Teri sighed. “No, I should tell you. It’s just so...frustrating, it’s hard to put into words without sounding like a bratty teenager.”
“Try,” Zach encouraged. “I promise not to judge you for saying your mom doesn’t understand why you need to go see that R-rated movie.”
Teri laughed. It was a bright, bell-like sound, and it left Zach briefly absentminded. “All right. I told you I was in a car accident.”
Zach nodded. “It sounded serious.”
“It was. I could’ve easily died, and I’m incredibly lucky to be making a full recovery. I was in the hospital for weeks, and I needed a lot of care even after I got out.”
Zach tried to picture being that helpless for that long. It made him shudder. His respect for Teri went up; she must be incredibly strong to have gone through that and come out as cheerful as she seemed to be.
She was serious now, though. Her face was set, and her shoulders were starting to hunch. “I...couldn’t go into work, so I lost my job, and it didn’t make sense to pay rent when I wasn’t going to be home for months and there were all these medical bills, so I let my apartment go. All my money went to the medical bills. I was very lucky that my mother doesn’t work and was happy to take care of me full-time.”
Zach was starting to see the picture now. “But now she won’t admit that you’re better?”
“That’s right.” Teri looked suddenly exhausted. “I have no independence at all. No car after the crash, no money, no place to go...the doctor’s an old friend of the family, and he won’t clear me to start looking for jobs, which means my mother won’t let me out of the house at all. My dad stays out of it, and my sister supports her a hundred percent, so I’m stuck.”
She said it all very matter-of-factly, but Zach could see the pain and frustration underneath. His respect went up even more. If she was being smothered like this every day, how could she be so cheerful, instead of angry and upset?
He looked her in the eye as he said, “Believe me, you do not sound like a bratty teenager. You sound like a woman who’s going through something awful. I wish I could do something to help.”
He tried to think of what he could do, but nothing occurred to him. Nothing real and effective, anyway. He couldn’t just hand Teri a job, or a full bank account, or an apartment.
If he’d had the resources to do any of those things, though, he thought he would. Anything to get her to stand up straight from this hunched, beaten-down posture and make her smile again.
“Thanks,” Teri said. “But I just need to wait. Eventually, my mother will have to acknowledge that I’m better. And then...I’ll figure something out. My old job hired someone else, but there has to be another receptionist position somewhere in town. Or something.”
She sounded like she was trying to convince herself. Zach made a note to himself to keep an eye out for any job postings. Teri sounded smart and capable; he didn’t doubt she could do many kinds of work.
“Anyway.” She shook her head, and seemed to shake away the clouds of sadness with the motion, because when she looked up at him again, she was smiling. “Enough about all of that. What about you? You said you were new in town?”
Zach accepted the change of subject, although he wasn’t going to forget about Teri’s problems anytime soon. “My brother Joel and I just finished ranger training a few months ago, and we both got jobs here at Glacier.”
Teri’s eyebrows went up. “Both of you did ranger training at the same time? Are you twins?”
“No, Joel’s younger. We both worked other jobs until we had enough saved to go together.”
Teri smiled a little. “That’s nice. It sounds like you’re close.”
Zach nodded. “I looked out for him back before he turned eighteen. I thought once he was a legal adult, he’d run off to live in the middle of nowhere somewhere, but...” he spread his hands. “He said he wanted to be a ranger, and that takes school, and school costs money. I was going to work to put him through it, but he’s a stubborn guy. He wouldn’t go until there was enough money for both of us, even though it took years longer than it would have otherwise.”
“Good for him,” Teri said softly, and Zach was reminded of her sister in the parking lot yesterday.
From that, and from what she’d said, it sounded like Teri knew a thing or two about overprotective older siblings herself. Zach felt a sudden pang of guilt. Was he smothering Joel like Teri was being smothered?
He’d have to ask him, make sure that his complaining about Zach’s occasional warnings and admonishments was as lighthearted as Zach usually assumed it was.
“Joel knows what he wants and he goes for it,” Zach said, trying to reassure himself with the words.
“Huh,” Teri said. “Sounds like I could take a leaf or two from his book.”
Zach wanted to assure her that there was nothing she could do, but...that didn’t actually sound that reassuring, in his head. Instead he tried, “If there was one thing you’d be stubborn about, what would it be?”
“Going out,” Teri said immediately. “That’s what today was all about. I barely ever get a chance to just...be outside. I wanted to take a walk in the sunshine and look at the spring plants. Without anyone insisting that I had to take it easy, that I needed to stop, that it wasn’t good for me.”
“I think the Park is good for everyone.” It was true. Glacier National Park was one of the most beautiful places on earth, and after only a few winter months, Zach was already beginning to believe that just being here could foster an amazing sense of...of peace, and well-being.
Teri smiled at him. “I agree.” The smile turned wry. “Maybe it’ll be good for my mother, too.”