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When Elvira Met Bettie Chapter 23
🕑 Added 2023-07-03 14:59:01 +0000 UTCIt had been wonderful. Bettie wouldn’t deny that. But now that it was gone and her lust had been fulfilled, her mind was free to wander away from sex. It immediately went to Irvin. She’d been unfaithful to him. The guilt filled her now as eagerly as Gordon had before.
With Danny, she’d just been a cheater. Now, with Gordon… with two men… she was what he’d called her. A slut.
Then she heard it. They both did. Engines! Up in the sky! Bettie’s mouth shot to both sides in an immediate smile. This didn’t matter now. She’d be leaving it so very soon. “Oh, thank heaven! There’s an airplane! We’re saved!”
She turned and ran for the signal fires, shooting through the trees in a blitz of ferns and leaves and sediment underfoot. She burst out of the foliage and saw the three stacks of tinder in the clearing.
Her smile was embossed on her face, imprinted there. The fires were lit already! Irvin stood there, gazing upward. She couldn’t believe it was him. Where was Danny? Oh, she didn’t care. She ran to him.
“Izzy!” she called breathlessly, dipping into her lungs for air that mostly wasn’t there, exhausting herself but needing him to hear her voice as soon as possible. “Thank Christ! Izzy! You’re awake!”
Then she was in his arms, her heart pounding, her smile buried in the side of his neck. “You lit the fires, Izzy. You saved us!”
“Not yet, I’m afraid.”
Together, they watched the skies. Bettie cried out suddenly.
“There! I think there’s something there!”
Izzy followed her lancing finger to the southwest, saw the glint of sunlight on reflecting metal. “You’re right, Bettie! That’s a plane.”
“Ohh, but he’s so far off and high up…”
“Yes,” Izzy agreed, his voice faltering. “I don’t give us good chances.”
“Then you don’t think he saw us?” Bettie wailed.
“Maybe he saw the smoke. He might report it to someone. Maybe they’ll send another plane to check it out. They have to know we’re somewhere in the area. Search parties must be—”
He stopped midsentence, his eyes slipping from Bettie’s face to far behind her. They bulged out, sheer disbelief compelling him to get as good a look as possible at the madness he was witness to.
“Good God! It can’t be real!” he gasped.
Bettie turned around. She couldn’t get a good look at what it was, but moving fast and low to the ground was something that could not be human.
Bettie screamed.
Izzy pulled her away from the sight and gave her a shove deeper into the clearing. “Get to the fires! They’re our only chance!”
Numbly, she did as he told her, running several yards before looking back and seeing that Izzy wasn’t coming with her. He’d drawn a pistol from his waistband and was holding it out in a shooting stance, aiming it at the charging creature.
The thing was big—obscured by a tall rush of grass that gave it concealment as it moved and muffled the bestial sound of its braying. It was fifty yards away—forty-five—forty—eating up ground with an endless rapacity, gaining ground on Izzy as if its entire existence centered on a need for him.
Izzy braced his elbows, held the revolver up in two steady hands, sighted down the barrel, and fired. The creature was hit—it rose to its hind feet, roaring, a bigger target that towered above the chest-high grass, full of intimidation.
Izzy fired twice more, splotches of blood painting its broad body. The thing came down onto all fours again and broke into another run, seeming not to notice its flowing wounds, intent only on its attacker.
Izzy’s next shot merged with the resounding report of Danny’s high-powered rifle. The creature crashed to the ground, its heft carving a swath from the muddy terrain.
Izzy stared uncomprehending at the beast, only a few feet from him, and fired another few nervous rounds into its bulk before his pistol clicked empty.
By then, Danny Cannon had run down to join them. He found the animal quivering, bleeding out. Breathless, Danny lined up a shot into its head and fired the rifle. The caress went still. It seemed to deflate, steam rising from its punctured hide, blood lapping at the ground beneath it.
Izzy finally noticed Danny when the man walked by him. He trembled with adrenaline—a sour blend of fear and excitement that made him want to vomit. He wondered if his heartbeat would ever slow. “Careful, it’s a—“
Danny spared him from having to figure out what more to say beyond urging caution. “It’s a bear,” he said.
“A bear?” Izzy repeated. First, he took a step forward, then one back, then he made two steps forward to examine the fallen body. “A bear… it was moving so fast… even when it reared up, I didn’t think…”
“A young one, and I can’t say I recognize the exact species. Looks like it’s missing some hair too. Mange, maybe. Or some birth defect. But it can’t be anything else… assuming, that is, that some randy coyote didn’t spend some time with Mama Bear!” he laughed.
Bettie came over to join the two men, hugging herself as if to give her body some protection from the creature that had so recently been a threat to them. “Well… well, my gosh!”
“Not much chance of starving now, I suppose,” Danny said, looking her over as if to confirm to himself how much he’d like for Bettie’s proportions to stay exactly as they were.
***
As promised, that evening’s meal was barbecued steaks. Everyone ate, if not ravenously. Gordon didn’t like the flavor and Izzy’s appetite was still not what it once was. Bettie barely put her teeth in the animal that had almost taken her Izzy from her. She found its taste strong… and very much male. She’d had plenty of that already today…
After he’d eaten his fill, Izzy stood, stretched, and said it was high time that he got a better look at their current accommodations.
“Don’t go too far,” Danny warned him.
“I’m flattered you think I’m up to a hike,” he replied.
It was Bettie’s turn to wash the dishes and utensils. She still caught up with Izzy as he limped his way toward the smoldering signal fires. “Irvin, give me a few minutes for my chores. I’ll go with you.”
“I’ll be fine on my own,” he assured her. “I’ve still got my pistol on me.”
The thought that he might use the gun once more didn’t allay Bettie’s concern. “Please, take care of yourself, darling.”
“I will,” he promised her, looking Bettie in the eye with a certain assurance before he walked off into the roseate light that was all that was left of the day.
Bettie watched him go, her heart pounding without a corresponding thrill. She was grateful to be his wife. He’d been so brave pumping all those shots into the charging bear.
Sure, Danny had helped and she was sure Izzy had been scared witless, but he’d still managed to aim and fire, actually hitting that monster with impressive accuracy. Who knew if Danny would’ve been able to do the same if the beast were going after him?
So her husband was a man, a real man, and Bettie was proud of him. But that only worsened the shame she felt at her escapades with Danny and Gordon both.
God, two men! What kind of wanton was she? Izzy had everything she needed from a man, everything a husband could offer. But she’d allowed senseless logic and faithless emotion to override her loyalty. Now, could she go back to being a loving wife? Could she forget how good it had felt to betray him?
***
After Izzy left, Danny excused himself to get back to work on the radio. He hadn’t gotten as much work done as he’d wanted to with Elvira distracting him.
Gordon went to lie down and digest his food and wonder if that bear had really been what he had seen menacing Danny and Bettie. They didn’t say it wasn’t. But then, he hadn’t heard them say it was either. Probably because that would give up the game to Izzy, the stupid sap. They didn’t want to admit what they were doing any more than he did… not yet, at any rate.
It was amazing the lies that piled up, even when they were only five people alone in the wilderness.
Elvira came into Gordon’s lean-to. She laid down with him, patting his full belly. “Bear steaks. You would find a way to put on weight in the middle of the wilderness. Lucky you have me here to take it back off… me and Bettie.”
“Is that jealousy I detect?”
“Of her? Nah. Of you, certainly. That girl’s got it all: dark hair, pale hair, fat ass. If we could just do something with her hair, she’d be a real looker!”
