Bear

Chapter 8

Sam drove home with her mouth dry and her hands clenched around the steering wheel. The lights at the front of the house were out when she arrived. Elena wasn’t in the kitchen or the living room, so Sam crossed to her mother’s bedroom, knocked, and opened the door.

Her mother looked up. The television was on: a show about homicide investigations, with a picture of some pale Elena look-alike on the screen. “Where’s El?” Sam asked.

“She’s not out there?” her mother said. “Give her a call.”

Sam shut her mother’s door and dialed Elena. Two long rings sounded before Elena answered.

“You’re home already?” Elena said.

“Where are you?”

Elena lowered her voice, trying to be soothing. “I’m taking a walk.”

“Okay,” Sam said. “Are you serious?”

“I just needed to get out of the house. I was too worked up. Don’t freak out, I’m fine, I’m around other people.” In the background of the call, a dog barked, as if to prove Elena’s point.

Sam understood claustrophobia, she understood the overwhelming tension of having too much on your mind, but she didn’t understand taking a stroll in brand-new bear country. Sometimes, as terrible as it was, you needed to stay home. “Where are you? I’ll come get you.”

“Stay there,” Elena said. “I’m close. I’ll be back in ten.”

It took fifteen. Sam had to be up at three-thirty in the morning—these were the most demanding times on her schedule, going from a late shift one day to an early one the next—so she, after checking in with their mother one last time, started getting ready for bed. She brushed her teeth while looking out at the road from the living room window. At last, she saw Elena coming. Sam spat her toothpaste in the kitchen sink and opened the front door. She called, “Are you insane?”

Elena shook her head. “What are you worried about?”

“Oh,” Sam said. “Good question. I don’t know. Maybe the fucking grizzly bear?”

Elena was inside by that time. She locked the door after them while Sam shoved the brush back in her mouth. “You know it was totally random, right? My seeing it. It moves all over the place.”

Sam popped the brush out. “Seems like it’s hanging around here.”

“It’s probably on Shaw by now.”

Sam headed toward the bathroom. Elena followed. With her sister there, Sam did, now, feel a bit more settled. She replaced her brush in the medicine cabinet and rinsed her mouth. Elena’s face was behind her in the mirror, and looking amused, still.

Sam turned around. “You’re not worried.”

Elena smiled wide at her. “No.” Sam could see the shine of Elena’s teeth. The overlap of her canine that, in nervous moments, Elena used to press against with one finger, in the fruitless hope of pushing it back into place.

“That didn’t scare you today?”

“No, it scared the shit out of me,” Elena said. “Completely. But once I realized he wasn’t going to do anything, it was like…well, isn’t this cool?” Sam huffed at that. Elena insisted: “Isn’t it?”

“I guess,” Sam said.

Elena was excited. That sound was still in her voice. Having seen something enormous and raw, she’d been awed. Sam could picture it: her sister the virgin chosen for ritual killing. Danger immediate as a hungry god before her. And yet Elena was unharmed.

Sam had to admit that was pretty cool. Sure. Except: “I don’t like how close it’s been to the house.”

Elena shrugged. “I think we’re okay.”

Cool mint tingled on the insides of Sam’s cheeks, her gums and tongue. “Should we get a dog?”

Her sister laughed.

“For protection,” Sam clarified.

“I’m imagining Jessie.”

“Who’s Jessie?”

“The Larsens’ dog,” Elena said. “Jessie. You know? All sweet and fluffy, trying to protect us.”

“Oh, God,” Sam said. That animal couldn’t even save itself from its groomer. “Fine. Should we get a gun?”

Elena said, “Sammy, we’re okay. I promise.”

And empty as that was—what could her sister’s words do that a guard dog or hunting rifle couldn’t?—Sam was, somehow, comforted. That they would make it through terrifying things, that they would be able to leave with no scars other than the ones they already had. There was no animal lurking. There was no permanent damage to fear. Elena would take care of them, as she always had. They would take care of each other.