She's Gone: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

really here.” He smiled at her and she rolled into him. “Hungry?”
    She nodded and swung her feet over the side of the bed. “Ouch.” A sliver of wood pierced her foot.
    They dressed and walked to the stream to wash up. She splashed water on her face and sucked in her breath from the icy blast. Fully awake and invigorated, they followed the path to the summer kitchen. Mark sat drinking coffee talking with a small group at the long table. Jasmine and Grace flipped whole wheat pancakes. They were dressed alike in halter tops and long skirts, their long hair woven in braids.
    “We’re going to chop firewood before it gets too hot,” Crazy Bob said, looking at Will. “Want to join us?”
    Will hesitated. Jolie couldn’t picture him chopping wood. Mark looked at Will expectantly. Crazy Bob stood waiting for his response. “Sure.”
    “Jolie, you can come with us and milk the goats,” Grace said.
    Milk the goats? She glanced at Will and then back to Grace. “You’ll have to show me how.”
    After eating, the group broke up and went about their tasks. Jolie went with Grace and three other women to the goat barn. The animals’ peculiar smell engulfed her and scorched her throat as they entered the barn. A herd of bleating goats swarmed them, nudging their thighs with long curved horns. Jolie stood rigid in the middle of the dancing herd while the bells around their necks jingled softly.
    “First we have to lure them into their milking stalls and secure their heads or they’ll butt,” Grace said.
    Using oats to coax them into place, they sat on log rounds and set about milking. Jolie, slow in the beginning, got into the rhythm. She listened to the women talk and tried not to breathe too deep. The pungent goat smell overwhelmed her. It took the five of them the better part of the morning to finish.
    The women carried the heavy buckets up to the main house and used cheese cloth to strain the odd-smelling milk into bottles. Grace set them behind the house in a stream-fed metal box. Part of the icy stream had been diverted and the constant flow kept the metal box cold.
    “I’ll teach you how to make cheese and yogurt tonight after the evening milking,” Grace said.
    “You milk them twice a day?” Jolie asked.
    Grace smiled at her. “Yes, and we can’t miss a milking or they’ll dry up and then where would we be?”
    Jolie massaged her sore fingers. That was a lot of work every day. She had a lot to learn. The goat smell still permeated her nostrils. Did the milk taste like it smelled?
    That afternoon, Mark and Jasmine invited Will and Jolie to hike with them to the swimming hole. In the ninety degree heat, insects buzzed and heat waves rippled off the knoll. They moved trancelike to the end of the meadow and picked up the trail to the creek. Stately firs and giant red-barked sugar pines soared above them. Two-foot long cones hung from the branches. Jolie padded along the forest floor on the soft layer of pine needles in the fairylike setting. She breathed deep, the scent of pine and cedar infused the air. She hadn’t thought to pack a bathing suit. Were they going to swim in their underwear or naked?
    The path led them out of the forest alongside a creek, bordered with large smooth boulders. Farther down they came to a deep emerald pool. Jasmine and Mark stripped naked. Mark’s tan muscular body arched in a dive and disappeared into the water. Circular ripples patterned the water. Jasmine dove in after him, her shapely curves and long hair swallowed beneath the surface. Will followed, his tall, lean frame perfect, like a Michelangelo statue. She hesitated, then quickly disrobed and slipped in, too inhibited around Mark and Jasmine to make a show of a dive.
    The pool was cold and exhilarating. One by one they climbed onto the smooth rocks. Jolie slipped on Will’s T-shirt, pulling it down around her thighs.
    Will traced the formation of several red blisters on his hands from chopping wood. Jasmine took his