Franklin Reveal’s cobalt-blue eyes followed the slender blue thread which held his life. It disappeared into the darkness above, illuminated only by the beam of his pocket light.
He held his hook knife against the blue thread.
One quick cut, he thought.
A long fall would be a good way to end your life, wouldn’t it? If you had the will, the presence of mind, the clarity — you might actually enjoy the ride down before the splat.
Then again, you might not.
The blue thread was Maxim ten-millimeter dry twill climbing rope; Franklin felt the straps biting into his legs, the payout rope in his left hand as he hung suspended a hundred feet in the air, off the lip of his favorite rappelling site in southeast Ohio. Ash Cave.
A mile walk from a quiet road. Alone in the dark park, flouting regulations, Franklin came to Ash Cave because he wanted a break from people.
He wanted to silence all the voices.
Huge dark trees below, his rope was tied off to three of the larger ones beyond the edge up top. Animals growled and hooted. Maybe one of them will just chew through it.
A gigantic shadow of unknown origin fluttered across the remaining half-dome walls.
It’s not a cave — not really, he’d thought first time he’d seen it. Eons ago, it was, before the cave’s dome collapsed onto the valley floor. It was now only an overhang before a background of twinkling constellations.
Like his life.
Above the cliff edge, a thousand points of light glittered, more stars than anywhere else in the world — well, maybe not more, but more clear.
Bold rectangle of Orion, sword hanging down from the three-star belt at his narrow waist. Never afraid. Never conflicted about anything. Big Dipper. Primitive man drew an angry bear. Franklin saw only a giant ladle. Its three-star handle, front lip pointing at the North Star.
What will it pour next into my life? He looked from his knife, to the rope, again to the sky.
He knew why he felt so drawn to the stars tonight. February Seven. Today would have been his mother’s birthday.
In the cold still air, a crazed bat fluttered past his head in search of a midnight snack. With a gloved hand, he pushed a lock of dark hair from his forehead, watched the bat dive down like some spastic fighter plane through the lighted circle on the ground around his Coleman lantern.
Bats? Like they don’t know it’s too cold to be out here?
Weird night.
Franklin rubbed a painful spot in his right shoulder, breath hanging before his face as he looked at the knife again, its lanyard hanging loosely against his vest.
One cut.
Why do I think of things like that? I do a great job. Help a lot of people at the church —
He chuckled darkly. I ought to use my methods on myself.
Where did it start? The seminary? Before? He couldn’t pinpoint it.
Tonight’s depression was nothing like those guys on the air transports. Talking up that death-riding-on-their-shoulder thing — trying to prove how brave they are.
This was new. This was gray. Not even the mission that led to his leaving the Rangers behind had caused him to feel so bad.
He’d joined the military to get away from the memory of a girl. He’d entered the seminary to get away from the thing he’d been party to in the military. Maybe he hadn’t pulled the trigger. But he hadn’t done anything to stop it either.
Now look at me — he looked up the rope again — thinking about killing myself.
The guilt still cut through him like a hot knife. Thank God for Cynthia. Sometimes family is all you have.
Part of it, he knew, was the warning he’d received this week from his superior, the church’s senior minister. He rubbed a hand across his jaw. A dull ache in his rear teeth, just lately for some reason, when he spent an entire day at the church. It doesn’t matter — maybe nothing will ever matter.
As he hung there, his neck relaxed, the ache in his teeth began to go away. The bad feeling slowly drained and left him.
“Too quiet,” he sighed aloud into the chill air.
He peeled off the headphones velcroed to his fanny pack. They began to slip from the fingertips of his gloved right hand. Without conscious effort, his lanky frame kept itself upright while he switched the rope to his right hand, caught the edge of an ear cup with his left, pushed the headset comfortably over his ears. He searched out a local station.
“Ugh — talk!” There ought to be jazz or classical somewhere, he thought, twisting the dial. Tonight he needed something mindless.
“Talk — again?”
But the speaker’s words shot out rapid-fire. “Bomb . . . New York City . . . All communications out . . .”
“Is this real?” he mouthed, knowing instantly that it was —
Everything stopped. “Cynthia?”
“ — this special report. At this point we have only scattered information . . .
“Apparently, at 8:01 Eastern Standard Time, an explosion thought to be nuclear in nature originated near the city. It is unknown at this time whether this was a terrorist attack or something else. We are unable to obtain information from our affiliate in Manhattan itself . . .
“Damage is most probably extensive. Communications are down. Power is out. We have attempted communication on cellphone and landline, but circuits simply do not respond . . .
“Effects include all five boroughs of New York City, across Long Island and reach as far as parts of Connecticut, New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania — ”
Franklin’s cellphone warbled. He pushed a spot on the phone’s face. “Hello?”
No response.
“Hello? Hello?”
Static came back. Somewhere in there he made out a sound he recognized —
“Everon?”
The connection cleared.
“Yes . . . on the radio just now. Yes . . . probably — I don’t know. Right . . . Upper East Side. Perhaps . . . I don’t know . . . alright. No, I’m in the middle of Ohio, camping . . . Yes. Okay. Bayne Airport’s close . . . it’s small, just a strip . . . in the dark? Okay . . . that’s it. I can be there in forty minutes. I can — Okay.” He disconnected.
His heart pounded. Cynthia! The skin on Franklin’s arms grew cold. Strong scent of pine on the air. In his mind’s eye he saw the bomb exploding, the fireball expanding, buildings going down . . .
Cynthia!
Abruptly he lifted the trailing rope, let it pay through the cam, barely noticing the service on his phone dink out, dropping fast as he could manage toward the light below.
