The road turned mean under an early September snowstorm. Icy switchbacks knifed along a drop so steep the birch clung to the slope out of stubbornness. The Glenn Highway vanished behind our truck in sheets of white as we climbed toward Chickaloon, mountains folding inward, dark and close. Wind pressed against the truck like it wanted inside.
Jack drove as though the switchbacks already lived in his palms. Tires slid, caught, slid again. He didn’t flinch, his easy confidence pulling at me.
Before we loaded up, Jack pulled me into a quick hug, jacket cold and smelling of coffee and wool. “You ready, babe?”
I nodded and reached for the passenger door, but Crystal slipped in first, planting her boots on the dash, so I climbed into the back.
She leaned into Jack. “Remember that storm at Sheep Mountain. The one that buried the trail in an hour?” She kept a steady conversation flow, her voice braiding with his.
Another sound rose inside me, quieter. Three nights earlier, Jack filled my kitchen doorway. He rocked once on his heels. “My parents’ place sits near Sheep Mountain. I’d really like you to come with me for the weekend. It’s beautiful this time of year with new snow.”
I rinsed my mug. “Who else will be there?”
“My other favorite person. My younger sister. She’s heard a lot about you and normally doesn’t like the women I date.” His eyes held mine, open and unguarded. “Vangie, it’s important to me she like you.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“How could she not?”
That memory stayed warm for half a mile. Then Crystal launched another story and the present folded over it. Snow erased the sky. Birch blurred past the window.
Just after Chickaloon, we pulled into a narrow turnout where the highway curved toward Sheep Mountain. An unmarked trail vanished into trees sagging with white.
Crystal snapped her pack straps and reached up to tug Jack’s hood straight. “You always forget this part.”
Jack grinned. I didn’t step into that space, sensing Crystal claimed him the way an army claims ground. I fell in behind them.
The trail climbed through white spruce and bent birch. Branches cracked under the wet weight of snow. Wind dragged groans from the trunks like old men leaning into themselves.
Crystal stayed glued to Jack, her stories stitched with the same quiet hook. We, we, we.
“Remember the ridge where the wind tried to throw us?” She bumped his shoulder. “You saved me that day.” Then she glanced back at me. “Some people don’t last out here.” Her mouth tilted.
Snow thickened. The trail softened. Our footprints filled in behind us as if the mountain regretted letting us pass.
Crystal leaned closer to Jack. “If something goes wrong, you’ll take care of me, right?”
Jack squeezed her hand. “Always.”
Her eyes flicked toward me. “Not everyone handles fear the same way.”
Powder swallowed my boot. My ankle turned on a rock underneath and fire streaked up my leg. The pain bit hard and clean, like a warning. I bit down on breath and kept moving.
Thirty minutes later, the cabin crouched among the trees near Sheep Mountain, half buried already. Relief loosened my knees so fast they nearly folded.
Jack shoved the door. It groaned, then gave. We spilled inside like one exhausted animal.
The cabin smelled of damp wood and old smoke. Frost bloomed thick along the windows. Outside, the forest churned gray and feral.
I set my pack near the door and shook ice off my gloves. One fell. Crystal edged my pack aside with her boot without looking, and when I reached for the glove, it lay half under her tread. She met my eyes.
I decided to let it go. I let it go. “I’ve got jerky, cheese and crackers in my pack. I can lay them out.”
“That’d be great, babe.”
We huddled near the stove and ate crushed crackers, jerky, cheese. Wind shrilled against the roof shingles. The cabin creaked and shuddered, every gust making the walls complain.
Something struck the wall.
Not wind, a testing blow. Deliberate.
Another thump. Closer.
The stove popped. The cabin locked into stillness.
Jack wiped frost from the window with his sleeve. A dark shape shifted beyond the glass. Fur dusted with ice. A head lifted.
A bear.
A low huff pushed through the storm.
Jack slid the bolt home. “Nobody goes out.”
Another blow rattled the wall. Snow sifted from the rafters.
Crystal’s eyes cut to me. “You left the food bag outside.”
I fixed on the door. “I didn’t have the bag.”
“I handed it to you. You said you’d bring it in.”
“No.”
“It’s your fault.” Crystal’s mouth twisted.
Jack pulled his rifle. The door jumped inward. A crack opened. Cold poured through. The smell of animal rolled in, hot and rotten.
I drove my shoulder into the wood. Pain lit my collarbone. My boots skidded, then caught.
“Jack,” Crystal cried, folding into him. “She brought it here.”
The bear shoved again. Hinges screamed. My palms burned. My breath tore out in white shards.
Jack wrapped his arm around Crystal’s shoulders. “It’s okay. If it gets in, I’ll shoot it.”
The bear leaned once more. Then its weight shifted away. Footsteps sank into snow. Breath faded.
Silence rushed in.
Crystal sobbed into Jack’s jacket.
I stayed pressed to the door long after the danger left, my heart still hammering, and listened to her turn fear into a story about me. I tried to catch his eyes. “I didn’t have the bag, Jack.”
He just shook his head.
None of us got much sleep.
Morning arrived pale and bruised. We packed without speaking.
The food bag lay ripped open beside the truck, its contents scattered like proof.
Crystal pointed. “See! You said you’d bring it in. You left it here.”
Jack slid an arm around her. “Let’s stay calm.”
He didn’t look at me.
Crystal climbed into the passenger seat and rested her head on Jack’s shoulder like she’d earned it.
Jack drove with the same easy confidence.
Easy meant Crystal not crying. Easy meant letting her decide what happened. Something sealed inside my chest. Quiet. Done.
The mountains pressed in. Sheep Mountain rose white and sharp. The road unwound toward the Parks Highway and home.
Three miles from Willow, a turnout opened where birch bent under snow and the forest opened its dark mouth.
“Jack, pull over.”
He glanced at me for the first time. “Why? There’s nothing here.”
“There’s enough.” I knew this place. I’d walked it in better weather when my thoughts needed room to move. In three miles, I’d be home.
He eased onto the shoulder. I rested my hand on the handle. Jack turned. “Vangie, come on. We’re almost home.”
Crystal smiled. He didn’t see it. I did.
“All is good, Jack. You take care.” I closed the door gently so it wouldn’t sound like drama.
Wind hit my face like fire. Breath burst and vanished. Trees groaned with bent spines.
The truck idled a second. Crystal’s profile stayed still, already shaping this into my failure.
Jack’s hands tightened on the wheel. Then the truck rolled away, taillights dissolving into the storm.
The wind filled the space they left.
I stood alone with my breath clouding, my heart steady, the mountain watching without opinion.
The storm swept through the tire tracks. It left mine intact.
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