Chapter 14
Fourteen
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
—John Muir, conservationist
The skies were clearing up, bringing bright sunshine and a cool breeze.
Scout sat on Sand Beach, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees, her ranger hat by her feet.
Much of Acadia, she realized now, was rather noisy.
Wind, waves, seabirds. But here, on this rare, sandy strip of beach, there was a quiet. A holy quiet.
Then a pair of seagulls squabbled over something or other, their cries sharp and startling. She frowned at them, not wanting them to break the silence, not wanting to disrupt the overwhelming peace she felt.
The beach had been nearly empty when Scout arrived but was starting to fill up as the day’s weather rapidly improved. The breeze carried a salty chill, but the cold wasn’t what made her shiver. She rested her chin on her knees, staring out at the ocean glistening under the afternoon sun.
Chase had never returned to find her on Precipice Trail. Disappointing . . . but not surprising. In fact, she’d expected as much when he left her there. She’d learned to expect disappointments from the men in her life.
But this afternoon, traversing down the trail, it dawned on her that she might be guilty of projecting that same disappointment onto God.
Not entirely trustworthy. Not dependable when it really mattered.
She’d never put it into words before, but now it sat in her mind like a truth she couldn’t ignore.
That wasn’t the right way to think about God.
He’d been there, all along. Like today, on Precipice Trail.
She wasn’t left on her own just because Chase had taken off.
Nor when her dad had abandoned his family.
She’d asked for a lifeline and, boy oh boy, did it ever come. Loud and clear.
On the sand next to her, tucked safely inside her ranger hat, were two small brass boxes full of gold coins.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps crunching on the sand.
She turned her head just slightly to see Naki lower himself onto the ground beside her, his silence as solid as the mountain he seemed to be carved from.
He didn’t say a word—no questions, no explanations as to why he was here.
He just sat there, letting his quiet presence wrap around her like a blanket.
Scout glanced at him from the corner of her eye. His sheer size made her feel small, but in a way that no longer felt intimidating. “How did you know where to find me?”
“I saw your jeep on the road,” he said. “Your lights were left on.”
She slapped a palm on her forehead. “I forgot! It was still raining when I got here.”
“I turned them off.”
Argh! That meant she had left the jeep unlocked too. So unlike her! But she’d been on a mission to get to Sand Beach before the tide turned.
“So, I take it you climbed Precipice in the rain? Alone?”
“Only about two-thirds of it. And I wasn’t alone, not at first. Chase was with me.
Actually, the day started before dawn at Cadillac.
Then we tackled Precipice. The rain started after Chase left.
” Not much after he left, to be perfectly honest. She didn’t really need to defend him.
It was a habit, she supposed, from her upbringing.
She was always defending her dad. “I sure do know how Precipice got its name.”
“The very edge.” He frowned. “I can’t believe Chase left you there.”
“Well, I am a ranger.” She let out a puff of air. “But I can’t deny there was a point when I thought I might be meetin’ my maker.” She grinned. “Not such a bad thing. It can be an illuminatin’ experience.”
He turned to her. “To know you’re not alone.”
“Yes! Yes, exactly.” She turned to him, amazed. How did he know what she’d been thinking? “So, all in all, it was a rather valuable hike.”
“Scout, you could’ve been badly injured . . . or worse. There wasn’t a Precipice Trail in the 1800s.”
“About two-thirds up, on a very narrow ledge, with lightning lightin’ up the sky and thunder blastin’ my eardrums, it hit me what the clue meant.
And I knew I wasn’t in the right place. I turned around and came right down.
” Well, not exactly right down. She had moved slowly, cautiously, each step placed with care.
The storm had passed as quickly as it came, thankfully, so she wasn’t descending through rain.
She paused, squeezing her arms around her knees, and he gave her the space to take her time, to gather her thoughts.
To talk if she wanted to, to not talk if she didn’t.
Resting her head on her knees, she looked over at him. “What did you preach on?”
“In church today?” He seemed surprised at the question. “On unity.”
“Go on.”
“On breaking barriers.” He shifted in the sand, one ankle over the other.
“On the truth that the ultimate unity is the body of Christ. If we could only see people through God’s eyes, we would be the model of what the world is desperately longing for.
” His gaze moved to the sea in front of them.
“I wish my people could understand that God made them the way they are for a purpose.”
“I suppose most everyone needs to grasp that concept.”
He turned to her. “I suppose you’re right.”
A comfortable silence settled between them, the kind that didn’t need filling.
Scout let her gaze drift over the beach, soaking it all in.
Light, puffy clouds hung in the sky, lazy and unbothered.
The waves rolled in through Newport Cove with a steady rhythm, rushing up the sand before slipping away, like they had all the time in the world.
The air smelled of salt and seaweed, crisp and clean, with just a hint of something wild.
She ran her fingers through the sand, letting the cool grains sift through them. Yeah, she could sit here forever.
“When I was a boy,” he said, “my father would bring my brother and me to Sand Beach at dusk to go stargazing. Extraordinary views of the Milky Way.”
“Why here?”
“The cove. It protects against light pollution.”
She turned to him. “Naki, this must have been such a wonderful place to grow up.”
“It was. In many ways.”
“Acadia was the last trip I ever had with my dad.” She paused, watching the waves hit the beach.
“My dad traveled a lot . . . and I mean a lot. Gone much more than he was home. It was a constant source of friction between my parents. My mother had inherited a furniture-making business, and she wanted him to stay home and help her manage it. But Dad had different ideas for himself.”
She cast a side-glance at Naki. He wasn’t looking at her, just staring at the horizon, as though he was absorbing every word without judgment.
“For a few weeks each summer,” she said, “Dad would take us campin’ in a national park.
My mother never liked it, but she came along.
Dad and I would hike, and Mother would stay behind, readin’ or shoppin’.
Acadia was our very last trip as a family.
” Her lips quirked into a small smile. “On one of the first trips, Dad bestowed the name Scout on me. I liked it much better than my birth name, so I insisted that everyone call me Scout. Teachers, friends, the mailman. Everybody. It greatly annoys my mother. She still calls me Magnolia Pearl.”
Naki’s head jerked. “Magnolia Pearl?”
“I know,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Atrocious. I always feel like my slip is showin’ when someone finds out.
” Wonders never cease, that got a laugh out of him!
A real, honest-to-goodness laugh. The kind that rumbled deep in his chest, shaking the quiet air between them.
It was a sound that felt like something rare and precious, like sunlight breaking through a clouded sky.
She could get used to that sound. It wrapped around her, making her feel warm and alive, like she was part of something she couldn’t quite name.
“So you’re a ranger because of your father?”
She nodded. “I adored him. Our summers in the national parks were the happiest times of my life. I suppose, in a way, being a ranger makes me feel close to him.” She’d never told that to anyone before. “So what sparked your interest in shipwrecks?”
He glanced out over the waves, his eyes distant for a moment before he spoke. “In college, I attended a lecture by a marine archaeologist. I was absolutely hooked. I knew that was what I wanted to do with my life.”
“But I thought you were a lawyer. For public policy.”
His somberness returned, and a touch of something she couldn’t quite read was in his gaze. “I had an obligation to my people that came first.”
The words hit her like a wave, unexpected and powerful. She’d never known anyone who’d put something—someone—above their own dreams, their own ambition. Certainly not her mother, who had never budged from the business of family. Not even for Scout.
Naki grinned again, this time with a little mischief. “But I’ve never lost my love of shipwrecks. And the coast of Maine is like a graveyard full of them. I can’t resist.”
“They can be hard to resist. I know that firsthand. My father goes all over the world huntin’ for shipwrecks.” She chuckled softly, the sound bitter on her tongue. “I suppose that’s why findin’ the gold has seemed so important. He would love this story.”
His eyes softened, watching her as if he could see through the cracks she’d tried to hide. “So tell him.”
A tight, painful knot formed in her chest. “I haven’t heard from him since my parents split up. Not a single word.”
“Maybe you could reach out to him.” His voice was low, gentle, as though he could see the way her heart was holding on by threads she didn’t know how to let go of.
She let her gaze drift to the sea, not really seeing it. “Wouldn’t make any difference,” she said, almost to herself.