Small Change (24 page)

A second later Rachel heard an “oomph” followed by the snapping of twigs. This was quickly followed by an emphatic “shit!” She turned to see Tiffany picking herself up and looking like a thunder-cloud. “What happened?” As if she couldn't tell. Actually, she was surprised she hadn't been the first one to go down.

“I tripped over a branch.” Tiffany picked up her pail, which was now empty. “And I spilled my berries,” she groaned.

“Oh, well. You didn't have that many anyway,” Rachel informed her.

“Thanks.”

“Are you two coming?” Jess called.

“We're on our way,” Rachel called back.

“I don't see why we have to go so far into the woods,” Tiffany complained behind her.

Rachel turned and frowned at her. “Because that's part of the adventure. Come on, now. Try to make this fun, will you?”

“All right, all right. I hope my mother-in-law appreciates her Christmas present. That's all I've got to say.”

“Homemade blackberry and huckleberry jams and syrups? She'll think you're a saint.”

“That would be a change.”

Now Jess was in sight. She held up her big soup pot and tipped
it so Rachel could see how many berries she'd already gotten. The pan was already a quarter filled.

“Wow, you've made great progress,” Rachel praised her.

“I'd made progress, too, till I fell,” Tiffany grumbled.

“You fell?” Jess asked.

She had enough concern in her voice to encourage Tiffany to display her scratched arms. “Look at this.”

“Well, that's no fun,” said Jess.

“Don't give her sympathy,” Rachel said in disgust. “You'll just enable her.”

Tiff tossed her head and marched to a bush on the other side of Jess.

Rachel and Jess looked at each other and laughed.

“What's so funny?” Tiffany demanded.

“You,” said Rachel. “You'd think, the way you're behaving, that we dragged you to the ends of the earth. I swear, I feel like I've got Claire with me.”

“Well, you did drag us to the ends of the earth,” Tiffany snapped.

“At least you're with your friends,” Jess said comfortingly.

“That will make me feel so much better when we're getting torn limb from limb,” said Tiffany, grabbing a branch and pulling a handful of berries off of it.

“Listen,” said Rachel. “You hear that?”

“What?” Tiffany looked over her shoulder.

“Voices,” teased Jess in sepulchral tones. “We are not alone.”

“People are hiking up the trail,” said Rachel. “See? You're not really in the wilds.”

“Wild enough,” grumbled Tiffany, but she gamely kept picking.

Oh, well,
thought Rachel,
we can't all be nature girls.

But as Tiffany's pot began to fill with berries she got more into the spirit of the outing and even strayed as far as three feet away from Rachel's side. Progress, indeed.

It was a perfect September day, and the morning sun fell warmly on Rachel's shoulders, lulling her into a sense of peacefulness. The air smelled so fresh! She took a deep breath, filling her lungs. So what if she was on a shoestring budget? The point was, she was living, really living. She was in love and her children were healthy and she had her friends. And saving money was becoming an adventure.

She was so busy musing on the wonderful turn her life had taken that she didn't hear the crashing in the underbrush until Tiffany screeched.

“Bear!” cried Tiffany. She threw her pot over her shoulder and bolted, starting a female stampede.

She pushed into Jess and Jess's big pot of berries went flying as well. Jess didn't stop to mourn. Her eyes were the size of CDs as Tiffany swept her forward. The two of them collided with Rachel, who was still taking in the whole drama—the screaming friends, the lost harvest, the black shape bounding toward them. Down they all went like the Three Stooges in drag.

Tiffany scrambled up, heedless of the branches scratching at her, still screaming like a banshee, and bolted off in a direction that Rachel was sure wouldn't lead them back to the trail. Jess hauled Rachel up and was ready to follow.

Too late. The animal was upon them. It burst forth from the underbrush and Rachel's heart stopped. Jess let out a shriek.

And the big, slobbery, overjoyed black lab jumped up on Jess, ready to play, and knocked her back down on top of a huckleberry bush.

“Moose!” called a male voice.

“Moose,” muttered Rachel. “That is not a bear.” She reached down and hauled Jess back to her feet.

“Oh, my God,” panted Jess. “I almost had a heart attack.”

Now two young guys wearing jeans and University of Washington Huskies sweatshirts came running up. “Sorry,” said the one wearing glasses. “Did he scare you?”

“Well, our friend is still running,” said Jess.

The spectacled guy grabbed the dog by the collar and snapped a leash on it. “Sorry. He saw a squirrel.”

“Just so he didn't see a bear,” said Jess. “We'd better go find Tiff,” she said to Rachel.

After apologizing again and helping the women find their now empty pans, the invaders moved off, and Rachel and Jess went in search of Tiffany.

“Tiff! It wasn't a bear,” called Rachel.

“I don't care,” Tiffany's voice echoed back to them. “I'm done.”

They exchanged glances. “I guess we are, too,” Rachel said with a sigh.

“Let's stay a little longer and see if we can recoup our losses,” Jess suggested. “She'll wait at the van.”

Jess was right. It would be stupid to abort the mission simply because one of them was a wimp. “Hey Tiff, wait at the van,” Rachel called. “We'll be there in a little bit.”

“Fine. Don't blame me if you get eaten,” Tiffany called back. “And just for the record, neither one of you jumped in front of me and the bear like you said you would.”

Jess rolled her eyes.

“I'm not sharing my berries with her,” Rachel said as they started picking again. “She who doesn't work doesn't eat.”

“You're a mean one, Mrs. Grinch,” crooned Jess.

“That's right, and proud of it,” Rachel said with a smile.

They picked on for another forty minutes with no sign of a bear. Or a dog. Or any human life. It was now afternoon and Rachel realized she was beginning to overheat. “My tongue feels like cotton,” she said. “I guess we should have brought some water.”

“Probably,” agreed Jess. “But then we'd have to go potty out here in the woods and I'm not a potty in the woods kind of girl. Come to think of it, neither is Tiff. And I just realized, she's locked out of your van.”

“Yes, but there's a restroom at the trail head.”

“She'll have to be really desperate to use it,” said Jess. “But no more talk of restrooms. This is giving my bladder ideas.”

Come to think of it, Rachel was feeling the need of the restroom. “We'd better head back,” she decided. “I want to make sure I'm home in plenty of time to beat the school bus.”

“I think we've got enough berries for a few gift jars anyway,” said Jess. Rachel started in the direction of the trail.

“Wait a minute,” said Jess. “Where are you going?”

“To the trail?”

“Well, it's not that way.”

“Yes, it is.”

Jess pointed in a different direction. “We need to go that way.”

“That's not going to take us there,” Rachel insisted. “I'm positive.”

Jess shrugged. “All right. Have it your way.”

“Trust me,” said Rachel. “I know what I'm doing.” Twenty minutes later, she said, “All right. We're lost.”

“Great,” said Jess irritably. “Now I really do have to go to the bathroom.”

“I'm sorry,” Rachel said humbly. “I don't know how I could have gotten turned around.”

“It probably happened when we were running from the dog,” said Jess.

YOU were running from the dog,
thought Rachel, but she wisely kept her mouth shut. No sense pointing that out. If she did, Jess might feel the need to point out that she was the one who had gotten them lost. “So, what way do you think we should go?”

Jess shook her head and looked around. All they could see for miles were baby pines, scrubby alders, rhododendrons, and huckleberry bushes. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

Rachel heaved a sigh. “Let's try this way.”

So, off they went. This way didn't work any better than that way had.

“God help me. I'm going to have to go to the bathroom in the woods,” groaned Jess.

“Just so we don't wind up having to sleep in the woods,” said Rachel.

“Don't even joke about things like that,” Jess said with a shudder. “I have a gig tonight.”

And Rachel had to be home for her children. She checked her watch. At the rate she was going she'd be lucky to get home in time to make dinner let alone be there for them when they got out of school. And she had a student coming for a tutoring session at five. Never mind getting back by five. Would they get back at all? She was hot from hiking and dying of thirst and Jess was probably ready to kill her.

She suddenly wanted to cry. “I'm such a big know-it-all. I should have listened to you.” Why did she always think she was right even when she was wrong?

Jess gave her a hug. “You're not a know-it-all. You're a teacher, a born leader, and we love you for it.”

“Does that mean that if we are stranded out here and never found that you won't eat me?”

Jess grinned. “I don't like to make rash promises. Come on, let's try going this direction.”

“I should have brought a compass,” Rachel moaned, falling in step behind Jess. What kind of teacher went into the woods without a compass? One who hadn't meant to stray so far from the trail or run from a bear that turned out to be a dog. Oh, well, live and learn. Hopefully.

Another ten minutes of walking didn't seem to bring them any closer.

“Now what?” Rachel asked Jess.

“Scream for help?”

Of course. Why hadn't she thought of that? “Great idea.” Tiff was at the van. They could follow the sound of her voice and find their way back.

“Tiffany!” they both screamed.

No answer.

They looked at each other. Rachel saw her own panic reflected in Jess's eyes.

“Tiffany! Tiffany!”

Maybe a bear got her. “Tiffany!” Rachel screeched.

Finally a faint voice echoed back. “Rachel?”

“We're lost,” called Rachel. “Keep hollering.”

It was a moment before they heard anything, but then they heard her again. “Stay put. I'm coming in.”

“No!” they both screamed.

“It's okay,” Tiff's disembodied voice assured them.

Rachel collapsed on a stump and hugged her pot of berries. “We're doomed.”

“Tiff, just stay put,” called Jess, “or we'll all be lost.”

“No, we won't,” hollered Tiffany.

Jess fell onto another stump. “I don't believe this.” She heaved a sigh. “And now I'm going to have to suffer a fate worse than death.” She set down her pot and wandered off between the clumps of bushes.

“Where are you going?” cried Rachel in a panic.

“Nature calls,” Jess said over her shoulder. A moment later she disappeared behind a shield of rhododendrons and huckleberry bushes.

Rachel heaved a sigh and hugged her pot. They weren't that far from civilization. Someone would find them. Someday.

Jess was emerging from her sylvan restroom, her face a picture of disgust when they heard a crashing in the underbrush. Rachel jumped up, clutching her pan like treasure, her heart racing. Another moment and a black, four-legged form bounded into sight. Moose.

A moment later the two college boys appeared, followed by Tiffany. Saved. They were saved!

“I brought help,” said Tiffany.

“Thank God,” said Jess, coming up behind Rachel. “We've been wandering for hours. Why didn't you answer when we first called?” she demanded of Tiffany.

Tiffany blushed. “Well, it was so nice and warm. I stretched out on the hood of a car and fell asleep. These guys actually heard you.” She smiled at one of the rescuers. From the way he was
looking back at her, Rachel suspected he would have carried her into the woods on his shoulders if she'd asked him to. “Good thing they woke me up,” she added.

“We knew right where to find you,” said the one with glasses. “Didn't we, Moose?”

The dog wagged its tail and barked.

“Just so you know how to get us out of here,” said Rachel.

“No prob,” said their bespectacled hero. “Come on, Moose.” The dog bounded off into the huckleberry bushes and the humans followed at a more sedate pace. Moose's daddy pointed to Jess's pot. “That's a pretty good haul. What are you gonna do with all those?”

“Make jam,” said Jess. “If you give me your address I'll save a jar for you.”

“Sweet. My name's Ted, by the way. This is Mark.”

As they made their way to the parking lot it quickly became apparent that Tiffany had already told the guys all their names and pretty much shared their entire life stories.

“Your blog sounds awesome,” Ted said to Rachel. “I'm gonna have my girlfriend check it out.”

It took them less than fifteen minutes to hike back to the parking lot … and the restroom, which Rachel used as soon as she had thanked their rescuers.

Ted and Jess were exchanging information when she rejoined the group. “Here's my number and my dad's e-mail,” he said to Jess. “He's in HR at Microsoft. You should have your son give him a call.”

“How cool is that?” crowed Tiffany as they waved good-bye to Ted and Mark.

“Very cool,” admitted Jess.

Even more cool, thought Rachel as she checked her watch, was
the fact that it looked like she'd actually make it home in plenty of time to meet her children when they got off the bus.

“I can hardly wait to go home and drink a gallon of ice water,” said Jess once they were back in the minivan.