The sun sank behind the black, jagged tops of the far mountains across the desert floor.  The red-orange sky faded to melon and finally the palest rose.  Darkness descended.  The silence was complete.

            She waited.

¨                     ¨                     ¨                     ¨

            He held his hand in front of his eyes.  He could not see it. The sweat of fear beaded his face and drenched his clothes.

            He was trapped in a world of darkness, without a glimmer of light.

Chapter One

Charles opened his eyes and stared into blackness.  He swallowed the bile rising in his throat as he fought to control the panic threatening to overwhelm him.  Where was he?  He maneuvered himself into a sitting position.  Every bone in his body ached, and he could feel a large lump on his forehead.  Somewhere behind him he sensed a wall.  Pushing with his hands, he slid backwards an inch at a time.  When he reached the dirt wall, he leaned against it and waited for the pain in his head to subside and his mind to clear.

The last thing he remembered was climbing into the passenger side of his Maserati. 

Good Lord, he thought.  What happened to Stephen?  Is he here, too?

"Hello?" he called out.  "Anyone there?"  Hearing his own voice only deepened the silence. 

To calm himself, he focused his mind on Caroline, visualizing her lovely face.  Was she waiting for him at Odessa?      

Dizziness and nausea overcame him.  Small rocks were scattered around, and he began clearing a space to lie down again.  Reaching farther out, his hand touched something soft.  He jerked back.

What the hell!

He reached out again.  It felt like canvas.  A bag?  He pulled it towards him.  

Shaking from suspense and hope, he explored the outside until his hand found an opening.  He reached inside.

"Oh, my god!"  He wrapped trembling fingers around the flashlight.  A beam of light illuminated the inside of the knapsack.

Tears he had refused to shed his entire life began to run down his cheeks.

* * * * *         

She lifted long, dark hair, streaked with silver strands, off her neck and anchored it high on her head.  It was late evening, but the air was still hot and dry.  Dipping a cloth into the porcelain washbowl, she patted cool water on her face and neck.  Deep brown eyes stared back at her from the mirror attached to the dresser.

Another day and no Charles.  Had he changed his mind?  Why wasn’t he answering his cell phone? 

This was not like her ex-husband.  He was always prompt.  Since their divorce ten years ago, she'd missed that quality in the men she dated. 

On the other hand, there had always been a part of Charles’s life that he kept secret, even from her.  Periodically he would go off on some mysterious venture, unconcerned if it inconvenienced anyone else.  Had that happened again? 

How long should I wait? she wondered.  She looked around the bedroom.  Like the rest of the house, it was spotlessly clean.  Soft, lace-trimmed sheets were on the bed.  An elegant crystal hurricane lamp sat on the antique dresser. 

Caroline suspected the room looked very much the same as it had a hundred years ago, although the lace curtains at the French doors were obviously new.  She opened the doors and stepped onto the front porch.

Walking across the sandy street, she looked out over the unobstructed view of the valley.  The small, stucco house sat at the far end of an old silver mining town, halfway up the barren, craggy mountain.  The desert floor below stretched for miles before reaching the mountains to the north.  A single asphalt road ran east and west through the center of the valley.

What am I doing here?  Why did I ever agree to come to this isolated, abandoned town?

But, of course, she knew why.  Charles had promised a unique surprise if she met him, and she was curious about her ex-husband’s life these days.  She hoped this unusual get-together would answer some of her questions.

As the sun sank lower in the sky, Caroline looked towards the mountain behind her.  Dilapidated buildings lined a sand-packed street.  In the 1800s, there had been stores, a barbershop, jail, smithy, schoolhouse and several saloons in the booming silver mining town of Odessa.  Charles had left a detailed history of the town for her to read.

She had been fascinated by the historical document, especially in regard to the family that once lived in the house where she was staying.  In 1876, a young woman named Jessica had married the owner of the General Store and managed to raise five children in the small house.  From the moment Caroline arrived, she had sensed a loving presence. 

Each night, she slept peacefully in the bed where Jessica's children had been born.  She used the old dresser for her clothes and had stared into the wavy mirror, tracing the fine lines that had begun to appear now that she was in her fifties.  Had Jessica done the same as the desert stole her youth?

The sun had almost disappeared below the horizon.  Caroline walked back to the house, choosing the second set of doors leading from the porch into the parlor.  In this room, the original Victorian-style furniture was well preserved.  Blue cotton drapes hung at the windows and a threadbare Oriental rug covered the middle of the hardwood floor.

She walked through the room to a hallway that led past a small bathroom to the kitchen.  A week's supply of food stocked the kitchen shelves and the propane refrigerator.  She lit the kerosene lamp on the table and made herself a ham sandwich.  Arranging cheese, crackers and fruit on a plate and pouring a glass of wine, she carried everything out to the front porch.

Sitting on a wooden rocker, she ate her supper, watching stars appear one by one, until the sky was full.  There was a familiarity about the place that filled her with a quiet peace.  If only Charles were here.  She closed her eyes and pictured the face of the man she had once loved so deeply.

Caroline! 

Startled, she turned towards the mountain.