"What's the matter with you?" I asked Pearl. "Grumpy for once?"
She fanned herself and frowned. "It's so hot outside today. I hate the heat."
"Really?" I leaned back against the tree. "I don't think it's so bad. Besides, if it was so hot outside to you, than why did you want to come out in the first place?"
We sat out by the broken tree. I sat at the base of the tree, while Pearl sat on a scratchy blanket to save her dress from grass stains. She had called it something of a picnic, and I agreed out of hunger and a want to be out of her house. She had brought along apples and peaches, and then ended up eating the majority herself.
At some point, she pulled out a thin paper fan and began fanning herself with it. "I must look so flushed, and I hate sweating." She complained, and shifted her feet under herself. "And I wanted to come because, despite the heat, it's a lovely day. It would be a waste to spend it inside."
"We could go up, if that would please you better." I suggested, nodding my head towards the mountains.
"Is it cooler?" She asked, setting her fan down in her lap and looking in the same direction.
"If we go close enough, we'll find snow." I told her.
She stood and brushed her dress down. "That sounds delightful, Jack. What an excellent idea."
So we walked. I suggested we take the path that avoided Beecher's Hope, and she didn't argue. I slowed down my usual fast stride to match up with her dainty dress-constricted steps. She chatted on about nothing in particular on the way, but fell into silence when we entered Tall Trees.
The sounds of the forest surrounded us. The birds were chirping, the other animals grunting and chattering in the distance, but mostly there was the comforting sound of the leaves in the wind.
"It sounds like the ocean, almost." Pearl said, gripping my forearm. "Isn't it strange how all the beautiful sounds and sights in our world all have a sort of similarity to them? Almost like siblings, as if they are the children of nature and time."
"That's quite a romantic spin to put on it. You'd make quite the poet." I told her. She smiled and thanked me. We continued on our walk in silence until we reached the fine line of snow on the ground.
"Amazing!" She exclaimed, stepping forward until her boots crunched on the snow.
"Keep going in that direction and it will only get thicker." She did as I said and ran forward excitedly, until she was out of breath and ankle deep in snow.
"You were right, Jack." She turned towards me, beaming. "And it feels so much better than that terrible heat down in the Great Plains."
"I told you so." I pulled my gloves out of my pocket and offered them to her. She declined so I put them on myself. She walked around stiffly, kicking up a few mounds of snow and examining it.
"You know, it never snowed in New Orleans." She said. "It got very cold sometimes, and very very rainy, but it never snowed. I didn't expect to ever see snow in Texas, either. I heard it was all desert."
"Some of it is." I replied. "But you'd find the desert at night is colder than sleeping soaking wet at the top of these mountains."
"Really?" She frowned and glanced around. "We didn't have bears in New Orleans either. There were really big rats, but no bears."
"I wouldn't expect a port city like New Orleans to have bears anyway." I took a cigarette out of my pocket and lit it. "Was it a really big city there?" She didn't answer, but instead pointed into the distance.
"Look! There are little ones there too!" She gave a little sound of delight. "How cute. I bet their fur sure is thick." Suddenly I stepped forward and saw a massive bear standing downhill, followed by three nicely sized cubs.
"Oh shit." I pulled out my revolver and glanced over at Pearl. Seeing my reaction, she was suddenly terrified. The bear grunted at us, and I tried to urge Pearl to back away but she was frozen.
It grunted again, and then roared loudly. I flinched, remembering what it felt like to have those claws and teeth digging into my shoulders and back, and the bear charged. In my panic, my shots became sloppy. By the time the bear was a few feet away, my gun clicked and refused to shoot. I pushed Pearl out of the way and managed to move just enough to avoid having a bite taken out of me.
I didn't waste time reloading and pulled the repeater from my back. I managed to get enough focus to aim two good shots to its head, and the huge beast fell over with a loud wheezing grunt. I turned around to see the cubs had fled.
Pearl stood on shaking legs, paler than usual and obviously nauseated. I grabbed her by her shoulders to steady her.
"Did that really just happen?" She asked.
"Well, if it didn't, you and I sure are crazy." She looked downhill.
"What about the cubs? How will they survive without their mother?"
"They'll be fine, they looked big enough to survive. Besides, you shouldn't be worrying about that. If I hadn't killed their mother, we would both be mauled to death by now." She didn't say anything, just kept that same look on her face. I tried to hug her to comfort her, but she stayed stiff and confused.
I let her go and she hesitantly stepped over to the dead bear. Blood ran from its head and neck, but it wasn't a particularly gory sight. The shots were clean. She knelt in the snow and pressed her hands into the fur of its side.
"I understand what had to happen, but I can't help but feel bad for her." She said finally. "She was just trying to protect her babies." She was silent for a moment, running her hands through the bear's fur as if she were trying to comfort it. "Should we bury her?"
"I don't think that's a good idea." I stepped forward and offered my hand to her. Reluctantly, she pulled her hands from the bear's fur and took mine so I could help her to her feet. "I'll tell you what, I'll skin it so we can at least put its pelt to good use, and we can leave the meat behind for any hungry animals that happen upon it."
"I guess that's better than just leaving her here to rot." She looked up at me as if just noticing I was there. "You're so brave, Jack. You killed a bear all by yourself, and you saved the both of us." She took my hands and gripped them tight. "Thank you."
I had already skinned the bear and we were selling its pelt at the General Store in Blackwater when Pearl mentioned to me how she would love to see the snow again another day. I didn't reply, but I know I'm not taking her anywhere near bears again for quite some time.