Eagle Creek. A bunch of people will be there.”
Janie sat quiet, eating the sticky cornbread with her fingers.
“I thought we’d both go. I’ve got a tent and sleeping bags. We’re closing the club for a long weekend. Haven’t done that since we bought the place.” Stella poured himself a cup of coffee. “My friend Cookie is coming up. I want you to meet her. I think you’ll like her.”
“I don’t know.” She felt scared to leave the house sometimes even when Stella was with her.
“I think it would be good. You’d meet some people. Some women. I want you to come.”
Janie sat staring at her cornbread for a minute. Stella never asked her for anything, and the truth was she didn’t want to stay here alone. “Is China coming?”
“Of course.”
“Okay. I’ll go. But I’ve got to get something to read.”
“It’s a deal.”
Since Janie had come to stay with Stella she had read many of the novels on the floor-to-ceiling shelves in the living room. He had a set of leatherbound books he’d picked up from the county library sale and Janie had kept herself occupied with those for the last few weeks. At night when Stella was at work reading kept her mind full of someone else’s stories. She had to have a book or she’d go crazy at every little noise or shadow in the night. It helped having China, but even with the big dog, Janie couldn’t sleep or turn out the lights until Stella came home and she felt safe. Some nights she still had screaming nightmares. When that happened, Stella woke her, got her water and patted her back. He said he had them too after he got home from Vietnam, but they didn’t come as often and, in time, hers wouldn’t either. She took comfort from that.
FRIDAY MORNING, THEY packed Stella’s ancient Mercedes with a box of garden vegetables, sleeping bags and a tent Stella had aired out all week, clothes and dishes and flashlights and towels and a hundred other things one or both of them thought they might need. China sat in the backseat with her head out the window and Janie rode in the front. They drove into the mountain range northeast of Yelm, taking country roads and old highways instead of the freeway. A forest service road took them into deep woods where the air was twenty degrees cooler and smelled like Christmas trees. Volkswagen vans, pickup trucks, and a few motorcycles surrounded an old International school bus painted a bright bubble-gum pink. Grateful Dead stickers clung to the bus’s bumpers and the windows were festooned with tie-dyed curtains. Janie found herself checking to see if Paul’s Panhead was parked with the bikes. She was both relieved and disappointed when she didn’t see it.
Stella parked the car, and China bolted out the back door, ready to investigate other dogs. A young woman was getting out of the bus, carrying a box of groceries. When she saw Stella she put her load down and came running over. She wore a peasant blouse over a bikini and had slanted bright green eyes.
“Stella – You’re here!”
“Hey Cat!” Stella gave the girl a hug. “This is Janie.”
Janie felt first-day-of-school nervous. “Hi.”
“Did you make that top?” Cat pointed at Janie’s homemade camisole.
“I can show you how to make one if you want.”
Cat put her arm around Janie and led her away. “Cat is short for Catherine but I’ve been Cat forever. Let’s be best friends starting today and make all these old men crazy with desire.”
Stella laughed as they walked away. “Won’t take much to do that.” He gave Janie a wink and picked up the box Cat had put down. “Do you know where Cookie is?”
“Setting up the kitchen in camp.” Cat pulled Janie along by the hand. “Once Stella finds Cookie we’ll never see them again all weekend.”
At the top of the hill the path ended. There was a clearing among Douglas fir trees with four picnic tables and a rock ringed fire pit. A stack of firewood had already been kindled, and boxes of supplies sat on one of the tables. A woman stood at the table unpacking and organizing a kitchen area. She wore a long muslin dress that fell off her shoulders. Her black hair was coiled into a large bun that rested at the base of her slender tan neck. The woman turned when she heard Stella whistle. She smiled and held out her arms. “I thought you’d never get here.”
Stella scooped Cookie into his arms and kissed her on the forehead, nose and mouth. Janie stood waiting while Cat dug through a bag of groceries.
Stella put Cookie down, a smile lit up his face. “Cookie, this is Janie.”
Cookie held out her arms, hugging Janie swift and sure. “It’s good to finally meet you. Stella’s been telling me about you.”
Janie smiled but didn’t quite know what to say.
Stella hadn’t stopped touching Cookie, and now she swatted at him, eyes twinkling. “Go help set up the tipi and leave Janie with me.”
Stella kissed Cookie again on the top of her head and walked down the path calling over his shoulder, “When I’m done you aren’t getting rid of me.”
Cookie laughed. “Who says I’d want to?”
With Stella gone it was just Cookie, Janie, and a few women she didn’t know. Cookie seemed to be in charge of organizing and setting up the cooking area and she did it without acting like she was. She asked Janie to fill some buckets with water. China ended her investigation and now stuck close by. Janie found the old-fashioned water pump nearby and worked the worn red handle until cold water shot out, hitting China in the face as she bit at the stream. The trail opened into a meadow. A few small tents were already set up but Janie didn’t see a tipi, just a pile of canvas and long poles surrounded by Stella, Ernie, and some men Janie didn’t know. They drank cans of beer and stared at the task ahead of them.
Janie watched for a few minutes and then headed back to the picnic tables.
Cat had opened one of the coolers. The other women were gone.
“Where is everybody?” Janie asked.
“They went to the river for a swim.” Cat said.
THE REST OF the day she spent with Cat and China. They joined the others at the river and swam and suntanned. They painted each other’s toenails with nail polish Cat had on the bus. Cat talked and Janie figured out she was meant to listen. She didn’t mind. She met most of the people who showed up over the course of the day but gave up trying to remember their names. Delores and Amber came and Janie stayed away from them. She didn’t want to talk about anything connected to The Habit or Paul Jesse.
By early evening a fire roared in the pit and the smell of spices and smoke reminded Janie and Cat how hungry they were. Janie got a plate from the stack on the table and took it to Cookie who was bent over a cast iron pot spooning out food.
“Hey chica! Did you have a good time today?” Cookie dished beans mixed with rice and some vegetables onto Janie’s plate.
Janie had never been called a name other than Janie. She kind of liked it. “Yeah. This smells good.”
“Moros y Cristianos – that’s Spanish for Moors and Christians and Cuban for black beans and rice and save
