“I think I’ll grill them with some lemon,” Regan said, hesitation in her voice—suddenly, she couldn’t help being afraid to potentially ruin what might be the best meal they had since they’d arrived on the island.
Wolf nodded his head. “That sounds like an excellent idea. Grilled grouper is one of my favorite meals.”
Regan smiled, proud of her suggestion and excited to make what she hoped would be a delicious meal. She went outside and collected some wood for the outdoor grill. It was nothing more than a heavy grate over a fire pit, but whenever the weather allowed it, they cooked outside to avoid overheating the house. Today, she carried the heavy cast-iron grill over and set it on top of the grate to heat. Getting things ready around the fire, she thought about what she’d use on the fish and how she’d prep everything and put together the group’s dinner, building the fire carefully as she did. When she stood up again, Tabitha was standing there.
“Geno’s inside,” she announced. “We’re going to have our talk. Wish me luck?”
Regan smiled. “You’ll do fine. I need to grab some stuff out of the kitchen and then I’ll be out of your hair.”
Tabitha laughed. “It isn’t like you don’t know what we’re talking about or what’s being said.”
Together, they walked into the house, Tabitha heading into the living room where Geno was waiting. And then Wolf brought the fish up to her.
“I got it, thanks,” she said, quickly dismissing him.
“I thought you said there was a presentation or something?”
Tabitha could already be heard talking in the other room. “No! Can you make sure that the fire is going strong?” she asked, trying to get him out of the house.
Wolf gave her an odd look, but headed out to do her bidding. Regan quickly added seasoning to the fish and then began to make her way out the door with the fish laid out on a cookie sheet. She could hear Geno talking, not yelling, and was happy to hear him actually having a conversation and not storming out of the house. That was a good sign. She only hoped Tabitha was able to express all of her concerns without him shutting her down.
Her excitement was short-lived when she heard RC and Lily coming through the front door. “Are we late?” RC asked.
Regan groaned, trying to figure out the best thing to do. “Crap.”
Wolf was heading into the house now also. She stood in front of him, blocking the doorway. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to sit down. I want to hear what Tabitha is presenting,” he answered simply.
“No!” Regan said a little too loudly.
Fred’s voice joined the others in the living room.
“Dammit,” she muttered as she pushed past the men to put her tray down. Hurriedly, she set the tray with the raw seasoned fish outside on the small table they used for meal prep and ran back inside to shoo everyone out. Poor Tabitha didn’t need an audience.
“A baby?” RC was saying as she walked into the house.
Regan groaned, feeling horrible for Tabitha, who she figured had to be mortified at the idea of everyone learning of her and Geno’s argument. The fish could wait a minute while she got everyone out of the house.
“What are you guys doing in here?” Regan asked, not really expecting an answer.
Her eyes moved to Tabitha, who looked like she wanted to crawl into a corner. There were several sheets of paper face down in her lap, her hands covering them as if to shield them. It was too late, though. Her personal problem had just become public knowledge.
“You said there was a presentation,” RC explained, looking at Wolf, and then Tabitha and Geno, the two of them seated close together on the couch.
“I said Tabitha and Geno needed a few minutes alone,” Regan clarified, her eyes on Wolf. “She had something to present to him, not all of us.”
“What’s this about a baby?” RC asked, clearly not ready to drop the subject.
Fred opened his mouth and Regan groaned quietly. So much for privacy.
“Geno wants to have a baby. Tabitha does not,” he clarified from where he’d been sitting across from them. “This presentation was designed to go over the concerns, pros, cons, and other relevant information so that they can make a decision together.”
“A baby?” Wolf asked.
“Why would you want to have a baby?” Lily asked, her face twisted up in disgust. “It’s going to cry all the time. We don’t have diapers, either, so it’ll be gross. The house is already too crowded.”
“I think we all should sit down and talk about this,” Fred said, gesturing for the rest of them to sit down.
“Guys, really?” Regan asked. “Don’t you think this is none of our business?”
Fred shook his head, and Tabitha remained silent, watching her equally silent husband as Fred spoke up. “I believe we should all be allowed to express our concerns. Bringing a child into our mix is going to impact all of us. We will all be a part of the upbringing and care for the child.”
“I told you,” Tabitha muttered to Geno. “Now, look. Everybody is deciding my future. I blame you for this,” she hissed.
“No one is deciding anything,” Wolf said, moving to lean against the wall. “It is a good discussion to have, but ultimately, it is not up to us to decide what you two do with your lives. Tabitha’s right—this is a private matter for them to decide together, and we’ll all support them either way.”
“Thank you,” Tabitha said, a sigh of relief escaping her lips on the heels of the comment as she looked back to Geno.
Regan simply looked at Wolf and smiled. At least he was being reasonable.
RC dragged in his usual dining chair and positioned himself in the corner of the room. “Children are a blessing. It doesn’t matter how they get here or what’s happening when they arrive—they should be cherished.”
“Thank you, RC,” Geno said with a satisfied smile.
“Don’t thank me. I don’t know if it is the smartest decision to take on such a responsibility right away. You are both young and have time. Maybe wait until you are more stable,” RC cautioned. “However, no one here is going to lecture you if a child is brought into our home.”
Regan’s mouth hung open. She couldn’t believe he was stepping into this discussion.
Lily had her arms crossed over her chest, though, clearly not thrilled with the idea judging by the scowl on her face.
“We’ll support you in whatever you decide,” Wolf repeated, looking pointedly at Lily as he kept going. “I understand where Geno is coming from, but I can also appreciate Tabitha’s side of things. This is not our decision to make. We’ll give you guys some privacy,” Wolf said then, pulling away from the wall.
“I need to go put that fish on the grill,” Regan said, thrilled to escape the tense room.
Lily walked off toward the kitchen and Fred quickly followed. Wolf and RC followed Regan toward the door instead, and were right behind her when she screamed.
“What—?” RC asked.
“Dad, gun!” Wolf hollered.
Regan stared at the black bear eating the raw fish next to the outdoor grill. She couldn’t move. The sight of the animal happily feasting on the fish didn’t seem real. It couldn’t be real, she told herself. Standing and watching it, her mind was at war, trying to rationalize a bear on a tropical island. There was no rationale to be had.
“A bear?” she asked aloud, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.
“Bear?” Tabitha yelped, racing up with Geno on her heels.
RC was already in action. He’d retrieved the hunting rifle from the living room where he’d left it, and Wolf pushed Regan to the side, her shoulder connecting with the outside wall of the house. RC lifted the .444 Marlin, aimed and fired at the bear, dropping him with one very powerful shot within a matter of seconds—but it had felt like several long minutes to Regan.
Regan stared at the bear lying dead next to the grill, her heart racing. “A bear?” she repeated.
“Whoa!” Geno bre
athed out, following RC and Wolf out the door while Tabitha moved to stand next to Regan against the wall.
“How did a bear get here?” Regan asked, her brain refusing to believe what she was seeing.
Tabitha shook her head. “I have no idea, but we’ve been walking all over this island, assuming we were safe from predators. That thing has been out here this whole time?” she asked, fear straining her voice.
“It’s dead,” Wolf announced, poking the bear with a stick.
Regan stared at him for a moment, and then burst into hysterical laughter.
Everyone turned to look at her.
“Are you okay?” Tabitha whispered.
“He just poked a bear with a stick!” she said, her voice nearly unrecognizable with its high pitch of fear.
Wolf smiled, understanding her joke. “I did.”
Regan and Tabitha slowly walked toward the area where the bear was. The men were high-fiving each other as if they had just done something spectacular.
“Why are you happy about this?” Regan asked, slightly irritated to see the celebration—especially now that the adrenaline was fading and she’d realized their dinner was gone.
Wolf laughed. “This is a lot of meat. We can freeze some of it, and can it and dry it. And bear oil is a valuable commodity. Talk about a change from what we’ve been eating lately—this is going to be a great change.”
“Bear oil?” Regan asked.
“Can it?” Tabitha asked, refusing to look at the bear.
RC stood up straight, wiping his hands on his pants. “Yes. We have that pressure cooker. We can cube the meat and preserve it.”
“Why not freeze it all?” Regan asked.
“Because we never know if we’ll have a power failure. If the solar panels are damaged or the batteries fail, we’ll lose all the meat in the freezer. Drying or canning is a better choice for long-term storage,” Wolf explained. “But we’ll have fresh meat for now!” he finished.
Tabitha refused to look directly at the creature below. Regan knew how sensitive she was. It was her instinct to try and help anyone hurt, including a bear. Regan reached out and patted Tabitha’s petite shoulder.
“What did you mean about bear oil?” Regan asked, her mind spawning all kinds of ideas about what that could be.
“Bear oil, which my ancestors called bear grease, has many uses,” RC stated.
“Like?” Tabitha asked, her lip curled with disgust.
RC smiled. “You will be happy to know it is considered to be the best medicine for an aching back or a sprained ankle.”
Regan shuddered. “Bear grease is what exactly?”
“The fat of the bear. Black bears are fat creatures—it’s how they survive. They store more fat than almost any other animal. Fat is grease. Like lard from pigs,” Wolf explained.
Tabitha stared at Wolf. “You cook with it?”
Wolf and RC both nodded their heads, smiling. “It’s pretty good,” Wolf said.
“How does grease help a sprain or strain?” Tabitha asked.
RC shrugged, his eyes still on the bear. “It’s a mystery, like all natural, ancient healing medicines.”
“And how are we supposed to make this grease?” Regan asked, stealing a look at the bear and taking a step backward.
“A little water is all you need. We’ll cut the fat off the bear and then slice it into chunks. We add one-part water to one-part fat and boil it until it becomes liquid. Then we strain the oil from the water and put it into jars to store,” Wolf explained.
“That’s it?” Regan asked, surprised it sounded so easy.
“That’s it,” he said with a smile.
“Okay, but… Wolf, seriously. How did the bear get out here?” Regan asked, staring down at the black pile of fur. “Is it alone? Should we be looking out for more?”
Wolf shrugged, not bothering to mirror her suspicious looks at the trees. “It probably swam when the water was down. Bears are good swimmers. This is a young bear, so I’m sure he was alone out here. We’ll check around and see if we see any signs of another bear on the island just in case, but he probably took a swim in the water to cool off and ended up here instead of on one of the larger islands. They’re scattered around the islands off this coast of Florida—I’ve seen them before, just not here.”
Fred’s voice came from behind Regan, startling her at first. Her nerves were still a little raw after seeing the bear not twenty feet from the house.
“A bear?” he asked with surprise.
Regan bit back the retort on her tongue and smiled. “Yes, a bear.”
“Interesting.”
For his part, Geno seemed fascinated by the creature, and was running his hands over the bear’s paws, examining the long claws and whistling in low tones. “I’m glad I didn’t run into this guy on my way out to the dock or something.”
“We’ll need to get him processed quickly. The heat is going to rot the meat if we don’t get it gutted,” RC announced.
Tabitha’s hand covered her mouth. “I’m going inside. I cannot watch that.”
Regan nodded her head, not interested in seeing the processing of the bear. She would happily cut and preserve the meat, but the blood and guts involved in this stage weren’t her thing.
In the safety of the house, Regan looked out the kitchen window and saw all four men dragging the bear into the trees. A few minutes later, she watched as RC walked to the small tool shed and came back with a rope. Rather than continuing to observe whatever was about to happen, she turned back to where Tabitha was sipping water at the kitchen table and sat down with her friend to try to forget about what was going on outside.
Regan looked up only when Wolf came back into the house. “Done?” she asked hopefully.
He laughed. “It’s not that easy. We have to eviscerate the bear and then skin it. I need my knife.”
Regan cringed, resolved not to ask for more details. She didn’t think she had a weak stomach, but he’d just offered more information than she could handle. She watched as Wolf opened a drawer and pulled out two large knives, one with a hook on one end.
“This is going to take a while. You girls go ahead and get something to eat, and we’ll get something when we come in.”
She nodded her head as he turned to head back outside. After hearing about what he was going to do to the bear, the last thing she wanted was food.
16
Wolf was busy collecting various tools and some gloves from under the counter when he stood and spun around to face Regan, who’d still been sitting at the table even though Tabitha had long ago wandered out to the patio; it seemed they all needed space to process the night.
“Where’s Lily?” he asked.
Regan turned to look into the living room, then rushed down the hall to push open Lily’s bedroom door with Wolf on her heels.
“She’s not here,” Regan said, feeling Wolf’s fear.
Fred came into the house as Regan and Wolf were coming down the hall. “What’s wrong?” he asked, looking at the expressions on their faces.
“Lily isn’t here. Have you seen her? Wasn’t she here when we were talking about the baby stuff?” Regan asked.
Fred nodded. “Yes, but she left. I think she went back to her campsite.”
Regan turned to stare at Wolf, who looked as if he might vomit. He pushed Fred out of the way and raced into the kitchen, grabbing the hunting rifle and running out of the house. Fred and Regan followed him as he began heading down the path that led to the docks.
“This was where she was camped last,” he said, his breaths coming fast as he pushed through the trees.
When they burst through the tree line, they found Lily standing on the dock with a fishing pole in her hand.
“What are you doing?” Wolf shouted at her.
Lily looked at the pole in her hand, and Regan could practically see the snarky comment that was about to come out of her mouth. Then Lily’s eyes dropped to the gun in her father’s hands, realizing someth
ing was wrong. Her face changed from one of defiance to concern. She immediately set down the pole, even as Wolf swung the gun strap over his shoulder and ran up to her to embrace her.
“What happened?” she asked. “Dad, are you okay?”
Wolf visibly relaxed now that he had his daughter in his arms. “Yes. I’m fine. I was worried about you.”
“Why? Why are you carrying the hunting rifle, Dad?”
Regan came up next to them and met Lily’s eyes, and decided to answer herself when she saw that Wolf was still regaining control of his panic. “There was a bear at the house,” she said quietly. “We were worried about you.”
Lily’s eyes widened. “A bear? Really? Did you kill it?”
Wolf nodded his head. “Have you seen any signs of bear out here?”
She shook her head. “Nope, I would have told you.”
Wolf breathed out a sigh of relief. “Good. Hopefully, it only recently arrived.”
Lily crossed her arms over her chest, that defiant look back in place. “Glad you noticed I was gone after you killed the bear.”
Wolf closed his eyes and shook his head, but released her as she took a full step away from them. “Lily, don’t start with me.”
“It’s true! You didn’t even know I was gone, did you? Glad to see how important I am.”
Fred stepped forward. “Your dad loves you. He thought you were in the house. Things happened very quickly, Lily.”
“And you’re coming back to the house,” Wolf said firmly. “I don’t want you out here until I can scout the island and make sure there aren’t any more bears lurking around here.”
“I can take care of myself. I don’t want to be at the house,” she snapped.
Wolf took a deep breath. “Lily, I’ve let you have your way long enough. It’s time to come home. This isn’t up for discussion. There are too many risks. I can’t be worried about you all the time.”
“I can help her pack up,” Fred volunteered.
“I’ll help, too,” Regan offered.
Wolf hesitated, looking between them, but finally handed the gun to Fred. “Keep an eye on them. I don’t think there are any more bears out here, but pay attention. We all need to be a bit more cautious. If a bear made it out here, it’s safe to say there could be more, or even a bobcat. We can’t continue to be so complacent,” he said.
Surviving the Refuge (Survivalist Reality Show Book 2) Page 17
