Chapter 3

"Becka, how are you feeling?"

"I feel fine. Mike's good too. It really wasn't a big deal."
"My mom said you were rear ended?"

"Yeah, it was the strangest thing, we were about 5 minutes from your house out on highway 7, we were getting ready to turn onto Main and just as we turned the bend in the road this crazy animal came out of nowhere."

"What was it?"

"I have no idea. Mike didn't even see it. He was about to send you over a text that we were on our way so he was looking down at his phone when it happened. The guy behind me saw it too and he didn't notice that I slammed on my breaks to avoid hitting whatever it was, that's how we ended up getting rear ended."

"Was it big?"

"It was about 6 feet tall and furry and fast. I thought it was a bear because of the size but I have never heard of a bear being that fast."

"Well I'm just happy that you are doing ok and that no one was seriously hurt."

"Shelby, I don't think I want to go to the lake or on any hikes for a while. If you want to take jogs into town that's cool but whatever this thing was ran right into the woods near the lake and I don't want to come across it again."

"Don't worry Becka, I think I will be avoiding the woods for a while too. My mom got pretty ticked at me for falling asleep and I must have two dozen mosquito bites."

"We'll be pretty busy with work starting up on Monday anyways"

"Yeah, I'm sure you'll have a blast working at Mrs. Walsh's fruit & veggie stand"

"Whatever. She needed someone to keep the produce neat looking and to help with the customers, she's paying me $8.00 an hour and I could use some extra cash. What about you? Which job did you end up taking? The diner or the book store?"

"I decided to work at the diner. I figured the pay was $6.50 instead of the $7.00 the Smith's offered at The Dusty Shelf, but I had the opportunity for tips so hopefully I'd have a chance to save up a bit more. Plus my mom and some of her friends from the hospital stop in for coffee and pie after work and I'm sure they'll be nice with the tipping."

"I don't know if you heard, but Mike is gonna be working with his dad at the Real Estate office. He's going to be doing filing and basic office stuff like that. I don't know if I could work with my parents, I'd feel like they were watching over me all the time."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. You just reminded me though, I need to give Mike a call later. I wanted to see how he's feeling and I ran into some new kid today near the lake and wanted to find out if he knew of any new family that may have moved into town."

"I haven't heard any thing about new people, but I try not to listen to all the gossip. I'm gonna let you go anyways, I wanted to paint my nails and relax, something about an afternoon at the hospital that just stresses you out."

"Alright. Talk to you later Becka"

"Bye Shelby"

Well, Becka sounded like Becka. Even though she had a day that would send most people to bed early she just shrugs it off and acts like nothing happened. I'd still be freaked out from being rear ended and then I'd probably freak out more trying to figure out what the heck ran out in front of me.

I figured I would upload my pics from my camera and then give Mike a call. I had managed to take 47 pictures, it didn't seem like I took that many at the time. Lots of flowers, a few I was able to enlarge and crop and they looked like they would be awesome as posters in my room. The hawk in the sky was amazing. I have never seen a bird so large. I played around w/ editing that pic a bit too and decided I would also order that as a poster. It was already nearly 9 o'clock and Mike's parents were strict about no phone calls on the house phone past 9:00pm so I figured I better stop playing with photo editing and give him a call.

one ring....two rings....three rings.....four rings.....Mike has caller ID, he should be home, usually his mom is nuts about the phone being answered by the 1st or 2nd ring. Five rings....six rings....

"Hello?"

"Hey Mike, it's Shelby"

"Oh hey Shelby. What's goin' on?"

"Nothing really. I just wanted to call and see how you were doing"

"Oh I'm good. No one was hurt in the accident."

"Yeah, I just talked to Becka a little bit ago, she said you guys were fine. How come it took you so long to get to the phone? Usually your mom freaks out if it rings for a while"

"I know...she was freaking out. We were outside on the patio talking about the accident. My dad told me to just let the phone ring but my mom insisted it could be work related and that someone had to answer it."

"Everyone sure is making a big deal about this fender bender"

"It's not really the accident. Becka's car will be fine. It's that bear, or whatever it was."

"Becka told me you didn't see it"

"I didn't want to freak her out. She seemed pretty freaked out once she saw it. I was digging around in my pocket for my phone and was looking out the passenger window. I saw it running along the highway before it darted out in front of us."

"Well what was it? A bear?"

"I don't think so. It was HUGE. I mean HUGE. It was easily the size of a bear but it was not as fat as a bear. It looked more like a wolf but I've never seen one that big before."

"Did you tell anyone?"

"No, the cops came and took the accident report and I agreed with Becka and the guy who rear ended us, it must have been a bear or something. I didn't want to sound crazy. That's what I was outside talking to my parents about. I told them and now they think I lied and must have hit my head when we got rear ended."

"I'm sorry your parents can be so difficult sometimes."

"No biggie, I'm use to it."

"Hey, I wanted to ask you a question"

"As long as it's not 'Are you sure you didn't hit your head?'"

"Funny. No, I'm sure you didn't hit your head. I wanted to ask you if you knew of any new people in town? I know your dad's agency gets the bulk of the listings. I ran into a guy at the woods today that I've never seen around."

"You randomly run into some strange guy in the woods and you just what? strike up conversation?"

"No. Well, yes. I don't know, it wasn't like that. He was about our age. He was in the parking lot getting ready to leave and I came running out of the woods like a psycho, I think he heard my feet on the gravel and stopped to see what was going on."

"Why were you running out of the woods like a psycho?"

"Ok, psycho is a bad choice of words here. I was jogging. I fell asleep at the lake and my mom called my cell."

"Wait,...you fell asleep at the lake? By yourself? Are you nuts?"

"Listen, at least I'm not seeing some strange wolf bear hybrid thing, don't call me nuts"

"Go on...."

"Mom called and told me about the accident and then told me it was 6 o'clock. I was rushing to get home before the mosquitos ate me alive and I heard some strange cracking in the woods. I thought it was hikers off trail but then I heard it again further down the trail and got spooked. I just started jogging to get to the parking lot faster and that's when I saw this new guy by his car."

"Well at least he was at a car and not just being wierd and randomly standing in a parking lot"

"Yeah, that's why I didn't really think twice about a small conversation with him. I found out his name is Cole"

"And....."

"And what?"

"and what else did you find out?"

"nothing."

"So how long were you standing there talking to him?"

"I don't know, a minute, maybe 2"

"And you didn't ask if he was new in town?"

"No...."

"Oh Shelby.....seriously? He could have snatched you and drove away with you in his car"

"I didn't get a bad vibe off him"

"Ok....I'm done with this conversation, sometimes you are so clueless"

"Whatever Mike. I just wanted to know if you heard of any new people moving into town."

"I did hear of a few houses selling. I know Ms. Jones ended up moving to Florida to live with her daughter. She fell and broke her hip last winter and ended up in a walker."

"Yeah, I know, I'd see the community bus at her house taking her out to do her shopping"

"She said her house was to big to take care of so she sold it cheap to get out"

"That's a shame, she was so nice. Well, maybe Cole's family bought that house."

"Cole. You already talk about him like he's your best buddy"

"Whatever Mike, I don't even know him"

"Well, I have to get going, I want to fake sleep before my parents come in and ask me again if I hit my head."

"Alright, talk to you tomorrow."

"Yup. Bye."