Chapter One
Mara
The forest raced by in a blur of green and brown, the blue sky seeming to melt into it, while I stared out the window of the taxicab without really seeing anything, too absorbed by my own thoughts. My life had become a blur too. Days bled into each other the way the sky bled into the trees, impossible to hold on to or to differentiate. This vacation was supposed to cure me of that.
Could two weeks at a birdwatching retreat do that for me? Maybe I was asking too much of the universe. Maybe I shouldn't moan about my life when so many other people had so much less than I did. But I needed a change. Something drastic. Nothing else might have a chance of breaking me out of these doldrums.
So here I was in Oregon, far, far away from my home in Philadelphia.
Where was I? Au Naturel Naturist Resort. Even the name sounded relaxing and blissful. When my travel agent had suggested I come here for my vacation, I'd jumped at the chance. The resort was for people who loved nature, she'd told me. It offered things like birdwatching and nature hikes. I could learn about the wildlife.
I had never left the city before, not in my entire life.
About time I expanded my horizons.
My parents would think I'd gone insane, so I hadn't told them where I was going.
The gray-haired cab driver leered at me over his shoulder. "So, you're one of those naturist freaks, huh?"
What about birdwatching was freakish? The driver had creeped me out from the moment I met him, but nobody else wanted to drive out here. Nobody at the airport would tell me why. They raised their eyebrows and smirked, like it was obvious and I was too dumb to understand.
"Not really," I said to the driver. "This is my first time at a naturist resort. I'm looking forward to communing with nature and stuff like that."
"Sure, communing." He leered at me again, snorting like he was trying very hard not to laugh at me. "Bet a pretty girl like you will commune with lots of other naturists."
Why did he say the word commune like it was filthy?
I returned my attention to the view outside the window. Out the corner of my eye, I spotted the driver still leering at me. It made my skin itch.
My phone made a blooping noise, indicating a new text message.
Sighing, I checked the text.
Nico: Where are you, Mar-Mar?
I growled under my breath. He knew I hated being called Mar-Mar. Hadn't he humiliated me enough? No, he had to taunt me with obnoxious texts. I typed, "None of your business."
Another bloopety-bloop. Another text from Nico. This one said, "I miss you."
My thumbs flew over the on-screen keyboard.Should've thought of that before you dumped me.
I made a mistake. Let's talk.
Another growl burst out of me.Leave me alone.
Talk later, then.
If I could've figured out how to block his number, I would've done it. I'd never been tech-savvy.
Another text came through, but I ignored it. At least they had cell coverage way out here in the boonies. Would the resort have Wi-Fi? Not that it mattered. I was getting away from the world, which meant no checking social media. Maybe I should've left my phone at home, but then what would I do in an emergency? What if there was a wildfire? An earthquake?
"Here we are," the driver said while he steered the cab down a gravel driveway that snaked through the woods. "Just a few more minutes until you can commune with the other freaks. You can get started now if you want."
I caught his leering gaze in the rearview mirror.
What was this guy's problem?
The cab rumbled down the gravel drive, emerging into a big, sunlit clearing. A modest-size house occupied the prime spot at the driveway's end, while a much larger, two-story building squatted to the right of that, a little further away. Other, smaller structures were barely visible behind the large building. I saw tents too, set up nearer to the woods.