The Way Back

JONNY.

Thursday, 3:18p.m. (EDT)

Until the words pop out of his mouth, Jonny Rockford isn’t intending to mention anything about it to his friend, but the sentence escapes his lips of its own volition: “I’ve been toying with the idea of proposing to Alex.”

Owen, who’d been about to take a bite of his burger, sets the sandwich on his plate and arches his eyebrows instead. “‘Toying with the idea’?” he confirms.

Jonny nods and slides a hand into a pocket of his cargo shorts. The velvet covering of the tiny, hinged box is soft beneath his fingertips. Debating whether he should provide additional information, his hand, like his mouth, makes the decision for him. “I, uh… I bought a ring.”

“Sounds like you’ve done a bit more than toy with the idea,” Owen grunts, wiping his fingers on a napkin before gingerly picking up the box. Inside, a solitary diamond glimmers from its positioning on a slim band of silver. “Hold on, wait. You carry it around with you? How long’ve you had this?”

“Since March.”

“March?”

The reaction is legitimate. It’s now July and Jonny has yet to pop the question.

“Good lord, man! What’re you waiting for?”

“I don’t know?”

Jonny forms the answer as a question because the reality is… he doesn’t know. He’s thirty years old—a reasonable age to marry and start a family with the woman he’s been seeing for the past four years—but for some reason, he’s hesitant to take the next step. Tucked away in the back of his mind, he suspects he might have an idea as to why he’s so reluctant to move forward with the proposal, but never in a million years does he plan to admit—

“It has something to do with that woman, doesn’t it?”

“What woman?” Jonny wonders, attempting to play dumb, but Owen rolls his eyes and tosses a French fry at him, hitting Jonny square in the chest. “That woman,” he repeats, emphasizing the second word. “The one you met in Denver all those years ago. I forget her name. Pippa? Poppy? It was something like that.”

“Piper,” Jonny whispers. He plucks the fry from his lap and tosses it to a seagull cackling overhead. Though it’s a hot day, and humid, the seabreeze makes the outdoor dining experience just bearable. He reaches for his beer, the plastic cup perspiring excessively in the brilliant sunshine and creating a ring of moisture on the red-and-white plastic tablecloth. Flip’s is known for its shrimp salad sandwiches and cheesy crab fries, but Jonny, like Owen, has opted for a cheeseburger. “Her name was Piper,” he says a bit more loudly, and takes a long sip of his golden lager. “She was from Oregon.”

After graduating from college and securing a teaching position at the local high school, Jonny Rockford had, on a whim, decided to travel out west by himself. He’d left Moonglow, North Carolina, early one Sunday morning in late July, driving away from the Atlantic and toward adventure. Single and only a few weeks shy of his twenty-fourth birthday, he’d ricocheted from one national park to the next, visiting Mammoth Cave and the Hot Springs, Carlsbad Caverns and the Petrified Forest. He’d made it the whole way to California before boomeranging back home, taking a more northern route this time and passing through Nevada, Utah, and Colorado.

It had been in Denver, at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant, that he’d met Piper for both the first and last time. She’d sidled up next to him at the bar and claimed the seat beside his, ordering a margarita with salt. Nearly black hair, incredibly green eyes, and lips that glistened beneath a fresh coat of colorless gloss. She’d been beautiful in a way that didn’t require makeup, and as a result, she hadn’t been wearing any. “What’s good here?” she’d wondered, perusing a laminated menu.

“Not sure,” Jonny answered in his slow, southern drawl. “This is my first time.”

“What’re you doing in Denver?”

“Just passing through. What about you?”

“Heading home. My flight was canceled. I booked another, but it won’t leave ‘til early tomorrow morning and I was super sick of the airport. Now I’m here.” She’d shrugged and smiled… and that had been the beginning of a five-hour date of sorts.

“So what?” Owen asks now, drowning his fries in a combination of ketchup and mustard. “You bought the ring but you’re not gonna use it because of a woman you met six years ago and haven’t talked to since? That’s crazy, man. Alex is a sweet girl. She adores you. Are you afraid she’s gonna say no or something?”

Quite the opposite, actually. What worries Jonny is that Alex will immediately agree to be his wife and then spend the next year planning the most elaborate wedding imaginable. Which is fine… but not necessarily what he wants, because as much as he loves his girlfriend, she often requires more maintenance than he would prefer.

“No, it’s not that. I just… I wonder, you know?”

“You wonder what? If Alex is the right one?”

“I don’t know. Maybe?”

Owen shakes his head, a look of disbelief washing across his chubby face. “I know you, Jonny. You’re thinking about trying to track down the mysterious Piper, aren’t you? What do you even know about her? She’s from Oregon, okay. What else? Do you have a last name?”

“You know I don’t.”

“So what else can you tell me about her, huh? How do you intend to find her?”

“I don’t know. She’s a photographer.”

“And?”

“And she’s from a small city called Radio Park.”

“And?”

“And her dad has a lot of tattoos.”

Owen rolls his eyes.

“I know, I know. But I’ve gotta give it a shot, don’t I? I can’t not try to find her. ‘Cos if I don’t at least look, I’ll always wonder, and that isn’t a healthy start to a marriage.”

“You do realize all these things you ‘know’ about her might be completely outdated, right? I mean, that was years ago, Jonny. She could’ve moved, or gotten a new career. And you’re thinking… what? Put some gas in the car, pack a week’s worth of clothes, and head west? That’s crazy.”

“Crazy” is an understatement; Jonny understands the odds of unearthing a needle in a haystack and is aware that’s essentially what he’ll be doing.

“I’m gonna fly,” he says softly, taking another sip of his beer. He’d priced tickets earlier this morning.

“What about Alex? What’re you gonna tell her?”

Not one to lie, this is the hardest part of his plan. “I have a buddy from college who lives in Bend. It’s, like, a fifteen-minute drive from Radio Park. I’ll tell her I’m staying with Artie. He’s been begging me to visit for a couple years now, so this’ll be a two-birds, one-stone sorta thing.”

Jonny will make it a point to catch up with his old friend.

What he’ll share with Alex is a mere half-truth rather than a full-fledged fabrication.

Looking skeptical, Owen narrows his eyes and chews the inside of his cheek. “I don’t know, man. I’d be lying if I were to tell you I think it’s a good idea because, well… I really don’t. But I doubt my opinion matters much. You’re gonna do what you want, aren't you?”

No longer hungry, Jonny covers the remainder of his burger with a paper napkin and pushes the plate away. An inch of beer sits in the bottom of his glass and he drains this in one gulp, dragging the back of his hand over his mouth before saying, “I need to do it. I don’t know why, but I do. My goal is to fly out on Monday.”