And the Stars Kept Watch, page 1
AND
THE
STARS
KEPT
WATCH
AND
THE
STARS
KEPT
WATCH
PETER
FRIEDRICHS
atmosphere press
Copyright © 2021 Peter Friedrichs
Published by Atmosphere Press
Cover design by Ronaldo Alves
No part of this book may be reproduced without permission from the author except in brief quotations and in reviews. This is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to real places, persons, or events is entirely coincidental.
atmospherepress.com
For Irene
Faith, Hope, and Love, your time abide!
Let Hades marshal all his hosts.
The heavenly forces with you side,
The stars are watching at their posts.
--Rev. Frederic Henry Hedge,
from “The Northern Lights and the Stars” (1859)
PROLOGUE
Returning to consciousness was, for Catherine, like ascending from a deep-water dive. It happened slowly and in stages. At first, surrounded by darkness, all she noticed was her own breathing. Then, she became aware of other sounds, muted and distant. Next came the awareness of touch and, with it, pain. Her head throbbed, and every breath delivered a stabbing sensation to her ribcage. Then there was light, as waves and particles danced behind her eyelids in a kaleidoscopic display. Even after she broke the surface and opened her eyes, she laid no claim to full awareness, lacking as she was both comprehension of her surroundings and any memory of recent events.
“Nate, can you turn the lights off?” She recognized her husband by his scent before her eyes adjusted to the harsh light and he came into focus. “They’re giving me a headache.”
“Hey there.” Nathan reached for the switch on the wall of the hospital room. “You gave us all quite a scare.” He gripped Catherine’s hand as if he alone were holding her on the surface, the sole force keeping her from going under again.
“I’m so tired.”
“You took quite a beating.” He stroked the back of his wife’s hand. “The best thing you can do is rest. I’m just glad to have you back.” Nathan bent down and kissed her on the forehead, just below the bandages that wrapped her fractured skull. “Carey is on her way up from New York. She should be here tonight.” Catherine would be glad to see her sister.
“I don’t even remember what happened.” Catherine’s voice was a feathery whisper, all she could manage. “But I had some amazing dreams. Remind me to tell you about them.”
“It’ll all come back to you. The doctors said it would just take some time.”
Catherine tried to gain her bearings. She could tell she was in a hospital bed. She had a splitting headache and sharp pains every time she took a breath. She had a vague memory of a noisy, bumpy helicopter ride. But beyond that, her memory ended abruptly, as impenetrable as an August fogbank hanging off the Maine coast that lay just a few miles to the east.
“Nate, what happened to me?”
“You don’t remember?”
“Right now, I couldn’t tell you if I fell out of an airplane or wrecked the car. Are the boys okay?”
Nathan squirmed in his seat and avoided answering his wife’s question.
“The most important thing is you’re all right. Why don’t you close your eyes and get some rest?”
Catherine didn’t need to be coaxed. Without conscious thought or intention, she succumbed to the inexorable pull of sleep. She was a stone dropped into a lake, the force of gravity dragging her down. Her senses departed in stages, just as they had returned only a short time earlier.
CHAPTER ONE
NATHAN
Lost? How could I be lost? Nathan peered through the dense understory of the woods he thought he knew so well. He’d grown up traipsing around the spiderweb of trails that crisscrossed the hills and valleys of this part of southwestern Maine with his father, hunting rabbits and game birds. If you blindfolded him and dropped him down anywhere in York County, he’d know his way home. Or so he thought. But now, as he sat in the driver’s seat of his all-terrain vehicle, his two boys in the back, he had to admit that he wasn’t sure where they were.
“Dad, let’s go.” Six-year-old Jacob had reached the limit of his interest and his energy. They’d been out for a couple of hours already, and he was ready to get back home. Jacob’s little brother Joe piled on to express his dissatisfaction. “Why are we stopped?” Then, in his best four-year-old whine he added, “I’m bored.”
“This is a special adventure, guys.” Nathan looked around, hoping to see a familiar landmark. “I want to be sure we’re on the trail that leads us to the treasure.” The boys in the back seats, each strapped into the four-place ATV with elaborate harnesses for their safety, perked up at the mention of treasure.
“Is it gold from a pirate ship?”
“Will it be guarded by a monster?”
“If it’s buried, how will we find it?”
“Keep your eyes peeled. You’ll know it when you see it.” The diversion worked its magic. Nathan switched on the RZR’s headlights in the darkening woods and kept searching for the trail that would lead them home.
“Dad, don’t the bears like to come out at night?” Jacob was always the worrier.
“Not at this time of year, buddy.” Nathan hated to lie to the kids, but he didn’t want to give them yet another reason to be concerned. “They’re still hibernating.”
*
It had been six months since Catherine had surprised Nathan with his birthday gift.
“I hope you like it.” Catherine guided her husband out the front door, blindfolded. She had sworn their two sons to secrecy, and the boys actually managed not to give away the surprise. But as the four of them walked into the yard, the children couldn’t contain themselves any longer.
“Look, Daddy! Look!” The two young boys grabbed their father’s hands and pulled him forward. Catherine peeled off the bandana so that Nathan could see his birthday gift.
“You didn’t.” A wide grin spread across Nathan’s face. His eyes grew wide with glee. “It’s amazing!”
Nathan rushed to the showroom-new ATV, the exact model he’d been talking about for months. The boys were already climbing into the back seats.
“It’s the one, right?” Catherine nodded toward the Polaris RZR. It was a beefy, side-by-side 4-seater with knobby tires, headlights, a front winch, and a full roll cage, with room for the whole family. Nathan suspected that his wife had checked with his best friend, Jim, before making the purchase.
“Oh, yeah.” Nathan beamed, walking around the vehicle.
“What are you waiting for?” Catherine tossed him the keys. “Aren’t you going to take it for a spin?”
Their home in southwestern Maine, just a few miles from the New Hampshire border, sat perched on a western-facing hillside on twenty acres of land. It was surrounded by fields and forests, ponds, lakes, and swamps. The perfect environment for four-wheeling.
Nathan noticed that Jacob and Joe had already donned their helmets, which Catherine had strategically placed on their seats in the back. He and his wife fastened their chin straps and buckled them into the car seats she’d had installed. The seats had special four-point harnesses that added a degree of safety beyond the standard lap belts. Nathan donned the blue helmet that sat in the driver’s seat, which matched those of the two boys and the ATV’s paint job. Catherine did the same with hers, which was neon pink. Nathan plugged everyone into the on-board intercom before taking his place behind the steering wheel.
“Everybody ready?” Nathan put the key in the ignition and turned it. The engine roared to life.
“Yay!” The boys squirmed in their seats, their arms and legs cartwheeling with glee.
“No hot-dogging.” Catherine grabbed her husband’s arm with one hand as she braced herself against the ATV’s door with the other. She knew him well enough to issue the warning. “At least, not on the first day out.”
Nathan gave a small nod to his wife. He knew that she worried about his risk-taking tendencies. She admonished him regularly about driving too fast up the Maine Turnpike when they went out to dinner in Kennebunk or Portland. He’d given up some of his more dare-devilish activities when he’d become a father. He’d sold his hang glider, and his rock-climbing gear hung untouched and gathering dust on the wall of their garage. When they were dating and then in the early years of their marriage, Nathan had kept up such pursuits. But he respected Catherine’s more conservative, safety-conscious perspective and the responsibilities that came with being a father. His wild side still revealed itself occasionally. Just not usually in his wife’s presence.
Nathan revved the engine a few times, threw the ATV into gear, and the family gleefully rattled down the path that led into the woods. The boys were giggling in the back, and Catherine could see the joy in her husband’s eyes, even behind the visor of his helmet.
The land around Catherine and Nathan’s house in Newfield was remarkably untouched, even though most of the property along the larger lakes and ponds in southern Maine were ringed by summer homes owned by doctors and lawyers from Boston. It was true that some large parcels had been clear-cut to provide wood for the paper industry when mills still dotted the landscape, but that was a century ago. Most of the region now held at least second-growt
After an hour of bouncing around the wilds of York County, Nathan announced over the intercom “Let’s take her back to the barn” and he turned the rig toward home. They’d run the machine through its paces, throwing mud and dodging trees.
“Come on, Dad.” Jacob’s voice crackled over the intercom. “Just a little more!”
“Yeah, Dad.” Joe used his squeaky voice, the one that made Nathan laugh as it seemed to jump two octaves when he begged him for something. “Please?”
“Your mom’s got to get back and make us a birthday dinner.” Nathan aimed the ATV up the trail that led back home. “Remember, it’s Nacho Night!” This news seemed to mollify the kids as they both let out a whoop of glee.
With the RZR safely parked back in the driveway, Catherine pulled her cell phone from the pocket of her jeans as Nathan unbuckled the children from their seats. “We need to take a selfie!” She motioned them all into place in front of the RZR. The four of them, splattered in mud, but beaming, crowded together for the picture.
*
With the kids splashing around in the bathtub, Nathan walked up behind his wife as she prepared dinner. He put his arms around her waist and nuzzled her neck.
“You like your birthday present?” Catherine leaned into her husband’s arms.
“Mmmm,” Nathan tightened his embrace and nibbled affectionately on his wife’s ear. “I can’t wait for my other present, too.”
“Well, if you’re talking about the nachos, they’ll be ready in half an hour.”
“You know that’s not what I’m talking about.” Nathan pressed his body against his wife’s.
“Settle down, Birthday Boy,” Catherine broke away from her husband and began setting the table. “Why don’t you go check on your sons.”
*
After an initial flurry of intense use, the RZR saw less and less action as its novelty wore off. Throughout that fall, Nathan occasionally invited the family out on an adventure with the four-wheeler. Most of the time, Catherine would decline and send her boys out on their own. Nathan knew that she preferred to spend a lazy afternoon on the deck watching the hawks soar over the house or reading a novel uninterrupted to bouncing around the woods in a noisy, gas-guzzling machine. And so, on an unseasonably warm Saturday afternoon in March of the following year, when spring was teasing all of New England into believing it just might arrive early, Catherine declined Nathan’s invitation to take the RZR out for a spin.
“You guys go. It looks like it could be really muddy, and I know you’ll have fun. I’ll have dinner ready when you get back.” Catherine gave Nathan a peck on the cheek before easing herself into a chair in the living room. Nathan knew it was her favorite spot to catch a nap, and he was glad to give his wife a break from the kids.
“Hey, guys!” Nathan called the boys, who were upstairs playing in their rooms. “Wanna go sling some mud?” Jacob and Joe bounded down the stairs and threw on their jackets. It had been a long, bitterly cold winter, and this was the perfect antidote to their cabin fever.
“Put on your boots and gloves, too. It feels warm now, but it’ll be colder once we get going.” The boys did as their father instructed and stood by the RZR as Nathan pulled off the tarp that had covered it all winter. Nathan helped the boys into their seats as the ATV warmed up, checking to make sure their harnesses were snug, and plugging their helmets into the intercom.
As Nathan expected, it was a muddy, glorious day in the woods. The patch of warm weather released the frost’s hold on the ground, and the RZR slogged through the muck like a black lab chasing a tennis ball. With every bounce and turn, Jacob and Joe let out squeals of delight, encouraging their father to repeat the maneuver.
“Faster, dad!” Joe yelled from the back. Jacob, who was older but the less adventurous of the two, held on for dear life, but the look in his eyes showed Nathan that he was enjoying the ride.
After an hour or so of careening along the network of trails, Nathan decided it was time to turn back toward home. It was only then that he realized that, at some point, he’d veered off the marked trail. He stopped the RZR in a grove of maples that soon would be tapped for syrup and assessed the angle of the sun in the sky. He trusted his gut and turned the RZR in what he thought was the general direction of home.
“Time to head back, boys!” Nathan swung the ATV around a large oak tree and dodged a granite outcropping.
“Aww, do we have to?” Joe craned his neck forward as he pleaded with his father to extend their adventure.
“Yep. Mom’s got dinner going, and we’ll have quite the clean-up to do from all this mud.”
Picking his way among the trees, Nathan steered a northeast course in hopes of finding a familiar trail. He felt a slight tightening in his belly as he realized he was going to be playing it pretty close to the edge with the still-early sunset. Although the RZR was equipped with headlights, he didn’t want to be too far from home when it got dark, knowing that Jacob, especially, would be scared in the woods at night. Nathan picked up his speed slightly as the path widened, and he saw the darkening sky of approaching night through the trees.
After following a deer path for nearly 20 minutes, Nathan was surprised not to have come across a marked trail. He thought he knew these woods like the back of his hand, and he was growing concerned that his instincts hadn’t yet paid off. He stopped the RZR, flipped up the visor of his helmet, and looked around, unsure which way to turn. He decided to set a northerly course using the compass he’d installed on the dashboard, hopeful that he’d intersect with a road or trail that would lead them home. He told the boys a story about some treasure they were looking for as he threw the RZR into gear.
Nathan stuck to his intended course as best he could, dodging rocks and trees and bushwhacking through the thick underbrush. Because the trees had yet to leaf out, the late afternoon light penetrated down to the forest floor despite the low angle of the sun. After another half-hour of picking his way through the woods, with the kids becoming increasingly agitated, Nathan was relieved to reach a point at the bottom of a gentle slope where the dense forest thinned out, revealing a familiar sight. He knew exactly where they were: by the south shore of Franklin Pond, a small and undeveloped body of water that he and Catherine had kayaked on before they’d had kids. Home, Nathan knew, was about two miles north of the far shore. He also knew from fishing this pond as a boy that there was a perimeter trail around it. He recalled that the trail wasn’t much more than a footpath and knew that navigating the RZR along it would be tedious and time-consuming. He glanced at his watch and at the darkening sky. He knew he was going to be getting home much later than he’d planned, and that Catherine would be worried about them.
CHAPTER TWO
CATHERINE
Catherine was glad she’d decided to stay home and send her boys off on their own. She’d only read a few pages of her book before falling soundly asleep in her favorite easy chair, snuggled under an afghan blanket her grandmother had crocheted for her when she was in high school. She often joked with Nathan or her sister Carey that it was her “grown-up blankie.” At least she’d broken her thumb-sucking habit. Catherine stretched her arms wide as she shook off the sleep and then lowered them to touch her belly with both hands, amazed at how much energy it took to grow a baby, even when it was only about the size of a lima bean. She was looking forward to the moment later that night after the boys were tucked away in bed when she would share the good news with her husband that their third child was on the way.
