“Hey, watch it!” said a man with dark black hair.
“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said, looking into the handsome face of the stranger.
When he met her gaze his eyes seemed to soften. He was taller, broad-shouldered and had a grey hoodie up to protect him from the rain.
“No worries,” he said, smiling down at her, “Come let’s get out of the rain. I was just about to go into PJ’s for lunch. You like po’boys?”
He waved her over to an awning in front of a two story building that had PJ’s etched on the front of the door in thick, gold lettering.
“I, um, I don’t know what that means. No offense, but I’ll pass. I don’t even know you.”
Elizabeth’s stomach growled loudly and he looked her up and down with a cheeky smile.
“Po’boy is a sandwich. I’m from Baton Rouge and my mom used to make them all the time. And you can get to know me over food. Don’t lie and say you’re not hungry. Your stomach just gave you away. I’m Jacob by the way. You can just call me Jake.”
He extended his arm to shake her hand. She took it, eyeing him speculatively.
“Don’t worry. I don’t bite. Not on the first date anyway,” he said, winking at her and pulling the door open, “after you.”
“This is not a date. I’m Elizabeth by the way,” Elizabeth said, walking ahead of him in the restaurant. The interior was dark wood and high ceilings with numerous square, white tables spread around the floor. It was basically empty. A dark-skinned hostess in a checkered red and black dress greeted them.
“Hello, just two?” the hostess asked.
“Yep,” Jake said, pulling his hood back and shaking out his hair.
Elizabeth stole another look at him, feeling her stomach dance with butterflies. She never gave guys a second look with her rigorous program at school, but none of the men on campus looked anything like this Louisiana man.
When they were seated at the table he removed his sopping wet hoodie and so did Elizabeth. His muscles were straining against a damp white t-shirt.
“So, what brings you to my lovely state?” Jake asked, leaning forward, “I can hear you’re not from around here.”
“Bears,” Elizabeth said, clearing her throat.
His eyes darkened when she said that, and he seemed to look around the sparse room before looking back at her.
“Oh? What about them?” he asked, picking at a dinner roll on the center of the table.
“What do you mean ‘what about them’? They’re endangered. Almost all of the native black bears in Louisiana are dying off!”
Elizabeth could feel her righteous indignation boiling in her chest.
“So you like black bears, huh?” he asked with a smirk.
“Why does that amuse you?”
“No reason. You just don’t look like the ‘save the animals’ type? Aren’t those girls usually covered in body hair and refuse to shower or something? You seem pretty put together to be the earthy type.”
Now Elizabeth’s blood was really boiling. He may be attractive, but he was also clearly a chauvinistic pig.
“I should go,” Elizabeth said, gathering her purse from the floor.
“Wait, why?”
“You can’t just be rude to people. You don’t even know me and you’re carrying on like an idiot.”
“You think I’m an—idiot?”
“Yes. A pig, really. God, does that machismo shit really work for you?”
Jake blanched, slumping back in his chair. You would think she had slapped him, instead of told him off. Elizabeth stiffened her shoulders, glad she had shifted the field of power. He had her off her game with his looks but no one insults her work, no matter what he looked like.
“Look, I’m sorry. I was just joking. Please sit back down. That was my very, very backhanded way of saying I think you’re pretty. At least get the po’boy to go. Trust me, you won’t regret it.”
He was flashing a lopsided grin at her and batting his long, dark eyelashes. Her stomach fluttered again, and she could feel her resolve weakening. She sat back down, but tried to keep her face as stern as possible. The waitress walked over to the table with two tall glasses of ice water before Elizabeth could come up with something witty to say.
“Have you guys decided?” asked the waitress, pulling out a pen and note pad.
“Would I be an idiot if I ordered for you?” he asked, clearly smirking at her.
She narrowed her eyes at him, but decided he probably knew the menu better than her. It’s not like she had any allergies to worry about.
“Fine, go ahead,” Elizabeth said, crossing her arms.
“Two fried shrimp po’boys please with fries. And can we get the raspberry sweet tea? If the lady doesn’t kill me by desert then two beignets, extra powdered sugar,” Jake said, handing the waitress back the menus.
The waitress nodded, receiving the menus and walking away.
“Good Lord, how do you stay in such good shape eating like that?” Elizabeth asked, sipping on her water.
“Oh, you noticed I was in good shape, huh?”
Elizabeth felt her cheeks get hot. She was already naturally very pale so she was sure she looked like a blonde tomato right about now.
“Just making conversation,” Elizabeth said, shrugging off the comment.
“I see. Well, I’m a pretty outdoorsy guy. I run in the state park a lot. I assume you are doing your research there?”
“Yea. I’ve been going like three times a week, weather permitting. It’s been raining like crazy.”
“Yea, I know. I grew up climbing those trees with my best friend, Chris. We’re both in town for Mardi Gras. You’re going obviously?”
“No. I don’t have time. I’m only here until May. I graduate college then.”
“Come on. You have to go. It’s literally the best party in the country, arguably the world!”
“I have a schedule to keep.”
“A schedule that could be thrown off by one night of fun sounds like a shitty schedule.”
“You’re doing it again.”
“Doing what?”
“Being a pig,” she said, smirking at him.
He laughed and leaned back as the waitress put down the sweet tea. She took a sip and her lips puckered from all of the sugar.
“Holy shit,” she said, putting the cup down.
“I know. It’s like liquid diabetes,” he said, slurping down his drink.
“There is no way you drink this.”
“I do. I asked them for the recipe and serve it up to all of my friends in Canada.”
“I feel sorry for your friends’ health. Canada, huh? That’s a long way away.”
His face hardened a little as he nodded.
“It’s better to roam around. Plus, Chris was born there.”
“Sounds like you’re a party boy. Though I don’t think of Canada when I think of a party spot.”
“I meant the woods. Judge much?”
“You live in Canada for—the nature?”
Elizabeth could not believe this cocky, jock-type was into nature.
“See? I did the same thing to you when you said you wanted to save the bears, but yes I love nature so I live in a cabin outside of Ottawa with Chris.”
“Oh.”
Elizabeth felt a pang of disappointment wondering if he was secretly gay.
“It’s platonic. Just two childhood friends.”
“Oh yea? How do your girlfriends feel about that arrangement? You seem a little old to still have a roommate.”
“I’m thirty, thank you very much. So is he and we are both recently single. Chris a lot longer. His wife died about a year ago. Me it’s a bit more recent. She left me about a month ago. Not a lot of women can hang in the woods or watch bears without getting a little stir crazy.”
Elizabeth felt her cheeks get redder like he was hinting at something.
“Like I said this isn’t a date, but I hope you find someone to ‘hang in the woods’ with,”
Elizabeth said, pushing the saccharine tea off to the side.
Before Jake could reply the waitress returned with what looked like an open faced fried shrimp sandwich. Elizabeth’s mouth was watering and her stomach churning loudly.
“I think me and your stomach are going to get along just fine—even though this is not a date,” Jake said, picking up his sandwich.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, wolfing down her fries. They ate in silence, but when Elizabeth looked up from her plate, after a few bites, Jake was already done and sipping on her sweet tea. It was the fastest she had ever seen anyone eat.
“Hungry, huh?” she asked.
He nodded, draining her tea, and looking at his phone.
“So, I’m meeting my friend Chris in the state park for a hike. Want to come?”
“Now?”
“Yep. This meal is like four thousand calories and unless you want to go into a food coma, I would walk it off. Don’t worry you don’t have to call it a date—unless your into having two guys?”
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and her lips curled up in disgust.
“Ha! I’m kidding. I’ll text Chris to meet us. You down? If it helps, I grew up in these woods. I know where all of the bears are.”
Elizabeth’s ears perked up. She’d had slim luck finding bears so far. She found the evidence of bears: tracks, scat, scratches, bones, but very little actual bear up close.
“Yes! Let’s go. I’m down,” Elizabeth said, extending her hand.
Jake took her hand, shook it and a wicked grin spread across his face.
*****
The deluge of rain had finally stopped and Elizabeth pulled her hood back to take in the evergreen beauty of the woods. She and Jake had walked about a mile with Elizabeth scribbling notes in her day planner and taking photos of the terrain with her cellphone. To her surprise, Jake was keeping his snarky comments to a minimum. He seemed just as entranced by the deep green, sun-streaked forest as she was.
“Wow, you must really like the woods. I haven’t caught you staring at my ass once in the past five minutes,” Elizabeth said, smirking at Jake.
He laughed and looked down at her. Elizabeth thought it was really unfair for him to be this effortlessly good-looking and be such a bad match.
“Well, you are working so I figured I would look once every twenty minutes. I still have fifteen minutes to go.”
Elizabeth shoved him playfully and looked around. His friend Chris was supposed to be meeting them but so far the only things that joined them were squirrels and a lot of birds.
“Where’s your friend?” Elizabeth asked.
Jake paused and she could have sworn he sniffed the air.
“Jake?”
“Shh.”
She looked at him like he had three heads.
“Come here,” Jake said, waving her over to a tree.
She obeyed and stood beside Jake under an enormous bald cypress tree. He kept a finger to his lips and pointed with his free hand. Elizabeth looked in the direction that he pointed and saw two black bear cubs wrestling in the underbrush. She gasped and frantically pulled out her notebook to scribble down notes. As she was reviewing her notes, something hit her.
“Jake?” she whispered.
“Yea?” he said, still watching the bears play.
He had the biggest, goofiest grin on his face and that almost made her forget her original concern.
“If the cubs are here—where’s the mom?” Elizabeth asked.
Jake seemed to sniff the air before he whipped around. Elizabeth jerked around too to see an enormous black bear, walking at the top of a hill. She stared down at them and Elizabeth could see the bear’s face contort into a vicious scowl. The bear growled loudly, and Elizabeth could hear the weak growls from the cubs answering her. Elizabeth grabbed onto Jake’s chest, but it was too late. The bear was barreling towards them at full speed. Elizabeth was frozen, her feet rooted to the ground in shock. She could faintly hear Jake yelling for her to move and she could feel him pulling her arm, but she was frozen.
“Elizabeth!” Jake yelled as the bear closed in on her.
Jake yanked Elizabeth out of the way as a massive brown grizzly bear tore through the woods and tackled the black bear to the forest floor. The bears were growling at each other bearing their yellow, razor-sharp teeth, and clawing at each other’s faces. The black bear was putting up a strong fight, but she was clearly on the defense. The grizzly was about double her size and fighting with a palpable ferocity.
“Let’s go,” Elizabeth said, pulling Jake’s arm.
They were watching the fight from behind the tree a few feet away from the bear cubs. The cubs were getting very agitated at the noises and alternating between weak growls and mewling in the direction of their mother. Jake seemed to be wrestling with something, bouncing on his feet and looking from the fight to the cubs to Elizabeth and back to the fight.
“Jake!” Elizabeth said, feeling her senses return to her.
All she wanted to do was run for her life now, but now Jake was the immobile one.
“Damn it!” Jake said, pulling away from Elizabeth.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Elizabeth asked, as Jake approached the fight.
He was ignoring her and waving his hands frantically, like he was trying to get one or both of the bears attention. The brown bear seemed about ready to deliver the fatal blow to the exhausted black bear, but Elizabeth distinctly saw it look at Jake with a sense of recognition.
“Chris, stop! She has cubs,” Jake said with panic in his voice.
The grizzly bear growled, shook its massive shaggy head, and ran off into the woods. The black bear ran towards her cubs and away from Jake and Elizabeth. Elizabeth watched the mama bear limp off into the woods with her two black cubs in tow.
Jake’s shoulders seemed to be shaking as he turned around to look at Elizabeth.
“Jake, what was that? What the hell is going on?” Elizabeth asked, stepping backwards.
Jake took a deep breath, ran his fingers through his dark hair and stared at her.
“I’m, sort of, a bear, kind of,” Jake said barely above a whisper.
Elizabeth felt like the ground had fallen out underneath her. It’s like her mother said, “if a guy seemed too good to be true, he’s probably a psychopath.” Elizabeth could not reply. She was too shocked, by what he said. He stepped towards her, not saying a word, but his eyes seemed to plead with her to understand his bizarre admission. Elizabeth knew this man had to be very ill and everything in her told her to run. She did not wait for him to say anything else, she took off running, full speed out of the woods and as far away from Jake as possible.
*****
Elizabeth typed up everything she could remember from yesterday in her daily report. She had to send her professor her findings after her excursions into the wood. Ideally, she would send it in the same day, but she was too rattled after returning to her dorm room.
This trip was feeling a lot more science fiction than science. Voodoo priestess, handsome strangers and then of course handsome strangers who talk to bears and confess to being bears themselves. She highlighted the paragraphs she typed about Jake and the store keeper and deleted them. Elizabeth leaned back in her desk chair, staring at the glowing laptop screen.
Really she was staring at the logical parts of the story. All of the unexplainable stuff she cut out. The fact of the matter was that just because she cut it off the page does not mean it did not happen. That voodoo shopkeeper clearly knew her name after only touching a strand of her hair, and Jake clearly had some sort of connection with an enormous grizzly bear. Grizzlies were not even in Louisiana. She perked up thinking of Canada. Chris was from Canada. Jake distinctly called that bear “Chris.” She shook her head thinking on the absurdity of it, but was jolted when her cellphone rang.
“Hello, Elizabeth speaking.”
“Hello, Elizabeth, it’s Dr. Phillips from Dillard’s Biological Conservation department. How are you?”
“Oh, hi! Sorry, sorry. I’m sending in my report now.”
“Good. Do you have any questions for me? Have you been navigating the woods okay?”
Elizabeth thought on the bear fight and the occult shop. Mentioning neither made her feel less insane.
“It’s been going. I saw a bear fight yesterday.”
“Oh my word! Are you alright?”
“Yes. I’m fine. It was strange, though. It was a black bear and her two cubs—”
“That’s fantastic. It’s hard to see them. I hope you took photos and good notes.”
“Yes, of course. I just—she was fighting a grizzly bear.”
Elizabeth pinched her eyes closed, knowing that Dr. Phillips would think her incompetent for even thinking that.
“Elizabeth,” he said with a low chuckle, “Now, you and I both know they are not in this part of the country.”
“I know. I know. I just saw the distinct features. It had the coat, the muzzle, the size. If I hadn’t been so close to it, I would think I was seeing things.”
There was silence on the other line then he cleared his throat.
“Elizabeth we have high hopes for this student exchange program. I would suggest you ensure that you keep up your reading and consistently refresh your basic knowledge as you go along, okay?”
“Will do, sir. Another question though.”
“Go ahead.”
Elizabeth took a deep breath, touching her hair.
“What are your thoughts on—Gris Street?”
“The voodoo shops?”
“Well, I think they use bear body parts in spells and stuff. Should we be investigating that? I mean how are their practices regulated?”
He went quiet.
“It’s—it’s a tough call. I’ve lived here for ten years and people don’t like to talk about it, especially to criticize. As a conservationist, I worry that certain things may not be above board, but I—I don’t know what the right answer is. You are more than welcome to interview them, respectfully of course, if you think it will strengthen your conservation thesis’s argument. Just be careful, okay?”
Pregnant to an Alien King Box Set Page 66
