Short Shorts 4 by Alex Cahagan

Author:Alex Cahagan [Cahagan, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-04-24T22:00:00+00:00

Birthday Surprise

I was brimming with excitement as I turned off the dusty access road and into a cleared area. I was out in the desert, the scrub grass filling the space to the mountains both near and distant. There were two other cars in the lot and three people waiting. I hopped out of my SUV, and my friends greeted me warmly.

“Hey, birthday girl,” Kate offered as we hugged.

“One more day,” I laughed.

“Thirty-five,” Jessica joked, “have you picked out a retirement home yet?”

“Do you like the one you’re in?” I joked back before Mary and I hugged.

It was the usual good-natured ribbing we always shared when it came to birthdays and most everything else. The girls had invited me on a weekend hike to celebrate my birthday. Being an avid outdoors person, I jumped at the chance. I loved hiking the deserted stretches of desert outside of town, climbing the mountains, and enjoying the solitude. We readied our gear and prepared to venture into the wilds when I was given a gift bag. I looked inside, and my eyes went wide.

“Oh my god!” I beamed as I pulled out a CamelBak hydration pack. It was heavy, indicating it was already filled and ready to go, “this is awesome.”

“FYI,” Kate offered, “it’s a birthday girl special.”

“How so?” I asked while slipping it on and clipping the drinking tube to my collar.

“It ain’t water in there,” she laughed.

I took a cautious sip and exclaimed, “you filled the bladder with margaritas?”

“Just think about all the amazing times we’ve had getting drunk on hikes,” Mary offered.

Very true! That we had and then some. I put my pack over the liquor-filled CamelBak hydration pack and prepared to set off. I took a sip of my mixed drink, and with my friends teasing me that the real birthday surprises were yet to come, we hit the dusty trail. Even though it was mid-afternoon when we started, the temperature didn’t begin to decline until we had been hiking for several hours. Our course followed a line of broken hills, which was typical for desert hiking. The terrain was steep and craggy, mostly hard-packed dirt and crumbly rock. There was limited shade in the valleys, but mostly, we endured full sun. Thankfully my friends allowed occasional sips from their hydration packs to keep me from getting dehydrated. Still, they made sure most of my drinking was from my special pack. After four hours, I was feeling it. Along a shady stretch, we took our first break. Hidden in the shadow of a high bluff, the temperature was easily twenty degrees cooler.

“Having fun?” Jessica asked.

“Oh my god, yeah,” I blurted out, revealing my intoxication with my tone, “I’m hiking with my best friends, and I’m drunk as fucking hell. What could be better?”

“Sounds like it’s time to play the hiking game,” Kate teased as she grabbed her pack. I took a big gulp of the ice-cold liquor mix on my back and waited. She stood up and came toward me with a Crown Royal bag and held it out.

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