Mountain Moonlight - By Jane Toombs Page 0,2

knew where he lived, much less got invited to visit. "You're in Apache Junction?" he asked.

"Yes."

"There's a cafe in town called Auntie Mame's. I'll meet you there in about forty-five minutes, okay?"

After hanging up, he didn't move for a minute or two. Vala Channing. At sixteen she'd been slender and fair-haired. Though not exactly pretty, there'd been something about her that caught his attention--maybe the somewhat exotic upward tilt to her blue eyes, eyes that reminded him of a spring sky, clear and unclouded. Or maybe the hesitant smile that lit her face on all-too-rare occasions.

It wasn't that he'd thought of her often over the years, because he hadn't. But, somehow, that one night they'd been together stuck in his memory with the tenacity of a cactus spine. And equally barbed.

In the booth at Auntie Mame's, Davis slurped the last of his chocolate shake through the straw and then eased back in his seat. "I still don't see why we can't just buy a tent and stuff and start off," he said. "We've got a map, haven't we?"

"Superstition Mountain isn't like the Catskills back home," Vala said. "I want Mr. Hunter's advice before we go any farther." What she'd actually hoped was that, once Bram recognized her name, he might offer to be their guide even though he'd taken his name off the list.

His gruffness on the phone had convinced her that would never come to pass. In fact, after his go-away-and-don't- bother-me manner, she was surprised he'd even agreed to meet her here--a meeting she was looking forward to with both anticipation and trepidation. She touched her hair with nervous fingers and ran her tongue over her lips. Did she have time to go to the ladies room to check her lipstick again? Probably not, but there ought to be a mirror somewhere in her shoulder bag....

"Is that him?" Davis asked.

Vala stopped burrowing in her bag and glanced at the tall, dark-haired man striding toward their booth, suddenly finding she hardly had enough breath to say, "Yes," to Davis.

He stopped at the booth, his gaze holding hers for a long moment. "Vala," he said, nodding. Then he turned to look at her son. "I'm Bram Hunter," he said, "Do you mind if I sit next to you, Davis?"

"I guess not," Davis mumbled, sliding over to make room. Bram eased onto the seat, said, "Coffee," to the approaching waitress and looked at Vala again. "Why the Superstitions?" he asked.

"It's a long story. Back in Westchester, where we live, Davis inherited a map from an old Apache."

"Ndee," Davis said almost inaudibly without looking at either of them.

Bram glanced at him. "Tell me about the man who gave you the map," he said to the boy.

"His name was Mokesh and he's dead." Davis ran the words together as though getting them out fast so he could withdraw into silence once again.

"He was Ndee?" Bram persisted.

Vala noted a glimmer of interest lighten her son's sullen face. "Mokesh said Apache was an enemy word."

"Do you know what Ndee means?" Bram asked.

Davis nodded. "The Dream People. I know lots about them. Like how their Thunder God makes Superstition Mountain his home. And about Swift Wind. And how the buffalo came to the Ndee."

Vala was amazed. Davis rarely spoke more than a word or two to strangers and then only if she insisted.

"Mokesh must have been a good friend of yours," Bram said.

"He was my best friend. And I was his. That's why he gave me the map when he knew it was his time to die."

"If you want to show it to me, I'd like to see the map."

"Sure. I got it right here in my pack." Davis unzipped the pack and removed the rolled deer skin wrapped in plastic. The waitress set Bram's coffee in front of him and he pushed it across the table toward Vala, shoving the other dishes aside, too, to make room to spread out the deer skin map. His attention was fixed on Davis, not once did he look at Vala.

Both he and Davis bent over the map, Davis pointing to the various strange and primitive markings and telling Bram what Mokesh had said about them. "He told me when I came to the X, I'd find my heart's desire. So then I knew it was a treasure map."

"Heart's desire," Bram repeated. "Mokesh didn't say treasure?"

Davis shook his head. "But what else could he mean?"

They've both forgotten me, Vala thought. I might as well not be here in the