Kiss Across the Universe by Tracy Cooper-Posey

Author:Tracy Cooper-Posey [Cooper-Posey, Tracy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stories Rule Press
Published: 2023-09-06T18:30:00+00:00

Crossing the highway made her heart skip, but they made it across without any cars blaring horns at them or the RCMP pulling up to arrest them for endangering drivers or wandering on state land.

They clambered carefully over the triangular concrete barriers next to the northbound lanes, and slipped into the trees on the other side.

Alannah slapped at the mosquitos that tried to eat her bare arms as she worked to keep up with Kit’s measured but ground swallowing pace. She quickly learned that her shoes were going to be a real problem. They grew wet from the moisture on the ground, then stretched as she walked, and constantly slipped off her feet.

She paused dozens of times to put them back on and wondered if Kit had string or tape in his pack that she could use to tie them on. Then she would hurry to catch up with him, only to repeat the process a hundred yards farther on.

Kit finally stopped and lowered the pack to the ground.

“I’m sorry,” Alannah told him, hurrying up to where he waited for her. “My shoes won’t stay on my feet.”

He shook his head. “We’re about a mile in from the highway. We can afford to stop for a bit. And I can do something about the shoes.”

Relief touched her. She carefully slipped the ropes from her shoulders.

“Not on the ground,” Kit said, as she lowered the bison down.

She looked around, puzzled. “Where, then?” There was only grass-covered earth and trees anywhere she looked.

“Hang it from a tree branch.”

Alannah took it over to the nearest pine and ducked under the lowest branches. A broken off stub of branch at chest height looked strong enough to hold it. She hung the rope over it and waited to see if it would hold.

Then she went back to where Kit was digging through the interior of the pack. Sitting on the ground, it came up to mid-thigh. It was a big, framed pack, one of the professional ones hikers and orienteering competitors used for multi-day events. Some of the contents of the pack littered the ground next to his feet. She spotted more rope, but most of the objects were in waterproof wrapping, and unidentifiable.

He made a small sound of satisfaction, and pulled out a pair of boots inside a giant resealable plastic bag and held them out to her. “Sock are in the boots.”

“Your boots? I’ll slide around inside them.”

“Put both pairs of socks on,” he told her. “Or stuff one pair into the toes.” He eyed her feet. “I don’t think you’ll have to, though.”

“Is that a way of saying I have big feet?”

“I’m a small size,” he told her. “Go on.”

She took the boots from him, sat on the grass and put them on. They were only a size or two too big, and she marveled. “You have tiny feet,” she observed, standing up and stamping each foot.

“No one has ever complained afterwards,” Kit said, his gaze on the interior of the pack. He said it absently, as though his thoughts were far away.

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