Snowstorm of Our Past novel · Chapter 5 of 32

Chapter 5: The Third Man

"What do you mean, that's not how he died?"

Gabe checked his mirror and pulled into the empty lot of a closed fireworks stand outside Fountain.

He left the engine running.

The dog put his head on my lap and sighed.

"You know I was there," Gabe said.

"Everybody knows you were there. You were the third man."

"I was twenty-two. Dumb as a box of rocks." He rubbed his face. "Clint had the lead on the traverse. Dale was behind him. I was last."

"I know."

"The slope let go above us. It was like the whole mountain just sat down." He looked out the windshield. "I went under, and then I was up again, buried to my chest. I couldn't feel my legs. I dug with my hands."

I remembered his hands, ten years ago.

Raw and bleeding in the light of somebody's headlamp.

"When I got my arms free, I looked for them," he said. "It was dark and blowing. I saw one headlamp."

"Dale's."

"Dale's. Way down past the toe of the debris. Out at the edge of the trees." He finally looked at me. "Mal, it was moving. Away. Downhill. Steady, like somebody walking."

The heater ticked.

"Not looking for anybody," Gabe said. "Not toward where Clint went under. Away from all of it."

"Maybe he was hurt. Confused."

"Maybe. That's what I told myself for about a week." He shook his head. "Then the second slide came down, and the headlamp was gone, and nobody ever found him."

"Did you tell anyone?"

"I told the Army investigators. Twice." His mouth twisted. "I had a concussion. They wrote it down that way. Witness disoriented. Head injury."

"And after that?"

"After that, he was a hero who died in the line of duty." He looked at his hands on the wheel. "Who calls a dead hero a deserter? Who stands up at the memorial and says that to his widow?"

"So you never said it again."

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