Page 101 of One Step Too Far

I saw, heave, saw some more. Neil tugs, sits down to rest, tugs some more.

We’re both a sweaty mess in a matter of minutes, my arms stinging from a thousand needle jabs. I think wrestling a porcupine might be easier. I have to take a break to put on my gloves, wishing I’d done so sooner, as my palms are already red with fresh-forming blisters, while my fingers have become sticky with sap.

I give up on the spruce sooner versus later. Just too difficult. We cross to a more open area where there is a spread of picturesque soft-needled pine trees adorned with pine cones.

I hope they are friendlier than the spruce as I hunker down and crawl forward. My hands hurt, my arms are tired. The knife and I are no longer such great friends as I resume sawing through a sticky mess of branches. I learn the hard way that placing a knee on a fallen pine cone really smarts.

I finally sit back on my haunches, breathing heavily.

I find myself gazing fretfully all around us. Is the hunter close? Watching, laughing? Or preparing his ambush of someone else? Maybe stalking Daisy herself?

I can’t have that thought; I start feeling ill.

“Tell me about yourself,” I say abruptly, returning to a particularly stubborn limb lined with forked tongues of green needles.

“Me? Like what?”

“Do you miss Latisha? And how exactly does one woman ensnare an entire group of guys, anyway? Is she like some millennial version of Helen of Troy?”

“Was Helen of Troy a six-foot-tall Black goddess with an intoxicating laugh, a great sense of adventure, and a wiseass wit?”

“I never read the book.”

“I have a girlfriend,” Neil says abruptly.

This is more interesting. None of the guys have talked about other girlfriends or wives.

“Her name is Anna Hajlasz. I’d just started dating her before... I was going to bring her to the wedding as my plus one.”

“You haven’t brought her up before.”

“I, um, I haven’t told the others about her.”

I stop sawing long enough to glance at Neil. “Hang on a sec. You’ve been dating this Anna for over five years, and you haven’t even mentioned her to your friends?”

“It’s a sore subject between her and me,” Neil admits.

“You think?”

“My family has all met her. And my other friends, coworkers. It’s not that I keep her hidden away. I just... I don’t talk about her with Scott, Miguel, and Josh.”

“Because of Latisha?” I’m honestly confused.

“No. I don’t even think of Latisha anymore. Yeah, I had a crush on her. But seriously, three dates? I understood what Scott was saying. There’s a difference between infatuation and love. Once, I was infatuated with Latisha. Five years later, I’m in love with Anna.”

“So why don’t you tell them?”

“I don’t know.”

“Sure you do.”

Neil is quiet. I return to sawing, calling over my shoulder. “You know, we’re probably gonna die soon. Might as well get it off your chest.”

“I don’t want to share her,” he blurts out.

“You’re afraid one of them might steal her? Like Tim did with Latisha and then Scott did with Latisha?”

“Not that. I don’t want to share. I want her to be just mine, to belong to only me. Afterwards... The five of us, we basically spent a decade all mixed up with one another. College pranks, first loves, job opportunities. There’s nothing that doesn’t lead back to all of us and who said what and who did what. After Tim. Losing him. Losing us. I wanted something that was just mine.”

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