I shook my head. “What’s this for?”
And then Walker reminded me of something I’d completely forgotten: “It’s your birthday.”
We did not sleep well.
Walker pulled all the cushions off the chairs and sofas to assemble makeshift beds for us by the hearth. He brought the pillows and blankets from the basement bunk room where we used to sleep as kids and then commandeered every other blanket in the house. He made us sleep in all our layers.
He also set his alarm for every two hours so he could get up and add wood to the fire—which he did as noisily as possible, ostensibly just for the joy of waking me up.
“This feels performative,” I said at one point.
“Youcan tend the fire if you want.”
“I made the beans,” I said, like those two things were equivalent.
I did manage to wakehimonce, though. Sometime around three in the morning, I heard some definite noises outside the house.
I opened my eyes wide and held very still, listening—the fireside of my body too warm, and the non-fire side too cold.
Grunts,I decided. And snuffles. Clanking, too. Then:Oh, shit—was that a growl?
“Walker!” I whispered, kicking at him.
“Huh?” he said, raising his head. His hoodie had fallen back and his hair was adorably spiky.
“A bear!” I whispered.
He was still half asleep. “A bear?”
“Outside! Listen!”
Just then we heard a loud clattering, like maybe the bear had knocked over the potting shed.
At the sound, Walker scrambled up and worked to get untangled from his blankets.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
“I’m going to go see what’s going on.”
“Outside?”
“That’s where the noise came from,” he said, like,Where else?
“But it might really be a bear out there!”
“That’s what I’m about to find out.”
“But—” I protested. “What are you going to do? Go out in your pajamas and fight it with your bare hands?”
“You’re the one who woke me up.”
“I just wanted you to be ... alerted.”
“Well, I’m alerted.”
Just then, another clatter.
Walker started for the cabin door. But he didn’t take into consideration just how many blankets and cushions were tangled and strewn all over the floor, and as he launched into a stride, his foot caught, and he pitched forward and hit the ground.
