The Mountain Between Us

by Charles Martin

Rachel, my wife,

Always Married

Flight 1672 to Atlanta.”

Do not take this flight.

I fly into some remote places. Ain’t much I can’t do with what’s right here.” He tapped a stuff sack beneath the seat, compressing a sleeping bag. “Where I fly, it pays to be self-sufficient.”

Smart man. But I stilll don't like it.

We’ve been married a long time, seen a lot, experienced much, but loving somebody gets better the more you do it.

He seemed like the sweetest husband.

Then, as if he’d done it a thousand times, he pancaked the plane against the mountain.

Did he have a heart attack? Did the wind or storm ruin the landing… or was Grover not trying to land the plane? (but ON the mountain? The tail of the plane broke off... Broke so the transmitter is LOST!? Did Ashley break something? Was the "crack" from something breaking off the plane or someone? That would make sense why shes screaming. but also the pland has flipped crashed and broken so I'm sure i'd be screaming too.

He shook his head. “What’s her name?” “Rachel Hunt.”

These 'flashback moments' to his wife are starting to break my heart and ths plane JUST CRASHED!!! Slow down, i'm begging.

So much of what I am, he made. Forged it in me. I know that. But Dad used pain to rid me of pain. Leaving me empty and hurting. You poured in you and filled me up. For the first time, I felt no pain. You gave me the one thing he never did. Love, absent a stopwatch.

Stopppppppppppppp *sliding down the wall

“Good. I’m going to clean up a bit around here, maybe order a pizza or something.”

They chemistry is already there and it's still just... friendly. That's the worst way to fall in love. With a friend, hurt hits harder. And they are already IN DIRE NEED OF HELP.

It read: A LAMP UNTO MY PATH.

Aww Grover's little lighter.

A good memory.

In my opinion, that was a terrible proposal. but i also think its a book written from the male prospective BY A MAN ...i expected to be somewhat turned off by Ben. He's kind, but hes already mansplained twice (to the reader and to Ashley). I don't think the author can help himself.

Once you get there, you pick another, but this time you also use the point behind you as a reference point—double-checking yourself. Hence, point-to-point. Not difficult, but takes patience.

I do like the subtle safety/hiking information. So it’s not always bad to inform the reader… but it’s in the way it’s done. This isn’t an I for dump for no reason —such as the info about the compond bow.

With the hatchet I cut a limb, lashed it to the net, and submerged both it and the egg, catching a couple more.

Im sorry... What limb? Not one of Grover's!

Rachel, you’re still the measuring stick. No one else holds a candle.

Im going to be SICK if she learns of these recordings from anyone but an ALIVE Ben. ...hopes are on the floor.

Compound bows

Another mansplanation. I think this is #3, if im not mistaken. Its 100% the AUTHOR in the story. I don't correlate this personality with the man written to be so in love with his wife that even when he's starving, cold, and scared, still keeps his promise to use the recorder. (regardless if he's bored and just has nothing else to do.)

I wake up each day thinking I’ll wake up tomorrow, too.

because if I dont, then what?

And what it was when I didn’t get in the way.

Love is always easy when we get out of our own way. Too busy being guarded.

nothing has worked out the way you’d hoped since we met in Salt Lake.”

Aint one lie been told. Ben still has this "Im a man and I DONT THINK i can fail. For this type of situation, it works. (weird & random sidenote: Ben being black in the film MUST be because race is not directly mentioned in this book. It's described how Ashley is, but indirectly Ben is giving me 100% white boy. ...but I have yet to finish the book or see the movie so who can say at this point for sure.)

I caped it, which means I cut off the hide, and then gutted it.

#4 I've decided to note each time this author mansplains.

The longer I stick with her, the longer she’ll make it.

I have a feeling that he's lost someone already...

“You still haven’t answered my question.” “I know.”

Did he have an explosive episode and 'turn into his father'?

“When we get back, you’ve got to teach Vince how to do this.”

Is she going to make it back to see if he hoped & looked & waited for her ...or didnt wait?

Somewhere in there I drifted off, feeling guilty and filled with longing.

If they both die, I'm gonna be SICK!

Two kids dancing.

twist the knife, why don't you!

“Otherwise we end up waiting on a fairy tale that never comes true.”

Is Rachel alive?

Guys like Grover, and you…I’ve never had much luck finding one of them.”

She don't like Vince at all, huh?

I just think you deserve…something, or someone, stellar.”

Even Napoleon looked weak.

For a moment... a long one, I thought they were going to eat the dog. They might still have to, but for NOW, he's still with us.

And if God would open up time, let me go back, and live in one moment, it’d be that one.

17!! Ain’t no way!!!!! What about her wedding? Their families are probably going crazy, wondering what could have happened. I’m pretty sure that Ben’s family (his twins) are heartbroken… who is looking after them? Are Ben and Rachel separated by something more than time, space, and a ‘history’? Is Ashley’s fiancé going to assume she got cold feet and ran? Nearly 3 weeks… that’s a hell of a time. Poor Grover’s widow. I hope at least they can return the dog to her maybe.

We had fun, didn’t we?

Sheesh, the memeory trip seems like regret and punishment. How badly did this end?

Because I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t go much beyond that.

...what does that mean BEN!!?

“’Cause they’re…she…” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

Did she die in childbirth??? Noooooooooooooo.

“If you don’t…none of you will make it.”

And like a MOTHER… she only cares for the baby UGH I get it cuz same but also nooooo

“I’ll not sleep the rest of my life looking at their faces on the backs of my eyelids.

You placed my palm on your stomach. “I can see their faces. Michael has your eyes and Hannah has my nose…I know how they smell, which side of their lips turn up when they smile, whether or not their ear lobes are connected, the wrinkles in their fingers. They are a part of me…of us.”

Twist the knife... Lord have mercy.

In the hours that followed, she stood over the calf, shielding it from the snow that had returned.

...she was just a mama. a moose, but still a mama.

Then I dressed Ashley in her clothes, strapped the brace back on her leg, zipped her up in her bag, slid her onto the sled, and lifted her head onto a third blanket I’d folded into a pillow.

With the way she speaks about Vince, I dont think he would have done this for Ashley the way Ben is for her. which seems crazy, because she has still yet to fall apart the way you would expect.

“Ben?”

If I'm ever stuck in or trapped around snow... Please let there be a Ben around.

I kissed her on the forehead, then the lips.

Awwwwwww. Shes so scared and he knows it.

I gave her my hand, and she slid something into it.

It had better be her engagement ring!

Tank…so that’s his name.

Loggerheads can live to be nearly two hundred years old. I let myself think she was the same one.