by Edie Claire
She stopped short. Less than twenty feet ahead of her stood a black bear.
Her body — and her brain — froze. What was she supposed to do? She couldn’t remember. Couldn’t think!
The bear swung its big brown nose in her direction and sniffed.
Don’t look at its eyes! Back away slowly!
Neither of the suddenly remembered directions was easy to follow. Mei Lin’s gaze was glued to the end of the bear that held the teeth, and her limbs felt like marble. A crashing sound in the brush terrified her further. What else? Where?
Her question was answered as first one cub, then another, popped out of the woods and lumbered up to its mother.
She panicked anew. Mothers protecting their cubs were the most dangerous! She wanted to move backward, but she couldn’t move at all. The mother bear continued to stare in her direction, statue-like, while the cubs ambled about without concern. A part of Mei Lin felt like she was watching a nature documentary. The cubs were objectively adorable. One was black like its mother; the other was gray. One pawed at the other’s head, starting a play-fight in the middle of the road. The tumbling twosome bumped into their mother’s flank.
Mei Lin’s feet finally moved a little. She took a slow step back. Say something. Let the bear know you’re not a threat.
“No problem, Mama Bear,” she squeaked out in a faint voice. “Nobody’s going to hurt your babies. I was actually just leaving—”
The cubs noticed her. The gray one stood up on its back feet and cocked its head at her, which would have been charming if she were on the other side of a good, stout fence. But she was not. The mother could charge at any time, and as fast as bears ran, this one could be chomping on Mei Lin’s neck in less than three seconds. Could she even get her bear spray off her belt in time? She was afraid to reach a hand down. She was afraid to do anything that might further alarm the animals. Her feet kept inching backward. The gray cub sniffed the air. The black cub took a tentative step toward her.
“No, no,” she begged weakly. “Stay there, little fella. Don’t make your mother kill me. I’m not worth it; really I’m not. I was only passing through. I—”
The mother bear moved. She swung her giant nose away from Mei Lin and hastened into the bushes on the other side of the road.
Oh, my God. She’s leaving!
The gray cub came down off its hind paws, then jumped on the black cub’s back in a sneak attack. The black cub let out a grunt of annoyance and whirled toward its sibling, teeth bared. The gray cub retreated and bounded off after its mother. The black cub followed.
Mei Lin took a much-needed breath. Were they gone? Really gone? Her heart beat like a jackhammer. She’d seen bears before, both here and in Maine, but never at such a close distance — and outside of a car. She felt more than a little light-headed.
How long she stood in the road, trying to calm herself enough to breathe, she couldn’t say. But when she finally pushed herself forward to the spot where the bears had crossed the trail, she could neither see nor hear any sign of them.
She pressed forward down the path, her pace brisk. She attempted to sing a counting song from her childhood, but kept forgetting how many ants were marching and which one was tying his shoe. She switched to barrels of beer on the wall, then ran through the twelve days of Christmas. Twenty minutes later she burst out onto the Torpins’ driveway with her heart still hammering. No one was home at the sprawling ranch house, so she jumped into her waiting Subaru and took off. With her hands trembling on the steering wheel, she drove home uncharacteristically fast, every cell of her body humming with adrenaline.
She passed no one on the drive, and Elsie’s house was quiet. Mei Lin jumped in the shower. Only after turning the heat up and letting the water roll over her head for nearly half an hour did she begin to relax. By the time she had gotten dressed and tidied the house she was feeling nearly normal, and when the first invitees arrived, she had recovered enough sanguinity to recount the episode with humor. Which she did immediately, since the first guests to arrive were the chief ranger of Glacier Bay National Park and his wife.
“I forgot everything I’d ever read about bears!” she laughed as she blurted out the story. “In the critical moment of danger, my mind just went blank. Good thing I never wanted to be a Navy Seal!”
“Now, give yourself a little credit,” Dave Markov teased back. “You did the right thing — as soon as it came to you. Most likely it only took a second. Time slows down a lot when you stop breathing.”
“That is so true,” Mei Lin agreed, still laughing. “And the cubs were so cute! One was black and one was gray. I wanted to ask you about that. The gray ones are pretty unusual, aren’t they?”
The ranger’s smiling face went white. For a long moment, he couldn’t seem to speak. Mei Lin was about to ask if he felt all right when his pale lips began to quiver. “Gray? You’re sure?”
She threw a sideways look at his wife. Mary Markov watched her husband with amusement, but said nothing. “Yes, I’m sure,” Mei Lin answered. “It was a light, smoky gray color. Isn’t that what you call a glacier bear?”
Dave stretched out a hand. With almost comical slowness, he placed it lightly on her shoulder. “Mei Lin,” he said vehemently, “I’ve never seen a glacier bear in my life. They’re extremely rare.” Then his eyes began to sparkle, his color returned, and the corners of his mouth tugged up into a huge, fantastic grin. “This is huge! A brand new glacier cub? Right here in Gustavus!”
Mary laughed out loud. “Oh, Lord. Now you’ve done it, Mei Lin. He’ll be tromping through the woods twenty-four hours a day now looking for that poor animal!”
“Where exactly did you see it?” Dave asked, ignoring his wife.
Mei Lin explained. Dave went from delighted to downright jittery.
“Now, settle down,” Mary ordered. “We’re here for a meeting. You are not taking off before the lawyer even gets here!”
Dave’s face reddened. He looked practically mutinous. “Time is of the essence, woman!”
Mary laughed again, then released her breath with a sigh. “Oh, for God’s sake. Fine! You go on. I’ll find out what the man has to tell us.”
The doorbell rang. Mei Lin turned to answer it, but Dave caught her before she could move. “Do me a favor,” he pleaded. “Don’t tell anybody else about this. Not just yet. If word gets out, Mr. Smith will be asking for a world of uninvited company. Let me check it out first. Then we can report it without giving away the specifics. All right?”
His earnestness was beyond amusing. “Sure,” Mei Lin chuckled. “Whatever you think is best.”
Dave shrugged on his jacket and kissed his wife on the lips with a perfunctory smack.
“See you next week,” Mary replied drolly.
Mei Lin crossed to the door and opened it to Elsie’s lawyer, whom she had met once before. Dave greeted the other man briskly, slipped out around him, and jogged off. Mei Lin would have loved to continue her conversation about the bears with Mary, but several other people were arriving behind the lawyer, and her duties as hostess took precedence.
When all the invitees — which included the heads of the town council and the library board — had arrived, Mei Lin settled everyone upstairs in the living room and introduced the lawyer. She knew that the meeting was important, but no sooner had the man started talking than her mind began to wander. She had no idea that seeing a glacier bear was such a big deal! Would Thane have gone as gaga over her story as Dave had? She dearly wished she could find out. Just imagining the look on his face—
“Ms. Sullivan?” the lawyer called.
She snapped back to attention, embarrassed. “Yes?”
“Mrs. Dunn has specifically provided for you to stay in this house, free of charge, until the end of August.”
Mei Lin squirmed with discomfort. She knew that Elsie’s offer had been sincere, but she still felt like a squatter. “Yes, she explained that to me. It was very generous of her.”
�
��After that time has elapsed, she has arranged for ownership of the property to transfer to the town of Gustavus, as part of a negotiated agreement with the council to provide housing capable of attracting a qualified provider of hospice services to the community.”
Mei Lin blinked. Elsie had said nothing to her about the fate of the house; she assumed it would be sold and the proceeds given to Elsie’s favorite charities, since she had no biological heirs.
“If a suitable candidate is recruited and approved by the council, housing will be provided as part of a generous benefits package.”
“Oh,” Mei Lin sputtered with delight. “How nice! Elsie was always saying what a shame it was that home hospice care isn’t available outside of Juneau. What a wonderful idea!”
“Indeed,” Carol McRoberts agreed, looking at Mei Lin with a peculiar sparkle in her eye. “There are a lot of people in Gustavus, and on Chichagof Island too, who’d love to be able to finish out their lives in the comfort of their own homes, just like Elsie did. She could afford her own full-time nurse, but she knew most people couldn’t. We’ve tried before to get a practitioner to work out here, but that’s easier said than done. Elsie thought that maybe offering a nice place to live would make a difference.”
“Oh, I hope so,” Mei Lin agreed.
A silence followed. She began to feel a distinctly unsettling vibe, and as she looked around at the familiar faces she realized that every one of them was staring at her. They were studying her with the most curious expressions of… what? Amusement? Expectation?
The lawyer cleared his throat. “Yes, well. The next item concerns Mrs. Dunn’s endowment to the library fund…”
Mei Lin stared back at the townsfolk. What exactly was she missing here?
Oh.
Chapter 14
“Dude,” Jason responded with a laugh, shaking his head. “I don’t know why you’re so surprised. I told you that girl was a headcase!”
Thane grumbled. His happy-go-lucky younger brother always seemed to have an answer for everything. What was annoying was how often he was right. “You said that about every girl in the neighborhood.”
“And they were all nuts!” Jason insisted. He handed Thane a drink, set his own down on his coffee table, then dropped onto his sectional sofa and stretched into a comfortable sprawl. “I don’t know why you keep beating yourself up about this,” he said more sympathetically. “Vanessa’s always been a flake. That’s why you dumped her in high school, remember?”
In truth, Thane could not remember. He looked at his brother quizzically. He and Jason bore little resemblance to each other, aside from what their mother described as “a strong jaw.” Jason was above-average height, but his build was slighter and leaner than Thane’s own imposing form. The younger Buchanan’s eyes were gray, rather than blue, and his hair, although just as bushy, was curlier and lighter in color. In short, he looked like a surfer. Which he was. “I have no clue,” Thane admitted, shaking his head.
Jason rolled his eyes. “How can you forget? She staged that whole drama with that equally whacko friend of hers… Nora? Nancy? Whatever her name was, Vanessa had her come on to you, as some kind of test. And the whole time Vanessa was hiding out watching you both!”
A vague memory of stupefied annoyance welled up in Thane’s gut. “Oh, right,” he drawled, stuffing the feeling back down again. “She apologized for all that later. I think.”
Jason laughed out loud. “Bro, you gotta give yourself a break. Vanessa doesn’t deserve your gentlemanly concern. Forget her and move on. When was the last time you went on a date anyway? Met a woman you could really get excited about?”
A flash of shiny dark hair and merry brown eyes teased Thane’s brain, and he let out another grumble. He had brought up the subject of women, true, but now he wanted to change it. Jason had no trouble in that quarter. Women always seemed to materialize and — more importantly — conveniently disappear whenever the guy snapped his fingers. “I live on a college campus with forty thousand giggling girl-children,” Thane defended, not really answering.
“You live in Vancouver,” Jason pointed out. “The third largest metropolitan area in the country.”
“So, how’s the new Shack coming along?” Thane diverted. “I’m looking forward to seeing it.”
Jason eyed him knowingly. Thane had no doubt that the subject of women would come up again, since Jason seemed to think his big brother needed remedial help in this area. Maybe at some point Thane would even listen, considering how tired he was of going to bed alone. But not tonight. “The Pacific Rim Surf Lodge,” Jason corrected proudly, “is coming along splendidly. I’ll take you out there tomorrow.”
Thane nodded. Everyone in the family had given Jason grief when, not long out of college and with a degree in physics and ocean science, he had gone into hock to purchase a collapsing heap known as the “Tofino Surfing Shack.” The dilapidated hostel was an eyesore as well as a source of regular complaints for disturbing the peace, but Jason was playing the long game. He had repaired the building with his own hands, raised the rates, and kicked out anyone who annoyed him. Now, several years later, he had raised enough capital to expand. His second building would have twice the capacity and would incorporate a surf school and equipment rental business. He was proving to be a savvy entrepreneur, and Thane was proud of him.
“So, what’s this about you looking for a job in Alaska?” Jason asked, taking a swig of his drink. “You really want to move there permanently? Live in Grandma and Grandpa’s house? Be an American?”
“We’re already American!” Thane protested. Jason had been ten when they’d left Seattle; he should remember growing up in the United States. He should feel American, at least partly. But Jason’s supposedly better memory had always had holes in it.
Thane sat forward and looked at his brother earnestly. “Mom said something really weird to me yesterday. She was ragging me about the whole Vanessa thing, and she said I was just like my father. She meant our real father, and she didn’t mean it as a compliment. What do you think she meant? Have you ever heard her say anything like that?”
Jason shrugged. “She never says anything about him.”
Thane sat back with a sigh. His brother’s lack of interest in piecing together the past, in trying to get some retrospective handle on their parents’ bizarre relationship, shouldn’t surprise him. He supposed that Jason’s laissez-faire acceptance of their family history was more understandable than Thane’s own abiding fascination with it. Thane did wish he could let it all go… just stop bothering to even try and understand. But he couldn’t. Not as long as the sickening doubts persisted. Not as long as their mother’s strange actions and queer, unintended hints seemed designed to hide something important. Thane wanted to believe that his father was the man he remembered: kind, gentle-natured, and fun-loving. Passionate, optimistic, and full of energy. But what if that wasn’t the truth? What if the man he’d spent his whole childhood admiring was a lying, philandering bastard?
A pillow struck Thane squarely in the face.
“Snap out of it!” Jason ordered with a cackle. “Will you stop taking everything so seriously? It’s a good thing you came here — I can see that you need me. Give me twenty-four hours, and I’ll get you all set up.”
Thane raised an eyebrow. “Get me set up how?”
Jason smirked.
Thane opened his mouth to protest, but felt the cell phone in his pocket buzzing with a call. He shot a warning frown at his brother and pulled out the phone, planning to silence it. But when he saw the name on caller ID he answered immediately.
“Dave!” he greeted with enthusiasm. “What’s up?”
***
“You want me to run up there with you?” Jesse Torpin offered the next morning as Mei Lin stood in his driveway and stared — yet again — at the trail to Stanley’s cabin. She had dreamed of bears all night long. Black ones, gray ones, big ones, small ones… they had all looked perfectly friendly until they turned on he
r and bit her arms off.
She looked back at Jesse eagerly, prepared to do the wussy thing and say yes, when she noticed that he was loading up his truck with fishing gear. “No thanks,” she replied, trying hard to sound self-confident. Per Dave’s instructions, she hadn’t told anyone about the glacier bear.
Jesse walked over closer to her. “I hope Stanley took his medicine, but like I said, he wouldn’t make me any promises. He seemed a bit more depressed last evening than earlier in the day, but he did eat a good dinner.” He shook his head sadly. “I don’t get it. Neither does Amanda. As friendly as he can be sometimes, it sure seems like he moved out there with a death wish.”
A death wish.
Mei Lin threw her shoulders back. She unclipped her can of bear spray from its carabiner and took it by the handle. She could do this, dammit.
She said goodbye to Jesse, wished him luck with the fish, and set off. She sang until her voice was hoarse and rotated her head so much she got a crick in her neck, but after a tense half hour she arrived at the clearing. No bears of any description had made an appearance, thank goodness. The only mammal she’d sighted was one skittish red squirrel. The cabin door was standing open as she approached, and Kibbe ran out to meet her. Yesterday, Jesse had rigged up a rope and a broom so that Stanley could let the dog in and out without having to get up. Mei Lin wondered why the door remained open now. Was Stanley well enough to push it closed?
Hastily she reclipped the bear spray to her jeans and flexed her fingers. She’d been holding the can so tightly that her hand was cramping. “Kibbe, boy!” she cooed as he collided with her shins, then flopped onto his back for a belly pat. “Is your master okay?” She rewarded the dog with a quick rub, then noticed something white lying on the porch. She hurried up the steps to find a piece of note paper, slightly mangled and covered with muddy dog prints, but readable. A glance told her that it was a note to Stanley from Dave Markov. Most likely Dave had left it wedged in the closed door late yesterday.