Chapter 2 - The Boy Who Wasn’t DeadPain came before memory.
Miles tried to breathe and immediately felt something sharp in his ribs.
He groaned.
Above him, pine branches moved against the sky.
For several seconds he couldn’t understand why he was lying on rock.
Then he remembered Doris.
Her face.
Her words.
I’ll make you jump.
Miles began trembling.
“Help!”
His voice came out weak.
He tried again.
“Help!”
Nothing answered except wind.
He moved his left arm.
Pain.
His right arm worked better.
His ankle hurt badly, but he could move his toes.
Miles remembered something Grandpa Harold had taught him during hikes.
If you’re hurt, don’t keep moving unless staying where you are is more dangerous.
Miles stayed where he was.
He cried quietly.
Then he heard something.
A helicopter?
No.
Too faint.
A buzzing sound.
Miles turned his head.
A red-and-black drone appeared beyond the trees.
It hovered.
Moved away.
Then returned.
Miles lifted one arm.
“Here!”
The drone froze.
A minute later, it disappeared uphill.
Miles did not know that a county search-and-rescue volunteer named Caleb Ross had been testing thermal imaging equipment several miles away when the drone picked up a heat signature on a shelf below Eagle’s Crown.
Nor did he know that Doris had already reached the parking area.
She called Miles’s mother at 2:17 p.m.
Rachel Carter answered on the second ring.
“Mom?”
Doris breathed quickly.
Not because she was frightened.
Because she had run fifty yards before dialing.
“Rachel, something happened.”
Rachel stood from her desk.
“What happened?”
“It’s Miles.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“What about him?”
“He jumped.”
Rachel stopped breathing.
“What?”
“We were at Eagle’s Crown. He wanted to try the training jump. I told him we should wait, but—”
Rachel gripped the phone.
“You took my ten-year-old son to Eagle’s Crown?”
“He insisted.”
“Miles is afraid of heights.”
Doris hesitated.
“He was trying to overcome it.”
Rachel was already grabbing her purse.
“Where is he?”
A pause.
Then Doris said softly, “They haven’t found him.”
Rachel dropped her keys.
At almost the same moment, Caleb Ross was climbing down toward the rocky shelf.
“Miles!” he shouted.
The boy heard him.
“Here!”
Caleb reached the ledge sixteen minutes later.
He took one look at the parachute tangled above and immediately understood how close the child had come to dying.
“Don’t move, buddy.”
Miles’s teeth chattered.
“My grandma kicked me.”
Caleb stopped.
“What?”
“She kicked me.”
Caleb crouched beside him.
“Miles, I need you to focus on breathing.”
“She said she’d make me jump.”
Caleb looked up toward Eagle’s Crown.
His expression changed.
“Okay.”
Miles grabbed his sleeve.
“She thinks I’m dead.”
Caleb stared at him.
“What makes you say that?”
Miles swallowed.
“She smiled.”
By the time Rachel and Ethan Carter reached the county hospital, Harold Hale was already there.
Rachel ran through the emergency department doors.
“Where is he?”
A nurse intercepted her.
“He’s conscious.”
Rachel nearly collapsed.
“Can I see him?”
“The doctor is finishing an examination.”
Ethan held his wife upright.
Harold stood several feet away.
At seventy-four, Miles’s grandfather was tall, gray-haired, and usually composed.
Not today.
His face had lost all color.
“Rachel.”
She turned.
“Where is she?”
Harold knew exactly who she meant.
“Talking to deputies.”
Rachel walked toward him.
“You tell me right now why my son was on that cliff.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Mom told Miles you did.”
Harold stared at her.
“What?”
Rachel’s expression hardened.
“She told him you wanted him to jump.”
Harold shook his head immediately.
“I never said that.”
Ethan looked toward the waiting-room doors.
Doris sat behind the glass wall with a deputy.
She was crying.
Or pretending to.
Rachel’s hands curled into fists.
The doctor appeared.
“Miles’s parents?”
They hurried forward.
“He has a fractured left wrist, severe bruising, a sprained ankle, and a mild concussion. We’re monitoring him for internal injuries, but right now he’s stable.”
Rachel covered her mouth.
The doctor continued.
“He was incredibly fortunate.”
“Can we see him?”
“Yes.”
Miles looked tiny in the hospital bed.
Rachel reached him first.
“Oh, baby.”
Miles began crying immediately.
She hugged him carefully.
“I’m here.”
Ethan kissed his forehead.
“I’m here too.”
Miles looked past them.
“Is Grandma here?”
Rachel glanced at Ethan.
“Yes.”
Miles’s breathing quickened.
“I don’t want her in here.”
“She won’t come in.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Miles looked toward the door.
Then whispered, “Mom, she pushed me.”
Rachel froze.
Miles shook his head.
“No.”
His eyes filled again.
“She kicked me.”
Ethan stared at him.
“What did you say?”
“She told me to jump. I said no.”
His voice cracked.
“She kicked me off.”
Rachel sat perfectly still.
Miles reached clumsily toward the zipper pocket of the damaged harness lying inside an evidence bag on a nearby chair.
“The blue envelope.”
Rachel frowned.
“What envelope?”
Miles looked terrified.
“The one from Grandpa’s study.”
Harold had just entered the doorway.
He heard him.
Miles looked directly at his grandfather.
“It had Grandma’s name on it.”
Harold’s face changed.
“What blue envelope?”
Miles swallowed.
“The one about Summit Vale.”
Behind them, unnoticed by everyone except Ethan, Doris had appeared at the far end of the hospital corridor.
She couldn’t hear Miles.
But she saw Harold’s expression.
May you like
And for the first time that afternoon—
Doris stopped pretending to cry.
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