Read Online Empty Mile by Matthew Stokoe - Free Book Online Page A

didn’t hesitate. As soon as he had his weapon he went careening down the hill screaming and yelling and waving his arms about, 200 pounds of stout heart and soft flesh and greased-back black hair. With him on his way I had no choice but to follow.
    The bear half turned to meet us, but Stan did not stop. He ran to within five feet of the animal and stood his ground, whipping his stick wildly about and shouting “Git!” and “Yah!” and “Go away, bear!” The bear, faced now with an enemy on two fronts, swung back and forth, rocking on the large pads of its forefeet, baying its anger at this sudden outnumbering. Bill, seeing the animal’s attention was split, stepped out of his hollow and began yelling and thrashing his branch about as wildly as Stan.
    For a moment I thought the bear might pick one of us to attack out of sheer frustration, but after swiping once or twice at the leaves flicking in front of its face, it turned abruptly and bounded off a few paces. It stopped once to look back at us over its shoulder, then loped away into the trees and disappeared up the far side of the gully.
    Bill dropped his branch and without a word stepped forward and hugged both of us.
    “Well, that was something.”
    Stan made a face of exaggerated horror. “I thought you were a goner, Bill.”
    “If it hadn’t been for you guys, I would have been for sure.”
    The three of us headed back along the trail, sharing a kind of survivor camaraderie, rehashing the event and commenting how lucky we all were to have escaped unhurt.
    At one point Bill clapped us both on the back. “Well, I guess you know what answer I’m going to give you on the warehouse.”
    Stan yelped. “Really, Bill, do you mean it? Really?”
    “How could I say no to a fellow bear fighter?”
    Stan looked suddenly serious. “I won’t be able to work at the garden center anymore once our business gets going.”
    “You just stay on as long as it’s convenient.”
    Stan was anxious to tell my father about his adventure and ran on ahead. After he’d gone Bill said he’d have some lease papers for the warehouse drawn up and that he’d give us a discount on the market rate.
    “And the, er, thing with Nicola, that girl, we can be discreet?”
    “It’s none of my business what you do. I’ll tell Stan not to say anything.”
    “Good, good … We understand each other. It’s crazy, I know. I love my wife very much, but sex … I’m not like other men and for me, when it rears its head it’s like going mad, something I just can’t control.”
    Bill looked like he was set to continue sharing, but just then three of the men from the picnic met us on the trail. They were carrying an assortment of makeshift weapons and when they saw us they looked visibly relieved. Nicola had raised the alarm and the Elephant Society members who hadn’t yet gone home had sent their finest. Bill was in his element answering questions and describing how close to death we had all come.
    When we got back to the picnic ground he got to do it all over again. Among the people who gathered around to ooh and ah at the drama I noticed a tall man and a blond woman with their arms around Nicola’s shoulders. They watched Bill with a little more scrutiny than the others and I couldn’t help imagining that a small part of them was puzzling over the exact nature of their daughter’s excursion into the woods.
    My father was not among Bill’s audience. He had fallen asleep beneath the pages of his paperback and since he was on the far side of the picnic ground Nicola’s panicked cries had not disturbed him. Stan woke him and told him about the bear, all energized and proud of himself, wanting to impress him with this feat that surpassed what might have been expected of even a normal person. He was surprised, I think, when my father drew him close and held him tightly for a long time without saying a word.
    Later, as we were heading back to the car, my father told me I was never to take