Goldie and the Three Wisconsin Bears

No, I don’t believe they did this, but I understand why they’d take the chance. They know some things Goldie doesn’t. I might be loud and gruff and angry as a bear. But I’d never hurt her. And I definitely don’t hate her.

I flick off the flashlight. “I guess we can just lie down. Maybe if we don’t give them the satisfaction of reacting, they’ll get tired of waiting and let us out.”

I lie back down on the bed. Getting as comfortable as I can with a raging hard dick between my legs and a head full of steam.

She hesitates for more than a minute. I can’t blame her. I know hunched over at the edge of my small cot can’t be comfortable. But the alternative is…well me.

I close my eyes. Pretend like I don’t care she’s here.

And eventually, I feel her lay down beside me. The side of her arm is touching mine, so I guess she’s lying on her back too.

We lie there like that. Neither of us talking. But neither of us sleeping either.

I figure we’ll go on like that until she says, “I like your room. It’s my favorite of the three, actually.”

“Oh yeah?” I ask, too curious to pretend I don’t give a shit that she’s likes my storage space more than the cabin’s two bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms.

“Yeah,” she answers. “It’s small and dark. It feels…safe. Like a hideaway where nobody can find you.”

That’s why I prefer it too. But instead of admitting that, I ask, “You a big fan of hiding then?”

She’s quiet for a long time. Then she says, “It’s more like I wished I could hide sometimes.”

“Hide from who?”

This time she doesn’t answer.

So I try again. “You’re running from something. I want to know what it is. Especially if it’s going to blow back on Mitch and Nico.”

“I don’t want to put anyone in danger,” she replies in the dark. “And I’ll be gone in two days. I would have left yesterday after the shed incident, but Nico and Mitch convinced me to stay.”

She almost left? Guilt sours my stomach. Makes my tone mean when I ask, “How’d they convince you? Offer you more money?”

“No, they just asked me nicely. And it’s not right to pull out of a deal. I don’t like breaking promises.”

“So you were trying to do the right thing, and this is how they paid you back for it?” I grunt, more offended for her than me.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I’m sorry they locked you in here with me. I know it can’t be easy to have somebody you hate here in your sanctuary.”

I cuss again. “Jesus Christ, are you always this weak? You should be cussing me out. Not apologizing.”

Again she goes silent. But eventually, she says, “I didn’t use to think I was a doormat. I used to be a know it all. I used to laugh. And I told people exactly what was on my mind. When I was in college, I helped people design their dorm rooms, and I thought I’d become be an interior designer. You know, like Joanna Gaines from Fixer Upper.”

“I don’t watch much TV. That one of those HGTV shows?”

“It used to be. But they stopped making them.”

“What happened?”

“Well, according to Chip and Joanna, they were just too busy with their real life business to—”

I almost laugh. “I don’t give a shit about Chip and Joanna. I’m asking about you. What happened?”

She expels an audible breath. “Life.”

A strange certainty comes over me.

“Goldie?”

“Yes?”

“Was somebody hurting you? Is that why you’re on the run? Why you won’t tell us your real name?”

She doesn’t answer.

And maybe it’s the darkness. Maybe it’s the silence. Maybe it’s not knowing how long we’ll be lying here in the cot my brothers have turned into a torture chamber. But I find myself telling her, “My pa hit my mother. Me too sometimes. But she got the worst of it. It kind of fucked me up.”

She stills beside me. Then I feel her grasping around in the dark. I don’t understand for what until she grabs on to my hand. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

I should shake off her hand…but I don’t. It feels good wrapped around mine. Like that’s where it belongs.

“Don’t matter anymore. I stopped him.”

“How?” she whispered.

“Bullet. Straight through the chest. Real up close and personal. Bye, Dad.”

My next breath comes out in a long rush. This is what I’ve been hiding for fifteen years. What I never told Nico and Mitch. It feels crazy to say those words out loud to somebody I barely know. Here’s probably the part where she lets go of my hand and starts screaming for Nico and Mitch to let her out of here. Who would want to be stuck in a storage space with a psycho who has absolutely zero regrets about killing his dad?