Chapter 4

"Oh my…,"

"Echo Eddington Spengler!" her father cut her off before she could finish her sentence.

Echo held her tongue but she was still mad. When she had packed for her upcoming trip to Wyoming with her father and Daniel, she had forgotten one of the most important things in her life.

Picking up her sleeping bag from the ground she shook it at her father.

"Well I'm allowed to curse when this happens," she told her father.

Egon looked at the sleeping bag and then at this daughter's pajama bottoms. Both had blood on them and he knew what had happened. Echo had miscalculated her time.

"Maybe Dana has some," he said pointing a finger at the sleeping bag.

Echo snorted, "Where have you been lately Father? Dana's been done with this nonsense for awhile now."

"Okay," Egon said taking the sleeping bag from her, "what about Kylie?"

"Are you kidding? Kylie just got done at Grandma and Grandpa Parnell's house. She didn't bring any with her."

"Is there anything in your med kit that you can use?" Egon asked as he rolled the sleeping bag up into a ball.

"I guess I could use the pressure bandage if I cut it up into strips, but that's not what its purpose is," Echo stated removing her pajama bottoms.

"I don't think you have much of a choice sweetheart," Egon replied as he took the pajama bottoms that she handed to him. "It's not like I can run around the corner to the drug store you know."

"I know," Echo sighed, "I just wish I had calculated better."

"Your stressed Echo," Egon said, "your classes at Columbia had you so wound up that no one wanted to be around you, including Daniel and me. That's why I asked Mr. and Mrs. Parnell if we could come out to see them when your classes were done."

"You're right of course," Echo said as she bent down to dig through her saddle bag. "This last semester was a killer."

"But at least your internship is done. You just have to do your residency now."

Echo pulled out a bath towel from the saddlebag and sat down on it. Looking up at her father she knew she needed to tell him the truth.

"Father I…," Echo started to say before she was interrupted.

"Egon, Echo, is everything okay in here?" a voice said as a hand pulled back the flap of the tent that they were in. "I could hear you both down by Owl Creek."

"Kane, its Echo," Egon said holding up her bloody pajama bottoms. "She forgot to pack some personal items."

Kane Parnell laughed and walked into the tent. He was a tall man, six feet in height, with short cut white hair and a white mustache. He was dressed in his park ranger's outfit complete with hat and name tag.

"Here," Kane said handing Echo a box of tampons, "your Grandma Parnell thought you would need these."

"How did she know? Sixth sense?" Egon asked Kane.

"No," Kane replied, "woman's intuition. I've lived with that woman since we were eighteen years old. I gave up long ago with trying to figure her out. Just ask my kids."

"Thank you Grandpa," Echo said taking the box from him, "but I still need to clean up."

"Go down by Owl Creek," Kane said offering her a hand so she could get up from the ground. "There are some bushes there and the water is waist deep."

"You had better hurry before the rest of the camp gets up," Egon stated to her.

"Or everyone will know your personal business," Kane finished.

"Everyone is going to know my personal business," Echo replied pointing to her sleeping bag and pajama bottoms that Egon held in his hands.

"I'll tell them I cut myself shaving," Egon replied smiling at her.

"And what, you just happened to use my pajama bottoms as a towel?" Echo teased back. "It will never fly."

"Go on you whipper-snapper," Kane said playfully raising a foot to Echo's buttocks, but never actually touching them, "GET!"

"Alright, alright," Echo replied grabbing a change of clothes, some soap, and wrapping the bath towel around her waist, "I'm gone already!"

As soon as Echo left the tent, Kane turned towards Egon.

"Come on, let's get these washed before the others get up. I'll place them on the back of the pack horses to dry as we ride today," Kane said holding the tent flap open for Egon to pass through.

"Good idea," Egon said walking out of the tent and following Kane up the creek instead of down where his daughter had gone. "I don't want anyone to know."

"Their bound to find out sooner or later Egon," Kane stated walking next to him.

"Yeah, but if I can just keep Sandy and Harry from finding out I'm good."

Kane laughed, "How old are those twins now?"

"Just turned fifteen."

"Fifteen huh," Kane said as they neared the creek. "They know by now, if not from their parents then from their peers. I'm betting on the second one."

"You would lose then," Egon told Kane as he stopped before the creek and handed off the sleeping bag to him.

"Why?"

"You don't know Janine."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

Echo was fuming as she walked in her bare feet down to Owl Creek. How could she have forgotten the most important thing in her suitcase? She really was stressed and she knew it. Her teaching schedule and her classes that she was taking had finally come to an end. Columbia University was on summer break and Echo needed to relax. That was why they were here, in the middle of nowhere, in Grand Teton National Park on Owl Canyon trail.

They had gotten started late in the day, ten o'clock, and had encountered problems along the way. Echo had ridden her Grandpa's horses before when she was growing up, but some of the others had not. Sandy had been game to try and learn, even though he had never been on a horse before. His brother Harry however was like his father, scared. Harry was two minutes younger than his brother and always preferred to take the "wait and see" approach. That was why Grandpa Parnell had insisted on riding lessons in the corral before they set out the following day.

Uncle Peter, Aunt Dana, and her cousin Oscar had taken it all in stride, quickly learning what to do to make the horse go forward, backward, and to each side. Grandpa Parnell had assigned "Bomb Proof" horses to them. These were horses that if you were to set off a so called 'bomb' at their feet they wouldn't move.

The same went for Eduardo and his wife Kylie, as well as Sandy, Harry, and her father. Daniel had gotten a newly 'green broke' horse. Echo didn't know that Daniel knew how to ride. He had never told her. Not only did he know how to ride he rode well, putting the old trail horse he was on through a dressage pattern that he had ridden when he was a teenager. Grandpa Parnell rode his favorite bay horse, Hawkeye and she had gotten her Grandma's blue roan mare.

Grandma Parnell wasn't feeling well when the group had left Flagg Ranch Resort where her Grandparents lived. Echo remembered the odd way that Grandma Parnell held onto her husband before Kane passionately kissed her and climbed upon his steed.

Grandma Parnell hadn't been the only one that didn't make the trip. The Zeddemore's were not with the group as well. Winston had called Echo's father, when they were on their way to the airport. Iris had been taken to the hospital the night before they were to leave. Winston thought it best that he and his daughter stay behind by Iris's side. Egon had agreed and told Winston to call him when he knew what was going on.

When the party had left Flagg Ranch Resort all went well at first until Harry had fallen off of his horse at Glade Creek Trailhead. Sitting in the dirt crying, Harry's horse stood still watching the young teenage boy. Before Kane could get off his horse to help, the old gelding that Harry had been riding stepped forward and lowered his head to the ground. Reaching out and nudging Harry in the back, the horse wondered why his rider wasn't getting back up. Harry raised a hand and tried to shoo off the horse, wanting to be left alone. The gelding took Harry's gesture as one that he wanted to play. The horse had learned this trick from his old owner.

Extending his head towards Harry, the gelding carefully placed his mouth on Harry's wide brimmed hat that the boy wore upon his head, and took it in his teeth, pulling it off Harry's head.

"Hey!" shouted Harry as he stood up and went after the gelding who was trotting away with the hat held proudly in his mouth.

Kane was laughing so hard he couldn't yell out to Harry not to chase the gelding down the dirt road. The gelding eventually stopped and turned around to wait for Harry to catch up. Tossing the hat into the air and watching it fall to the ground, the gelding stood his ground pawing the dirt waiting for his rider to reach him.

Coming to a stop before the horse, Harry reached down to grab his hat but was beaten to it by the gelding. The horse reached out and grabbed the hat in his teeth, taking off at a gallop back down the road the way he had come.

Repeating his earlier trick the gelding stopped, turned around, and tossed the hat into the air, whinnying to Harry to hurry up and try to catch him.

Harry had started out being angry at his mount and then had gone to being amused at the way the horse was playing with him. Trying to sneak up on the gelding Harry crouched down to make a grab for his hat but he was too late again.

The gelding was quicker and snatched up the hat to run away from Harry back the other way down the dirt road. Kane couldn't help himself as he leaned over Hawkeye's neck laughing so hard that tears came to his eyes. Kane had forgotten that the gelding was a trick horse. Daniel watched Kane laughing on his horse before he turned and looked towards Harry and the gelding. Watching the red roan mustang with a white blaze and three white stockings, Daniel thought that the horse looked familiar. Daniel watched as once again the gelding snatched the hat away from Harry and ran off down the road. Something was all too familiar about the scene. As Daniel watched he knew that this was a trick of engagement.

When Daniel was young he had watched his father teach the horses in his care tricks. A trick of engagement involved retrieving an object such as a Frisbee, flag, or cap. He had learned that the horse must willingly engage in the activity with his father. A horse can not be forced to do this trick, but rather the horse must choose to do the trick.

"By teaching a horse this simple trick," his father said to Daniel one day, "I can enhance their personality and create a 'can do' attitude that develops into a 'want to do' work ethic."

"That was it," Daniel thought to himself, as he watched the gelding rush past Harry yet again with the hat held proudly in his mouth.

Stopping at the other end of the dirt road, the gelding reared up and tossed the hat into the air one more time. This time the gelding did something different. Instead of pawing at the ground he sat down on his haunches, tossing his head up and down. Daniel now knew who the horse was and turned to Kane.

"Ranger Parnell is that Mr. Turvey's old gelding?" Daniel questioned the laughing man.

Kane couldn't speak, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt, as he nodded his head yes. Daniel spurred his horse forward towards the dirt road, passing the others in the group as he did so. Reaching the end of the trail Daniel brought his horse to a stop.

"Harry," Daniel shouted, "sit down!"

Harry stopped chasing the gelding and looked towards Daniel. He was getting nowhere with what he was doing so Harry did what Daniel said. Harry sat down on the ground a few feet away from the gelding, who was also sitting on the ground too. Daniel smiled as he saw the red roan gelding get to his feet and pick up Harry's hat in his teeth. Walking over to the teenage boy, the gelding carefully placed the hat back on Harry's head and bent his left front knee to bow to him.

"You can get up now Harry," Daniel said as he dismounted and led his horse over to where the teenage boy was.

"How did you know he would do that?" Harry questioned Daniel as he got up off the ground.

"I have seen this horse before when I was a little older than you are now," Daniel replied as he watched the gelding rise up from his bow. "He belonged to a man named Mr. Turvey but I don't know how Ranger Parnell ended up with him."

Harry walked towards the gelding who now stood still so that his rider could mount him. As Daniel held the gelding's bridle Harry faced slightly forward and gathered both reins in his left hand, turning the left stirrup half a turn counter-clockwise with his right hand. Placing his left foot into the stirrup, Harry balanced on his right leg and placed his right hand onto the saddle horn. Harry used his right leg to push up off the ground with and lifted himself up and over the cantle of the saddle. Being careful to lift his leg high enough not to kick the gelding in the haunches, Harry settled gently into the saddle. Gathering the gelding's reins Harry waited while Daniel mounted his horse and then rode next to him back to the group.

Echo smiled to herself, remembering the interaction between Daniel and Harry, as she scrambled down the steep drop to the creek. Stopping and placing her change of clothes and soap on a nearby rock Echo undressed. She unwrapped the towel at her waist and placed it on top of her clothes. Echo then removed her pink tank top and let it fall to the ground. Leaving her underwear on she grabbed the soap and stepped into Owl Creek, immediately knowing how Daniel had felt when he had been tossed into the same creek by his mount.

The lukewarm water got colder the further in she went, but Echo needed to be in the deepest part to take her bath. Trying not to think about the water's temperature, she took off her underwear and tossed it back towards shore. Daniel had been cold too when he had picked himself up from the creek's floor, drenched from head to toe.

Daniel's newly 'green broke' horse had never crossed water before and had bucked his way across the creek, depositing poor Daniel into the creek's winter run off. Daniel wasn't hurt when she checked him over, but Grandpa Parnell had called it a day and had set up camp early.

Campfires were prohibited in the backcountry Echo knew as she stopped in the deepest part of the stream, but Grandpa had made an exception for shivering Daniel. Echo wondered if he would make an exception with her too and have a fire going when she got back to camp.

Daniel had stripped down to his underwear, embarrassed that she had seen him this way, as her Grandpa brought Daniel a wool blanket to wrap around his body.

Sitting next to Daniel by the campfire, as the sun slowly set, Echo was suddenly aware that he was staring at her. Turning her face to her left she looked into Daniel's pale blue eyes.

"What?" she asked, wondering what was troubling him.

"Nothing," Daniel said smiling at her, "it's just that the light from the fire makes you look more beautiful."

Echo washed the top half of her body as she thought back over her years with Daniel.

She had meet Daniel when she was eighteen years old in New York City. He was the guest violinist at the time when the New York Philharmonics was doing a free concert in Central Park. Echo hadn't been interested in looking for a boyfriend at the time. She had been only too happy to sit next to her Aunt Dana, in the second cello's chair, and play with her.

Echo remembered introducing Daniel to her father when the practice was done but she hadn't put any thought into a future with him outside of music. But now they had been together for four years in Echo's mind. In Daniel's mind he called it 'courting'.

According to Daniel 'courtship' takes the position that two people have no physical contact at all until marriage. Daniel told her that courtship allows for the two people to truly get to know each other in a more platonic setting without the pressures of physical intimacy or emotions clouding their view. Echo had been fine for the first couple of years that they were together, but now she wanted more. She wished that Daniel would hold her hand or kiss her sometimes and she came away disappointed when he didn't.

As Echo washed her lower body, which was underwater, she thought back to all the times she had seen her father and mother together. She remembered the happy times when her mother was pregnant and the sad times when her mother lost the child that she carried. Her father had always held her mother close during those times, telling her that he loved her. Echo wondered if Daniel would do the same things like her father had done for her mother.

"Echo," a voice called out above the creek's babbling sound.

"Down here in the creek Father," Echo called back believing that the voice belonged to him.

Turning around to face the shore Echo squinted her eyes. She had left her glasses in the tent when she left for Owl Creek. She could see things clearly up close but not far away. Echo saw that it wasn't her father standing there on the top of the slope looking down at her. Suddenly realizing that she was showing off her breasts to the stranger, Echo took a step backwards to drop her upper body down below water level and tripped on the mossy rocks. As she fell backwards into Owl Creek her scream was matched by the stranger's own standing on the bank. The last thing Echo remembered was being submerged under the water's flow.