by Cari Cole
"You've got to be--"
"Are you sure you're not hurt?" Lucy overrode Jane.
"Just a few scratches and a bruised dignity. I got a little dizzy looking down the hill. I'll be ready to go on in a minute."
Jane looked at the two of them as if they'd lost their minds. "You two do realize one of us will probably wind up with something broken?"
"I'm willing to take the chance," Mae said. "No more taking the easy way out. Giving up at the first bump in the road."
Jane snapped the nails of her thumb and ring finger together, an impatient, annoying habit she fell into when she was nervous or angry. "This might be the most insane stunt I've been a part of since the unfortunate testing of the no nudity rule on Panama City Beach my Junior year of college."
She stopped clicking her nails and smacked herself in the forehead. "Oh wait, how could I forget, Saturday night when I was old enough to know better, I got tattooed."
Lucy watched as Jane's expression changed from sarcastic to stunned surprise. "What?"
Jane blinked and shook her head. "Epiphany."
"About?" Lucy prompted.
"I'm such a shit sometimes."
"And your point?" Mae said.
"No, I mean I hate to admit it but sometimes I feel a little smug about the fact that I never turned into a soccer mom. No Junior League. No ALTA, tennis. I convinced myself I was different. Braver, more independent. Now I realize I just fell into a trap of a different kind. I'm my own stereotype. The hard-charging, driven real estate woman complete with two hundred dollar haircut, expensive suits and dramatic make-up. And let's not forget the manicure. I'm just as boxed in as every other woman I know. Or at least I was until I left the reservation with you two."
"Glad to be of help," Lucy said. "But I think you're being way too hard on yourself."
Jane stood up and offered Mae a hand. "Let's get this over with. I suppose I can climb and slide a quarter mile if I have to."
Lucy took Mae's other hand and they pulled her to her feet.
They scrambled the rest of the way down into the narrow gap and half-climbed, half-walked up the far side.
Jane cringed every time she put her hand down into the weeds and underbrush. "I don't even want to think about what might be hiding in these deep leaves."
"Nothing too dangerous I hope. Just keep making noise to scare off the wildlife," Mae said.
They reached the top of the rise. It was a relative high spot and gave them their first decent view of the quarter mile they had to cover.
It wasn't good. It also wasn't as bad as the twenty yards they'd just walk-crawled. The land continued in steep ripples, but not quite as steep, so they made more forward progress with each vertical foot they covered.
Lucy tried hard not to think about the fact they were going to have to do the whole thing in reverse to get back to the van.
At least, there were no witnesses to the ridiculous spectacle they made.
Mae had on tailored khaki shorts and a white high tech tee shirt designed for gym workouts. She even had little white pom-poms on the back of her socks. Lucy knew because she'd spent the better part of two hours almost face-to-face with them. Who knew you could still buy socks with pom-poms?
Jane's camp shorts and silk tee shirt were better. At least she didn't have pom-poms on her socks.
Lucy figured she was the one closest to being sensible in her old comfortable jeans and her five dollar navy blue Fruit of the Loom tee shirt. She only wished she owned a pair of hiking boots.
They topped yet another rise and finally--thank God--heard the gurgle of water below. The creek wasn't visible but there wasn't any doubt it was there.
What wasn't there was a clearing or any other indication there'd been a cabin or homestead nearby.
Mae looked worried. "We're lost."
Mothers and Lovers
"Of course we're lost. We're idiots." Jane pulled out her water-bottle and plopped down on a fallen log. "At least the protein bars will keep us from starving for a day or two."
Lucy pulled out a Power Bar. "We're not lost. That has to be Breakleg Creek down there. The GPS says we're in the right spot."
"Maybe we're not lost yet. I give it another fifteen minutes tops." Jane pulled the sport top of her water bottle open with her teeth, sucked in a mouthful of water and swallowed. "I say we turn back now."
Mae looked appalled. "We can't turn back! What about Belle? I didn't do all of this just to give up this easy."
"You should know by now when to take her seriously," Lucy said. "We're doing fine. I'll mark this spot in the GPS and then we'll search along the ridge for the site."
Jane abandoned her attempt at humor. "So what exactly are we looking for?"
Lucy didn't really know what to expect but she tried to look encouraging. "Something that looks like it might have been a clearing for a cabin or a homestead. Maybe a pile of rocks that used to be a chimney." She shrugged. "Could even be a chimney."
Mae was doing a little dance-shuffle in place while they talked.
"What's wrong with you?" Jane asked.
"I have to pee," Mae said as she crossed and uncrossed her legs.
"So go," Jane said with a wave toward the underbrush.
Mae's eyes widened and she shook her head. "I'm not going in there. There could be snakes."
"So pee next to that tree over there. We promise not to look. Right Lucy?"
Lucy nodded. "I'm sure we'll all have to go sometime."
"But what about toilet paper?"
"Biodegradable in your pack," Jane said.
"But I think you're supposed to carry it out with you. I think I read that somewhere in the rules of the wilderness area," Lucy said.
Mae shook her head more violently. "I'm not taking dirty toilet paper with me!"
"I thought Girl Scouts knew all these rules," Jane said.
Mae just continued to dance and shake her head.
Lucy loved Mae dearly but she tended to be very concrete. Thinking outside the box wasn't her strong suit. "Then just scratch out a little hole and bury it."
Mae stomped over to a tree with a relatively clear spot beneath the lowest branches. "You two better not watch."
"We've seen it before. We're not interested," Jane said.
Mae made a disgusted sound and went about her business.
Jane and Lucy discussed which direction to begin the search.
"I'm not sure it makes that much difference."
"I'm sure you're right but it looks like easier going that way," Jane said as she pointed.
"Suits me."
"Have you two decided which way we're going?" Mae asked as she pulled a wet wipe from the package to clean her hands.
"Along this ridge to the south," Lucy said. "The trees thin a little in that direction."
In this case, thin was a relative term. The trees were far enough apart for larger, thicker, underbrush to take over. There wasn't even anything like the pitiful excuse for a trail they'd followed to this point.
"What I wouldn't give for a machete wielding mountain man," Jane said.
"With or without teeth?" Lucy asked.
"Okay, maybe not a mountain man. How about a wilderness guide with an Australian accent and a nice ass?"
"Dreamer."
"A girl can hope."
Lucy pointed to the wipe in Mae's hands. "That you have to take out with you."
Mae reached into a side pocket of her pack. "Never leave home without Ziplock bags."
Jane vibrated in a mock shudder. "That's just a scary philosophy."
"Well, they came in handy didn't they?" Mae said.
Lucy put up a hand to stop them. "Let's see what we can find."
They slogged through shin-deep leaves, tripped over snaking brambles and pushed past waist-high shrubs. To make things worse, they couldn't see more than a few feet ahead. Lucy had never been in woods like this. Hard to believe they were only a couple of hour's drive from Atlanta. She led the way and paused e
very time a break in the trees gave her an opportunity to check the GPS.
"How far are we going?" Jane asked.
"I have no idea. It's hard to judge distances when you can't see more than ten feet in either direction." Lucy pushed her way between the latest set of bushes blocking the way and stopped dead.
Mae bumped her in the back. "What?"
Jane stepped up behind them, looking over their shoulders. "I'll be damned. I think you did it Lucy."
Lucy stared in disbelief for several seconds before pushing forward.
They stumbled out into a clearing, roughly square and fifty yards across. The most amazing part was the remains of a fireplace. The chimney was mostly gone. Only a small stub remained but the fireplace looked almost whole.
"So you think this is the right place?" Jane asked.
"Pretty sure. Belle's notes were pretty detailed."
"Well then, let's check it out," Jane said as she squeezed past Lucy into the clearing.
Lucy followed and Mae brought up the rear.
Up close, the fireplace wasn't as intact as it appeared from a distance. Weeds grew up through the shattered chimney and there were large stones missing from the surface of the fireplace.
Lucy stepped up and put her hand on the chimney. "Amazing. I can't believe we pulled it off." She turned to Mae and Jane. "Now if we can just find a clue about the Declaration or Belle . . ."
They walked around to the far side of the chimney. The view was spectacular even with the trees in full summer green. Lucy was in awe thinking about how it would look in October when the fall color peaked. In winter the view wouldn't be colorful, but without the foliage you'd be able to see forever.
"You have to hand it to Paul and Molly Morris, they knew how to pick a spot," Jane said.
"This must have been the back of the cabin. Why not have the front facing the view?" Mae said.
"Who knows?" Lucy said. "But look over there, across the valley."
Jane and Mae followed Lucy's pointing finger to a rock formation on a hillside across a small valley.
"It looks like two people hugging," Mae said.
"Looks like a pile of rocks to me," Jane said.
"Don't you have any romance in your soul?" Mae asked.
"Romance is for suckers," Jane said.
Lucy shook her head. "That is not a healthy attitude. Even after what Gary did to me, I still believe in romance." Well, in theory anyway, and compared to the fear that Belle was in physical danger, Lucy's Gary troubles were barely a blip on her personal radar screen.
"And I don't think that is a healthy attitude." Jane turned away from the view and walked back toward the fireplace.
"Wait," Lucy said. "Remember the letter? The reference to Lover's Cave? I bet it's over there somewhere."
Mae stared at the formation. "You're right. I don't see a cave but I bet the opening is there."
"So we need to find the map or clue that Paul Morris hid under the hearthstone," Jane said.
Lucy turned back to the fireplace, dug around with her toe and quickly found the hearth. Obviously Belle hadn't been here before them so she was hopeful they'd find the map Paul stashed. "This hiding place must be a family trait."
"Let's get busy," Jane said. "The sooner we find that map, the sooner we get back to air conditioning."
Lucy wasn't ruling out the possibility they'd have more searching to do after they found the map but she'd break that news to Jane if and when she had to.
After pulling up weeds around the hearthstones, they found one marked with Paul's initials.
"Well, don't just sit there! Let's pull the stone up," Mae said.
They tried to pry the stone loose from its dirt bed.
It refused to budge.
"We'll just have to dig," Mae said.
"With what?" Jane asked. "Our whistles?"
"A stick or a rock." Mae stood and walked around to the other side of the fireplace. She dug through the weeds with the toe of her shoe looking for something to use.
It didn't take her long to find a palm-sized rock with one pointy corner. "This should work. All I have to do is scrape around the edge of the stone."
Jane and Lucy watched her for a few seconds, exchanged a look, and went to find primitive digging tools of their own.
Lucy scraped dirt away from the edge of the stone and tried not to get her hopes up. Between Gary leaving and Belle going missing it didn't seem her stars were exactly aligned in a positive way at the moment.
They managed to scrape a one inch deep trench around the two exposed sides of the hearth stone, but they still couldn't pry it loose.
"Damn," Jane said. "I think we need real tools. Like a shovel and a pry bar."
"If we can just find the bottom edge and get a gap underneath I think we can do it," Lucy said. No way was she leaving without finding out what was under this stone.
"I think I see the edge," Mae said a few minutes later.
Jane crossed her fingers.
Lucy leaned close and squinted at the stone. "You're right." She assaulted the area with her rock and before long had a gap large enough to get a grip on the stone. "Let me see if I can get enough leverage to pull it up."
The other two moved back. Lucy stood and put one foot on either side of the stone, crouched down, slid her fingers into the gap under the stone and pulled. She put her whole body into it, using her legs the way a weightlifter does.
Just as she started to wonder if she was going to tear a muscle or burst a blood vessel, the stone moved. Just a tremor at first and then it tore free with a sudden soundless pop. She toppled back and wound up on her ass with the stone teetering on her left thigh.
Jane and Mae leaned over the hole to get the first look and cracked their heads together.
"Ouch!"
"Damn it!"
"That's what you get," Lucy said. She pushed the stone off her leg and got to her knees.
At first glance, she thought the hole was empty but then she caught a glimpse of blue. Blue painted metal to be exact.
She reached out and brushed away more dirt. It was a square, scratched, and battered, cookie tin. Lucy pulled it out and worked the top off. Inside was a folded paper that turned out to be a hand-drawn map.
"This has to be the map of the cave where Paul hid the Declaration--at least I hope it's the Declaration," Lucy said as she examined the map. She looked back across the narrow gorge to the rock formation, even more convinced that Lover's Cave was there. "Do you think we have time to check it out today?"
Jane shook her head. "No way. If we try to hike over there from here it could take hours and from the look of that map, the cave is pretty big."
"So, we come back tomorrow if Belle doesn't turn up?" Lucy said.
"Let's just pray she shows up. I'm not the outdoor type," Jane said.
"Well, I hope she shows up too but even if she does I want to find that document," Mae said.
"Then we're agreed," Lucy said. She prayed Belle would turn up with some wild story by way of explanation but the more time that passed, the less likely that seemed.
"Yeah, if we make it back to the van in one piece before dark," Jane said. "I don't like some of the sounds coming out of the bushes around here. It's creepy."
"But-" Mae started.
"She's right. We-"
"Shhh!" Jane cut them off.
"What?" Lucy whispered.
Jane gestured to the underbrush on the far side of the clearing. "Listen."
They all looked in the direction Jane pointed, straining to hear.
A rustling sounded and a laurel bush five yards into the woods shivered.
"Probably a squirrel," Mae kept her voice low. "Chip says sometimes when he's hunting they sound like a whole herd of deer."
More rustling. The shivering underbrush was rippling in their direction like a wave.
"I don't think that's a squirrel," Jane said.
The wave of green rolled to the edge of the clearing and a black nose appeared
followed by a broad head.
"Shit," Jane said.
"Aw," Mae crooned. "It's just a bear cub."
"Exactly." Lucy could practically see the light bulb flash above Mae's head as she put the rest together.
A bigger wave and a louder rustling came in the wake of the first.
"Mama," Mae whispered. "What do we do?"
"Don't ask me," Jane said. "You're the Girl Scout leader."
"Brownie leader and we didn't get that far in outdoor skills."
"Ladies, now isn't the time," Lucy said.
Mama bear stepped out of the brush, front legs stiff, teeth bared.
Lucy didn't think it was a smile.
No one moved.
The bear lifted her head, opened her mouth wide and snapped her teeth together.
"I think we should back up toward the trail. Very slowly." Lucy kept her voice low.
The bear snapped her teeth again.
All three of them straightened out of their crouches.
They started inching backwards one cautious step at a time, eyes glued to the bear.
"Don't make eye-contact," Mae whispered. "She'll think you're challenging her."
"Now you remember something," Jane groused but she dropped her gaze to the bear's chest.
The bear bounced forward two steps snapping her teeth again.
Lucy balled her hands into fists and fought the urge to turn and run, praying the others did the same. About the only thing she could remember from hours of watching nature shows with Ryan was that running could provoke a wild animal into an instinctive desire to chase down prey.
Lucy didn't want to be prey.
Mae and Jane held on and continued their slow, measured retreat.
The going was tough. Even though the clearing was free of trees, it wasn't empty. The leaves were several inches deep and hid half-buried rocks, downed tree limbs that threatened to roll under foot, and the occasional small hole or depression. There were also laurels, briars, and other assorted growing things snagging at their ankles.
Mama bear did some more stiff-legged bouncing and teeth snapping but she didn't advance any further into the clearing.
Lucy hoped mama was content with their retreat.