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Authors: Kathy Warcup

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BOOK: A Time in Heaven
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The Russian stood in the door way and watched the pair
nervously
open and
heat up several cans of vegetable soup.  “Why don’t you get your
friend
and bring him to the dining room?”
Jesse told
him
.  “You go. I stay with woman,” the stranger barked.
Jesse looked at Katie.  She nodded her head, but he could tell that she was very scared.

She put what they needed for dinner on a tray and carried it out to the dining room.
The English-speaking Russian fol
lowed without offering to carry
a thing.
  Jesse and the other Russian came in at about the same time. 
The two men had a conversation about something to do with a plane.  Jesse was able to understand that much.

When they were about to eat, a third
man burst
into the lodge.  He was an older, husky man with a grey beard.  “What
do
we have here? A Party?”
The man was loud and very animated.
He
pulled off his cap and
walked to Jesse with his hand held out. “Joe Moss.”

Jesse responded in a carefree
manner, “Jesse
Danvers.”  Moss showed a glint of recognition, but he didn’t say anything.  He too ignored Katie.

Moss spoke in Russian to the man that spoke no English. They laughed, as did the third man. Jesse couldn’t
make out anything that was said, but it seemed they were discussing Katie and him.

“What brings you two to Heaven this time of year
?  It’s kinda early to open up the camp.”  The man directed his question to Jesse.  It bothered Jesse that the man had obviously recognized him but said nothing.  Now he was asking why they are on the island.
He thought he’d better play along.

“Well Joe, my wife and me
always come this time of year. No crowds and the fish are hungry.”

Moss
’s demeanor went from jovial to angry
. “Look, Danvers, I know you were supposed to be on the plane that went down with my friend Smith.  Why weren’t you on that plane?”

Jesse explained what
he knew about what happened-w
hich wasn’t much. 

Both Jesse and Katie now knew that the world thinks they are dead.
They both realized that these men could easily kill them and no one would ever know what had really happened to them. Katie started to cry but stopped herself fearing what the strangers might do.

Moss put the story together that Smith had brought these two to the fishing camp and the other bodies that were found
at the plane crash
were the Russians that he was smuggl
ing.  The same as he is doing w
ith these two sitting at the table.

“Mr. Moss,” Katie started.  “When you and the other gentlemen leave the island, will you take us back with you?  Our families need to know that we are alright.”
Her voice was a little shaky as she tried not to show how afraid she had become.

“Sorry.  I can’t do that.” He pointed to the Russians.  I’m taking these two to meet their comrades that’ll take em back to their mother land.  Pay’s good and I’m not goin’ to let a couple of ghosts get in my way. There’d be too many questions if you two get back home.  Best you stay here.”

Jesse started to get up saying, “I can pay you well to take us home.”

“Sit down, Danvers.  You couldn’t pay me enough. Besides, there ain’t  nothin’ to spend it on sittin’ in jail.” Moss was getting impatient.

The Russian with the gun
now
had it out
and
pointed at Jesse.

Katie stood up and started to take a step. “Don’t do it girly.  Everyone thinks you’re dead.  You don’t wanna prove them right, now do ya?”  She sat back down with Jesse.  He took her hand.

“How’d you get to the island?” Jesse asked again.

“If ya hafta know, we c
ame in on the oth
er side of the island a while ago
. Followed the trail around the bay. The guy that hired me to escort these two
told me to stay at the lodge
to wait for the next plane
. Didn’t realize anybody would be here. It didn’t matter much,” He laid his hand on his gun. “So we
just made ourselves at home when we saw the smoke coming from the fireplace. Had no idea it was t
he pair of you that were here. Anyways, t
here’s a plane coming into the bay at dark to pick us up.
If you’re good, we’ll just leave, like we’ve never even been here.

Moss could tell that Jesse was trying to come up with a plan of some kind using th
e information just given him. “Give it up Danvers. T
here ain’t no plane on the other side of the island.  My buddy Cranmer flew it back to Juneau.  Don’t even think about
doin’ anything stupid.
” He stared
at Jesse.

My comrad
e here would like nothin’ more
than to shoot you
and your lovely lady
.  He might just do it for fun anyway.”
Moss laughed.

There as a pounding on the door. Sadie came out from behind the couch barking.  The Russian now had the gun pointed at the lab.  “No!” Katie screamed, which ca
u
sed the Russian to pause long enough for Sadie to run upstairs on Katie’s hand signal.

The gun was pointed at Jesse again.

Moss opened the door to let in still another man. “Sam?” He asked.

“That’s me,” the man said.  “Plane’s ready to go
whenever you are
.”

“What about them
two
?” The guy with the gun asked of Moss.

“The pair of you
, upstairs before I let Boris shoot you. Stay up there ‘till the plane is gone cos if he sees ya agai
n, I won’t stop him from killin’ ya
.

The Russian motioned with the gun and the couple reluctantly went up the stairs to their bedroom.

Jesse held Katie as they sat on th
e
edge of the
bed.  They fully expected the Russian
to come back and kill them.  It wasn’t until it was starting to get light outside, that they took a deep sigh of relief.
With the wind blowing outside, they hadn’t been able to hear the plane take off.

They decided to sneak downstairs to make sure their
unwelcomed
visitors had left.
When they found nothing in the lobby,
Katie put Sadie on her leash and they walked to the dock. 
They were b
eing very careful in
c
ase
Moss and the Russians
were still on the island. As they approached the dock, t
here
was no sign of them when Katie asked,
“Should
n’t
we hike to the other side of the island to see if Moss was lying about there not being a plane there?”

“Not a bad idea, darlin’.  Let’s take Sadie back to the lodge.  She shouldn’t go with us.  There might be trouble.”

When they returned to
the lodge, Jesse put Sadie in the bedroom for her safety.  By now he didn’t trust the
front
doors to ke
ep out anyone or anything.  He and Katie
took their coats
as they
went back to the dock.

They headed out along the beach.  The trail to the fish cleaning shed continued past the building through a stand of pines
and back to the gravel beach
.  As they walked, Jesse wished he had something to protect them.
  He felt very vulnerable.

BRUNO

I
t was late afternoon before Jesse and Katie
came to what they figured was the other
side
of the island.  Moss evidently had told them the truth.  There was no sign of a plane.  They did
, however,
find
several human
footprints in the sand at the edge of the beach.
“They must have come ashore here,” Jesse said as he pointed to the prints.

Jesse said that they should go back the same way they came
since they didn’t know how far it actually was around the island
.  Katie agreed. 
She too was feeling very vulnerable being so far from the safety of the lodge.

They hadn’t gone very far when a great bear came out of the willows onto the beach.
He was probably 30 yards or
a little
more from them.
It wasn’t Bear, but a huge male grizzly. They could tell that he was an old bear.  He had scars all over his body
.  As he got a bit closer,
they saw that
the
side of his face was bloody and swollen
like he had been in a fight recently.

He hadn’t seen the pair.  They quickly hid behind an old log lying on the beach.
The ol’ griz lumbered past the log and headed away from them down the beach.

They waited until the bear was out of sight before moving.  “That was close,” Jesse said. 

I could even smell that infection in his face.”

Katie remarked, “He must be in some serious pain.  I’m glad he live
s
on this side of the island.”

“Funny he’s not still hibernating,” Jesse said as they started back to the lodge. “I wonder why he’s out, and who he had a fight
with.  I don’t think I want to meet up with the one that beat up that ol’ griz so badly.”

By the time they got back to the lodge, the afternoon light was dimming quickly.  Katie asked if he wanted dinner.  Jesse told her that he just wanted to get some sleep.

Katie took care of Sadie’s needs before she joined Jesse in bed.
She kissed Jesse and laughed, “I bet this wasn’t exactly what you had in mind when you planned my special Valentine.”

“Give me a break.” He gave Katie a quick kiss in the usual place. They
fell asleep in each other’s arms.

February passed as did most of March.  The first day of spring was a warm sunny day.  Katie was in the kitchen preparing breakfast.  As she looked around, she was pleased on how well they had rationed their food over the winter. Yet, it didn’t seem like they had skimped on any of their meals.

She walked past the pantry door, behind which Bear had been hibernating since November. 
Katie had stayed away from the door like Jesse had asked, but this morning she was curious if Bear was still snoring in the small room. Instead of snoring, s
he heard soft, cat-like sounds coming through the door.  She listened a little longer. “Cubs!” She said just as Jesse came into the room.

“What about cubs?” He asked.


Come here.
Listen,” she told him. “I think Bear has cubs in there.”

“I thought we were staying away from the pantry.

Jesse listened to the little cries coming from the pantry.  “That’s what it sounds like to me.”  He turne
d and smiled at Katie.  Then, his
face went serious.  “We need to be extra careful when we’re out.  She’s likely to be taking them out of the pantry soon.  She’ll be dangerous with cubs to protect.”  Katie heard what he was saying, but she wasn’t so sure that Bear would be dangerous.

It was three
weeks
later that the pair had gone to the pond to do some fishing when they saw Bear across the pond with her two small cubs. They found a large rock to sit on to watch the bear family.  Katie saw that Jesse had become a little sad.  She knew he was thinking that if things had gone differently, their son would have been about to be born.  She took his hand and
laid
her head on his chest.  They quietly sat and
watched as the cubs played in the water, while
Bear kept an eye on them.  Suddenly Bear
gave a loud grunt and she and her cubs
disappeared into the willows.

“I wonder what spooked
her.
” Katie said as she looked down the path toward the lodge. 

“Oh, no!” Jesse called out
. They both saw the old injured grizzly bear coming down the path toward them.  He was blocking any escape route for them.  They froze, but the bear had seen them.  There was nowhere to go.  Je
sse told Katie to start yelling-
it had worked on Bear.  They both started yelling, “Go away bear!”  The grizzly stopped and looked at them.  They started to back away when he charged.

The bear was on Jesse in a heartbeat.  The bear grabbed Jesse by the thigh and bit down.  Jesse screamed in pain. 
As the bear was dragging him toward the willows, Katie knew she had one chance to save the man she loves.

She grabbed a log that was lying by the path.  She swung it at the bear and hit him
in the side of the head as hard as she could.  The log landed on the infected side of his skull.  The great bear dropped Jesse and looked at Katie.  The roar he made was a
cry
of pain.  He turned and ran back down the path and into the willows.

BOOK: A Time in Heaven
12.8Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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