Edmund got to the park closer to 3:00. He drove up and down Carousel Drive beside the park, scanning the parking lots and road for anything out of the ordinary. He was not used to being on the defensive. It unsettled him. He honestly wasn’t even sure what he was looking for. A SWAT van surrounded by officers in tactical armor with rifles at ready?
He sighed and pulled into a parking spot. He leaned forward against the steering wheel with his forehead against his joined hands. Why was he even doing this? Since he’d begun, this was the first time he’d run into something that made him seriously wonder about changing course. So…why was he doing this?
“Daddy, make it better.”
He closed his eyes and swallowed hard, then shut off the engine and pulled out his keys.
With half an hour to kill before their meeting, Edmund stuck a paperback book in the pocket of his coat and headed west on the Riverfront Trail. He walked slowly, and let the steady sound of the river calm him, carry away his thoughts to…wherever it ended up north of here. When the trail came out to the road, he turned right onto Front Street and continued, just walking and, as much as possible, not thinking at all. When he passed The Notorious P.I.G., the smells of barbecue pork and macaroni & cheese made his mouth water, but he kept walking and arrived back at the park at 4:00 on the dot. Molly was sitting on the bench outside the fenced-in play area watching the kids run around. She was wearing a bright red winter coat, and it looked like the wind had just slightly reddened the tip of her nose.
She was right yesterday, plenty of people around, but not hard to find relative privacy. Good meeting spot.
* * *
Molly sat watching the kids yelling and chasing each other. That one boy coming down the slide there looked the same age as Edmund’s must’ve been. At that thought, she averted her eyes towards the road. And there he was coming to meet her.
He was right yesterday. The smart move would be to walk away and try to forget all of this. Yet here she sat. And for the life of her, she could not explain why.
As she watched him approaching, in his blue jeans, brown winter coat, and the plaid flannel that was the uniform of the Midwest American Male, it seemed to her that he moved with a certain gravity, that he had a sense of purpose that almost everyone else was lacking. She found herself standing to greet him when he got near, and, though she was completely unaware, gave him a smile which could make a chilly March afternoon feel like a summer beach in Hawaii.
* * *
Molly stood up and turned towards Edmund when he was about twenty feet away. And once again, she hit him with that smile. It felt as if someone could give you a warm hug at exactly the same time they were punching you in the gut. Did she know what she had with that?
He came up beside her and stood watching the playground a moment. “Good day?”
“Yeah,” she answered. “Good tips. My manager stuck me cleaning out the girls’ bathroom at the end of my shift, but…someone’s got to. You?”
Well, I couldn’t sleep because I was having nightmares about you, so…
Edmund gave a grunt and a non-committal shrug.
He surveyed the scene and then pointed past the playground area towards the general park. “How about that lookout area down near Brennan’s Wave? Great place to sit and talk. Park’s busy enough that we won’t be isolated.”
Molly agreed and they walked that way in silence.
When they got there, the two leaned over the rail, looking at the river and the mountains beyond.
After a few moments just watching and listening to the rush of the water over the rocks, Edmund said, “So…what do you want?”
“Uh, what?”
“You came to me, Molly. What do you want here? Are you going to turn me in? Do you want money? What?”
Molly turned from the water to stare at him open-mouthed. “Mon—you mean, like blackmail?!? I—no! I wouldn’t…no!”
Edmund turned to face her directly, “Then what do you want? Why did you stop me yesterday?”
Molly looked like she was about to cry. “I don’t know. I—I want to help you!”
Now was Edmund’s turn to gape at Molly. “Help—Molly, are you insane?!?”
Molly looked behind him and saw a couple walking up the riverfront trail. She waited until they passed and then turned back to him.
“I don’t know. Are you?”
“Yes! Yes, I am, Molly. The things I’ve been doing are not normal, healthy pursuits. You should not want to get involved in them.”
Molly just stared at him, then turned her back.
“Why?” Edmund asked. “Why would you want to help me?”
The same wind that chilled his face blew her long blonde hair out at the edges.
She said something, but so quiet that it was lost in the sound of the water.
“What? I—I couldn’t—”
Over her shoulder, she answered, “Because I know.”
“Because you…know. Know what?”
“I know what they did to you.” And she walked over to sit down on one of the benches.
Edmund sat down on the other bench, but near her.
Molly continued. “That…man…killed your son right in front of you. You watched him die.”
“Felt,” he said.
“And then, and then—the court killed him all over again. And…”
Molly trailed off. She looked back at Edmund. He sat on the bench, face in his hands, his whole body shaking slightly. She turned back and looked over the river, listened to the water. When she looked back, his hands were joined in front of his mouth, and he was breathing heavily and slowly. His face was wet.
“You are the only other person I’ve heard say that.”
Molly wanted to go on, wanted to explain that she’d seen more, that it wasn’t just Gunnar. That there were so many more stories, horrifying stories, and why did the news never talk about them, and…
And she stood up, and went over to his bench, and put her arm around him, and began to cry as well.
The Mayor of Christ Mountain 
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