KIM CROSS

And just like that, they were on the trail, carving their way through the desert scrub, the late-fall sun warming the back of Abby’s neck on either side of her braid. She’d stopped wearing her hair like that at er college, worried it made her look young. The weight of it on her back made her heart ache for the woman she was back then.

Ribbons of heat rose from the ochre sand, just as she remembered. Abby looked down and found herself pedaling the sky-blue hard-tail she’d ridden that day for the very last time. The brakes still squealed on the downhills. The derailleur still skipped when she downshit ed. Just as she remembered.

Ahead of her, leading the way as always, the Professor rode his famous bike. A 1977 Breezer older than she was. It looked exactly as she remembered, too, except for one startling thing: It was white. All white. The frame. The tires. Even the chain. Albino white, as if it had been converted to grayscale in Photoshop. On it, the Professor rode in full color.

“Look there,” said the Professor, nodding up at the horizon. “Peregrine Point.”

Abby squinted up at the peak, the tallest on the jagged ridgeline. It seemed like it might snag the cirrus clouds feathered against a sapphire sky.

“I’d love to take you there one day,” he said over his shoulder.

One day. One day. One day. The future was always one day away. In sight, but too far to reach today. Like Peregrine Point. The sight of it made Abby’s heart ache with hope. She imagined the day she’d be strong enough to reach it.

But that day, they had chosen another trail. Occam’s Razor was not a beginner trail. A sinuous ribbon of singletrack, it traced the folds of a hillside as steep as a black-diamond ski slope. Abby trained her eyes on the trail ahead, just over Professor Naughton’s shoulder. She fought the urge to look down and right, where the hillside fell of precipitously. Somewhere below, too far to see was the rocky streambed of Coyote Gulch.

As the trail intersected with Falcon Ridge, the Professor turned right, starting the steep descent down Occam’s Razor. But Abby’s bike went let. She fought it, but the same force that commandeered her steering wheel was now pulling her up, up, up along Falcon Ridge. Up toward Peregrine Point.

Abby’s heart rate spiked. The autumn sun fell fast. She didn’t have food, or a jacket, or a light. Her water bottle was nearly empty. And yet, she couldn’t stop climbing. The pitch steepened. Her legs burned. She was alone, climbing into a deepening sky.

Time melts away in the pain cave. At a certain point, the pain grows dull and familiar, a trusted companion that will never abandon you. “Learning to sufer is a skill,” her father had told Abby before he died. “Learn to be uncomfortable.”

She embraced it, now, leaning into the pain that had shited from her body to her heart. She thought of the pain she had inlicted on Laura, the guilt she had carried, 27

buried like a stone in a backpack, for years. Now each each pedal stroke was a penance, carrying her ever closer to the place where she knew, even before seeing it, she could look down upon the backs of raptors and things would inally make sense.

The sky was bleeding with sunset as the last rise came into view. It was steep — the steepest and rockiest pitch of the trail — and Abby’s legs felt like lead. She stood on the pedals and hammered. Then — snap! — the chain broke, the pedals went slack beneath her. She threw her bike and felt herself tumbling backwards, rag-dolling toward the precipitous clif she had ridden by seconds before. She heard a crunch of bone, felt a sharp pain in her shoulder.

This is it, she thought, in a moment of preternatural calm. I’m going to die in the gulch. Just like him.

As she braced herself for the free-fall, she thudded something that arrested her fall. She heard a shrill yelp, felt fur against her sweaty skin. The obstacle moved, and she was looking into the glistening black eyes of a coyote. The world faded to black.

She awoke to the thunder of helicopter blades and a blast of wind. Fading in and out of consciousness, she felt herself packaged, lited, and carried by shadows with steady voices.

“Why weren’t you wearing a helmet?” one of the shadows said.

“I…I was…” she murmured, dazed and disoriented. “It must have come of in the crash.”

The next day, in the hospital, her boyfriend, more relieved than angry, chided her gently about going for Peregrine Point.

“What were you thinking?” he said, smiling down at

her.

“I don’t remember,” she said.

“The paramedics asked me to give you these,” he said, handing her a plastic bag illed with her broken helmet, glasses, and torn bike clothes they had cut away in the ER. Through the thin plastic, she saw it and froze:

A broken white bicycle chain.

30

THE AUTHORS

Edgar-nominee, RIDLEY PEARSON is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 50 award-winning suspense and young adult adventure novels. His novels have been published in two-dozen languages and have been adapted for network television and the Broadway stage. Ridley’s crime novels have earned a reputation for writing iction that “grips the imagination.”

Currently, Ridley is writing a new series—The Kingdom Kids—for Disney Books and a trilogy of graphic novels— The Super Sons—for DC Entertainment. Ridley plays bass guitar in an all-author rock band comprised of other bestselling writers (Dave Barry, Amy Tan, Mitch Album, Scott Turow, Greg Iles, and occasionally, Stephen King). The Rockbottom Remainders has raised over 2.5 million dollars for various non-proits. He lives — and writes — in the Northern Rockies along with his wife, Marcelle.

BRADY UDALL is the author of New York Times bestseller The Lonely Polygamist, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, and Letting Loose the Hounds. He teaches at Boise State University and lives in Boise, Idaho, with his wife and children.

JAMIE FORD is the great-grandson of Nevada mining pioneer, Min Chung, who emigrated from Kaiping, China to San Francisco in 1865, where he adopted the western name “Ford,” thus confusing countless generations.

His debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, spent two years on the New York Times bestseller list and went on to win the Asian/Paciic American Award for Literature, and has been optioned for ilm and stage. His second book, Songs of Willow Frost, was also a national bestseller. His work has been translated into 35 languages. (He’s still holding out for Klingon, because that’s when you know you’ve made it). His latest novel is Love and Other Consolations Prizes.

CHERYL MADDALENA is a poet, mom, engineer, and psychologist... but not all at the same time. Her full-length book of poetry, Children, It Is Time We Had The Talk was the winner of the 2017 Blue Sketch Prize.

EMILY RUSKOVICH grew up in the Idaho Panhandle on Hoodoo Mountain. Her writing has appeared in Zoetrap, The Virginia Quarterly Review, One Story, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and Lithub. Her L.A. Times bestselling novel Idaho won the Dublin Literary Award. She was also a shortlisted inalist for the Dylan Thomas International Prize, The Edgar Allen Poe Award for the best irst novel, and The New York Library’s Young Lion’s Award. She is a winner of an O. Henry Award, The Idaho Book Award, and a Paciic Northwest Book Award.

A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she currently teaches creative writing in the M.F.A. program at Boise State University.

JONATHAN EVISON is an American writer best known for his novels All About Lulu, West of Here, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, and This Is Your Life Harriet Chance!. His work, oten distinguished by its emotional resonance and obeat humor, has been compared by critics to a variety of authors, most notably J.D. Salinger, Charles Dickens, T.C. Boyle, and John Irving. His ith novel, Lawn Boy, was published in the spring of 2018, receiving starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal. He is the executive editor of The Nervous Breakdown, where among other duties, he curates the national book club. He was the irst guest on author and podcaster Brad Listi’s podcast Other People.

ELIZABETH WORD GUTTING is the program coordinator for the creative writing program at Boise State University. She received her MFA in iction from George Mason University. Her writing has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Humanities Magazine, The Millions, Juked, and Paper Darts, among others.

CHRISTIAN WINN, Idaho’s 2016-2019 Writer in Residence, lives in Boise, Idaho where he writes and teaches. He is the founder of the Writers Write iction workshop series, co-founder and Director of Storyfort, producer of the Campire Stories reading series and the Couch Surfer Artist Series. He is a graduate of Seattle Paciic University, and the Boise State University MFA program.

His stories have appeared in McSweeney’s, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, The Chicago Tribune’s Printer’s Row Journal, Gulf Coast, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. His collections, NAKED ME and What’s Wrong With You Is What’s Wrong With Me are recently out from Dock Street Press.

An award-winning writer and editor, KIM CROSS began writing for her local newspaper as a senior in high school. Ater graduating summa cum laude from University of Alabama with a journalism degree, she joined the founding editorial team of Business 2.0 magazine to cover the dot-com boom (and bust) in San Francisco. She returned to Tuscaloosa for a graduate fellowship in the journalism school, where she published indepth reporting projects for The Anniston Star and The Birmingham News. She honed her reporting skills as a beat and spot news reporter for New Orleans Times-Picayune, where she covered double-murders, hurricanes, and most harrowingly, local government. She reined her feature writing at the Tampa Bay Times (then the St. Petersburg Times). She worked on staf at Southern Living and Cooking Light for nearly a decade before quitting her job to focus on the book, What Stands in a Storm. Kim’s work has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalism, the Society of American Travel Writers, and the Media Industry Newsletter (MIN). She has spoken about writing the Mayborn Literary Noniction Conference and the Louisiana Book Festival, and numerous conferences in the travel industry. Her writing has appeared in Outside, Southern Living, Cooking Light, Bike, Bicycling, Runner’s World, The Tampa Bay Times,

The Birmingham News, The Anniston Star, USA Today, ESPN. com, Health.com, and syndicated on CNN.com.

MARNE ELMORE was born in Oregon and grew up in Bellevue, Idaho. She attended Oregon State University where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and the University of New Mexico where she received a Master of Fine Arts with an emphasis in printmaking. Currently, Elmore is living and working in Boise, happily biking, cooking, reading, gardening, and more importantly, making artwork.

THE CABIN is a Boise, Idaho literary arts organization. We forge community through the voices of all readers, writers, and learners. Our workshops, readings, lectures, camps, and other educational programs provoke creativity and experimentation, foster literary excellence, and inspire a love of reading and writing.

Morgan Ackley Cynthia Alleman Suzanne Allen John & Edwina Allen Rick Ardinger Gerti Arnold Karen Baerlocher Mark Barney Karen Benning Anonymous Dianne Bevis Julie Blaugher Jerry Brady Tyler Brewington Hollis Brookover & Milt Gillespie Nancy Budge & Gay Whitesides Melissa Carico Elizabeth Clovis Carolyn Cofman Nicholas Cofod & Janice Alexander Malia & Josh Collins Laurie & Tom Corrick Staci & Rick Darmody Keri Davidson Anonymous Aria DeAguiar Terri Dillion Lara Disney Marne Elmore Anne Elmore Anonymous Steve & Allison Frinsko Terri & Vick Garabedian KayT Garrett Marshall & Leslie Garrett Mary & Bob Gehrke Anonymous Anonymous Laura Hartwig Jamie Hausman Greg Heinzman Paul Hilding Mary Holden Lesly Hollister Linda Hummel & David Gullion Jill Johnson Debbie Johnson Linda & Steve Kahn Scott Ki & Suzanne Troje Tom & Teresa Killingsworth John & Carol Cronin Kriz Catherine Kyle Alexandria Larsen Erica Larson Lauren Lavelle Emily Lavelle Gail LeBow Elsa J. Lee & Kurt Nilsson Jane & Bill Lloyd Elizabeth Long Sally Long Marcia & Jim Lyons Joanna Madden Barbara Malki Bill Manny Mary McGown

Beverly McLean Sue McMillan Kelly Miller Betsy Montgomery Gayle Moore Anonymous Eileen Mundorf Pam Nagel Lex Nelson Pamela Nishitani Aimee Nishitani Will Northrop Jody Ochoa Bonnie Paisley Wendy Rancourt Vicky Meawasige Reed Paul & Andy Remeis Ellie Rodgers Anne Ruark Peggy Runcorn Amy & Todd Rustad Diane & Jonathan Schwarz Margaret Scott Eric Stallsworth Carol Stilz Alicia Suski Eric Swanson Anonymous Joyce Taylor Allen Traylor Maria Trebby Carrie Utley Rosemarie Van Pembroke Amy War Mikel & John Ward Connie Weaver Julie Weston Julie Wright Kathy Yamamoto Karena Youtz

The day began as any other: sunshine, clean air, and a sky the color of the one-year date-a-versary sapphire ring she wore on her right hand. Abby wants to bike up to Peregrine Point. The desert has other ideas. Will Abby make it to the top? Will she make it out alive? Or even...human?

THE CABIN is a Boise, Idaho literary arts organization. We forge community through the voices of all readers, writers, and learners. Our workshops, readings, lectures, camps, and other educational programs provoke creativity and experimentation, foster literary excellence, and inspire a love of reading and writing.

$20.00 Cover Design: Megan Williams with art by Marne Elmore

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