by BJ Bourg
“You’re a thief?” Brett wanted to know.
“She doesn’t know you have it?” I asked.
“Nope and nope.”
I dropped the card as though it were a bomb. “You are a thief! And we’re going to jail as accomplices.”
“It’s in my name, so it’s mine. I didn’t steal anything.”
“But you stole it from your mom’s safe.” I thought about that for a second. “Wait a minute—what’s your mom doing with a credit card in your name?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. I guess she needed the money. Who knows? In any case, she’s the thief, not me. She stole my identity.”
I put the credit card on the center console. “How’d you break into the safe?”
“Picked the lock with two paperclips.”
“You’re crazy.” I shook my head. “What were you doing in her safe in the first place?”
“I wanted a copy of my dad’s birth certificate and death certificate.” Charlie drove in silence for a long minute. “I wanted to start doing the ancestry thing. Find out who I really am.”
I never knew what to say when Charlie mentioned his dad, so I did the usual—kept my mouth shut.
“How’d your dad die?” Brett asked.
“None of your business,” I blurted out.
* * *
“This is the street,” I told Charlie. “Joy’s aunt lives in the second to last house on the right.”
Brett whistled when we turned into the driveway. “I see why Joy wanted to live here.”
The house was perched on a large tract of land that housed at least a dozen fine horses. I stepped out of my truck on shaky legs. “Y’all wait here.”
“You sure you don’t want us coming with you?” Charlie asked.
I swallowed, then shook my head. “I messed this up, so now I have to fix it.”
“Suit yourself.” Charlie pushed the driver’s seat back hard, laughing when Brett called out in pain.
As I walked up the long cement driveway, I scanned every window at the front of the house. I half expected to see Joy peering through the curtains as I approached the large wooden porch, but that didn’t happen. What happened instead was that the main door flung open and a robust woman pushed through the screen and stood staring at me with beady eyes.
I stopped abruptly. “Um…hello, ma’am. I’m Abraham—”
“I know exactly who you are, boy. What are you doing on my property?”
I wiped my sticky hands on my shirt. “Um…I was hoping Joy was here.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed and her face reddened. “Is this some kind of sick joke? Were you not satisfied enough crushing her poor heart that you have to come here and harass me?”
I raised my hands. “Ma’am, you don’t understand. She told me I was the only reason she didn’t run away to your house, and when I found out she’d disappeared, I thought she might’ve come here to—”
“I understand perfectly. You’re a cold-hearted kid who likes to string young ladies along until you’re done with them. At that point, you discard them like a pair of used socks and move on to your next victim. Get off of my property before I call the law!”
“But is she here?”
“Boy, she disappeared in the mountains—you should know that by now. They gave up the search last week. Found no evidence she was even there.”
“I know. They think she ran away because she was fighting with her dad.” I swallowed and summoned the courage to ask again, “Is she here? Did she run away to here?”
The woman’s eyes remained cold, but tears stamped out the blue of her eyes like dark clouds blotting out the sun. “For all we know she’s dead—and it’s all your fault! Get the hell off my land before I call my husband out here to give you the beating you deserve.”
I stood frozen. What now? I was certain she was here.
“Leave now, young man!”
I nodded, turned on my heel and hurried back to the truck. Brett was in the front passenger’s seat, but I didn’t waste time telling him to move. I slipped into the back seat and slapped the headrest behind Charlie. “Go! She’s not here.”
Charlie’s mouth opened wide. “What now? What do we do?”
I pursed my lips. “Now we go to the mountains and we look for her.”
* * *
I didn’t say much during the rest of the trip. I tried to sleep to drown out the guilt, but it was no use. My chest ached. I figured I was too young to have a heart attack, otherwise I would’ve made Charlie drive me straight to the nearest emergency room—it hurt that bad.
When we finally arrived in the mountains, Brett used the roadmap to guide Charlie to the Bear Mountain Cabin Rental building. It was a cabin-looking structure directly off the main strip—a tourist-packed street that sliced through the mountain. Once Charlie had parked, we entered the lobby. An elderly lady with large-rimmed glasses looked up from the counter and smiled. “Can I help you guys?”
“Abraham Wilson,” I said. “We have reservations for the Squirrel Nest cabin.”
“Ah, yes.” She pulled a large yellow envelope from under the counter, then dug out a set of keys with a plastic card attached to the ring and handed it to me. “Here’s the key to your cabin. This card will allow access to four of our clubhouses on the mountain. They’re open from nine in the morning until ten at night and have swimming pools, hot tubs, game rooms, and snack machines.” She handed me a map of Bear Mountain and showed me how to get to the cabin.
I thanked the lady and took the map and keys. Once in my truck, I backed out of the tiny parking lot and we made our way carefully along the narrow mountain road. It must have only been a mile or two to the cabin, but the winding road made it feel like fifteen. When we finally arrived at the cabin, I stopped in the driveway and shut off the engine.
The rustic cabin was a lot bigger than it looked online, which was nice. The deadbolt stuck a little and I had to wriggle the key to unlock it. Brett pushed by me when I finally got it open, and Charlie and I followed him inside. We found ourselves in a dining room and kitchen combination. Just beyond the kitchen was a large living room furnished with a sofa, loveseat, recliner, and a giant flat screen television. The entire right side wall of the living room was glass.
While Charlie explored the cabin, I grabbed my phone to call Mom. She answered midway through the first ring.
“Abraham, are you okay?”
“We made it.”
“Thank God,” she said.
“Is Dad around?”
“Yeah,” Mom said. “He’s right here.”
Dad got on the phone and asked about the drive.
“It was great,” I said. “The scenery was cool, and the cabin’s awesome.”
“That’s good.” There was a long pause before he said, “Promise me you’ll be extra careful out there.”
“I will.” I paused for a few seconds. “I’m really scared, Dad.”
“I know, Abe. Look, the only reason I agreed to help pay for your trip was so you could see for yourself that she’s gone and move on with your life. Please don’t let this consume you. We agreed to one week—”
“I know, I know. If I don’t find her in one week, I’m heading back home.”
“Right. You have to think about getting ready for college. I know it’s hard, but when we lose someone we have to keep going—we have to move on.”
“It’s the not knowing that kills me.”
“I know, son. Whatever you do, please don’t blame yourself anymore.” I didn’t respond, and Dad finally asked, “When are y’all going out to the spot?”
“First thing in the morning,” I said. “We’ll try to spend nine or ten hours a day searching. We should be back at the cabin before nightfall each night.”
“Alright, just be careful.” As was his custom, Dad hung up without saying goodbye.
I turned to Charlie and Brett. “I appreciate y’all coming with me. I couldn’t do it alone.”
Charlie walked up and gave me a half
-hug. “That’s what friends are for.”
Brett nodded. “It’s cool.”
I took a deep breath, then glanced around the cabin. “We start looking first thing tomorrow, but nothing says we can’t unwind tonight. Why don’t we find something to do to take our minds off of everything?”
“Like what?” Charlie asked.
“Let’s go check out one of the clubhouses before they close…see if the Tennessee girls are as hot as the Alabama girls,” Brett suggested.
“Sounds like a plan,” I said.
CHAPTER 4
When I pulled into the driveway of the cabin, I caught my breath. The truck shook as Brett and Charlie scrambled out of the bed. They jerked the passenger’s side back door open and squeezed through the opening at the same time, grunting the entire while. Once they were crammed into the seat, they slammed it shut. Their breathing was heavy. I thought I heard teeth chattering.
Charlie punched my shoulder hard. “Dude, you could’ve gotten us killed—and all for your precious seat covers!”
“Holy crap,” was all I said.
A black bear was pawing at the metal bear-proof garbage receptacle at the edge of the driveway. He was near the front door of our cabin. When the door had slammed, he’d turned his head and stared at my truck for a few seconds. He was about ten feet from us, but I could tell his back was easily as tall as the hood of my truck—and he was on all fours. If he were to stand on his hind legs he would be taller than the top of my truck.
“You think it’ll attack?” I asked.
“I sure hope not,” Charlie said. “He looks like he could flip your truck over.”
I studied the area. “How will we get inside the cabin?”
“I don’t know. I’m not making a run for it.” Charlie shoved Brett hard. “Get out there, Arkansas. See if it attacks you.”
Even in the deep shadows of the approaching Blue Summit Mountain nightfall, I could see Brett shaking. “Uh-uh…I’m not leaving this truck!”
“Neither am I,” I said. “I read where a bear can run, climb, and swim better than any human being alive.”
“Well, if it comes down to it, I don’t have to outrun the bear, just y’all,” Charlie said.
“Too bad for you I work out on a regular basis,” I countered.
“Too bad for you I’m all skin and bones. That bear would take one look at me and decide I’m not worth the effort. But you”—Charlie gave a confident nod—“you’re big enough to feed on for at least two or three days.”
I didn’t like this talk about a bear chewing on me, so I changed the subject. “You think that bear’s big enough to drag someone away and eat every bit of them?”
“Ah, I see where you’re going with this.” Charlie was thoughtful. “I don’t think so.”
“Wait—what did I miss?” Brett asked. “Where’re we going?”
“Look how big he is. He’s got to be able to snatch up a small-framed person and carry them away,” I said.
Charlie frowned. “But not without a trace. That bear would have to use those giant teeth to grab his victim and that would leave a lot of blood in the area.”
“You’re right.” I sighed. “If a bear got Joy, there would’ve been blood and they would’ve found something.”
The bear finally turned back toward the metal receptacle and continued grabbing at it with its huge paws. When he couldn’t get the door open, he pushed his stomach up against it, wrapped his arms around it, and began pulling on it.
“Holy bear crap,” Charlie yelled. “He’s about to pull that thing out of the ground.”
He was right. The receptacle swayed back and forth and was in danger of being ripped from the metal brackets that held it to the concrete driveway. Thinking back to everything I’d read about bears while trying to figure out what had happened to Joy, I remembered seeing something about park rangers using fireworks to scare bears away from cabins. Loud noises, I thought, glancing around the truck. When my eyes settled on the steering wheel, I punched the horn and held it down. The noise that emanated from under my hood was not as impressive as I first thought it would sound, but it had the desired effect. The bear jerked backward, releasing the receptacle, and nearly fell on his haunches. He twisted away from us and sprinted into the forest in a rambling type motion.
“He doesn’t look so fast.” Charlie eased the truck door open. “You got the key, hero?”
I nodded.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Y’all really think it’s a good idea?” Brett wanted to know.
I grabbed the door handle with my left hand and held the key in my right hand. “Do you want to wait until it comes back?”
“I guess not.” Brett licked his lips.
“On three,” Charlie said. “One…two…three!”
We all jumped out of the truck, pushed the doors closed behind us, and raced toward the cabin. I fumbled with the key, trying desperately to fit it into the keyhole.
“Hurry,” Brett said. “I don’t want to die!”
“I’m trying.” After much wriggling of the handle, the key finally slipped into the hole, and I pushed through the opening. We fell inside, and I kicked the door shut behind us, reached up and threw the deadbolt. “Phew! That was close.”
“What if we encounter bears on our hike?” Brett asked.
I walked to the living room, dug through my bag, and brought back a can of bear spray. “I came prepared.”
Brett shook his head. “Did it look like mace would work on that big monster?”
I frowned. He did have a point. “I don’t even think an elephant gun would drop that evil beast.”
“Seriously, Abe…what if we run into that giant demon out there on the trail? We won’t have a cabin or a truck to hide in. If he decides to charge us, we’re dead.” Brett crossed his arms. “You said yourself that the forest rangers looked everywhere for Joy. If they couldn’t find her, what makes you think we can?”
“You having second thoughts?” I asked.
“Shut up, Brett,” Charlie said. “I don’t know how y’all do things in Arkansas, but we Louisiana boys stick together.”
I thought back to the stories I’d read about the few people who had been mauled and killed by bears in recent times in the Blue Summit Mountains. I reminded them of the attacks and turned to Brett. “Look; I can’t ask you to come if you don’t want to. I guess it will be a little dangerous. I’ll totally understand if you don’t want to come along, but it’s something I’ve got to do. I can’t just leave Joy out there alone. You can stay here if you—”
Charlie waved me off. “We’re not splitting up. There’s strength in numbers, and we don’t know what we’ll find once we hit the woods. Besides, the people who got attacked were all camping in the back country and most of them were attacked in their tents at night. We’re going out in the morning and getting back before dark. We ain’t sleeping in no tents. We’ll be fine.”
Brett wasn’t so sure. “You remember telling us about those two people who got mauled last year? That was in broad daylight.”
“Those don’t count,” Charlie said. “That one man got too close to the cub and that kid was walking around with food in his hand. They were just stupid.”
“I guess so.” Brett was thoughtful. “The size of that bear shocked me. I’m not ashamed to admit it scared the crap out of me. I imaged they were a lot smaller—like the size of a Rottweiler or something.”
“Me, too. I didn’t realize they got so big around here. You don’t have to come if you don’t want—seriously. No hard feelings.” I walked to the refrigerator and opened it. Nothing. I searched through the cabinets. Same. “There’s no food in here.”
“Want to eat some stew?” Charlie asked. “I’ve got a couple of cans in my bag.”
I pointed to the door. “It’s out there with the bear.”
Brett shook his head. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m suddenly not hungry anymore.”
“Neither am I. In fac
t, I’m still full from earlier.” I glanced around the cabin. “Which room do y’all want?”
“Whichever one doesn’t have a window,” Brett said.
“I’m sure they all have windows.” I entered the room adjacent to the kitchen area and looked around. “I’m pretty sure this is the honeymoon suite.”
Charlie followed me and laughed when he saw the heart-shaped tub next to the heart-shaped bed with the heart-shaped pillows. “Brett gets this room.”
“That’s fine.” Brett dove onto the giant heart. “I’ll take it.”
There was a door leading out onto a back porch, so I opened it. I found a light switch and flipped it on, lighting up the deck. I took a careful step outside, scanning the area for bears before I fully committed to leaving the doorway. I made my way to the railing and peered over the side. The glow from the light wasn’t strong enough to penetrate the darkness of the thick trees, and I couldn’t see the mountainside below. Large posts were the only things holding up that side of the deck. “You think that bear can climb up those posts?”
“I don’t know,” Charlie said. “He was pretty fat, so I doubt he could drag his big butt up here. As long as we make sure the doors are locked Brett should be okay.”
I turned to look at him. “What about you?”
“I’m sleeping up in that loft, where I know he can’t get to me.”
Suddenly, there was a loud snap somewhere beneath the deck. My heart skipped in my chest. Charlie’s eyes widened.
“Was that the bear?” Charlie asked.
“I don’t know.” I leaned over the railing, straining to see the base of the posts, but it was no use. More branches snapped as whatever it was moved slowly away from the cabin and deeper into the forest. Within minutes, cicadas began their deafening death rattle and we could no longer hear the rustling in the bushes. When we were sure it was gone, we returned inside the cabin, and Charlie made his way up to the loft while Brett settled into the honeymoon suite. That left me sleeping on the couch. It was leather and I started to sweat within minutes, but at least it was soft.
* * *
I woke up the next morning to the sound of zippers and snaps and things being tossed around. I opened one eye and looked toward the sound. Charlie sat at the small dining room table, the contents of his rucksack scattered on the floor.