Crashing Stephanie

5 The Bear

Steph woke to movement around her. Tom was putting all the wood they had collected on the fire, and, with Steph so close, the fire was rapidly growing to an uncomfortable level. Steph asked Tom what he was doing. Tom quickly put his hand on her mouth to silence her. Annoyed, Steph pushed Tom's hand away. Tom promptly put his hand back over Steph's mouth, then whispered, "Be quiet!"

Seeing the desperate look on Tom's face, Steph, feeling the fear build in her, shrunk back down to her sleeping pad. Tom moved around her, peering into the darkness. Then she heard growling, and it sounded close.

Instinctively, Steph grabbed her spear and sat up, a sense of terror adding to her fear. The growling grew to a low roar before subsiding. Tom shined his flashlight into the darkness, the light reflecting in two eyes that looked a foot apart. Whatever it was, it was big!

Terror had Steph firmly in its grasp. She wanted to run, to get as far from this menacing creature as she could. Tom, the crash, her life to this point, meant nothing. Reason would have told her that running was the worst possible thing she could do. But reason had taken a back seat to fear. All Steph wanted to do now was run!

As she started to get up and flee, Tom touched her shoulder. He said, "No matter what, we have to stand our ground."

Tom stood, shouting at the top of his lungs while waving his arms. Steph did the same. Soon, the sounds of a large animal moving through the brush and further away from them could be heard. Steph dropped to her knees with her spear still pointed toward the sound.

Steph turned to Tom and, in a quiet, fear-filled voice, asked, "What was that?" Tom replied, "A bear and a big one, too. Probably a grizzly."

By daybreak, the fire was just ash. Neither Steph nor Tom had been able to get back to sleep. They retrieved their snares, packed up, and continued in the same general west-southwest direction. Although still sore, Steph had no trouble keeping up with the quick pace Tom set.

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The fear Steph had experienced the previous night was alien to her. The apartment building she lived in had full-time security. In addition to her driver, there was always another man she jokingly introduced to people as her "Butler," who followed her everywhere. When she traveled outside the US, her parents always ensured a private security team accompanied her.

All the security was due to what Steph considered her rich parents' irrational fear of her being kidnapped. Steph and her mother had argued before this trip about whether she should be accompanied by security. But Steph had claimed she was a grown woman, could take care of herself, and didn't need a babysitter.

She had loathed the burley security men her father usually hired. But, confronted by an enormous man-eating creature, she would have given anything to cower behind one of those stiff, unsmiling men that had always cramped her "style."

Now, it was only her, Tom, and that scary bear.

As she walked, Steph recalled saying, "Mother, I am a grown woman." She realized that physically, she was a grown woman, but rarely did she act like one. It was not all her fault. Her parents were very protective. She had gotten away with acting like a child and managed to get through her life without making grown-up decisions.

Steph also realized she was mentally unprepared for the situation she was in now. It was not just the wilderness skills she was lacking. She was not mature enough to survive.

That bear would not care who her parents were, how much money she had, or how much trouble she could cause if she didn't get her way. If Tom had not stopped her from running, the bear would have chased her down and killed her. Thinking about such a horrible death causes her mouth and throat to feel dry.