Ned said, in the flattest of voices, "Sorry, Doug. I know you were only kidding, but we at Hood River have total integrity when it comes to the raw materials we use in our mechanically ground-paper-making system. And what you call 'cardboard' boxes aren't made with cardboard at all; they're made with linerboard and corrugating medium, which is one hundred percent postconsumer recycled fiber."
Doug lifted both hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, I apologize. But when Holly told me about the wood-pulp guy, I have to admit that- Okay, sorry."
Back at the cabin they changed into warm coats and hiking boots so that they could take a walk up to Seven Arches Falls. Holly was ready first and came into the living room as Doug was poking the fire and building it up with more logs.
"Doug I want you to know that I'm not angry with you or anything."
"I'm sorry, Holly. I opened my big yapola and stuck my foot straight into it, didn't I? But I think it's incredible, what you do. I just wanted Ned to know that we're proud of you."
"Doug, I have to think of my security. I have to think of Daisy as well as myself."
"I know that. But Ned well, Katie and me, we've known Ned almost as long as we've known each other."
"Do we ever get to know people, do you think? Like,reallyknow them? I thought I knew David before I married him, and how wrong I was."
Doug stacked another log onto the hearth. "Let me tell you something: When you first walked into the Children's Welfare Department, my heart practically stopped on the spot. I had the biggest crush on you for months and months, until I realized that you weren't interested in me at all, and that I was never going to be able to summon up the courage to ask you out."
He turned to her, and there were tiny flames dancing in his eyes, like fireflies. "So well, I accepted my lot, didn't I? I swallowed my disappointment. Katie's a really great girl, and I'm very fond of her. But I still look at you sometimes and wonder what it could have been like, you and me, and my heart still hurts, now and again, when I'm feeling sentimental, or drunk."
Holly reached out and held both his hands.
"I'm real sorry about spilling the beans," he said, swallowing hard. "It wasn't funny after all, was it, any of it?"
Holly said, "It doesn't matter, Doug. You're forgiven. But think about it: Supposing Nedisthe wood-pulp guy?"
Cabin Fever
That night, unable to sleep, she stood with her forehead pressed against the chilly glass of her bedroom window, staring up at Mount Hood. The mountain appeared oddly insubstantial, almost fragile, as if it had been modeled out of nothing but crumpled white tissue paper.
She was very tired. During the afternoon they had climbed right up to the head of the Seven Arches Falls, so that they could see all seven separate cascades gushing down the mountainside into pool after foaming pool, and then down through the trees and the bushes to Mirror Lake. Then they had skirted the woods and descended an awkward rocky track, walking over five miles through the trees before coming back to the cabin.
Ned had stayed close to her side, offering his hand whenever she needed to climb up a slippery, moss-covered boulder, and even when she didn't. He had talked to her about thinning and sustained harvest and best management practices, and by the time they came through the cabin door she knew so much about forestry and wood products that she could have written a book about it-on recycled paper, of course.
After a supper of Katie'schuletas veracruzana,which were thick and spicy pork chops, they sat on the rug around the fireplace with glasses of pear brandy from the Clear Creek Distillery and told ghost stories.
Ned casually hung his arm around Holly's shoulders and made a point of turning to face her directly whenever he spoke, exaggerating his lip movements. He plainly believed that he was being considerate, but Holly could lip-read people who were stammering, and people who were muttering, and people who were talking so fast that even their friends told them to slow up, and after a while she began to find it wearing.
Katie told a story about when she was five years old and had walked into the yard where her mother's washing was hanging out to dry. She said that she had seen a bas-relief figure appear in one of the sheets, a figure with a horrified face. But when the wind had suddenly flapped the sheet up in the air, she could see that there was nobody standing behind it, and she was alone.
Doug had glimpsed his dead father in the sporting-goods section of a Fred Meyer store. He had followed him from one aisle to another, trying to catch up with him, but his father had left the store and disappeared across the crowded parking lot. "One minute I could see him . I knew it was him; he was even wearing his old felt hat. Next minute the sun dazzled me and it was just like he melted away."
Holly was about to tell them about seeing David's Porsche and what the woman in the bookstore had warned her about, but Ned got in first. "I never saw a ghost personally. I guess my upbringing was too rational, ha-ha. But up in the woods of Minnesota they have this story about a shadow that attacks people at night. It comes out of the woods and it grabs you by your hair, and then it drags you back into the forest and nobody ever sees you again, ever."
She picked up her wristwatch from her night table. Ten after two. She supposed she ought to try to sleep, but for some reason she felt disturbed, as if something were badly wrong. She looked toward the oil painting of the woman in the field and she almost expected the black bird to fly off the post and flap off into the painted sky.
After a while she returned to bed and pulled the blankets up to her neck. She wished she hadn't come here to Mirror Lake, and that she was back in her apartment, with Daisy and all her Barbies sleeping in the next bedroom. It was not that she particularly disliked Ned. It was just that she didn't find him at all interesting-or wood pulp, for that matter-and yet, he had demanded so much of her attention. Even when she had taken her drink out onto the veranda late that evening, just to smell the pines, he had followed her and stood uncomfortably close to her and given her aReader's Digest-style exposition about the magic of the forest and how his heart was at one with the wilderness. She hadn't even been able to turn her back on him, because he would have known immediately that she wasn't listening.
She was actually asleep and dreaming about walking in the darkest reaches of the forest when she was woken up by somebody lifting the blankets behind her. Immediately she turned around, and as she did so Ned climbed naked into bed with her and put his arms around her. He was hairy-chested and hairy-thighed, and she felt his erection bump against her hip.
"Get out!" she shouted at him."What the hell do you think you're doing? Get the hell out of my bed!"
He tried to pull her even closer, tugging up her nightshirt, but she twisted herself around, kicked at him with her heels, and climbed right out of bed. She switched on the bedside lamp and he was sitting up blinking at her, and he was actuallygrinning.
"Get out," she told him. She said it more quietly now, because she didn't want her voice to sound shrill and out of control. "I don't know what gave you the idea that I was the slightest bit interested in you, but believe me, I'm not."
"Well,that'sreal hard to figure," he said, without the slightest trace of embarrassment. "From the way you've been coming on to me all day, I definitely got the impression that you were more than ready for a bit of grown-up playtime."