Chapter 17
842 Words
16 The Bear Necessities
We stood and watched the wolf until Terry said, "Lets go I don't have all day, He pulled his fishing gear out of his saddlebags while I grabbed my laptop, we then walked across the highway down to the river, Terry chose a wide shallower spot put his sandals on and headed out into the river. I found a nice shady spot under a tree, and opened up my laptop the work on my journal. Every now and then I would stop what I was doing and look up to watch Terry standing there fishing, relaxed and confident, good looking, sexy, the whole package standing in the water in front of me, I was the luckiest girl in the whole world.
I had been concentrating on my work and had lost track of time, when I heard, "Holy s**t!" I quickly looked up and didn't see Terry, I stood up and moved closer to the river, spotting him standing on the bank off to my left about 30 yards, he was watching something but I couldn't tell what, "Krin!" He said in a very measured and deliberate tone, "Move your sweet ass slowly, very slowly back to the bikes, start yours up, slide to the passenger seat and be ready." I still couldn't see what he was looking at, and then I saw it, a medium sized black bear but more of a light brown color, came around a bush, shuffling along the river bank. It was about 20 yards from Terry, who was now slowly backing up, angling towards the strip of trees that separated the highway from the river.
I did as he ordered and once I was close to the road, I dashed across and stuffed the laptop in my saddlebag and hopped on my bike, I slowly rolled close to the highway slid back onto the rider's pillion braced the bike with my feet and looked frantically for Terry. He did as I did, walking backwards to the edge of the road, turning and dashing to the bike, he did an amazing leap jumping on both pegs nearly causing me to dump it, I saw the bear coming through the trees towards us, but it stopped at the edge of the road, not sure if it wanted to cross, suddenly a motor home quickly slowed and stopped, blocking our vision, Terry slammed it into first, goosed the throttle and took off still half standing on the rider's pegs.
We raced up the road for almost a quarter mile, turned around in a pull-off and headed back, the motor home was still there, as well as three cars, people were milling around the vehicles, looking for the bear, Terry rolled into the turn-off, turned to me and said, "she's all yours babe, grab the bars," he quickly jumped off as I slid forward grabbing the handlebars. He scooped up his fishing rod from where he had tossed it jumped on his bike and was starting to pull out onto the road in a matter of seconds, I quickly followed, and pulled up next to him as we headed back south. We pulled in at a picnic area near Le Hardy Rapids to take stock of our situation.
Shaking his head as he climbed off his bike, Terry said, "Man, that was close, I was fishing and heard a noise, thought it was you at first, but then I saw the bear coming down through the bushes, he must have crossed the highway further up and was going for the river. That's when I yelled, good work back there babe, I think he was after me I dropped my fish bucket and damned near lost my sandals, good thing I stuffed my boots and socks in my saddlebag." "Say, while we're here, let me try this creek, the rapids might be holding some trout up in there, wait here, work on your computer some more if you want." I reached over and pulled him close and kissed him, "No more heroics with bears OK!" He chuckled and kissed me, "You got it babe" and walked into the woods along the small creek.
I sat on the picnic table and worked on the computer until the battery warning light came on, I put the laptop back in my saddlebag and watched as a jeep pulled in. thinking they were stopping to have a picnic, I moved away from the table and over to the parked bikes. Two scruffy guys who looked around 21 or so got out and sat down at the table pretending to study a map. Instantly, my "Creepy Guy" radar was on since I had tight short shorts on they kept looking at me, I glanced down at my right boot checking the boot knife sticking out the side. "Hey baby, what's happening? Can you help us with this map, we think we missed our turn, we're looking for Fishing Bridge." I pointed at the road and said "It's another couple miles that way."
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