What the Huck

Roughly: Two people very much in "chemistry," making their way towards love with a lot of good laughs and great sex along the way.

 

 

June slammed the trunk of Huck’s red Subaru Forester closed and reached up to adjust the straps of her backpack.  Satisfied that the 35-pound backpack was as comfortable as it could get, she turned around and was struck, for just a second by the sight of Huck, who was saddled with a 50-pound pack.  He was tall and lean, with a shaved head and a short beard, both a brandished red color that offset his intense blue eyes and left her sighing.  He had a knife around his throat, secured there by a piece of parachute cord, and another hanging from the belt at his waist.  She couldn’t see it now, but she knew there was one lying horizontally against the small of his back.  His black tee-shirt was stretched tight across his chest and biceps.  His narrow hips were encased in a pair of jeans that did amazing things to his butt, and she didn’t mind the fact that she would be following it through the woods for the next two days.

 

            Glancing down, she took stock of her own outfit, which was lacking in a technical sense for the journey to come, but definitely cute and well put-together.  The tight pink tank was tucked into jean shorts cut, arguably, too short.  Her legs were freshly waxed and tan, and the hiking boots were new and had small pink accents that (not accidentally) matched her shirt.  In a nod to Tomb Raider, she had a thigh strap for a knife.  It would have been more impressive had she any intention of using it, but as a novice adventurer, she was betting Huck would cut off his own hand before he let her yield the knife for any reason.

 

“Ready?”  he asked, and it wasn’t hard to detect the humor projected her way.  She got it though, she really did.   By her own admission, the woods were not her favorite place to be.  Too many unknowns.  Too many animals.  Too much nature.  Nature was great"on the nature channel, where she was safe"she just didn’t like to submerse herself in it.  But, and it was a big but, she couldn’t say no to this chance to be alone with Huck for two whole days, and she trusted him.  She knew he would never let anything happen to her.  However he felt about her aside, it would be an insult to his manhood if she was damaged in any way under his watch.

 

“I’m ready for anything.  Let’s go.”

 

Huck snorted.  “You look like you’re ready for a cover shoot for a camping magazine, not to actually go camping, but, okay, let’s do this.  You sure you have everything?”

 

It was a rhetorical question, it had to be.  He had spent nearly a full day last week making a list of all the things they would need:  Tent, sleeping bags, sleeping mats (she was kind of prissy about the whole sleeping-on-the-ground thing), cookware, food, water, flares (for bears), etc.  The list went on and on.  Then, after all the necessary items had been gathered, there had been structured drills:  Pack the bags, unpack the bags and pack them again, moving things back and forth between the two packs until hers was a manageable weight and everything fit.  Two days ago, they had gone on a small hike in, just to make sure she could actually hike with the pack on, though she was pretty sure he had added a few pounds of rocks to hers just to test her determination.

 

            “If I don’t, it’s too late now, right?”

 

            “Sure is, and if we don’t leave now, we aren’t going to make it very far before we have to make camp.  I’m really glad you spent an extra hour making sure your hair looked right before we left"now we’re getting a late start.”

 

            “I’m not going to be able to wash it for two days…”

 

            “You can wash it in a lake or a stream when you bathe.  That’s my plan.”

 

            This was the only thing they hadn’t discussed about their trip.  Actually, he had discussed it, but she hesitated to tell him there was no way on God’s green earth she would be bathing in a lake or a stream.  Just no way.  Maybe, maybe, she would wash her face in a stream, but definitely not a lake, and definitely not her whole body.  She had seen too many shows on Animal Planet about bugs getting into people’s bodies, and she was not interested in becoming a statistic.

 

            Without another word, Huck took off out of the parking lot towards what appeared to be a small dent in the woods, and she had the sinking feeling that this was the “trail” he intended to lead them down.  Five minutes later, she breathed a sigh of relief when the overgrown walking path opened up into a more manageable trail, and she relaxed a little, allowing herself to enjoy her second-favorite view:  Huck walking.  His gait was smooth, fluid, cat-like.  The movement in his hips was both subtle and enticing, like he was stalking prey.  She loved that walk coming towards her, but she liked it an awful lot walking away, too.

 

            She enjoyed the view so much, apparently, that she didn’t realize how much time had passed.  Huck started to slow, and then pointed to a small opening just off the trail.

 

            “We can camp here.  Why don’t you get your pack off and start pulling out some food while I get start a fire and get the tent up.  It will get dark quick now, so make sure you know where your flashlights are.”

 

            She let go this tiny jab (the flash lights were in their designated location in her bag, of course), eager to help get their temporary home established so they could sit around the fire and talk; she could talk to him for hours about anything.  Huck was quick to goof around and make jokes, but whenever they had the chance to sit down and have deep conversations she left feeling as though her eyes were opened just a little bit wider to the world around her.

 

 

 

            After dinner was eaten (mostly by Huck as one of June’s worst camping nightmares was going to the bathroom in the woods) and everything was put away, she finally got her chance to curl up next to the fire with her man.  Well, almost.  He was sitting next to her, his back against a tree, while he sharpened (again) the blade that had rested against his back while they hiked.  Over and over, he moved the metal pieces against each other.  The sound was soothing to her, though, and that, coupled with the crackling fire, made her very aware of the hours of hiking she had put in today.

 

            “I saw something while we were hiking, a few hours before we stopped.  I don’t want you to freak out, but I do want you to be aware.”

 

            June breathed out, her body immediately tensing.  It was the way he was talking to her, slowly, deliberately.  She had only heard him talk that way one time before, when they were walking through a sketchy part of a park late at night and he saw something that set him on edge.

 

            “Okay… tell me.  What was it?”

 

            “I saw tracks on the trail.”

 

            “What kind of tracks?  Like, bear tracks?  Or deer tracks?”  Oh, please let it be deer tracks, she thought to herself, but she knew he wasn’t talking about dear.

 

            “No, not deer.  They looked like mountain lion tracks.  I’m not sure, and they are extremely rare in Vermont, but I think that’s what they were.  I noticed them when we stopped for water.  In the woods, about 20 feet off the trail, I also saw claw marks in the trees.  Mountain lions mark trees.  They are pretty skittish, and they shouldn’t bother us, but I want you to keep your eyes open.”

 

            The temptation was there to call it a night"as in, get the hell out of dodge"but she refused to be the girl that freaked out in the woods as soon as it got dark and demanded to go home, or to a hotel.  Besides, that is exactly what Huck had foreseen happening and part of the reason it had taken her most of the summer to talk him into taking her in the woods with him.  She would never forgive herself for ruining this weekend, and she bet he would hold it against her for the rest of their lives, or the rest of their “relationship,” whichever came first.

 

            “Okay, good to know.  Thanks for telling me.  Maybe, though, it would be better if you kept that stuff to yourself for the rest of the weekend; I really only need to know about stuff as its happening, okay?”

 

            “Not okay.  I was afraid of animals, too, and then I grew up.  You outweigh mountain lions.  Keep your eyes open and pay attention, and you’ll be fine.”

 

            The mini-lecture turned into a story he had read by Tom Brown, a survivalist and nature enthusiast who wrote the books.  Huck had all of them, and had read them all several times.  One story morphed into another into another, but June didn’t pay much attention until he started talking about the wild plants that grew in the area, and the many medical uses they had.  As a full-time medical student, this stuff was right up her alley.

 

            Finally, after all the knives had been sharpened and inspected, it was time to get ready for bed.  Standing up was rough, but she managed, well aware that tomorrow, and then the next day, was going to be a special kind of hell reserved for girls who tried to impress boys.  June dug to the bottom of her pack and came up with a little scrap of fabric she had hidden after Huck’s last backpack check.   He glanced up just in time to see it.

 

            “What’s that?”

 

            “P.J.s.  I’m going to walk to the stream and change before bed.  You want to come?  I don’t want to get lost or murdered or eaten by a mountain lion or something.”

 

            “That can’t be what you’re sleeping in.  It looks small, like a handkerchief.  You need to get your sweat pants and a sweat shirt, it’s going to be chilly if the fire dies down while we are sleeping.”

 

            Her shoulders dropped.  “But, I bought it for this.  I wanted to wear something special for our first night in the woods.”

 

            He laughed, a deep laugh that usually made her laugh too, but now it sounded like the kind of laugh that meant she was a silly female stuck in a man’s world and not making the grade.

 

            “There’s no sexy time in the woods.  I told you that.”

 

            “Obviously, I didn’t think you were serious.  Why can’t we have sexy time?  Don’t want to make the animals uncomfortable?”

 

            “One night won’t kill you, I promise.  Go do your business and let’s go to bed.”

 

            “Ugh, fine.  Aren’t you coming?”

 

            “Nope, I’ll get the sleeping bags ready.  Hurry up.”

 

            June walked through the trees down to the bank of the stream.  As much as she hated the thought of it, she washed her face and brushed her teeth in the water.  After a quick change of clothes"into sweats"she turned back towards camp.  Five minutes later, when she was still walking with no sign of the fire, she started to become alarmed.  It was dark, with the moon hidden behind clouds, and everything looked the same.

 

            “Huck?” She thought she yelled, but the word came out strangled, a desperate-sounding whisper that was immediately swallowed by the trees.

 

            S**t, she thought.  She turned 180° and walked back the way she had come, one foot directly in front of the other, retracing her steps.  A few minutes passed and there was no sign of the stream.  Breath left her mouth in quick burst, the rise-and-fall pace of her lungs increasing with every passing second.

 

            “Huck?”  Louder this time, but not loud enough since he wasn’t answering her back.  A branch snapped to her left and she pivoted that way, bracing herself for the horror Huck was about to spring on her when he jumped from the bushes.  She laughed then, finally relaxing.  He was messing with her; she wasn’t lost, not if he was right there.

 

            “You got me, Huck.  I am officially scared shitless.  You can come out now.”

 

            Huck didn’t answer her back.  The absolute silence around her was startling, and quickly turned alarming.  Then, another branch snapped and the bush to her right seemed to shudder.

 

            “Huck.”  Definitely a whimper this time.  “Please, stop.  Please, come out of the bushes.  I don’t like this.”

 

            Her plea was answered, but not by Huck.  Out of the bush came the head of what looked like a really large, really scary housecat.  It hesitated, one front paw in the air, and angled its head up, ears perked up and framed by the hair of its head, which appeared to be standing on end.  A low noise came from its throat, something between a hum and a growl, and all the blood left June’s face.  Did Huck actually tell her what to do if she saw a mountain lion?  Is that what this was?  She vaguely remembered something about tucking into a ball, or acting like a crazy person and making a ton of noise, but was that for bears?  She couldn’t remember.

 

            Whatever the case, her body made the decision for her and she froze.  Not that she was moving before, but now she wasn’t even breathing.  Slowly, the rest of the animal emerged from the bush.  Six feet away from her now, it stopped and fixed its stare more fully upon her.  The eyes were intelligent, but cagey, like the cat was sizing her up.  June was suspended in the moment, too terrified to scream, paralyzed by her fear.  If Huck was here, he would know what to do.  

 

            The cat took two more steps toward her, and instinct took over.  June opened her mouth and let out a scream that rivaled any horror movie ever made.  In the following second, the animal froze, then crouched like it might jump.  The threatening movement added fuel to her fire, and the second scream that left her mouth must have been heard 100 miles away.  It was obviously also heard by Huck, as she could hear him yelling her name as he came barreling through the woods toward her. 

 

            The cat heard this too, and, after one last menacing look, it darted into the woods, leaving her alone on the path.  June remained in freeze-frame until Huck broke through the woods to her left.  When he saw her standing there, he stopped so fast it would have been comical if her heart wasn’t in her throat.

 

            “What?  What the hell happened?  Why are you way over here?”

 

            “I…”  June couldn’t talk.  “There was…”

 

            “’There was’ what?  A squirrel?  A bat?  What did you see?”

 

            “No, I… there was… a…”

 

            Huck was standing directly in front of her now, a hand on each shoulder, with his knees bent so he could look her directly in the eyes.

 

            Before even she knew what she was doing, June launched herself into Huck’s arms, jumping up and wrapping her legs around his waist.  She tried to kiss him, but he pulled his head back and looked at her with raised eyebrows.

 

            “I’m fine, it was nothing.  I need you.”

            With that, she pressed her lips against his, kissing him like it was the first time all over again, desperately trying to replace the previous four minutes of sheer terror with something else.  She knew, without a doubt, she would never tell him what she saw; he would never believe her, and she was desperate to forget it had happened at all.

Author's Note

I have (obviously) gone through this many times and I had changed the direction I was going in, so I know that there are variances in past, present, and future verbiage, and any help pointing out places I missed for correction would also be wildly appreciated.

I am also considering turning this into either a longer short story, or a full length novel so I am excited about any and all suggestions or thoughts/concerns.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!