Bella was in something of a funk by the time the weekend came along.
I found her leaning against the wall by the phone, a look of angst on her face and a dead phone in her hand.
"Something wrong?" I asked as I came down the stairs.
"No," she responded, hanging up the phone. "Billy says Jacob is feeling better. It wasn't mono. So that's good."
"Is he coming here, or are you going there?" I asked as I started rooting through the fridge. Harry and I were hitting the river, and would need some sustenance to get us through.
"Neither," Bells said. "He's going out with some other friends."
Weird. Bella and Jake were thick as thieves up until a week ago, when the kids all got sick. Maybe something happened between her and Mike? Maybe Jake still wasn't feeling right?
"Isn't it a little early for lunch?" She asked, breaking me from my thought.
"No, I'm just packing something to take out to the river..."
"Oh, fishing today?"
"Well, Harry called... and it's not raining." I realized that this might be one of those rare occasions that Bells might actually want to spend a sunny weekend day with her old man. We still hadn't had one of those together since she showed up to Forks last January. "Say, did you want me to stay with you, since Jake's out?"
"That's okay, Dad. The fish bite better when the weather's nice."
Well, that was true, but I was sure Harry would understand if I told him something came up. Perhaps we could go get some ice cream cones like we used to, and I could show her the spots that Renee and I used to go.
"Seriously, Dad. I think I'll call Jessica," she said. "We have a Calculus test to study for. I could use her help."
Well, school should come first. "That's a good idea," I conceded. "You've been spending so much time with Jacob, your other friends are going to think you've forgotten them."
She smiled at me and nodded. Only then did I remember what had come of Tuesday's foray into the woods.
"Hey, you'll study here or at Jess's, right?"
"Sure, where else?"
"Well, it's just that I want you to be careful to stay out of the woods, like I told you before."
"More bear trouble?" She asked.
Charlie nodded, frowning. "We've got a missing hiker—we found his camp, but no sign of him. There were some really big animal prints... of course those could have come later, smelling the food... Anyway, they're setting traps for it now."
"Oh," was all she said, but she gave me an affirmative nod so I took that as "understood." I didn't know what reasons Bells would have for wandering around in the woods in the first place—her story of "hiking" smelt suspiciously of bologna—but I trusted she had the smarts not to go venturing out, given all that was going on.
—
"You know, Charlie, we should probably make this an every weekend kind of thing, don't you think?" Harry asked as we hypnotically cast our lines out, and in, out, and in. The sun was actually shining down through a rare, blue sky, and though the March air still had the bite of winter to it, spring's eventuality had turned it to more of a nibble.
"Well, if only the sun would join us every weekend," I countered. "But you're right Harry, it would be nice, sunshine or not."
We stood beside one another for a few minutes in the kind of comfortable silence you can only ever really achieve with family, or friends that you've known so long that they feel like family, before Harry's voice took on a more serious tone.
"Look, Charlie, I know that you went out with the rangers earlier this week," Harry said. He had stopped casting his line out, so I did the same. "And I know why you didn't invite me out, like you normally would for something like that. I want you to know that I'm alright."
"Well Harry, I know with your condition and a-"
"I'm alright! Hell, I even think a nice walk in the woods would do wonders for my health, anyway. Get back to nature, like we're doing now. I'm just saying, you don't have to coddle me, especially when I could actually help. Hate to think of you white boys out getting lost in these woods, hey?"
I mulled it over. The recon we'd done on Tuesday really wasn't too strenuous of a hike, and maybe Harry was right—maybe getting out into nature would be best for him.
"Okay Harry, you win. I'll bring you out on the next one—if you promise me that you'll take it easy and rest any time you might be feeling out of breath, or your heart starts beating a little too hard, or anything of the sort, alright?"
"Don't you worry. I've made it this far, I'm sure I've got a long road ahead of me yet."
I couldn't help but feel optimistic about Harry's change in mentality, especially given that the last time we'd spoken, here at this very spot, he'd morbidly told me to look after Sue if he should go. Maybe he was feeling better after getting the testing done. Maybe the trips to the river were doing well for him. Maybe he was just eating a bit healthier at home, with Sue keeping him to a strict diet of fish and vegetables. He did look a bit better, as the sunlight shone down on his salt and pepper hair, and he flashed me one of his winning smiles.
"I'm sure ya do too, Harry. I'm sure ya do too."
—
Bells came home a little later than I'd expected, barging in the door with the look of death on her pale face.
"Where have you been?" I asked.
"I was hiking," she admitted. My mind raced back to the conversation we'd had just that morning, when I'd specifically asked her to stay out of the woods.
"What happened to going to Jessica's?"
"I didn't feel like Calculus today."
"I thought I asked you to stay out of the forest."
"Yeah, I know. Don't worry, I won't do it again," she said, as though that was all the explanation that was needed. I took a look at her for any more mysterious injuries, but other than a small twig caught in her hair and a bit of glass on her pants, there were no signs of a tumble.
"What happened?" I asked, trying to keep as level-headed as possible.
"I saw the bear," she admitted. "It's not a bear, though—it's some kind of wolf. And there are five of them. A big black one, and gray, and reddish-brown..."
Exactly what I was worried would happen. Bella didn't know the first thing about wilderness safety, no matter how many times I tried to teach her as a kid. I went over and hugged her, realizing that as terrified as I was for her, she was probably even more shaken up.
"Are you okay?" I asked as gently as I could.
Her head bobbed in a weak nod.
"Tell me what happened."
"They didn't pay any attention to me. But after they were gone, I ran away and I fell down a lot."
My poor daughter, running away from monstrous beasts in the forest. I remember how I'd told Renee, when she was first weighing the pros and cons of Bella moving here, that the forests around Forks were safe as could be. I believed it at the time, at least.
"Wolves," I murmured.
"What?"
"We knew they were wrong tracks for bears—but wolves just don't get that big..."
"These were huge," she said.
"How many did you say you saw?"
"Five."
Five huge wolves. A pack of beasts prowling around the woods, attacking hikers, nearly killing my own daughter.
"No. More. Hiking." I said, as intensely as possible.
"No problem," she promised, and I believed her.
I made sure that Bells was feeling alright, sitting her down on the couch with a cuppa tea while I called the station to report what she'd seen. It was troubling that the wolves had come so close to town, given that we'd found the hiker's camp so far out. Something would definitely have to be done. And soon.
"Are you hungry?" I asked Bells when I hung up the phone.
"Just tired," she said, shaking her head and heading up the stairs. It was then that I remembered that I'd seen Jake earlier that day.
"Hey, didn't you say Jacob was gone for the day?"
"That's what Billy said."
"Huh."
"Why?" she asked. I weighed whether or not to tell her, but she'd just been truthful with me, so I figured I'd return the courtesy.
"Well, it's just that when I went to pick up Harry, I saw Jacob out in front of the store down there with some of his friends. I waved hi, but he... well, I guess I don't know if he saw me. I think maybe he was arguing with his friends. He looked strange, like he was upset about something. And... different. It's like you can watch that kid growing! He gets bigger every time I see him."
"Billy said Jake and his friends were going up to Port Angeles to see some movies. They were probably just waiting for someone to meet them."
"Oh." I nodded and ducked out to the kitchen. Bells headed upstairs. As honest as I was trying to be with her, I couldn't bear to tell her that it didn't look at all like those boys had plans to go to the movies.
---
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