Crissa's Mate

Chapter Twenty-Eight

When David left the room, Crissa quickly got up and dressed. In the bathroom she washed her face, brushed her teeth and made her hair as presentable as possible. Wearing her last pair of clean jeans, taken from her suitcase, and a gray sweatshirt with University of British Columbia on it, she opened her door and peeked down the hallway. There she saw David just closing the door to his and Brad's room quietly. He looked at her and held up his hand, signaling for her wait silently until he had made it down the stairs first. She nodded and allowed him to pass by her quickly and closely, only smiling and winking at her. As David swept by, she could smell a faint combination of his aftershave lotion and his manly scent. Waiting several moments for him to disappear down stairs, she quietly moved in a like manner, hoping by then he would have made it to the dining room and, undetected, out the door into the early sunlight.

As she stood herself at the bottom of the stairwell, and began to walk to the front door, Crissa looked over to the fireplace where Julie had been lying motionlessly and recovering all night on the sofa. She was relieved to see her body was still there, amorphously under her heavy cover and unmoving. Out of concern, she walked over cautiously to the edge of the sofa and looked down at her. Julie's eyes were closed, and her face still had that distant and as yet, vacant expression.

Just as she was about to leave, Julie's eyes flashed open. Her gaze was like that of a sensitive animal, suddenly alert and poised for either fight or flight. For a heart-stopping moment Crissa waited to see what the girl would do while staring back at her so intensely and close. But to her relief, Julie was still not in a humanly conscious state, and although she seemed to be registering Crissa's presence, there was no attempt by the girl to make any familiar interaction. She just stared back, hauntingly.

Crissa quickly turned and left her for the entryway, trying not to let Julie's delayed recovery or previous dream affect her feelings, as it had before. As she opened the heavy lodge door and stepped out into the fresh air, David greeted her with an unexpected hug.

"The others are all asleep," he said. "But it was a night of pure hell, Crissa. So much tension around here now. I'm glad we'll both escape it for a while this morning."

"I just can't wait," she said. "But mainly till we're on that plane this afternoon. God!  I miss home. My parents. They probably think I've died here."

David nodded. "Well, just keep thinking how happy they'll be . . . to see you back in Canada. I know it's been hard . . . without their contact these days . . . and for someone as young as you."

Crissa looked into his eyes. "Hey, mister college sophomore . . . I'm not all that  young you know." She stepped out of his warm embrace and turned to him, wanting to correct his opinion. "This crazy trip has matured me about a few things . . . a lot  of things, actually."

He looked back at her, withholding any response.

"David . . . I just feel so bad for what has happened here."

"Come on," he finally said, putting on a more positive expression. "Don't think about all that right now. We've got a date with a couple of German horses."

The positive comment brought a smile to her face.

As they walked along, Crissa could not help but wonder how things would undoubtedly change when they both got back to their respective homes—Canada and Alaska. Would he really move south to British Columbia to be closer to her, she wondered? Was it really the best way to deal with the secrecy he would have to adopt each month when the moon was full? And how would it all affect her own life, her goal to study pre-med at UBC?

As they reached the barn door, David looked back to the hotel to see that no one had seen them. The morning was quiet, crisp and cool, being so isolated and surrounded by pine-covered mountains. As he reached up to remove the heavy bar across the door, they both could see it had already been taken down, leaving the door closed but not secured. Had someone, or something, been inside?