Faithful Shadow (14 page)

“We’re almost there,” Bob said aloud, speaking mostly to himself. They came out of the trees and began walking through the cabins across the parking lot from the Inn.

Bob picked up the pace, moving with purpose despite the pain in the small of his back and the strain on his shoulder. He could bear the mysterious odor no longer. He pushed himself with mental pep talks about how he could do it, how close he was. The last few minutes through the woods had felt like an eternity, like crossing a desert while having your leg tied to a dead horse. They’d made it so far and now they were waiting on the shoulder of the main road to cross. Bob shook his head, finding it so typical that the park was deserted of tourists except for the moment he needed to cross the road. A lumbering dinosaur of a motor home made its way past the Inn, slowing down to look at the Old Faithful Geyser as it erupted in the distance.

“Move it, you big-ass behemoth,” Bob snapped as the driver all but stopped in the middle of the road.

Bob gripped the fingers on Cameron’s right hand and hurried across the road, dragging Cameron’s legs behind him. He pulled him along until he got to the Inn’s front steps. A thought of setting him down on the first step for a good rest came and went. The faster he pulled his stinky ass inside and laid him down, the faster he could get back to the front line and do his job. Bob tightened his hold and went up the steps, moving one at a time with a deep breath in between. With a final lurch, he got Cameron’s boots up and over the lip of the final stair and pulled him into the dark interior of the Inn.

“We need a room.” Bob blurted out before he’d come into view of the front desk, not caring if they were busy.

“Oh, of course. Ah, just a minute.” Jessie looked the fireman in the eye and lingered a moment, trying to remember the instructions her manager had given on what to do when a fireman needed a rest. Which room was it?

“Please,” Bob said, more for himself than Cameron’s sake. “I need to get him into a bed.”

Jessie ducked down, leaning far to the right to look beneath the counter. She held a key in her hand when she stood back up, holding it out to Bob. Jessie shook her head and felt like a complete moron, seeing this poor guy had no way of holding the key or operating the lock while toting his friend around. Jessie came around the counter and turned down the hallway to her right, stopping at the first room on the right. She unlocked the door and stepped aside, allowing Bob to drag his friend inside. Jessie took a step back as they passed, covering her nose as something struck her, hitting her hard like an aroma slap to her face. She left them to their room and hurried back to the counter, thankful to be standing by the front door and the slight breeze that wafted in. Another moment beside them, beside that smell, and she would have surely lost her breakfast of three eggs and French toast.

Bob, too, was reaching his breaking point, his stomach rolling like the sea during a storm. He ducked under Cameron’s arm and let him fall to the bed, landing flat on his stomach with his feet hanging off the edge. Bob grabbed his boots and swung his legs onto the bed, making it a little more comfortable for him. He stood back and debated a moment, asking himself if he really wanted to get close enough to remove his coat and pants. Sure it would probably be a hell of a lot more comfortable for him, but that kind of proximity would more than likely put him over the edge. Throwing up his small breakfast of oatmeal and bananas was not on his to-do list. Bob pulled back to stand in the doorway, looking down at his colleague as he lay on his stomach, soundly as if he was struggling to breathe. Sweat dripped from his forehead onto the sheets.

“I’m going to head back now,” Bob told him, waiting for any kind of response; a nod of the head, a shake of the foot, anything to at least acknowledge his presence. “Do you need anything before I go?”

Cameron parted his lips, releasing a long gasp of air. He hitched in a breath and then fell silent. Bob took two steps into the room, reached out and pulled off his boots. The least he could do was make him a little more comfortable. He pulled off his socks and set them neatly beside the bed. He thought Cameron looked hot, but there was no way he was touching that jacket. But it was the jacket that made him linger a moment longer. As he’d turned to leave, feeling less guilty after removing the boots and socks, he’d noticed something; a slight shift in movement when Cameron had remained perfectly still. The back of his jacket had looked like a yellow tortoise shell earlier, but now it had shifted up to the shoulders, looking like a humpback on both sides. The urge to walk over and touch it became all too strong. But the lingering smell had begun filling the room. Bob stepped out into the hall and quickly shut the door, moving as if the smell were a wild animal that might try to dart out if he wasn’t fast enough.

“Holy shit, that was rank.” Bob let out a long breath and leaned against the wall, wanting to wash everywhere that had touched Cameron. He pushed off from the wall and walked across the vast openness of the lobby, taking a few seconds to look up at what felt like miles of timber stretched out all above him in multiple stairs and walkways, and headed to the front desk. “Here’s your key back. I left it unlocked anyway.”

“Oh, okay.” Jessie took the key and offered a nervous smile, her eyebrows raised. “I hope your friend feels better.”

Bob nodded, taking a moment from the odd situation to feel sorry for this young lady. Everything about her screamed the word ‘awkward.’ Her arms were long and thin, as was her body. She was even a few inches taller than he was. Bob shook his head.

“Do you mind if I use the phone?” Bob took the phone and paused, thinking over the number and coming up completely blank. “You don’t happen to know the number for the hospital here, do you?”

“Oh…no. But I think it’s in this black book here.” Jessie bent down, finally getting on her knees to reach beneath the register. She stood with a thin address book and handed it over to Bob.

“Thanks.” He took the book and thumbed through the pages, looking past locations all around the park such as the Canyon Lodge, the Mammoth Hotel, the Mammoth post office, etc. He found the number for the Lake hospital and the Old Faithful medical facility. He tried Old Faithful first, waiting for what felt like forever, finally getting through. The front desk person told him the doctor would be in later, as they were short staffed. Soon Cameron would be someone else’s problem.

Natasha’s mother had been happy for her as well, but she had some advice. She told her daughter she needed to step away from what was familiar, at least for a short while, before committing her life to one man. Natasha had been quite surprised by her mother’s advice. She was always the calm and steady type, never taking a risk. But she’d been young herself once. Natasha and her mother walked the twelve-acre property line while she listened to her mother tell the tale of when her father had proposed to her. She said she’d been terrified of what her parents would say. With no surprise, her parents had scolded her and threatened to kick her out. Needing a break, her mother had borrowed a motorcycle from her best friend and spent the next three months backpacking through Europe. When she’d come home, she felt just as strongly for her man as she had when she’d left. She took hold of her daughter’s hands and looked her right in the eyes; a stern woman letting down her guard.

Natasha had taken her mother’s words to heart and began researching the different summer jobs for people that needed to get a little life experience. When she’d stumbled upon AMFAL, a company that sets up work abroad program, she had jumped at the opportunity. The hardest part was her long and drawn-out goodbye to Gerik, constantly having to reassure him that she would be coming back and that nothing would change. That was his biggest fear; that she would go to America and fall in love with some cowboy and forget all about him. But she gave him a solemn promise that nothing between them would change.

But something had changed. She pushed her cart of cleaning supplies and spare towels down the hall, knocking on the first door by the stairwell despite the fact she knew it to be empty. “Housekeeping.” The words were so hollow after she’d uttered them over a hundred and twenty times a day. No response, open the door. It’s an easy instruction to follow.

Natasha pulled out her master key and unlocked the door, walking in backward while pulling her cart, careful not to let it jostle too much so everything would spill out onto the floor. Her job had become entirely too easy. With almost every room vacant, she just needed to do a thorough walkthrough, make sure everything was dust-free, the toilet paper was on the roll with the ends folded into a nice decorative triangle. She laughed every time she folded the two corners inward, wondering how many tourists admired the toilet paper before wiping their fat asses. Her laugh was the first one to escape her nervous lips in two days. With this room clean, she stepped out into the hall, locked the door and moved on; opening the next door to the same old scene. Not the best job to have when you’re mulling over a dilemma; nothing to distract her mind from her royal screw-up.

Natasha stood for a moment, looking down at a bed while thinking back to her cabin a few nights ago. As with most nights, it had started out as a social gathering with some friends she’d made; two girls from Poland, a man from Costa Rica, and two guys from the States. One of them, Kent, had been very charming. He worked a few miles down the road at a bicycle shop, renting bikes out to tourists. He was very handsome; tall, muscular, and extremely funny. She’d never felt so free as she did around him, laughing and having fun. The five of them had gone through two full bottles of vodka mixed with some kind of sports drink. She wasn’t sure how much persuasion had come from the alcohol before she’d taken him back to her cabin. As soon as the door shut, her clothes had come off. It was the best sex she’d ever had. She’d actually cried a little after they were done; of course she’d turned her head and nonchalantly wiped the tears away with the sheets. It had been amazing, but it had not been with Gerik. Not only had she broken her promise, but she had felt a spark she didn’t get from Gerik. How could she be with a man who didn’t give her the pleasure Kent did?

The room began to spin, swirling around her as she kept her feet planted. Natasha turned and took a seat on the end of the bed, crying into her hands for the tenth time since she’d shared her bed. She truly did love Gerik, had since the first time she’d ever met him, but there was so much to think about now. Telling him about it would be the hardest part. She was a shy person by nature, avoiding confrontation as best she could. She was sick to her stomach thinking about how the hurt feelings would spread over his face as she told him. She looked up from her wet palms and wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve. If she didn’t keep moving she’d end up retching in the bathroom. At least she’d have all the supplies needed to clean it up. Natasha managed a weak smile at the thought.

Natasha left the room and worked her way through the next one, then the next one. Room after room, moving across the hall to an identical floor plan of the room she just left. Back and forth all day long, like a human ping pong ball with the doors as paddles. She was dreading the end of this shift, knowing full well she needed to speak with Kent. It wasn’t just a night full of fantastic drunken sex; she’d felt a connection. Something in his touch lingered on within her long after he’d left in the morning. Could a single night be enough to fall in love with someone? Natasha had never thought so before the other night, but she couldn’t get his face out her mind; not just because of the guilt she was feeling. He gave her the thrill she’d secretly desired and never knew, the spark that got her heart beating. She craved it now. Like a drug, she needed it. It must be love.

Natasha had been lost in thought when she’d reached the last door, knocking out of habit and waiting the token three seconds for the noise that wouldn’t come. Then she reached down for the locked knob, only it jiggled. Natasha looked down to the knob in her hand with wonder, as if she’d grabbed a doorknob for the first time. She pushed the door open slowly, watching the room grow as the door swung inward. The curtains were closed and there was little light in the room, the only room in the Inn without the shades open to see the splendor of nature.

“Oh, I am very sorry.” Natasha saw the man lying on his stomach with his bare feet hanging off the edge of the bed. “Please excuse me.”

Natasha shut the door and turned to the room across the hall, nodding to herself at the familiarity of the locked knob. She took out her master key and unlocked the door, pulling her cart in after her. As with every other room in the Inn, or the cabins, depending on which shift she was working, she followed her mental checklist of room maintenance. Not a lot of work to be done in this room, just a few tissues in the trash and a candy bar wrapper on the dresser. At least the firemen were pretty respectful and tidy when they slept for a few hours. Not like the one across the hall, looking as if he’d had one too many and just fell into bed.