Most people who do this go twenty years without ever using a shelter, I remind myself.Kaibab was a freak accident.
I’m not afraid of dying.I spent too long fighting in the desert to be afraid of that.But the idea of being trapped, helpless, in a tiny confined space as a wildfire bears down, with nothing I can do?
Thatmakes me a little uneasy.
By late thatafternoon we’re back to doing nothing.It doesn’t take us very long to get prepared, and everything is packed, sitting around the house in crates.We could be out of here and on the road in ten minutes,maybeeven five.
It’s my fourth day in a row off, and I’m starting to get antsy.One day off is great.Two is fun, three starts to get boring, but by now I’m about ready to climb the walls.
Plus, no Clementine.I’m trying to be patient, but it doesn’t come naturally.She can’t keep me on the hook like this forever.
If she doesn’t want me, that sucks, but I’ll live.But she’s gotta fuckingtellme that.
I try to read a book for a while, some murder mystery that I found on a bookshelf downstairs, but I can’t concentrate for more than a page or two at a time, so I wander back into the kitchen to the sound of a girl laughing.
It’s not Clementine, but it’s Mandy, her roommate, plus another girl I don’t recognize.They’re sitting at the kitchen table with Silas, playing some board game.Mandy sits up straighter when I walk in.
“Hey, Hunter,” she says, tucking one foot underneath her.“How’s it going?”
I give her a quick glance as I open the cabinet to get a water glass.
“Well, Utah’s on fire, so I’ve still got a job,” I say, mostly kidding.“How are you?”
She laughs, a nice, bubbly sound.Mandy’s no knockout, but she’s cute, and she seems nice.
“Oh, you know,” she says, shrugging, her hands clasped on the table.“The usual.Kids go back to school next week, so this week we’re flooded with everyone who suddenly remembered to get their vacation activities done before that.”
She told me Saturday that she works at the Visitor Center for the Big Sky National Forest, though she’s not a ranger like Clementine is, just an employee.I want to ask her whether Clementine is back yet, but I don’t.
I walk to the table, and I’m about to say something else, but then I look down at the game they’re playing and realize I recognize it.
“You guys are playing Candyland?”I ask.
The girls both laugh.The one who isn’t Mandy takes a long drink from a bottle of beer, blushing.
“We already played Chutes and Ladders, so it was this or Monopoly,” Mandy admits.“This is my other roommate Lucy, by the way.”
Lucy and I shake hands.She’s cute too, even though she’s not bubbly like Mandy.Silas is already making subtle faces at me, trying to get my attention, like we’re gonna split the girls up right now and each take one.
I’m beyond uninterested.
“Wanna play?”Lucy asks, her voice quiet and dry.“If you can pull cards off a deck, you’ll be great at it.”
I look at it.The box says it’s for kids three years old and up, and technically, thatdoesinclude me.Plus, I have no idea what the fuck else I’m gonna do besides mope around, not get laid, and see if Clementine calls.
God, I feel like an idiot, justwaiting.
“Sure,” I say.“How?”
Mandy moves all the cardboard pieces back to the beginning.
“Hey!”says Silas.“I was winning.”
“I believe in you,” Lucy says to him, sounding slightly sarcastic, leaning on one hand.“I bet you can do it again.”
“It’s just luck,” Silas says.“I can believe in myself until the cows come home and it won’t help.”
Lucy just laughs, pats his arm, and puts another piece on the board.
