Joel took off to find Grey the second they pulled into the Park, and Zach went to get himself situated at the main Visitor’s Center, looking forward to a good day’s work.
A good day’s work. He couldn’t believe how lucky he’d gotten, some days. No longer having to work his ass off double-shifting at some awful retail job for almost no pay, so that Joel could have new shoes or go on a school field trip. Instead, working a good job for good money, and seeing how happy his brother was every single day.
It was an enjoyable morning. He talked to a couple of groups of kids, helped some families out, pointed out the best sights and roads Glacier had to offer, answered questions about camping safety. Joel was right, the camping season was starting up sooner than he’d expected.
Around midmorning, Lacey at the front desk came up to him. “Zach, there’s a woman on the phone who’s worried her daughter may have gotten into trouble somewhere in the park. She wants someone to make sure she’s okay.”
That snapped him onto alert. Safety in the park was the rangers’ absolute first priority, and everyone got called in, no matter what they’d been assigned for the day, if it looked like a person was in danger.
“I’ll talk to her,” he told Lacey, and followed her back to pick up the phone.
“Oh, thank God,” said a woman’s voice, sou
nding almost in tears, when he answered. “My daughter’s out there somewhere, you have to find her!”
“All right, ma’am, we’ll do our best,” said Zach. “How old is your daughter?”
“Oh, she’s—she’s twenty-five, but that’s not the problem,” said the woman. “She was badly injured recently, and she’s not well enough to go hiking in a park! She must not be thinking clearly. She hit her head, you know, a concussion? I’m sure she must have forgotten her situation or something—anyway, you have to find her before she falls and hurts herself again. I can’t even imagine what might be happening to her right now—cliffs, wild animals, freezing water...”
“Don’t worry, ma’am,” Zach said soothingly, “we’re on it right now. What does your daughter look like?”
The woman gave him a description that was too vague to be useful—blonde, short, “a little too heavy, you know, she could really stand to lose a few pounds,” which Zach felt wasn’t how a mother should be talking about her child to a stranger, although he kept his mouth shut, of course.
“Can you send a picture of her to our email account?” he asked finally. “That way, we’ll definitely know her if we see her.”
“Oh,” said the woman faintly. “I don’t know if I—surely it’s not too difficult—”
Zach motioned Lacey over. “Ma’am, I’m going to have Lacey talk you through how to send a picture,” he said. Lacey scrunched her face up, but held her hand out for the phone resignedly. “Oh,” he said, before he handed it over, “what’s your daughter’s name?”
“Teresa Lowell,” said the woman. “Please find her before something terrible happens.”
“We will do our absolute best, ma’am.” Zach handed the phone to Lacey.
All right. First things first: he radioed in to Cal, explaining that they had a possible situation. “The mother’s very concerned,” he said. “She says her daughter’s concussed, she’s got some partially-healed broken bones, and she might not be in her right mind.”
“If that’s the case, she probably didn’t get far,” Cal observed, “although you never know. You head out the main footpath, and I’ll call in some of the others to check the side trails. No one on the roads has reported seeing anyone injured, but I’ll do some check-ins and see. Call in after twenty even if you haven’t found anything and we’ll reassess.”
“Understood.” Zach clipped his radio back onto his belt and headed out.
The main footpath was easy going here near the visitor center, but Zach took his time, scanning the surrounding woods for any signs that the injured girl had wandered off the trail.
He saw other hikers several times, mostly on their way back, and asked each of them if they’d seen anyone who looked hurt, but they all shook their heads. Most of them expressed concern—“Should we go back and start looking?” one woman asked, glancing at her husband. “We’re experienced hikers, we could be another set of eyes.”
Zach thanked them and said that the situation wasn’t that dire at the moment. But this was one of the things he truly appreciated about working at the Park. People were aware of the dangers and the responsibilities, and often they wanted to help the rangers out.
About ten minutes down the trail, he saw a familiar figure.
At first he thought it was just wishful thinking, but no—that was the same coat, the same half-wild blond hair, and the same slow, careful walk. She looked just like she had yesterday in the parking lot.
The same generously curved silhouette, too. Zach forced that thought away. He had a job to do, here, and an urgent situation. Attraction didn’t have any part in it.
He caught up to her quickly, although this time he made sure to come up into her line of sight before he said, “Excuse me.”
She didn’t startle this time, just looked up at him, smiling. That smile hit him as hard as it had yesterday. Her lips curved, her eyes sparkled, her whole face lit up, and it left him just wanting to smile back and forget the rest of the world even existed.
Then the smile was overtaken by surprise. “Oh—it’s you!”
“Hi,” Zach said, pulling himself together. “I didn’t get around to introducing myself yesterday. I’m Zach, I’m a ranger here.”