Page 15 of A Bear's Journey

Chapter Four

Craig

Craig’s eyespopped open at 5 a.m. on the dot, the same as every morning. For just a moment, staring at the ceiling in the dark, the aroma of coffee wafting through the house, he thought it was just another, perfectly normal day.

Then the truth came crashing down on him, and he felt adrenaline spike through his veins. Today they were going to go to the library and try to find her.

Olivia.

The bear they’d seen hundreds of miles away, further south, on a camping trip in the Eastern Sierras a couple of years ago.

He glanced over at Jasper, still sleeping peacefully, though both of them had had a rough time getting to sleep the night before, tossing and turning without sleeping, both wound up by the possible end to their mission.

They’d been looking for her for years, two or three at least, and to be honest, they’d almost given up. Craig had nearly convinced himself that he’d just made the whole thing up and just made eye contact with some bear that he spun into a whole story.

Then Jasper had seen her, practically in their own back yard. Granite Valley was one town over from Old Pine, where the two of them had lived for years.

Near the bedroom door, Craig heard a muffled thumpthumpthump, and he smiled into the dark.

“All right, girl,” he said quietly, sitting up in the bed and reaching for his robe.

Thumpthumpthump, the sound of a tail against the floor.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.”

He tied his robe around his big frame and walked to the bedroom door, Ninety Nine’s tail thwacking against his legs. She trotted downstairs the moment he opened the bedroom door, shaggy tail wagging, and waited for him at the back door.

Craig let her out, walked to the kitchen and grabbed the coffee pot. About a year ago, they’d finally bought one of those coffee makers with a timer. He’d been skeptical at first, grousing that it just wasn’t right if you didn’t make the coffee yourself, but he’d been proven wrong. One of the few times he didn’t mind being wrong. Having the coffee just waiting for you when you woke up was some kind of heaven.

Halfway through the first cup, Ninety Nine came trotting back in, business concluded, and then sat by the front door, right next to a ratty pair of Craig’s flip flops.

“All right,” he told her. “Let me pour a little more coffee and we’ll do this.”

Thumpthumpthump.

They took their usual walk around the block, Ninety Nine stopping to intently sniff every lamp post and mailbox, while Craig woke up gradually and tried not to worry about what they were doing that day.

So we just march into this library, hand her a book, and say, we saw you three years ago when we were all bears and we think you’re just peachy keen?

He rolled his eyes and took another sip. Ninety Nine saw a squirrel and froze in place, every muscle in her body tense. The squirrel clamored up a tree and she relaxed.

This is the least cool way possible to approach a girl, he thought.

It had been a while since he’d approached a girl — since meeting Jasper, they’d been only open to serious candidates, and there hadn’t been any — but he’d been pretty good at it when he was younger.

A dopey, “Here’s your book, will you be my mate?” didn’t sound so great.

We’ve gotta pretend we’re not stalking her, for starters,Craig thought.

Ninety Nine looked up at him, big eyes pleading, and pulled on the leash just a little. Craig realized he’d been standing in one place, lost in thought, for a while.

We need to just run into her when she’s buying coffee or something, he thought.

Though that didn’t work out great for Jasper.

Craig sighed. They’d either think of something, or wind up looking like ultra-dorks when they went to go hit on a girl in a library.

He went back into their house, set back a little from the road on the very last block of town, went inside and fed Ninety Nine.

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