Landslide by Bret Kamrud

Author:Bret Kamrud [Bret Kamrud]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: -
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2015-08-13T00:00:00+00:00

12

Jackie’s body looked as tight as a closed fist…

An hour later, Jackie and the girls had settled down enough to police the area. Their dinner lay sprawled about, and all that remained was a few canned goods, candy bars, and smashed chips. The main course, hamburger and hotdogs, was nowhere in sight, except for a few scraps that had passed beyond edibility. They salvaged what they could and trashed the rest; this time being careful not to leave a morsel. She didn’t need a return visit. Jackie had dodged a bullet and knew it. She’d never be that careless in the outdoors again.

“Look, Mom,” Dakota said with a scowl, wiggling the limp hotdog back and forth between her tiny fingers.

Jackie handed her the garbage. “In the bag, please.”

Dakota eyeballed the soiled wiener—which scored high on her food chain—disappear into the synthetic darkness. She shrugged her delicate shoulders. “What are we going to eat now, Mom?”

“We’ll figure something out, honey.”

Even though the immediate danger had dissipated, the pressure of returning home was already swelling and Dakota’s short fuse leading toward her sister was lit. Rhiannon’s dismay toiled on Jackie’s nerves. Jackie needed a mental break, but living out of a wilderness suitcase to sort through the tumultuous chaos now seemed implausible. In retrospect, she’d accomplished nothing for the reckless effort, except for angering Steven and erecting another hurdle. With that realization, she scolded herself. Each mistake only made the climb steeper.

“Nothing good comes from flight,” her mother once said. “You leap off the cliff before creating a net and you will fall harder.” The woman was right again. Regardless of the injuries, Jackie’s assiduous eternal love for family kept her pushing onward. Their abyss was temporary darkness and nothing more.

“Had enough, Mother?” Rhiannon spat.

Before Jackie answered, something hit Rhiannon squarely in the back with a soggy thud. Rhiannon spun around and spied the soiled hotdog between her feet. She shot her sister a fiery look. “Try that again, squirt, and I’ll make you eat it.”

“Stop being rude to Mom,” Dakota said. “Just stop it, or I’ll make you eat it.”

“I’d squish you like a bug.”

“That’s enough girls, please.”

Dakota’s defense was honorable, but Jackie also understood Rhiannon’s consternation. She was upset, too. Their once seamless family had unraveled and the fault fell directly on Steven—at least a few days ago she truly believed that, but now she wasn’t so sure. She’d realized it took two to fail in marriage, with each side experiencing a slightly different version of the same dispute; at the moment, her dispute had two fronts.

Jackie turned to Rhiannon.

Jackie mouthed the words, “I’m sorry.” She reached for Rhiannon’s shoulder to deliver an empathetic squeeze, but she pulled away, sidestepping her mother’s need for compassion. Even though their eyes met only briefly, Jackie saw real tears, a rarity. It stabbed Jackie’s heart. When had her daughter become so cold to her?

Jackie’s body looked as tight as a closed fist as she searched for the right words. The word etiquette that

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