“That’s flattering coming from an attorney with your considerable speaking talents,” he mouthed the correct response. In accordance with their understanding he didn’t rise from his chair.

Dan searched her face, looking for any sign that she might recognize him in the gloom or remember the timbre of his voice. Looking into her uncomprehending eyes, he understood in a new way the extent to which, in another life, under different circumstances, his soul could have become mortgaged to the look of her. The soft light masked both the autumn gold at the edges of her pupil and the light blue of her outer iris. She was waiting for him to speak next.

“Well,” he tried a chuckle, “here’s what you came for.” He shoved the briefcase with his foot.

“I just want to say how much we appreciate what you’re doing.” She paused as if such expressions did not come easy to her.

“All for the cause,” he replied as she took a seat. “Will you have something to drink before I walk you to the bank?”

“Iced tea would be good.”

The waitress came through the murk to their dark corner. Dan ordered two iced teas, then changed his mind, called her back and ordered a beer as well. What the hell, he might as well enjoy himself.

“I would love to tell you about our work, if you have a minute.”
He responded by nodding, knowing that it would be safer to take her and the money to the bank.

“My work is the wilderness….”

Thinking Dan a city man, Maria gave him a verbal slideshow, enriched by Dan’s own memories of exploring the mountains with his grandfather: an August moon, heavy and round like an ancient, knowing face, looking down on silhouetted peaks shouldered by jagged, granite ledges spilling down into the shadows above a river. There were rocky crags, crystalline waterfalls and miles of whitewater rapids, enormous gorges carved by the river, rock walls covered with mosses, lichen and ferns.

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