Page 19 of Love Never Happens with your Brother’s Best Friend

“Ha! Really, nature girl?”

“Yup. Anyway. You’re pretty safe.” She bends down to unzip the tent flap. “There hasn’t been a bear sighting at this spot in fifty years. Bears won’t come here.”

“You know that. And I know that. But do the bears know that?”

“Brodie.”

“Yes, Rita.”

“Are you scared?” She looks at me, head tilted over one shoulder.

“Who me?” I point a thumb at my chest. “No… I am fearless. I have stared down a wall of giants coming at me, at a hundred miles an hour, down the football field. Now that’s scary.” I tuck an imaginary ball under my arm. “They try to stop me. But I dodge, left and right, keeping them guessing.” I start running, acting out a set play against imaginary opponents. “Then, I sprint down the outside and… touchdown!” I complete a lap of honor around the campsite while imitating a stadium crowd’s roar. Rita is stony-faced and watches patiently, like a strict classroom teacher waiting for a class of unruly children to settle down. Sheepishly, I stop playing and running around. “Yes, alright… I may be scared…” I scratch my head. “A little bit.”

“Firewood?”

“Okay, okay. Stop nagging.”

I begin to walk away but stop when Rita says, “Oh, and, um, make a lot of noise when you’re kicking through the bracken… to scare away the snakes.”

“Rita. That is not helping my anxiety.”

“Snakes are really very shy and would rather be left alone. So, give them a chance to get out of your way, is all I’m saying.”

“If you’re going to tell me that snakes are more scared of me than I am of them, then you have seriously underestimated the level of my fear.”

Rita laughs, then turns her attention to knocking in some tent pegs and I begin to stomp down the track away from the campsite making as much noise as possible. I’m no longer pretending to be scared. I am actually scared. I don’t want to see a snake. I think about staying in the safety of the camp area, but then that’s not going to impress Rita. She’ll think I’m a wimp and that’s the last thing I want.

Green leaves meet over my head, blocking the sky in some places. I crash around looking for fallen branches and also, I’m hoping I don’t see any snakes. Even if I wanted to be quiet, I doubt if I could, as my feet noisily crunch through the bracken. I look around for firewood and pick up some gnarly broken sticks. Soon I have an armful that I take back to camp.

“Nice work, champ. That’s a good start,” Rita says when I return victorious. “I reckon we’ll need about five times that much.”

“Are you joking, Rita?” I drop the sticks next to the firepit, crestfallen. “I can never tell.”

“No jokes. Off you go,” says Rita, stashing her pack inside her tent, which is tiny. It’s one of those high-tech, all-weather mountain tents that packs down to the size and weight of a loaf of bread.

When I return again, with another armful of firewood, Rita is turning on her radio.

“I’m going to buzz Dylan to find out where they are.”

There’s a crackle of static, then Rita says, “Rita calling Dylan. Are you there, bro?”

More static. Rita tries again and we listen for Dylan’s reply.

“Maybe they’ve been eaten by bears,” I hiss in a whisper.

“Shush.” Rita scowls at me.

Then the crackle of static turns into Dylan’s voice. “Hey, Sis. How’s it going at the camp?”

“All good here. How’s it your end?”

“Um. We’re going slow.” Dylan laughs, then lowers his voice to a whisper. “Morale is pretty low, so it’s great to hear from you guys.”

“Alright, Dylan. We’re on our way,” says Rita. She puts the comms unit into her daypack with her water bottle and stands up ready to go.

“Oh. That doesn’t sound good.” I stash my backpack in Rita’s tent.

“No. I can imagine they’re getting tired and hungry by now,” says Rita as I grab my daypack, then zip up the tent. “Hey, don’t leave any food in there. The raccoons and foxes will sniff it out in no time and trash the place to get it.”

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