Suellen

After the guys leave for golf, we ladies return to the fire ring. Lunch is not for another two hours, so I put more wood on the fire. I love the peacefulness of the fire—the different shades of orange, red, yellow, and hot blue flames licking the wood until it turns to ash. I could sit here all day and never tire of the magic it creates as it slowly consumes the dry wood.

"Hey." Deanna approaches me with a beer. I look at it and raise my brows. "Too early?" she quips.

I smile. "Never." I take the beer she offered me, and she joins me by the fire.

"Are Julie and Charlene getting dressed?" I ask.

Deanna looks back towards the cabin. "I assume so."

We both sit quietly by the fire, sipping our beer. I love that we can sit in comfortable silence and not feel like we have to make small talk, although Deanna and I could talk nonstop for days and still have more to say.

I hear the door open, and Julie and Charlene come out of the cabin fully dressed. Charlene looks at the beer in Deanna's and my hand. "Beer o'clock?" She inquires, and Deanna and I lift our cans into the air to confirm it is indeed beer o'clock.

Charlene pops a top and hands a near-beer to Julie. They join us by the fire.

"Should we pack a cooler for the hike?" Julie asks before taking a long drink.

"We can, but I don't want to carry it. We won't take long, maybe an hour at the most. We can have it ready when we return to the truck," Deanna explains.

"I'll take my water bottle. It attaches to my belt loop. I don't mind sharing with you all," Charlene offers, and we all nod our thanks.

"That sounds good. I can bring my water bottle, too. It also clips onto my belt loop," Deanna says as she stands up. I'm going to get ready."

"Me, too," I respond and follow Deanna into the cabin.

Once dressed, I head back to the fire before Deanna. "You two need another?" I call over to Julie and Charlene as I pop my top.

"Sure."

"I'll never turn down an ice-cold beer."

I toss the girls another beverage and sit back down by the fire. It's slowly dying, but I know we're leaving soon, so I won't add another log.

It's not long before Deanna emerges with a small cooler. She fills it with beer and water and puts it in the truck.

When Deanna returns from the truck, she asks, "Are you ladies ready to go?"

"I need to fill up my water bottle first," Charlene informs us.

"Already done." Deanna hands Charlene her bottle.

"Thank you." Charlene takes her bottle and attaches it to her belt loop.

We all pile into the truck and head to Cora's for lunch.

***

Lunch at Cora's was delectable, as always; their French onion soup is the best. Cora's a refurbished house with a bar and ten dining tables in a housing development. Only the locals know about this hidden treasure. Lucky for us, Deanna and Chris stumbled upon it years ago.

It's around 2:00 in the afternoon when Deanna pulls into a clearing of the woods and parks. She turns to address the group.

"Okay, here's the plan. Skytop is about a quarter of a mile southwest." She points in the direction that I'm assuming is southwest. The only direction I know for sure is that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West.

Deanna continues to explain her plans, "We head that way until we come across a trail. We walk the trail for two and a half miles, then backtrack here to complete our five miles. Hopefully, the trail will take us close to Skytop Lake."

It's a sunny, warm, early fall day—the perfect weather for hiking. According to Deanna, the five-mile hike should take an hour to an hour and a half, depending on how fast or slow we go. We tuck our wallets under the truck seats. Deanna locks the truck, and we place our phones into our back pockets, except for Deanna. She likes to track her steps, so she opens the tracking app and starts it. She puts her phone in her pocket, and we follow her like ducklings obediently following behind their mother duck.

The first part of the hike is easy terrain. I breathe in the earthy smell of the forest and enjoy the sound of twigs and leaves crunching beneath my feet. It takes us about half an hour to find the blue trail. Blue paint is occasionally brushed across trees to let you know you're still on the blue path. When the next blue smear of paint comes into view, we're confident we're still on the right track. Our chatter and laughter shattered the peaceful silence.

About forty minutes into the hike, we come across an almost knee-deep stream. We stand there, eyeing the single log connecting one side of the stream to the other.

"We can't go around it; we have to cross it," Deanna states the obvious but doesn't offer to go first.

I was a gymnast in high school, so it should be a piece of cake for me, so I decided to be brave and offer to be first.

"I'll give it a go," I announce with more confidence than I feel. Nobody fights me for the position.

My climb onto the wobbly log is not an easy task, and I question whether or not I can get across this thing unscathed. I take my sweet time standing before getting my balance and carefully inching my way to the other side. About halfway there, the log suddenly shifts, sending me ass-first into the water. The girls gasp as water splashes up to my waist.

"Damn, it's cold," I complain while getting to my feet and walking the rest of the way across the creek.

I turn towards my wide-eyed friends and start laughing hysterically at their shocked expressions.

"Who's next?" I shout across to them.

"I'll go," Charlene says, undeterred by my misfortune. She fearlessly climbs upon the devil log and inches painfully slow across. She gets a little further than me before slipping and taking the plunge into the cold water below.

"Shit!" Charlene exclaims as water soaks her bottom half. She stands quickly and makes her way over to me. She's laughing so hard that she almost falls back into the water. I quickly grab her hand and pull her onto dry land. We lose our balance and fall into the dirt together. I don't think that I ever laughed as hard in my life as I am now.

"Fuck it; I'm going," Julie announces as she jumps up on the log from hell and uses a tactic different from Charlene and me. She runs and is just about to the other side when she missteps and takes her turn sitting in the cold mountain-fed water.

She's cracking up, which causes her to snort, which only makes us laugh harder.

"I just peed my pants!" she screams to anyone within hearing distance.

Julie joined Charlene and me, and we wrapped our arms around each other. My stomach hurts so bad.

I glance over at Deanna. "What the hell are you doing?"

Charlene and Julie look over as well. Deanna is taking off her socks and shoes and rolling up her jeans.

"I'm walking over in the water," she says matter-of-factly.

We all stand there and watch as Deanna takes her time maneuvering across the creek. She has about four steps to go until she's in the clear. The three of us are cheering her on like she is competing in the damn Olympics. Her next step is her undoing. She steps on a slippy rock and falls face-first into the creek. All four of us lose our shit.

Unbeknownst to us, evil lurks close by, and each of our lives is in imminent danger.

*****