My Life as a Lumberjack by Sara V. Olds

Author:Sara V. Olds [Olds, Sara V.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Astraea Press, LLC
Published: 2013-06-26T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Five

Forty minutes later, I was in trouble. Bad trouble. I’d tried switching legs, sitting on my foot, not thinking about it, joining in the conversation, staring out the window. You name it. I’d tried it. And I still had to go.

“Blast it. Gretchen, how much longer?”

“Oh, I don’t know. It’s just down the road a bit.”

“You’ve been saying that for thirty minutes. We drove in on this road earlier. It was two hours of backbreaking, kidney-aching jostling. So how much farther down this dirt torture path do we have to go?” I groaned. “Go… man, I shouldn’ta said that.”

Gretchen glanced in the rear view mirror at me. “What gives?”

I felt the color flood my face. “Well, I…”

“Gotta go?” she supplied.

Okay, what were my choices? Agree. Or lie. I chose to simply nod.

“You were supposed to go before we left camp.”

“She and Conor were going at it,” MJ piped up.

“Again?” muttered Gretchen. “You’re worse than the twins sometimes, I swear.”

“We are not.” I shifted again. “Uh, Gretchen, I’m getting desperate.”

Rivka leaned closer to the window. “Hey, we’re on Stanger land.” She pointed to a sign that flew by. “Shouldn’t be too long, now.” She studied another oncoming sign. “Never mind, says another five miles.”

“Five,” I squeaked. “I’ll never make it. Crud!”

Gretchen slowed the van and pulled to the edge of the road. The dust cloud following us caught up and settled in a puff around the vehicle. “Go ahead.” She motioned with her chin. “We’re miles from the camp. It’s about as remote as it’s going to get. Go on.”

“Out there?” I stared at the surroundings. To the right, the mountain stretched upward steeply. Tall pine trees covered the landscape. I knew from the day spent dragging poles there wasn’t likely to be a lot of underbrush since the pines blocked most of the sunlight. To the left, the edge of the road slipped away into pretty much nothing. Not many choices.

“Need some TP?”

I shook my head. I’d learned weeks ago that it always paid to have stuff in your pocket.

“Well?” Gretchen glanced at her watch. “Your choice.”

My bladder screamed for relief. “Okay.” I reached for the door and climbed out. I scrambled up the grade into the tree line and kept climbing until I couldn’t see the van. Man, this was embarrassing. Sure glad, Gretchen had made this a girl-only trip. I couldn’t imagine the endless teasing I would’ve gotten from any of our boys.

I lost my balance on the hill and grabbed for a nearby branch. Forget this, I thought, catching myself. I had to be far enough from the road, right? After kicking a small hole for my paper, I reached for my overall straps and unclipped them. They dangled behind me as soon as the straps were loosed. I then started on my bathing suit straps. My dusty, still sweaty body made it difficult for me pull my tight racing suit from shoulders. Dry, it could be a bit of a pain. Now? Hot. On a slick hill? Quite the challenge.

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