that stupid grizzly book, but he’d told his sister he’d keep quiet about it, and that was almost the same as a promise. The best he could hope was that she’d spit it out and get the whole thing over with.
Outside, the living forest had returned, gray-green in the half-light, branches melting into other branches to create an awning of pine. Their Jeep pitched along the road, the front end bucking up first, and then the back end, like a crazed bull in a rodeo; then left to right, swinging wildly like a boat in rough water, at times scratching against the wild roses that flowered along the road’s edge in bright pink splashes against the green. Ashley sat, sullen, her arms crossed over her white T-shirt in a tight clamp. Two braids bounced against her shoulders as the Jeep bumped along; Jack noticed curly bits of hair had managed to escape from her part to create a fuzzy halo. Her mouth was pressed shut as if to keep any sound from escaping.
“Aren’t you going to talk to me?” Olivia asked.
Come on, just tell her, Jack pleaded in his mind. It’s not that big a deal. You’re only making it worse.
“She’s not saying a word, so now I know something’s wrong,” Steven teased. “Hey, Ashley, I saw that look. You just rolled your eyes right at the ceiling—I can see you in my rearview mirror. Help me out here—isn’t Jack the one who’s supposed to get temperamental? He’s the almost-teenager. Technically, there’re three years to go before you go moody on me.”
“I’m not moody—” Jack protested.
Ashley snorted, “Yeah, right,” at which Jack reminded them that it was Ashley they were talking about, not him, to which Ashley replied that he, Jack, was always bossing her around. At that, Jack blurted out, “That’s because you don’t listen and do what you’re supposed to. You went right on and read Night of the Grizzlies and got all freaky. Now you’re ruining the vacation for the rest of us ’cause you’ve turned into a bear psycho.”
His mother’s mouth made a small O as she thought a moment, then said, “Night of the Grizzlies—is that what this is about? No wonder you’re so spooked.” Olivia turned around in her seat so that she could look Ashley full in the face. She didn’t appear to be the least bit annoyed that Ashley had read something she wasn’t supposed to. Instead, an expression of concern filled Olivia’s face as she centered her chin over the back of the headrest. “Ashley, listen to me. The grizzlies that attacked those girls were fed by people all the time. That was the problem. They’d totally lost their fear of humans. You’ve got to remember that the tragedy happened a long time ago. Bears are managed very differently now.”
“How?” his sister asked softly. Her eyes, wide and dark, were fixed on her mother.
“Well, in just about every way. Trust me. The park would never let that kind of thing happen nowadays—a bear like the ones in that book would be taken out of Glacier so fast it’d make your head spin. Today’s Glacier grizzlies are truly wild, which means they steer clear of humans, just the way nature intended. Like I said, leave them alone, and they’ll leave you alone.”
Biting the edge of her lip, Ashley said, “OK.”
“Good. And I hope you’ll also understand that when I tell you not to do something, it’s for a reason. You’ve wasted a lot of energy over this. It could have ruined your stay in this beautiful park.”
“You’re right,” Ashley agreed, relieved she was being let off the hook. “Thanks, Mom.”
Olivia sat forward again and buckled her seat belt. They pitched and swayed the next four miles in silence, Ashley ever more queasy, Jack deep into his own thoughts. Suddenly, his father announced, “There’s the sign—Quartz Creek Campground. Hey, kids, try reading that out loud five times really fast.”
“Quartz Creek Campground,” Ashley began, “Quartz Cweek Cwampgwound, Courts Cweek Cramp—I can’t say it! Jack, you try!”
Jack’s tongue felt all turned around inside his mouth as he tackled the phrase, but he didn’t mind such silliness. He was glad the storm between him and his sister had blown over, that they were laughing and back to normal, with nothing more to worry about than keeping the mosquitoes away. He was still smiling as he grabbed his soda can from the backseat, where Ashley lingered while Steven and Olivia got out to unlock the chain stretched across the entrance.
“Hey Ashley, why are you sitting in there? Aren’t you getting out?” Jack asked, gulping down the last of his soda. Warm fizz bubbled against the back of his throat.
“Sure. Now that you and I have a second alone, I just wanted to say one thing.”
“What?”
Ashley leaned over so that her braids skimmed the backseat. Her face was so close to Jack’s that he could feel her breath on his cheek. “I’m going to act just as nice to you as I ever did, but—” She took a breath. “I will never, ever tell you anything again as long as I live.”
With that, she gave him one last look, got out of the car, and shut the door so softly it hardly made a sound.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Each of you kids grab a flashlight. Stand at the edges of the flat area. Hold the flashlights toward me so I can see where to back in.”
Dusk faded quickly into darkness as Steven pulled forward and backward several times, trying to position the trailer. Finally he got it on a nice, level spot. Then, by flashlight, he disconnected the trailer hitch and drove the Jeep out of the way, parking it next to a tall stand of Douglas fir.
“Now the hard part,” Steven announced. “Wish we’d gotten here sooner so we’d still have a little daylight. Oh well….”
Jack and his dad worked as swiftly as they could. After they lowered the bottom section of the camping-trailer door, they released the latches that held the top down for travel.
Meanwhile, Olivia had crawled inside the Jeep. She pulled boxes from the tailgate and turned to hand them to Ashley, except, where was Ashley?
“Holy cow! What was that?” Jack exclaimed. Out of the corner of his eye he’d caught sight of a dark shape exploding past him into the trees and had heard the snap of branches as the shadow disappeared into the underbrush.
A beat too late, Ashley answered from the darkness, “It was nothing.”
“What do you mean nothing! It looked like a big dog or—”
“I saw it too,” she said. “I was almost right next to it. It was a…baby deer.”
“Are you sure?” Jack didn’t know exactly what he’d seen rushing past him, but it hadn’t looked anything like a fawn. And Ashley was acting strange again. “How could a baby deer be right next to us when we’re doing all this work on the trailer?” he asked her.
“Why don’t you come check it out, and then you can tell Mom and Dad all about it,” Ashley said, with a hard glance in his direction. “I’m telling you what I saw. I was right here.”
“OK, OK. A baby deer. The weirdest baby deer I’ve ever seen, but whatever you say, Ashley.”
“Jack, we need to crank up the top now,” Steven called. “Make sure none of the canvas gets caught on the edges at your end.”
Still
