Faithful Shadow

by Howard, Kevin J.

  “You sick bastard!” Kelly slapped the floor as she stood, rushing to the bench to slap the window. Richard moved before her hand could hit him, his expression already shifting gears from good humor to apologetic.

  He hurried around to the back door and stepped in, knowing he’d better move before she locked him out. As always, he’d taken a joke too far. Kelly sat in the booth, looking back at him over her shoulder. Her bottom lip was trembling.

  “It was in bad taste, I’m sorry.” The hint of a smile he’d carried with him through the door had faded away. He stood before her with a sincere apology. “I didn’t mean to upset you so much.”

  “That was just not cool.” Kelly shook her head, beginning to cry.

  “Hey.” Richard sprang forward, lifting her from beneath the arms to hold her, running a hand through her hair. “Really, I didn’t mean to upset you so much. Just a big mistake.” Richard couldn’t stand to see her cry. More than the notion of upsetting someone he cared about, there was nothing he hated more than a woman’s face after she’d been crying. Their cheeks became red and blotchy, their noses stuffy and swollen. Their breath took on a warm, attic-like smell.

  “You’re lucky you’re cute.” Kelly pulled away and wiped her tears with the back of her arm. “But you’re still a total asshole for doing that.”

  “I already pleaded guilty.” Richard held out his hands as if expecting handcuffs.

  “I was going to let you have your way with me tonight, but after this…”

  “Oh, now that is just cruel and unusual punishment.”

  “You’d better redeem yourself then, oh brave protector.” Kelly crooked her arm.

  Richard stuck his arm through hers and they walked out the back door together, turning from the parking lot to head toward her cabin.

  “Is Sonia going to mind?” Richard asked, not really caring. Sonia had asked Kelly numerous times to either hang out in the bar for a few hours or take a hike while she finished up some “business” inside.

  “No, they’re up at the thermal pools.”

  “Did you want to go? I don’t mind.”

  Kelly smiled, the sweeter side of Richard already making her forget the terror from just a few minutes ago. It wasn’t even so much that he offered to take her up there after he, too, had worked a long day, but that he really would do it. Instead, she opened the door to her cabin and pulled him inside.

  10

  Marco hated everything about camping, from the moisture that dampened his clothes in the morning to the horrible night’s sleep he was guaranteed to have. There was nothing pleasant about it. He rolled onto his side and looked at Janice, his scowl shifting to a smile. He’d already awoken with a major case of morning wood, and looking at Janice asleep in her bag, he sure wished he could have used it. She was asleep on her back with the bag unzipped. Her shirt had pulled up just enough to expose all of her stomach and the tiniest underside of her right breast. Marco looked at Stew and Sonia, but they were still asleep. He turned toward Doug and Rowena and was startled to see both their bags were empty. Took him for a loop. Marco bit his bottom lip and turned toward Janice, moving his hand over her shirt like a skilled thief. He gripped the bottom of her shirt with his fingers and began lifting, leaning down as he exposed more of her bare breast.

  Janice let out a soft grunt and rolled onto her side, pulling her shirt from Marco’s grip and hiding the show. Marco leaned over her and pulled back, slapping his sleeping bag in frustration. He’d wanted a peek at those perfectly round tits for weeks, now he had a chance and it just literally slipped through his fingers. He stood and headed over to the cooler, digging through freezing water with only some lingering ice to grab one of seven remaining beers. He popped the top and took a seat on a nearby log as Stew sat up.

  “What time is it?” Stew asked, running a hand through his short hair. He let out a long and deep yawn, ending with a wet burp.

  “Do you see a watch on my wrist?” Marco held up his left arm and shook it. “Sonia’s got a watch on.”

  “No telling where it is after last night.” Stew nodded with pride. “For all I know I probably ate the damn thing.”

  “Well shit it out and get the time, because I can’t be late again. That dick Parsons is on my ass for having bad attendance.” Marco took a swig, shaking his head over the annoying pep talks his manager had given him. “Hate that dude.”

  “You can’t blame him too much, you’re never there,” Stew mocked, letting out a single laugh. Marco was a terrible employee. He showed up drunk or stoned, if he showed up at all. Stew got himself a beer and sat beside him on the log. “Hey, looks like we lost someone.”

  “No way did they go off together.” Marco couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of Doug getting some action. “Even if she was insanely drunk last night it wasn’t going to happen.”

  “Where’s Rowena?” Sonia asked as she sat up.

  “That’s kind of the question of the hour.” Marco stood, extending his arms to his sides while leaning back for a good stretch, his chest cracking. He shook it out and then looked down at his shorts, his morning wood far from gone and thankfully unnoticed so far. “I’m heading down toward the water for a piss.” Marco downed the last of the beer and tossed it at the cooler.

  Sonia waited until Marco was out of sight before unzipping her sleeping bag. “What the hell did you do with my shorts?” Sonia asked, sitting there in only her panties.

  Stew smiled truthfully unaware he’d ever taken them off. He shrugged, aggravating her as she stood and walked the camp site in nothing more than her skivvies. Stew was more than happy to watch her walk around in her tiny panties while she searched, digging through this or that, finally emerging with another pair of shorts from her bag. Stew supposed they’d never discover the mystery of the missing shorts.

  Marco had missed the search and would have kicked himself for it had he known. He knew Sonia was Stew’s flavor of the month and therefore respectfully stayed away, but a good show was a good show. So instead he’d followed a narrow trail through the trees for about two minutes until he came to a calm pond. The water looked as smooth as ice, covered in lily pads with yellow and white flowers on top. But Marco didn’t give a rat’s ass about the beauty of nature. He slid down his shorts and pissed into the pond, closing his eyes as the strong flow of beer and cola streamed out of his body, disturbing the pristine water. Marco heard footsteps behind him on the trail, the unmistakable sound of gravel crunching beneath someone’s shoes. He pinched off the last few drops with slight twinge of pain and pulled his pants back up.

  “There you are.” Janice stepped off the path with a little wave. “What are you doing down here all by yourself?”

  “Just enjoying the beauty of nature.” Marco smiled, holding out his hand to her.

  Janice took his hand and wrapped his arm about her shoulders, smiling as she leaned into his body while looking down at the pond. She hadn’t known that he was capable of stepping out of his tough shoes to admire nature, to take a moment to look beyond the world to see past the pavement and buildings. Really, she thought he was only there to party and get laid. She closed her eyes and lost herself in the warmth of his body, getting past the slight smell of body odor and possibly urine. She could tell that he was something different.

  “Doug!” Stew’s voice carried on the breeze. “Rowena!”

  “Where do you think they went?”

  “Probably back to the hot-pots. A nice early morning dip.” Marco thought that actually sounded pretty good. Especially when he added Janice in her bathing suit in the morning sun, now that really made it sound nice. “Maybe we should all go for a soak?”

  Janice pulled out from beneath his arm, looking past him up the trail. “No, they went up to the hot-pots to look for them. So if they’re still calling their names, then Doug and Rowena weren�
��t there.” Janice looked nervous, her lip trembling. “I hope nothing bad has happened to them.”

  “Oh come on, nothing like that.”

  “Let’s go back. I want to look for them.”

  “Stew and Sonia are already up there yelling, what more can we do?” Marco sighed as Janice pulled free and hurried up the path, leaving him to stand there alone. Marco watched her go, staying put for a moment. He kicked the ground with his foot like a spoiled little brat not getting his way and followed her up the trail.

  “Any sign of them?” Janice asked as they re-entered the campsite.

  “Nothing.” Stew was growing concerned. “Not a goddamn thing!”

  “Well they have to be around here somewhere,” Marco added, motioning toward the hot-pots. “You’re sure they’re not taking a soak?”

  “We just checked.” Sonia was annoyed, feeling as if he was calling them stupid.

  “They probably just went for a walk or something.”

  “Whatever, Marco. Doug isn’t the hiking type. He was winded just walking from the jeep to the campsite,” Sonia spat, her nerves taking hold of her anger.

  “Never underestimate the power of pussy.” Marco hadn’t wanted to smile, but he couldn’t help it. “It could make a thin man bench press a thousand pounds or a fat man run the Boston Marathon.”

  “Hey, this is serious.” Stew had lost his sense of humor for perhaps the first time in four months. He pointed at Marco and made damn sure he kept his shit in check. “I think we should just take an hour and wait. Give them a chance to come back to the campsite in case they did go for a hike or something.”

  “One hour, but I can’t wait too much longer. I’m on the schedule today for lunch,” Marco told them as he took a seat, pulling a joint from his pocket to pass the time.

  It had been barely ten minutes before Sonia started pacing, looking from the woods to her watch. She shook her head repeatedly and thought over and over how something bad must have happened. But what? Her stomach ached from last night’s beer and the lack of food, but she wasn’t even the tiniest bit hungry. She’d had enough. Her nerves were on edge from the unbearable uncertainty.

  “Okay.” Sonia slapped her legs as she stood, signaling the end to all this patience bullshit. “We need to get some help.”

  “Don’t get off kilter, girl.” Marco stood, shaking his head with annoyance. “Do you really want to call in the cavalry because two horny campers took a stroll?”

  “She’s right,” Stew added, looking distantly at the ashes from last night’s fire. “This isn’t just a simple case of drunken lovers taking a hike. First, we all heard Rowena make it very clear to Doug last night that there was no way he was getting into her pants.”

  “Oh my God!” Janice placed a hand to her mouth in shock. “You don’t think he, like, snapped and dragged her out into the woods to rape her or something, do you?”

  They looked at her with a shared expression of agitation, shaking their heads. Janice was a very sweet and beautiful girl, an impressive figure by anyone’s standards, but it was also well known that she was quite an idiot.

  “They’re not getting too far without their shoes.” Stew pointed over to their sleeping bags and all their stuff still sitting beside them. “Or Rowena’s glasses for that matter.”

  The last had been the most troubling. There was more going on than some kind of drunken argument or a stalker hoping to booze her up past the point of objection. Rowena had terrible eyesight. For her to wander off in the dead of night without her glasses would be completely out of character.

  “Okay, here’s the plan. We need to go back to the cabins. Marco and Janice can get to work. Sonia and I will go to the ranger station and get them out here. We’ll look for them all night if we have to.”

  “I want to help, but I have to work today, too.” Sonia put her head down, feeling helpless and lost.

  “I’ll come back by myself. It really doesn’t matter.”

  “Rowena had the keys,” Janice realized, her eyes going wide.

  “We can all fit in the jeep.” Marco did the mental count, four little pilgrims left.

  “We can’t leave her truck!” Janice raised her voice, feeling panic taking a tight grip over her emotions.

  “We’ll come back, now let’s go.” Stew was growing angry. They were lingering and arguing over stupid shit while their friends might actually be in some kind of trouble. Truth was, Stew didn’t entirely dismiss Janice’s concern over Doug’s raging libido. He’d only known Doug for a few months; no telling what kind of person he really was. Stew grabbed his sleeping bag and the coolers and tossed them into the back of his jeep.

  “We’re just going to leave their stuff lying there?” Janice asked, standing beside Rowena’s sleeping bag, looking down at her things like a sad little puppy.

  “Come on, let’s go.” Stew hopped into the jeep and started the engine. “The faster we leave, the faster I can come back.”

  Sonia took hold of Janice’s hand and led her into the back seat of the jeep. Marco had barely shut the passenger side door before Stew began backing out, turning wide to avoid Rowena’s truck. Once he’d cleared her truck, he made a wide U-turn and sped off, looking repeatedly into the rearview, half expecting to see Doug and Rowena coming out of the woods. It felt wrong to leave, whether he was coming back or not. Truth of the matter was that he was scared. If something had happened to them, it had happened right beside them while they’d all been asleep; and vulnerable.

  11

  “Stupid morons!” Dale Coffey cupped his gloved hands to his mouth and yelled up at the highway.

  Dale watched the jeep full of kids in their early twenties go zooming by, moving well beyond the posted limit. Dale hated kids. Not because he generally disliked them, but because they made his job much more difficult than it had to be. He’d been a fireman for over twenty-five years, four of those as a lieutenant. He couldn’t count the number of calls that had children at the root. They’d been playing with matches, placing fireworks inside something they shouldn’t. Worse than any were the calls due to cigarettes. He himself was a heavy smoker, but at least he pocketed the butts.

  “Who are you yelling at?” Fred Earhart could barely hear Dale with their hats blocking their ears and respirators on their faces. And then there was the crackling of the burning wood; the sound of popcorn popping directly inside the eardrum.

  “Dumb kids driving like freaking bats out of hell.” Dale motioned toward the empty highway.

  “Anyone ever tell you that you’re well on your way to becoming a crotchety old man?” Fred laughed, enjoying the burn, as he himself was two years older than Dale.

  Dale gave him the finger and motioned toward his unit, all of them soaking the trees at the most western part of the blaze. He looked at the black smoke rising up into the sky, blocking the blue. The woods were filled with an eerie mist, thick despite the wide open spaces. The heat from the fire had died down once they were pulled from the heart of it. Hundreds of fireman from Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana were fighting the blaze from all sides. Not to mention the hundreds of volunteers from all across the country. Dale’s unit, Engine 23 from Billings, had been stationed in the park for the past six days. To say they were exhausted was an understatement. They were grateful for the absence of visitors. The extra available space in the park made it easier for them to rest while staying within close proximity to the fire. He himself had slept in a cabin at Fishing Bridge for three nights and then three nights at the hotel in Lake.

  It was a sad affair when it took a devastating fire to get him to spend a night in the Lake Hotel. He’d wanted to stay there ever since he was a teenager. He and his father had gone to the park to do some bonding while fishing the Yellowstone River. They spent most of their time fifteen feet or more apart or fighting. But when they entered th
e hotel, it always put him in good spirits; a nice peaceful building. He was glad now it was safe from the fire, unlike the Old Faithful Inn. He was fond of that building as well, amazed by its grand woodwork. It would be such a shame to have any damage befall such a landmark.

  “Dale!”

  “Yeah.” Dale wiped the dirt from his facemask and turned toward the sound of Paul’s voice.

  “We’ve been ordered up to the Inn,” Paul yelled, nodding to the north. “They need additional clearing up there.”

  “I wouldn’t really say we’ve contained bullshit here.” Dale shook his head, not wanting to leave until they’d cleared and soaked the entire west line beside the highway. An impossible task, but it had been assigned to him and his crew.

  “Here comes the drop!” Fred yelled, waving to the helicopter carrying a large flexible bucket full of twenty-six hundred gallons of water as it flew overhead.

  Dale looked up from Paul and watched as the helicopter carried the heavy load over the fire and released the water, the dump barely making a dent. He lowered his head and saw only smoke. He turned from side to side and saw no trace of Paul, no one walking away, or even standing camouflaged by the forest.

  “What the hell?” Dale felt like an idiot, as if he were suffering from Alzheimer’s and likely losing his mind at the age of forty-eight. Had he told Paul to okay the orders and he ran off as he watched the drop? Not likely. Especially when he saw Arnold Gaines with the radio and Paul was nowhere to be seen. “Hey Arnold,” Dale yelled, but Arnold didn’t turn. Dale ran the distance and tapped him on the shoulder.

  “Hey, are we heading out?” Arnold’s voice muffled through the mask.

  “Did Paul come over here?”

  “Yeah, that’s when I told him to give you the orders from HQ.”

  “But he hasn’t been back since?”