Redwood Bend Read Online Free PDF Page B

in the high cupboard above the microwave and a fire extinguisher under the sink. If you leave a pie cooling in the window sill, don’t count on it to be there later. And no wandering in the woods—it was way too easy to get lost if you didn’t know your way.
“This bear thing sounds serious,” Katie said.
“Jack said he heard Doc Michaels saw one bear, one time in two years. And Jack has seen more than that at his house. They’re all over the place, and mostly run off at the sight of a human, but no point in taking chances. You’ll have to talk to the boys about that, supervise if they’re playing outside and get them inside if you see one.”
“How many people have been attacked?” she asked.
“Jack said in the eight years he’s been here, zero. But still, keep an eye out.”
When you travel with only the essentials, it doesn’t take long to settle in. Her keepsakes of Charlie’s medals and their family pictures went in the trunk that served as a coffee table—the boys liked to look at them sometimes. Clothes went in drawers and closets and toys in the loft. The boys wanted Xbox hooked up immediately, though they seemed not to notice there was no TV until she pointed that out. So after lunch, the three of them threw a ball for a while in the clearing, then they kicked a soccer ball for a while, then the boys had a little quiet time with their videos and the portable DVD player.
And Katie had her own respite on the porch. It was miraculous, being surrounded by nothing but nature. The sounds of the forest—a variety of birds, rustling, the occasional caw or quack—lulled her and she let her eyes close. No growling, she observed.
Burlington had been so much quieter than Sacramento, but this—this was almost the wilderness. Having been raised in a city, Katie had no idea why the pristine and barely populated parts of the country held such appeal for her. She really hoped to take the boys to visit all those national wonders when they got a little older—Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Big Sur. Katie and Conner’s parents had taken them to Yosemite when they were young and she never wanted to leave. Conner had looked up the face of El Capitan at the climbers and nearly passed out. He could barely stand on a ladder, heights made him so woozy, but Katie wouldn’t mind learning rock climbing. The idea of scaling El Capitan had thrilled her. She had looked up that sheer rock at the climbers who spent the night in sleeping bags suspended from stakes pounded into the flat face of the rock and had envied them.
Even though she was a small girl, she was the athlete in the family and had planned a life of running a girls’ gym in a school, that’s what she’d studied. She had a degree in Phys Ed. Nothing could make her happier than going to work every day in a pair of shorts and sneakers with a whistle around her neck.
But she hadn’t done any of these things. Instead she’d buried both parents, finished college, helped run the store, married a Green Beret and had twin boys—kind of a full plate.
By four o’clock, not only was her little cabin in the woods in perfect order, her boys were in good moods because they’d had some downtime. She’d had some quiet herself and was giving serious thought to never buying a TV. Freshly showered and ready for dinner, she loaded the boys into the SUV and headed for her brother’s. Leslie wasn’t home from work yet, so Conner jumped in Katie’s car and they drove the two blocks to Jack’s. When she pulled up beside a neat little row of motorcycles she said, “Well, look at that, Conner. You’re going to meet our motorcycle gang.”

Three
     
I t was a whole new scene at the bar now that Preacher knew Walt and his gang were in town. Walt planned on having every evening meal with Preacher and Preacher was clearly showing off. The cook was in the bar as opposed to the kitchen, which was not typical. “Tonight my best of show—stuffed trout. Trout’s