Page 99 of Just A Little Magic

I tried to soothe her, but she wasn’t having it. When I shifted my hand off her, she bolted off my lap and headed straight for the lodge’s front door.

“Oh fuck, Bear, the door!”

I jumped off Bear’s lap and scrambled for the door, but it was too late. Elizabeth bounded out the door and darted across the yard and parking lot of the lodge. She made a direct beeline for the ring of trees along the edge of the property.

Both Barrett and I chased after her, but we were no match for her speed. She ran so fast that it looked like she was floating over the ground. I called her back, but I wasn’t even sure she heard me.

Bear passed me with his longer legs, but he couldn’t catch up with her either. The gap between us and Elizabeth widened before she stopped abruptly at the edge of the forest. I was ready to barrel forward and scoop her up when Bear grabbed me.

“Owen, stop,” he hissed. “You can’t get closer.”

He raised his finger, demonstrated the universal sign for quiet, and then pointed to where Elizabeth sat on a fallen log.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.”

Directly in front of Elizabeth was a damn bear. It was a black one, just like the last time, but they all kind of looked alike, so I had no idea whether it was the same one. I gripped Barrett’s hand so tightly that I was probably close to breaking the skin.

It was wintertime. Shouldn’t it be hibernating? I distinctly remembered learning about bears and hibernation in school, but here it was, wide awake and lumbering toward my sweet kitty.

“What do we do? I don’t want to startle the bear, but I don’t want Elizabeth to get hurt.”

“Fuck if I know,” Barrett whispered back to me.

Both of us stood rooted to the ground, and Elizabeth calmly sat on the log and watched the bear approach. All signs of her previous upset were gone.

Barrett and I held our breath when the bear ambled forward, halted, and then lifted its head into the wind. The bear looked around until its eyes locked in on us. The bear stared at us, and we stared back. Our staring contest was only broken by Elizabeth’s sharp meow. The bear responded to her noise and restarted its path toward her.

Barrett and I stood helplessly as the bear got closer and closer to Elizabeth until they were only inches from each other. The bear plopped down directly in front of her, which put them at eye level. They exchanged noises that didn’t sound aggressive.

Barrett and I exchanged confused looks, but all we could do was watch helplessly while the two of them did whatever they were doing.

It felt like an eternity but was probably closer to a minute as the bear and Elizabeth continued making noises at each other and then touched noses.

“What the fuck is that about?” Barrett murmured, which caught the bear’s attention. His gaze swung to look directly at us. It felt like a glower.

“Sorry,” I hissed and squeezed Bear’s hand as tightly as I could.

“Sorry,” Barrett echoed.

That was enough for the bear to return to the conversation with Elizabeth. They touched noses one more time before the bear returned to the forest. Elizabeth remained on the log until the bear was out of sight before she jumped off the log and pranced back over to us.

The snow-covered ground was mostly frozen. She delicately wove around the large tufts of grass, retracing her steps. When she reached us, she wound her body around my leg.

I finally released Barrett from my death grip and picked her up instead. Her soft nuzzles had her rubbing against my face, and I didn’t bother to hide my tears. Barrett dropped an arm across my shoulder and gave me a tight hug before he shepherded us back to the house.

“Elizabeth, you’re a naughty kitty. You can’t go running off to talk to bears. It’s not safe. What if the bear ate you? I’d be the saddest.” Barrett scolded her, but she only yipped in response and wasn’t contrite at all. “And you scared us. We don’t want to lose you.”

That got a mewl followed by a stretch to rub along my jaw.

“It’s okay, Bitty, Barrett’s not mad. He’s just disappointed.” I ignored the scoff from over my shoulder. “Ignore him. We were worried, pretty girl.”

As we approached the front steps of the lodge, Elizabeth leaped out of my arms.

“Oh, goddammit, not again.”

Barrett dove for the cat, but she darted out of his reach. Instead of the open door, Elizabeth veered to the right and stopped to paw at a board on the porch. We caught up with her and I picked her up yet again.

“Elizabeth, you have to stop. I’m going to put a leash on you if you don’t knock itoff.”

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