Chapter 3: 2. Cielo

Gaping at the truck as it crested the next hill before disappearing from sight, I finally managed an indignant huff. It wasn’t quite the rebuttal I would have hoped for, but it was the best I could drum up at the moment.

“He’s kidding, right?” I asked myself.

Since I’d been forced to hitchhike, I had been expecting a barely literate local to drive by and give me a lift. My suspicions had seemed all but confirmed when I’d first heard, then seen the rusty pickup come into view. What I hadn’t expected had been the incredibly gorgeous looking man behind the wheel, ogling me like a sideshow act.

It was only by the grace of the truck’s interior overhead light that I had seen the man’s hair had been simply a deep brown, rather than black. It was the pale blue eyes, furrowed in confusion, which had caught my initial attention. They looked as if they were peering into my thoughts, and I thought they seemed to be looking for something, though what, I didn’t know.

It might have been simple to tell myself I was allowing my artistic soul to make my decisions for me. That was, until I saw the shape of the man under his light jacket. I had seen the general bulk of him, but found my thoughts stuttering when the dome light in the cab illuminated the interior properly. My ride turned out to have the sort of body gym bunnies strived for but would never find.

I had barely been paying attention to the conversation as I’d sat less than a foot from Dominic. The man had smelled like the autumn air, with the slight zing of what I thought was apple. I had felt shorter than usual beside him, and I was amazed I’d managed to get through the conversation. Dominic’s voice, despite dripping with doubt and edged with sarcasm, had been deep and soothing. The daze I had felt locked into had fallen away the moment he had mentioned bears, however.

“Why are all the hot ones assholes?” I asked.

Well, I for one wasn’t planning on getting eaten or mauled by any bears. I wasn’t totally sure if bears ate people, but I was going to be a little more cautious, just to be sure. I tapped the rucksack flung over my shoulders absently at the thought. The tent I’d dragged all the way from New York wasn’t exactly light, and I wasn’t totally sure it would be any real defense against bears either. My original hope was that it would be enough to keep me and the others safe from the elements, and perhaps the occasional stray animal, but I hadn’t considered bears.

“An evil asshole,” I amended as I turned away from the road.

Thankfully, despite feeling horribly out of my element, I had no problem finding the place marked on the map for our campsite. I’d never used a paper map before, but the lack of signal out in the middle of nowhere had forced me to. Yet, we’d chosen a site that wasn’t far off the road, and I was relieved I only had to walk through the darkening woods for a few minutes.

My tension bled away as the forest opened up into a broad meadow. Sure, it was surrounded by the oppressive wood, but it was open enough that the sunlight still filtered in over the trees. It was more than enough space for me to set up the tent and have plenty of room for my group of friends to relax and hang out. When the rest showed up, they’d be bringing the chairs and hopefully some entertainment with them. I was all for the experience of the outdoors, but I wasn’t so sure I wanted to hang around without even music to pass the time.

Without thinking about it, I pulled my phone from my pocket to check the notifications. It took a moment before I remembered I was in the middle of nowhere, and that even a single bar of service would probably be a godsend. Still, I had at least expected to hear from my friends while I’d been in town. Yet all I’d received was a short reply to my message, which was meant to confirm the group would be coming.

Eventually.

I shook my head, refusing to allow the thoughts purchase before slapping the rucksack on the ground and rummaging through it noisily. So long as I kept myself busy, I didn’t have to worry about any annoying thoughts intruding and distracting me. Better to focus on getting the camp together so that when everyone arrived, I’d be ready. I took only a moment to find that one sweet spot around the camp that produced a signal. It wouldn’t be enough to do more than make a few hazy phone calls, but it was enough for me.

With that, I used the spot to mark where I would set up the camp. As I began pulling the collection of poles and tarp out in a tangled heap, a scratching noise brought my head snapping up. Eyes wide, I searched until I found the source of the noise, letting out a soft laugh in relief. A chubby raccoon sat at the base of one of the large trees, something I supposed was food clenched between its nimble fingers. Its ringed face was turned to me, watching me carefully but it seemed neither aggressive nor worried, simply curious.

“Come to watch me, huh? Well, at least someone will be here to witness me doing something,” I said to it, not surprised to see it didn’t even twitch in response.

The task of erecting the tent turned out to be harder than I’d originally thought it would be. The instructions which came with the tent had somehow become damp and torn, making them only partially useful. I fought with the tent’s poles, cursing when at one point, one of them flipped out of the ground to smack me across the cheek. For well over an hour, I wrestled with the tent, attempting to conquer it… and failing.

By the time I managed to erect anything resembling a shelter, the sun had long passed. I’d been forced to rely on the flashlight of my phone, draining its battery even further than it had been. The end result looked more like a crumbling shack of tarp and pole than anything resembling a true tent.

“Well, that will do for the night, right?” I asked the raccoon, unsure if it was even still there.

The joke fell flat to my ears and my forced smile wilted. The mangled tent was pathetic, and I’d be lucky if it didn’t fall on me in the middle of the night. Part of me wondered if maybe I deserved it for having screwed up so royally on what should have been a simple task.

Tears stung my eyes as I clenched my dying phone in my hand. I wanted to call my friends, to hear their voices and feel a bit better about myself. Erin would make some sly joke at my expense, and Russ would no doubt laugh his boisterous laugh. Izzy would be quick to offer help however, pointing out where I could have done something different. Maybe then I could find the fragile results of my attempts humorous.

Instead, I shoved the phone back into my pocket, refusing to give in and dial the number. If I couldn’t manage to put up a simple tent, then I’d have to suffer through the night. I resolved that when I woke in the morning, I’d fix the mess before anyone else showed up. I didn’t need them to see any more of my mistakes, not at the risk of pushing my friends away because I kept screwing up.

As soon as the thought filtered into my mind, I chided myself. It wasn’t fair to blame them, as if they were somehow at fault for possibly being exasperated with me. They’d been good friends, and they had pushed me in the right directions when I’d needed them.

While I hadn’t exactly come from a faraway place like the middle of nowhere Maine, I hadn’t been a New York native. I had gone there on a scholarship, eager to carve out a place for myself in the city with my talents. After a semester, I had quickly begun to learn how much distance there was between my talent and those of my fellow students. Art school had seemed like a dream, an escape from the struggle of the trailer park I’d known my whole life. If it hadn’t been for my friends, I would’ve never made it through that first semester.

It had been Erin who’d approached me while I doodled mindlessly in the cafeteria. She’d plucked my pad from me and immediately launched into an entire breakdown of my style and what it was lacking. I had found myself almost in tears at my newest friend criticizing my work when so many professors and more senior students had already been doing it for weeks.

“Overall, I would say it’s pedestrian and utterly lacking in any real artistic merit,” she had sneered as a closing statement.

Or at least it should have been, Erin had taken a breath to continue, completely unaware of the effect she was having. It was Izzy who had leapt in to spare me from hearing more.

I would learn that was just how Erin was, speaking without thought of what the result would be. Russ had always found it funny, while Izzy was their balancing act, the one who kept  them from running off the rails without a backup plan. It had been she who had swooped in, cutting Erin off and quickly explaining for her friend.

I had been thrown off-guard, but in truth, had been happy to have critical friends rather than none. I’d retreated into myself before they’d come along, it was a marvel to have anyone to talk with. Erin had been quick to rectify her mistake, but I had already forgiven her, not needing an apology.

It had been them that finally helped me to elevate my art to a higher level. Erin and Russ were both music students, while Izzy had been the painter of the group. With their combined efforts, they’d worked to give me the family I’d been missing. Just as they forced me to grow up from the childish drawings of my teenage years, so had they brought me into the world of culture and parties I’d always wanted.

A chill rippled through me, interrupting my trip down memory lane. Shivering, I forced my way through the flaps of the barely supported tent. Careful to not smack the poles, I dragged the rucksack in with me as well. I was thankful the portable heater was supposed to work for over twelve hours with the battery it possessed, and I’d definitely made sure to charge it before heading out. It whirred to life, sputtering out a small but steady gust of warm air after a few minutes of warming up. It wasn’t much, but I would take it.

Knowing it would take time for the portable heater to warm even the small space of the tent, I hurriedly unrolled my sleeping bag. Shoving myself into its folds, I rooted through the rucksack for a snack. Sighing, I pulled out the bag of seaweed chips and nibbled at them. I would have loved a thick cut steak and some potatoes, but I’d promised my friends to keep to our seafood and vegetable only diet. It was supposed to be cruelty-free, or at least less than everything else. Izzy had explained it to me, but I found I hadn’t been able to keep up with the latest trends without wanting to zone out, so I had simply agreed with it.

Thinking about the quiet but passionate woman brought another pang to my heart. I found myself reaching for my phone, tempted to shoot them a text to see where they were. Even if my phone did send the message, I would never forgive myself for being so needy. It wasn’t the first time they were delayed meeting me, having been distracted somewhere along the line by something. They always showed up in the end.

Most of the time.

I sighed, forcing myself to power the phone down before sliding deeper into the sleeping bag. I wanted to at least sit outside and stare up at the sky, to see if it really was as wonderful as I remembered from my childhood camping trips. It was too cold for that however, and I shivered as I waited for the space to warm up. Perhaps once I stopped shivering, I could finally settle myself down and get some much-needed sleep.

From outside came the crackle of leaves being trodden on, bringing my attention back to the wilderness outside my tent. Immediately I remembered Dominic’s warning about bears and winced. It was easy to dismiss the man’s warning as a mean joke at my expense when it was light out. The trick would be to do the same when I couldn’t see more than a foot past my tent.

I grunted, nostrils flaring as I rolled over in my sleeping bag, forcing my face down into the darkness inside. It was finally warm in there so long as I stayed burrowed and it muffled the sound outside the tent. With the whirring of the portable heater to help drown out the noise, I was gradually able to allow myself to relax. All I had to do was make it to morning.

My increasingly lethargic thoughts were interrupted by a sharp, acrid smell. I couldn’t brush it aside, having a nagging sense of familiarity with the scent. My eyes snapped open when I remembered what burning plastic smelled like. Rolling over, my eyes widened further as I spied the small but growing flames spreading along the walls of the tent.

With a yelp, I fought to get out of my sleeping bag to quell the flames. The fire was spreading along the outer wall of the tent and creeping along what served as the floor. By the time I managed to extract myself, I could only throw myself through the flap I’d been using as a door. Dragging the sleeping bag into the grass with me, I frantically beat at the tent with the thick material.

By the time I was done, the fire had been extinguished, but I knew a lost cause when I saw one. The fire had burned easily through the nylon of the tent and hadn’t left a lot. My things were safe, though I was sure they must smell worse than they did, having been trapped with the smoke. I was safe from the fire, but now my only shelter was ruined, and I couldn’t help but look around the dark meadow with unease.

“Shit.”