I hadn’t intended on taking the Kleinschmidt route when we left, but it’d still be a fun drive. I suppose we could have followed the highway up past Oxbow Dam and reservoir, but what fun would that be?

“You ever been here before?” I asked Nicki. She shook her head that she hadn’t. I would have been very surprised if she had. “You have a treat coming up, then.” The winding trip up the Kleinschmidt Grade is beautiful.

It turned out we were all in for a treat. I’d never been there with snow on the mountains. The canyon was more beautiful than I’d ever seen it. We stopped several times at wide spots and got out, taking pictures and enjoying the beauty. Nicki surprised me. I hadn’t seen her load it, but she had what looked like a professional SLR camera, a Nikon with a big lens on the front, as opposed to my old Fuji.

When I asked her about it, she said, “I’ve taken a few weddings, some portraits, and things like that, but mostly, I love landscapes.” She waved her arms, “Like this, this is so beautiful.”

“You ever framed and sold them?”

She laughed, “No, I’ve never tried that.”

“Any good enough to sell?”

She wrinkled her pretty nose, “I think some might be, like these, today.”

“Talk to Addie. I’ll bet she’d let you put them up in the store. You know how she is about any home-grown talent ... can’t get much more home-grown than her own manager.”

A smile spread across her face, “I will. That’d be so much fun to have something of my own there. Thank you for the suggestion.”

I was thinking how well the pictures of Tanya would sell. Don’t think Addie would quite be in favor of that, though. After all, it is a family store.

Where I took pictures, it was one direction, then the other. Nicki took the time to frame hers, explaining to me what she was doing and why. While she was doing that, the three kids were running up and down, collecting pretty rocks (gravel to me). Some had green in them, maybe from the copper mine?

We stopped in several scenic spots on the way up the hill, then got in the snow about three-quarters of the way up, just about where we went into some timber. As the snow got deeper, the kids were jumping up and down (as much as they could in their car seats), and Nicki looked more and more nervous. By the time we broke over the top, we were in probably eight to ten inches of fresh, unbroken snow. Thankfully, Addie and I always keep good traction tires on the Jeep.

Except that Nicki hadn’t ever been in this much snow. She was scared to death that we were going to get stuck. Every time the tires started to spin a little, she was sure we were going to die. At least she had good humor about it, “When they find our bodies, I want some good pictures on my camera.” I think she was only partially kidding.

I’ll admit that I was relieved when we got to the main road from Cuprum to Council and it was plowed. There’s still quite a bit more elevation change on the forty-mile drive out to the main highway and I knew the snow could get quite a bit deeper.

Right where we hit the plowed road, there’s an old farmhouse on the right with an old, old, huge log fence around it. The logs are probably two-feet in diameter and it’s a beautiful, rustic old house that apparently nobody was living in. The snow was completely fresh all around it, with no tracks and I’m sure it made a beautiful picture. I took some, but Nicki seemed to really know what she was doing.