“Hey, sleepy,” Dove called out, as Jo exited the bottom of the stairs. She was in the kitchen with Lary serving up breakfast. The air was imbued with the smell of scrambled eggs and skillet toast.
“More like Grumpy,” Drew joked from the dining table.
Everyone laughed. Jo ducked into the bathroom.
In the medicine cabinet mirror, she viewed the puffy skin under her eyes and soothed it with the ice-cold water from the faucet. She ran a brush through her thick hair, debated on pulling it back, and left it down. She pulled on an aqua-blue tank top and tan shorts. Cute. But not as cute as the jean shorts and white tank Red had on over all those curves.
Jo took a long hard look at herself in the mirror, more inside than outside. She thought about the way Mike had acted with Red last night, how they had practically ignored her; how she had slunk away, and no one had cared; how Galen had nearly threatened her on the porch. She gripped the edge of the sink and leaned her head down. “Help me, Lord,” she whispered. She gathered her stuff and stepped out of the bathroom—right into Galen.
He was in the same clothes. Made it through the night—pity. He was staring down at her, but her gaze stayed on the grey threads in his T-shirt. “Good morning,” she greeted him cheerfully and was proud of herself.
The group finished breakfast and made lunches to go. Backpacks were packed and water bottles filled. Lary led them in a prayer for a safe and awesome day. They poured out the front door.
“What a beautiful day!” April stepped off the porch and into the bright, yellow sunlight.
Jo stepped with her and they walked briskly to catch up to the others who were already at the end of the driveway. But where the driveway met the dirt road, Jo stopped. For a moment, she observed the quiet, green world around her with an uneasy feeling.
April slowed to a stop and turned around. “Jo, what’s wrong?”
“Listen.”
Because Jo and April stopped, so did Ben and Drew, and then Lary and Dove.
Mike was the last to realize his friends weren’t following. “What’s up, guys?”
The group stood spread out on the road with puzzled faces. No one, except Jo, knew why they had all stopped.
Jo walked to April. The crunching of her shoes on the gravel drew everyone’s attention.
Mike’s gaze filled with curiosity. “What is it, Jo?”
For once she wasn’t grinning bashfully. “It’s too quiet,” she said, meekly.
Her friends began turning and tilting their heads in different directions, listening to the forest, except Red, who peered at her with petulant eyes.
“Yes,” Ben said softly, “where are all the birds?”
“What birds?” Drew asked.
“That’s just it,” Ben said. “There are about 280 species of birds in this area. Ptarmigan, Jays, Woodpeckers—”
Red huffed loudly. “Are you going name them all? Who cares?”
“You should.” Galen’s voice came down from the trees up on the sloped land next to the driveway. He was leaning back against a pine tree gazing down on them. Jo wondered how long he’d been watching them. There was a twitch in her gut.
“Why’s that?” Mike asked him.
“Something killed them.” He pushed off the tree and climbed down to the road.
Jo’s brow crinkled.
“Like a plague?” Lary asked.
Drew pulled the neck of his T-shirt up over his nose.
“Like something that needs to eat.” Galen stepped onto the road. He lifted his gaze above their heads and said coldly, “There’s a hunger in this place.”
Jo pressed her lips together to staunch a grin and tilted her head down. She was almost embarrassed for him.
“A hunger,” Mike repeated.
Galen pointed his steel gaze at him. “Fanatical.”
Mike rolled his tongue around in his mouth. “For birds?”
Jo looked at April and lifted her eyebrows. April pursed her lips. Jo studied Galen, shaking her head. He IS a psycho.
“And what kind of animal is so fanatically hungry?” Mike asked.
Galen hooked his thumbs in his front pockets. “I didn’t say it was an animal.”
The skin on Jo’s back tingled.
“So, what’s the danger to us?” Red asked. “We’re not birds.”
Galen shook his head. “I don’t think it matters.”
Mike took a deep breath. “Galen, have you ever been in this forest?”
“No.”
“So, how do you know about this hungry…whatever?”
Galen’s eyes roved the landscape. “I can’t explain it.” He looked back at Mike. “I feel it. How ‘bout if we play it safe and stay here?”
“Enough of this crap!” Red snapped. The skin on her temples and forehead turned magenta. “We came up here to go on this hike and your feelings about dead birds are not going to stop us.”
Mike told her to calm down. Red glared at Galen, but a few seconds later the anger on her face transformed. She strode over to him. “Don’t worry, babe,” she spoke in her kittenish way. “I won’t let the big, bad bird-eater hurt you.” She placed a hand on the middle of his chest and ran it downward to his abdomen. She flattened her palm against his stomach and lifted her eyes to meet his. “Hmm…someone works out.”
Mike’s face turned pink. Dove frowned and shook her head. Jo was amused.
Galen beheld Red with his lips pressed together gently, his expression dispassionate. He didn’t say a word, but something in his eyes dissolved her sensual smile. She withdrew her hand and backed away from him. Jo tried to erase her grin as Red glanced at her. She dropped her eyes quickly. Red tromped back over to Mike. “Can we please go?”
Mike looked at Galen. “Well?” He squeezed the straps of his backpack.
Galen sucked his lips against his teeth and shook his head. “This is a bad idea.”
“It’s a simple hike,” Mike told him. “We’ll be there and back in no time. But, hey, if you don’t want to go, you don’t have to.”
Galen looked up into the sky and sighed. “Yeah, I do. But, listen, we have to be back before it gets dark.”
“Oh, my god—now he’s afraid of the dark!” Reds hands balled into fists and slammed onto her hips. Jo pictured her exploding into millions of pieces of freckled flesh and tufts of red hair.
“Well, we’ve got plenty of time—if we get started,” Lary said.
Mike and Red didn’t wait another moment. They turned together, walking away. Red was verbally ripping Galen. Mike was focused on the road. “Come on, guys,” he called out, without turning his head.
Everyone followed.
But Jo hesitated.
“Come on, Jo,” April nudged her and started walking.
“Jo.” Her name came from Galen’s mouth. Reluctantly, she turned and faced him. “Why don’t we stay here?” He flicked a lock of black hair from his grey eye.
Jo’s jaw fell. He does want to kill me! She shook her head rapidly. “No thanks. That’s Ok.” She was barely able to hide her revulsion.
“I just thought, since you don’t like to swim, you might want to stay here. I don’t like to swim either.” His voice sounded kind, but his eyes told a different story.
Jo shook her head slowly and took a step back—into someone. She turned quickly. Dove and April were behind her.
“Uh…coming with us?” Dove asked, her eyes darting from Galen’s face to Jo’s.
“Absolutely,” Jo answered.
The girls walked rapidly to catch up to the rest of the group, leaving Galen standing in the middle of the road. April looked back. “Come on, Galen,” she encouraged him. Jo threw her a look of disgust.
“So, what was that all about?” Dove asked, as they walked down the familiar trail.
“I don’t have a clue. Why would he think for one second that I want to be alone with him? Ugh.” She shivered dramatically. She looked at April and made a face. “And how did he know about—”
“Jo,” Dove p
ointed into the forest, “that’s where that person was kneeling last night.”
“What?” April asked.
“There was someone in there last night,” Dove told her.
“Or something,” Jo added.
“Maybe Galen’s right,” April whispered.
“Oh, don’t you get caught up in his psycho-babble,” Jo scolded.
“Hey, you started this whole thing.” April grinned.
Jo closed her mouth and sighed. “Well, I was right about it being too quiet. But then ol’ dark ‘n dour had to go crazy on us.”
“Yeah, it’s great he thinks there’s something dangerous out here, but you’re the only one he wants to stay behind with him,” April spoke with playful resentment.
A sly grin was taking over Dove’s expression. Merriment gleamed in her sea-blue eyes. “Maybe the ‘hunger’ is in Galen, and Jo’s the one he’s hungry for.”
April and Dove giggled hysterically. Jo blanched and said the only word she could match with her feelings, “Barf!”
Chapter 10