Word Count: 313
It was at the cabin she’d taken over after her father had died where they had their worst argument yet.
“Why are they called Endless Mountains,” he said, “when there’s obviously a beginning and end. Don’t even stretch across a couple of states. It’s all here in podunk Pennsylvania.”
“I don’t know why. But that’s the name,” she said.
“Real creative, these folks in the outback.”
She grit her teeth. This vacation was supposed to bring them some peace. Some common ground. He’d never been up here. As long as they’d been married, it was impossible to have him and her family in the same town. The cabin for even a weekend would have been fatal to somebody, surely.
“I’m going out for a walk,” he said after breakfast.
“Wait, I’ll come with you,” she said.
“I’m just going down to that lake we passed somewhere on the way here.”
“But that’s a mile or more away,” she said. “It’s easy to get lost, even the road forks off in some places. If you wait while I find my boots I’ll come along.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said. “The lake isn’t that far by a long shot.” He was a city boy, used to measuring distance by blocks. He just wanted to get away from her and the three rooms of the cabin. He just wanted to get away.
She held her breath to keep in what she was ready to say. She let it out slowly. “Follow the ridge,” she said.
“Yeah, right. Like you know your way around here.”
And they argued again about the name, “Endless Mountains.” She finally gave up and said he was right. He left with a smugness she hated and let him go out the door, knowing he might walk from one end of the state to another but he’d never, ever, find his way back.
