Page 16 of Spring Showers

“It’s not your fault. The bicycle tire did you wrong,” Thandie joked and faced the man. Her hand rested in his, and his fingers wrapped around to the back of her wrist. “Oh, my gosh. You’re bleeding. Let me help you.”

“You have a survival kit or something?” he joked, though embarrassment was evident in his eyeroll.

Turning his hand over, blood beaded up and dripped from a cut on his forearm. Without even thinking, she dug in her bag for the first aid kit. It was small, but held bandages, antibiotic ointment, and alcohol wipes. She took the wipe packet in her teeth and tore the paper open. With her free hand, she took the soaked pad and lingered over the wound. “This is going to sting.”

“Just do it,” he said and looked away.

Thandie cleaned the cut, with only a single breath sucked in through the man’s teeth. Using her teeth again, she opened the ointment packet and spread the clear goo over the cut. “Almost done,” she said. “You can look, you know.”

His eyes were closed tightly, and he shook his head back and forth like a little boy.

“There, there,” she said as she blew cold air on the exposed skin in order to dry it before sticking the bandage in place. “All done. You can open your eyes now.”

He turned his face back in her direction and released the breath that she wondered if he had been holding that whole time. She stifled a giggle and cleaned up the mess.

“Thank you for this,” he said with all sincerity.

“You’re very welcome. Just doing my job,” Thandie said. She shoved the trash inside a small plastic baggy and placed it back in her bag. “Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.” Panic seized her chest, and she began searching the ground near where they had come to a stop.

“What is it?” he said and looked with her. “What exactly are we looking for?”

“My phone,” she said. “It was in my hand when you crashed into me. I need it.”

“It’s only a phone, you can get another,” he said. “I’ll replace it if that’s alright with you?”

“No,” she screamed too firmly. “You don’t understand. I need to find it now.” Urgency cracked her voice, and she scanned the hillside up to where they first collided.

“I’m sure it’s not far. Let’s search in a grid,” he suggested logically. “That way we won’t miss it.”

Organized, she thought. They each took a side of the trail and walked up the hill in step with one another. She never wanted to listen to a voicemail more than she did at that very moment. Whatever Davis had to say, she wanted to know. She had a fiery need to know. Even if all he said was that she was the worst. Not knowing was crueler than whatever he had to say to her, and her imagination was already running away with the narrative.

“What’s so important?” the man asked. “Oh, wait. I think I see it over there.”

Thandie followed the line of his pointed finger straight to a muddy puddle a yard off the trail. The phone stuck halfway out of the mud and the screen blinked on and off as though it was shorting out.

“Fantastic,” she said and pushed some brush aside.

The phone was sopping wet with gritty mud and was making some sort of noise that reminded her of a coyote’s cry. She flung the muck from the screen and wiped the rest on her pants leg, but the device came away muddier than before she had attempted cleaning it. That was the moment when she realized she was covered head to toe in the same mud.

Looking at the man, she saw that he was covered too, and the absurdity of the situation overtook her sensibilities. Laughing was all that remained to do. She pointed at the man and, seeing the mud all over himself too, joined her revelry.

“Aren’t we a pair!” he chuckled.

“Come on, I know somewhere we can get cleaned up.” She pointed down the trail. “Where were you heading anyway?”

“The Foundry Retreat,” he said and picked up the broken bicycle from the side of the trail. “Do you know it?”

She realized the blue bike looked just like the one she had back at camp. “Are you one of the guests there?”

“Sure am,” he said. “I’m Grant. I figure we should be introduced since I about killed you, and you tended to my booboo.”

“Thandie,” she said as they took it easy down the slick slope.

In her mind, she ran through the preference sheets and guest info that she remembered from the binder. Grant was the last guest who hadn’t checked in yet when the hike began.

“Are you staying at the resort too?” he asked.

She nodded but something stopped her from saying more.

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