Tent City (18 page)

“Do we have anything we can give him to eat?” she asks, while looking back at some of the kids standing behind her. And that’s when it happens.

It happens so quickly that I’m not sure it’s even happened. But after she lets out a small squeal and yanked her hand back, I’m sure of it. She’s been bitten.

This leads to mass hysteria from everyone else but her. Most of the others clear out, but she just stands there looking a little stunned. She examines her hand and doesn’t seem to be too alarmed.

“Where’s Jack?” I ask.

No one seems to know where Jack is. Grant and Bentley have taken it upon themselves to hunt down the raccoon that has taken off. Beth pleads with them not to hurt it. She tries to convince them that it was just a little scratch.

I walk over to her and see why she’s not really so alarmed. It’s just a little nip, but it did draw blood. I take her over to medical to clean it up for her.

“Animal lover?” I ask, as I wash away the cut with some peroxide.

“Yeah, I guess you could say that. I’m even a vegetarian if you can believe that. Back before I came here, it was impossible because I had to eat whatever we could find. I’ll never forget the first time I had to eat a squirrel my brother trapped.”

“So Bentley accommodates for that?” I ask, wondering how strict he really is with everyone required to eat the same thing.

“Oh, gosh no. I wouldn’t bring my problems to him. I just trade, usually with one of the guys. They’re more than willing to trade their carbs for whatever meat is on for that day.”

“Well, you should reconsider,” I say, as I finish up the last of the bandage. “If you’re too picky, you just might starve!”

“When I think about creatures like that little raccoon out there being my dinner, my appetite vanishes and besides, it has done wonders for my figure,” she answers back.

“I think I understand,” I say, thinking about that beaver.

“Keep that clean with these dressings and see Jack when he comes back,” I say, tossing her the gauze.

She says she will, but I can’t help but think that even now, she’s already forgotten about it.

Things run pretty smoothly over the next couple of days. Jack is still gone. He comes and goes as he pleases and doesn’t feel the need to tell anyone where he goes. I don’t know why I think he owes me an explanation. Mostly, I think I’m afraid he will just up and leave for good and I will never even know what happened to him.

Bentley’s still trying to get back into my good graces. He asks me about once a day if I will go for a run with him. I think he knows it’s his best shot at making up for the way he handled Brody being sick. My leg is almost up to 100 percent and on this day when he asks me to run, I’m going to say yes.

Well, he doesn’t ask. He doesn’t even show up to say hi. I guess I shouldn’t have been so quick to assume he’s going to stop by every day to see me. Besides, he’s been pretty busy with his missions. Tired of waiting in the cabin by myself, I go to find him.

I don’t know why I am so taken aback by what I find. He is some way back behind the cabins and he’s actually throwing knives at a tree. I try to make as much noise as possible when I approach him, careful not to startle him. No telling what he might do with those knives.

“Hey,” I almost yell, realizing it was awkwardly loud.

“Hey,” he answers back. He wipes the sweat off his brow and swaggers over to the tree to retrieve the knives he has skillfully attached.

“Getting hot out,” he says.

“Be a good day for a swim.” I’m inching my way up to maybe mentioning the waterfall when he does it for me, but not with words; just a knowing glance, which I return with a smile.

“Really?” he asks.

He’s probably trying to work out if I’m being sincere with him. I have been pretty icy to him lately, unfairly so. Brody wasn’t his responsibility. He was mine. I was the one who messed up. Why should I blame him for the brainless moves I made?

I suppose when I really think about it, Jack is the one who made what Bentley did (or lack thereof) so apparent to me. Jack’s knight in shining armor-ism is what seems to put Bentley to shame. Listen to me, now I sound like Kit. 

He doesn’t give me time to change my mind. He’s already asking if we should make a day of it. He even asks if I want to bring Brody along.

I feel slightly uncomfortable with that suggestion for multiple reasons. Not limited to the fact that I know he doesn’t
really
want him to go, coupled with the thought that he would slow us down, and lastly multiplied by the idea that if I’m being honest, I don’t really want him there either. I wonder if this is what a single mom feels like.

Ultimately, I leave Brody with Kit. I feel guilty about not wanting to have him along, but Bentley just doesn’t have that easy way with Brody that Jack does.

I can just picture now the awkward silences and his feeble attempts to engage Brody. Plus, I’m not sure Brody even likes him. Actually, there aren’t many people Brody does like besides me, Kit, Jack, and of course Callie, who feeds him like a lost stray.

I go to the kitchen and tell Callie I need some supplies for a day out.

“Where ya headed, romantic excursion?” she asks.

“Um, no.” I can’t help but feel a slight heat rising up my neck that’s sure to be a blush soon.

“Just headed out for some more training.”

“Grant or Bentley?” she asks still smiling, only this time it doesn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Bentley, I’m afraid, although I’m not sure which option is worse.”

“Oh come on, you know you love it. Or should I say him? But maybe it’s not either one of them. Maybe it’s Jack.”

“Callie!” I didn’t figure we had the type of relationship where she could tease like this.

If this were coming from Kit, I would punch her in the arm and we would laugh about it later. As I’m thinking about it, I realize we don’t. This is just her way of digging for information.

She thinks she’s doing it in a playful way, but it doesn’t sit well with me and I bite the inside of my lip so hard it starts to bleed.  

“Oh come on, Dani, I’m only kidding.” She softens a little and I try to let it go. After all, she is the one who can’t stop feeding my kid brother.

“Yeah, well, it’s none of the above,” I say, just as she finishes packing the lunches.

“I put in some of the Wasabi almonds Bentley got on the last raid. They’re his favorite,” she says, as I’m exiting the cabin. Surely she wants me to know that for her, it’s not “none of the above”.

Bentley’s already waiting for me by the cabin that I guess, officially or not, is mine now. Brody has been better for a while now, and clearly my leg has healed, but he has made no move to take it back over.

Maybe I should tell Kit she can move back in, but I kind of get the feeling she likes having her own place, especially now that Grant is becoming a bigger part of her life. It just occurred to me that she has a life at night that doesn’t include me.

“You ready?” he asks, as he hops up eagerly from the porch.

He is dressed as usual in his cargo pants and combat boots. He never changes out of that stuff. It’s like he feels he has to be ready for anything, even though it’s scorching out.

“You really want to wear that?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Oh I don’t know, maybe because it’s a million degrees out.”

“It can’t possibly be that hot. It hasn’t been a million degrees since early July,” he says, emphasizing the word million.

“Seriously? Don’t you ever get tired of wearing the same old thing?” This is rich coming from me. Most days I don’t even realize that I
have
been wearing the same clothes for days.

“You don’t like it?” He’s being serious about this question. He’s no longer teasing or flirting or whatever you call it.

“No, no, it’s fine. Just wondering. But I’m gonna change. I just need five minutes. Can you wait?” I certainly don’t plan on being bogged down by heavy clothing.

“Sure.”

But when I come out, he’s gone. I go over to the cabin he shares with Callie just as he is exiting. He has changed. My jaw drops a little and I try to recover before he notices.

“You changed.” I say.

I just realized I’ve never seen Bentley in anything, but what I’ve come to think of as army fatigues.

He’s got athletic shorts on and just a white undershirt, something Kit likes to call a ‘wife beater’. I’ve never understood that and I still don’t. The idea of putting Bentley in that category almost brings a giggle to my lips. As if.

“You noticed.” He snatches the picnic bag quickly off my shoulder and then he’s off.

We are not in competition today. I don’t even bother to try and make it one since the leg isn’t 100 percent yet, although I can tell that I’m stronger. The training is paying off. I feel strong and my breathing is steady and unlabored. We don’t talk the entire way there, but I find myself getting excited thinking about the waterfall.

Finally, we are here. It feels as though it has only taken minutes to get here.  It’s just as breathtaking as it was the first time I saw it. Will this place ever lose its magic? Now that we are here, he dares me to go first.

I head up the cliffs and since everything looks the same, I decide to go for it. As my countdown begins, Bentley is staring at me tentatively from the ground. Right before I get to one, he stops me.

“Wait! What are you doing?!”

“What do you mean?” I am shouting this because it is really hard to hear over the crash of the water.

“Don’t move!” he yells, and he is hurdling up the rocks to me.

“Are you crazy?” he asks, breathless.

“What? What is it?” I see nothing wrong here, and for a second I panic, wondering if we are, in fact, at the same waterfall.

“You were really going to do it, weren’t you?” he asks.

“Sure, why wouldn’t I?”

“I didn’t think you’d actually do it. It was just a dare. What were you thinking?”

“What do you mean, what was I thinking?” I’m really perplexed now. This is the same waterfall and we did this very same thing only weeks ago. Did I dream that?

“No, you should never go first. I need to make sure it’s okay.”

“Why wouldn’t it be okay? It’s the same waterfall.”

“Well, yes, but the levels could have changed. We need to check the bottom first. You really are fearless.”

And then it hits me. I’m reckless around him. Because the last thing anyone would ever call me is fearless. I find a mouse in the kitchen and I’m screaming for Dad. Brody gets a scrape on his leg and I’m screaming for Mom. When I was lost in the woods, I thought I might just die of fright.

What is it about him that brings out this reckless abandon? He’s completely right of course. Well, not about me being fearless, but of needing to check the water first.

But wait, I feel like I did check. I remember scanning the bottom of the waterfall to see if there was any of that slime on the rocks that would have indicated dropping levels didn’t I? And besides, we’ve done this before, not that long ago.

“You really are something, Campbell.”

“Campbell?” I don’t even remember telling him my last name.

“If I remember right, you had a problem with me calling you Dani.”