by Kim Baldwin
“Great going!” Justine agreed.
“Yes, very nice, indeed,” Megan said. “How long have you played that thing?”
“Since I was ten. My father gave it to me when we moved to Alaska—something to keep me occupied during the long winters.”
“Where did you move here from?” Elise asked.
“Oregon. I grew up on a commune. We moved to Alaska when it kind of disbanded.”
I guess that explains why she’s so nonchalant about nudity, Megan thought. The word commune to her evoked images of Woodstock and the hippie generation of the 1960s and early ‘70s—men and women parading around naked or half-naked as they grew their own vegetables and lived off the land. She imagined them as promiscuous and uninhibited about sex. Wasn’t ‘free love’ one of the big slogans of that era? She found the knowledge that Chaz had grown up in that environment most encouraging.
“I don’t think anyone should have to follow Chaz’s playing,” Linda complained good-naturedly. “That was definitely real talent.”
“No getting out of it,” Pat said. “Besides, I’m very curious to see what you’re going to claim as your hidden talent, since the one I know about can’t be demonstrated in public.”
Linda blushed bright red as everyone laughed. “I can’t believe you said that,” she grumbled.
“It’s a compliment!” Pat said.
“I’ll get you for that,” Linda promised. “We’ll see how long before you get to experience that talent again.”
That prompted another round of laughter.
“Okay, this isn’t really a talent, but it’s unusual, anyway,” Linda said. She stood and bent over as if to touch her toes, but instead she pushed her foot into an unnatural angle, until it looked as though her shoes were facing in opposite directions.
“Eeewww!” Pat said. “I’m never sleeping with you again!”
“Oh, my God, how are you doing that?” Elise asked.
“Doesn’t that hurt?” Yancey added, craning her head for a better look.
“Nope. Double-jointed in that ankle.” Linda swiveled the ankle back to normal and sat back down, giving Pat a playful punch as she did. “Okay, so what are you going to do for us, Miss Smart Aleck?”
“We’ll see who laughs,” Pat promised. She got to her feet and walked around the circle of friends, collecting a small assortment of items—a metal mug, a water bottle, a large tube of sunscreen, and a flashlight. She returned to stand beside Linda before she set them in motion, juggling with practiced skill, dazzling them with constant switch ups in height and direction and speed.
“The lady is good with her hands, what can I say?” Linda conceded admiringly, as the others laughed.
“What about you, Sally?” Megan asked. “Any predilection for something other than practical jokes?”
“I can’t compete with the rest of you,” Sally said. “My only hidden talent is this.” She stuck out her tongue and touched the end of her nose with it.
“Your husband must love that!” Pat said, which touched off another round of laughter. “Who have we missed? Elise?”
“I was going to say I didn’t think I had a hidden talent,” Elise answered. “But Sally’s reminded me that I’ve won a bar bet or two with the ability to tie cherry stems into a knot with my tongue.”
“I bet that comes in handy,” Yancey said, to a chorus of laughter.
“Speaking of which,” Pat said, pausing to whisper something into Linda’s ear, “I think we’ll say good night at this point. We’re suddenly very…uh, sleepy. Aren’t we, honey?”
More laughs.
Pat got to her feet first and offered a hand up to Linda. They strolled arm in arm toward their tent, talking in low whispers.
“Where the heck do they get their stamina?” Yancey complained. “I can hardly move after all this paddling.”
“I know they do this kayaking stuff a lot,” Justine agreed. “But they are the oldest among us, too. It’s not fair. I’m ready to drop.” She stretched and yawned. “I think I’ll turn in, too, I guess. Any chance I can coerce a friendly masseuse to give me a nice back rub?”
“Well, I’m sore, too, you know,” Elise admitted. “How about we work out a trade. Ten minutes for ten minutes?”
“Deal,” Justine said.
They got up and took a step or two toward Justine’s tent.
“Hey, wait. Can I get in on some of that action?” Yancey called after them.
“Sure,” Elise said. “Anybody else?” she added, looking directly at Chaz in a way that made Megan want to punch her again.
Chaz and Megan shook their heads, while Sally responded with a wave and a “No, thanks.”
“Maybe tomorrow, then,” Elise said.
Or maybe not, Megan thought. The only person I want massaging Chaz is me.
“‘Night, everybody,” Justine called back as the three of them headed toward the tents.
Megan glanced at Chaz, her heartbeat accelerating at the knowledge that they would soon be alone together. “Well, I guess I’ll head that way, too.”
She felt the same exhaustion as the rest of them, but was pretty sure that when Chaz lay down beside her, she’d get her second wind in a hurry.
Chaz met her eyes but made no move to get up. “Okay. I’ll be in there in a while. I’ll try not to wake you.”
The woman cannot get a clue that I’m trying to flirt with her, Megan thought dejectedly as she made her way to their tent. Of course it might have helped if I hadn’t treated her like a pariah the first couple of days of the trip.
Chapter Eight
“Well, she certainly seems to be warming up to you now,” Sally remarked as soon as Megan was out of earshot.
“I guess. I haven’t a clue why, though,” Chaz said. “And don’t go getting any more ideas in your head.”
“Ideas? Moi? I don’t know what you mean.” Sally got to her feet. “Are you coming, or are you going to stay out here and avoid her until she goes to sleep?”
“I’m going to stay here awhile and enjoy the fire,” Chaz replied.
“You know we can’t build a fire every night. What are you going to use as an excuse then?”
“Go to bed, Sally,” Chaz grumbled.
“Oh, all right.” Sally laid a hand on Chaz’s shoulder as she passed by. “Sleep well, hon.”
“You too.”
As soon as Sally was gone, Chaz fed a few sticks to the fire and settled back in her chair, sipping her wine and recounting the day. Images of Megan filled her mind—especially the way she’d looked tonight, relaxed and at ease by the fire, a smile coming easily to her now. The rough edges she’d arrived in Alaska with had softened a lot. And she kept looking at me all the time. She’s not just warming up to me; it almost seemed like she was flirting with me a little.
That thought sent a teasing whisper of arousal through her and took her mind back to daydreaming of what Megan might be like in bed. She closed her eyes and imagined slowly stripping off all those brand-new clothes, layer by layer, until she reached Megan’s soft ivory skin. She could almost feel it now, beneath her fingertips. In her mind’s eye, she could see Megan’s breasts as she touched them and roused the nipples to attention with teasing passes. I wonder what she brought to wear to bed.
From there, despite her better judgment, she allowed her mind to consider what it might be like to kiss Megan, to feel those soft lips surrendering to her. Surrendering, hell. She’s not the type to surrender, her rational mind tried to intercede, but by now her body was calling the shots, luxuriating in the imagined pleasures that her conscience was unwilling to allow. A shudder passed through her. It was all she could do not to touch herself.
Time passed; she couldn’t have said how much. She had almost dozed, staring into the fire with heavy-lidded eyes, lost in the depths of Megan’s kiss.
A scream pierced the silence.
A millisecond later, a loud grunting noise.
Then a roar.
Bear. Chaz scrambled t
o her feet and grabbed a sturdy burning branch out of the fire. She hurried toward the sounds, fumbling at her belt as another scream rang out. Megan!
She had the pepper spray in her palm when she rounded the corner of one of the tents and spotted the grizzly, twelve feet away.
He was a massive brute. Seven or eight hundred pounds, she reckoned. And at the moment, he had his head inside the tent she was sharing with Megan.
Her blood ran cold. Oh, my God.
She waved the torch at him and shouted, “Go, bear! Go! Out! Get away!”
The grizzly backed out of the tent and turned to glare at her with small black eyes—pig eyes—set six inches apart. His head was wider than her shoulders, and his mouth seemed disproportionately large at the moment—all sharp teeth. He was drooling a white paste of some kind, and a big glob was stuck to the fur around his mouth.
Chaz shouted some more at the top of her lungs. “Go, bear! Go away!” The fire was nearly gone from the branch she was waving around. Her heart was beating a mile a minute.
He stomped down hard with his massive front paws, stiff legged, and she swore she could feel the earth move beneath her feet. The claws on those feet had to be nine inches long, and she knew they were razor sharp.
She shouted at him once more as the flame gave out on her branch. “Get! Go away!” She dropped the stick and began waving her left arm, as her right arm extended towards him, pointing the pepper spray at his eyes.
He rocked from one huge paw to the other and let out a woof that sounded like the bark of a dog. Then he stood on his hind legs, sniffing the air noisily. Frozen in place, she had just enough time to guess his height at roughly nine feet tall, before he dropped to all fours and charged her.
Time slowed.
Chaz stood her ground as she depressed the trigger, determined not to miss. He roared as it hit him, the sound reverberating in her ears, but he kept on coming.
And the wind was not on her side.
The spray came back at her in the blink of an eye, and she sucked in great lungfuls of the stuff as it blinded her. The pain was everywhere at once. She took a great gasping breath for air and began coughing.
She rolled to the ground and curled into a fetal position, head down and hands clasped together behind her neck, trying desperately to suck in fresh air. She felt the enormous bulk of the bear pass her by inches, close enough that she could smell the warm stench of his breath as he went past, bellowing in pain and anger.
Her lungs burned and her eyes were agony. She could hear nothing but her own coughing. Every gasping breath took in more of the noxious fallout. She coughed and coughed until she felt her lungs would come apart. There was no relief from the burning pain. Her eyes streamed tears.
It had all happened in seconds.
Before she knew it, a shaken Sally was at her side, and the rest of the group was not far behind.
“My God, Chaz, what the hell happened?” Sally asked, coughing herself from the remnants of the spray that lingered about the camp. Some of the other women were coughing, too.
“Are you all right?” Pat asked.
“What was that?” Justine asked. “Was that a bear?”
Chaz gasped for air. Megan, she wanted to say. Is Megan all right? But she couldn’t speak; her throat was raw.
“Someone get some water, will you?” Sally asked as she led Chaz back to her chair by the fire. Justine handed her a water bottle. “Lean your head back, Chaz, and let me rinse out your eyes.”
Sally poured fresh water carefully into both of Chaz’s eyes.
“A bear came into our t…tent,” Megan stuttered. In all the excitement, no one had noticed her, standing off to one side, trembling and ashen. “God, he was huge.”
As soon as she heard Megan’s voice, relief poured through Chaz like a soothing balm.
“A grizzly bear?” Linda asked. Her eyes got wide, and she glanced around as if expecting the beast to return at any moment.
“Are you all right, Megan?” Sally asked.
“Yeah, but he sure scared the shit out of me,” Megan said. “I guess I fell asleep. Next thing I know I’m hearing this crunching noise, and I wake up to find this big-ass bear head right next to me.”
“Holy shit,” Yancey said.
Sally motioned her over. “You look like you need to sit down. Come over here by the fire.”
On shaky legs, Megan stumbled to the fire and collapsed next to Chaz.
“Eyes still burning real bad?” Sally asked, after they’d used up the first bottle of water.
When Chaz nodded, Sally made her recline her head again, and she poured another bottle carefully over her eyes.
“How you doing, Chaz?” Linda asked, as Chaz sat up, eyes still streaming tears.
She tried to speak, but her throat felt like she’d swallowed acid. She fumbled for the water bottle that Sally had been using and took a few sips. It eased the burning only slightly. “Man, that stuff is awful,” she rasped. Her eyes felt a bit better, but she could hardly stand to open them, even to squint. “Someone have a Kleenex?”
Pat handed her one and Chaz dabbed gently at her eyes.
“My fault,” Megan croaked out. She was still shaking.
“What?” Chaz turned to face Megan. Her eyes were tiny slits. Tears ran down her cheeks. “What did you say?”
“My fault,” Megan repeated. “I left my kit in my bag. He went right for it.”
“What was in it?” Sally asked.
“Toothpaste, deodorant.” Megan shook her head. “Hand cream. Lip balm. All sorts of stuff. I’m so sorry. I completely forgot about it.”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Chaz said. “It happens. Everyone’s okay. That’s all that matters.”
Megan looked at Chaz and laid a hand on her shoulder. “I’m really sorry.”
Chaz nearly jumped at the touch. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll be fine,” she said as she dabbed some more at her eyes.
“I doubt very much he’ll be back, but we should get your stuff and put it in a bear-proof canister to be safe,” Sally said to Megan.
Megan nodded and headed to the tent. She came back carrying the remains of her toiletries, a messy collection of chewed tubes and plastic jars. The nylon ditty bag that had contained them was in pieces. Her minty toothpaste and oatmeal face scrub had been crushed by the bear’s powerful jaws and sharp teeth, along with everything else that had been in the kit.
“And he got this stuff, too. It was all together,” she said. Her head net, makeshift blindfold, and baseball cap were all in shreds.
Megan’s friends gathered around her, staring in horrified fascination at the bear’s leavings.
“Oh, man,” Linda whispered.
“No lie,” Justine seconded.
“There are a couple of huge tears in the side of the tent,” Megan told Sally.
“I’ll get the repair kit,” Sally said, getting to her feet. “While I’m fixing that, will someone get Megan a big Ziploc to put all that stuff into, and make sure it gets put in a canister with the rest of the bear-proof stuff?”
“Sure,” Pat volunteered. “I’ll take care of that.”
“I’m coming with you,” Linda said.
The two of them took Megan’s mangled items and departed to carry out the task, while Justine accompanied Sally to see if she could help repair the tent.
“Do you want me to pour some more water in your eyes?” Elise asked, sitting down next to Chaz.
“No, I’ll be all right. Thanks.” Chaz kept sipping at the water; it was helping her throat. She still couldn’t open her eyes more than a fraction, though.
“Can we get you anything at all?” Yancey asked.
“Thanks, no. You all can stop fussing, I’ll be fine,” Chaz insisted. “And you really shouldn’t worry. I think I got him pretty good. He won’t be back.”
“I can’t believe I was so stupid,” Megan said, dropping into the camp chair opposite Chaz.
“Megan, it could have happened to
any of us,” Yancey said. She walked over to Megan and stooped to give her a reassuring hug.
“It’s late,” Chaz said after Pat and Linda returned. “Why don’t you all try to get some rest.”
“Sure there’s nothing anybody can do for you?” Elise asked.
Well, maybe not just anybody…The thought flashed through Chaz’s mind that she really didn’t want Megan to leave, but she pushed the feeling away. “No, I’m just going to stay here a while. You all go on.”
Elise leaned toward Chaz. “Let me know if you need anything.” She said it with deliberate flirtation, in a voice only Chaz could hear.
You are persistent. “Good night, Elise,” Chaz replied, with a trace of a smile.
Elise snapped her fingers in disappointment and got up to leave. “Coming?” she asked Megan.
“In a minute,” Megan answered.
Sally walked up as the other women drifted away after exchanging good nights. “I patched up the tent for the night with some duct tape. I’ll do a more permanent fix tomorrow. How are your eyes?” she asked Chaz.
“I’m fine, quit worrying.”
“Can’t help it. How about you, Megan? You okay?” Sally asked.
Megan nodded. She had stopped trembling, and her color was back to normal. She stood a few feet away from Chaz, staring off at the horizon.
“Well, I’m going to turn in, then.” Sally yawned. “I’d advise you both to do the same.”
Low murmurs of conversations could be heard from the tent area, but an uncomfortable silence descended on the pair at the fire.
Finally Megan sat down beside Chaz, about the time Chaz’s eyes recovered enough for her to see without squinting. Megan was chewing on her lower lip, and this close to her, in the soft golden light of the midnight sun, Chaz forgot about the bear and even her own discomfort. She was struck by Megan’s soft, full lips and silky hair, her delicate pale eyelashes, and the blush of color in her cheeks from all the excitement.
As if she could feel Chaz’s eyes on her, Megan turned to meet them with her own. They looked at each other a long moment. Something passed between them, but Chaz couldn’t put words to what it was. Something powerful, though. An unspoken understanding of some sort. Maybe it’s only the shared near-death experience, she considered, the reaction of two bodies pulsing with adrenalin.
