Wilder Boys (10 page)

“So cute!” the woman crooned. Cody basked in the attention.

“How are you guys?” the man asked. The couple looked like they could be college students, or maybe a bit older.

“Pretty good,” Jake responded. “How about you?” He didn't want to get into a long conversation, but he figured he had to ask.

“We're great,” said the man. Waving at the towering Teton peaks, he then asked, “Who wouldn't be great on a day like this? It's your first time here?”

“Uh, yeah,” Jake said.

“Us too.”

“This is the prettiest spot we've ever been,” the woman added, standing straight again. “Are you here alone?”

Jake and Taylor quickly glanced at each other.

“Oh, uh, our parents are waiting for us at the end of the trail.”

The man nodded. “Well, be careful. The rangers said they've seen grizzlies around here.”

“Really?” Taylor asked, fear edging his excitement.

“That's what they said. You have bear spray?”

“Right in my pack,” Jake lied.

“Well, you might want to carry it on your belt,” said the man. “If you see a bear, you won't have time to pull it out.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

The boys said good-bye to the couple and continued hiking. When they were out of earshot, Jake sighed heavily.
“Man, I didn't like that. They asked a lot of questions.”

“And what's with the bears?” Taylor asked, a note of fear edging his voice. “I don't like the sound of
that
!”

“We have to be extra careful now that we're out in the wild,” Jake said. “There are worse wild animals than Bull out here!”

As they approached Bradley Lake, the boys decided to delve into their precious food supply. Jake chose a can of tuna fish, but by the time they shared it with Cody, they only felt hungrier. Searching through his pack, Jake discovered an even worse problem.

“Uh-oh.”

“What?” Taylor asked.

“I think I'm out of water,” Jake replied.

“That's okay. We can share,” Taylor said, handing Jake his own water bottle.

Jake smiled at his brother. “Thanks, but that's not gonna last very long.”

Taylor laughed and pointed to Bradley Lake. “But there's water all over the place here.”

“Yeah, but it's probably dirty—we don't wanna catch something!”

Taylor nodded. “What can we do, then? I don't see any drinking fountains around here.”

“Well,” Jake said. “You remember at camp, they told us we should boil water to make it safe. Or put those little pills in it, or filter it.”

“We don't have any pills or a filter, do we?”

Jake shook his head.

“Well, then we can boil it when we make camp.”

Jake nodded. “Yeah. Until then, we're going to have to ration our supply.”

“No problem,” said Taylor. “I'm part camel.”

“In that case, you can give me a ride!” Jake said, pretending to hop up onto Taylor.

The boys continued their trek to Bradley Lake, where the trail forked. One path led up into the mountains, and Jake longed to follow it, but he knew they weren't ready to go so far off track. Besides, that trail would lead them away from their destination, Jenny Lake. Instead the boys turned right, down through more sagebrush and grass meadows.

A riot of wildflowers soon surrounded them. Jake recognized many of the flowers from his father's journal: the lavender-and-white blooms of lupine; the sun-splashed yellow flowers of arrowleaf balsamroot; purple shooting stars and larkspur and many more.

“It's so colorful here,” exclaimed Taylor. “Nothin' like our place in Pennsylvania.”

“Yeah, I can see why Dad wanted to come out here.”

“I wish I remembered Dad better,” Taylor said. “What do you think he'll be like?”

“I don't remember a whole lot myself,” Jake admitted. “He was big and had a long brown beard. He used to take us
walking through the Pennsylvania woods all the time, looking for birds and mushrooms. He'd just toss you up on his shoulders and off we'd go.”

“Was he nice? Nicer than Bull?”

Jake snorted. “A crocodile's nicer than Bull.”

“Seriously, Jake.”

“He was nice. You'll like him.”

Jake didn't tell him about the fights he remembered. How his mother and father yelled at each other about work and money and their father's plans to move out West. He also didn't tell Taylor about the day their dad finally left. The day that had broken Jake's heart forever.

“Hey, look!” Taylor shouted, interrupting Jake's thoughts.

In the distance, maybe half a mile a way, a group of enormous brown rocks seemed to be sitting in a field. As Jake watched, one of the rocks began to move.

“Bison!” Jake shouted.

“Awesome!” Taylor yelled.

Cody couldn't tell what the boys were looking at, but he caught their excitement. He yipped and pranced around like a circus animal.

Jake and Taylor cracked up.

“It's a good thing they aren't any closer,” Taylor said. “Cody would start a stampede. Did you ever think we'd be seeing
real live bison
?”

Jake shook his head. “Never even crossed my mind. Look at them! They're something, aren't they?”

Amazed, the boys stood and watched the large mammals grazing.

“C'mon,” Jake said. “Let's keep going. Maybe we can get a better view of them.”

They brushed through the long grass, Taylor leading the way, laughing as they approached the huge animals that loomed in the distance. But as they got closer to a small running stream, Taylor suddenly froze and gasped.

Jake almost collided with him. “Hey! What gives?”

His hand trembling, Taylor pointed at the ground. Jake's eyes widened as he saw what had freaked Taylor out. There, in the middle of the trail, angry and menacing, was a snake. It was hissing and ready to strike!

12
The snake's jaws were wide open, exposing the red flesh of its mouth. Two-thirds of the serpent's body lay coiled like a spring, ready to launch an attack. Suddenly Cody barked and moved toward the snake, snapping the boys into action.

Taylor seized the dog by the scruff and dragged him away. “Cody, get back!”

Jake also leaped back—almost tripping over a sage bush. When he straightened up, though, he peered at the snake more closely. After a moment he stepped closer.

“Jake, what are you
doing
?” Taylor yelled.

“Can you see its pupils?” Jake asked, peering at the snake.

“No, and I don't want to!” Taylor shouted.

The snake hissed again, and Jake moved almost to
within striking distance. The markings of the snake looked familiar, like something he'd read about in his dad's journal.

“Its pupils are round,” he told his brother. “There's only one snake in the United States that has round pupils
and
is venomous. The coral snake. And this doesn't look anything like a coral snake.”

“I don't care. That thing looks like it wants to kill us!”

Right on cue, the snake struck at Jake. The full length of its body uncoiled and launched itself toward him. Jake jerked back out of harm's way, his heart racing.

“Whoa! That was close!” said Taylor.

“I think it's just scared,” Jake said, unslinging his backpack. As Taylor and Cody backed away, Jake pulled out their dad's journal and began looking for the sketch he'd seen.

“Here,” he said. Reluctantly, Taylor moved closer. Jake pointed to a pencil drawing his father had made of a skinny serpent with stripes on it.

“This looks like the same snake, doesn't it?” Jake asked his brother.

Taylor—still clutching Cody—looked from the drawing to the snake and back again. “I guess . . .?”

“Well, it says here that it's a garter snake—‘a harmless species common to this part of the state.' ”

“Did you say harmless?”

“Right. Look how tiny its teeth are. It could bite you, and you probably wouldn't even feel it.”

“No, thanks,” Taylor said, but his body relaxed.

“Keep Cody back,” Jake said, and with his shoe, he nudged the snake off the trail. The garter snake hissed again but didn't strike. Instead it quickly slithered into the grass and disappeared under a nearby rock. When the snake had gone, Taylor and Jake stared at each other. Then they both burst out laughing.

“Boy, do we have a lot to learn,” said Taylor.

Jake nodded, but his thoughts turned serious, remembering the hikers' warning about grizzly bears—they might not be so lucky the next time they met a wild animal. It wasn't just the likes of Bull and the authorities that were out to get them. Here, there were wild animals to be avoided. Their lives could actually be in danger.

“We should try to pick up some of that bear spray somewhere.”

“Cody'll protect us,” Taylor said. The terrier was busily sniffing the rock the garter snake had disappeared under.

“Maybe,” Jake said, not sounding too sure.

Still amped from their “near-death” encounter with the snake, Jake, Taylor, and Cody hopped the stream and continued along the trail. By now, the bison had wandered out of sight, but the boys soon had bigger concerns than bison. Even though the afternoon sun had dipped behind the mountain peaks, the dry warm air had forced them to drink the last of Taylor's water.

“Man, it's hot,” Taylor complained as they staggered up another low-rising hill.

“Yeah,” Jake agreed, salty sweat stinging his eyes. For the hundredth time he kicked himself for forgetting to fill his water bottle. He couldn't remember ever feeling this thirsty, and Taylor was barely managing to stagger along behind him on the trail. Even Cody's long pink tongue hung out.

Taylor halted and bent over, hands on his knees. “Jake, I don't feel so good.”

“What's wrong?” Jake walked back to his brother and squatted down to look him in the eyes.

“My muscles keep knotting up, and my stomach . . .”

“You feel like you're going to throw up?”

Taylor breathed heavily. “Maybe.”

Jake straightened back up—now he was seriously worried. His own calf muscles were cramping, and his skin felt a lot hotter than it should. They had already come dangerously close to running out of water on the bus. But here they weren't going to stumble across any bottled water.

We need to find water, fast.

Jake pulled out their map. He saw that a large lake lay about a mile ahead, but he didn't know if Taylor could make it that far.

On second thought, I might not be able to make it a mile either.

Just then he heard a noise overhead and swiveled to see a couple of ducks flying less than fifty feet over their heads. They looked like they were coming in for a landing somewhere.

“C'mon,” Jake told his brother. “There might be some water through those trees.”

Taylor didn't speak, just forced himself to follow his brother. Jake led them through a hundred yards of sagebrush. Cody seemed to sense something up ahead and ran in front of them, following another rabbit trail until they reached some cottonwood trees. It was only a half mile to where the birds had landed, and Jake wanted to urge his brother on, but his tongue was sticking to the roof of his mouth. Instead he just nodded. He could see dark rings forming around Taylor's green eyes and wondered if his brother could go on. But the younger boy brushed back the hair from his sweating forehead, and soldiered on under the blazing sun.

Through the trees, hidden from the trail, the trio finally emerged into the clearing where the birds had landed. Cattails grew on the side of a small pond, and two ducks—
mallards,
Jake thought—paused in their feeding to warily eye the intruders. Jake felt like kissing the ground in relief as he saw the bright sunlight bounce back off the water's shimmering surface.

“Water!” Taylor shouted. He dropped his pack, and without even undressing, he plunged into the pool. Panicked, the ducks took off, but Cody sprinted after Taylor and also leaped in.

Taylor gulped huge mouthfuls of the water. Jake could only hope that if it was good enough for the birds, it was
good enough for them. He also dropped his pack and then dove into the pool.

“It's freezing!” he shouted.

“I know! Isn't it great?” Taylor asked. He swam on his back like an otter, Cody happily paddling along behind him.

“Don't drink too much of it, Taylor,” Jake warned again. “Remember, we need to boil it first.”

“It tastes fine,” Taylor said, taking another drink.

“Yeah, but it's not how it tastes . . .,” Jake began, but then he, too, surrendered and took a huge swallow himself.

The boys stayed in the pond until the cold stabbed needles through their flesh. Smiling, they finally staggered out and flopped down on the bank.

“Man, that felt good,” said Taylor.

“You can say that again.”

“Man, that felt good.”

Jake threw a stick at him. Already, both the boys felt better, and Taylor was back to his normal goofy self.

“This is a great spot,” said Taylor. “Maybe we should stay here tonight.”

Jake surveyed the pond and its surroundings. It actually did seem like a good place to camp. The trees kept them hidden from other hikers and nosey rangers. Beneath the trees and in the surrounding brush, there were plenty of dead sticks and logs that they could use to build a fire.

“Okay,” said Jake, “but it's going to get cold early. Let's wash our clothes and get them hung up to dry.”

Taylor groaned, but the swim in the pond had revived him.

“You rinse them out,” Jake told him. “Even the ones we're wearing.”

“What?”
Taylor stared, his mouth open. “You want us to walk around naked?”