“Okay, Bullet. If that’s you, this isn’t funny,” I said to the air around me. Then I caught the smell, a whiff of something foul-—some kind of animal. That got my feet moving; I ran further down the path toward Bullet, I hoped, and away from the house. I sloshed through a muddy area, nearly losing my balance. I could hear something big, something very big crashing through the woods behind me! As I ran, I focused on trying not to trip over my own feet or a fallen branch. I glanced back, terrified to see a big brown bear running behind me. He was on all fours with matted hair and an open mouth.
I ran as fast as I could, my lungs burning and my legs cramping. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to outrun this animal. He wasn’t going to slow down, he was after me! Finally, I heard someone screaming and I realized it was me. “Help me! Someone help me!!” I kept running and screaming, praying to God that someone would hear me. I didn’t look back again. I could hear the marauding bear inching closer, so close in fact that I thought I could hear him breathing.
That’s when I felt myself falling. In my panic, I hadn’t seen the log in my path and I had flown over it with the elegant grace of a drunk. “Oh my God! Help me!” The bear paused on the other side of the log, standing up on his hind legs showing me who was boss. He towered over me, his massive jaws wide and open. I leaned backed on my elbows, my foot pinned under a branch that was connected to the log. I couldn’t escape, I couldn’t move. All I could do was scream.
Chapter Two
Bullet
I paused on the trail, thinking that I heard something. Someone yelling, maybe? After a few seconds, I didn’t hear anything so I turned back and began trekking down the path to the campsite. I had been back here before but only to check it out and that was over a year ago. The former owners had built a fire pit and cleared a nice area for tents or a camper. I thought it might be fun to take Lilly camping later. Besides, I needed a hike to clear my head. Lilly knew how to push my buttons—all of them at once.
I didn’t much like her attitude—I mean, what did she want from me? She had made it clear from the beginning, well near the beginning, that she wasn’t into me, not in a boyfriend kind of way. The way she bolted out of the hotel room after our first night together, I thought she was going to claw my eyes out. I had been sort of relieved to discover I was just a fling to her because it would be difficult to change my life to accommodate a real girlfriend. I’d have to give up so much, like the occasional fling and fooling around with some of my clients, even though that last one was a bad habit I wanted to break. I knew that behavior could get me into trouble eventually.
But if I were to have a girlfriend, it would be someone like Lilly. Smart, sassy, talented and of course, beautiful. However, after she has her boobs done, I may not feel the same way—I had seen more than my share of fake breasts in my time. I had no desire to date a woman that wasn’t one hundred percent genuine. I know that made me a hypocrite but I knew what I wanted. At least, I thought so. I guess that made me shallow but I didn’t care what anyone else thought about me.
I heard the sound again. It was definitely screaming—it was Lilly! I ran back toward the sound of the screams. Lilly sounded as if she were dying. I pulled my pistol out of my holster; I always kept one on me when I went hiking. I ran as hard and as fast as I could. I breathed in through my nose and pushed the air through my nose to get the most speed and better endurance. Just a few hundred feet now, I guessed.
“Please, help me!” I heard her begging, her voice weaker now. I didn’t yell back, I needed all my air for running. I ran into the clearing on the path to find Lilly lying on the ground, her leg pinned awkwardly under a log branch. Standing over her roaring like a hungry demon was a massive brown bear with an open mouth. He rocked the log, enjoying playing with his prey before he began his feast. Neither of them saw me. Lilly’s hands reached around trying to grab a nearby branch. I knew that wouldn’t do her a bit of good. One swipe from his paw and she would be dead. I held the gun up in the air and fired a shot. The bear paused and stared at me but it didn’t give ground. He leaned on the log with his front paws threatening to pounce on Lilly who lay frozen on the ground. I knew we were in trouble. I fired another shot, this time directly at the bear. Thankfully, I hit him; I saw the blood splatter and the animal broke for an opening in the nearby woods. I shot after him once more, just to encourage him to keep running. I didn’t know if the bear would return but I did not plan on sticking around to find out.
I slid the pistol in the holster and squatted on the ground next to Lilly. “Are you okay?” Her eyes, wide with fear, told me she wasn’t. I unhooked her pants leg from the tree branch and helped her to her feet. “Lilly, we have to get out of here. I can’t be sure he won’t come back. Can you walk?”
She nodded and I helped her to her feet. I was so relieved to see she was okay; I hugged her, forgetting all about being mad at her. She didn’t return my hug but she didn’t me push away either. I took her hand and led her down the path. “We have to move quickly but don’t run. If you see something, you tell me, don’t scream. Do you hear me?” She nodded again, “He’s injured now but I’m not sure that he’s dead. Stay close!” I whispered to her and we walked quickly down the trail that would lead us to the cabin.
Something barreled through the trees about fifty feet to our left but I couldn’t see anything. Lilly whimpered a cry and squeezed my hand. “I know, I hear it. Keep moving, Lilly.” We didn’t see anything else and thankfully, didn’t see hide nor hair of the bear after that. I could see the trailhead just in front of us and was thankful when we finally made it back to the cabin. Once we made it to the trailhead, I told her, “Let’s go!” We ran the rest of the way to the cabin and barreled through the front door. I carried her to the couch and covered her shaking body with a nearby blanket. Tears were in her eyes and I rubbed her hands. “I want to check your ankle, just to make sure you haven’t hurt yourself. May I do that?”
“Yes.” Lilly wiped away tears from her eyes and pulled her pant leg up. I eased the tennis shoe off her foot. Carefully, I turned her ankle to test her mobility. She winced a little but didn’t cry out. “Does that hurt?”
“Just a little, I think I just sprained it.”
“You’ve got a nice bruise—I think an ice pack might do the trick. I’ll be right back.” I went to the kitchen and filled a zippered bag with crushed ice. Andre had left us a nice lunch in the fridge. I didn’t know where Rafe and Eve were, probably good that they were out of sight right now. I needed to call animal control and report the bear attack but I needed to take care of Lilly first. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was in shock. An eight-hundred pound bear just chased her through the woods.
I grabbed a bottle from the refrigerator and took the ice pack to the living room. I propped Lilly’s foot up on the ottoman and set the ice pack on her ankle. I cracked the water bottle open and handed it to her. She shook her head. “Come on now, don’t give me a hard time. Drink the water.” Obediently, Lilly took a swig from the bottle and handed it back to me. “I’m going to call Animal Control and
let them know about the bear. You going to be okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine, Bullet. I just need a minute,” she snapped. She didn’t look at me, just stared off into space. Despite what she said, I knew she wasn’t okay but it looked like I would have to wait until she was ready to talk to hear what was really going on in her head. I looked up the number and called the authorities to let them know I had an injured bear on my property. After confirming my address, they promised to come out immediately and remove the animal.
That had been a shocking experience—kind of put things in perspective. What would have happened if Lilly had been killed? If I had been the reason for her death? It was because of me that she was in harm’s way; if I hadn’t acted like a jerk to begin with, we would have been together and probably scared the thing away. Obviously the bear had no qualms of attacking one person, one small, blonde.
I hung up the phone and watched Lilly in the living room. She had not moved from her spot, had not fussed over the ice pack, and didn’t say a word. She stared off into space, watching some film in her head. I should probably take her home. I didn’t know what this girl’s past was like. Did the bear attack trigger something? Should I be worried?
Don’t be a selfish bastard! Think about someone besides yourself for a change. You know what, I was going to try to do that. I had practically coerced the girl to come here and then she almost died. God knows she deserves some kindness from me. Okay, you can do this, be comforting and kind. Don’t say stupid crap.
Chapter Three
Lilly
For some reason, I kept thinking about my mother’s funeral. She died a few weeks after Daddy and Suzanna. She’d lingered on in that smelly hospital hooked up to that machine that did all the breathing for her. Once the tubes and hoses were gone, she had left, slipping away quietly into eternity with the rest of my family. At her funeral, her friend from work had read a poem to us; it was supposed to comfort us, I suppose. It seemed like a strange poem for the occasion. Something about the part of the poem that went, “Soaring on the wind, above the world below…” It made me think of the crash, how I had flown out of the open window and sailed through the air, almost flying. My child’s body landed on the grass, feeling like I had been smashed to the ground by an angry goblin.
You always hear people say, “It happened so fast that I didn’t know what had happened.” Not me. It happened so slowly that I remembered every second — the first spray of blood from my Dad’s face, the twisting of the metal, the groaning of the car, the screams of my family. I remembered seeing the log truck spin in front of us and thinking, “Oh no!” I remembered the book I was reading, the song my sister and I were singing.
I had walked away with skinned knees and a scrape on my side. My family was all gone. I went to stay with Aunt Sadie when she died too, during the first week of my college freshman year. Now there was no one. Even Aunt Sadie’s crabby old cat was gone—I had tried to take him with me but he died right after she did.
I don’t know why that poem came back to me now.
Bullet was sitting on the leather ottoman in front of me, talking. What was he asking me? I couldn’t hear him because I was reciting the poem in my head, “Soaring on the wind, above the world below, the soul of my friend….” I hated that poem. Why would she choose that poem? I had been only a kid but even I knew that wasn’t the thing to say at a funeral, to the loved ones. I wanted to walk up to that podium and slap Mom’s friend and scream at her. I wanted to say, “She not flying above the world! She’s dead and in the cold, cold ground!” I imagined doing just that. Tears filled my eyes and thankfully the image disappeared melting back into the painful past.
“Lilly! What the hell? Aren’t you listening to me?” Bullet yelled at me, his chiseled face etched with concern and frustration. I yelled back. “Yes! I hear you!” More calmly I said, “You don’t have to scream at me. I hear you, I was just thinking about something.”