“Dad!” her fourteen-year-old voice screamed as she turned and shot him a venomous look.
“What? I didn’t call you buttercup, did I?” He smiled at her with his handsome face, his dark brown hair held back from his forehead by a tightly wrapped bandana. “Besides, we’re ten miles from everything… you don’t have to worry about me embarrassing you in front of anyone out here, Jer-bear.”
Jeri shook her head and stomped up the trail as her father’s deep laughter embraced her again. She brushed a lock of hair from her already sweaty face and listened to the chorus of birds and insects around her. She didn’t feel much like talking. In a few days her father would again be leaving on a long trip, and Jeri knew no amount of questions – or his infuriatingly vague answers – could take away the impending sense of loneliness she would feel when he was gone. All she wanted now was as much time with him as she could get before he left – and to make him feel endlessly guilty for dumping her once again on Aunt Patricia and her mothball-smelling house.
“How long will you be gone for this time?” she asked sullenly as she plodded ahead of her father along the overgrown trail.
“Two weeks, give or take a few days,” he replied quickly. “Not too long.”
Jeri grunted. “And where will you be?”
“New York City… conferences and meetings… boring stuff.”
Jeri nodded her head. Her father always had a knack for making his business trips sound like nothing short of pure torture, but she knew for a fact he loved his work. An economist and business analyst, her father was a ridiculously intelligent man who in the last few years had become highly sought-after as a business consultant to large corporations. After years of barely scraping by, the results of his new-found fame had been mixed; more money for their little two-person family, but less time together to enjoy it. For the first time ever, Jeri had all of the material things her school peers had – fashionable new clothes, a brand new bicycle, and best of all, all the books and music she could get her hands on. But what she wanted more than anything was the same commodity that was in great and growing demand– her father’s warm, brilliant, and always laughing presence.
They followed the trail upward past the groves of quaking aspen trees and towering engelmann spruce into a long, open meadow of wildflowers and waving golden grasses. Jeri heard her father whistle and looked back to see him standing on a rock with a hand cupped over his eyes, staring admiringly out at the view.
“You see that,” he said loudly, pointing at a mountain on the opposite end of the valley. It looked to Jeri like its top had been carved out with a giant ice cream scoop. “That’s Sunset Crater.”
“Yeah dad, I know.” Jeri said flatly, staring at her hiking boots. “You’ve pointed it out before.”
“Sure I have. But…well, look how beautiful it is in the morning light.”
“It’s great. Can we eat now?”
Her father stared at the distant peak for another moment before looking over at her with a dazed grin that Jeri knew all too well.
“I know you didn’t hear what I said, Dad,” she said, exasperated. “Can we please eat now?”
“Oh course we can, buttercup.”
“Daaad!”
They laid a blanket across a large flat rock and sat down next to each other. Jeri pulled two canteens of water from her backpack as her father unwrapped a large sandwich and laid it out on a bright red bandana in front of them. They sat in silence for several minutes, eating hungrily and watching the colors of the panoramic landscape change under the rising sun. Both of them burped in fullness and laughed out loud at each other. Jeri’s father pointed out a few more things of interest in the distance, then moaned in mock exhaustion and sprawled his long frame against the sun-drenched rock. Jeri studied the view for a few minutes longer, quietly remembering everything her father had pointed out before laying down next to him and resting her head on his chest. She stared up at his tanned, youthful face, relaxed and friendly with its ever-present grin. Even now as he pretended to sleep she felt the nagging ping of dread in her stomach as she remembered he’d soon be gone again. His strong heartbeat thumped loudly in her ear.
“Dad?” she said softly.
“Yes, sweetheart,” her father replied with closed eyes, his tone eager as if he’d been waiting for her question.
“Why did things have to change? I mean, why do you always have to leave now? I know you’re making more money and stuff, but… but don’t you miss the way things were before?”