Killdeer Dance

by Ronn Fryer

  Finding site fifteen was no problem. Olivia remembered the camping point from their tour. She also recalled the strange promotion she’d felt driving through. She didn’t mention it to Tina though. Teans would have said she was just being silly, which she probably was. The girls were going to just adore her, Tina promised. They were all really sweet, and they’d taken to Tina immediately. Well duh!

  Even though they’d only met Tina once before at Ruthie’s, they greeted her like a long-lost sister. From the moment they saw her, everyone gushed, took turns hugging her and started chatting like magpies trying to catch up. “So glad you came! How’ve you been? OMG, you look fantastic!”

  They were congenial with Olivia. It wasn’t that they didn’t seem to like her, it was just way different. Livvy smiled at each introduction, extending her hand, but her body language was noticeably guarded.

  Earlier, when Tina had exchanged texts with Stacy, confirming when the girls would be at the campsite, she mentioned Livvy’s ordeal. She knew her friend wouldn’t be able to deal with certain topics, let alone any perceived stares. Even though all traces of the carnage had faded, Tina took a little time to touch up Olivia’s makeup whenever she could coax her to go out in public. Other, more intimate reasons for the girl’s reticence, however, were far less obvious.

  Keisha and Courtney were somewhat reserved too, but for vastly different reasons. Courtney was blatantly waiting to judge and Kiki was subtly waiting to see if she was going to be judged. Since Olivia was Tina’s friend, Stacy and Nicole automatically accepted her and genuinely wanted to get to know her. Initially, however, they were totally engrossed bonding with the newest member of their select sorority.

  Jennifer meanwhile, said nothing, simply smiling sweetly; her inherent sensitivity mirroring the girl’s apparent shyness.

  Ramona, however, felt an instant connection to Olivia, taking more than a little time releasing their handshake. Naturally, it could have meant nothing whatsoever. A little insight, however, may have revealed a number of feelings – some quite obvious, some a little more difficult to detect. Tina brought the intriguing little forest worker, they were obviously friends. Just how close? Naturally, that wasn’t anything that could be asked. Jealously towards Tina was definitely premature, and completely silly – for the most part.

  Acutely aware of Ramona’s extended gaze, Olivia averted her eyes to scan the diamond-laced water of the Foote Pond, chastising her urge to look back and confirm the fascinating shade of the French girl’s mahogany eyes.

  A half hour later the girls were all sitting around the fire pit, still laughing and chatting nonstop. Nicole and Stacy were perched on the rustic picnic table, facing Tina. Careful not to let her friend feel abandoned, Tina had pulled Olivia over to her side.

  She wasn’t consciously protecting her from Ramona, not that she really had to, even though the girl couldn’t seem to control her eyes. Only mildly attentive to the ongoing conversation, Olivia couldn’t decide if Ramona’s attention intrigued or frightened her. Not that she would have had much success, certain feelings are just hopelessly entwined.

  Keisha, also sensing that Olivia was quiet mostly due to shyness, made an effort to include her and asked about the tower. “So can anybody climb it?”

  Grateful to talk about something she knew, Olivia let her guard slip and offered something that vaguely resembled a smile, explaining. “No one is supposed to, but everyone wants to try.”

  “Is it scary?” Keisha queried further, picturing the dangerous ascent in her mind’s eye. Tina’s introduction had included a detailed description of Olivia’s job high above the trees, but none of the girls had actually seen a real fire tower.

  “Most people are good for the first two sections...”

  “Sections?”

  “Yeah,” Livvy clarified, “it’s constructed in ten foot, metal sections.”

  Kiki’s eyes grew wide just trying to imagine the girl’s bravery. Jennifer was also tremendously impressed, although she didn’t have the slightest idea how you got up to the top. She assumed there must be some sort of ladder, hopefully something enclosed with sturdy hand rails – you’d have to be out of your mind to climb something made out of rope.

  Morbid curiosity prompted her to ask Olivia how she climbed up, but her inquiry hung suspended in the air.

  Olivia was suddenly speechless.

  Her face contorted, as if in pain, and Jennifer, embarrassed, wondered what possible faux pas she’d committed. It was hardly her question, however, that drained the color from Livvy’s face. The girl was in shock, staring at the car slowly cruising by.

  The park was nearly full, cars slid past every few minutes; and neither Jenny, nor any of the girls, saw anything unusual about the dingy orange El Camino.

  When Tina caught sight of it, however, she instantly shot her eyes toward her friend. Olivia’s expression confirmed her worst fears. Reaching for Livvy’s trembling hand, Tina looked back at the El Camino, its occupants now staring at her with the kind of smirks that made your skin crawl, and blurted, “Oh shit.”

  Chapter 11 - Hide and Sneak

  Anger is a debilitating emotion. It tends to override any form of clear thinking. It might even be argued that temporary insanity is simply the result of a sudden surge of blood to the brain from rage. Most people experiencing anger, react irrationally, often regretting their actions afterwards.

  Stacy, however, was not most people. In spite of their best efforts, her trio of older brothers had consistently failed to get her goat. They sometimes wondered if she even possessed such a creature. When she got pissed, she systematically focused on revenge, discovering early on that logic made mincemeat of her sibling’s superior strength. No one, however, was about to impart this crucial information to the macho contents of the El Camino, now stopped dead in the middle on the park’s blacktop road, a mere hundred feet from the girls.

  Even if Stacy was no great mathematician, she had no problem putting two and two together. The text explaining Olivia’s assault, the sudden dread spread across the cashier’s face, and the sheer panic in the forest worker’s eyes was all the confirmation she needed. Thumbtacks don’t require sledge hammers. Insight and intuition are much more formidable tools, especially if you going to pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. Or, in this case, spin-a-tale-on-the-jackasses.

  Accompanied by nothing more than a disarming smile and a complete air of confidence, Stacy got up and walked right over to the car. “Heeeyy boys,” she purred. “What’s up?”

  “Hey,” answered Slacker, grinning widely, as if his lottery numbers had just hit.

  Bobby stared squarely into Stacy’s eyes, but said nothing.

  “Are you guys football players?” she asked.

  “Hell yeah,” Slacker bragged, “Me and Bobby are the best players on the whole damn team.”

  The coy smile Stacy offered, etched with admiration to their celebrity status, completely disarmed Slacker. Bobby, however, was not such an easy mark. He’d been sizing up the ponytailed girl from the moment she starting walking towards them, simultaneously scrutinizing every other face at the campsite as well. Most of them seemed to register varying amounts of fear at his presence – but not this one. Whatever her motivation might be, she sure wasn’t afraid. No delicatessen offered cucumbers this cool. She was decent enough, he’d do her, but girls could be treacherous, especially ones this confident.

  Momentarily taking his eyes off Stacy, he again scanned the circle. He thought he’d picked out the conservation bitch, but now he couldn’t spot her. A couple of girls had their backs turned, although it seemed like one or two were missing. He should have counted them, but Stacy had distracted him; broken his concentration. Still, he knew the little fox-hugger was there somewhere; had to be, there sure as hell weren’t two, old snot-green pickups around. All the camping gear, tents, and trees (their limbs adorned with clotheslines full of drying towels and feminine apparel), however, obstructed his view. It was all too easy to miss a couple of
girls slipping away to hide behind the sloping riverbank.

  To keep Bobby’s prying eyes off her brood, Stacy leaned in closer to the El Camino, sliding her hand along the drip rail above the open window. She may not have a wing to drag along the ground, but she had a pair of eyelashes that were every bit as effective. Slacker was child’s play, but she didn’t dare underestimate the bully behind the wheel. She knew his type – the worst kind of bad; ruthless, questionably devoid of the slightest redemptive qualities, but smart. She had to disengage his thinking process, get him listening to his control center south of the border.

  “We have to go into town now,” Stacy lied sweetly, “but we’re going to party down at the beach tonight.”

  “Way cool,” Slacker blurted, swallowing hook, line, sinker, and half the boat.

  Bobby’s shifty glances were nevertheless working overtime. Besides the girls, there were people everywhere. Damn place had better attendance than last year’s homecoming game.

  “See you then?” Stacy asked, so close to Bobby he could smell her fresh vanilla scent.

  “Yeah, maybe,” Bobby said, with a smirk, “If you’re lucky.”

  Chapter 12 - If Wishes Were Horses

  “OMG, what did you say to them?” Courtney blurted a half second before any of the others dared speak. The El Camino had all but slipped out of sight by the time Stacy returned, but their car windows had been open and voices carried in the Great Outdoors.

  “I invited them to a party,” Stacy answered calmly.

  “You What?!?” Keisha and Courtney shrieked in near unison.

  Stacy simply sidestepped the two girls and their stares, searching instead for the other two who’d been summoned back by Tina.

  Kiki and Courtney’s puzzled looks were left suspended a good fifteen seconds before she finally answered, “Tonight.”

  “Whatever did you do that for?” Courtney asked, her expression suggesting their leader had lost everything resembling marbles.

  Olivia made her way back up the bank and through their campsite, nearly tripping on a tent stake. With Ramona holding her hand, she returned to her previous spot on the picnic table and sat down without a word.

  Stacy came over and lightly stroked her shoulder. Far more concerned with the emotional state of Tina’s friend than Courtney’s paranoia, she studied the girl, whose eyes were now piercing the charred logs in the fire pit with enough intensity to reignite them.

  Without removing her hand, Stacy leaned in and asked, “Are you okay?”

  She obviously wasn’t, but it was just what you asked to show your concern; and at this moment almost everyone was concerned with the girl trying to bite a hole in her lower lip. Tina was seated on her right holding her free hand, as Ramona, on her left, ran her fingers through Livvy’s hair in a consolatory gesture.

  Another time, Olivia might well have been a little uncomfortable with the French girl’s familiarity, but she was preoccupied, reliving the knockout punch delivered by the driver of the car presently tossing a cigarette butt out the window as they exited the park.

  Nicole and Jennifer, both a little sketchy on the source of the girl’s trauma, nevertheless offered their support; while Keisha, who hadn’t heard anything about it, seemed utterly confused.

  Courtney, however, couldn’t get past the insane invitation. “Stacy,” she repeated, “Why in hell did you tell those jerks to come back?”

  Stacy turned toward her with an expression suggesting the answer was quite obvious. “To make them go away.”

  Wondering how a girl that supposedly knew everything could suddenly be so stupid, Courtney attempted to instill some basic logic into the situation. “Yeah, but now they’re coming back!”

  “They were coming back anyway,” Stacy assured her.

  Dealing with someone so naïve, especially a girl mere weeks from entering college, was taxing, but this required extra patience. Courtney may have been the only one voicing protest at the moment, but Stacy knew all the girls, even Nicole, were questioning her actions. Evidently she’d just have to spell it out.

  “They know where we are now, and they saw her truck.” She hesitated a moment to let that sink in, then continued, “There’s no way they’re going to leave us alone, unless we find a way to persuade them otherwise.”

  Even though the very thought of entertaining those degenerates made them shutter, everyone, including Courtney, realized Stacy was, after all, right. All their wishing wouldn’t keep the wolves away now that they were on the scent.

  Persuade them otherwise?

  One by one, the girls began contemplating possibilities. Keisha conjured up a canister of pepper spray, while Nicole, ever the athlete, envisioned her aluminum baseball bat. Courtney, although hesitant to say it aloud, considered the possibility of obtaining a gun. One of her flings had taken her to a shooting range, and she’d fancied herself a decent shot with a .22 ever since.

  Jennifer, however, didn’t have a clue how to persuade anyone, let alone heartless beasts capable of hitting a girl. Threatening them with daisies wouldn’t be much of a deterrent. As the real possibility of impending peril washed over her, the hippie chick predictably turned to Stacy, pleading, “So what are we going to do?”

  Searching for inspiration, Stacy took an audible breath and scoured the surrounding treetops. Finding none, she retied her ponytail as if subconsciously gathering loose ends and met Tina’s eyes. Kindred spirits share a unique connection, sometimes even strong enough to read each other’s thoughts. Unfortunately, her empathy only picked up Tina’s frustration.

  Arching her eyebrows, Stacy admitted, “I have no idea.”

  Chapter 13 – Stacy’s Plan

  “It’s okay to cry,” Tina said, “Those creeps are scary.”

  “I’m not crying because I’m afraid,” Olivia blurted, the back of her hand smearing salty tears into the last remnants of her Cover Girl. “I’m just pissed at myself for being afraid.”

  Courtney thought that was ridiculous; they were all afraid, with good reason. There was no telling what kind of nasty ideas those jerks might come up with. Besides, tears were nothing to be ashamed of, she sometimes shed a few when she was sick, or when people acted like her absolute best still wasn’t good enough.

  Nicole, however, totally understood. You didn’t let others, especially filthy beasts like that, control your emotions. Self-esteem is exactly that – worth that comes from your self. She may try too hard to impress Stacy sometimes, but that was different. Her relationship with Stacy was, well – complicated.

  Empathy being such a powerful emotion, especially laced with heartstrings, Ramona nearly started crying herself at the sight of Olivia’s tears

  Stacy’s reaction, however, was totally different. Just because she couldn’t come up with an easy solution to the dilemma at hand, it didn’t incite a sense of helplessness. To the contrary, the boys’ audacity made her angry. And, as her ire intensified, her focus grew proportionately.

  Turning toward Keisha, she said, “I might have an idea.” Pointing to the rear of the girl’s skinny jeans, she asked, “Is that charged?”

  It was a silly question, of course, Keisha’s phone was her lifeline. She felt absolutely naked if it wasn’t sticking out of her back pocket, and she never let the battery run down.

  “And yours?” Stacy asked Nicole.

  “Yeah, but I don’t have many bars,” Nikki confessed.

  “That’s okay,” Stacy said, “I just need insurance.”

  Courtney all but stared a hole in the side of Stacy’s face waiting for a full explanation of whatever her idea might be. She got nothing. Damn, but that girl could be frustrating.

  Still confused, Nicole added, “Reception sucks here...”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Stacy interrupted, “As long as the camera works.”

  “Oh,” said Nicole, as if she understood. She didn’t, of course. She had no more clue than Courtney, or any of the girls. They obviously weren’t talking selfies. Whatever the
subject of the pictures might be, it was a mystery to everyone – everyone except the one girl now totally laser-focused on a form of revenge that offered not one shred of mercy.

  Chapter 14 – Heavenly Healing

  The ponytailed bitch sent Bobby back into a funk. Her confidence wasn’t unnerving; nobody unnerved him, especially some stupid twit, but it was disturbing all the same. Women that acted as bold as men, pissed him off. There was a natural order to things, men ran the world, just as they should. Hell, Eve only existed because Adam donated a rib, everybody learned that in church – and now you got these haughty females acting like their shit don’t stink.

  “Where we headed?” Slacker asked, breaking Bobby’s internal tirade.

  “Get some beer,” the quarterback answered with a scowl.

  “Hot damn,” Slacker said, as his face instantly lit up. “What’s the occasion?”

  Bobby took his eyes off the road long enough to check the contents of Slacker’s head. Holy shit, he wondered, was he the only one in the entire world with a brain?

  “Damn, Slacker, did you get dropped on your head at birth?”

  His friend simply smiled at the insult. It didn’t mean anything, it was just the way guys talked. They’d known each other since they were kids, Bobby always gave him shit, but they were buds. Even if James was sometimes a little slow on the uptake, Bobby always had his back.

  “Little Miss fox-hugger’s there somewhere, I know it. We’ll get those bitches tanked up.” Bobby thought for a moment and then smirked. “We’ll kick the tower-twat out of the bushes, give her a little religion, and then I’ll put Ponytail in her place.

  “Hell yeah, put her in her place!” Slacker agreed, a vile grin spreading across his face. “Put her in her place!” he repeated, all the while wondering just where that might be.

  Picturing the upcoming scene, Bobby’s mood brightened noticeably. He felt so good, in fact, that he took a little pity on his friend. Despite Slacker’s enthusiasm, it was pretty obvious he really didn’t get it.