“No, I’ve got this. I’ll fix this or I’ll leave and regroup. Honestly, I’m not sure what’s best yet, but I won’t make it your problem.”
Green looked toward the valley and the mountains beyond.
The acorn in his pocket seemed to have its own opinion.
You couldn’t leave this. Not now. Not after you finally made it here.
The thought made his fists clench.
Yes, I absolutely can leave this. I’m not giving that monster another chance to decide if I should live.
Dancer watched the debate dance across Green’s face and raised an eyebrow.
“Alright, bud. Well. Stop in the office when you decide what you’re doing.”
“Yeah. Thanks. I will.”
She sighed.
“I hesitate to tell ya this, but if you do head out this morning, you might pass some police. A man died a little ways down the mountain last night. Right on the side of 32.”
Green felt his pulse quicken.
“What? How? The wolf?”
She shook her head.
“No, no. It’s a tragedy, no question, but I heard they think it was heart failure. Just died next to his pickup on the roadside. His family sent the police looking for him when he didn’t come home. I heard it on the scanner while I was eating my cornflakes.”
“Truck on the roadside? I think I met that man. I asked him for directions here.”
Dancer frowned.
“Lotta pickups around here, but I guess it’s possible. Look, just go talk to her before you make other plans today. Alright? Normally, I wouldn’t suggest such a thing, especially with Val, but this feels like an unusual circumstance. Tell her I sent you.”
Dancer looked Green up and down.
“Tell her I sent you before you say anything else.”
She poked her chin toward his campsite.
“And I wouldn’t waste that view of the morning if I were you. It’s medicinal.”
She retrieved her thermos and turned to leave.
“Hey, you want your cup back?”
“Bring it to me later,” she said over her shoulder.
Her brown coat and broad shoulders made her look like a refrigerator box striding away into the trees.
He walked back to his empty camp and turned his eyes to the dawn coloring the mountains across the valley. The part of him that treasured the acorn in his pocket, that believed magic was waiting for him in nature, cherished that view. Yet, that part had been conspicuously quiet hours earlier when a nightmare arrived to tear out his throat.
“It’s pretty here. And I am absolutely not going to stay another night.”
Green walked to Valentina’s campfeeling the lack of cell service like a pebble in his shoe. He wanted a map. He wanted a distraction. He wanted to search for Valentina Blackwood on social media and find pictures of her playing with her basset hounds or holding up a chunky knitting project. All the while, Dancer’s reminder that the day would pass quickly felt like a burning fuse racing toward another deadly night.
He kept touching his pockets to make sure that his phone, his keys, his wallet were all there, then remembering that none of those objects meant much in the way of utility or safety on his current errand. He imagined that giant ink stain of a wolf bursting out of the trees. Which relic of his old life would he reach for to save him? His Global Fitness card? His weather app?
