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“No, skunks.”
“You’re shitting me,” Roman muttered.
To his amazement, Hunter laughed even louder. “No. Gran found Lucy when she was just a baby – her mom and brothers and sisters were killed by a coyote so Gran took care of Lucy till she was old enough to make it on her own. Every time Pops and I would come out here, she’d show up and follow us around like a dog which was just fine since she never sprayed us. But then one day there’s another skunk with her. Pops didn’t realize she wasn’t alone until it was too late.”
Roman smiled but he wasn’t sure if it was because of the story or because of its effect on Hunter. A wide smile split his lip as he said, “I was only twelve so I couldn’t drive us back so Gran had to come get us. She showed up in their neighbor’s truck and was pulling a horse trailer behind it. She made Pops ride home in it so he wouldn’t stink up the car.”
Hunter began walking and Roman fell in step next to him. “I could hear him bellowing even from way up front in the truck. He had to shave his beard off to get the stink out. Cursed Lucy and Ricky every time he saw them after that.”
“Did you spend a lot of time out here with him?”
Hunter sobered and Roman instantly regretted the question.
“We’d camp out here most weekends. He’d bring me out here after school during the week to go fishing but it was harder to get away as I got older.”
“How come?”
Hunter glanced at him, his emerald eyes heavy. “My dad wanted me to focus on other things. School, sports.”
“What did you want?”
Hunter stopped walking all together and looked at Roman as if he’d grown two heads. His reaction was answer enough and he wasn’t surprised when Hunter said, “I wanted to make him proud.”
Roman merely nodded because he couldn’t fault Hunter for the admission. How many times had Roman tried his best to impress Victoria and Walt with a stellar report card or some academic award? When that hadn’t worked, he’d gone the route of athletics to seek their approval. A cold reality hit him as he realized if his father and Victoria had even shown him the tiniest scrap of attention for all his efforts, he could have easily ended up like the young man before him.
“This is the cabin,” Hunter said as he motioned over his shoulder before winding his way through some trees to a small clearing where a weathered looking structure sat. It was just a foundation made of stone and a few logs that had been placed on top of each other to form a large rectangular space. Roman could tell the logs themselves had been taken straight from the land because they looked rustic and natural, not artificial.
“Did you and he work on this together?” Roman asked as he trailed his fingers along the bark free wood.
Hunter nodded. “We started on it about a month before he died.”
“What happened to him?”
Hunter came to a stop in the center of the space. “It took us all weekend just to get these logs in place. It was Memorial Day weekend so I didn’t have school that Monday so I begged him to stay one more night. I knew my dad would be pissed because he had this barbecue planned in the town square and I was supposed to be there to serve food to people but Pops talked him into it. We spent the rest of the day fishing and Gran came out and we ate the fish we’d caught. Gran didn’t like camping so she went home and Pops and I put our sleeping bags here,” Hunter said as he motioned to the floor. “He was so excited to be spending the first night in his and Gran’s new cabin. He talked for hours about how he was going to build a room for me and maybe when I was older we’d build a place for me and my family to stay in when we came for a visit. Next morning, I couldn’t wake him up. I…I had to tell Gran he was gone.”
“How old were you?” Roman asked gently.
“Fifteen.”
“I’m sorry, Hunter.”
Hunter shook his head. “I think he knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That I wasn’t normal.”
Roman wanted to tell Hunter he was normal but he kept his mouth shut so Hunter would continue.
“Pops never used the words girl or wife when he was talking to me about stuff. It was always, ‘Hunter, you meet someone special yet?’ or ‘When you meet someone at school, you be sure to bring them home so your Gran and I can make sure they’re good enough for you, okay?’Someone, they, them,” Hunter said softly.
His eyes finally lifted to meet Roman’s and Roman didn’t miss the spark of hope he saw there. “You think maybe that was his way of telling me he knew? That he was okay with it?”
“Yeah, Hunter, I do.”
Hunter nodded his head slightly and then looked around the cabin once more before he straightened and seemed to shake free of the moment. “If you want, we can keep going around the lake or we can double-back and hike up the mountain a bit. There’s a nice hot springs up there.”
“Hot springs,” Roman said as he followed Hunter back towards the lake. He glanced up to see that Frank the eagle was still sitting protectively near his mate who was picking at the fish. Next time he’d have to remember to bring binoculars so he could see the birds up close.
