*****
In theory, I knew where I was going. I got on a red-eye flight that night that took me from Los Angeles to Charlotte, and then a connecting flight on a commuter plane to Charleston, West Virginia. It was easy enough to rent a car and follow the highway west, to where it ran alongside the Ohio River, but once I crossed the bridge, I was on my own. Google Maps could only take me so far through the barren, miserable wilderness of hill country.
Jake had taken me to visit his family there only once, just before we got married. We’d been engaged forever, and he was close to finishing his medical residency. “I can’t marry a girl my family hasn’t met,” he told me. That settled it.
“They’re not going to like me,” I warned him. “They’re going to see me as some city snob in high heels.”
“They’ll love you,” Jake soothed me. “They already know how smart and hard-working you are. That you were a scholarship student like I was. They know you were raised by your mom, and that she died when you were in high school.”
“You told them that?”
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, Erica. You should be proud that you started with nothing and worked hard to get where you are.”
“What else did you tell them about me?” I seethed.
“Everything that’s wonderful about you,” he said, kissing me. “And I want you to see how wonderful it is there. You’re going to love it.”
I knew he was wrong about that, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him. I’d worked hard to break free from government housing and food stamps, and I hadn’t done that so I could live in a mountain shack. I had other plans.
The visit went just as badly as I knew it would. “Didn’t think I’d be seeing you ‘round here. Ain’t you able to come up with some excuse not to darken my doorstep?” Those were the first words out of Mrs. Carlow’s mouth when she saw us at the door. Jake, being his usual sweet self, mollified her. But she fixed her narrow blue eyes on me and pursed her lips, looking me up and down. Sometimes, when people met me, they told me I looked exotic and used that as cover to ask about my race. Mrs. Carlow didn’t ask that, but I felt those cold eyes parsing pieces out, not liking any of them. While Jake was able to thaw her out, she remained cold and rude with me. She didn’t come out and say anything directly. Her insults were carefully couched in statements that were hard to answer.
“Them’s some fine clothes you have,” she’d told me. “What’s that old saw? Fine feathers make fine birds?” She turned to Jake. “Cousin Hark’s wife just walked out on him. She was one who always thought real well of herself.” Her expression made it clear what she thought of women who thought well of themselves.
I knew, even then, that Mrs. Carlow believed she could chase me off. What she hadn’t realized was that I’d already made up my mind about Jake and my own future, and that there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. What she couldn’t have realized was how much I wanted her to hate me.
I was thinking of that visit as I steered my rental car along the roads. Nature was something I loved in healthy doses. Being surrounded by hills and fields with no indications of people nearby-except for occasional tractor-crossing signs-made me nervous. When it got to be too much for me, I stopped the car and turned on my cell phone. Jake had tried to call me several times before I’d boarded my flight; I hadn’t answered, and once I’d turned off my phone I hadn’t turned it back on. He had to be sweating by now, wondering why I wasn’t answering. I dialed his number and he answered immediately. “Why haven’t you been answering your phone? I’ve been worried sick about you.”
“Why did you go running off in the middle of the night? Why didn’t you tell me?”
He sighed. “I knew if I did, I’d never get here. I just had to do it then, Erica. It was important. Don’t be upset, okay?”
“Oh, I’m upset all right. Especially because I’m sitting in the middle of nowhere trying to figure out how to get to where you are.”
It took him a second to absorb that. “You flew out here? To be with me?”
