all ages

The Depth of the River

By Heather (Trix15)

 

The sound of clanking metal was laced with grunts from the person working on the military press machine. With a drawn out moan, he lowered the handles slowly to their resting-place with a sigh.

"We'll find them," his partner said, switching places with the boy on the machine. Gripping the handles himself, he tightened his muscles and lifted. His spotter looked towards the distant glass mirrors, not concentrating on his job.

With one last lift, the man sitting in front of him set the weights down. Running his fingers through his red hair, he stood up. He placed an arm around the young man, and drew him over to the front windows of the Missouri Athletic Club. The sun was just barely visible coming up in the east over the river.

"But that's not all, is it?" he said softly, turning his side to the glass so he could look into the boys face. He could see that the boy was trying unsuccessfully to retain tears. Matt Wheeler had never loved his son more in these moments, certainly, as though he was his own flesh and blood.

* * * *

Upon arriving back at the hotel in St. Louis, Jim, Brian, Mart and Dan had quickly discovered that the girls were nowhere to be found. It took little for them to know instinctively that something was desperately wrong. Mr. Wheeler arrived with Mr. Brandio a short time later.

After delivering instructions and questions, and making phone calls, the Secret Service men finally left to take another room so that the boys could get some sleep.

For Jim however, sleep would not come. Shortly after 4, he slipped on a pair of running shorts and a T-shirt and quietly headed out to the hotel lobby. There, his father sat with Mr. Brandio talking softly. They looked up when he walked in. Neither one had any notion of surprise on their faces.

"Can't sleep?" Mr. Brandio asked?

"No."

Jim figured that Matt Wheeler might tell him to go back to bed and try it again, but he merely smiled. "I can't either," he intoned softly, yawning even as he spoke. "Come on."

He stood up and motioned towards the door. "I was just about to head somewhere else myself." To "Mr. Brandio he said, "thanks for staying here for a little bit. I just need to get out. I have my mobile if there's any news while I'm gone".

Mr. Brandio nodded, standing up. "I'm going to go sit with Chief Ogilvie... see if anything has happened." He walked off down the hall while Matt and Jim headed out the front door.

"Where are we going?" Jim asked quietly.

"To blow off some steam," was the equally quiet reply.

They climbed in Mr. Brandio's car and soon had pulled up in front of the athletic club. It's doors didn't officially open until 5:30 but with the right connections, Matt explained, one could utilize the facility on one's own time. One of the men on the Clear Meadow Aircraft Corporation board was the club owner. He allowed Mr. Brandio, and hence his guests, easy access.

"You should set up a home gym back at Manor House," mumbled Jim, making small talk. "I didn't know you worked out."

"You don't see me on my business trips," Matt said, striding over to the locker room to change into clothes similar to the outfit Jim had hastily pulled on. Standing beside one another, no one could guess that the same blood did not run in them both.

"What else do you think I do during those dull moments at conferences when Madeleine is shopping? Listen Jim... son, it's not that I don't appreciate the effort, but you don't have to keep up politeness and small talk with me. This is a horribly worrying situation and if I thought I could get away with it, I'd be ranting and raving at this point. If you agree, we can work out without talking and grunt and groan as much and as loudly as we want.

Jim nodded and the two began their workout, each one secretly lifting more than was probably prudent, in hopes of releasing built up fear, apprehensiveness anger, and worry.

It was half an hour later however that Matt had sensed something in his son beyond worry over the fate of the girls. The military press was the last machine in the row of the upper body machines and now the two stood by the window.

"What is it Jim?"

'I feel wrong for even thinking about this when Honey and Trixie are missing. And Honey... she's my *sister*," he said with self-loathing. "But...I can't help it. It's Trixie."

Matt, in spite of the graveness of the situation and the uncertainty about the fate of his daughter and her best friend, tried unsuccessfully to hide a smile.

"Go on," he said softly.

"I've imagined telling her so many times what I feel for her and showing the whole world those feelings as well. But then I think - will anyone really understand? Will anyone even believe what I believe? And then I ask myself how I could blame people for doubting the strength of my feelings for her. They'd be right! We're so young. I know that. I'm afraid everyone will think my feelings for her immature or that they'll never amount to anything when we're older. But yet I *know* the feelings are real. I just don't understand how they *could* be." Jim stopped. "I'm making about as much sense as Trix and Honey." He ended his sister's name on a higher note as he tried to stop from crying again.

Matt led Jim to a workout bench and sat down on one end of it, motioning for Jim to do the same. Part of him wanted to tell his son to slow his feelings down, to let nature take its course. But the larger part of him believed that nature in fact was working just fine.

"Jim... these steamboat captains... they grew up on this river. Many of them were mere children when they discovered their desire to be on it. They gradually learned it length by length, channel by channel. It takes years for that kind of knowledge to build... years to know every expanse, curve and water depth, and frankly even then they don't know everything and the sand bars can change with the tide.

"But I'll bet that every captain on this river would tell you that it was something close to love at first sight. Now as far as humans go, I have my doubts that such a thing exists. But what these captains love when they are young boys is everything they innately know, and sense that exists about the river. They love the river for all that it looks like and feels like at the surface. But also because they can see so deep into the river's nuances that they'll certainly love it even more as the years pass and they experience more of it.

"I've no doubt your feelings for Trixie are real. Yes, to a certain extent, they are immature. But immaturity isn't a 4-letter word Jim and it tends to go hand in hand with youth. When we age, so must our maturity." He held up a placating hand as Jim started to speak.

"An increase in maturity Jim, doesn't mean that feelings go away. It may mean that your feelings for her only get stronger with age. You *know* Trixie. If you believe that you know the essence of her, even without knowing everything about her, than I believe it's that essence you've fallen in love with. Her essence is her true nature and whatever else changes about her - I don't believe that will. Even though the river changes, it doesn't affect the feelings that riverboat captains feel for the river because it's nature *doesn't* change. You don't have to know every jot and tittle about something, to love it forever. That knowledge will come with time. All a person needs to know to love, is to know essence."

The silence could have lasted the rest of the day between the two men. Jim had been blown away by Matt Wheeler's words, and understanding. And Matt had been blown away by the interaction he had just had with his son. It was an interaction that he didn't figure he'd ever really have with Honey, as close as they had become. There was a father-son bond that was... well, it was just different. And Matt felt that in spite of the circumstances surrounding Honey and Trixie, that bond had been solidified there in that moment.

He hated to break the experience, but knowing that the club would open soon, he leaned over to wrap Jim in his arms. Father and son held tight for a few moments until Matt's mobile phone rang.

"Wheeler."

"It's Ogilvie. Meet us outside the club. We think we've found them."

THE END

3. The idea came from one line near the beginning of Mystery on the Mississippi and I couldn't strike the image of Jim and Matt working out. YUMMY! :)

TBH Main