Page 7 of Save a Wish

Now I had a Sunday to face. I’d hoped to get back to Apocalypse Attack with my online buddies, but all three of them were busy today. I actually was too. Some task always needed doing at Hartley’s Nest, and while I mostly handled the business stuff, being part of this family meant getting my hands dirty. Often.

Mom had mentioned needing help with something, but that wasn’t until later today so I had time to go for a run at Granite Cliff National Park this morning.

As soon as I got all these kernels out of the couch cushions.

Twenty minutes later, my sneakers hit the leaf-strewn Harper Trail at the park. I took a few moments to stretch then started my run, treading carefully so as not to slip on the fallen leaves. I found my rhythm easily, having run here regularly since my days on the high school track team. A team my parents forced me to join initially because I was spending way too much time on video games in my childhood bedroom. Something my dad wouldn’t take the blame for though he’d been the one to introduce me to video games. I’d like to think I had a good balance going now between being active and sedentary, but I could admit to sometimes letting a video game suck up my movement time.

Hey, I could be addicted to something far more destructive, right?

The air outside today was crisp, but I was outfitted in my running pants and jacket so I was comfortable as I shifted into the higher gear of a steadier run. I passed a few other hikers and runners on the trail, giving them the neighborly head nod or wave but not slowing my pace.

The views from this trail were exquisite with morning sunshine pouring over the autumn woods and Greenridge’s closest two mountains—Mount Jeffries and Calico Mountain. The sky was cloudless today and a pure blue that promised a day full of exceptional weather.

I reached the part of Harper Trail that essentially made a giant U-turn for the return trip without breaking a real sweat. My body was accustomed to this run and I used it more as a maintenance workout than a growth one. It was the weekend after all so I could take it a little easy on myself because I’d done harder workouts throughout the week.

Like that abs one on Wednesday that had nearly busted my gut. Days later and my mid-section was still a little tender after that workout.

My legs, however, felt fantastic and I took that U-turn at a good clip, prepared to make the run back to my car.

Something off the trail in the meadow full of now-brown Queen Anne’s lace and dead milkweed caught my attention though.

It looked like . . .

It looked like a person.

A dead person.

The only thing that moved near the . . . the body was some tall grasses, blowing in the slight breeze.

I stepped off the trail and waded into the brush to get a closer look, my hand pulling my phone from the zippered pocket on my pants. I hadn’t planned on making a 9-1-1 call this morning, but I didn’t suppose anyone ever planned on doing that.

Why hadn’t any of the other people using the trail seen this body? I was close enough now to see it was a woman. A beautiful woman with bright red hair intertwining with the faded-green grass and crunchy brush around her. She wore loose, flowy pants in a soft green color, a matching, fitted shirt, and a long, brown, cardigan-style jacket that had fallen open, the sides pooling fabric around her toned torso and legs. Something about the fabric and the cut of the outfit made it seem different from what people who lived around here normally wore.

And this woman’s face was also something different. Good God, it was so peaceful and flawless and still.

Who would have killed such a lovely specimen of humankind?

Jimmy Slater immediately popped into my head, but I dismissed that notion because my mom wouldn’t be with a serial killer. She had that mom radar, right? The kind that could tell if a person was evil at their core. If she liked him, he had to be worthy of that.

And not someone who could harm a woman like the one lying dead at my feet.

Maybe she’d died of natural causes. That was more likely. Perhaps she’d been doing yoga or something up here alone off the trail and that was it. She had a heart attack and her time was up. That was sad, but it happened even to young people like her. My dad had died far too young as well.

I tapped my phone to call for help, but something made me kneel beside the woman first. Had she been scared when death came for her? Tragic that she’d been all alone as she’d left this world.

I took a few more moments to look at her, but I didn’t recognize her and I knew a ton of people in Greenridge. Maybe she’d been a tourist or new in town.

Something made me lean a little closer.

Then her eyes opened and we both screamed.

I stumbled back, my sneaker snagging on something in the brush and causing me to fall backward. I was now the one lying flat on his back.

“Oh!” The woman popped up to her feet, that long cardigan billowing out like a cape. She rushed over to me, crouching by my side. “I’m sorry to have startled you, sir.” She had a lovely accent, Irish-like yet slightly different. It made her sound as if she was not only from a different place but a different time as well. “Are you injured?”

I propped myself up on my elbows and did a quick scan of my body. “I don’t think so.” I squinted up at her as the sunshine illuminated her from behind, making her look like an angel.

Was she an angel?