food on the bank across the way.
“We’re hungry,” David called. “We men are ready for lunch.”
“Yeah, we men are ready for lunch,” came his little echo.
After a break for sandwiches, Marnie asked Jonathan what he wanted to do next.
“I want to play in the dirt!”
His answer surprised her, but after she thought about it, she realized he had no chance to do what most boys his age did—to play outside in the dirt, to dig and not worry about what an adult was going to say. The women in his life before now—Ruth and Mrs. Tucker—weren’t likely to let him do that, and Marnie herself hadn’t been a part of his activities.
David pulled two rocking chairs from the living room onto the front porch, and Jonathan settled himself in the yard directly in front of them. He used twigs and rocks to build streets for his toy cars, arranging them over and over.
“He did this last fall when I brought him up here,” David said.
“Did I come?”
“No. You said you had enough of the place the one time you had been here.”
Marnie sighed and leaned her head back against the chair.
“When I saw the rug with the city streets on it you bought him, I thought he must have told you about playing this way in the dirt. It’s sort of a fancy and cleaner way of playing the same thing.”
“If he did, I don’t remember it. I just picked out something I thought he’d like.”
“And he does. I feel guilty for not noticing he didn’t have many toys appropriate for his age. On the weekends we usually go play somewhere, but I hadn’t thought to shop for him.”
They sat silently, rocking in their chairs, while they watched Jonathan. Finally, David spoke. “I wish the sun would hurry and go down.”
She looked at him curiously. “Why?”
“So it would be time to go to bed.”
Marnie was sure she blushed at the statement, but she felt the same way.
They could hear the sound of an approaching vehicle in the distance. “Jonathan, someone’s coming. Come up here on the porch.”
Jonathan snatched up a couple of cars and mounted the steps.
When a green pickup truck rounded the last turn, David said, “That’s Chad Everett. I wonder what’s up.”
The older man parked beside David’s SUV, got out, and approached the cabin.
“You folks look like you’re enjoying the day,” he said as he walked toward them.
“We are that,” David replied. “What brings you out here?”
“You have a phone call. Your mother called and asked me to have you call home. She said it ‘might be important’ but wasn’t an emergency. That’s what she said, ‘might be important.’”
“Thanks for driving out here to tell me, Chad. I’ll be to the store shortly to call her.”
They watched Chad get in his truck, circle the area, and leave.
“Do you want to come with me or stay here?” he asked Marnie.
“Let’s go, too,” Jonathan begged. “Please?”
“Do you want us to stay here?” she asked.
“No. It’s fine to go with me. Jonathan,” he said, turning to his dust-covered son, “brush as much of that dust off as possible and then go in and wash up.”
“I’d better go and use a washcloth on him,” Marnie said.
When they were in the vehicle headed toward the country store, Marnie said, “I wonder what might be important but isn’t an emergency?”
“I’m hoping it has something to do with finding Ray,” David said tersely.
“Can you use your cell phone when we get to the store?”
“Not likely. Even when I can get through from there, I usually end up with a dropped call. I’ll use the Everett’s phone.”
When they arrived at the store, Dina said, “David, you go on back in the office and use the phone there. It’ll give you some privacy.”
“Jonathan and I will get a couple of sodas and sit out front to wait for you,” Marnie told him.
They went to the cooler where Jonathan picked out an orange drink.
“That looks good, Jonathan. I think I’ll get one, too.”
She went to the counter to pay, and Dina, a little friendlier than she had been earlier commented, “You’re lucky to get a seat on the bench today. Usually old Mr. Gretchem and his buddy Silas Moore sit out there and watch the cars go by, but Silas went to Boulder to visit his daughter and Mr. Gretchem’s arthritis is acting up, so he stayed home.”
Marnie and Jonathan were sitting on the long wooden bench, drinking their orange sodas and watching the cars go by, when