Blurred Lines

Chapter Eleven

 The car drive to Spring Lane trails was filled with rock music and warm sunshine. We kept the AC off and the windows down, shouting over the wind to one another. I tapped my fingers against the door to the beat of the music, ignoring the way my ponytail insistently whipped my cheeks, helpless to the strength of the wind.

"Make a right here," I yelled, reading off the directions from the GPS. It had been a while since we had hiked these trails, and we would have definitely gotten lost even trying to get there.

Dad smiled and nodded, flying right past the road I was pointing out.

"Dad," I sputtered, turning down the music. "What are you doing? I said to turn back there."

"You what?" He checked the rearview mirror and let out a little chuckle. "I didn't know what you said."

"Then why did you smile and nod?"

He laughed. "Sometimes I just do that to be polite when I don't know what you're saying."

"That is just rude," I scoffed. "Dad, turn around and go down that road." He did a U-turn and turned down the gravel road I pointed out earlier.

My curiosity got the best of me and I asked, "So how often do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Smile and nod, but in reality, just completely ignore me." I tried to keep a stern face, but my lips kept turning up in humored shock and disbelief.

"Punkin', I barely do it." He rolled the windows up so the dust wouldn't float into the car. "Only when I can't hear you and I know you spoke, like just now. Or sometimes when you talk about clothes or makeup or drama because I just get so lost and can't keep up."

I rolled my eyes. "Did Mr. Mike teach you this?"

He belted out a laugh. "No, it's a secret that all men share about women."

"Well you're not very good at secrets, are you?" I fake pouted. "And now I'm offended."

Dad pulled into a spot and parked, his smile growing wider. "Nice to meet you, 'offended'. My name is Dad. Do you want to go hiking?"

I giggled at his most used joke and shook my head at him. "You are a child. But yes, I want to go hiking."

Dad packed our water bottles in his small backpack and locked the car. There weren't many cars in the parking lot, which was good because it meant light traffic on the trails. As we set out, the sun strained through pockets in the tree canopy. A light breeze traveled through the woods, keeping us from feeling too hot.

Sometimes we chatted, either about college or work or the news or people. Other times, we fell into a comfortable silence, listening to the music of nature. The whispering of the wind twirling around the tree trunks and lifting the leaves like ripples in a lake. The chipmunks and squirrels scampering across the leaves, their tiny claws scratching their way over roots and up trees. The birds singing, joining one another in a beautiful and unrehearsed choir.

We had been walking for a while when the strange events of this morning kept jostling my brain enough for me to ask, "Hey Dad?"

"Yeah?"

I stepped on a twig, snapping it in half. "What call did you have this morning?"

"It was just a work call, nothing crazy." I knew he wouldn't lie to me, but I decided to press him.

"Yeah but you ran upstairs like it was something important." I paused, thinking about how to phrase the next part without getting into trouble about being nosy. "Also, when I was on my way to tell you that breakfast was ready, I heard you sounding stressed as you talked to Mr Mike."

"Blair, really?" He sounded slightly annoyed and as he pulled aside a rogue weed, he turned around and gave me a stern look. "You're twenty years old, do I really need to tell you that it is rude to spy on people?"

Crap. "No, I wasn't spying, per se." I nervously laughed. "I told you I was just up there to tell you that breakfast was ready, and that's what I heard."

"I'll pretend that I believe you. In the future, though, give me my privacy like I give you yours."

"Okay." I hated being reprimanded like a child, but he was right.

"But just so that you don't worry all day about nothing, I'll tell you that yes it was Mr. Mike on the phone. It was also a work call, so I sounded stressed because it was a follow up on a recent case that didn't go the way that I thought it would. It's nothing for you to worry about, though."

"Okay." I stepped over a log and climbed over the side of a big rock.

"Wait." He stopped in his tracks. "Do you hear that?"
I didn't at first, but if I concentrated, I could hear the soft splashes of water. We were getting closer to the waterfalls.

"We're almost there, Blair. You know, it's been so long since we've been here, I'm actually getting excited to see the falls."

We climbed up a steeper hill covered in damp leaves, small sticks, and treacherous rocks. At the top, the splashing was much louder and we could see part of the waterfall. As we rounded the side of the pool, Dad let out a small gasp and his face erupted into a grin.

"Wow," I breathed. We plopped down on a couple of the larger boulders surrounding the water, just watching. There was a river at the top of a larger hill that dropped into a gorgeous waterfall that cut into several sections from large rocks jutting through its heavy stream. The water tumbled down the rocks into an active pool below, spitting mist out at the other boulders, guarding the water like a fortress. The pool churned constantly with fresh water, leading some of it into a creek that wove between the trees further down the hill.

I crossed my legs, ignoring the way my ankles pinched into the rock and just watching the water freefall from the top of the hill and somersault in the pool below.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Dad's voice was barely audible over the water crashing down the rocks. He wiped the mist off his phone with his shirt and took a couple pictures of the waterfalls.

"It sure is," I agreed, closing my eyes against the invasion of tiny moving droplets that hung over the pool like a cloud.

Some kids shouted from the trails behind us, crashing through the leaves. I opened my eyes as their tiny figures grew larger, pointing out the waterfalls to the adults behind them. They were like little windup toys, jumping all over with springs in their sneakers and motors in their legs.

Dad grimaced at their noise. "Are you ready to go?"

I nodded, ready to continue our hike. We left the tranquility of the waterfalls behind to endure the chaos created by the kids, heading in a loop around the other side of the rocks and zigzagging our way down the hill.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you." Dad sidestepped a rock. We were slowly approaching the trail that connected back to our car. There were more vehicles parked in the lot with families and couples tumbling out of the doors, grabbing picnics or looking at maps. A couple of kids stood by the trunk of their car in a starfish position as their parents sprayed them with sunscreen. Their faces pinched and turned away as the mist grew closer to their heads.

He continued, "Someone got hurt on the job the other day so I might have to stay later than usual some days to cover shifts. I'm not sure when that'll be yet, but I just wanted to give you a heads up."

I nodded. "Okay, just keep me updated."

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There's chapter eleven! What do you think?

- Payton