Chapter 19 – Luke
LUKE
The road to the old Calder silver mine wasn’t on Luke’s GPS, but he was pretty sure he could find the place.
It branched off the highway a few miles past town, then turned to gravel. Jack watched the landscape change as they climbed, with snow still lingering in shaded areas.
“So, this is it,” Jack said. “Calder country.”
“Pretty much,” Luke said. “Every few years, someone talks about developing a tourist site, but nothing ever comes of it.”
They topped a low hill, and the mine entrance appeared suddenly, tucked into the mountain as if someone had cut a gash into it and then walked away without finishing.
There wasn’t much left, just splintered gray boards and half-buried railroad tracks.
They could barely make out the faded sign that read: CALDER SILVER—NO ENTRY.
“It gets a little tricky with the family tree, but … my great-great-great-grandfather discovered the deposit. Wow, is that right? Yes, I think so…,” Luke said, cutting the engine. “My great-great-grandfather kept it going for a long time, but it was already dying by the early 20th Century.”
“There’s not a lot to see,” Jack said.
“Not on the surface. And it was, you know, a long time ago.”
The air up here was sharp, colder than in town. When a cloud passed in front of the sun, the temperature dropped immediately.
“You come up here much?” Jack asked.
Luke shrugged. “I haven’t been up there in ages. Used to, when I was a kid. My grandfather had an emotional attachment to it, but no one else after that, really. Then in high school, when we were all idiots, we’d come up here to drink beer and listen to our echoes.”
“I don’t remember this,” Jack said. “Maybe that was after me.”
They walked toward the entrance, boots crunching over gravel and snow patches. The mine opening was wide and dark, framed by the remnants of ancient beams. Once inside, the light faded quickly.
After a few yards, it was almost completely dark, and Jack stopped.
“We’re not going deep, right?”
Luke glanced toward the sound and pulled a flashlight from his backpack. “No. It’s blocked off about 15 yards ahead.”
They stepped further inside together. The air changed instantly. It was cold, damp, and metallic, and still, with no wind. Their footsteps echoed, accompanied by the sound of water dripping somewhere.
Luke shone his light around.
“Not much to see, really,” Luke said. “Kids used to dare each other to come up here. Remember Billy Hawkins? He got cocky one time and went past the barrier. Broke his leg. I helped carry him out.”
They stopped where the tunnel widened slightly, the ceiling low enough that Jack had to duck. Luke switched off the flashlight.
“It’s so dark,” he said. “Crazy, huh?”
“Okay,” Jack said. “That’s enough of that.”
They turned back and stepped into the warm sun. They sat on a slab of rock near the entrance, jackets shrugged off, backs against stone that had soaked up the morning heat. The wind was blocked, and the silence was broken only by the distant sound of a truck on the highway.
Luke pulled a protein bar from his pocket, broke it in half, and handed Jack the larger half without comment.
“You always do that,” Jack said.
“Do what?”
“Give me more.”
Luke smiled. “You look like you burn calories just by thinking. And you’re always thinking.”
“That obvious?”
“Sunday morning, you were in the zone.”
“Sorry.”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No, I…I move on to the next thing too quickly sometimes. Did I rush you out?”
Luke resisted the urge to shrug it off and instead said, “Yeah, you did.”
“I was mentally going through my list of things to do, and I wasn’t thinking beyond that. My fault. I apologize.”
“Thank you, but…,” Luke said, trying to be more direct about his. “Don’t shrug me off next time. You could say you need some space if that’s it. You know, I’m not used to spending so much time with anyone, either, but I don’t shut down.”
“You’re right,” Jack said. “I’ll do better.”
They ate while watching clouds drift across the valley. From up here, Calder Ridge looked small and contained, tucked into its bowl like it couldn’t belong anywhere else.
Luke leaned his head back against a rock, eyes half-closed. “So, you asked about how I went from these hills to the Hollywood Hills…”
Jack shifted slightly, giving him his full attention without pushing. “I’d like to hear it, but you don’t have to—”
“I know,” Luke said. “I want to.”
He took a breath. “I was in New York right after I graduated. I went to try to see you… You might not know about that.”
“No, I don’t think I do,” Jack said.
“Yeah, I had this crazy teenage idea that I could go to West Point and see you, so I flew to New York —”
“Wait, you never came to West Point.”
“Nope, never made it. They wouldn’t let me anywhere near it, of course.
So I decided to explore Manhattan for a few days.
I was working out at a gym in Greenwich Village when this very nice-looking, polite man approached me.
At first, I thought he was hitting on me, but he told me he was an agent and that I had the right look for his agency in L.A. ”
“Please.”
“I know. Serial-killer vibes, right? But he was legit. That’s how I got started. Next thing I knew, I was in Hollywood with a stack of headshots and a list of appointments. They put me in an apartment with three other guys who all looked like Ken dolls on steroids.”
Luke shook his head. “Suddenly, I was surrounded by guys who looked just like me or better. Taller, more sophisticated, gorgeous, all of them.”
“That’s not true, you—”
“It was,” Luke said easily. “It’s Hollywood. Everyone is next level. Anyway, I did some test shoots. Commercial work. Smile. Flex. Jobs came easily, and it was fun to go to New York and Europe to see how things work at that level. Easiest thing ever.”
Jack stayed quiet.
“But,” Luke continued, pausing to form the next details of the story into words.
“I reached my peak pretty early and then … drifted. Fewer jobs, more parties, but still maintaining… And then… I blew that audition for ‘Survivor’ I told you about, and my agent was done with me. He told me to go home and get sober, that I wasn’t cut out for L.A.
I got pissed, but … he was right. It really wasn’t for me.
And, luckily, that was my rock bottom, which wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been if I’d stayed.
I mean, I had no direction. Plenty of distractions, but… I don’t know. Does that make sense?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“So, I came home, got sober, started training a few people, and put in some time to get my sense of direction back here.”
The sun dipped behind a cloud again, and the warmth faded quickly. Luke pulled his jacket back on.
“All because you wanted to see me and couldn’t,” Jack said. “Is that what you mean?”
“Yeah—what? Wait, no! I don’t mean it’s your fault,” Luke said. “That’s just the way it happened.”
He walked to the overlook, his back to Jack, as if taking in the view.
Luke turned around and lifted his chin. “I followed my heart back then, not a strategy,” he said. “Still do.”
“And now I’ve come back here looking for a sense of direction, too,” Jack said. “Crazy how we go through cycles.”
They sat there a while longer, talking about nothing and everything, old teachers, dumb high school stunts, and how the town had changed and how it hadn’t.
Eventually, Luke stood and brushed his hands on his jeans. “We should head back before it gets too cold.”
Jack nodded. As they walked to the truck, he glanced once more at the mine entrance. Luke caught the look. The mine did have a certain eerie presence.
“Some things can stay in the past,” Luke said. “But I’m not afraid of it. Just part of the story.”
Jack smiled. “Some things can come back from it.”
“Can they?”
They drove back toward town, the road rattling beneath them.
“Is that what we’re doing?” Luke asked after a few minutes of silence. “Digging up the past for something we lost?”
“Maybe,” Jack said. “I guess we’ll see. But… I don’t want to trade on the past, either way.”
“Right. Same. What do you want?”
Luke meant “from me,” but he sensed Jack was referring to the bigger picture in his life and chose not to press the point.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. For the first time.”
“Fair enough,” Luke said, and they drove a while longer in silence as Luke wondered what they were digging up.