Midday Clouds - The Charlie Swan Story

Chapter 28 (New Moon 17)

"I fell in Jake's garage," she said, looking off to the left in the way she always did whenever she wasn't telling the whole truth.

"Christ, baby, did you fall directly onto an axehead?" I asked as I took a quick glance at the rest of her. Scuffed jeans. A few small scratches on her hands that hadn't been there earlier that day. Could've been from the same tumble, sure, but looked more like the kind of injuries one would get from a full sprint, or hell, even a bicycle accident.

"No, just on the concrete. I bleed easily, you know that. It's fine."

"Who stitched you up?"

"Dr. Snow. Jake took me there. It really wasn't that big of a deal."

"Well I alright," I conceded, knowing from months prior that pushing the issue on this kind of thing could spell trouble—hells, the last time it happened, Bells had fallen into a pretty grave depression, so I figured I'd lay off... for now.

—

It wasn't a week later that I got a call from Dr. Gerandy.

"Hey Chief. Just calling to give you a heads up that your daughter sustained a mild concussion—you should wake her every two hours tonight to ensure it isn't serious. You know the drill; shine a flashlight, make sure both pupils dilate. If they don't, or if she has any trouble waking, be sure to bring her right back here."

"Sounds good doc, but why are you calling me now? She fell four or five days ago."

"Oh, no that was for the stitches. This was today—she came in after hitting her head. Well, was brought in by Billy's kid, seemed like she was pretty opposed to even being here but he was insisting. Whatever it is she's been up to, we'd recommend her being a bit more careful, or stopping altogether."

"Yeah, thank doc. I'll talk to her. And bring her in if it seems bad."

"No problem Charlie. You take care now."

When Bells walked in I could see the new bruise on her forehead that she was half-assedly trying to cover up by parting her hair in a different way.

"Have a good time at Jake's, Bells?" I asked.

"Yeah, it was great," was all she said as she slunk past me to the kitchen.

"Nothing... out of the usual happen?"

She looked at me and could tell that the jig was up. Maybe I had even worse of a poker face than my daughter, but it's hard not letting the concern show.

"Well, I did fall again and hit my head. No stitches this time though!"

"Maybe you should just stay out of the garage altogether, Bella," I offered, knowing that her time around Jake had been good for her mentally, but apparently that garage had been taking a physical toll.

"This didn't happen in the garage," she said. "We were hiking, and I tripped over a rock."

This set obvious alarm bells off. Not just because of the missing hikers we'd had over the past few months, but because of the last time she'd been off in the woods she was discovered passed out and freezing in the middle of the night.

"Since when do you hike?"

"Working at Newton's was bound to rub off sometime," she pointed out. "Spend every day selling all the virtues of the outdoors, eventually you get curious."

I wasn't convinced, but I figured the best course of action would be to let her talk.

"I'll be more careful," she promised. Well, I guess that would be the best I'd get out of her without going full blown Officer Swan, which I promised myself I'd avoid doing to Bells.

"I don't mind you hiking right there around La Push, but keep close to town, okay?"

"Why?" she asked, as though she hadn't heard a word I'd said over the past few months over the dinner table about how my days at work had been.

"Well, we've been getting a lot of wildlife complaints lately. The forestry department is going to check into it, but for the time being..."

"Oh, the big bear," she said, seemingly remembering. "Yeah, some of the hikers coming through Newton's have seen it. Do you think there's really some giant mutated grizzly out there?"

I pictured it. A bear the size of a boulder, fast a whip, coming across my flatfooted daughter on the trail. A shiver ran through me. "There's something," I said. "Keep it close to town, okay?"

"Sure, sure," she agreed. I made a mental note to check in with Jake, just in case. 

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