Karen Harper - Down River

PART I
Fighting the Foam

PART II
Walking the Wave

PART III
Meeting the Monster

Like the dew on the mountain,

Like the foam on the river,

Like the bubble on the fountain,

Thou art gone, and for ever!

Sir Walter Scott

August 20, 1982

L isa Vaughn fought to pull her wrist loose from her mothers strong hand. No, Im afraid. Im going to tell Grandma. No, Mommy, no, nooo!

They were up on the deck where everyone had done the lifeboat drill but now no one else was around. Eight-year-old Lisa loved the big cruise ship she was on in the middle of the blue sea with Grandma, Mommy and baby Jani. But Grandma was taking a nap in their cabin, and Mommy was crying. So was Lisas baby sister, maybe because Mommy was holding her so tight against her chest with only one arm. With the other hand she dragged Lisa toward the back railing of the ship with lots of bubbling white water underneath.

Walking around the deck with Mommy and Jani, Lisa had thought it was pretty at first, all that wild water like when you swished your hand real fast to make lots of bubbles in the bathtub. But Mommy kept saying something about Getting away just like your father did, just getting away with my girlspeace forever

Lisa started to cry, too, when her mother put one leg up high over the railing. Still, she didnt let go of Lisas wrist, dragging her closer. Jani cried and squirmed. Wet-faced from her own tears, Mommy kissed her little cheek, then looked back at Lisa.

You have to come with us, Lisa. Stop struggling!

She gave Lisa a huge tug, trying to lift her over the rail, scraping her stomach.

No! Lisa shouted as she pulled back and kind of shoved Mommy away at the same time.

Lisa fell hard on the deck, so surprised and scared as Mommy, still holding Jani, fell backward, down. Lisa jumped to her feet in time to see Mommy and Jani drop and disappear, sucked into the sea by the wild white water.

Duck Lake Lodge
Near Bear Bones, Alaska
August 20, 2008

D espite the calm beauty of Duck Lake ten feet below the pine-tree-lined path, Lisa Vaughn felt compelled to watch the Wild River on the other side of the low ridge where she stood. Because the summer sun had warmed the snow-tipped Talkeetna Mountains for hours, the snowmelt river roared. When the temperature dropped at night, despite the fact the skies barely darkened, the river rumbled like distant thunder. She was amazed by the reddish-colored salmon as they battled the fierce current on their long journey upriver to their breeding grounds. It almost looked as if the river was bleeding.

But mostly the river awed Lisa because, exactly twenty-six years ago, shed seen her mother and baby sister drown in the turbulent, foaming wake of a cruise ship. Since then, roiling water mesmerized her. And she had never seen anything like the rapids of the Wild River.

She pulled her gaze away and hurried along the ridge toward the cutoff to the lake landing where she and Mitch had agreed to paddle a kayak to a picnic spot. I know youve never been in a kayak, hed said when he suggested it, but well be fine as long as you match your strokes to mine, so we dont slam our paddles together.

Match your strokes to mine. His words echoed in her head. Was it just she who was still furious about the death of their passion? Although their romance and future together had ended when theyd slammed their different goals into each other, the man still got to her in a dangerous way. This trip had to be all business for her, all about getting a promotion, not rehashing the wreck of their relationship. Shed been dreading this whole slippery situation, but maybe talking it out could help her to finally write the obituary for what shed thought was mutual love. She let out a breath, then inhaled deeply, not to savor the fresh, pine-scented air, but to calm herself.

Mitch Braxton seemed a different man from a year ago when theyd broken their engagement and hed left her and Fort Lauderdale for the heart of Alaska. Hed broken her heart, but shed been so angry with him that shed quickly patched herself back together, at least on the surface. Shed gone on with a vengeance, not looking back until her boss set up this command performance at Mitchs lodge.

Lisa had worked hard to pretend to get over her resentment of his shattering her prettily planned-out life. She had expected to be a skilled attorney, a wife, a working mother to their future children. Though she knew better, sometimes she felt that, at age thirty-four, her marital and biological clocks were not only ticking but clanging. Just when shed thought never to see Mitch again, Graham Bonner, the managing partner of Carlisle, Bonner & Associates, had been adamant that he had a unique plan for screening the three candidates for the next senior partner of the prestigious law firm.

Graham and his wife, Ellie, insisted they were taking the three junior partners to participate in the family/corporate bonding program Mitch offered at the lodge hed inherited in Alaska. Since theyd only arrived yesterday, all theyd done so far was walk blindfolded through an obstacle course by following vocal directionsbut so much more was in store. Scheduled during the week were ziplining and whitewater rafting, all the while being observed by the Bonners to decide who would get the coveted senior partner position Mitch had abandoned.

Some of Lisas friends had argued it was a crazy way to vet a lawyer, though it sounded like a great, free vacation. But Graham was clever and convincing. Hed learned the law-firm ropes from Ellies father and her brother Merritt, who used to run the firm and had used it as a stepping stone to his fast-rising political career.