Page 81 of Grumpy Bear

Call Jim?

And say what?

Ask him if I could come back?

I should never have come to Atlanta. I should have taken Coleman up on his offer to stay and work at Bear Camp for the summer the second he proposed it. This—this TV show, this game, these people—it wasn’t what I was looking for anymore. It was a message from beyond the grave of my old life.

I’d burned it.

This dream was a wisp of smoke.

I found a public connection for hotel guests, opened a browser, and typed in Bus ticket from Atlanta to Edgewood. The thin blue line that indicated the web page opening stuck at halfway across the top of the screen.

“Come on. Fuck.”

I tried another site… same thing. There must have been a thousand people trying to use that same internet connection.

Outside the restroom, I stopped a woman in a hotel uniform. “Is there a business center I can use?”

She pointed me to a quiet alcove in the lobby with computers.

Google said, for one-hundred-seventy-five bucks total, I could take a bus to Calhoun or Canton, then get a taxi to Edgewood. Jim had given me two-fifty. That would leave me with seventy-five dollars to my name.

I couldn’t afford not to go.

Brad spotted me heading toward the front door. Shit. But it would have been wrong to ditch him without saying goodbye.

Brad frowned. “Are you leaving?”

“I have to go. Listen, thank you for everything. For bringing me here, for letting me stay with—”

“No, no, no. You can’t go.” He stamped his foot like a frustrated child. “The guitar. The surprise.”

What was that going to be? Some product placement sponsorship situation? Then what? I’d end up in commercials for the next ten years? I didn’t even want to know what was in the fine print in all those documents I’d signed. I couldn’t deal with any of that. I shook my head. “I’m sorry, man.” I needed to get out of there. “Please make my apologies.”

At that moment, Gary came down the hall toward us, looking annoyed. He yelled my name, then Brad’s, and when Brad turned away, I ran.

37

Luke

The taxi dropped me off at the gate. Watching the driver leave, I felt a brief stab of panic. Should I have asked her to wait? I still had enough cash to get me back to Edgewood.

I dialed the pound sign and zero on the call box and waited for someone in the office to pick up.

If nobody answered, I could always walk up. You couldn’t get a car in without the gate code or being buzzed in remotely, but you could technically walk around it.

I knew from working the check-ins and listening to Jim rant about it, that you were supposed to announce yourself when you first arrived on the property. Jim didn’t get pissed about much, but for some reason, people driving in behind other cars set him off. It was considered not only bad etiquette but also a breach of security.

“Bear Mountain Lodge.” Jim sounded a little breathless like he’d run to catch the phone.

“It’s Luke.” Did he hear the break in my voice?

“Well, hey!” He sounded excited, but there was a pause. “Is Sawyer with you?”

“No. Why would he be?”

There was an even longer pause. “I’ll come get you. Give me five minutes.”