Having her with him had helped, for there were times when Cathy’s unfailing support had kept him from falling apart. Like one night when he couldn’t sleep. He’d sat alone in the dark, so overwhelmed. Cathy was on the sofa with him. She never said a word. She slid her arms around him and held him.

She just held him.

Without her, he might not have made it through that night.

#####

The next morning Cathy had found him in the yard staring toward the Rockies.

“I need to get away for a few days,” Fortin told her.

“Where, Will?”

“The mountains. I think it would be good therapy, you know.”

“Do feel okay to go alone?”

Fortin knew she was concerned that he might hurt himself and he didn’t want her to worry.

“We could go together, if you want to come,” he said.

“Yes, I’ll go with you.”

Cathy arranged to get a few days off at school. They wrapped them around a weekend, pulled their camping gear together and drove north to their favorite place. It was west of Calgary in a rugged section of rivers, lakes, forests, glaciers and mountain ranges straddling Kananaskis Country and Banff National Park. The area was webbed with trails and secluded campsites. Access was by foot or horseback, except for a few day-use riverside points that you could drive to, and, a cluster of remote drive-thru campsites at the river’s edge which were served by an old logging road.

The region was breathtakingly beautiful.

They parked their vehicle then hiked along one of the lesser-known trails feeling the weight and strain of their heavy backpacks as they moved along the twists and turns, climbing steadily. It was work. Cathy and Fortin were sweating in the sun as they ascended breathing in the sweet pine-scented air.

Fortin felt that the higher they climbed the better the chances that he could leave his world of pain behind.

By late afternoon of the first day they had found themselves alone on a small rise that offered a sweeping panoramic view of the mountains and the sky for as far as they could see.

They made camp there and watched the sun sink in the west.

“You’ve got to forgive yourself, Will,” Cathy said.

He searched the horizon as if an answer for him was written somewhere among the peaks.

“I don’t think that’s ever going to be possible.”

Cathy didn’t say anything. She knew it was better to let the mountains do their work.

A long silence passed between them before Fortin spoke.

“The Rockies have some kind of hold on me,” he said. “I feel some sort of connection, one that reaches beyond this world, Cathy.”

Unsure she understood, all she could do was nod and let her tears roll down her face as the sun yielded to the night

-Chapter 14-

Southern Alberta