Charlie’s shadow darkened the spot where Louise sat with Baptiste. Louise was close enough to Charlie to touch his gun. She felt like a snake coiled and ready to strike. She could feel the heat of his leg, smell the singed heat of his wool slacks. She looked up, saw the wind stiffen the hair up from Charlie’s forehead. Baptiste looked up too. Charlie was so close Louise could hear the tight squeak of his leather holster. She drew her knees tighter to her chest and heard the blood beating in her throat. Charlie shook his head and kicked at a rock beside her, his boot skimming her thigh. She felt laughter curdle her stomach. The idea that Charlie could not see them in the cover of the weeds began to fill Louise.

Charlie scanned the base of White Lodge Hill. When he left, he walked carefully, turning back to gaze in their direction with eyes steady and unseeing. She thought Charlie held only the vision of certain trees, a few rock swells he could not distinguish from dirt, everything blending to nothing. Maybe Charlie saw the curve of her hip as only another slope of land, her fingers stark as the weeds that surrounded her. Maybe Charlie could not see the meadowlark in the pine branches, the distant white heat lifting, the separate river rocks, the sleek dark shale that rose from the hill. Louise could feel a low shifting breeze. Charlie turned his broad back to them. Baptiste held her safe. He was talking to her, telling her a story. She wanted to lay back in the prickle of weeds beside him and listen to his dry voice. She could still see Charlie but then he began running, running as if from a cold place where the only name spoken was his own.

The sun had moved behind them, a yielding light now that carried a tint of coolness. She began to believe she was there by herself. Alone, listening to her heart, the sound of far water.

Louise THE FALLING PLACE

She left Baptiste Yellow Knife at Dixon with the idea that she would head to Missoula and shake Charlie. She was surprised Baptiste had told her to go, had let her go. She thought if she could stay in Missoula for a while she could head back home and have a better chance of fooling Mr. Bradlock. She didn’t get a ride right away and she was worried Charlie would spot her on the roadside with her thumb up.