Chapter 12
JESSE
“I swear to God,” I grumbled into my enormous coffee cup, “if we don’t see the biggest fucking moose with the biggest fucking rack…”
From the driver seat, Eric laughed. “Hey, there’s no guarantees. They’re wild animals.”
“It’s three o’clock in the morning and I’m conscious.” I gestured at the windshield with the cup. “Moose—get your asses out where I can see them.”
He just chuckled and kept driving. The streets of Greenville were deserted and the windows in every business, house, and cabin were dark, which made sense given that no sane person would be awake at this hour.
Eric had driven us back into Greenville, and he was now taking us out the other way into the forested hills.
Like literally into the forested hills—we were off the pavement now, bumping down a gravel road past signs warning that logging trucks had right of way.
I had no idea how he navigated out here, especially once we moved onto what appeared to be a logging road.
There were no signs, and the only evidence that other vehicles had been through at all here were somewhat worn tire tracks with tall weeds shooting up between them.
At one point, the dense forest gave way to a broad expanse of treeless darkness; an open field, I assumed. Could’ve been a lake or a basketball court for all I could see, though.
Then Eric turned onto the shoulder. There wasn’t what I would call parking spaces, but he did find a reasonably flat spot so that if someone drove by, we wouldn’t be in their way. Right. Because there were probably dozens of cars driving through here at this hour.
Eric’s headlights illuminated the field briefly, showing sparse bushes and weeds along the gently rolling ground. There were some sapling trees poking up too, and I thought I made out the forest resuming in the distance. The lights went off before I could focus, though.
He shut off the engine, took off his seat belt, and settled back against the driver seat, sipping his own coffee. “And now… we wait.”
I eyed him. “You’re sure about this.”
“Mmhmm.” He tipped his cup toward the field. “There’s probably a couple dozen moose sleeping out there right now. Once the sun comes up, they’ll start getting up.”
“So… why did we have to get out here before the sun comes up?”
“Because by the time they wake up, they’ll have forgotten they heard a vehicle coming into the woods.” He again gestured at the field with his coffee cup. “And once they’re up and moving, they’ll go into the trees and we won’t see shit.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I still think you dragged me out of bed just to troll me.”
He offered me a broad grin. “But you’ll get to see moose, and afterward, you won’t know if I tricked your not, so…” He raised his cup in a toast.
I huffed and took a sip of my own coffee. I was pretty sure he was fucking with me.
The early hour and the quiet took their toll, and I dozed off before long.
When I opened my eyes again, the faintest warmth of dawn had begun to creep into the scenery.
Rocks and bushes began to take shape. As the light steadily brightened, I made out more and more, including the thick forest forming a dense wall around the perimeter of the field.
The clearcut was probably twice the length of a football field—maybe a hundred yards or so across and two hundred end to end.
As the sun breached the horizon, frost sparkled on everything from fern fronds to rocks. A thin mist hung over most of the field, making it otherworldly, especially in the pinkish light.
Beside me, Eric sat up, squinting through the windshield.
“You see something?” I kept my voice soft as if the moose might hear me and spook.
“Maybe,” he murmured. “There’s some steam up there by that little clump of trees.”
I leaned forward too, peering in the direction he’d indicated.
At first I thought he might be hallucinating—it was to be expected for someone awake this stupid fucking early—but then I saw it.
Near the clump of trees, some of the mist was moving in a way the rest of it wasn’t. Rising in little tendrils.
“You think that’s a moose?” I asked.
“Could be. Or it could—oh! There!” He pointed a few degrees to the left of the steam, and it only took a second to see what had caught his eye.
An enormous shape rose, then shook, its long ears flopping while steam rose off its body. Then it looked around, ears up as if listening to its surroundings.
“That’s a girl, right?” I asked. “No antlers?”
Eric nodded. “Yep.”
I squinted, trying to see her better through the mist. “Man, they’re weird-looking.”
He chuckled. “I know, right? There’s a reason they call them lumbering swamp donkeys.”
As if on cue, the moose started walking, and yes, she was definitely lumbering. Moose had always seemed bizarre in photos, and they were no less weird in person. The wonky head. The huge ears. The clunky gait of those long, knobby legs.
Another moose rose a few yards away. Then another. One had antlers, but they looked more like a normal deer’s antlers—like sticks with little branches on them instead of the huge rack I expected to see on a moose.
“That’s all they get for antlers?” I asked. “Are the ones in Alaska the only ones who get the big ones?”
Eric shook his head. “No, the big ones are here, too.” He gestured with his coffee cup at the bull. “He’s young.”
“Oh. So the big ones are older. Makes sense.”
“That’s usually how it works, isn’t it?”
I flipped him off. He just chuckled.
As we watched, another cow rose and shook herself off. A moment later, there was some movement beside her, and a pair of ears poked up from behind a bush.
“Oh my God.” I leaned forward in my seat and squinted out the windshield. “Is that a baby?”
“Where?” Eric peered around.
I pointed toward the ears. “By that big rock, a few feet to the left.”
“I don’t see—oh! Okay, yeah, I see it!”
As we watched, the mother lumbered up a small hill, and the baby wandered fully into view. It was like a small and even more comically leggy creature than its mother.
Eric took out his phone and snapped a few pictures. So did I. As Mom and baby lumbered through the field, I took a few more, then switched to a video.
“Oh, hey.” Eric gestured toward the left. “There’s another.”
I turned my head and panned the camera, and I found where he was pointing just in time to watch a huge moose push to its feet.
It shook, sending up a small cloud of dust and steam.
When it swung its head around, I was mildly disappointed not to see a big rack, but it did have slightly bigger antlers than the other bull.
I stopped the video and lowered my phone, grinning like an idiot. “That is so fucking cool.”
“Worth getting out of bed early?”
I pursed my lips, then wobbled my hand. “Maybe.”
He tsked. “Maybe?” Flailing toward the windshield, he said, “You’ve gotten to see, what, five moose? Including a baby? What more do you want?”
“I was promised a bull with a huge rack.”
“You were promised nothing. I said we might see one.”
“Rude.”
We exchanged playful, tired glares, then both chuckled.
“Let’s drive around a bit.” He started the engine. “There are some other areas where they like to hang out.”
He drove us deeper into the hills, and while we did see another young bull wandering through the trees, it was otherwise a bust. Still, I did get to see some moose.
And I got a pretty cool video of a mom and baby, plus a bull.
Even if I hadn’t seen one with a set of giant antlers, I couldn’t complain.
When we returned to Greenville, the town was awake and as bustling as a tiny town like this ever was. Eric found a café that he’d been to before, and to my surprise, they had a brief wait before we could sit.
“That means they have good food, right?” I asked. “If a place in a town this small is this full?”
He nodded. “Trust me. They’re worth it.”
He was right, too. The omelet I ordered was perfect, and Eric’s Belgian waffle looked amazing; I’d have to try that if we came here again, which we probably would. Their coffee wasn’t half bad, either, which was good because we were both downing the stuff like it was going out of style.
“I can’t believe you got me out of bed at three in the morning,” I grumbled between sips.
He laughed. “And I can’t believe you’re still bitching about it.” Gesturing at my phone, which was facedown beside my empty plate, he asked, “How many likes did that video get?”
“Probably not many yet.” I opened the app to check. “It’s still ungodly early, and—oh, wow. Thirty. That’s not bad.” I put the phone back down. “I don’t have a ton of followers, so I’ll take it.”
He chuckled behind his coffee. “Watch it go viral.”
“From your lips to the internet gods’ ears.” I huffed with mock annoyance. “I just wish I could’ve seen one of the big bulls.”
“I know.” He grinned. “But if you’re still willing to get up at the crack of dawn, we could try again…”
I made a face. “Ask me again after I’ve had some sleep and some more coffee.”
“I will,” he said. “And you’ll jump on it because you’ll remember how cool it was to watch a baby moose wandering through a field.” Okay, he probably had me there.
“Hell, I’ll come to see the adult moose.” I paused. “Is it ‘moose’ or ‘mooses’?”
“Pretty sure it’s ‘moose.’”
“I mean, I guess I could use ‘moose’ in a caption on social media and see if anyone corrects me.”
Eric grinned. “You could use ‘meese’ and see if someone’s head explodes.”
I snorted. “Well, damn. Now I’m tempted.” I paused. “‘Meese’ sounds like someone combined a goose with a moose.”
He grimaced. “That would be fucking terrifying. Can you imagine a Canada goose as big as…” He gestured at the field where the moose were lumbering around. “They’d be, like, giant murder dinosaurs with antlers.”
I was cracking up before he’d even finished saying that. “Oh my God. Dude, are you sure you should be driving? You sound like you’ve been…” I pantomimed smoking a joint.
“Pfft. No. I’m just up at fuck-you-thirty because someone wanted to see…” He flailed his hand at the field again.
“Bro, this was your idea. And it was your idea to do it again.” I put up my hands and shook my head emphatically. “This is on you.”
He grumbled something and picked up his coffee.
I just chuckled and sipped my own. As much as I didn’t do mornings, it had been worth it in the moments when we’d seen moose emerging from where they’d slept the night before. It had been totally worth it to see the tiny baby.
It had been totally worth it to be out here with Eric.
Something told me we’d be back out here before too long, watching moose wake up in the light of the sunrise.
Early-ass morning or not…
I couldn’t wait.