“So, you’ll come back, then?”
“Yes. Where are you?”
“At my condo.”
“Go over there and show up for breakfast. You’re like family. They won’t think anything of it. Irina won’t turn you away. I want you to stick to Aralina, you got me?”
“Are those your orders?”
“It sure fucking is. We’re returning today.”
“Thank fuck.”
I ended the call and started cursing my father. Though it was a projected move, I didn’t think he would act on it so quickly. I entered the bathroom and threw water on my face and gargled mouthwash to shake off the remnants of sleep. I expected to see Lucy sitting on the barstool in the kitchen. I didn’t start the fire until it was afternoon, and since we returned to the bedroom, I let it die out before bedtime, but she was nowhere in sight.
“Lucy?” I called. But the aroma of coffee was all over the cabin. She must be sitting out on the porch swing again, as was her ritual. She liked the sunrise with coffee and the sunset with hot chocolate. I peeked through the blinds. She wasn’t on the porch swing because directly in my line of sight, she was talking to a snowshoe hare. It was a big one. My wife, apparently, aspired to be Snow White.
Shaking my head, I turned toward the thermos of coffee to pour myself a mug and thought of how to tell her that our extended vacation had come to an end. Instead of just the weekend, it was currently Thursday. Kolya and the other brigadiers were grumbling about my unexpected vacation. I’d been indulging my wife too much.
A loud squeal had me slamming my mug on the counter and grabbing the rifle by the door. I yanked the door open, and my heart slammed into my throat.
A bear.
It had to be a fucking bear.
Lucy was down on her ass in the snow, and the bear was fifteen feet away. The rabbit was long gone.
I cocked the rifle.
“Kirill.” Her terrified whisper stretched between us in the cold, tense silence.
Dumbest thing you did in your teens?
Run from a bear.
But black bears differed from the Siberian grizzlies. They were less likely to be aggressive. Just curious or hungry because hibernation season was upon us and the snow covered its food sources.
Lucy pushed up gingerly. The bear didn’t move. It was aware I’d joined the fucking chat.
She backed away, inching toward me. I was steadily heading in her direction with the bear trained in my sights.
“Don’t shoot,” Lucy said.
I exhaled heavily as a measure of relief loosened my lungs. We had now exchanged positions. There was no way the bear could get to her except through me. I would never let that happen.
“In the cabin. Now.”
“Kirill, don’t kill it.”
“Now!” I whispered harshly.
I had the bear’s attention. In another lifetime, I’d been in this situation before, terrified shitless.
“Go,” I told the bear. “You’re not about to make me a monster in front of my wife.
“Go!” I repeated, spreading my arms to make me bigger, and stomped a foot as I roared at it.
That seemed to have shocked the bear out of its stillness. It scampered back to the woods.
