She forgot all about the rifle. If she thought about it at all, it gave her a feeling of relief. If anything dangerous went down, at least they had something with which to protect themselves.
What if – just if – those stories contained a grain of truth? What if the immaculate exterior and homey feeling she encountered at the Kerrs, and from Aiken in town, covered up something sinister?
She didn’t believe the devil’s spawn and child sacrifice stories. Bain and those like him concocted those stories straight out of some trashy horror novel. Every sadistic tale of child abuse had its cover-up, though. Every abuse ring had its respectable citizens at its head. They made friends and allies of police, judges and lawyers. They gave money to the local Rotary Club. They could call up hundreds of witnesses to testify as to what honest, generous, kind-hearted citizens they were.
Bruins’ Peak could be the same way. The Bruins certainly had something to hide. She discovered that for herself; they didn’t like outsiders. They kept their children to themselves and didn’t mix. All of that made Harmony suspicious.
She never saw anyone – man, woman or child – carrying a weapon on Bruins’ Peak. Not one rifle or pistol did she see at the Kerrs. They could have kept them hidden, or locked down. Still, the whole combination of puzzle pieces didn’t fit together to make a coherent picture of either innocence or guilt.
She drove the road to Bruins’ Peak in silence. Her mind revolved through the conflicting images and messages bombarding her from all sides. Bain Campbell accused her, even as he sat next to her in her own car. How could such a charlatan make her feel guilty for trusting her own instincts? He was a laughing stock: his stories were vacuous and foolish enough to make children laugh. So why did her skin crawl when she heard them now? What about Bruins’ Peak gave her chills?
She turned off onto the old logging road she took the first time. She pulled into the same turn-out and shut off the motor. Bain squinted through the windshield. “Is this place you stopped before?”
Harmony swung her door open. “This is it. Now come on, if you want to see the spot. I’ve got to make this quick so I can get up to the Dunlaps by nine.”
Bain followed her up the path into the trees. With him walking behind her, she could recapture the grandeur and sacredness she felt the first time. She wouldn’t see the same bear, but at least the forest still spoke to her in its subtle, whispering voice. It still called to her. She still belonged here.
The timesEvery time Bain stumbled, and cursed under his breath at the steep, slippery climb, it ruined her elation. He brought her crashing back to Earth. She never should have brought him along. She cast a glance over her shoulder. Sure enough, he stumbled along with that stupid rifle on his shoulder like Gunga Din on safari.
The thought gave her a silent inner laugh, but she froze in the middle of the path when she spotted a familiar shape moving in the trees. She chopped the air with her hand and hissed through her teeth to silence Bain. She was just in time. The shape emerged from the shadows. It was the same bear! What was he doing here? Why was he back in the same spot she met him last time?
Had he come here to see her again? How did he know she would be here? Did he miss her and long for her to come back? Did she mean as much to him as he meant to her? Her heart soared at the sight of him. He was just as magnificent as ever. He throbbed with raw animal power. His eyes found that secret place in her soul that longed for release into wilderness. Only he could give her that. He invited her to join him in the holy distance beyond humanity.
The bear trotted across the path. It headed for the trees on the other side, like it intended to keep going without stopping to say hello. At the last moment, it swiveled its head around and growled at Harmony. She took a step toward it and put out her hand to beckon it closer.
The bear kept walking. It walked into the trees and turned in a complete circle to come down the path toward her again. This time, it ambled straight down the path, zeroing in on her hand with purpose. It wagged its head from side to side with exaggerated sweeps of its clawed paws.
Bain stepped up behind her, but Harmony waved her hand behind her to signal him back. She moved another step toward the bear. He growled under his breath in that voice she understood. He was talking to her. He wanted to get close to her. She extended her hand closer to his face to let him smell her when Bain pushed up behind her.
Bain raised his rifle to his shoulder. “Stay away. It could be dangerous.”
Harmony laid her hand on the gun barrel and pushed it down to point toward the ground. “Put that thing away. He’s not dangerous. I think he might be tame. He let me touch him last time. He might know people.”
“It don’t matter how tame he is. He’s still a wild animal. You stay back.”
Without turning around, Harmony planted her hand on Bain’s chest and gave him a shove. “You stay back, and keep that thing away from me. Can’t you see he came here to see me? He would never hurt me. Of that I’m quite certain.”
Bain obeyed her shove and moved behind her, but he kept his hand around the trigger grip. Harmony turned her attention to the bear, who watched the whole exchange with his close-set black eyes. He looked back and forth between Bain and Harmony, and when Bain moved back, he lowered his head and rumbled in his chest.
Harmony took one more careful step up the path toward him. She put her arm straight out in front of him and murmured under her breath. “You know me, don’t you? You know me. I’m here. I came back to see you just like you came to see me. Yes, I know you, too. We know each other, don’t we? You wouldn’t hurt anybody, would you? Of course you wouldn’t. You’re a fine big boy, aren’t you? You’re so beautiful.”
He grumbled under his breath in that conversational way. He pretended to look away from one side to the other, but he let his nose graze close to her fingers each time. He inched closer, and his grunts came quick and sharp like words. His nostrils quivered for her scent.
All of a sudden, Bain’s voice shattered the stillness. “You be careful around that thang. I’m tellin’ ya, he could maul you in an instant. Step back so I can get a clear shot at ‘im.”
Harmony smacked her lips in annoyance, but before she had a chance to answer, the bear raised his burly head on his tree trunk neck and let out a tremendous bellow at Bain. The noise shook Harmony to her very bones, and the bear’s lips jiggled around his giant dripping fangs. He bellowed straight into her face. But seeing that his eyes were locked on Bain, over her shoulder, told her the bear was angry at Bain and not her.
Still, that noise, and the sight of his bared teeth, reminded Harmony of all Bain’s haunting horror stories. She could well imagine this creature tearing a person apart with one enraged twist of his mighty neck.
Bain reacted faster than Harmony could imagine. In a fraction of an instant, he shouldered his rifle and took aim, but the bear reacted faster still. Harmony saw only a blur as the bear charged past her in a speeding juggernaut of brown flying fur and teeth. His fur brushed her face on his way past. He hurtled toward Bain just as Bain tightened his finger on the trigger.
The whole scene unfolded in slow motion. She had to stop this. She had to stop the bear killing Bain and Bain killing the bear. Which did she care about more? She never stopped to consider.
This was all her fault. She never should have brought Bain up here. She never should have let him blind her with those stories to let him bring that gun. If she wanted to see the bear again, she should have come alone. She should have kept the bear to herself so no one knew what happened to her in the woods. She should have done a thousand things she didn’t do, but she had to do one thing right now. She had to stop this.
She put out her hands and shouted at the top of her lungs, “No!” but it was too late. Bain squeezed the trigger. The bear launched himself off the ground with his mouth open and his claws extended. He would land on the muzzle of the gun. It would go off and shoot him in the chest. The bear would die. What would Harmony do then?
&
nbsp; She couldn’t let that happen. She never knew she could move that fast, but she flew off the ground and lunged for the gun.
The next thing she knew, she gazed up at the crowns of the trees raking the blue sky. The sunlight danced between the needled boughs, and a soft breeze rustled the canopy. She remembered nothing. She felt nothing. She knew only the blessed bliss of belonging in the forest, her forest. She was home.
Just then, a rugged face blocked her view. A battered old baseball cap covered short, straight brown hair ending just above the ears. Stubble of a beard covered the jaw and upper lip. A stout neck dove down into the neckline of a tight white T-shirt.
Footsteps ran away and diminished into the distance. She studied the face and recognized it. “Aiken! What are you doing here?”
“Don’t try to move, Harmony. I’m going to help you.”
She put out her hand. “Don’t leave, Aiken.”
He took her hand and kissed it. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m taking you where you’ll be safe.”
Harmony blinked, but she couldn’t focus. She lost consciousness with Aiken’s face hovering before her eyes.
Chapter 9
Harmony’s eyes fluttered open. Instead of pine boughs swaying overhead, she looked up at an ornate, carved, plaster ceiling with angels holding ribbons and roses around a central rosette pattern. She stared at it before a subtle breeze brushed across her brow.
White curtains billowed out of an open window. Green lawns rolled away to the dark woods beyond, and bird song floated on the breeze. Downy softness surrounded her on all sides. She ran her hand over an eider down quilt covered with blue patterned satin, and fresh cotton sheets enfolded her above and below.
She blinked to clear her head, and the rest of the room came into focus. Elaborately carved bedposts rose from the bed corners to a draped canopy overhead, and antique Victorian furniture decorated the room on all sides. Even an old fashioned wash basin and pitcher stood ready and waiting on the sideboard.
She turned her head the other way and started up. “Aiken! Where am I?” Splitting pain stabbed through her chest and knocked her back on the pillows.
Aiken straightened up in an arm chair. He wore the same bright white T-shirt she admired so much, but no baseball cap. He wore sneakers instead of his work boots. “You’re at my house. This is Dunlap Homestead. I brought you here after Bain shot you.”
Harmony tried again to sit up. She gritted her teeth against the pain and propped her torso on her elbow. The events in the woods swam into her consciousness. “What happened?”
“You jumped in front of the gun, and Bain shot you by accident. He ran away, and I brought you here.”
“How did you find me so fast? How did you know Bain shot me?”
“I found you in the woods and brought you here. My family and I stopped the bleeding. The bullet hit you in the side and deflected off your ribs. It might hurt a lot, but it’s not dangerous. You’ll get better in no time. You just need rest.”
Harmony sank back on the bed. Its magnificent softness carried the pain away, and her eyes drifted closed. “I don’t understand this, but thank you for helping me. You didn’t have to bring me here. You could have taken me into town.”
“Town was too far away, and I didn’t have a car to take you in. I had to stop the bleeding, and bringing you here was faster. You would have died if I hadn’t.”
“I suppose it was my fault for letting Bain come anywhere near me with a gun. He is a loose cannon at the best of times, and I got hit.”
“Don’t blame yourself. You risked your life to save somebody else, and that counts for a lot.”
Her eyes snapped open. “What do you mean?”
He cocked his head to one side. He kept tearing his eyes away from her face, but he always drifted back. “Why did you throw yourself in front of that gun?”
“The bear… he would have shot that bear. The bear was about to attack him. Maybe they both would have been dead. I suppose you think I tried to save Bain from the bear, but it was really the other way around. I didn’t care if the bear ripped Bain’s face off, but I couldn’t stand by and watch him shoot the bear.”
“Is that the bear you met before?”
“There’s something special about it. I can’t explain it, but that bear means more to me than any person, especially Bain Campbell. Isn’t that pathetic? That’s how alone and isolated I am. I care more about an animal than a person.” She turned her head away to hide her feelings.
Aiken moved over to sit next to her on the bed. “Hey, don’t talk about yourself like that. It’s not pathetic at all. You feel something for that bear you haven’t felt for the people you’ve met so far. Plus, if we’re talking about people like Bain, I don’t blame you. Besides, that bear is so much more than an animal.”
She peered up into his face. “What do you mean?”
“I just mean he’s so much more than an animal to you.”
“Oh.” Her face fell. “I thought maybe you knew the bear I’m talking about. I thought he might be tame, and the people on Bruins’ Peak knew him. Maybe they’re feeding him or something, and he’s become used to people.”
A secret smile crept over his face. “I do know the bear you’re talking about; the rest of the people on the Peak know him, too. He’s not exactly tame, but I can tell he sure thinks a lot of you.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Well, he let you pet him, didn’t he? He came back a second time to see you, and he walked right up to you with no fear. He must think you’re pretty special.”
“Great. A bear who thinks I’m special. That’s just what I need when I can’t even get a boyfriend.”
“I think you’re pretty special, too.”
“You said there could never be a “you and me,” so you must not think I’m special enough.”
Aiken stood up with a shake of his head. He went to the window and gazed out at the green and blue. “Let’s not talk about that. What do you want for breakfast? My mother cooked up a storm trying to prepare everything you could possibly want. You should see the kitchen. It looks like Grant’s Army is coming for snack time.”
“I don’t want to talk about Grant’s Army or your mother cooking breakfast. I want some answers. Why do you keep running hot and cold on me? First you say I’m pretty special, and then you say there can never be anything between us. First you hug me outside the supermarket, and now you’re pulling away again. I don’t understand you.”
He turned around to face her, but he didn’t come back near the bed. He skirted around the very outside limit of the room to stay as far away from her as he could. “I never should have hugged you outside the supermarket. That was a mistake. I told you the truth when I said there could never be anything between you and me. You need to understand that right now. That will clear up any confusion in the future. I think you must be pretty special to get that bear to come near you like that, and I’m glad I could help you when you got hurt; but that’s as far as it can ever go. Do you understand?”
He inched all the way around to the door and backed over the threshold. Harmony floundered in confusion. “Why won’t you answer my questions?”
He backed into the hall with the door balanced in one hand. “I’m sorry, Harmony. That’s all I can tell you. I’ll bring you some breakfast, and then you need to rest so your ribs heal.”
He slammed the door in her face, and his footsteps receded down the stairs. Harmony opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again with a heavy heart. She didn’t understand men at all, but one thing was beyond clear. Aiken Dunlap wanted nothing to do with her, at least nothing beyond the official duties of a social worker. She meant nothing to him. That hug outside the supermarket, all his remarks about feeling the same thing in the woods on Bruins’ Peak, telling her she was special to him – none of it meant a thing.
She rested her eyes on the beautiful combination of colors surrounding the window. The golden sunshine, the white curtains
, the blue of the sky framed with chlorophyll green all worked together to relax her tired brain and heal her battered body. What good was she to this old world? She never had a mother or a father or siblings to teach her how to deal with people.
An insurmountable barrier separated her from other people, especially the people she cared about most and that she wanted to care about her. She would never find love. Every man she met ran screaming in the opposite direction just when she started getting close to him. People she wanted to connect with held her at a distance and wouldn’t explain why.
She must be truly repulsive. She might look all right on the outside. Everyone told her she was good-looking, but that didn’t help her when no one wanted to get near her.
Underneath it all, underneath her groomed, college-educated exterior, she understood why they recoiled. Something dangerous, something wild and untamed lurked in her deepest soul. It clawed at her insides to get out, and she had to fight with all her strength to keep it under control.
Sometimes she thought she would explode in spitting, tearing rage. Sometimes she thought she would run away and disappear in the trackless forest. Bruins’ Peak spoke to that part of her, but it spoke in soothing tones. It told her these urges and longings were right and good, that it would welcome her when the time came to break out.
In the distance, outside her window, above the dark outline of forest, beyond the manicured lawns, that rocky jagged Peak scraped the sky with its angular fingernails. It stared back at her as she laid in the bed. It sensed her close to it, and it drew her toward it on gossamer tendrils. She couldn’t resist its call. She closed her eyes and turned her head away so she wouldn’t see Bruins’ Peak anymore.
Chapter 10
Aiken came in and set a tray on her bedside table. “I brought you a little bit of everything. I hope you like pancakes. There’s a stack three feet high downstairs, and I can’t eat it all by myself.”
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